The news of Zhao Xin's arrival caused nearly 10,000 people in the Northern Navy's eastern front troops to cheer and boost their morale. After all, his height is particularly eye-catching among soldiers who are generally 1.6 meters tall, and he can't hide it even if he wants to.
This guy left Wang Zhenyi and A Miao in Yakesa again. They would take a boat to Baibai'er City with Wang Zhong first. Don't ask him why he didn't come directly from another time and space. You must know that the remains of the station line on Cullen South Road can no longer be found in another time and space, so he can only take the post road in this time and space to catch up.
The Mongolian Xirigoulige, who had been named "Yunyang", heard the name "Prince Zhao" these days and heard cocoon. He stood on the carriage and stood on tiptoe and looked in the direction of the headquarters for a long time. Not even Zhao Xin's shadow was seen. He also couldn't understand Chinese, so he asked a Daur Beijun who was smoking a pipe beside the carriage: "Brother Bayar, is King Zhao really as tall as you say?"
Bayar didn't even turn his eyelids and said in a low voice: "That's right! In our Northern Navy, the commander-in-chief is the tallest, and Prince Zhao is just a little shorter than him."
"Brother Bayar, tell me what other battles King Zhao led you to fight?" Ding, the current leader of the logistics team, heard the sound and came over.
Bayar entered the Northern Navy only after the "Battle of Yaksa". He was originally a postman. Because he was already in his thirties and illiterate when he joined the army, he could only work as a coachman in the logistics team. He smashed the pipe holder made of boxwood, licked his cracked lips, and thought for a moment: "Then today I will tell you the story of how King Zhao led six hundred people to defeat ten thousand Rakshasa. Speaking of which, back then..."
Compared with the excitement of the soldiers, when Liu Sheng saw Zhao Xin, he found that the other party looked gloomy. He thought he was tired. But when he saw two soldiers following Zhao Xin, one of them was holding two girls in small military uniforms and carrying a backpack with a child inside; while the other soldier was actually holding a bundle in his arms. The swaddled baby couldn't help but ask in surprise: "Child? Where did it come from?"
"We'll talk about it later. Let's find a place for them to rest first." Zhao Xin's voice was hoarse and his eyes were bloodshot. He rode horses for several days and slept four or five hours a day, and his face was sunburned and rosy.
"Let me do it. Go to the medical team for a checkup." After hearing the news, Ushiha took the baby from the soldier's hand, and then asked the soldier holding the little girl to follow him to the medical team's tent.
Zhao Xin and Liu Sheng walked out of the headquarters, looked around, and asked Liu Sheng in a low voice: "Is there enough water?"
"We caught up with a heavy rain before and collected some." Liu Sheng said solemnly: "If you arrive two days later, there will be no water at all. As the guide said, there are salt-alkali pools everywhere here. Even the horses don’t drink.”
In fact, the heavy rain came unexpectedly, and not much rainwater was collected. Starting from the day before yesterday, Liu Sheng has ordered everyone, including himself, to reduce their water consumption to 500 milliliters per day, except for the sick patients who can maintain normal drinking water.
"Where's Xiao Fan?"
"He was caught in the rain and froze a few days ago. His fever just went away this morning. I asked him to rest first and talk about it tomorrow."
"How much food is left?"
"All that's left is the compressed biscuits."
Zhao Xin nodded: "Has the vacant space been arranged?"
"The arrangements have been made on the first day. The mountain col to the west is waiting for you to come."
Two hours later, as four large water purification trucks continuously converted the bitter and astringent alkaline water in the salt-alkali pool into purified water, the tense atmosphere caused by the lack of water in the troops was quickly eliminated. The soldiers They also began to gradually regain their vitality.
After finishing his work, Zhao Xin took the time to take a nap in the tent. When he woke up, the sun was almost setting. Although his whole body was sore, his first reaction after waking up was to ask about the four children. Although he learned that the children were being looked after by Ushiha himself, he still took a look at them uneasily. He felt relieved when he saw that the two older ones were freshly washed and eating; the two younger ones had also been fed with goat milk by Ushiha and were lying on the bed fast asleep.
When they returned to the headquarters tent, Liu Sheng, Fan Tong and several staff officers were eating. Zhao Xin brought a lot of food and material supplies this time, so the food for each cooking team tonight was vegetable porridge and big steamed buns, plus radish stewed with mutton. Since entering the Gobi, the troops from top to bottom have been eating compressed biscuits three times a day; no matter how nutritious these are, no one can stand it for seven or eight days.
Everyone was gobbling it down, as if they were reincarnated by starving ghosts. Zhao Xin asked the guard to serve him a bowl of porridge, sat down and drank it slowly.
Liu Sheng killed three steamed buns in a row. When he picked up the fourth steamed bun, he asked Zhao Xin: "Tell me, what happened to those children?"
"Picked it up on the way." After Zhao Xin finished speaking, he couldn't help but recall the scene five days ago in his mind.
