The forty-ninth year of Qianlong's reign, the eleventh day of the first lunar month.
Hunchun Xie Ling Yamen.
In the morning, the assistant leader Wu Teshan first received a report from Hadama Karen, which is forty miles northeast of Hunchun City ("Karun" in Manchu means outpost. According to the Qing system, as of the 48th year of Qianlong's reign, the area around Hunchun
There are fifteen Karens in total, each of which must be stationed with one leader and ten soldiers. According to the leader in charge of Karen, on the seventh day of the first lunar month, a team of 12 people who passed by Karen has not returned yet.
Due to the heavy snowfall on the eighth and ninth day of the lunar month, the mountain road may be difficult to travel. It is estimated that the twelve-man team has been trapped on the mountain road. Before sending someone to report, Hadamakaren's leader had sent five people to the east.
Amida Karen, five miles away (forty-five miles northeast of Hunchun City), explored all the way.
(The reason why Karen made such a report is that the Qing government's policy of "all the eight banners of Manchuria are under military status", and the management of the banner people was very strict.
In the 24th year of Qianlong's reign, the Quasi-Military Department, the Ministry of War, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs requested that all soldiers and idlers stationed in various provinces who escape for the first time, regardless of being captured and surrendered, are to be whipped with a hundred yoke for one month and handed over to the banner commander.
Officials and others are strictly controlled and serve as hard labor. After half a year, they can remain calm and still wear armor and serve as servants. If they escape for the second time, no matter they are caught and surrender, they will be sent to Heilongjiang and other places to torture and serve as servants... If there are more than three soldiers who escape, they will be undetected.
The officer in charge of the Assistant Command, Defense and Riding School will receive a fine of one year. For those who reach five, the officer will receive a salary of six months.)
So when Wu Teshan saw this report, he felt bad. The twelve-man team he sent out had been gone for five days, and it was supposed to have returned yesterday.
Sure enough, in the afternoon, Wu Teshan received a report from Hadamakaren. The five-man team sent out had found the twelve-man team trapped in the mountain road. All twelve people in the team died, and the team has been identified.
The leader and one armored soldier were stabbed to death several times, and the remaining armored soldiers and horses looked like they had been frozen to death.
This news shocked Wu Te Shan.
Since the establishment of Karen in the 17th year of Qianlong's reign, Hunchun City has never had a leader be killed. Who could be so bold!
Wu Teshan immediately ordered his subordinates to write a report and prepare to report to the Ningguta Dutong Yamen. At the same time, he also ordered his assistant leader Tuomo Huoguo to lead a hundred armored soldiers to the scene of the incident to investigate in detail, and to regularly report to Hunchun City.
Submit inspection status.
After that, as successive reports came in, Wu Teshan also made a rough judgment on the death of twelve people. The soldiers found the bodies of a man and two women buried under the snow at the scene of the incident, as well as the bodies buried next to them.
The body of an elderly woman in the soil.
After careful identification by the officers and soldiers of Amida Karen present, it was determined that the man and three women were the Yalha family members who passed by the day before the incident.
However, Yalha's body was not found.
Wu Teshan was furious. Regardless of the difficulty of traveling on the snowy road, he sent an order to Hadama and Amida to immediately search the mountains and forests around the place where the incident occurred to find traces of Yalha's escape. He also ordered his leader Tomo Huoguo to lead
Fifty soldiers immediately rushed to the village on the south bank of the Khajimi River to check the villagers to prevent the suspect from escaping back home.
Dahe is a tributary of Suifen River.
At noon, outside a dilapidated hut by the river, Serdan was squatting in front of a fire, looking a little anxious.
On the way back to the village with Yalha that day, because they had to avoid Amida Karen, Serdan led the horse through the rugged mountains and forests, and did not turn back to the main road until they had gone ten miles. The result was that
The delay along the way made Yalha's frostbite worse.
When he returned home after dark, Serdan discovered that Yalha's frostbite had been very serious, and his feet and fingers had turned black.
As soon as he entered the house, he asked his son Erlu to light up the stove in the house, and he and his wife used short knives to cut all the robes and leather pants on Yarha's body.
Under the clothes, Yalha's arms and legs were covered with a layer of ice. Serdan's wife quickly asked her daughter to boil a pot of water. After the water temperature came up, the couple began to use a cloth dipped in warm water to boil it little by little.
The ice on Yarha's body melted; after that, Serdan began to rub Yarha's frostbitten legs and hands with snow repeatedly, and did not stop until he started to turn red.
Then, Serdan cut open his two old and new cotton robes, took out the cotton wool inside, and tightly wrapped Yarha's legs, arms, and even fingers and toes, then tied them tightly with cloth strips, and then tied them up in his home.
