In the late autumn of the fifty-sixth year of Qianlong's reign, the Khalkha grassland was once again a colorful day. The sun shone on the golden branches swayed by the wind, and the air was filled with the fragrance of pine. If you stand on a horse on a hill and look far away, it is
Hangai Mountain is covered with autumn colors, from grasslands to forests, from distant mountains to the horizon. The surroundings are quiet, as if you can hear the sound of thousands of trees growing.
On such a morning that looked like an oil painting, more than thirty equestrians wearing dark green clothes came from the northeast of the Sabra River. When they came to a hill, they all reined in their horses.
Looking to the southwest, I saw that under the hill on the north bank of the confluence of the Sabra River and the Ulyasutai River, with five snow-white, brand-new yurts as the center, there were more than a dozen black-looking yurts of different sizes scattered around.
.
"Company commander, look, that's my home!" Temur, a new Mongolian recruit, pointed at the yurt in the distance with his riding crop and excitedly introduced it to a few people around him. "Let Abu make milk tea when you get home, it will be delicious!"
"Haha, let's go!" Captain Wang, who was leading the team, saw that they were about to arrive, and then he laughed, waved his whip, and the group of people immediately rode down the hillside.
The grassland in the early morning is extremely quiet, and wild birds are walking back and forth in the wilderness, as if the grassland has not yet awakened from a dream...
When the horse team passed through a sparse birch forest, the creaking sound of oxcarts slowly came from the distance. Hearing this sound, everyone couldn't help but slow down their horses. Timur explained: "It's probably pulling
Water oxcart." After saying this, a smile appeared on his face. To him, all the sights and sounds in his hometown were so familiar.
Sure enough, a ragged woman drove a water truck from the south bank of the river. Timur hurriedly rode up to greet him. He was confident that everyone here knew him.
"hello!"
"Well, hello?"
The woman driving the carriage stopped like a frightened bird and covered her face with the corners of her kerchief, revealing only her two large, deep-set eyes.
Timur didn't recognize who the other party was. He thought he might have moved here after he was drafted to fight.
"Let me ask, does Siqin's family still live near here?"
"What did you say? Who?" The woman raised her head carefully and fearfully, staring at Timur's face intently.
"Siqin is the girl nicknamed 'Swallow'."
The woman's hand held the cow's bit and remained motionless. She stared at Timur's face with a stupid and straight gaze, and never moved away. Timur felt strange and couldn't help but put down the dark green felt military cap that protected his ears.
Pushing it up, wisps of heat came straight up from his broad forehead.
Suddenly, the woman's shoulders and corners of her eyes twitched violently, and her eyes were immediately covered with tears. She tried her best to suppress her voice and muttered indistinctly: "Oh my god! It's... it's him... Ironwood
you!"
The woman yelled "Ah", dropped the waterwheel, and ran wildly towards the hill in the distance. She fell down after not running far, but she quickly got up and ran again...
On the grass where she fell, a few rags were torn off from her gown, swaying gently in the wind...
Timur scratched his head and thought, who is this? He wanted to chase her, but then he thought that the other party might be a madman. Besides, he did not come back alone, he had dozens of companions. If people saw dozens of
It was too outrageous for a grown man to chase a woman all over the mountains and plains. So he rode back and explained a few words to Company Commander Wang, but no one took him seriously and continued on his way.
After walking for more than a mile, I saw a dilapidated yurt standing not far ahead. Standing in front of the door was a frail old lady with a cane and a cane. Her lips, which had shrunk due to missing teeth, kept
The ground was squirming, and it looked like she was praying. After a while, she used all her strength to finally move her steps and walked around the yurt from left to right.
Company Commander Wang on the side asked in a deep voice: "Who is this?"
Timur explained in stammering Mandarin: "Company commander, this is Grandma Ganggai. She can't see. She used to beg for food for half her life and can no longer walk. She stayed with us a few years ago. She,
In the past, when I married and sold my daughter, I took some betrothal gifts and just chanted sutras and walked around in circles every day."
Looking at the scene in front of him, Timur suddenly felt heartache. He remembered what deputy detachment leader Mislang had said at the "complaint meeting": "Those lamas asked you to pray, to accept the situation and seek relief in the afterlife.
