Late Ming Dynasty: Oops, I am surrounded by the Donglin Party

What the hell? I...

"Do you think I've never seen a beautiful woman?" Zhang Shikang glanced at his subordinate and said unhappily.

There must be beautiful women in the Ming Dynasty, both in the capital and in Yangzhou. However, Zhang Shikang has been running around in the countryside for the past few months, and he hasn't seen any of them.

Even in the capital, unless you go to a brothel and just wander around the streets, the probability of encountering a beautiful woman is extremely low, not to mention in the countryside outside the city.

Zhang Shikang even once secretly complained that later film and television dramas were shot blindly, and that beauties as beautiful as Xi Shi were often encountered in the countryside.

Don’t you think about the fact that people in ancient times couldn’t even get enough food to eat? They were all pale and skinny like cucumbers. Even beauties would be starved to the point of being unrecognizable. What beauty?

The soldier was frightened, stuck out his tongue and tried to retreat, muttering as he retreated:

"That was my carelessness, but the Jinyiwei people said there was a person named Chen Yuanyuan, and that he was the Marshal..."

"Come back." Zhang Shikang raised his eyebrows.

The soldier was very honest. He quickly turned around and bowed respectfully.

"What was the name of the woman you caught?"

"Reporting to the Marshal, this is Chen Yuanyuan."

"lead the way."

……

Zhang Shikang was a little bit expectant along the way.

Before Nanjing was sealed off, the Jinyiwei gave him the last message, saying that the person named Chen Yuanyuan had not been found yet.

Only six of the Eight Beauties of Qinhuai were found, and one of them had been dead for more than 30 years.

How can we collect all this?

Among the legendary Eight Beauties, the one Zhang Shikang was most familiar with was Chen Yuanyuan.

The reason is simple. It's like Xiao Guizi in The Deer and the Cauldron. He was so desperate for the beauty that he even gave up his country just to have this girl.

In Zhang Shikang's view, this is pure nonsense.

But even so, he was still very curious about how beautiful this woman could be.

Although he had looked for skinny horses many times when he was waiting for the Zheng family's troop transport ship in Yangzhou, if he wanted to gather the Eight Beauties for the purpose of taking them for himself, that was not really what he was thinking at the moment.

The reason why the Eight Beauties are talked about by later generations is definitely not just because of their beauty. There are countless beauties along the Qinhuai River, and there are even more beauties in Suzhou, Hangzhou and Yangzhou.

The Eight Beauties are famous because, in addition to being beautiful, they are also talented and have ideals.

At least from the historical materials that Zhang Shikang knew, there were several people who had the inclination to commit suicide and took action after the fall of the Ming Dynasty, such as Liu Rushi and Gu Hengbo.

As for Chen Yuanyuan, Zhang Shikang was the one who had been looking for her for the longest time. He remembered that Chen Yuanyuan was abducted to Beijing by Concubine Tian's father, Tian Hongyu, because Tian Hongyu was worried that his daughter would lose favor due to her old age and fading beauty.

He adopted her as his adopted daughter and asked Concubine Tian to introduce Chen Yuanyuan into the palace. However, the Ming Dynasty was crumbling at that time, and Brother Chongzhen was exhausted and did not like this at all.

After being sent out of the palace, Tian Hongyu gave Chen Yuanyuan to Wu Sangui, a new noble in the court, in order to make friends with him.

This is what the historical records say, but Zhang Shikang did not remember the time clearly. He did not expect that Chen Yuanyuan was still in Taohuawu at that time.

Speaking of it, Taohuawu is a very famous place. The Taohuawu in Tang Bohu's poems refers to this place. Taohuawu has been famous since the Song Dynasty.

Taohuawu is located on the bank of Taohua River. It has beautiful scenery and pleasant views, but this is not the reason why this place is famous.

It’s because there are so many girls and beauties, so scholars and talented people from all over the world flock there, and write poems and lyrics under the pretext of enjoying the scenery.

