Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 180
On the channel of the Fuljaha River, the water has been completely frozen.There was heavy snow in the sky, and the howling north wind was blowing along the northern foot of Sihet Mountain. The temperature at this moment had reached minus 30 degrees, and the cold wind on the face could make people choke.

At this time, Seldan was leading a squad of reconnaissance teams, marching with difficulty in the valley of the Fuljaha River.Their team has been walking for eleven days since they set off, and their goal is to scout the area around the city of Fuldan in the northwest.In order to avoid getting lost, Seldan took the team along the mountain roads on both sides of the Furjaha River Valley to the north, over the mountains and mountains.

On the snow-capped hills, the leaves have long since fallen off.If you stand at a slightly higher place on a sunny day and there is no shelter in front of you, you can see dozens of miles at a glance.

Zhao Xin slapped his head and opened his mouth indiscriminately.After the original investigation order was issued, Seldan found Zhao Xin.It is said that the land route from Beihai Town to Hunchun is at least a thousand miles long, and it is impossible to walk no matter what in this kind of weather.

As soon as Zhao Xin knew that he had made a common-sense mistake again, he always unconsciously took the traffic from another time and space to examine the ancient maps, so he decided to investigate only the city of Fuldan.

Seldan led a maroon Mongolian horse through the waist-deep snow.The team members behind him led two heavy brown draft horses and a dozen Mongolian horses, and followed him in a straight line, and the four dogs followed closely behind the queue.

For fear of encountering wolves in the wild, their 11-member team carried [-] rounds of rifle ammunition, [-] rounds of machine gun ammunition, and a Negev light machine gun; Zhao Xin gave them ammunition according to three bases Allotted.In addition, there are enough dry food for two months, animal fat, extra winter clothing, sleeping bags, tents, axes, oil, and portable diesel heating stoves.

Seldan never imagined that winter outings would be equipped with so many things.After putting on goggles, scarves, warm socks, and thick white winter clothes, I didn't feel cold at all except that it was inconvenient to shoot arrows.Especially the pair of off-white cold-proof boots on his feet are warmer than animal skin boots stuffed with ura grass.

However, one advantage of traveling in this weather is that you will not encounter local border residents.Once the snow stops and the weather clears, mink hunters will go out in groups on horse-drawn sledges or dog-drawn sledges, looking for mink in the pine forest.Those frontier residents rely on the capture in winter to complete the poll tax they pay to the government yamen every year.

Seldan took off his goggles to look at the sky, and then shouted loudly to the people behind him: "Turn over the mountain in front and find a place to camp." After hearing this, the soldiers behind him conveyed the message one by one.

Two hours later, the team reached the lee under a large rock.Except for the two guards, after the others tied up their horses, they took a felling ax from the horse's back and began to cut logs around them and build a shelter from the wind.After the fence is set up, the ground must be cleared and the tent set up.When the bonfire was blazing, the surroundings became a little warmer, and then everyone began to heat dry food, roast socks, and feed the horses by the fire.

When horses perform heavy work in extremely cold weather, they need at least 50-60 grams of salt supplement every day.Although soybean nutrition seems to be comprehensive and rich in nutrients, if the horse eats too much, it will cause bloating or even poisoning, and if the rescue is not timely, it will die soon.Moreover, after the horse eats raw soybeans, it needs to strictly control drinking water.If you drink too much water, it is easy to cause acute gastric dilatation, leading to gastric rupture and death.

At night, the oil-splashed wood made a "beep" sound in the bonfire. After eating dry food, most of the soldiers got into their tents and fell asleep.Seldan himself stood guard in front of the bonfire, smoking dry tobacco to watch the night.At this time, apart from the sound of the wind, there was only the howling of wolves in the distance.The soldiers of the reconnaissance team had long been used to this kind of sound, and it did not affect their sleep at all.

Seldan counted the days, today is the 28th of the twelfth lunar month, and the Chinese New Year will be the day after tomorrow.At the current marching speed, we can't even go back on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.

After an unknown period of time, suddenly, more than a dozen horses began to feel uneasy. They shook their heads from side to side, stomped their hooves on the spot, and poked their erect ears forward.The horse's sense of hearing and smell is much sharper than that of humans. As a former hunter, Seldan immediately understood the situation from the abnormality of the horse!

