The towering Tianshan Mountains are covered with snow.
After a sudden snowstorm, under a clear blue sky, the towering Kallik Glacier was like a shining silver dragon, lying on the vast sea of the Gobi Desert, staring coldly at its feet.
It was very cold in Zhenxi Mansion in early winter, and the earthen walls of Huining City, which had been eroded by wind and sand for many years, looked particularly dilapidated. On both sides of the post road outside the city, poplar, willow and elm trees are scattered with winding branches, and the bare branches are densely intertwined. As for the scenery here, apart from the snowflakes flying all over the city, the only one is Barkul Lake which produces Glauber's salt.
At noon, the sunshine on the plateau is particularly dazzling, and the howling north wind is much lighter. On a small road more than 80 miles west of Huining City, Uyghur Sadik was walking unsteadily.
He was carrying a beautifully carved five-string Gurewapu Qin on his back, and kept tapping the snowy stick with the wooden stick he used to explore the path. He wore a leather hat that was so worn that no one could tell what material it was made of, and his long gray-white fluffy hair was exposed from under the hat. He wore a homespun turban full of holes, and a pair of homespun trousers covered with patches. , and his feet didn’t even have a pair of shoes, and were only wrapped in hay and cloth. Whether it was scratched by stones in the ice or snow, or because he had traveled hundreds of miles through the Gobi wilderness, with every step he took, the footprints on the snow behind him were stained with mottled red.
"The water in Balkul Nur is bitter and salty, and the tears of sadness can't be shed dry. Lailiguli went to heaven, and I was heartbroken and took Rewapu away from home. All the bitter water turned into blood, Oh, heaven, I sigh sadly."
As he sang, tears flowed from Sodik's dry eyes. He stopped, raised his hand to wipe it, and was about to move on when he suddenly heard the sound of horse hooves behind him. He listened for a moment and estimated that there were about a dozen horses. There were also people talking faintly, but they were too far away to hear clearly.
Sadik felt a little panicked, but he also thought, so what if he encountered officers and soldiers, could he pin a blind man to the ground and beat him?
When the sound of horse hooves came closer, more than a dozen people riding on horses reined in their horses and looked at Sodik up and down.
These people are all dressed as Mongolians, wearing thick sheepskin robes covered with dust, wearing fluffy windbreaker hats on their heads, and wearing a pair of half-new leather boots; in order to block the wind, their faces He was also wearing a mask.
After a while, a man riding on a yellow gelding pulled down the mask that blocked half of his face and asked curiously: "Fellow, why are you here alone? Were you singing just now?"
Fellow? Sadik's hometown is Hami, which is located at the throat of the post road connecting the Western Regions and the Pass. There are many merchants, officers and soldiers coming and going. He has heard and heard about it for a long time. He can listen and speak some Chinese, but he has never heard anyone call him that. .
"God bless you! Sir, I am a wandering singer who cannot see day or night. I go from village to village begging for food."
"Master? Hahaha, we are not masters."
The other party's voice was loud and sounded young. The man laughed a few times, and then asked: "Fellow, where are you going?"
"I, I want to go to Wujiazhuangzi."
"Oh, come with us then."
Before the man could finish speaking, Sadik heard another person shouting: "Timur, quickly get a felt and put it on him! He's so blind, didn't you see that he was shivering from the cold!"
"Yes!" Timur responded, jumped off the horse, took off the rolled wool felt from the back of the saddle, shook it out and draped it on Shadik's body.
Well, Timur is the Mongolian man mentioned before. The dozen or so of them were a small team, specially disguised as a Mongolian caravan selling smuggled goods, and used Wujiazhuang as their temporary base.
After the 1st Cavalry Brigade of the Northern Navy moved south from Khovd in the Mid-Autumn Festival in August, it took more than 50 days and a long-distance attack of nearly 3,000 miles. With an overwhelming force, it successively captured Kai'an City, the ancient city, and Qitai County in early October. He and Mulei City and other important places caught the Qing army by surprise. At this point, the two lines from Hami to Urumqi via Barkol and Beijiang Station were completely cut off, making it impossible for the Qing army to escape north.
Immediately afterwards, Samusu sent another battalion of leading troops, led by several guides, to forcibly cross the Kallik Mountain in the eastern mountain range of the Tianshan Mountains and go south along the west side of Barkul Lake. Their main task is to cut off the station line from Barkol to Turpan and the "Xiaonan Road" station line from Hami to Urumqi via Turpan, and rely on the post station to hold on until the large troops arrive.