That day, more than a hundred of them set off from the Blue Station before dawn, and ran for sixty miles without changing horses. They arrived at Modun Station near noon. Everyone was tired and their horses were exhausted. Zhao Xin decided to take a rest first. , wait until it gets cooler before leaving. The Beihai Navy, which was responsible for temporarily stationing here, had a platoon of troops, so they helped feed the horses.
Modun Station is located in a small basin, surrounded by mountains. The buildings that make up the station are several yurts and several livestock sheds. There are two temples not far from the inn. One temple is owned by Khenbulob Sundarjia, who is resident in Kulun, and the other is the temple of Zasaraihu Bilhan. After Bei Haijun arrived, the monks in the temple usually stayed behind closed doors except for going out to fetch water.
After taking care of the horses, everyone lit a fire in the open space between several yurts to heat up food. Unexpectedly, not long after, a woman with a big belly and a backpack staggered out from a low hill to the west of the inn, followed by two half-clothed children and other people. Holding a few thin sheep.
According to the older children later, they were attracted by the aroma of the food. But when the mother discovered that the people in the inn were dressed completely differently from Mongolians, she immediately turned around and left with them.
Unexpectedly, not far after walking out, the woman staggered and fell to the ground, moaning in pain. The two children didn't know what to do, so they sat next to the woman and started crying. There was also a child in the carrier behind the woman who was awakened by a sudden fall and started crying.
After discovering this situation, the platoon leader of the garrison platoon hurriedly took people to check. Within a few minutes, a soldier came back and reported that the woman had a big belly and was bleeding a lot. They didn't know what to do.
After hearing this, Zhao Xin immediately knew that the situation was not good. Based on his limited medical knowledge, he felt that the woman might have a miscarriage. He hurriedly asked the soldier to carry the person back immediately, and then asked someone to vacate a clean yurt and boil a large pot of hot water immediately.
Although there was a hygienist among the people accompanying him, the young man had only learned battlefield first aid and how to deal with general headaches and fever, and had no idea about this type of disease.
After a while, the woman was carried into the yurt, and the three children and the sheep were also brought back. Because no one else could help, only Zhao Xin stayed by the side while the hygienist checked. The only thing the two could do after that was to use warm water to wipe the blood off the woman's legs.
While the hygienist was busy, the woman moaned in pain and said something vaguely in Mongolian. Her haggard cheeks showed an expression of extreme exhaustion. Her bony hands were clutching the blanket under her body, and her head was covered with hair. His face was covered in sweat.
Upon seeing this, Zhao Xin also took a warm, semi-wet towel and helped the woman wipe the sweat off her face. Only then did he notice that the woman's thin and brown cheeks were covered with wrinkles, and she looked older. Not too young anymore. After a while, the yurt was filled with the smell of blood and the pungent smell of cattle and sheep excrement emanating from the woman.
As the woman's breath became weaker and weaker, Zhao Xin and the hygienist looked at each other and knew something was going to be bad. He suddenly thought that ginseng could kill someone, so he took out a red sandalwood box while the hygienist was not paying attention. When he opened it, there was a three-finger-thick ginseng covered with yellow satin. He hurriedly cut off a piece with a dagger and stuffed it into the woman's mouth.
The ginseng stocks in Zhao Xin's hands were all special-grade wild ginseng from the Changbai Mountains, which were at least thirty years old. He specially reserved a few ginseng, which were originally prepared for the frail Wang Zhenyi.
After a while, the woman's pulse beat stronger and her breathing became easier. Upon seeing this, Zhao Xin came outside and asked the cook of the garrison platoon to make half a ginseng soup.
But there was no pot for boiling medicine in the inn, so the cook had no choice but to cook it in a cooking pot. The platoon leader of the garrison said wait a minute and asked the Mongolian guide to follow him to a nearby lamasery. Maybe there would be medicine there. pot. The platoon leader's words also reminded Zhao Xin, and he immediately asked the other party to go to the Lamasery to ask if there were any monks who could treat patients. He, a "Mongolian doctor", really couldn't cope with the current situation.
However, only half an hour later, the platoon leader came back and reported to Zhao Xin that not only had he not borrowed the medicine pot, but he was also very angry. The cook had no choice but to use a small aluminum pot to make the ginseng soup.
"What? Looking for a substitute?" Zhao Xin once suspected that he heard wrongly.
"Sir, that's what the lamas in the two temples said." The garrison platoon leader said angrily: "They said they wanted to cure this woman's disease, but medicine was of no use. She had to recite Buddha's name and practice good deeds to expel the devil, so she had to find someone to cure her. A living person should be treated as a scapegoat! They also said that if this was not for the sake of our Bei Navy, they would not care about anything!"
"Bang!" Zhao Xin raised his foot and kicked over a bucket on the ground, his face becoming gloomy.
