Chapter Twelve: The Arrangement of Fate

  Siwei's face revealed a helpless smile, and she said: "Your Highness speaks straightforwardly, which is better than deceiving with clever words. Unlike some Han people, whose mouths are not in line with their hearts. My ancestor Si Xiong believed the words of the Han officials, fought hard against the Mian army, but waited in vain for the Han army to come and reinforce, and finally died in defeat."

  Zhu Yongxing nodded sympathetically and looked at Si Wei, saying: "Then you see..."

  "The Divine Envoy is not one to die easily." Si Wei narrowed his eyes, "Your Highness must be a trustworthy person and will surely help my tribe with all your might, fulfilling our decades-long wish. As for the details, please discuss them with the Great Shaman."

  Zhu Yongxing blinked his eyes and nodded sincerely, saying: "Good, as long as I still have breath, I will fight for it to the end."

  Si Wei hesitated for a moment, and asked somewhat tentatively: "Your Highness, what do you think of Ah Zhu? She is my treasured daughter, and also the most beautiful girl in our village."

  "Azhu is indeed very beautiful." Zhu Yongxing's mind had not yet turned around, and he was only thinking about his next plan when the divine continent was about to sink.

  "Can Your Highness take her with you to Burma and Yunnan?" Si Wei saw through Zhu Yongxing's perfunctory attitude and was not satisfied, so he spoke more directly.

  "With Ah Zhu?" Ziyong Xing blinked his eyes, still somewhat bewildered, but vaguely guessing some of Siwei's meaning, and not quite certain, so he also tentatively asked back: "In the future, my life will be very dangerous, I may be betrayed to the Qing army, or even killed. That is, would Ah Zhu be safer staying in the village?"

  "The gods are immortal." Si Wei repeated stubbornly, then let out a soft sigh and said slowly: "The Miao clan's chieftain is depraved and shameless, many good girls in the village have...". He paused for a moment before continuing: "Although I've been intentionally hiding Ah Zhu, there's no wall that doesn't leak wind. Ah Zhu must leave here to avoid disaster. Ah Zhu is intelligent, virtuous, and proficient in Han studies, she definitely won't make Your Highness dislike her. I hope Your Highness won't be heartless and unfeeling, and abandon her."

  Zhu Yongxing lowered his eyelids, although he admired Mengzhu's beauty, but immediately talking about marriage was a bit sudden. Moreover, his mind was currently preoccupied with survival, expansion, anti-Qing, or how to escape if they failed, and suddenly introducing a beautiful woman made him somewhat uncomfortable.

  "That depends on Ah Zhu's intentions, who knows if she is willing to go through thick and thin with me?" Zhu Yongxing said casually, trying to stall for time so he could think carefully.

  "Ah Zhu bit you, and quite hard at that, didn't she?" Si Wei heard Zhu Yong Xing's noncommittal tone and couldn't help but stroke his beard with a smile, his eyes scanning Zhu Yong Xing's wrist. "A maiden's thoughts are like this, she had long been willing, but Your Highness has yet to bestow the token of betrothal, I suppose you're not familiar with our tribe's customs?"

  "Give your brother a bite, the more you bite, the deeper the sister's feelings, the green hills will not fade, and the tooth marks are like seeing people." Biting hands is a unique way for Miao boys and girls to express their love. If the girl bites very lightly and politely, the boy understands that the girl is expressing refusal or hinting that she has someone in mind; if the girl bites heavily, even biting out blood marks, it means that the girl is deeply infatuated with him and is willing to accept the boy's love.

  After "biting the hand", young men and women should each take out their most cherished gifts, such as a ring, earrings, bamboo hat, or waist bag, to exchange with each other as tokens of engagement, symbolizing lifelong companionship.

  Zhu Yongxing blinked his eyes, feeling very strange and interesting about this custom. After a while, he smiled wryly and didn't say anything else, stood up, bowed, and bid farewell.

  He still needs time to sober up, needs time to think carefully, and needs to formulate a feasible plan. But he needs a force to start with, because he is an unimportant member of the royal family. From Emperor Yongli leading important figures on a boat, while he has to take the land route, it can be seen that even if he returns to Yunnan, which of those generals with troops in hand would listen to him?

  Fate often brings people into strange and unpredictable situations; fate also often puts people in a situation that is both pathetic and laughable, leaving them with no choice at all. Fate more often than not brings together people who should never be together, while separating those who should never be apart.

  It's just that truly brave people will never succumb to fate. They have long learned to endure in adversity and tolerate in adversity, as long as they have the opportunity, they will stand up straight and continue to struggle. Zhu Yongxing would never admit that he was a man without courage.

  ………

  The small dock by the river is bustling with activity, but it also looks chaotic. The river water is filled with all sorts of discarded old things thrown away by officials from the previous dynasty, floating and sinking with the wind, looking like a tattered and worn-out piece of cloth when viewed from above.

  The Yongli Emperor sat in the cabin, staring blankly out of the window with unfocused eyes, unsure what he was looking at or if he was even seeing anything. But in his heart, he was thinking about setting sail as soon as possible and getting as far away from Yunnan Province as possible to avoid being pursued by the Qing army.

  Thousands of civil and military officials fled in a panic from the small imperial court, disarmed themselves at the border with Burma, and escaped into Burmese territory. On the 30th day, they arrived at the riverbank (about eight miles away, near the Irrawaddy River). On February 2nd, the King of Burma sent four passenger ships to welcome them. Due to the small size of the boats, Emperor Yongli selected 646 officials to follow the three palaces by waterway southward; some officials even hired their own boats to follow at their own expense. The remaining over 900 people were protected by General Pan Shiren and rode horses with Prince Gui first, taking the land route to rush to the Burmese capital of Ava.

  The Yongli Emperor had already been frightened out of his wits by the Qing army, and as soon as he boarded the ship, he got on a Burmese merchant vessel under the escort of Ma Jiexiang and Li Guotai. Not only did many of his followers, both civil and military officials, not have a place to land, but even the Empress Dowager and the Crown Prince were left unattended. The Yongli Emperor was about to set sail.

  The Empress Dowager was furious, scolding: "Has the Emperor not yet reached the point of desperation, and does he not care about his own mother?" Only then did Zhu Youjian order the boat to stop, temporarily mooring it by the shore, anxiously waiting for all the personnel on land and water to be arranged before setting sail southward, continuing their fugitive escape.

  The passenger ship swayed slightly, and Emperor Yongli's dazed eyes finally turned slightly, showing some anger, asking the eunuch beside him: "Go take a look, let the civil and military officials hurry up. At this slow pace, when can we set off southward?"

  Before the eunuch had gone out, the curtain of the cabin was lifted and Qin Guo Gong Mu Tianbo and Prime Minister Ma Jixiang led two officials to come over, performing rituals and reporting: "Your Majesty, General Pan Shi Rong has sent Tong Zhengshi Zhu Yunjin and Zhong Jun Jiang Chengde to report that the Crown Prince of Min had flowed into a Yi people's stockade halfway and refused to head south..."