The forty-ninth year of Qianlong's reign, the eleventh day of the first lunar month.
Hunchun Xie led the 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, and each one must be stationed with one leader and ten armored soldiers). According to the leader in charge of Karen, the twelve-man team that passed by Karen on the seventh day of the first lunar month has not returned yet. Due to heavy snowfall on the eighth and ninth day of the lunar month, it may be difficult to travel on the mountain road. It is estimated that the twelve-man team was trapped on the mountain road. Before sending someone to report, Hadama Kalun's leader had sent five people to investigate Amida Kalun, five miles away to the east (forty-five miles northeast of Hunchun City).
(The reason why a 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 whether they surrender themselves, are to be whipped with a hundred cangues for one month and handed over to the banner commander. Officials and other officials are strictly controlled and work as hard workers. After half a year, they can still be in peace and still wear armor and work as errands. After escaping for the second time, regardless of being captured and surrendered, he was immediately sent to Heilongjiang and other places to torture him. ...Those who escape up to three soldiers will be fined one year's salary by those in charge of the leadership, defense, and cavalry schools. If the number exceeds five, the management association will receive a fine of six months. )
So when Wu Teshan saw this report, he felt bad. The twelve-man team he sent out has been gone for five days and should have returned yesterday.
Sure enough, in the afternoon, Ute Shan got a flying report from Hadamakaren. The five-man team sent out has found the twelve-man team trapped in the mountain road. All twelve people in the team died. It has been found that the leader and an armored soldier in the team were stabbed to death multiple times. The remaining armored soldiers and horses looked like they were frozen to death.
This news shocked Wu Teshan.
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 master to write a report and prepare to report to Ningguta Dutong Yamen. At the same time, he ordered his assistant leader Tuo Mohuoguo to lead a hundred armored soldiers to the scene of the incident for detailed inspection, and regularly reported the inspection situation to Hunchun City.
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 body of an elderly woman buried in the soil nearby.
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.
But Yalha's body was not found.
Wu Teshan was furious. Regardless of the difficulty of traveling in the snowy weather, 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 Hami River to check the villagers to prevent the suspect from escaping home.
Da River, here is a tributary of Suifen River.
At noon, Serdan was squatting in front of a fire outside a dilapidated hut by the river, 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. As a result, 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 at home, and he and his wife used short knives to cut all the robes and leather pants on Yarha's body.
Underneath his clothes, Yalha's arms and legs were covered with 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 melt the ice on Yalha's body little by little; then Serdan began to use snow He rubbed Yalha's frostbitten legs with his hands repeatedly until they started to turn red.
Then, Serdan cut open his two old and new cotton robes, took out the cotton wool inside, and tightly wrapped Yalha'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 him.
After the bandage is completed, it cannot be untied for seven days no matter how painful it is; once it is untied, Yarha's hands and legs cannot be saved.
At this time, Seldan has done all he can do; and the rest depends on whether Yalha can handle it.
The next day, Yalha woke up. When he saw Serdan, he just shed tears and couldn't say anything. Then, Yalha was trembling from 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 Yalha finished all the trouble 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 and search 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 door of the courtyard and listened carefully to the goings on around him. After a while, he took the horse and left with Serdan, heading northeast outside the village.
"Amma, how can we leave later?"
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, several people got busy together. Hengji arranged for Yalha to be placed in an east-facing adobe house in his own home. He helped Serdan light the fire in the house, and brought some food from home to Serdan and his son.
After the temperature in the room gradually came up, it was very warm.
Only then did Serdan tell Hengji, who had been busy making arrangements, about Yalha, which surprised the other party.
"Then what are you going to do?" Henji asked.
"Well, let's 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, Erlu suddenly had an idea. He told his Ama that since they were all here, it would be better to take some skins and go to Bear Island tomorrow morning to see those "Kuhefeyaka people" that Yalha mentioned.
After listening to his son's words, Serdan was a little moved. There was not much salt left at home. Yalha had told herself 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'm going to go talk to Heng Ji 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 bargain! This guy discovered a lot of fish in the river on Bear Island when he was hunting wild boars a few days ago. It looks like no one has caught it for a long time. But at that time, after looking through the ice for a long time, he only recognized carp, crucian carp and grass carp, but he had never seen any other fish at all.
He was really bored. Zhao Xin and the others were away, and there was nothing to do in the camp. After finishing his routine shooting every morning, Liu Sheng didn't know what to do.
When Zhao Xin suddenly came back a few days ago, Sheng Haizhou and the others were scolded. Recently, they have become more honest and no longer practice shooting with Liu Sheng. After running in the morning, I started the routine swordsmanship practice, and then continued to work according to everyone's division of labor.
Lu Shoushan was going to log wood 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 cut down birches desperately every day. Now the nearest birch trees to 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.
Therefore, Liu Sheng held the plastic bucket brought from the kitchen in one hand and held 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 river near the mouth of the sea.
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.
"Mr. Liu, look over there." Lu Shoushan pulled Liu Sheng in front of him.
Liu Sheng turned around and saw that he couldn't 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 because he had never seen any other locals since he left the fishing village across the strait. He had heard from Zhao Xin before that some nearby natives came to the camp to exchange things, but he had just come here at that time and it was not suitable for him to show up.
But when he saw Liu Sheng put the repeating fire gun in his coat pocket, he gradually felt more at ease. It is said that when Liu Sheng was practicing shooting, he also followed him and watched from a distance. The sound of continuous shooting from the pistol scared Lu Shoushan half 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 sixth and twenty-fourth years 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. For headache.
It was not surprising that Lu Shoushan, who had grown up in a wealthy place in the south of the Yangtze River, had never seen guns fired. )
As an excellent hunter, Seldan's eyesight is naturally very good. Sitting on the sledge, he saw a few people not far away and quickly asked his son Erlu to speed down the horse.
Seeing the other party getting closer and closer, Liu Sheng put his hand in his coat pocket, held the pistol, and pointed at the other party.
"Are you Yarha?" Liu Sheng knew that Lu Shoushan understood Manchu and motioned for him to translate.
Lu Shoushan asked after waiting for the other party to stop his horse and get off the sledge.
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; to his surprise, Yalha once told him that the people on Bear Island did not speak Manchu and could only make gestures. Why does a person who speaks Manchu suddenly appear now?
Moreover, in Serdan's opinion, these two people were not "Kuchefeyaka" at all. Especially the one next to the man who spoke Manchu was frighteningly tall and looked as strong as a bear. He had never seen anyone so tall before.
"No." Seldan shook his head. "I am a friend of Yalha."
"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're 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 to lead the horse and follow him to the gate of the camp.
Elu just saw the black stick in Lu Shoushan's hand. He originally thought it was a wooden stick. As a result, when Lu Shoushan was walking and hitting the ground with a steel hammer, Elu realized that the stick in his 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 the other person's hand was heavy, so he wanted to borrow it to take 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 someone 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.