The task of Timur and his team is to monitor the movements of the Qing army around Huining City and report to the battalion headquarters in a timely manner.
Although the wool felt had a strong smell, for Sodick, his body, which had been chilled by the cold wind, suddenly felt a lot warmer. He stretched out his left hand tremblingly, groped and knelt down in the snow, and said, "Thank you, kindhearted people! God will bless you!"
"Fellow, what are you doing? We have already said that we are not masters. Get up quickly." Timur said as he helped the other party up, turned to the squad leader and said: "Squad leader, how about we take him with us? We still have plenty of horses.”
The man nodded and said to a young man beside him: "Wangdan, go and free up a horse."
Although Sadik kept refusing, Timur helped him on his horse without any explanation. Although he had some doubts in his heart, he did not think these people had bad intentions; you must know that he had been wandering around for so many years, and many times he relied on the help of kind-hearted people to survive.
After the group walked south for more than 20 miles, a small village appeared in front of them. Wujiazhuang arrived.
This place is located in the piedmont area at the southern foot of the Kallick Mountains. At the entrance of the village, several rugged stone hills stand out on the snowy fields, shining blue-purple in the gray winter sunshine. The surrounding fields are shrouded in smoke-like shadows of trees, and houses and courtyards are scattered here and there. There is a chill in the air, and the dry grass trembles in the cold wind, sighing.
Timur and his entourage came to an adobe compound at the east end of the village. The wall of the courtyard for playing base was in disrepair and was leaning here and there. There were several mud houses facing north and south, and there was also a large livestock enclosure with some messy fences. Surrounded by miscellaneous trees, there were dead grass clippings and frozen animal dung on the ground. In addition, there were seven or eight camels tied in the corner.
Just as they led the horses towards the courtyard, a nearby courtyard door creaked open, and a head wearing a dirty sheepskin hat poked his head out from behind the worn door panel. Seeing that it was Timur and the others who had returned, A smile appeared on his face, and then he leaned forward and bent towards them, as if bowing.
"Brother Wu!"
Timur waved his hand grandly as a greeting. The yard they lived in was rented from each other, and the rent was two sheepskins and a bag of black tea. Although Wu Dacai thought that people like Timur were not good people, he might be able to make some extra money using his poor yard, and he would be happy to do so.
It is said that a few decades ago in the Majiling area of Wuchang Prefecture in Hubei Province, there was a big family named Wu who had been entrenched for generations. He was both a commoner and a bandit, and became a major scourge to the local area. In order to eradicate the scourge, the Wuchang government at that time moved more than 30 households of the Wu family, with nearly a hundred men and women, to Tianshan North Road in three batches in the 28th year of Qianlong's reign, and resettled them in Urumqi, Barkol and Anxi Prefecture in Gansu Province.
The Wujiazhuang in Barkol was composed of the second batch of seven households that moved here. After that, other households were gradually added, eventually forming the current scale of more than twenty households.
Wu Dacai closed the courtyard door, fastened the latch, and quickly ran back to the warm house with small steps. He muttered: "These Mongolian barbarians go out early and come back late every day. They make such a big noise. If they are sued to the government, they will Trouble."
Timur and others tied up their horses, and then took Sadik into the house. These rooms are all built with earthen kangs, stoves and fire walls. Because someone was on duty in the yard, a wave of heat hit me as soon as I entered the house. It was also mixed with the smell of dead grass, sheep smell, torn fur, tobacco leaves, livestock excrement and human sweat and foot odor. But for Timur, Sadik and others, warmth is the key, and everything else is irrelevant.
It gets dark early in winter. When it's dark outside, a simple dinner is ready, wheat cakes and milk tea. Everyone, including Sodik, was hungry, and they ate ravenously. Sadik had never drunk Mongolian milk tea before. It tasted salty and fragrant, and his stomach felt warm all over after drinking it.
After dinner, Timur's squad leader Yunyan went to the room where goods were stored next door. When he came back, he was carrying a pair of 80% new wool felt boots and a pair of cotton socks, which he placed beside Sodik.
"Brother Sadik, after you finish eating, I will ask someone to help you put some medicine on your feet, and then put this on."
Sadik hurriedly stuffed half of the pancake into his mouth and swallowed it whole. He put his hand to the boots, held them in his arms and touched them for a while, and said in surprise: "Is this for me?"
"Yes. In such a cold weather, you can't do it without a pair of boots. You may get frostbite."