"Get up, there are wolves!"

With Seldan's low shout, all the soldiers in the tent were awakened.

On the snow dozens of meters away, dots of green fluorescence are swimming.Seldan knew that because of the bonfire in the camp, the wolves did not dare to approach.

As the soldiers drilled out of the tent one by one, those green fluorescent lights still did not go away.A few wolves took small steps and crossed in front of the camp along a diagonal line.Perhaps knowing that there are many people here, the cunning wolves ran almost without making any noise, and they acted as if they were not targeting the scouting team; but Seldan knew that the wolves were using this method to complete the encirclement.

"Machine gun is ready." As soon as Serdan finished speaking, a soldier quickly loaded the drum and pulled the bolt.

Seldan no longer needed a bow and arrow. He took the rifle handed over by his subordinates and formed a fan shape behind the bonfire with the others.The two soldiers also moved the horses under the rock behind the tent.

Seldan has been a hunter for so many years, and he has never seen dozens of wolves appear at the same time.He tried his best to calm himself down, stared at the green fluorescent lights and estimated that there were probably more than 20 wolves in this pack.

Now, the wolves and the crowd faced each other like a fan, with the bonfire in the middle.Perhaps the wolves felt the danger of the weapons in the hands of these people, so they did not dare to cross the fire for the time being.A dozen or so wolves were scattered about a dozen meters away from everyone, and the others were a little further away, running back and forth with their tails drooping, as if they were looking for a fighter.

"Don't shoot, keep your fingers off the trigger. Stand up, don't squat!"

Because of Seldan's order, the nervous soldiers stood up one after another, holding their rifles, and stood facing the pack of wolves.Standing facing the wolf is a kind of oppression to the wolf.During the tense confrontation, Seldan kept trying to find the alpha wolf, but he couldn't find it in the dark night.

The two sides were deadlocked like this.The wolves neither attack nor retreat.Time passed by every minute and every second, and the night was getting darker and darker.No one knows how long this state of anxiety will continue.

Finally, a soldier couldn't bear it any longer. He unconsciously pulled the safety button and pulled the trigger on the gray wolf that was at the front.The crisp gunshots instantly tore through the silence in the wilderness.

The gray wolf who was shot had a big hole pierced by the bullet in his head, and he fell down in the snow before he could scream.The wolves immediately became agitated, as if they had never expected the weapons in human hands to be so powerful.

Before Seldan had time to scold the soldier who fired without authorization, the other soldiers had already released the insurance and sprayed bullets at the wolves with their rifles.

The wolves finally attacked.Facing the human beings with live ammunition, they did not swarm up, but launched attacks from the left and right wings.Cirdan understood that the wolves were actually targeting the horses.

"Protect the horses! Don't let the fire go out!"

The sound of light machine gun bursts sounded, and the soldiers operating the machine guns burst to prevent the wolves from rushing towards the horses.But the movements of these wolves are extremely flexible, and the impact speed is very fast, so every time a wolf is killed, it takes at least two or three burst shots.

"Cover each other and reload." Seldan has not started to rush, he knows that once there is a gap for everyone to reload together, the wolves will swarm up, and it will be too late at that time.

In the interlacing of light and shadow, a figure that was obviously bigger than the other wolves jumped out of the darkness, and rushed towards Seldan diagonally from the right.

"The wolf!"

In a blink of an eye, he turned around hastily and fired two shots at the wolf head.
Late at night on the 29th of the twelfth lunar month, at the gate of Tianning Temple outside Yangzhou City.Today is the day we agreed to meet with Zhao Xin, Lu Shoushan and Xu Dayong arrived here in the second quarter of Zizheng.Wearing cotton hats with their hands in their sleeves, the two stomped on the bridge in front of Tianning Temple, trying to drive away the cold.

Xu Dayong came all the way back from Henan the day before yesterday, and what he saw and heard along the way made him, who has experienced a catastrophe, feel shocking.He didn't understand what happened to the Qing Dynasty.The salt merchants in Yangzhou City spend their days drinking and drinking, being extravagant and extravagant, why can't they spend some money to help those victims?

