Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 173 The Priest Who Can Speak Beijing Dialect
The loud noise made by the Raytheon when it dropped anchor caused the Ainu people on Urupu Island (hereinafter referred to as "Urupu Island") to cry out in surprise.

When the seals led people to the beach in a speedboat, the Ainu people on the beach were frightened and scattered.However, Father Makarius and Father Ferapontov walked over to the seal and the others, while still chanting the prayers of the Orthodox Church.

"Lord, give me the strength to endure today's labor and all that is to come. Amen. You are welcome, my. Whoops!"

After the sea dog jumped off the speedboat, without saying a word, he raised the steel pipe in his hand and smashed it at Makarius' head.Makarius had no time to dodge, so he tilted his head, and the steel pipe hit his shoulder immediately.Makarius grinned in pain, covered his shoulders, and looked at Haigou and the others in horror.

"Tie up these two people! What are you talking about!" Sea Dog pointed at the two Russian priests and said to his subordinates.

Seeing that his companion was injured, Ferapontov shouted in Ainu in shock, "This is the territory of Her Majesty the Empress! You barbarians!"

Sea Dog pointed at Ferapontov with a steel pipe, and ordered his subordinates: "Gag their mouths!"

A Shachuan warrior took out a piece of rag from his waist, and even brought it up to his nose to sniff it; then he tore it in half, giggled, and walked towards the two priests.

"God, you can't do this. Mmmmmm."

After Makarius and Ferapontov were tied up and gagged with an indescribable rag, the sea dog said viciously to the two: "This is the land of Chief Tuka! You foreign invaders, Damn it all!"

After a while, after the second batch of Shachuan warriors landed ashore, the sea dog raised his hand and pointed to the church not far away, and seven or eight Shachuan tribesmen with knives and guns rushed over quickly.

"Hmm." The two Tsarist Russian priests saw each other heading towards their church, twisted their bodies desperately, trying to stop; but under the supervision of several strong Shachuan warriors, everything was in vain.

After a while, those Shachuan warriors who rushed into the chapel came out one after another.They held several crosses and cups made of gold in their hands, and one guy even held a huge dog's head gold in his arms.

"Seal, there are quite a lot of things inside!" A Shachuan warrior said with a smile.

"Move them all out and put them here." Sea Dog said, pointing to an open space on the beach, and he himself walked quickly towards the wooden church.

This small church is small in size, with the door facing west; the roof is made into a steeply sloping, high-pointed shape, with a large cross standing on the top.Seal walked into the house and looked around.

The style of living here is completely different from that of the Ainu people.Entering the door is the sanctuary, which is the main body of the church. There is not a single chair in the whole room.Walking along the sanctuary, on the left of the wooden statue of the altar is a bedroom, and on the right is a warehouse for storing supplies.

Sea Dog walked into the bedroom door and took a look inside. There were two wooden beds inside and a small cross hanging on the wall.He curled his lips and went to the warehouse on the right.

Several Shachuan warriors were moving things from the inside out.A few bags of placer gold, dozens of deerskins, grain piled up on the roof, cured meat, salted fish, and a few large closed wooden barrels are all there is.

The seal went to the barrel, opened one of the stoppers, and a strong smell of wine wafted out.
It was already noon when Zhao Xin took his men ashore.He glanced at the two bound priests, and asked a Shachuan warrior, "Where is the sea dog?"

"Inside, it's been a long time since I went in."

"Go and call him out, I'll wait for him here."

Zhao Xin went to the place where the loot was piled up again, and looked at the things that had been brought out of the church.

"Heh, there's a lot of gold!"

When Makarius and Ferapontov saw Zhao Xin and his men, they quickly realized that these people were not Ainu.Because Zhao Xin and the others were all wearing a thick dark blue short coat and a thick hat with a strange style on their heads.

But when Zhao Xin looked at the pile of materials taken out of the church and spoke, Makarius' eyes suddenly widened; because he had learned this language for a long time.So regardless of the pain in his shoulder and the gag in his mouth, he twisted his body desperately, making the sound of "wuwu" incessantly.

Sure enough, Zhao Xin was attracted by Makarius' movement, frowned and said to his subordinates, "Take out what's in their mouths."

"Bah bah~~vomit~~" The two priests finally got free from the unknown rag, and the strong smell made them even vomit out bile.

The 40-year-old priest Macarius was about to vomit, so he looked at Zhao Xin and asked in a strange Beijing dialect, "Your Excellency is from the Qing Dynasty?"

"Yeah?!" Zhao Xin was extremely surprised, he did not expect that the priest in front of him could speak Beijing dialect.He knelt down and asked curiously, "Who are you? How can you speak Chinese?"

"Yes, my name is Makarius. I'm an Orthodox priest. I just returned from your capital city three years ago." Makarius spoke very slowly. He hadn't spoken Chinese for several years, and he had already forgotten A lot of vocabulary.

