On the sixth day of the 11th lunar month in the 50th year of Qianlong's reign, Zhao Xin and his party of more than 50 people set out from Karun, Mongolia on a horse-drawn sleigh and headed west along the Mongolian River. Two days later, they crossed the southern foot of Tongken Mountain and entered the Hunchun River. From then on
Heading south, we arrived at the foot of a hillside twenty miles north of Amida Karen three days later.
This journey was quite a blow to Zhao Xin. The speed of the horse-drawn sled seemed to be forty or fifty miles, and the biting north wind blew into his body, making him "ouch" from the cold.
On a low slope near Amida Karen, several white tents stood alone, with white smoke rising from the top. In the small camp, several bonfires were burning brightly. Near the camp gate, several
The armored soldiers of the Qing army wore cotton armor and a large cloak outside, and they stamped their feet on the ground from time to time in the heat.
It was almost noon, and as the curtain of a tent swayed, bursts of the tangy aroma of meat wafted out from inside. Several Qing soldiers standing guard suddenly drooled.
After about a meal, when the cook was carrying Qitai's leftover lunch out of the big tent, there was a sound of horse hooves in the distance. A dozen armored soldiers looked at each other and hurriedly rushed over.
On two low and sturdy Mongolian horses, there was a man wearing a gray-white coat sitting on each of them. The two men wore a large hat on their heads, with a circle of animal skin exposed on the edge of the hat; the brim of the hat was pushed down so low that it was impossible to see their faces.
"Stop whoever comes!" a Qing soldier shouted loudly.
"Hey~~~" The two horses stopped a dozen steps away from the Qing soldiers. "I am from Beihai Town." The person who came spoke in Manchu, and the Qing soldiers present were all excited as soon as he spoke.
When Beihai Town's troops came to Ninggu Tower, they were all guarding the city wall. Thinking of the power of Beihai Town's guns and cannons like a storm, all the Qing soldiers felt numbness in their backs and broke into cold sweats all over their bodies.
"I came here to inform you that our people have arrived twenty miles away."
"You, hurry up and report to your Excellency." Before he finished speaking, a Qing soldier hurriedly turned around and ran towards the largest tent. Then, the leading military attache said very nervously: "Please come and sit in the tent for a while.
"
The two men on horseback lifted their hats, and the Qing soldiers realized that the hats and jackets were connected together. Under the hats, an even weirder outfit appeared, which stunned everyone present.
I saw that both of them were wearing a pair of large black objects on their faces, and the lower half of their faces were covered by a fluffy scarf. At this time, one of them took off what he was wearing on his face, revealing half of his face.
The face of a young man. This man said to the leading military attache with a smile: "No need, the team will be here in a moment. I am here to set up the front line and arrange the location of the camp."
"Gulu!" The military attache swallowed and said in a muffled voice: "A large group of people? How many people are you here?"
"Haha, this is such a strange question. Aren't we the fifty people you requested?"
The military attaché took a long breath after hearing this, and pointed to a large open space two hundred steps away to the east and said, "That's just for you. Please help yourself."
"Thank you so much, brother." The two immediately clasped their fists, then turned their horses' heads to the open space.
"Bah! Who the hell are brothers with you rebels? I haven't lived enough yet!" The military attaché spat at the backs of the two men and cursed fiercely in a low voice.
Several Qing soldiers noticed that when the two knights from Beihai Town arrived at the open space, they dismounted and found a place with the wind to tie their horses. Then the two of them walked back and forth in the open space, holding their hands.
He was holding a branch and drawing strange lines on the snow.
"Sir, what are they doing?"
"I can't tell, there are strange gods and goddesses. Please be alert and keep your bows and arrows on alert!"
The two Qing soldiers hurriedly went to their tents, took out a sack from it and tied it around their waists. Then they took out their bows, drew out their arrows and set them up, ready to go.
The two people from Beihai Town seemed to have noticed the movement of the Qing soldiers. They raised their heads and smiled at the Qing soldiers in the distance. After a while, the two of them seemed to have finished painting. They threw the branches in their hands and found a leeward spot.