Sadik was stunned for a long time, his eye circles gradually turned red, and suddenly he knelt on the kang and kowtowed in the direction of Yun Yan.
"What are you doing? Come up and say something!" Upon seeing this, Yun Yan hurriedly helped the other person up.
At night, everyone was tired after running around all day, but no one was sleepy. They listened attentively to Sodik's story about his past in halting Chinese.
He was once a hereditary long-term worker of Taiji in the Hami Hui royal family. When he was young, he was a stubborn and scheming young man. More than ten years ago, he secretly fell in love with a maid who worked with him. The girl has a handsome appearance and a slim figure, but it is a pity that her delicate body is hidden in ragged clothes. Shadik composed many songs praising girls, and the melodious singing spread throughout both sides of the Hami River.
One summer evening, Taiji, who had just returned home, heard Sadiq's singing. The next day, he called him and the girl over, preparing to teach the two slaves with no family law a lesson and make them repent. But when he saw the girl's charming appearance, his eyes suddenly burst into lust. So he changed his mind and ordered his servants to beat Sodik forty times and throw him out of the house. He also asked the girl to take the girl to change clothes and freshen up.
Sadik couldn't bear to see his sweetheart being ruined, so before Taiji dragged the girl into the bedroom, with the help of his friends, he took the girl and ran away. But it was a pity that the two were captured soon. Kaziz, who was under the command of the King of Hui, tied large stones around their necks and threw them into the Hami River for breaking the religious rules.
Fortunately, Sadik was rescued by a sheepherder downstream, but the girl died. In order to find the body of his sweetheart, he ran along the river bank in a daze like a vagabond for more than ten days. After that, he went to the Xifu Yamen of Barkol Town to file a complaint. Unexpectedly, he was accused of "damaging the reputation of Taiji and causing the loss of a woman's integrity." He was first beaten fifty times and then imprisoned for ten years. . His bright eyes were blinded by being in a dark prison where he couldn't see his fingers.
From then on, Sadik could no longer rely on his strength to earn money. He could only play the tiles given by his friends, travel from village to village, and became a busking singer.
". Year after year, I can feel winter and summer, but I can't tell the difference between day and night."
Sadik took a sip of the hot water handed over by Timur and continued: "I have traveled all over the vast Gobi Desert and pastoral villages, but I have not died. There are many kind-hearted people in the world, and they have extended a hand of friendship to me. , I did not hesitate to give out pieces of naan to satisfy my hunger. In order to complain, I went to Huicheng, and even went to Dihua City. Whether it was King Hui, generals or ministers, not to mention seeing me, even their subordinates He chased me away like a dog, scolded me fiercely to get away, and called me a bastard. I deserved it! After a few years, I finally understood that for rich people, it is both unreasonable and reasonable, and for poor people, it is reasonable and unreasonable. But I’m not willing to give in! I won’t be able to see my enemy until I dig out my enemy’s eyes!”
After Sadik finished speaking, he reached for his hot waip and started playing and singing softly.
"I have suffered many hardships in my life, wandering around in order to survive. The bottom of the world is as dark as the pot, and everyone's heart is filled with sorrow. Who has ever seen a carefree person? The broken heart replied, that can only be Dream! This world is so absurd, why doesn’t Allah open his eyes and see? The heartbreak of the poor is bleeding, why is it so difficult to survive?”
The room was quiet, the firewood and wood in the stove were burning, and everyone felt like a big stone was in their hearts. Although they couldn't understand what the blind singer was singing, they could feel the sadness and anger in his tone. They originally thought that their days as archers for the Qing government were hard enough, but who would have thought that the people here would actually have a harder time than they did.
At this moment, they don’t know that the Uighurs on the East Road of Xinjiang are the most miserable group of people under the Manchu rule, especially in the Hami area. In some aspects, they are even worse than the serfs of Tibet. Since Hami adopted Waizhasak autonomy coupled with a military government system, even though some Manchu officials were dissatisfied with King Hui's cruel rule, they could only ignore it or even shield it.
Nowadays, there is a folk song circulating among the people: "A drop of King Hui's wine is a drop of our blood, the clothes on King Hui's body are the skin on our bodies, our blood and sweat fatten King Hui's body, and our bones build King Hui's paradise." .”
Temur was moved by the other party's singing, and his eyes gradually became moist. He couldn't help but think of his own Siqin, and what Company Commander Wang once said to him. Only by completely smashing this old world can the poor have a way to survive.
