Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 48
Yalha, who had his arms tied and walked behind his horse for a day, could never have imagined that the things he had exchanged from Bear Island would have caused such a disaster.

Yalha often walks along the way, looking at his mother, wife and children worriedly.He noticed that two places on the mother's face had been frozen and began to turn black; the son was fine and strong; but the tears on the daughter's face had frozen into ice at this time and froze on her face.

Last night, the leader and the team stayed overnight in a Karen post.The fire in the outpost at night was very prosperous, but it was not too sad.

And the new cotton robes on the old mother and wife were stripped off by the armored soldiers before they set off on the road.At this time, the two women were covered with a piece of animal skin, and they were wearing a single coat inside, shivering from the cold.

This is the same village armored soldier who told the Lord Xie Liao. Last night, he saw that Yaerha's mother and wife were frozen in their single clothes. were given to two women.After the other armored soldiers saw it, no one objected.

As for the short boots that Yalha bought, these armored soldiers have not been picked up, otherwise it is difficult to say whether they can go to Hunchun.

During the 400-mile journey, Yalha was very worried about whether his mother would be able to finish the journey alive.

At this time, the armored soldiers did not dare to take Yalha's new cotton robe as their own, and the leader urged the adults to say that this is the evidence.

However, there are quite a lot of leather goods found from Yalha's house. There are more than 100 pieces of various pearl hair (fine hair, which feels like cashmere), black fox skin, deer skin, and otter skin.

When they arrived at Hunchun City, the leader urged the adults to take [-]%, and the remaining ten armored soldiers were divided equally. The harvest of this errand was not bad.

That cast iron cauldron is really eye-catching!Several armored soldiers have been calculating in their hearts all the way, if this pot is sold to Ningguta, how much money will be exchanged for it.

Yalha squinted at the armored soldier from the same village at this time, and he already knew in his heart that he was the one who denounced himself!Although he took animal skins to protect his family from the cold, Yaerha's eyes were still full of indifference when he looked at him.

In fact, this leader and eleven armored soldiers, like Yalha, are also Kurkachi.And like them, in the division of the Qing court rulers, they belong to "Kuya Lamanzhou", that is, New Manchuria.And the village of Yalha and the others belonged to the inlaid white flag.

Now that he has registered with the flag, he naturally cannot be equal to the Feyaka people who are three thousand miles away. (Manchu officials were very kind to the Feyaka people who participated in the Wulin reward, and their speech was very casual. Except for making mistakes, they never beat or scolded them.)
At this time, Yaerha was at a loss and fearful. He didn't know what was waiting for him and his family in Hunchun City.

Maybe after arriving in Hunchun, I will make it clear about the three previous trips to Bear Island, and I should be fine...

The group turned a corner and entered a narrow mountain road.A violent northwesterly wind suddenly blew, causing the snow to roll in the sky, and the snowflakes on the ground were also blown away.In an instant, the surrounding area was white, and the road could not be clearly seen.

This is the "white-haired wind" in the Mongolian population.The group suddenly couldn't take a step forward.

The leader who led the team secretly screamed "bad" in his heart.Just before he entered the mountain pass, he saw two grass huts beside the road, presumably built by ginseng pickers.

So he laboriously pushed the horse forward a few steps, patted the two armored soldiers in front with his whip, and made a gesture to go back.The crowd then turned their horses' heads and walked back under the leadership of the leader.

The Yarha family was already tied up. At this time, the strong wind blew them unsteadily. After falling down, they struggled to stand up again.

The armored soldiers all dismounted at this time.Several people dragged the reins of the horses with one hand and lifted the Yalha family with the other, and walked towards the grass hut with difficulty.

When everyone finally found the grass hut, the armored soldiers tied the reins of their horses to a nearby tree, then untied the ropes that tied the Yarha family to the saddle, and pushed the five members of his family into two places. A grass shed.

The leader wanted to make a fire to ward off the cold immediately, but under the raging wind, the tinder couldn't hit at all.So someone took the skin of the animal from Jalha's horse and gave it to the people to cover it.The group crowded into two grass huts and struggled, waiting for the wind to stop.

Who knows that when the wind blows, it will not stop all night...

After an unknown amount of time, Yalha woke up from the coma.He twisted his body and shook off a large flake of snow.He tried to move his fingers and feet, but found that several fingers and toes were numb.

At this time, Yalha heard that the wind outside had become much quieter, and large flakes of snow fell on him through the low and dilapidated straw roof.He touched the armored soldier beside him with his shoulder, trying to wake him up.After touching it a few times, there was no movement. It turned out that the armored soldier had been frozen to death.

He turned his head to look at another armored soldier next to him, and found that the man was still alive, but his breathing was very weak.

"Emother! Emother!" Yalha was suddenly shocked, and he desperately called his mother in a hoarse voice.

There was silence, and no one answered.There was only the whistling of the wind and the rustling of snowflakes all around.

Yarha called for his wife, son and daughter again, but still no one answered.He twisted his body desperately, trying to break free from the rope.

Then he noticed the short knife on the waist of the armored soldier who had frozen to death.So he turned his back, pulled out the dagger with difficulty with his still movable fingers, turned it over, and cut the rope.

Yalha shook off the severed rope and began to search for his relatives in the grass hut.

The old mother buried under the snow has been frozen to death.Yalha didn't care about his grief, and hurriedly climbed out and rushed to another hut.

In the other straw hut, except for the leader and a few armored soldiers who were still in a coma, Yalha's family members were all turned into rigid corpses.

