It is more than thirty kilometers from the airport to the city of Okhotsk, and it takes a long circle. It is said to be a "city", but in fact it is a town, with a total of only more than 3,000 people in the whole town.
Zhao Xin arrived in the city at noon. He first found a hotel and got a room, and then went to the local library to look up information. After finding out the specific location of the early Okhotsk town, he left the library to find a place to eat, and did not return to the hotel until dark.
Zhao Xin's approach was very simple. He planned to take advantage of the night to cross over and take a look. If Tsarist Russia planned to take a boat from here to the south of the Heilongjiang Estuary, then there must have been a large area of tents or wooden houses in Okhotsk in the 18th century. Those Cossacks live there, and there will certainly be a large number of sailing ships moored in the harbor.
Yu Deli's suggestion is actually not difficult, it is just a toss, and only Zhao Xin is tossing it.
...
1788, Okhotsk.
The nights in early spring are still cold and long, and the sun sets very early. Street lamps lit with whale oil can be seen everywhere in the town. Under the attack of the cold Siberian wind and the sea breeze, the whole town is illuminated.
In the weather in March, the north wind is still biting, and the low wind stirs up the snow, making a rustling sound. The icicles dyed yellow by the thatch on the eaves fell from the eaves and fell to the ground, making a crisp sound like glass. This seaside town is dotted with ice puddles and bare patches of snow. In the frozen harbor, the masts of a dozen docked whaling ships creaked in the wind.
A strong and handsome maroon-red Don hippopotamus raised its long, hemp-like tail straight up, swaying its shaggy mane in the wind, kicking its feet, and kicking the snow on its hooves far away. It walked around in the square in front of the church several times, stopped at a low wall, and smelled the bricks. The horse looked sideways at the approaching bridle with its purple eyes, stretched its back, turned around and ran into the night. A human yell sounded behind it.
At around eight o'clock in the evening, Customs Commissioner Petrolo Grigorievich said goodbye to a merchant's house in a drunken state, turned around and walked in the direction of his own home. The waiting servant was holding the harnessed bay horse. Seeing the master's unsteady steps, he wanted to help him, but Grigorievich threw him away.
"Take care of yourself, sir, I'm walking steadily!"
The servant was helpless, so he raised the torch and held the horse's reins with his other hand as he walked beside the customs commissioner. Grigorievich's home is not far from here. It's more than three hundred meters away through the church, right next door to the chief executive's house.
"These poisonous snakes!... Devils!... Bastards!... They are trying to trick me like slave girls... But I still have to listen to their nonsense!... Businessmen! All they think about is money! Money. ! Money! A sailboat actually costs three thousand rubles. Oh~~, what kind of Cossacks are these people? They are all a bunch of starving ghosts!"
Suddenly, the Don hippopotamus neighed, and then the light and shadow shook. A torch rolled and fell to the ground, throwing out a cloud of sparks.
"Damn Ivan, what else can you do? Well, you said what else can you do!"
The servant Ivan reached out and grabbed Grigorievich's arm tightly, and said in a trembling voice: "Master! Look ahead!"
The customs commissioner looked along Ivan's trembling hand and saw a tall and bloated black figure covered in rags from head to toe standing on the dark street.
If it was just like this, Grigorievich would at best regard the black shadow as a poor man who drank too much; but when the black shadow turned to look at him, Grigorievich suddenly felt the hair on his body stand up. Get up, your scalp is numb, and your drunkenness is gone!
What kind of monster is that!
In the hazy light and shadow, Grigorievich saw that the monster actually had four stubby horns on its forehead, and a high bulge on its back, which seemed to be a hunchback; its rag-like coat and The night merged into one. The monster's face was marked with black marks, just like the marks that had just crawled out of hell and been smoked by the fire in hell. It also held a black iron staff half as tall as a man in its hand, with one end leaning on the ground.
The "devil" looked at the customs commissioner and his servant Ivan, tilted his head, as if he was thinking about whether to come over. The poor prison chief was so stiff that his throat could only make a "gurgling" sound, and he didn't even have the strength to shout. The strong Don hippopotamus snorted uneasily and shook its head in an attempt to get rid of the annoying bridle. The hand holding the reins of the servant Ivan was painfully pulled by the restless horse.
The "devil" did not come close. It muttered something in a language that no one could understand, and stretched out its hand to wave to the customs commissioner. Seeing that neither of them responded, he immediately turned around and looked west for a long time. After a while, he suddenly disappeared from the place.
The servant Ivan was so frightened that he almost peed. He held his master's arm tightly and asked in a low voice: "Master, what is that?"
"Oh my God!" After a long time, Grigorievich felt that his legs had regained consciousness, and then he ran home in a mess. After entering the door, the customs commissioner sat down on the ground leaning against the door of his house, sighed, and muttered to himself: "BabaYaga..."