A cat. Soon, a puff of white smoke floated out from behind the big tree, quickly turned into blue and dissipated in the air.
"Damn it! Those two people seem to be smoking!" Several Qing soldiers with good eyes scolded angrily.
After about two more incense sticks, more intensive sound of horse hooves came from the path to the north.
"They are coming! Go and inform the Lord!"
On the gray-white mountain road, dozens of two-horse sleds formed a long black line, like a black dragon swimming in the mountain forest. When the other party got closer and could see more and more clearly, everyone
The Qing army saw an eight-foot-long and five-foot-wide red flag fluttering in the wind on a sleigh led by the Qing army. In the center was a large white ring gear. In the middle of the gear was a white five-pointed star, and in the middle of the five-pointed star and the gear
Was painted black.
"Sir, what's the flag of this bandit?" Outside the large tent of the Qing army camp, Na Qitai, who had already received the report, and a middle-aged man wearing a fur cloak and a plain gold official hat were looking at the flag.
.
Na Qitai pondered for a moment, as if reminiscing, and then said: "The false Ming flag and the general's flag that Zhao Ni had erected under the Ninggu Pagoda City were before. I have never seen this flag before."
The two Beihai Town knights who arrived first also got on their horses at this time, galloped in front of the first sleigh, made a circle, and led the large group of people towards the open space. A long sleigh team was in front of the Qing army camp.
I turned a big corner and splashed with snowflakes.
"I'll wipe it! It's numb!" Zhao Xin screamed in a low voice and stood up from the sled. His legs were so numb that he couldn't move forward. Guisheng beside him didn't care that his own feet were also numb and bit him.
He bowed and rubbed his teeth twice for Zhao Xin.
"Okay, okay." Zhao Xin pulled Guisheng away with his hands and walked a few steps with a grin on his face. His legs felt like they were being pricked by countless small needles. He kicked his legs a few times and walked a few more steps before he recovered a little.
.
"Sir, the various locations in the camp have been selected. The monk and I have already drawn the locations on the ground."
"Okay. Except for the security personnel, everyone else should quickly set up tents while it's still early."
Wang Yuanfang walked over, pulled down his mask and asked, "Mr. Zhao, do you need to go over and report to the Qing army?"
Zhao Xin thought for a while and shouted: "Monk Zhou!"
"arrive!"
"Go and tell them over there that we need to set up camp first. If there's anything else, we can talk about it later or tomorrow. Anyway, tomorrow is the day agreed upon for negotiation."
"yes!"
Monk Zhou put on his mask and hat, took his horse and climbed on it, humming a little tune in his mouth, and slowly swayed towards the Qing army camp.
"What the hell, Monk Zhou, you're still acting like this!"
Wang Yuanfang smiled and said: "The person you led. This kid was pretty good during training, but he just likes to hum a few words when he has nothing to do."
At the gate of the Qing army camp, a dozen Qing soldiers saw a tall man riding a black Mongolian horse, strolling over. When the other person walked more than ten steps away, they raised their hands and signaled: "Stop!
"
Monk Zhou didn't dismount. He wanted to raise his chin to the sky. He clasped fists with both hands and said: "Our leader has said that we have to camp and cook now, so we don't have time to pay attention to you. If you have anything to do, we will talk about it tomorrow." Before he finished speaking, he made a move with his left hand.
Pull the horse's reins, turn around and go back!
All the Qing soldiers were almost driven crazy by Monk Zhou's actions. They gritted their teeth and stared at each other's back.
"Hey! Why are you pretending to be a big-tailed wolf!"
"Hey? Why does this grandson look so familiar to me?"
"Yeah. I think I've seen it somewhere."
Suddenly, a Qing soldier jumped to his feet and cursed: "Damn! Isn't this the fake monk in the city back then? I even beat him up back then!"
In the camp in Beihai Town, a dozen soldiers unloaded tools from their sleds and began to clear the snow in the open space; others unloaded a bunch of metal shelves and fasteners from other sleds, and these people were busy
After a while, the tie rods and turnbuckles of each tent were assembled. After an open space was cleared, they removed the top cloth and front and rear peak cloth from the sled and started laying. After the installation of the pillars was completed, a
The 5-meter by 6-meter large tent was set up. The soldiers moved very skillfully. In less than two hours, five white rectangular tents were set up.
