Undercover - In China - Book 7

Part 70 - Probing Attacks

Kozak and I hurried to the granary hoping to find Yin Jia and news of Denny, Licia, Miguel and Dr Zhang. Yin Jia was supervising men loading sacks of grain onto a long line of wheelbarrows, but he sent us to a small room at the back of the building where I was overjoyed to find Miguel and Licia. Sadly, they had no news of Denny, Dr Zhang or Chen Ling. We spent a few minute hugging each other before sharing a meal of hot stew organized by Yin Jia's cook. 

 I told them about meeting Kozak in the Black Forest, and they related their adventures. They had got mixed up with a mob of soldiers running away from Zhang Fei and didn't realize I was not with them. While they were searching for me, they saw a wounded commander throw a pouch into a creek just before he collapsed and died.

'I figured it must be important,' Miguel said as Licia showed me the pouch which contained only a set of ivory seals. 'The water was deep so I had to dive for it. Luckily, I got it on my third attempt. We searched for you again and started walking toward Jiangling hoping to find you or Zhang Fei. Instead, we found Yin Jia unconscious in an abandoned cart. Were we ever glad to see someone we knew! We bandaged his head and, by the time he woke up, one of his men came back with a horse and that's how we got here. Yin Jia pretended not to know you at the meeting with Cho Cho, in case Cho Cho suspected he knew Dr Zhang. He went back looking for you, but you had disappeared.'

Yin Jia joined us later. He had been ordered to follow Cho Cho who had already taken most of his army to Xiangyang. He agreed to take the seals to the abbot of the Immortal Mountain monastery with instructions to pass them to Dr Zhang or Kongming. 

 ❘❘ ❘❘❘ ❘❘❘❘❘❙ ❙❙ ❙❙ ❙❘❘❘❘ ❘❘❘❘ ❘❘

 The next day, Zhou Yu arrived with the Southland army and immediately made a series of probing attacks toward the walls of Jiangling. We watched the fighting from the outer walls of the city with hundreds of other city residents. Commanders on both sides shouted insults and challenges and at one point a group of horsemen charged out of the city gate. They were promptly surrounded, and Cho Ren was forced to send a rescue mission. As it got dark, the Southland army built a fortified war camp near the city. 

 Wang Bang caught up with us in the military canteen to explained he had volunteered to stay with the Jiangling garrison rather than escort wheelbarrows all the way back to Xiangyang. He had also been ordered to release Kozak, as he was now an essential translator for Cho Ren's advisor, namely me.

The next morning, Zhou Yu's army marched off to the west and most of the Jiangling garrison rushed after it. Late in the day some of the garrison came straggling back. Wang Bang told us that Zhou Yu had attacked the nearby city of Yiling and Cho Ren had gone to assist the garrison, but he had been ambushed and forced to retreat back to Jiangling. Later that night we watched the Zhou Yu's southland army return to the fortified war camp and the rumour quickly spread that Cho Ren intended to abandon Jiangling.