The Mongolian guide only knew that Zhao Xin was a big shot, but he did not know who he was. He followed the team for these days and learned that there was no rule of kneeling in the Beihai Navy, so he bowed his head and said: "Honorable Sir, in the past, when the great lama and prince Taiji got sick, they all treated them like this. Now. If you are a substitute, the devil will naturally stop haunting the patient."
Zhao Xin took a few deep breaths. He also understood that the theory of ghosts and gods was a common understanding among ordinary people in this era, and it was useless to be angry.
But who would have thought that the Mongolian guide said casually: "It would be great if I could ask the great lama for some 'Sabsheng'. All diseases can be cured, but it's a pity that this place is too far away from Kulun."
"Sabson?" Zhao Xin frowned, he had never heard of it.
"It's... it's Hutuktu's urine... Noble sir, that is a very precious thing. If ordinary people want to ask for it, they have to spend at least five taels of silver in charity to get a little bit. "
"Get out of here!!!" Zhao Xin couldn't bear it any longer and became furious. The Mongolian guide was so frightened that he knelt on the ground with a "thud". The two little girls sitting on the ground eating next to them were also trembling with fear.
"You will go back immediately with two squads, and you will follow!" Zhao Xin gave the order to the garrison platoon leader, and asked a Buryat soldier under his command to follow him. "You don't need to be polite to them! Go tell them! I'm going to find someone who knows medical skills to save my life! No matter how much nonsense I talk about, the Lama Temple and the others won't stay! They'll be set on fire!"
The garrison platoon leader led the people away. Zhao Xin's anger still could not subside, but his eyes soon fell on the backpacks beside the two girls. He walked over and leaned over to take a look. The boy inside looked to be just over a year old, lying on tattered swaddling clothes and pieces of cloth, babbling carefree. Seeing the child, Zhao Xin somehow remembered his son, so he leaned down and gently picked up the child while the two girls looked at him in astonishment.
Seeing a man who looked fierce just now suddenly hugged his younger brother with a kind smile on his face, the two girls who were cowering and lying on the ground seemed a little at a loss. Zhao Xin sighed and put the child back in the basket. He waved his hand for the Mongolian guide to come over and ask the two girls for him.
The guide came over and first asked their names and place of origin. Then he learned that they were herdsmen from the Tushetu Khan tribe and that the woman was their mother. The older of the two girls is nine years old, named Saihan; the younger is five years old, named Deling; the one carrying the basket is their younger brother, named Batu.
According to Saihan, their father abandoned them and found a rich widow, and because their mother was pregnant, no rich man was willing to hire her. The morning before yesterday, the last owner also moved to the west. The mother and son stayed on the old pasture with nowhere to go. Later, I faintly smelled the aroma of food from the blowing wind, and then I looked for it.
"Then what do you usually eat? Drink goat's milk?" Zhao Xin looked at the frail sheep beside him and thought to himself that even if they were like this, they wouldn't be able to squeeze out much milk. However, when the guide asked for him, he got an answer that stunned Zhao Xin.
"What is rough hada?"
Before the guide could reply, Saihan timidly took out a ball of hadab that exuded a foul smell from his arms.
"Sir, this is coarse hada. The new cloth has been starched and can be washed with water to satisfy your hunger."
In ancient times, cotton cloths sold were coated with a layer of batter or rice paste to make the fabric stiff. During the famine years, in order to fill their stomachs, some people would rinse cotton cloth with water and use the washed flour water to satisfy their hunger; of course, it must be new cloth.
Zhao Xin's heart suddenly felt as if someone had pinched him hard, and his eye circles suddenly turned red. It has been eight years since he came to this era, and he has seen a lot of poor and hungry people. When he was in Beihai Town, he had heard about this method from the immigrants from the customs, but he had never seen it in action until today. He could never imagine that someone could use this thing to satisfy their hunger!
More than twenty minutes later, a wrinkled old lama came carrying a medicine box. It's not that there aren't people who know medicine in the lamasery, but they don't want to have too much contact with the Bei Navy before they get orders from Cullen.
When he saw half a ginseng boiled in the aluminum pot, the old lama's face showed surprise. He could not have imagined that these Han people who looked so menacing when they came to the door would actually use such precious medicinal materials to save a poor stranger. .
Under the gaze of Zhao Xin and the health worker, the old lama first took the woman's pulse, then placed his hand on the woman's belly for a while, then shook his head, turned to the guide standing at the door of the yurt and said a few words. Then the guide told Zhao Xin that even if the woman drank ginseng soup, she could only survive. It was hard to say whether she could survive the night.
"Where is the baby in her belly?"
"It can't be saved."
"stillbirth?"
"Alas! Sir, she is like this. She can't give birth even if she wants to."
Zhao Xin also put his hand on the woman's belly. He felt a weak beating, which was completely different from the woman's own heartbeat. It should be the beating of the baby's fetal heart. He frowned and thought hard for a moment, and then made an extremely bold decision!
But before taking action, he must obtain the woman's consent. After drinking a bowl of clear yellow ginseng soup, the woman finally woke up, and there was a trace of blood on her gray lips.