"Chief, the tents are all set up."
"Well, you all stay outside."
"Yes!" Judging from the soldier's expression, everyone has become accustomed to this matter these days.
"Immortal Zhao" began to appear. A few minutes later, Zhao Xin walked out of the fifth tent. A dozen Beihai Town soldiers entered the tent with their heads down without saying a word.
After some clanking sounds, a tin cylinder emerged from the side of the tent; after a while, a thick gray-black smoke emerged, which turned white after a few minutes.
Two hundred paces away, the alert Qing troops were stunned as they saw the large tents popping up one after another in the open space and the white smoke rising from the sides of the tents.
A Qing soldier murmured: "They came here with a stove and chimney? This, this is too extravagant!"
Another Qing soldier cursed in a low voice: "This fucking rebel, he doesn't even care about the imperial court! He's so arrogant!"
"What do you think we are here for?"
"You ask me, who should I ask?"
At this time, a Qing military attache heard the conversation between the two and came over and yelled: "You bastards! You can discuss military and state affairs?! Shut up! If you dare to make any unreasonable comments, I will beat him to the fifty army first."
stick!"
In fact, the military attache only vaguely heard that the Vice-Captain General was here to discuss the return of the prisoners. However, he felt that it was better to pretend not to know about it, so as not to get into trouble later.
In the evening, cooking began in the camp in Beihai Town. Fortunately, the wind was blowing from the northwest and the camp in Beihai Town was downwind. Otherwise, the Qing army in the upwind would have been starved to death by the aroma of the stew in Beihai Town.
At dawn the next day, the Qing troops standing guard were surprised to find that there was a wall as high as a person on the outside of the opposite camp. This frightened them half to death. I didn't fall asleep for the rest of the night, and I was always on guard!
He didn't know there was such a big movement on the opposite side of the fortification wall. When he woke up the Qing army who had been on duty for the whole night and asked, they also said they hadn't heard any movement on the other side.
Mom! Is this still a human being?
At 7 o'clock in the morning, when the sky was bright, the Qing army officially sent a messenger. A military attache and a pen-poster rode to the gate of the Beihai town camp and agreed to start negotiations in the Qing army's camp at midnight.
Without Zhao Xin having to say anything, Wang Yuanfang directly rejected the other party's request and proposed that the negotiation location be changed to the middle of the camps of both parties. After receiving the reply, Na Qitai agreed directly without bargaining; he did not want to get entangled in such a trivial matter.
However, the seventh-grade civil servant who came with him raised objections.
"Then Sir, how can we, the Huanghuang Celestial Dynasty, be threatened by thieves and bandits?"
This man’s name is Wu Shenglan, he is forty-seven years old, and he is currently an editor of the Hanlin Academy of the Qing Dynasty. He and his brother Wu Shengqin are Heshen’s lackeys. They were originally Heshen’s apprentices in Xian’an Palace.
After Shen became the Minister of Military and Aircraft, he turned to He Shen as his teacher and made plans.
The reason why He Shen brought Wu Shenglan with him this time was to help him get some credit for promotion. Since He Shen could not come forward on his own, he sent Wu Shenglan as the deputy negotiator.
Qitai was annoyed with these intellectuals. Wu Shenglan had come up with crooked ideas in the past few days, but he had always rejected them. If it weren't for Heshen's sake, he would have kicked him away.
"Mr. Izumi, I have my own reasons. It's important for us to do business. Every day we delay, the pressure on He Zhongtang will increase."
At about 7:40, a shed that Na Qitai was very familiar with appeared in the center of the camps of both sides. The strange red and black-and-white flag was placed on the left side of the shed.
The soldiers in Beihai Town put up a curtain around the shed to block the cold wind. When the Qing army saw it, they quickly brought out several braziers from the camp and placed them in the shed, which made it much warmer.