Zhao Xin became more and more curious, so he ordered his subordinates to escort the two of them back to the Thunder God, and wait for him to go back.

Makarius, who was pushed and shoved by the soldiers, shouted to Zhao Xin: "Your Excellency, you must not be disrespectful to the Lord's territory! This island is the territory of Her Majesty the Queen!"

Zhao Xin's complexion changed, and he said coldly: "This is the territory of the Ainu people, and you are just a group of invaders. Take them away!"

The drunk sea dog was helped out by two subordinates, and Zhao Xin didn't fight when he saw anger.He ordered a Shachuan warrior to fetch a bucket of water, and poured it on the fur seal.

Zhao Xin didn't care about the sea dog yelling and screaming from the biting cold water, and said to Sheng Haizhou beside him: "Empty the church and set it on fire!"

Sheng Haizhou, as a former warrior from an island country, has no affection for Western Catholicism at all.He immediately ordered a platoon of soldiers to carry out Zhao Xin's order.

With more people, things can be moved quickly.After all the food in the church was moved, several soldiers broke the vodka barrels, and the strong liquor flowed all over the floor, and then threw a torch into it.

The two priests who were about to board the Thor saw the raging fire rising on the island, and they were so sad!Years of hard work turned to ashes in an instant.The two looked back at the fire on Urup Island step by step, and were escorted up the gangway by the soldiers.But when they stood on the deck, there was an involuntary "hiccup" in their throats, and they were frightened by everything in front of them.

"My God! Where did these devils come from?"

After being stimulated by the ice water, the sober sea dog smirked at Zhao Xin a few times in embarrassment.Zhao Xin said: "Don't forget what I told you before, the person who told you to start immediately!"

Seeing the coldness in Zhao Xin's eyes, Haigou couldn't help shivering.He quickly ordered his Shachuan warriors to find out all the Ainu people on the island.

Zhao Xin ordered Sheng Haizhou: "Send two platoons to cooperate with the Shachuan tribe. Remember, what we want is gold, try not to hurt anyone!"

Sheng Haizhou saluted and set off with his people.

With the fifty people from the Shachuan tribe at the head, the Ainu tribe on Urup Island quickly sent people to negotiate. Thirteen years ago, the Ainu tribe on the island rebelled angrily because they could not bear the oppression of the Tsarist Russian expedition.Although they killed 13 tax collectors, Tsarist Russia sent warships to suppress them.

How can wooden bows and spears be rivals to sabers and muskets?The Ainu people on this island have been killed by the Russians.

So when the frightened tribal leader saw the sea dog and others, he couldn't help complaining.It means that the big ships of the red-haired barbarians will go south next spring, what will be done then? !

Haigou said with a nonchalant smile, "What are you afraid of? The red-haired barbarians are nothing! We will come next spring, and we will definitely kill them all."

The tribal leader looked skeptical, pointed to the iron rod in the seal's hand and asked, "Just because of this?"

Haigou turned his head and explained to Sheng Haizhou beside him. Sheng Haizhou smiled slightly and gave a few instructions to a squad leader under his opponent.

After saluting, the squad leader turned around and ordered to his soldiers, "All assemble."

Under the surprised eyes of hundreds of Ainu people on Urup Island, ten soldiers from Beihai Town quickly assembled and lined up in a neat row to wait for orders.

The squad leader looked around for a while, pointed to a big rock 30 meters away and ordered: "All raise your guns!"

Ten soldiers raised their SKS rifles at the same time, with their muzzles facing the sky.

"Target, a rock 30 meters away." Following the order of the squad leader, the soldiers aimed their guns at the rock.

"aim!"

"Open the insurance!"

"shooting!"

The "bang bang" gunshot sounded like popping beans, and the loud sound made the Ainu people back away in fright.

The tribal leader looked at the cloud of smoke and dust and the scattered stone debris on the rocks in the distance, with a frightened look in his eyes.When the gunshots and gunpowder smoke cleared, he ran to the rocks desperately.Seeing the bullet holes in the stone, I couldn't help being surprised.

The firearms of these people are much more powerful than those of the red-haired barbarians!
Thinking of this, he walked back to the sea dog and asked, "How many people will you come next spring?"

"Is 500 people enough?" Sea Dog finished speaking confidently, then pointed to the Thor on the sea and said, "There is also Thor."

Looking at the Thunder God, which was bigger than the warships of the Chifa barbarians, the leader of the tribe nodded.He had been with the Russians for a long time and knew that "there is no such thing as a free lunch", so he asked the seal, "What do you want?"

Haigou took out a piece of gold he had seized in the church from his pocket, and said to the tribal leader: "We want this, and we can exchange it with grain and iron."

The Thor stayed on Urup Island for five days, and finally left with more than 1000 kilograms of gold ore and hundreds of natural gold nuggets.What was left to the Ainu people on the island was not only [-] bags of grain, but also a large amount of salt and iron pots.In order to show his sincerity, Zhao Xin also asked Sheng Haizhou to send some Qing army standard knives and guns to the opponent.

