Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 55

Cerdan quickly ran away from the position where he shot the arrow just now, and ran towards a house in the north.

When he came to the outside of the courtyard wall, he rushed under his feet, took a step forward, supported the courtyard wall with both hands, and turned over.Except for the village chief's house, the courtyard walls of the more than [-] households in the village are not high, mainly to prevent wild animals.

The family had long been awakened by the noise and gunfire in the village, and now they were scared to hide in the house, not daring to show their heads.Amidst the barking of their dog, the family in the house heard the sound of footsteps crossing the yard and quickly disappeared.

"Boom", the bowstring rang, and an arrow was inserted into the wall.At this moment, Seldan's hand on the courtyard wall just disappeared.

"Have you been hit?" asked a soldier who was catching up.

"(The sky) is so dark, shoot one for me to see." The armored soldier with the bow drew another arrow and put it on the bow, and said angrily.

"Where are the people?!" Several armored soldiers hurried over and shouted to their two companions.

"Come over the wall and go over there." The armored soldier with the bow pointed the arrow in his hand to the opposite courtyard wall.

The armored soldier in the lead said: "How can this guy slip like a fox and can't keep his hands. Quickly take the horses here."

Two armored soldiers kicked open the courtyard gate, rushed into the courtyard, and walked to the stables to lead the horses away; the others circled from outside the courtyard to the north to continue chasing.

From the mouth of the armored soldier who escaped from the arrow, Tomohogo knew that there were two horses on the sledge that rushed past the block, and then he learned from the mouth of the village chief who hurriedly arrived that there were only two horses in the Serdan family. .He guessed that Seldan would have to find a horse to escape.

So he ordered the twenty-odd armored soldiers to be divided into several groups, and when chasing, he took the horses from the villages along the way and concentrated them to watch.There is no horse in this weather, and it is impossible to run away.The rest of the armored soldiers were dedicated to chasing and blocking Seldan.

Cerdan rushed into the family's yard just now, just to grab the horse, but the armored soldiers quickly chased after him.This made him cry inwardly.Although dogs can also pull sledges, dogs recognize their masters, not their own masters, so they can't use them at all.

At this moment, there are two families left in the north of the village where he is.If the horses were taken away by the armored soldiers, he would definitely not be able to escape.Thinking of this, he quickened his pace and ran desperately towards the next yard.

There were footsteps behind him, and Cerdan hurriedly hid behind a big tree.Looking back, I saw that under the three torches, four armored soldiers were chasing him.

He touched the sack at his waist, and there were only three arrows left.

At this time, he couldn't care anymore, he took out one and put it on the bow, aiming at the armored soldier in the front and shot it out.

The sound of "Boom" sounded, and the iron arrow flew like a ghost in the dark night. The thick arrow first shot the ear of the armored soldier in front, and then hit the eyes of the armored soldier behind him.

Two screams sounded, the armored soldier whose ears were shot flew off and knelt on the ground while covering his wound, and the armored soldier behind him died.The two companions who followed them immediately turned their heads in fright and ran away.Do you think this is still human?

Seldan fired an arrow, turned around and left immediately, and behind him came the mourning of the armored soldiers.He ran to the door of the nearest family's courtyard in a dozen steps, and kicked the courtyard door directly.

The dog in the family's yard was actually unleashed, and roared and rushed up.Seldan raised the big bow in his hand and swung it out fiercely.

"Woo~" In the scream, the dog that rushed up was slapped on the waist by Seldan, and immediately flew out and fell a few steps away.The other dogs were so frightened that they caught their tails and backed away.The two jujube red Mongolian horses under the barn were also frightened by the dog's whine.

Seldan drew his short knife from his waist, and cut off the reins that were fastened to the stable posts; then he grasped the broken reins with one hand, and the other hand with a large bow was placed in front of the horse's back. , the legs jumped hard, the arms used force, and then climbed up.

Holding the reins in one hand, he turned the horse's head and came to the outside of the courtyard. After identifying the direction for a while, he gave a low voice, clamped his legs on the horse's belly, and galloped toward the outside of the village.

Suddenly he heard the sound of a bowstring behind him. Cerdan knew something was wrong, and just as he was about to bend over, his back shook when an arrow hit his right back shoulder.Seldan's painful right hand loosened, and the big bow fell off the horse.