In particular, he saw in Shangqiu that a dozen victims were frozen to death in order to rush to the porridge factory to beg for food before dawn, and were stripped of their clothes by the victims after death.Since you can cook porridge for relief, why can't you donate two more clothes?
Xu Dayong was thinking wildly while staring at the gate of Tianning Temple.After a long time like this, a blur suddenly appeared in front of his eyes, and a figure suddenly appeared a few meters away.

Lu Shoushan was looking away at this time, Xu Da raised his hand and rubbed his eyes vigorously to make sure that his eyes were not dazzled.He quickly patted Lu Shoushan.When he and Lu Shoushan took two steps closer, it was clear that the person who came was really Zhao Xin.

"My lord, you are really here!" Xu Dayong said in surprise.

"Hush." ​​Zhao Xin gestured for silence, motioning for the two of them to follow him into the shadows under the temple wall, and asked in a low voice, "How long have you been here?"

"Master, we will come and wait when we pass by."

"How is the situation in Henan?"

"I just came back from Henan the day before yesterday. You are right, twenty counties were affected by the disaster, it's too miserable!"

Zhao Xindao: "Next year's spring will be even worse. Get ready."

Xu Dayong explained the matter between Wang Changsheng and Luo Jiao. After hearing this, Zhao Xin praised: "Good job! Let Wang Changsheng continue to maintain this line. Is the money still enough?"

Lu Shoushan said: "I have discussed with Dayong, and I want to buy some coastal wasteland in the area of ​​Sheyang Lake to the east of Funing. First, it is relatively close to Henan, so we can recruit people from Henan in the name of land reclamation; second. It can be reached from Xuzhou along the canal along the Wusha River, and it is very convenient to walk by water."

Zhao Xin nodded and said, "You two can discuss this matter. I only want a steady stream of people." After speaking, he took out a large kraft paper envelope from his backpack and handed it to Lu Shoushan. "This is a silver bill of 15 taels. You can use it to buy land and ships first. Sailors can ask Wang Changsheng to find someone from Luo Jiao."

He scavenged these banknotes from the home of salt merchant Wang Jinglong.Afterwards, he, Liu Sheng, and Wu Siyu made a careful inventory of all the things looted from Wang's house. There were 30 taels of bank notes and 20 cash in total.In addition, there are a large number of land deeds and loan notes.Now that the Wang family has no these IOUs, those who borrowed money are very happy, and they don't have to pay back at all.

Lu Shoushan took the bank note and said, "Master, it's the end of the year now, and no one is doing business right now. The land and ship business can only be started after the fifteenth day of the first lunar month."

Zhao Xin smiled, and said in a low voice: "Let's live this year well first." But then his face changed, and he warned: "Be careful, don't make it public."

"Don't worry, my lord." Lu and Xu clasped their fists together and bowed in salute.When I got up and looked again, Zhao Xin had disappeared.

Lu Shoushan and Xu Dayong opened their mouths wide open, wishing their jaws could be dragged to the ground, they looked shocked!The two looked at each other, then hurriedly knelt on the ground in the darkness, kowtowed three times to the position where Zhao Xin had just stood, then got up and left quietly
It was finally dawn, and the reconnaissance team, who had fought fiercely with the wolves all night, sat exhaustedly in front of the campfire, numbly biting the dry food in their hands.Among the bullet casings all over the floor, the huge wolf king had been frozen hard.If it was before, Seldan would have been desperate to get the wolf fur; but now, he was so tired that he didn't even have the energy to look at it.After eating dry food, everyone got into sleeping bags to rest.It wasn't until noon that I packed up my things and continued on my way.

This Lunar New Year festive atmosphere in Beihai town is very peaceful.Refugees from island countries, like last year, braved the snow to go up the mountain to collect pine branches and hang them on their doors to welcome the New Year.

In order to avoid causing uneasiness prematurely, before leaving, Zhao Xin specifically told Chen Qingsong and Liu Sheng not to issue mobilization orders until the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.Anyway, the Qing army can't fight this season.

Zhao Xin, who lives in another time and space, travels all over the world every day.He is doing everything possible to buy supplies and prepare for the next year's war.Andrew and the bespectacled official made a lot of money because of the large number of orders brought by Zhao Xin.

The only ones who were not used to the climate in Beihai Town were Tang Xiao and the girls who had just arrived in Beihai Town.Even though the fire in the wood carving is very strong, the house is very warm, but they have to go out, so most of the girls have chilblains on their hands; the Ertang sisters were crying because of the cold wind outside the house.After Liu Siting heard about it, she sent them chilblain ointment, and asked the big cafeteria to cook a big pot of hot and sour soup for the girls.