Most of the local residents of Okhotsk are from the western Slavic region. According to legend, the tall guy wearing a rag skirt and carrying a hump is the demon they have been familiar with since childhood, Baba Yaga.
Some say she is a forest witch who lives in a hut on the edge of the forest, surrounded by fences made of human bones. She lures good people and children to her with the intention of eating them.
Some people say that Baba Yaga is a ferryman wandering on the boundary between life and death. Baba Yaga's hut is seen at the edge of the world as one travels to the other world. As a ferryman, BabaYaga gave the dying people water and food, fumigated them in bathtubs, and put them to sleep. In the end Baba Yaga would eat the person and take him to hell.
No matter which version he said, Grigorievich firmly believed that what he saw was "Baba Yaga".
Being able to escape by chance is really a blessing among misfortunes!
Zhao Xin didn't take it seriously when he met two local residents. He waved at them, but it was actually a subconscious mistake. At that time, his eyes were dazzled by the sudden light of the torch.
Wearing night vision goggles, he walked around the town of Okhotsk and saw no trace of military garrison. If Tsarist Russia wanted to cross the sea from here to the Heilongjiang estuary, there would be a large number of ships waiting to be launched around the port.
Well, it was a waste of time, I have to go to Nerchinsk to have another look.
...
Outside Nerchinsk City, in an area of wooden houses near the Cossack military camp.
It got dark very early, and the blue sky blown by the north wind was dotted with countless stars. The Milky Way above our heads was exceptionally bright, and the rivers in the sky and the rivers on the ground reflected each other. The round moon also rose from the east, casting a ray of light over the wilderness.
At this time, what came to Polya's ears was not only the sounds of voices in various houses, but also the wild and uninhibited laughter of the Cossack soldiers in the distant barracks. The girl looked at the stars in the sky and missed her family members who had passed away.
Polya and her uncle's family moved from Chita to Nerchinsk in October last year. The reason was that her uncle Yegor was spotted by a Cossack officer and asked him to be his horseman. Yegor was often away from home and slept in the stables of the Cossack cavalry all day long.
This fourteen-year-old girl has experienced hardships that are unimaginable for girls her age. First, she was forced to leave home from Yenisei Province and embarked on a wandering road. She, her parents, and her uncle's family were escorted by officials from the Governor's Palace to a barge. It was said that they were going to open a "paradise" on the deserted Amur River.
But before she entered the gate of "Paradise", both her parents died, and Polya became an orphan and had to be fostered in the home of her uncle Yegor. Since arriving in Nerchinsk, she had listened to the Cossacks talking enthusiastically about how they would kill the indigenous people on the Amur River and then distribute the land to them as immigrants.
The kind-hearted Polya and other honest farmers were deeply disturbed. The other side of the Ergun River was not a terra incognita at all! They didn't understand why the Queen didn't let them farm and live on their own land, but she wanted to rob other people's homes?
Polya's uncle Yegor once wanted to escape with his family, but it was too difficult. Once discovered by the sentry, they would be hanged alive; Polya had seen many such corpses hanging and swaying in the wind.
They are afraid and they hate it, but they can only kneel in front of the statue of Our Lady to pray every night, asking her to forgive those sinners, and to ask her to forgive the crimes they are about to commit.
Others want to go ahead to kill people, while you follow behind and occupy their homes. This kind of behavior will make your conscience uneasy no matter what.
"Polya, it's too cold outside, go home."
Not far behind her, her aunt opened the door and shouted to Polya. There was the little girl's simple home, a spiers-roofed wood-carved hut, where she, her aunt, and her little brother lived.
"Liar, they are all lying." The little girl rubbed the calluses on her palms and muttered to herself.
The reason why she said this was because the wishes made by the Irkutsk Governor-General to people like her were all nonsense. It was said that immigrants could be exempted from hard labor, but the officials kept pressing for fodder and firewood for the cavalry and horses for the winter. Polya worked from dawn to dusk to pick up dry branches and weeds in the wilderness, but it was still not enough.
Seeing that she didn't respond, her aunt shook her head helplessly and sighed, "Poor child." She was about to go over and call Polya back, but crying sounded in the room, and the woman had to close the door and go to take care of the infant child. baby.
A gust of wind came in a hurry, picking up a loose blanket of snow on the wasteland, and swirled it into Polya's face. The little girl raised her hand to block it, then put it down again, when a tall figure suddenly appeared in front of her eyes.
Polya opened her mouth wide and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand in disbelief. She was sure that there was no one there when the snowflakes hit her face just a second ago.
