1868, the Year of the Dragon in Wuchen, the seventh year of Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty. As soon as the news spread that Xiao Letian was going to hold a grand New Year's banquet at the Ryukyu Prime Minister's Mansion, all the high-ranking officials under the Prime Minister's court were shocked.
A telegram was sent to all parts of Asia. There were only two months left before the New Year. There seemed to be plenty of time, but transportation in the 19th century was still very backward. Many Ryukyu officials working in Southeast Asia, India, and the central and western parts of the Qing Dynasty, Make arrangements to return home in advance.
Xiao Letian's attitude towards this banquet was very clear. As long as all the responsible persons who could come were summoned, there had been no high-level gathering for three years since Xiao Letian became prime minister in Ryukyu in 1865. This New Year's banquet immediately caused a sensation. The entire Ryukyu power.
King Shangtai has been running around like a rat in the Shuri Castle warehouse for three days in a row. The minister in charge of the warehouse next to him knelt down with a mournful expression on his face and said, "Your Majesty, all the old ministers have confessed. I just stole twenty taels." Gold! I will return it tomorrow. For the sake of serving you all my life, please spare me and stop checking the accounts... Wuwuwu!" After saying this, the minister in charge cried desperately.
"Shut up! Shut up! What a mess, I'm looking for a New Year's gift for Father Shang's big banquet! Why did he get involved with the accounting..."
When the kneeling veteran heard this, "Ah? Your Majesty, are you looking for a gift? I told you earlier, but you scared me to death... I am familiar with this job, and there is no treasure in this treasure house that I don't know about!"
Twisting around, the minister led King Shang Tai to a corner, and took out an object wrapped in bright yellow satin from a dusty box with ebony shark skin corners.
It seemed that the silk and satin had faded, and even the edges were dry, as if there were signs of weathering. When the silk and satin was opened, a bright yellow jade ring was revealed, with two concentric rings engraved with two dragons moving clouds and causing rain.
"Your Majesty, this is one of the gifts given by Emperor Hongwu of the Ming Dynasty after Ryukyu presented its credentials to Emperor Hongwu of the Ming Dynasty. It is a topaz double dragon ring. Ryukyu has been collecting it for more than 400 years. It is said that this piece of jade was originally from the Song Dynasty. The baby that came out is extremely precious..."
"Look, in the inner circle of Yuhuan, there is a font that dates back to the sixth year of Song Shenzong! There is also a font from the eighth year of Hongwu... Such a treasure is certainly worthy of the Prime Minister's credit!"
King Shangtai was overjoyed when he heard this: "Okay, okay... This thing is very good. Without Shangfu, there would be no Ryukyu Kingdom. We would have been destroyed by the Japanese long ago. Shangfu's significance to Ryukyu is no less than that of Emperor Hongwu's canonization of Ryukyu." It would be best to give this gift to Father Shang..."
King Shangtai walked out of the inner treasury holding the jade ring. Just after the minister in charge breathed a sigh of relief and thought that the breakthrough was successful, King Shangtai said something unexpectedly without looking back.
"It's really time to take stock of this inner treasury. Remember to send the gold items back later. Be lenient if you confess and be lenient if you resist. This is the teaching of Father Shang..."
"Ah?" The steward's feet softened and he sat on the door frame. "We still need to take inventory!"
He was not the only one who prepared gifts like King Shangtai. All the responsible officials under Xiao Letian were mobilized. Even Lord Long, who was in Baishan Heishui Maodong, left his hiding place and prepared to return to Ryukyu to participate in this extreme event. Important banquet.
In the blizzard, more than three hundred soldiers wearing white camouflage lurked at the edge of the forest. A log walled city inside the Longye Telescope stood beside the frozen river.
The old ginseng man lay down next to Mr. Long and whispered, "This is it, the wolf shack camp. There is a company of Rakshasa ghosts stationed in it. The leader's name is Belevsky... Bah, it's just this dead chicken. In the summer, He robbed one of my villages and took away the best ginseng I had collected..."
"Sir! Let's pull out this nail. I want the head of this dead chicken. Please take the ginseng to Ryukyu as a New Year's gift to the Prime Minister! Later, we men outside the customs still have filial piety..."
"The Prime Minister took us to take revenge and gave us so many foreign guns. We must also have a heart, right?"