Tang Xiao and the girls with the best brush calligraphy all wrote more than a dozen Spring Festival couplets, which were pasted on the doors of Zhao Xin and others' offices and residences, in addition to the nine-member group sent to the education department.

The Spring Festival couplets in front of Shen Jingdan's house were written by Wu Xianhou at the request of him: "The pines and cypresses are flourishing every year, and the Chunxuan is world-renowned", and the horizontal comment is "Auspicious place and auspicious life".The stove in his house was burning hot, Oginoto was breastfeeding his newborn son in his arms; Shen Xuan pouted and helped wash the diaper, while complaining in her heart: "Dead Zhao Xin, smelly Zhao Xin! Disappeared again .”

Since Wu Xianhou and Wu Xianning came to Beihai Town, they have been in the hospital since the second day.They followed Hong Tao to learn how to read video films and analyze their illnesses.The two became addicted to the use of X-ray and ultrasound equipment, and marveled at the efficacy of penicillin and streptomycin!Wu Xianhou even thought that next year he must ask his father to come and have a look.

After returning to their residence every night, the two "magic sticks" Makarius and Ferapontov secretly recorded everything they saw and heard during the day; In the wood under the bed.As everyone knows, all their actions are closely monitored by Beihai Town.

For the Chinese Lunar New Year, the two expressed great joy and anticipation.Makarius, who had experience in the mission of missions in Beijing, knew that whenever the Lunar New Year comes, the dishes on the Chinese table will be particularly rich.

Except for Fang Hua who is still busy in the military workshop, the teachers of the nine-member group are also temporarily free because of the Chinese New Year.Apart from going to the big cafeteria to eat every day, they sat around Lao You's room chatting and gossiping about all the gossip about Beihai Town and Zhao Xin.

During this time, Liu Sheng and Wang Yuanfang have been busy making plans for conscription and training after the new year.They are going to draw a platoon from each of the existing companies to form a recruit teaching team.In addition, artillery and machine gunners must be trained; otherwise, it will not be enough to support the defense system of Fuldan City.

Deng Fei and Ding Guofeng took Sheng Haizhou and Jiuzang back and forth between Ishinomaki Port and Beihai Town non-stop, and finally took away [-] refugees from the island country and [-] strong refugees from the Ezo before the Spring Festival. A strong Ainu.

The island nation will soon be entering Tianming five years.After a year and a half, the "Famine at dawn" showed no signs of easing, and the Great Famine intensified.In the Hachinohe domain (2 stone heights) in the Mutsu Aomori area alone, 3 people starved to death.From Mutsu to Edo, and from Edo to Osaka, thousands of people are starved to death on the streets every day, and then abandoned in the ravines outside the city.

Many refugees have heard that there is a way to live in the Sendai domain, so the number of refugees gathered under Aoba Castle has reached tens of thousands, and the refugees outside Ishinomaki Town are even more crowded.The Sendai clan was devastated by the swarms of refugees, and the elder Ishikawa Cunwen often scolded Tang Yi when he was alone.

In the fall of this year, because of coveting the genealogy of a lower-level samurai, the father and son of the old shogunate, Nakata Numa, falsely claimed that they would seek an official position for the other party, and then defrauded the original family tree of the other party.The junior samurai found out that he had been cheated and tried repeatedly to get it back but failed.The angry samurai then mixed into a meeting attended by Tanuma and his son. During the meeting, he suddenly drew his sword and stabbed Tanuma Yiji, but was stopped by his son Tanuma Yizhi; in the end, the samurai killed Tanuma Yiji.

Tianuma Yi, who lost his only son because of greed, is getting depressed day by day, and the death knell of the Tanuma cabinet will soon sound.

In Jilin City, thousands of miles southwest of Beihai Town, in an ordinary house, 15-year-old Wang Zhenyi put down the brush in her hand and smiled with satisfaction.

On the rice paper on the table, a seven-character poem has just been written.

"Who can be the same in the picture, the husband has the ambition and the talent. I believe that men and women are like women. Who says that children are not heroes?"

The third volume is over.

(End of this chapter)