But in the final analysis, it was all because of the girls. Without the girls, they would have no choice but to go to Taohuawu to write poetry.

When he arrived at Taohuawu, Zhang Shikang looked around and found that both sides of Taohua River had become noisy and desolate because of the war.

Fortunately, Zhang Shikang had strict military discipline. Apart from searching the city for rebels and preventing civilians from going out, he did not harass the civilians too much.

Taohuawu was a place that had already been searched, so the singers here were either looking out from the windows or from the flower boats on Taohua River.

When they saw Zhang Shikang coming towards them with a large group of personal guards, they were all filled with fear and hurriedly closed the windows and got on the boat.

Sometimes when Zhang Shikang saw someone good-looking, he would even grin and wave, but the only response he got was a bang.

His personal guards couldn't bear to see this and wanted to kick the door on Zhang Shikang's behalf to punish the other party for his rude behavior, but were stopped by Zhang Shikang.

He has some understanding of himself, at least in today's Jiangnan, where gentry, bureaucrats, landlords, and the Donglin Party have repeatedly stigmatized him.

It cannot be said that Zhang Shikang's reputation here is completely useless, it can only be said to be infamous.

It's understandable that everyone looks at him like a big devil.

After walking for about another half a quarter of an hour, Zhang Shikang finally saw the Jinyiwei's subordinates in an attic.

"Is everyone okay?" Zhang Shikang asked casually after confirming that Chen Yuanyuan was inside.

After entering the city, Zhang Shikang learned that Liu Liangzuo, in order to stabilize the morale of the army, had allowed his subordinates to plunder in Suzhou city yesterday afternoon and rape many women.

"Your Excellency the Commander, I found Chen Yuanyuan in the cellar of this attic while searching for the rebels."

Zhang Shikang thought that this girl was good at hiding, so he stepped in. The commander of the personal guards, Hong Xiucheng, asked most of the personal guards to stay outside, and he followed in with four or five good men.

Although Zhang Shikang felt unhappy that his men would be watching him even when he met the girl, he did not refuse.

He had an accident almost every few days.

When I entered the attic, I saw a young girl in a light pink dress sitting inside the elegantly decorated attic. She was holding a pipa in her arms, and her white hands were exposed.

Zhang Shikang's eyes lit up at the first sight. If he had to use one word to describe the person in front of him, that word would be handsome. The kind of person who makes a deep impression at first sight.

When the girl saw someone coming with his subordinates, she knew that it was an important person. With a look of panic on her face, she quickly stood up and bowed.

"Are you Chen Yuanyuan?"

"Yes." Chen Yuanyuan responded in a low voice, but she felt even more frightened in her heart. She didn't know why this big shot wanted to confirm this matter.

"So small." Zhang Shikang curled his lips and muttered.

"I am eighteen years old." Chen Yuanyuan replied in surprise. Eighteen years old is not considered young.

"Keep your head up."

By this time it had already darkened. While checking the house to see if there were any assassins hiding, Hong Xiucheng ordered his men to light candles, and the house suddenly became bright.

But Chen Yuanyuan raised her head, her pretty little face, small nose, and big eyes full of anxiety.

Born in troubled times and experiencing war, I have been displaced many times and feel like a floating duckweed.

From Chen Yuanyuan's eyes, Zhang Shikang only thought of two words, one was pure, and the other was uneasy.

Zhang Shikang roughly understood why Wu Sangui, Li Zicheng and others liked Chen Yuanyuan.

"Don't be afraid, I'm not a bad person. I'm Zhang Shikang, the Grand Marshal of the Army appointed by His Majesty himself." Zhang Shikang said in a gentle manner.

Chen Yuanyuan became even more frightened.

However, Zhang Shikang pretended not to see it.

"By the way, you are a singer, right?

I'm really tired after working so hard for several days, please sing a song for me."

……