Seldan endured the pain and clinging to the horse's back; and he was also shot in the ass of the purplish red horse under his crotch. The frightened horse ran quickly and disappeared after a while.

Not far away, Tomohoguo and seven or eight armored soldiers came to put down the bows in their hands.He stared in the direction where Cerdan was going, and ordered his opponent: "You guys quickly bring the horses here and continue to chase with this officer!"

Bear Island at the same time.

At this time, it was only after 9 o'clock in the evening, and Liu Shengbai was bored. He was about to wash and sleep when he heard someone talking outside.

As the voice got closer, the door was opened by A Miao, and Zhao Xin came back.

"I'm going, why did you come back so early?" Liu Sheng put down the towel in his hand and said to Zhao Xin with a smile.

"The eyelids have been twitching for the past two days, and I always feel that something is going to happen." Zhao Xin said with a smile, while placing a large bag of things in his hand on the table.

"For me?" Liu Sheng opened the bag and started digging out.

"It's all food. Our old lady asked me to bring it to you." Zhao Xin sat down on the chair, too tired to move.

Liu Sheng was moved for a while, but after all, the friend in front of him was thinking about him.So he smiled and opened a small bag.

"Hey, fried sauce!" he exclaimed. "And fried pickles..."

"I went to several places to buy it for you."

While talking, Zhao Xin raised his hand to touch his eyelids and muttered, "Why are you still jumping? I said, has anything happened these days?"

"Hmm... delicious..." Liu Sheng opened a bag of roasted mutton and shoved it directly into his mouth.

"Hey~ don't eat, let me ask you something." Zhao Xin saw that the other party could not wait to start eating, so he patted the table and asked.

Liu Sheng chewed the meat in his mouth and said, "Well, it's nothing. Two natives came two days ago and said they were friends of Yaerha. I gave them a bag of salt..."

"There are two more?" Zhao Xin lowered his head and thought for a while and said, "There are five natives here. I said, why didn't that Yarha come?"

Satisfied, Liu Sheng put down the bag and chewed the meat in his mouth before saying, "I was going to tell you. The two aborigines who came here said that Yalha had frostbite. Because he was changing things with us, he was caught by the Qing soldiers, and later he Escaped. But everyone in his family is dead. I also took two boxes of medicine and asked them to take Yarha back."

When Zhao Xin heard this, he almost didn't jump up, got up and said, "Why did you say such an important thing last! I said that my eyelids have been twitching recently."

"What does this have to do with us?"

"The relationship is big, maybe the Qing soldiers will come to the island."

"Come on, come, the guns in our hands are not fire sticks." Liu Sheng said indifferently.In his opinion, if they can't deal with the Qing army with bows and arrows with modern weapons, they should go home and get under the covers.

"I've told you what I've told you before." Zhao Xin shook his head helplessly. "I'm really not afraid of a few Qing soldiers. But after the seventh day of the first lunar month, those applicants should all come. If the Qing soldiers also come, I'm not worried about hurting a few refugees. If you get hurt, it will be troublesome.”

Zhao Xin took a few steps back and forth and frowned and said, "Well, in the early morning of tomorrow, you first put the drone out to scout the north side of the island, especially paying attention to the situation near the northern coastline. I took Sheng Haizhou and the others with me. First go to the north and build an observation point. If the Qing troops come, we will completely wrap them up. Not one of them can be let go!"

Liu Sheng said, "It's better for you to stay, I'll go."

Zhao Xindao: "You are more familiar with drones than I am; speaking of the environment and humanities here, I am more familiar than you. Just keep in touch with us at any time."

After all, Liu Sheng was in the south when he joined the army, and he was indeed not very familiar with the cold and temperate environment in the north.

"Do you know where the Qing soldiers will land?" Liu Sheng asked suspiciously.

Zhao Xin sneered and said: "On the left and right are the places closest to the opposite continent. And in this weather, there are no more than a few dozen people at most. When Hunchun realizes it, if they want to send troops over, they will have to wait until the beginning of spring. At that time, we will leave early. Let them find it slowly."

The night after that was silent.

The next morning, Zhao Xin got up to wash and put on his gear.After checking the guns, he called Lu Shoushan, Sheng Haizhou, Kuzang, Huji, and Shigeru, and went to Liji to get five axes (which can be used as weapons in an emergency), two hand saws, and two bundles. Iron wire, a few moisture-proof pads, four sleeping bags, and two packs of compressed biscuits and water.

