Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 389 Chakta's Accident ([-])

When the patrolling soldiers blew their whistles, the tightly covered carriage, surrounded by several fast horses, had arrived at a grain warehouse on the west side of the trade city.

A group of people, including Pavlov, the owner of the grocery store, rode into the yard in a hurry. The four men lifted the animal skins and sundries covered on the sled, revealing the two people who were bound hand and foot and gagged with towels. Female and male.

"Pavlov, where is the tunnel?"

"In the stables, follow me."

Major Ragutin asked his subordinates to pick up Fan Tong and the others, and followed Pavlov to the stables.

Fan Tong was made drowsy because of the stick on his neck, but following the undulating pace of the Cossack who was carrying him, the other's shoulder pressed against his abdomen one after another, making him dizzy I can't breathe.Just when Fan Tong felt that he was about to be suffocated to death, the footsteps of the person under him stopped. He was feeling dizzy when a strand of horsetail mane brushed past his head.

Fan Tong turned his head vigorously, trying to find Ushiha and Polia, but he saw nothing but a wisp of trembling black velvet.

Pavlov pushed aside the hay piled on the ground in a corner of the stable, and underneath was a tan wooden board with a side length of about [-] centimeters.He removed the wooden board, revealing a deep dark passage with a diameter of about eighty centimeters.Because people often came in and out before, the edge of the secret passage was ground very smooth.

Then, he took an extinguished pine oil torch from the wall of the stable, lit it with a flint, and then climbed down very skillfully along the steps dug out from the shaft wall of the secret passage.

After Pavlov went down, Major Ragutin himself climbed down, and then several of his men connected the tied ropes on the three of Fan Tong with a thick rope, and let the three of them down from the hole one by one.

When Fan Tong was put down, he instinctively struggled a bit, stuck his chubby body at the entrance of the cave, trying to delay the time.But who would have thought that a Cossack picked up a stick and gave him a hard blow to his stomach. Fan Tong let out a muffled groan in pain, his feet relaxed, and his body slipped down the three-meter-deep tunnel. Not to mention the dirt on his face, he sprained his foot when he fell.

When he was a little more awake, he heard that Pavlov talking to him viciously, and he didn't need to guess that he knew that the other party must be warning him.

Fatty Fan straddled two time and space, how could he have experienced such a thing.He had been beaten once, and now all he could think about was fear.He desperately breathed out through his nose, the dark space and the suffocating feeling made his ears buzzing, his heart was beating wildly, it seemed that it was about to jump out of his chest.At this moment, he didn't dare to move any more, for fear that the other party would jump over the wall in a hurry and stab his leg and arm, that would be too bad.

After Ushiha and Polya were also hanged by the ropes, Pavlov held the torch and walked forward. Major Ragugin took out a dagger and shouted at Fan Tong to stand up and follow. After getting up, it was only then that I noticed that the height of the secret passage was about 1.5 meters high.

It is said that as long as there is cross-border trade, smuggling trade will definitely exist.During the reigns of Kangxi and Yongzheng, the Qing government strictly prohibited the export of raw silk to Russia, and anyone who violated it would be sentenced to death.But even so, a large amount of raw silk is still smuggled to Kyakta every year.

Don't look at the Chakhtu River between Russia City and Maimai City, but the water here is only more than two meters deep.Coupled with the fact that the distance between the two parties is less than 100 meters, this provides conditions for digging and setting up secret roads for smuggling.

However, it is precisely because Tsarist Russia is dependent on Sino-Russian trade that the former Kyakhta officials turned a blind eye to this. Anyway, the tariffs that should be paid cannot be less.

These years, smuggling on the Sino-Russian border involved many commodities, ranging from local specialties such as cattle, horses, camels and mules, which are abundant in Mongolia, to tea, cloth, daily necessities, etc., covering almost all types of commodities traded between China and Russia.The goods smuggled by Shanxi merchants to Russian merchants were mainly tea, tobacco leaves, cloth and daily necessities, while the goods smuggled by Russia to Chinese and Shanxi merchants were mainly various leather goods, horses and camels.

Of course, large-scale smuggling operations will definitely not be in Kyakta.The Qing-Russian border is long, and there are many sparsely populated places. Cattle and horses must not be traded through secret channels. The main business here in Kyakhta is small-scale tea and fur goods smuggling.

Fan Tong, Wu Xiha and Polia staggered and were pushed all the way forward. Through the dim light, they noticed that the dark passage was a gentle downward slope, and they walked about tens of meters away. After that, there is another gentle slope upward.

During this period, he wanted to look back at Ushiha and Polya, but as soon as he turned his head, he was pushed hard by the Cossack behind him, and his head hit the wall of the tunnel, causing his head to hurt.At this time, Fan Tong heard the voices of two women "woo woo" from behind him, and he felt relieved.

After a long time of groggy, the road finally came to an end.Fan Tong was leaning against the wall of the secret passage and was desperately trying to breathe. He heard the voices of several people talking from above his head, but the other party was speaking in Russian.

After a while, a rope hung down from the top of the head, and Major Ragugin, who was walking in front, tied the rope behind Fan Tong by the light of the torch.Immediately when the rope was tightened, Fan Tong's obese body began to rise slowly.

"What did this guy eat to grow up? It's too heavy!"