Just after eight o'clock, a cannon sounded in the Qing army camp, and Na Qitai and Wu Shenglan came over with five guards and a pen post. Zhao Xin and Wang Yuanfang also brought Serdan, Elu, Monk Zhou and other five people.
Out of the camp.
After the two parties sat down, Zhao Xin smiled and said to Na Qitai: "Master, it's been a long time. This is our deputy envoy Wang Yuanfang."
Na Qitai was called a Tao, and he greeted Zhao Xin's family a hundred times in his heart! He put on a smile, cupped his hands and said: "Mr. Zhao, it's been a long time. This is our deputy envoy, Hanlin Academy
Edited by Mr. Wu Shenglan."
Hanlin! So awesome! Zhao Xin and Wang Yuanfang looked at Wu Shenglan with admiration in their eyes. Wait! Why does this name sound so familiar?
"Mr. Wu, what's the relationship between Wu Shengqin and you?" Zhao Xin didn't know what Wu Shengqin was, so he just said his name. The ancients were actually very taboo about calling people by their first names, and they usually used the title.
Wu Shenglan's forehead was throbbing with veins, a look of irritation appeared on her face, and she said, "That's my brother."
"Oh, oh!" Zhao Xin looked surprised and thought, "It's you! No wonder a seventh-grade official can be the deputy negotiator."
Na Qitai cleared his throat and said: "Mr. Zhao, there's no need for polite words. Let's get straight to the point."
"OK, I have no objection."
Wu Shenglan was stunned for a moment, thinking to herself, what does "OK" mean?
At this time, Na Qitai said in deep thought: "That's what I said. I read the letter Mr. Zhao had someone bring to me before. Our condition is, one hundred thousand taels of silver."
Zhao Xin stretched out his index finger and waved it, shook his head and said: "Master, we have known each other for a long time. This is not right for you. Do you think I am short of silver?" After saying that, Zhao Xin took out two silver coins from his coat pocket.
The article was thrown on the table with a bang.
When Na Qitai and Wu Shenglan took a look, they found that they were two silver bars as long as their index fingers. They were polished so brightly that they could even reflect the silhouette of a person. People couldn't put it down at the first sight and wanted to put them in their arms.
"These two silver bars are considered as a meeting gift. You two can take them back and make some jewelry or something as a toy for your children." Zhao Xin smiled and looked at the two people opposite him sharply.
Wu Shenglan slammed the table and said angrily: "What does Mr. Zhao mean by this? Bribing me?"
"Mr. Wu, don't you two brothers join Heshen just for the official position and this? Small gifts are not respectful."
"You! You!" Wu Shenglan suddenly blushed when Zhao Xin revealed the secret in her heart. She didn't know what to say for a moment.
Alas! You see, I don't talk to you. Na Qitai, who had learned Zhao Xin's methods, sighed deeply, then turned to say seriously: "Master Wu, don't engage in quarrels of temper." He turned to look at Zhao Xin and asked
He said: "Mr. Zhao, since it is a negotiation, there will naturally be back and forth. If you are not satisfied with the conditions proposed by me, then state your conditions."
"Let me tell you the truth, please take a look." Zhao Xin put his fingers together on the table and said slowly: "The eight thousand from Ning Guta last time."
"You bastard! I won't pick up the pot, you're going to stab me in the heart!" Na Qitai almost yelled, but with a livid face, he interrupted: "Mr. Zhao, we are talking about giving it back.
Don’t ramble on about the affairs of the imperial officers and soldiers!”
"Okay! Our conditions are that each of the soldiers will receive one tael of gold; the leader will receive 5 taels of gold; the assistant leader will receive 10 taels of gold, the general will receive 200 taels, and the deputy will receive 500 taels of gold. As for those two,
Fifty thousand taels of gold each."
"You, you are blackmailing!" Wu Shenglan slammed the table and stood up to drink.
"Mr. Wu, please speak carefully. How can this be considered blackmail? I am kidnapping! All your generals and soldiers are my flesh and blood!"
"Pfft!" Wu Shenglan's throat felt hot, and he almost spat out a mouthful of blood. It was hard for him to believe that the guy opposite, who looked like a gangster from Beijing, could actually defeat the imperial army!