Except for the axe, several people packed all these things in several large bags, and then set off with the axe on their backs.

Liu Sheng ate something hastily, and was busy preparing for drone reconnaissance.

Two hours later, Zhao Xin and his party of six came to the forest near the Northern Strait.He searched around for a long time, and finally settled on a location to build an observation post behind two rocks more than one meter high.

The two rocks are more than 20 meters apart. At this distance, they can respond to each other in time in any situation.

When the shed is completed, you only need to crouch in the shed and observe from the back of the rock, and you can clearly see the situation on the seashore; if you add a telescope, you can even see the situation on the frozen sea clearly.

On the way here, Zhao Xin had already told Lu Shoushan and the others about the situation.At this time, when a few people saw that Zhao Xin had chosen the location, they immediately started to cut down the surrounding trees that were only as thick as arms, according to Zhao Xin's request.Of course, dead tree trunks can also be used, but they must be five or six feet long.

Soon, the cut logs were piled on the snow.According to the space behind the rock, Zhao Xin used a tape measure to saw the wood into lengths of 1.5 meters and 1.7 meters with a hand saw.

After sawing the wood, Zhao Xin first placed three 1.5-meter-long logs vertically on the open space, with a distance of more than 40 cm between them; then he pressed a dozen 1.7-meter-long logs horizontally on the three logs, and then Three 1.5-meter logs are pressed vertically on it.

Next, he took out the wire from a bag and tightly wrapped the six vertical logs in pairs. After the top and bottom were wrapped with wire, the wall module of a shed was completed.

Lu Shoushan and the others learned Zhao Xin's operation, and soon completed four wooden rafts.

Zhao Xin erected a wooden raft as a wall on one side, and asked Sheng Haizhou to hold it up with two logs. nailed deep into the soil.In this way, the inner support wood can be removed.

Then he asked someone to bring another raft over.The two wooden rows are connected at a right angle of [-] degrees, clinging to one side of the rock, so that all three walls of the post are covered.

Afterwards, Zhao Xin put the rest of the stacked wood on top of the wooden raft as a roof.However, he deliberately left an opening near the corner of the rock as a chimney.

After the roof was laid, Zhao Xin planed through the thick snow under the tree and dug out large swathes of moss and dead leaves from below.He spread moss and dead leaves on the roof first, and stuffed the rest into the wood gaps in the walls to seal them up.

Sheng Haizhou and the others were working with Zhao Xin, and they all admired them very much.

Lu Shoushan asked Zhao Xin curiously: "Master, where did you learn this? This is much stronger than the grass hut I built."

Zhao Xin chuckled: "I don't know if I told you."

After the two sheds were set up, Zhao Xin asked several of his subordinates to shovel out the snow in the wooden shed and spread it on the roof.In this way, when viewed from a distance, the wooden shed blends in with the surrounding environment.

Finally, Zhao Xin found a few stones from under the snow, and under the roof opening in the wooden shed, surrounded a simple stove against the rocks.He then asked his men to chop down a few thick tree trunks. One was to cut them short and put them upright at the door of the wooden shed as a door to block the wind; the other was to split them for fire.

After the six people were busy, when everything was sorted out, the white smoke in the two wooden sheds rose from the roof, and it was almost dusk.

From the morning to the afternoon, Liu Sheng had been operating the drone to observe the seaside situation and informed Zhao Xin of the situation in time.

Zhao Xin asked Sheng Haizhou and the others to go back. He was going to stay here with Lu Shoushan tonight.On the other hand, Sheng Haizhou and the others resolutely stated that they would keep vigil here with the adults.

Zhao Xin said that there are only four sleeping bags, and you must go back for two.The four of them couldn't argue for a while, Zhao Xin directly ordered Shigeru and Huji to go back, and asked them to come back tomorrow morning to replace Sheng Haizhou and Jiuzang.

　According to the "Hunchun Deputy Capital Yamen Archives", as of the 49th year of Qianlong, bows and spears were the main weapons in Hunchun's Xianghuang, Zhenghuang, and Zhengbai banners.There are 460 eight bows and 490 arrows.The muskets equipped were all local homemade guns, not many in number, and the Ministry of War’s examinations for garrison officers and soldiers did not involve musket shooting at that time.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)