With the return of Wang Yuanfang and the others, the four generals of the Security Department held a Zhuge Liang meeting behind closed doors for a whole day.
After listening to Liu Sheng's detailed description of the last battle, the three first expressed their envy and hatred. However, considering that the Serdan family suddenly came to the island and the Qing soldiers followed closely, the three of them could only express their understanding and hope not to miss the next time.
Before Zhao Xin left, he told Liu Sheng that according to the previous agreement with Daniel, the delivery of the goods would be in mid-February. In response to this situation, Liu Sheng asked to stop routine target training to reduce bullet consumption.
Meanwhile, the observation post north of Bear Island has been repaired. Currently, Lu Shoushan, Pan Xiucheng, Elu, and Sheng Haizhou are on duty in groups of four. After all, there are a lot of horses now, so once there is a situation, it is very convenient to send news.
Liu Sheng said: "The four of us also have to take part in the observation post duty. Before Zhao Xin comes back, we will take turns to arrange the shifts, one day for each person."
The other three nodded in agreement.
Wu Siyu proposed to organize manpower to start a comprehensive survey of the southern part of Bear Island and pay attention to the ice conditions on the ocean surface. After all, it is almost the end of February in the Gregorian calendar, and in fifteen to twenty days, the seawater freezing period will end. Liu Sheng decided to transfer Lu Shoushan and put him and Hengji, who were familiar with the local situation, in charge of this matter.
"Hey? Liu Sheng, what are you going to do with the dozen Qing soldiers you captured last time?" Zhao Liang suddenly remembered that there were still a dozen Qing soldiers imprisoned in a corner of the camp.
"Zhao Xin said that Kaichun'er took him to that or something, oh, Soulengji Island to dig for gold and work as a coolie." Liu Sheng said.
Speaking of the dozen Qing soldiers captured after the last battle, they are all currently locked in wooden cages on the northwest side of the camp, one for each person. Due to sufficient wood, the carpenters in the camp completed a dozen wooden cages with a height of only 1.5 meters in one day. At this height, those armored soldiers could only bow their heads and bend down if they wanted to stand up inside. It would be very uncomfortable to stand for a long time, so they could only sit down.
A dozen wooden cages formed a circle, with a bonfire lit in the middle to prevent the prisoners from freezing to death. However, a bonfire can only guarantee that these people will not freeze to death. As the saying goes, "the fire warms the chest, and the wind blows the back." After a few days, most of the prisoners suffered from frostbite.
Seeing this situation, Liu Sheng asked Li Ji to take cotton-padded clothes and distribute them to them.
As a result, the well-fed and clothed prisoners saw in the following days that the refugees guarding them were short, not strong, and looked honest and humble. So the fear at the beginning gradually turned into arrogance, and from time to time, he shouted and cursed the refugees from the island country.
The problem is that except for Lu Shoushan and Pan Xiucheng, no one among the refugees understands Manchu. At first everyone watched with great interest, but later no one paid any attention to it.
Pan Xiucheng came back from duty at the observation post one day and happened to hear the prisoners scolding again.
He and Lu Shoushan had been enslaved by these armored men in Ninggu Pagoda for many years, and they had already gritted their teeth in hatred. So he walked to the wooden cage and glanced coldly at a few prisoners who were still cursing. Without saying anything, he took a wooden spear from the hand of a refugee who was responsible for guarding, and stabbed it hard through the wooden cage with the unsharpened end.
Before Zhao Xin left, he told everyone that since these people had been captured, they should not kill them randomly. They are all for building physical strength, and it is always a good idea to save them to dig for gold.
Pan Xiucheng thought about the suffering he had suffered over the years, and his actions became more and more insignificant. There was not much space in the wooden cage, but the prisoners who were swearing were in terrible condition. They soon had their heads bleeding, and several of them even had their front teeth knocked out. In the end, he could only huddle in the cage with his head in his hands, using his back to bear Pan Xiucheng's anger.
After hearing the news, Liu Sheng and Sheng Haizhou did not immediately step forward to stop him. Instead, they watched for a while before slowly walking over and shouting to stop Pan Xiucheng.