, but can this save the poor people on the grassland?"
"No!" Timur suddenly shouted out unconsciously, like a ignited cannonball bursting out of his chest! So much so that he and his companions were startled, and the horse under his crotch was also
The two ears stood up straight like sheep's horns, and they snorted constantly.
"Gangaiji, hello!"
When the old lady heard someone speaking, she immediately stopped and answered in a very soft voice. But Timur didn't hear it. When he asked again, the old lady muttered a curse again and continued to circle.
.Every step she took, she used a birch wood crutch to explore the path.
As soon as he returned to his hometown, he met these two people first. Timur was a little surprised. The shadows of the crazy woman just now and the old lady in front of him appeared alternately in his mind.
In fact, in his heart, there is a girl standing on the bank of the Ulia Sutai River, wearing a pink headscarf, always shining, that is the Siqin he misses day and night...
At this moment, the horse that Captain Wang was riding suddenly frightened, neighed and jumped to the side of the road, almost throwing him off. Timur came back to his senses, reined in his horse and looked carefully, only to see someone on the road.
Lying horizontally was the body of a child, half buried in the soil and half exposed.
After everyone dismounted and buried the child's body again, and inserted branches to mark it, the joy of galloping just now was gone. The group simply led the horses on foot, and in less than 20 minutes they arrived at a dangerous place.
In front of the yurt with gray cooking smoke.
Before Timur could reach the door, he shouted loudly: "Abu! Erji! I'm back!"
A wrinkled old man opened the shabby door curtain and walked out. He was holding a tea bucket in his hand. He had obviously just boiled tea and poured the tea into the bucket. When he saw Timur, there was a tea bucket in his hand.
The tea bucket fell to the ground with a thud, and the hot tea spilled all over the floor.
"Ah! Timur..."
Immediately afterwards, a wrinkled woman rushed out of the yurt. When she saw Timur, she collapsed on the ground with her legs weak, covering her mouth and crying: "They, they said you died in the battle...
...God bless you!"
Timur's father came forward and touched Timur's strong shoulders with trembling hands, then his red face, and tears immediately flowed from his dry eye sockets...
An hour later, there was laughter and joy inside and outside the yurt. Because there were too many people to sit down, Captain Wang simply suggested to sit outside, so everyone sat on the ground outside Timur’s family’s yurt. Timur’s parents brought them the cooked milk tea
Buckets after buckets were poured for everyone, and they were very busy. Because the tea was boiling hot and they were sweating profusely from drinking, everyone took off their military uniforms and wore only a grass-green sweater, and they drank while drinking.
While wiping sweat.
Timur drank a full meal of milk tea at home and told his parents about his experiences over the past year. The two old people were stunned. Just when he was about to ask Siqin about it, he heard someone coming from behind him.
There was the sound of horse hooves, and I saw a guy wearing a dark blue satin robe more than ten steps away looking at them in surprise. Behind him, there were seven or eight servants who were also riding horses.
"Goncourt?"
"Timur? You're not dead? Oops! Ever since you went off to war with the general, we all have been looking forward to your early return, and you did come back today. This is really happy! Timur, you know it's so windy
In rainy years, people hope that heroes and heroes will stay by their side, right?"
Timur was really not used to this unusual courtesy and compliment from Mr. Gonggur. You must know that Mr. Gonggur, who usually covered the sky with one hand on this grassland, had never been so gentle and approachable to the poor.
The comrades beside him came over and asked: "Timur, who is this?"
"Master Gongur, the nephew of the local lama flag merchant Zhuo Teba."
In the Qing Dynasty, there were a total of seven Lama banners in the Khalkha Mongolian region, occupying large areas of fertile grassland. Specifically, in the Saiyinnoyan tribe where Ulia Sutai is located, there were five Lama banners. Temulta
This place belongs to the "Nalu Panchen Hutuktu Banner", but this flag is the poorest among all the lama flags.
"Master Goncourt, I just came home. What do you mean by calling me a 'hero'? What kind of hero am I? I just asked you to be sent to be an archer and suffer the consequences of a year!"