Zhao Xin was still dressed in the same gray-white ghillie suit, wearing a pair of military night vision goggles on his head, and his face was painted with oil paint. In order not to be blinded by the fire last time in Okhotsk, he deliberately did not put down the night vision goggles.
Zhao Xin was also startled when he saw someone appear in front of him.
“Привет…”
Zhao Xin let out a long sigh when he heard the voice greeting him from the other side. This was a little girl. He smiled, with big white teeth on his painted face: "Привет."
Thanks to the exchanges with Andrew year after year, Zhao Xin’s Russian conversational level is pretty good.
After hearing the other party's response, Polya felt very curious. The reason why she didn't scream loudly may be because she was lonely and depressed, or she felt that the person in front of her meant no harm to her.
"Are you...Ataman?" Polya asked softly.
"What is Ataman?"
"Only the Ataman can become invisible...I heard my father say that before."
Zhao Xin laughed, this little girl was not afraid of him. Although he didn't know what "Ataman" was, he still asked: "What if I am?"
"Can you fly?"
"Uh... no."
"Then are you clairvoyant?"
"Sometimes, yes." Zhao Xinxin said, does drone count?
"Then you are an Ataman."
Zhao Xin came here not to chat with Russian girls. He thought for a while, took out a piece of chocolate from his pocket, and handed it over.
"It's for you."
Polya was actually not afraid. She took two steps closer and asked, "What is it?"
"The gift I gave you is edible." Zhao Xin waited for the other party to take it and asked tentatively: "Are there many Cossacks here?"
Polya took the chocolate, put it to the tip of her nose and smelled it. She found that this edible gift exuded an intoxicating aroma.
"Yes, many, many."
"Is he a soldier?"
"Yes, Transbaikal Fusiliers."
"What are they doing here?"
Polya looked at Zhao Xin who was crouching down and said, "Don't you know? When the ice melts in the spring, they will attack the Qing Dynasty on the other side of the river. You don't even know this, where did you come from?"
Zhao Xin suddenly pointed behind Polya and whispered: "Someone is coming."
"Who?" Polya turned around and found nothing unusual. When she turned around again, the big man had disappeared...
A few hours later, Zhao Xin showed his figure again at a promontory on the riverside away from the outpost of Nerchinsk City. He planned to capture a Cossack soldier and directly inquire how many people were in the barracks and who was the general leading the troops; it would be better if he could capture an officer.
The Tsarist Russians of this era were far less tall than those of later generations, with an average height of only a little over one and a half meters; Zhao Xin felt that he could easily subdue them.
It was already late at night, and Cossack sentries were patrolling back and forth outside the military camp. The sound of spiked riding boots on the snow could be clearly heard.
Suddenly there was a sound of horse hooves and several lanterns flashed over. Zhao Xin quickly crawled to the ground and turned on the safety of the gun in his hand.
There were several Cossacks riding over. The leader was well-dressed and seemed to be an officer. The man reprimanded the sentry loudly, then turned around and rode his horse with two men through the camp gate 200 meters away. It looked like he was here to check the sentry.
"Damn!" Zhao Xin cursed, thinking to himself, was he going to sneak into the military camp to arrest people? This movement is huge! No matter how elusive he is, he can't compare with a well-trained soldier. Once there is a commotion, he has to get out of the way.
Suddenly, there was a clang of iron from the military camp behind the fence. After a while, a guy wearing a tweed army coat walked out of the camp gate carrying a pair of buckets. The man yawned and walked toward him, shaking the empty bucket.
Zhao Xin almost laughed out loud, God bless him! Going down the steep slope behind him is the riverside, where there seems to be a wooden step. Zhao Xin waited for the soldier to pass by him and walk down the steps. Then he slowly stood up and followed him quietly.
The diving soldiers had already reached the riverside. There was a long springboard with one end on the shore and the other end on two wooden stakes wedged in the river. The soldier lazily walked onto the springboard. He first used the pole in his hand to poke open the hole in the frozen ice. Then he hooked the pole's hook onto the beam of the barrel and placed it in the water. He tilted it slightly and filled it all at once. After getting the water, he struggled to lift it up and put it on the springboard behind him, and then hooked the second barrel.
It was pitch dark all around and he couldn't see anything clearly. Zhao Xin took advantage of the man bending down to fetch the second bucket of water, quickly rushed up the springboard, raised the fist holding the pistol, and tried his best to hit the springboard with all his strength. It hit the soldier on the neck.
The Cossack soldier noticed when Zhao Xin stepped onto the springboard. However, he was bending down to fetch water and had no time to react. He felt a shock on the back of his neck and immediately fell off the springboard, leaving only a military coat hanging. On the springboard.
Zhao Xin hurriedly jumped off the springboard, grabbed the guy who was falling into the hole in the ice, and dragged him back to the ice.
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