Master Long smiled, "I heard that your ginseng root is a thousand-year-old ginseng. Are you willing to give it up?"
"Hey... Sir, aren't you kidding me? That thousand-year-old ginseng has already become fine. Can I dig it up? In fact, it's only about four hundred years old, but in this white mountain and black water, the four-hundred-year-old ginseng is definitely the king of ginseng. , I’m not bragging, you really can’t find such a good quality..."
"Okay, I want the old ginseng, and I won't be polite to you. With your heart, there will be a time when you will laugh... Everyone lurk, eat chocolate to replenish your strength, and we will do it tonight!"
You can’t understand how cold it is in the Far East unless you go there for yourself. It’s more than 20 degrees below zero during the day, and it can reach more than 40 degrees below zero at night. Even the locals won’t go out in such harsh weather, so A company of Russian troops at the checkpoint never expected that someone would attack them at such a time.
Bear skins, wolf skins, lamb skins, and leather boots were stuffed with urala grass. There were a lot of high-calorie chocolates in the pockets, and each person also had a bottle of soju.
The face is covered with a thick dog-skin hat, which exposes two eyes. Any exposed skin must be smeared with raccoon oil to prevent freezing, and finally a pure white camouflage cloak is covered outside.
Despite such strict protection, more than fifty of the three hundred soldiers were severely frostbitten in the end, but that was something we only paid attention to after the battle. At this moment, no soldier showed an expression of flinching.
The Oroqen hunters and wild Jurchens who followed were all shocked. They didn't expect that these Han people from the south were so tough. This kind of weather with white fur and snow actually lurked until dark? Don’t they all say that southerners are weak? How come everyone I see is a pure man, a real man!
When the hour hand passed seven o'clock, darkness enveloped the earth, and the lurkers began to take action. They crawled on the ground and slowly crawled towards the walled city. In order to prevent the snow from making noise, their speed was very slow, and each step took a minute. time.
Climb a few meters and pause to make sure there is no danger before moving forward. It took a full hour for the vanguard to approach the camp. Originally, the soldiers wanted to use explosives to blow open the city wall, but they were relieved when they looked up.
In such a cold weather, the Russians know how to be lazy. There is not a single sentry on the wall. Only the wooden tower on the observation tower still has the light of the miner's lamp. Look at the Russian soldiers on duty who have secretly drank a lot of vodka and are holding their arms. The rifle is dozing off.
It's better to have some explosives left. The snipers climbed up the logs with their flying claws. Several figures climbed into the wall of the village as nimbly as civet cats. When the hounds in the camp started barking, it was already too late. The door had already been opened, and the volunteers from outside rushed in like a storm.
The battle ended in two hours. Three hundred volunteers quickly eliminated more than a hundred Russian troops. The dead chicken, who was dizzy in his pajamas, was dragged to the snow and shivering in the cold.
The old ginseng head burst into tears and pulled out a knife and chopped it on his shoulder, "Damn it, rob me of my food, rob my ginseng... and ruin my daughter-in-law! Do you want to die a happy death? In your dreams..."
Mr. Long sighed and shook his head and ignored Lao Shen Tou. The camp was filled with the screams of dead chickens. He didn’t know whether it was a hundred or two hundred cuts. Anyway, Lao Shen Tou tortured him for a full hour and a half. The shouting finally stopped.
By this time, Master Long had already found the ginseng root. It was wrapped in red silk and put in a beautiful wooden box. The long roots really looked like the beard of an old longevity star.
"Okay, okay, now I can finally get my New Year's gift for the Prime Minister! Brothers cleaned up the battlefield and set fire to the camp..."
"Let's count up the war achievements. The ten brothers who have made the greatest contributions will come back to Ryukyu with me to pay New Year's greetings to the Prime Minister!"
Note: WeChat nickname: Codeword Jixinjing WeChat ID: mzjxj666
QQ book club group: 116253076
Book friends, please add your WeChat ID. I will post some behind-the-scenes footage of the creation of Hidden Dragon and some historical stories in the circle of friends at any time. It is wonderful and not to be missed.
During this period, I will use one sentence every day to serialize the hundreds of years of hatred between Germany and France in my circle of friends. I believe that after reading this, everyone will have a clearer understanding of the upcoming Franco-Prussian War.