The person the prisoners who were beaten saw at first glance was one of the two big leaders they saw after the surrender that day. Next to the big leader was the little man who cut off his companion's arm with a knife. In line with the principle that a good man should not suffer any immediate losses, they all kowtowed and begged for mercy.
Liu Sheng asked Sheng Haizhou to ask the refugees responsible for guarding who were causing trouble. The guard didn't understand Manchu, so he didn't know who was cursing, so he identified all the prisoners who had shouted loudly.
Liu Sheng ordered that since these people have the strength to curse in the street, they should starve for two days first. Wait for them to be honest before giving them food.
Two days later, Liu Sheng saw that the prisoners who had been stripped of their cotton armor were hungry and freezing, so he asked the women in the kitchen to bring some rice balls with salt.
After Liu Siting and Director Liu Da arrived, they suddenly felt sympathy when they saw these Qing prisoners with bruises on their noses and swollen faces and covered with frostbite. So they dragged Hong Tao to find Zhao Xin and demanded that these people be released and treated.
Zhao Xin did not give in at all on this matter. He sneered and said to the two of them at that time, do you know how they treated the Han people sent there in Ningguta and Hunchun? These people are afraid of power but not moral. They only believe in violence and coercion and do not know how to appreciate kindness. If you are too nice to them now, you will get slapped in the face. The angry Liu Siting continued to argue, but was pulled away by Hong Tao.
As a result, these prisoners of the Qing soldiers continued to live in prison without knowing the way forward, praying for the leader of Hunchun to send troops to rescue them.
On the Hunchun side, since the more than 100 armored soldiers led by Tuomo Huoguo disappeared without a trace, Hunchun assisted Ute Mountain to march 600 miles away on the 22nd and 27th of the first lunar month. Ning Guta once again sent an emergency report, reporting the situation and requesting military support from Ning Guta.
There are only three flags among the eight garrison flags in Hunchun City, namely bordered yellow, straight yellow and straight white. Most of Xianghuang Banner's troops were taken away by Tuomohuoguo and have not returned yet. The whereabouts of more than a quarter of the garrison troops were unknown, making Wu Teshan feel on pins and needles all day long.
At this time, he could no longer care about the family members with yellow flags who came to the house and made noise every day.
On the 22nd of the first lunar month, he sent four ten-man teams from Zhenghuang Banner to search the northeastern area in different directions. Five days passed and still no news.
What Woteshan could foresee was that if something unexpected happened to Tomohuoguo and his party, as his direct supervisor, he would inevitably be blamed. Under such pressure, Wu Teshan no longer dared to send out a large team of troops to search. He could only ask for support from Ningguta's deputy commander, Anlin.
After Ning Guta, six hundred miles away from Hunchun City, received successive urgent reports from Hunchun, Deputy Commander Anlin also felt that something was not right about Hunchun, and that something big might happen. He immediately sent an urgent report to the General's Mansion in Jilin, 630 miles away, requesting that 300 cavalry soldiers be sent from Ningguta to Hunchun (Note 1) to find out the truth of the matter.
Two days later, Qinggui, who was in Jilin Wula (Jilin General's Mansion), after listening to his staff report Ning Guta's submission, also had a premonition that the situation was serious, so he ordered his staff to send a message to Ning Guta and Hunchun on his behalf, agreeing. In response to Ning Guta's request, Wenning Guta and Hunchun were sent to both places, ordering them to report at any time the progress of the investigation of the whereabouts of the yellow flag in Hunchun.
After that, Jilin General Qinggui activated the "Flying Six Hundred Miles Express" (Note 2), and reported the situation to the Ministry of War in the capital, 2,300 miles away, through the Northeast Road Station system.
As a result, since the 25th of the first lunar month, the exchanges of letters, messages, and messages between Jilin Wula, Ningguta, and Hunchun have become more and more frequent. Many people's attention has been attracted by this matter, even those in Shengjing. They all began to discuss this matter privately (Note 3).
In early February of the 49th year of Qianlong's reign, a sentry team responsible for searching for Tomohuoguo's whereabouts finally arrived at the small fishing village across the Xiongdao Strait.