Quilts and animal skins covered his body.
After the bandage is completed in this way, it cannot be untied for seven days no matter how painful it is; once it is untied, Yalha's hands and legs cannot be saved.
At this point, Seldan has done all he can do; and the rest depends on whether Yalha can carry it through.
The next day, Yarha woke up. When he saw Serdan, he just shed tears and could not say anything. Then, Yarha trembled all over because of the pain of the wound, and tried to break free from the bonds.
However, Seldan, who had been guarding him, was pressed tightly to the bed and could not move.
After Yarha finished his troubles and fell asleep, Serdan became a little worried. He was worried that if the officers and soldiers pursued him all the way, they would most likely come to the village to search for him from house to house.
So early the next morning, Serdan carefully hitched the family horse to the sledge before dawn. Then he and his son lifted Yalha onto the sledge and wrapped it tightly with animal skins.
After everything was tidied up, Elu stood at the entrance of the courtyard and listened carefully to the goings-on around him. After a while, he took the horse and left with Serdan, heading northeastward outside the village.
"Amma, how can we leave in a while?"
Outside the hut on the bank of the river, Erlu sat down next to Serdan, stretched out his hand to light the fire, and asked softly.
"Continue to the east and send your uncle Yalha to hide in a fishing village by the sea for a while." Serdan said while smoking a dry cigarette.
In the fishing village across the Strait of Bear Island, Serdan has a good friend named Hengji (Manchu, seal), and Yalha also knows him.
"Then what?" Erlu continued to ask.
"When your uncle Yalha recovers from his injuries, we will go back first."
In the evening, Serdan and his son finally brought Yalha to a friend's home in the fishing village.
The fishing village is not big, with only a dozen households in total.
After arriving at the home of the friend named Hengji, they all got busy together. Hengji arranged to place Yalha in an east-facing adobe house in his home. He helped Serdan light the fire in the house, and then
I brought some food from home to Serdan and his son.
After the temperature in the room gradually increased, it became very warm.
Only then did Serdan tell Henji, who had been busy making arrangements, about Yalha, which surprised the other party.
"Then what are you going to do?" Henji asked.
"Well, take it one step at a time. We can't watch him die there." Serdan said lightly. He didn't care about that at all at first, he only thought about saving people first.
Hengji was also helpless. Seeing his friend in this situation, he always wanted to help if he could.
As a result, when he went to bed at night, Elu suddenly had an idea. He told his Ama that since they were all here, it would be better to take some skins to Bear Island tomorrow morning and see the "treasury fees" that Yalha said.
Yaka people".
After listening to his son's words, Serdan was also a little moved. There was not much salt left at home. Yalha had told himself before that it was very cost-effective to exchange salt with those people on Bear Island.
Although he only brought a few leathers with him this time, he could borrow a few from Hengji first and then return them with his own leathers when he returns home.
"Okay. I'll go talk to Hengji and ask him to help take care of your uncle Yalha. Let's leave early tomorrow morning and go back early." Serdan said to his son who was getting ready to sleep.
Early the next morning, in the camp on Bear Island.
After finishing his run early in the morning, Liu Sheng asked Lu Shoushan to accompany him to fish in the river on the island.
What a catch! This guy discovered when he was hunting wild boars a few days ago that there were a lot of fish in the river on Bear Island. It seemed that no one had caught them for a long time. But at that time, he looked through the ice for a long time and only recognized carp.
, crucian carp and grass carp, and other fish have never been seen at all.
He was really bored. Zhao Xin and the others were away, and there was nothing to do in the camp. After finishing the regular shooting every morning, Liu Sheng didn't know what to do.
When Zhao Xin came back unexpectedly a few days ago, Sheng Haizhou and the others were scolded. Recently, they have become more obedient and no longer follow Liu Sheng to practice shooting. After running in the morning, they started to practice swordsmanship.
After practicing, everyone will continue to do their own work according to their division of labor.
Lu Shoushan was supposed to be logging today. The severe cold these days has caused a sharp increase in firewood consumption. And Zhao Xin once ordered not to use fir or cedar trunks as firewood, so the logging team could only work hard to cut down birches every day. Now it is time to leave
The nearest birch trees on the west side of the camp have been cut down.
But Liu Sheng felt that Lu Shoushan and Pan Xiucheng could at least chat with him, but communicating with Sheng Haizhou and the others was too strenuous.
So, Liu Sheng carried a plastic bucket from the kitchen in one hand and Xu Funan in the other, followed by Lu Shoushan and Pan Xiucheng who were holding tools. These three, one big and one small, wandered to the place near the estuary.
riverside.
