Yalha, who had his arms tied and followed the horse for a day, could never have imagined that the things he bought from Bear Island would cause such a disaster.
Along the way, Yalha often looked at his mother, wife and children worriedly while walking. He noticed that two places on his mother's face had been frozen and started to turn black; his son was fine and strong; but
The tears on my daughter's face had turned into ice and were frozen on her face.
Last night, the leader and his team stayed overnight at a Karen post. The fire was burning brightly in the post at night, so it wasn't too sad.
The new cotton robes worn by the old mother and wife had been stripped off by the armored soldiers before they set off on the road. At this time, the two women were wearing a piece of animal skin on their upper bodies and a single layer of clothing underneath, shivering from the cold.
This is the soldier from the same village who reported the information to the leader. Last night he saw Yarha's mother and wife freezing in their single clothes. He couldn't bear it, so he took out a few fox skins from Yarha's horse.
They were given to two women respectively. When the other soldiers saw it, no one objected.
As for the short boots that Yarha exchanged for them, these armored soldiers did not pick them off, otherwise it would be hard to say whether they would be able to reach Hunchun.
After a journey of more than 400 miles, Yalha was very worried about whether his mother would be able to complete the journey alive.
At this time, the armored soldiers did not dare to snatch Yalha's new cotton robe as their own. The leader told him that this was a piece of evidence.
However, there were quite a lot of fur goods found in Yarha's house. There were over a hundred pieces of various pearl wool (fine hair, similar to cashmere) black fox skins, deer skins, and otter skins.
When we arrived at Hunchun City, the leader took 50%, and the remaining ten armored soldiers were equally divided. The harvest of this errand was pretty good.
That cast iron cauldron is really eye-catching! Several armored soldiers were thinking about how much money they would get if they sold this pot to Ning Guta.
At this time, Yarha squinted at the armored soldier from the same village. He already knew in his heart that he was the one who reported him! Although he took the animal skin to protect his family from the cold, Yarha still looked at him with eyes filled with excitement.
indifferent.
In fact, this leader and eleven armored soldiers, like Yarha, are also Kurkhaqis. And people like them, according to the classification of the Qing rulers, belong to "Kuyala Manchuria", that is, New Manchuria.
.And Yarha’s village belongs to Xiangbaiqi.
Now that they have registered under the flag, they cannot be equated with the Feyaka people three thousand miles away. (Manchu and Qing officials were very kind to the Feyaka people who participated in the appreciation of Wulin, and their conversation was very casual.
, except when he makes mistakes, he is never beaten or scolded.)
At this time, Yalha felt confused and scared. He didn't know what was waiting for him and his family in Hunchun City.
Maybe after arriving in Hunchun, if you explain everything about your previous three visits to Bear Island, everything will be fine...
The group of people turned an intersection and entered a narrow mountain road. A strong northwest wind suddenly blew, causing heavy snow to roll in the sky, and the snowflakes on the ground were also blown away. In an instant, the surroundings were completely white, and they could not see at all.
Clear the road.
This is what Mongolians call the "white-haired wind". The group was suddenly unable to take another step forward.
The leader who led the team secretly screamed "Oh no!". Just before entering the mountain pass, he saw two straw sheds on the roadside, which were probably built by ginseng pickers.
So he urged the horse forward a few steps with great effort, slapped the two armored soldiers in front with his riding crop, and made a sign to walk back. The people then turned their horses' heads and walked back under the leadership of the leader.
The Yalha family were already tied up, but they were blown away by the strong wind and were unable to stand upright. After falling down, they struggled to stand up again.
The armored soldiers all dismounted at this time. Several of them held the horse's reins with one hand and helped the Yalha family up with the other, and walked with difficulty towards the hay shed.
When everyone finally found the thatched hut, the armored soldiers first tied the horse's reins to a nearby tree, then untied the ropes tied to the saddles of Yarha's family, and pushed his family of five into two separate rooms.
A hut.
The leader immediately thought of lighting a fire to ward off the cold, but under the strong wind, the tinder could not be used at all. So someone took the animal skins from Yalha's horse and distributed them to everyone to cover them. The group crowded together
Suffering in two straw huts, waiting for the strong wind to subside.
Who would have thought that once the wind blew, it would not let up all night...
I don’t know how long it took, but Yalha woke up from his coma. He twisted his body, and a large amount of snowflakes suddenly shook off. He tried to move his fingers and feet, but found that several fingers and toes had no feeling.
.
At this time, Yarha heard that the wind outside had quieted down a lot, and large snowflakes fell on him through the roof of the low and dilapidated thatched shed. He touched the armored soldier next to him with his shoulder, trying to wake him up. He touched him a few times.
This time, there was no movement. It turned out that the soldier had been frozen to death.
He turned to look at the other armored soldier next to him, and found that this man was still alive, but his breathing was very weak.
"Eniang! Erniang!" Yalha suddenly woke up and shouted desperately for his mother in a hoarse voice.
There was silence and no one answered. There was only the whistling of the wind and the sound of falling snowflakes.
Yarha called his wife, son and daughter again, but still no one answered. He twisted his body desperately, trying to break free from the rope.
Then he noticed the dagger on the waist of the frozen soldier beside him. So he turned his back, used his movable fingers to pull out the dagger with difficulty, turned it over, and cut the rope.
Yalha shook off the cut rope and began to search for his relatives in the hay shed.
The old mother buried under the snow had frozen to death. Regardless of her sadness, Yalha quickly climbed out and rushed to another thatched shed.
In another hut, except for the leader and a few armored soldiers who were still unconscious, all of Yalha's family members had turned into stiff corpses.