During these five days, with the continuous communication between Zhao Xin and Makarius, he also figured out why this Tsarist priest can speak Chinese.

In the seventh year of Kangxi, that is, in 1668, the army of the Qing Dynasty who returned from the victory in the Battle of Yaksa was mixed with captured and surrendered Raksha prisoners of war.Although ignorant of their future fate, these prisoners of war brought Orthodoxy to China.

Among this group of prisoners of war, 40 people were placed in Shengjing, and the remaining 50 people came to Beijing.To the surprise of the prisoners of war, they were pardoned by Kangxi.As they married and had children, those who had offspring among these people asked to stay in Beijing.

With the consent of Kangxi, they were incorporated into the Xianghuang Banner, and a separate assistant leader was established, and they were awarded the official titles of the fourth rank to the seventh rank; some even married Manchus and had offspring.

(Historically, after more than 200 years, they developed into five big families, namely Luo, Du, Yao, He, He and other Chinese surnames. As of 1850, there were 99 families in total.)
These Tsarist Russian prisoners of war not only joined the Eight Banners, but their original religious beliefs were also protected by the Qing court.When they left Yaksa, they brought some simple church sacristies and icons, and forcibly took away Father Maxim Leontief of Yaksa City.The man carried with him an icon of St. Nicholas and several copies of the Bible.

In order to meet the religious requirements of the Tsarist Russian prisoners of war, the Qing government allocated the Guandi Temple in Hujiaquan Hutong in Dongzhimen to them for prayer.Soon after, the temple was rebuilt into an Orthodox church, named "Sophia Church", also known as St. Nicholas Church, and Beijingers called it "Raksha Temple". (The current location of the Russian embassy.)
The lonely Father Maxim's life in the capital was very difficult. When Kangxi conquered Junggar, he shaved his head and kept his braids like the Manchus, and went out with Luocha Niulu.

Although experienced the Battle of Yaksa, the commercial and diplomatic exchanges between Qing and Russia on the border have not been interrupted.Father Maxim, who was alone in Beijing, soon caught the attention of Peter the Great.

In the 34th year of Kangxi, that is, in 1695, the Russian Orthodox Metropolitan sent someone to give Father Maxim a certificate of recognition of the Beijing Orthodox Church, and instructed him to "not only pray for the Tsar, but also for the Emperor of China, so that Find a real foothold in China."

A few years later, Father Maxim asked the Qing court for permission to send a clergyman from Russia to replace him on the grounds of old age and frailty.

With the consent of Kangxi, in the 54th year of Kangxi, that is, in 1715, Tsarist Russia sent a ten-member preaching group to Beijing, with the abbot of the monastery Ilarion Lezajski as the substitute high priest, and three of them specially came to Beijing. Students studying Chinese.That is, from this period, the temporary organization of the Beijing Orthodox Church was established.

Historically, the Tsarist Russian government and the Orthodox Church would send missionaries to rotate roughly every ten years. Each mission consisted of about ten members, plus more than 200 entourages.Including clergy, students, doctors, painters, scientists, diplomats.After they come to China, the first task is to learn Chinese language (Chinese, Manchu, Mongolian, Tibetan).

Father Macarius, who was captured by sea dogs, happened to be a member of the priesthood stationed in the capital.He followed the Mission to Beijing more than ten years ago, and spent several years learning the language.During his stay, he also went to the palace to explain Western medicine to Qianlong.

When the rotation period ended, Makarius, who was reluctant to part with Beijing, did not return to Moscow with the mission, but went to Kamchatka Peninsula to continue preaching.A year ago, when he heard that the priest on Urup Island had fallen ill and died, he and Ferapontov came here to station and preach in order to maintain Tsarist Russia's rule over the local area.

After Zhao Xinlu listened to Makarius' explanation one after another, his eyes rolled and he thought about it.

He had heard from Seldan before that Man Qing thought that Beihai Town was occupied by Tsarist Russia.So now there are two Tsarist Russian priests in front of us, which can be used to confuse the Qing court, so it’s not for nothing!
Moreover, Zhao Xin learned from the conversation that this Makarius had studied medicine, and that Ferapontov actually knew how to make steel and cannons!

Although the treatment methods of Western medicine in the eighteenth century included enema and catharsis in addition to fluid reduction and bloodletting; anesthesia, disinfection, sterilization, and safe blood transfusion in future medicine have not yet been invented, and surgical operations are still in the "discussion of the speed of hands and feet". In the era of "heroes", the rudiment of modern medicine already exists; internal medicine, surgery, ophthalmology, obstetrics, etc. have already appeared on the European continent.

Throwing Makarius to Hong Tao to study for a period of time can become a helper no matter what.No matter how bad it is, he will be assigned to Liu Zheng's head office as a veterinarian, right?
As for Ferapontov, send him to the workshop to help Zhao Liang make steel.

In this way, the two Tsarist priests began a strange journey.

(End of this chapter)