As for Xu Shounan, he is a follower of A Miao and Duofu the Tabby Cat.
As a result, as soon as he reached the river, the sharp-eyed Lu Shoushan saw two tightly wrapped people sitting on a horse-drawn sledge not far away, coming towards the camp.
"Master Liu, look over there." Lu Shoushan pulled Liu Sheng in front of him.
Liu Sheng turned around and saw that there was no way he could catch any fish now.
He asked Pan Xiucheng to take Xu Funan back quickly, and after checking the pistol and magazine, he went up with Lu Shoushan.
Lu Shoushan was worried. Since he left the fishing village across the strait, he had never seen any other local aborigines. He had heard from Zhao Xin before that some aborigines from nearby came to the camp to exchange things, but he had just come here at that time.
, not suitable for showing up yet.
However, when he saw Liu Sheng put the repeating gun in his coat pocket, he gradually felt more at ease. It was said that when Liu Sheng was practicing gun shooting, he also watched it from a distance, and the sound of continuous firing of the pistol made him feel more at ease.
Lu Shoushan was frightened to death. After living for more than thirty years, Lu Shoushan had only seen shotguns in the hands of officers and soldiers, but he had never seen shotguns fired.
(In the 24th year of the sixth year of Qianlong's reign, the emperor twice issued an edict to the minister of military aircraft to strictly investigate the use and sale of privately manufactured bird guns, and required all provinces to register and number privately made bird guns and confiscate them.
But the people have their own wisdom. In some Shandong villagers' fights, some people used strong bamboo tubes, opened them up, and then wrapped them with old vines. Finally, they tightened them with iron rings and stuffed them with gunpowder and iron sand to create a handful of clay birds.
The blunderbuss caused a huge headache for local officials.
It’s not surprising that Lu Shoushan, who grew up in a wealthy place in the south of the Yangtze River, never saw guns fired.)
As an excellent hunter, Serdan's eyesight was naturally very good. After he saw a few people not far away while sitting on the sledge, he quickly asked his son Erlu to slow down the horse.
Seeing the opponent getting closer and closer, Liu Sheng put his hand in his coat pocket, held the pistol, and pointed at the opponent.
"Are you Yalha?" Liu Sheng knew that Lu Shoushan understood Manchu and motioned for him to translate.
Lu Shoushan waited for the other party to stop his horse and get off the sledge, then asked.
Serdan was really happy and surprised when he heard that someone on the other side actually understood Manchu.
Fortunately, since there are people who speak Manchu, it will be much easier to communicate. What is surprising is that Yalha once told him that the people on Bear Island did not speak Manchu and could only make gestures. Why did they suddenly appear now?
Someone who speaks Manchu?
Moreover, from Serdan's point of view, these two people were already certain that the other person was not a "Kuye Feyaka" at all. Especially the one next to the man who spoke Manchu, who was frighteningly tall and looked like a strong somersault bear.
It seemed like. He had never seen someone so tall before.
"No." Seldan shook his head. "I am Yalha's friend."
"Huh?" Liu Sheng was very surprised after hearing Lu Shoushan's translation. Wasn't it always a person named "Yarha" who came here before?
"Why didn't Yalha come?" Liu Sheng felt keenly that something was wrong.
"Uncle Yalha is sick." Erlu said loudly. "We are here to exchange for fine salt."
Liu Sheng looked at the two natives in front of him, thought for a while and said: "There is plenty of salt. Shoushan, you lead the way from the front, and I will follow behind."
Lu Shoushan, who was holding a steel drill (used for cutting ice) in his hand, listened to Liu Sheng's instructions, so he asked the two people opposite him to lead the horse and follow him to the gate of the camp.
Elu had just seen the black stick in Lu Shoushan's hand. He originally thought it was a wooden stick. But when Lu Shoushan was walking and using a steel drill to lift the pestle on the ground, Elu discovered that,
The stick in the opponent's hand was actually made of iron.
"Brother, can you show me the iron rod in your hand?" Elu asked Lu Shoushan, who was leading the way. He felt that the iron rod in his hand was heavy, so he wanted to borrow it for a look.
Lu Shoushan pretended not to hear and continued walking forward.
Serdan glared at his son and scolded: "Elu, don't be too troublesome."
At the gate of the camp, Katsu Kaishu, who heard the news, was already waiting there. He had already sent people to find Heita.
When Serdan and his son reached the entrance of the camp, they were stopped by Lu Shoushan and were not allowed to go in again.
At this time, there were seven or eight refugees from the island country standing inside the east gate of the camp. Pan Xiucheng also came over, also holding a steel drill in his hand.