A howl, like a lone wolf in the wilderness, came from the hut and echoed among the mountains.
The grief-stricken Yalha was like a violent beast. He lifted off the animal skin covering the leader's body and found that one of the two cotton robes he had exchanged was covering the leader's body.
Angry, he picked up the cotton robe and threw it aside. He tore off the cotton armor on his collar and stabbed it out resolutely with the short knife in his hand.
The unconscious leader had no power to resist. After being stabbed several times, a large amount of blood spilled from his mouth and nose.
Immediately afterwards, Yalha found the armored soldier from the same village, regardless of whether he was dead or not. He also tore open the cotton armor, raised the short knife in his hand and stabbed without pause, and did not stop until he had made more than a dozen cuts.
The blood on his hands quickly froze, and Yalha stared blankly at his hands that were black and stained with blood, and cried bitterly.
After a while, he was exhausted and struggled to get up, walked outside the hay shed, and began to dig away the thick snow on the ground outside with his hands. Until he came into contact with the hard ground, he was still digging.
As he stood, his hands slowly became dripping with blood.
In desperation, he found the soldier's waist knife and dug in the frozen soil for a long time before he dug a shallow pit that could only accommodate one person.
Yalha had no choice but to return to the hut, pick up his old mother, and put her into the pit. Then he found the cotton robe covered by his collar, covered his mother, and then pushed the earth with his hands to bury her.
Soon, the falling snow covered the tomb tightly.
After resting for a while, Yalha got up and took his wife, son, and daughter out of the hut and placed them on both sides of his mother's grave.
Yalha, who was in a daze, knelt in front of him for a long time, until the heavy snow turned him into a snowman.
(The early Manchus believed in cremation after death. For example, in the early days after the Qing Dynasty entered the country, Emperor Shunzhi’s beloved concubine Dong E and Empress Xiaokang Zhang were cremated.
However, as the Manchu customs were gradually assimilated by the Han customs, and coupled with the constraints of Confucianism, it was not until the Kangxi reign that the requirement for Han people to be cremated after death was abolished, but the Manchus still required cremation.
After Qianlong succeeded to the throne, he promulgated the "Banner People's Funeral Ban" in the third month:
"This dynasty set out in Guandong, and used divisions and soldiers as camp guards. They moved around constantly. When their parents died, they couldn't bear to abandon them and couldn't carry them with them, so they were cremated so that they could be carried with them and fulfill their unbearable wish to be separated. It was a last resort.
also.
Since Dingding, each of the Eight Banners and Mongolia has its own Ningju, ancestral ruins and tombs, all belonging to the local area, and funerals can be carried out according to ancient rituals. However, the customs are ignored, or cremation is still used. This is in line with the old customs without thinking about it.
This was the reason why I had to do this back then.
... From now on, except for the poor people from far away villages who cannot help their coffins back home and have no choice but to carry their bones to the burial site, no one can be allowed to be cremated. If there are any offenders, they will be punished according to the law. The clan leaders and assistant leaders will hide and not avenge.
Punished together."
From this incident on, it marked that the Manchus in the Pass had basically been completely assimilated into Han culture.)
At the same time, Serdan led the horse and walked hard on the road to Hunchun.
After he was arrested in Yarha, he returned home and thought about it all night. He really couldn't trust his good friend and his family.
When the armored soldiers peeled off the cotton robe from Yarha's mother, he also saw it. Walking more than four hundred miles in a single coat in this kind of weather, Yarha's family might be frozen. That would be terrible.
That's troublesome.
With this thought in mind, Serdan packed up dry food and several large animal skins in the morning, and refused his son Erlu's request to go with him.
Before going out, he stopped and thought for a moment. Then he went back to the house again, took off his newly bought cotton robe, found his old and torn old cotton robe and put it on again.
He tied two pieces of animal skins to his body. He rolled up the cotton robe he took off, tied it behind the saddle, and went out.
After chasing all the way, a white-haired wind began to blow in the afternoon, which almost made Serdan trapped. In desperation, he had no choice but to return to the Karen post he passed by based on his memory, and spent the night there.
After daybreak, seeing that the wind had subsided, we set off again.
Two hours later, Serdan, who was leading his horse in nearly knee-deep snow, saw a grass shed on the hillside not far away. The hunter's intuition told him that Yalha and his party were also trapped in the snow.
Got here.
When Serdan trudged up the hillside and took a look, he was shocked. An unrecognizable man covered in snow was sitting on his knees in the snow.
There were more than a dozen horses gathered together next to the hay shed, either standing or lying down. The horses seemed to be wearing ice armor and had already been frozen to death.
Serdan hurriedly rushed into the hay shed to check, and saw that four or five armored soldiers were silent, and one of them had a large amount of frozen blood on his chest. He recognized it at a glance as the armored soldier from the same village.
Serdan was frightened and hurriedly backed out of the hay hut. He hurriedly went to another hay hut. When he raised his eyes, he saw a collar full of blood on his chest, mouth and nose.
"this!"
At this moment, he suddenly became excited and rushed to the kneeling snowman outside, brushing away the snowflakes with his hands.
"Brother Yalha!" Seldan shouted to his good friend and dusted the snow off his body.
He tried to put his hand under Yalha's nose and found that he was still breathing, but it was very weak.
Serdan ignored anything else and leaned over to pick up Yalha and put him on his horse; then he took out a cotton robe and animal skins from behind the saddle and covered Yalha's body.
After finishing these tasks, Serdan took the horse and strode towards the village along the path he took when he came.
The heavy snow continued to fall in the sky, and half an hour later, the traces of Serdan's steps disappeared completely.