After hearing this, Goncourt smiled slyly. Just like a hunter standing on guard looking for clues about wild animals, he believed that with his alert eyes, he could see the opponent's bones in just a few glances. But when he turned his gaze
After scanning Timur and those around him, a chill suddenly ran down the back of his neck, because he suddenly felt more like a prey being targeted by a hunter.
When he took a closer look, he broke out in a cold sweat. He suddenly noticed that except for Timur's father, everyone present had short, almost bald hair, with no braids at all!
"You, you, have you joined the rebellion?" Gong Gour bravely spoke out with his teeth chattering.
"You're talking nonsense! They are not rebels, they are the Northern Navy!" Temur stared at the other party and said word by word.
"Yes, yes! It's the Beihai Navy! The Beihai Navy!" Gong Gur suddenly smiled and bowed to Captain Wang. He had already seen that this person was the leader.
"May I ask, Master Jun, what is the purpose of coming here?"
Company Commander Wang walked a few steps in front of Gong Gur and said with a straight face: "We are a work team sent by the "Southward Detachment" of the Northern Navy. This time, we are here to make friends with the old Mongolian folks."
"Make friends?" Gong Gour didn't think about it for a long time.
"Yes, we visit the herdsmen and talk to them. Our Beihai Navy is not the monsters and monsters the Manchus say. We are here to reduce the burden on the herdsmen. There will no longer be assigned labor duties."
Timur added smoothly, saying: "From now on, everyone in the world will be equal!"
"Oh! That's good, that's a good thing! What a great thing!"
Gong Gur was stunned for a moment, then suddenly smiled and stroked his mustache. For him, Captain Wang's sudden appearance and his aggressive attitude seemed to constitute an unsolvable mystery!
It seems that Timur is no longer the stupid boy he was a year ago! As the saying goes, if you don’t know how deep the river is, you can’t easily enter the water. So Gong Guer said kindly: “Oh! I’m sorry, it was me who said that just now
Wrong. Mr. Wang, you and your men should have a good rest. I'll treat you all to dinner tonight. I'd really like to hear about the situation in the Beihai Navy."
After saying that, he led a few servants away.
During their conversation, their parents, who were so worried that they broke into cold sweats because of Timur's rude and impolite words, turned back to Timur and shook their heads somewhat reproachfully.
The dejected Siqin finally pulled the water tanker back. She seemed to be suffering from a serious illness and her whole body was exhausted. As soon as she unloaded the cattle pulling the tanker, she walked towards her broken and black yurt with heavy steps.
, walked two steps, and suddenly heard someone shouting from the owner's house: "Take the dust and pour it out."
She had no choice but to turn back and walk into the snow-white bag. Goncourt's eldest wife scolded: "Why does it take so long to pull a cart of water? Did the wolf bite your heel, or did the breeding cow flirt with you? A stinky woman, too.
Don’t look at how poor you are!”
Siqin, who was accustomed to hearing abuses day and night, bent down and took out the dust box and dumped it on the dust pile not far from the yurt. At this time, he saw Gong Gur and his servant who had just gone out to hunt, but for some reason they had returned midway. Gong
Gur's face was as gloomy and terrifying as the sky before heavy rain! After dismounting, he threw the horse's reins into the servant's hands and quickly walked into the yurt where his father lived.
"Abu! Abu! The pirates are here! Timur is back!"
When Siqin, who was outside the yurt, heard these words, her heart suddenly beat fast. She got a courage from nowhere, which prompted her to approach the yurt and eavesdrop.
"What? What's the rush? Speak slowly."
"It's something serious! I think he doesn't know about Siqin yet... We'd better put... How about we run away?"
Due to excessive fear and nervousness, Siqin only heard a few words intermittently. She felt a little dizzy, shivered all over her body, and almost collapsed! She gritted her teeth and held on, as soon as she walked into her apartment.
She grabbed a handful of hay with both hands convulsively, sparks appeared in front of her eyes, and her chest seemed to be burning with fire, her mouth was dry, and she wanted to drink water...
..
"Timur, why did you come back? Why did you come back?!...Now that I have become like this, how can I face you?...No! I can't see you even if I die, I can't see you!...