A wailing, like a lone wolf in the wilderness, came from the grass hut and echoed among the mountains.

The grief-stricken Yalha was like a raging beast. He lifted the animal skin covered by the leader and found that one of the two cotton robes he had exchanged was placed on the leader.

Angrily, he picked up the cotton robe and threw it aside, tore off the cotton armor on the collar, and resolutely stabbed the short knife in his hand.

The comatose leader had no resistance, and after several knives, a large amount of blood spilled from his nose and mouth.

Immediately afterwards, Yalha found the soldier from the same village, regardless of whether he was dead or not.He also ripped open the cotton armor, raised the short knife in his hand and stabbed without stopping until after more than a dozen knives.

The blood on his hands was quickly frozen, and Yalha stared blankly at his hands that were already black and stained with blood, and cried bitterly.

After a while, exhausted and exhausted, he struggled to get up, walked outside the grass hut, and started digging the thick snow on the ground outside with his hands regardless.He was still digging until he touched the hard ground, and his hands slowly became bloody.

In desperation, he found a soldier's waist knife, and after digging in the frozen soil for a long time, he dug a shallow pit that could only accommodate one person.

Yalha had to go back to the grass hut, picked up the old mother, and put it into the pit. Then he retrieved the cotton robe covered by the leader, put it on his mother, and then buried it with earth.

Soon, the falling snow completely covered the tomb.

After resting for a while, Yalha got up again and removed his wife, son, and daughter from the grass hut and placed them on both sides of his mother's grave.

In a trance, Yalha knelt for a long time until the heavy snow turned him into a snowman.

(Early Manchus practiced cremation after death. For example, in the early days after the Qing court entered the customs, Dong E, the beloved concubine of Emperor Shunzhi, and Empress Xiaokangzhang were cremated.

However, with the gradual assimilation of Manchu customs by Han customs and the shackles of Confucianism, the requirement that Han people must be cremated after death was abolished at the time of Kangxi, while Manchus still require cremation.

After Qianlong ascended the throne, he issued the "banner funeral ban" in the third month:
"This dynasty started in the Kanto region, with divisions and soldiers as camps and guards, and the migration was impermanent. When my parents were mourned, they couldn't bear to abandon them, and they couldn't carry them, so they cremated them so that they could hold them with them, and talk to them to fulfill their wishes that they couldn't bear to be apart. also.

Since the Ding Ding, the Eight Banners and Mongolia have their own peaceful residences. The tombs of the ancestors are all located in the local area. The funerals can be carried out according to the ancient times.However, if you don't observe the customs, or still use cremation, this is because of the old habits, and you don't think about the reasons why you had to come out of this year.

Afterwards, except for poor people from far-flung villages, who could not help their coffins to go back, and had no choice but to bring their bones back to burial, I couldn't help but be cremated.The patriarch and assistant leaders who hide and do not report will be punished together. "

From this incident, it marked that the Manchus in Guannei had basically been completely assimilated by the Han culture. )
At the same time, Seldan led the horse and walked with difficulty on the way to Hunchun.

After he was arrested in Yalha, he went home and thought about it for a night, really worried about this good friend and his family.

When those armored soldiers stripped off the cotton robes from Yalha's mother, he also saw it.Walking for more than 400 miles wearing single clothes in this kind of weather, maybe Yalha's family will be frozen to death, which will be troublesome.

Thinking about it like this, in the morning Cerdan packed up the dry food and a few large pieces of animal skins, and refused his son Erlu's request to go with him.

When he was about to go out, he stopped and thought.So he went back to the house again, took off his newly bought cotton robe, found his old and disrespectful old cotton robe and put it on, and tied two pieces of animal skins to his body.He rolled up the cotton robe he had taken off, tied it behind the saddle, and went out like this.

After chasing all the way, in the afternoon, the white-haired wind began to blow, which made Cerdan almost trapped.In desperation, he had to go back to the Cullen post he passed by based on his memory, and spent the night there.After dawn, seeing that the wind had subsided, he set off again.

Two hours later, Seldan, who was leading his horse in the knee-deep snow, saw a grass hut on the hillside not far away.The hunter's intuition told him that Yalha and his party were also trapped here.

When Cerdan struggled to climb up the hillside, he was shocked.An unrecognizable man covered in snow, kneeling in the snow.

There were more than a dozen horses surrounded by the grass hut, either standing or lying down. The horses seemed to be wearing ice armor and had already been frozen to death.

Cerdan hurriedly rushed into the grass hut to check, only to see that four or five armored soldiers had been silent, and one of them had a large piece of blood on his chest that had been frozen.He recognized at a glance that this was the armored soldier from the same village.

Frightened, Seldan retreated from the grass hut in a hurry, and hurriedly went to another grass hut. When he looked up, he saw the leader full of blood on his chest and nose.

"This!"

At this moment, he suddenly felt agitated, and hurriedly rushed to the kneeling snowman outside, pushing away the snowflakes with his hands.

"Brother Yalha!" Cerdan shouted to his good friend, dusting the snow off his body.

He tried to put his hand under Yalha's nose and found that he was still breathing, but it was very weak.

Seldan didn't care about anything else, leaned over and picked up Yalha and put it on his horse's back; then he took out the cotton robe and animal skin from behind the saddle, and put it on Yalha's body.

After finishing all this, Seldan led his horse and strode towards the village along the path he had traveled when he came.

The heavy snow falling in the sky still didn't stop, and after half an hour, the traces of Seldan's wading disappeared completely.

(End of this chapter)