At this time, among the several villagers in the fishing village, two families had already guessed some clues before, and they were so frightened that they packed up their belongings and moved away. The remaining three houses all have elderly people and children, and it is not convenient for them to leave in winter.
No matter how the soldiers asked the three fishermen, they all said that Mr. Zuoling heard people shouting and shouting from the military camp outside the village that night after he landed on Bear Island, and no one from each family dared to come out. But early the next morning, Lord Zuoling led his team to set off. As for where he went, who knows?
Two days later, another team of sentry riders also arrived at the fishing village guided by clues.
After exchanging clues from each other, the leaders of the two sentry teams both thought there was something strange on Bear Island across the strait. Inquiries from the fishermen showed that no one had personally seen Tomohogo come back from Bear Island. The so-called departure of the brigade was all guessed by the fishermen from the movements at night.
Not daring to slack off, the two men took their men to the southernmost point of the cape and looked at the situation on Bear Island across the ice. After looking for a long time and finding no sign, a leader suggested that he lead a team to the Bear Island to check it out and return within half a day; if nothing was found, he would have to look elsewhere.
As a result, there was no news about this ten-man team after they landed on Bear Island.
Another leader who had been waiting for a day on the other side of the strait finally determined that the strange thing was on Bear Island after his companions did not come back. Looking at the densely forested island that was once desolate and inhabited only by bears, the team leader felt chills all over his body and his heartbeat accelerated. It seemed that there was a man-eating beast or a devil lurking on the island, with its mouth wide open, waiting for him to come.
The more he thought about it, the more frightened he became, and he did not dare to stay for a second longer. Then he led his team to leave here overnight and rushed back to Hunchun, preparing to report to the leader.
In the woods in the north of Bear Island, Wang Yuanfang commanded Pan Xiucheng, Elu and a group of islanders. They had finished cleaning the battlefield and were now arranging the transfer of captured horses and corpses of Qing soldiers. Zhao Liang and Wu Siyu were looking at the Qing army's standard weapons. In this small-scale battle, the three finally caught up.
Liu Sheng, who arrived later, felt relieved after asking about the bullet consumption this time. However, he was worried that if there were another hundred and eighty soldiers from the Qing Dynasty, the four generals of the Security Department would be replaced by archers.
(Note 1: In the 49th year of Qianlong's reign, the garrison strength of the Eight Banners of Ningguta was as follows: the deputy capital unified people, two assistant leaders, thirteen assistant leaders, twelve defenders, twelve knight cavalry officers, and two commissioned knight cavalry officers. Twelve people, four in the writing style, four in the commissioning style, four in the commissioning department, one in charge of the warehouse, two in the warehouse style, two assistant instructors, three in the station style, The Eight Banners Manchu leader has 104 troops, 40 vanguards, 1,256 knights, 24 bowsmiths and blacksmiths, and one official camp leader.)
(Note 2: When it comes to "Fei Zhe", we must first mention the postal system of the Qing Dynasty. The Qing Dynasty's Ministry of War established the Chai Jia Qing Li Division, which was in charge of the country's horse administration and postal system, and appointed seven officials to be in charge of the country's post roads. Post station. At the same time, two specialized agencies were set up near the Donghua Gate of the imperial palace. The Manchu and Han ministers jointly managed the capital and post offices in various places. Post men, post horses and victory reporting offices were also set up to send and receive official documents and military intelligence.
Before the Qing Dynasty, the post system of each dynasty could travel up to four hundred or five hundred miles a day and night; while the Qing Dynasty's horse delivery system could travel up to six hundred to eight hundred miles a day and night at the fastest.
When Kangxi put down the rebellion of the three feudal lords, the distance from the northwest to the capital was more than 5,000 miles, and it only took nine days to reach it by Kuai Ma Communication. Later, when Kangxi sent Shi Lang to regain Taiwan, the land journey had reached more than 4,800 miles, and the news could be delivered to Kangxi's case within nine days. )
(Note 3: Shengjing was the final hub of the Northeast Road post station system in the Qing Dynasty. All memorials and messages sent to the capital from the area north of Shengjing passed through here.)