"What nonsense, hurry up, hurry up!"

After a while, Fan Tong only felt a bright light in his eyes. When he was pulled up on his back and his feet came out of the hole, he realized that there was not much space here, surrounded by walls made of wooden boards, about 20 What a flat look.There were five or six guys with half-covered faces standing around the entrance of the cave. They should be the ones who pulled the rope just now.

Although these people tried to hide themselves, Fan Tong was immediately taken aback when he saw the other party's bald forehead and the thin braid behind a guy's head.

"Manchu! I have arrived in the trading city in the south?!"

Soon, Fan Tong saw the pained face of Polia, whose face had been stained by tears and mud. The original beautiful black swan dress had turned khaki, and her golden hair had also become messy.

"Woo~" Fan Tong struggled to lean towards Polia, but he was followed by a kick, which kicked him hard to the edge of the wooden wall.This kick landed on Fan Tong's face, and his nose was so painful that tears flowed down his face.

Uxiha was the third one to be dragged up. Her fox fur cloak had been left at the grocery store before, but now she was wearing an emerald green silk singlet.The young daughter-in-law of the Hezhen people is rebellious, and she has never suffered such a crime in her life.The first thing Uxiha did when she woke up was to stare at these people in the room with her big black eyes. Those eyes made people shudder, like a hunter sizing up his prey.

When the last Cossack climbed up from the cave, he said hastily as soon as his head was exposed: "It's bad, I heard voices, quickly block the entrance of the cave!"

The other people in the room panicked when they heard this, if Beihai Haijun chases after this, it will all be over!

At this time, Pavlov said in Russian to a masked Qing man: "Quickly block it with something, and don't let them come up!"

"Follow me, there are stones and tools outside the door!"

Major Ragugin and another Cossack took out the pistols of Fan Tong and Ushiha from their pockets and pointed them at the entrance of the cave. The others opened the door, brought in stones and logs from the outside, and shot at the entrance of the tunnel. go down.

As more than a dozen pieces of stone and wood were thrown into the entrance of the secret passage, large pieces of soil on the shaft of the secret passage were smashed and fell down.Afterwards, these people came in from outside the door with shovels shoveling soil non-stop, and shoveled one shovel after another into the shaft. Seeing that this secret passage was completely blocked, no one could climb up!
At this time, a few exclamations and coughing coughs were faintly heard from the bottom of the shaft, and then there was a burst of cursing.

Afterwards, the masked man left two guards at the entrance of the cave, and then took Pavlov and his party and Fan Tong to a slightly larger warehouse next door.There are stacks of sacks and wooden boxes against the walls, and the air smells of tea and rhubarb.

It was only at this time that Pavlov and the others breathed a sigh of relief. He asked a guy in a rough cotton coat with his face covered: "Are the horses and clothes ready?"

The man said: "It is prepared for one person and two horses for you. All the things are in the saddlebags. I will send two people to take you away."

Ragugin nodded. He knew that with his appearance, he would definitely be useless when he met the patrolling officers and soldiers.He turned his head and signaled one of his subordinates to go out and have a look. After a while, the Buryat came back and nodded to Ragugin.After seeing it, Pavlov asked again: "Where are the documents? Without this, we can't escape when we encounter your patrolling officers and soldiers!"

"Where's the money?" The masked man stretched out his hand towards Major Ragugin.

Major Ragugin and Pavlov each took out a heavy animal skin bag from their pockets and handed one to the other. The man took it and opened it, and found that it was half a bag of gold sand inside, and said "hmm" to express his satisfaction. .After he finished inspecting another bag of gold dust, he took out an envelope from his pocket and handed it to Pavlov.

Pavlov opened the envelope, took out the contents, and saw that it was a piece of paper with two consecutive pages, and the junction was sealed with a big red seal.In addition to the densely packed Chinese characters on it, there are also Manchu characters written on the back.

Ragugin came over to take a look, and asked in surprise, "What is this?"

The masked man explained: "This is called a soldier's card. We bought it from a trustee for 300 taels of silver. The front part is the main text, and the back part is called the tail list. If you encounter officers and soldiers patrolling on the road, you must take this Show them that the inspecting officers and soldiers will check the number of people according to the number written in the text, and then fill in the number of people to be checked on the final form, and you can only go there after stamping."

Pavlov laughed, hugged the masked man, and said, "Tian, ​​thanks to your help, otherwise this matter would not be so easy. When I come back with the queen's army, I will definitely thank you very much." .”

The masked man said: "I also work for the imperial court, but it's a pity that the secret passage can be used in the future, it's hard to say."

Ragugin urged at this time: "It's not too late, we have to go!"

At this time, the group of people only heard a "woo woo" cry from behind them, turned their heads and saw that fat man with a blue nose and a swollen face was humming, signaling that he had something to say.

The masked man said in a deep voice: "It's fine to remove the cloth, but don't shout, or you will bear the consequences!"

Fan Tong nodded desperately when he heard this, and when the cloth on his mouth was pulled out, he took a deep breath and felt that his breathing was unobstructed, and then he said wheezingly: "Here, bring thick, thick clothes for the two of them. In such a cold day, riding, riding a horse will freeze to death! They want, if something happens, you will all live, you won’t survive!”

(End of this chapter)