Forty-eight years of Qianlong

The emerald-like tender green of the larch brings vitality to the vast forests on both sides of the Hudang River and the Lalin River.On the surface of the thawed river, the torrent roared, and the ice platoon hit, making a deafening roar.The red-crowned cranes flew back from the place where they spent the winter, and their high-pitched and loud calls echoed in the sky, reminding people that the sowing season has arrived.

Nature is brimming with the vitality of spring, but people in Lalin and Alchuka did not feel the joy of spring. Many families of "Huitun Bannermen" and "Send Bannermen" fell into the same trap as in previous years. off cooking.

Since the Yongzheng era, due to the continuous expansion of the Eight Banners, the financial burden of the Qing government has become increasingly heavy. Furthermore, the increase in the number of banners in the capital has also made "vacancy on errands" a big problem.

In later generations, people often say that bannermen will receive money and food as soon as they land, but this is actually wrong.Except for the clan, the general banner people have to pass the exam to fill the vacancies, and they will not get money and food without picking the vacancies.Bannermen without official jobs have brought many housing and public security problems to the capital.

In addition, as the Sinicization trend of the Manchus in Guannei became more and more serious, many Banner families not only had the same living habits as the Han people, but even could not speak Manchu.Faced with such a severe situation, Qianlong knew that in order for the Manchus to regain control of Manchu customs and the Manchu language, they had to return the idle bannermen to the Northeast.

In view of this, after years of preparations by the Qing court, in the 34 years from the ninth year of Qianlong to the 20th year of Qianlong, three thousand Jingqi households successively settled in Lalin and Alchuka. These people were called "Huitun" Bannerman".As for the "dispatching bannermen", to put it bluntly, they are domestic slaves and account holders who have committed crimes, such as those who secretly dig ginseng, those who wound people to death, those who are seriously corrupt, those who cheat in the examination room, and those who delay military aircraft, etc.

The Qing court set up 24 villages in the area from Lalin to Alchuka to house these people, providing care in all aspects of life.Help dig wells, build houses, reclaim farmland, and even pay maintenance fees, board and lodging fees, and production silver.

It is said that once a person falls into hunger, his immunity will decline, so at this time when the crops are in short supply, the plague broke out again in several villages near Lalin.The sick person vomits first, feels cold all over, and then can only lie in bed with a fever and talk nonsense.On the eighth day, red bumps will be found on the patient's body and face. After the swelling festers, stinky and yellow mucus oozes out, attracting buzzing flies.

The frail elderly and children died one after another, and screams and cries could be heard almost every night in various villages.There was only one medical clinic in Lalin City, so the co-leader invited doctors from Al Chuka, but several doctors fell ill themselves.

"Get up, hurry up!"

Early this morning, in a house located in Lantun, 25 miles west of Lalin City, Zhengxiang's Yongshan, who was huddled in a broken quilt, was woken up by his brother Debao.After getting up in a daze, Yongshan muttered.He is only 11 years old this year. Ama died of illness the year before last. It is only him, Erniang, and a 15-year-old brother in the family.

Although the age of Bannerman Cheng Ding is at least 16 years old, and Debao's age is barely marginal, he can fill in the vacancy and work as a vest, but if he leaves, there will only be mother and younger brother left in the family, and there will be no one to grow the land. So Debao decided to wait two years until Yongshan was older.

While Yongshan was dawdling in getting dressed, Debao had already slowly fed a bowl of medicinal soup to his mother, Li Shi, who was lying on the kang, and then began to make breakfast.He used the key to open a locked cabinet in the house, which contained the family's rations, more than 50 catties of light yellow broomcorn noodles.

Debao carefully filled more than half of the bowl with the bowl and poured it into the boiling pot. Thinking that he had to go to work in the fields today, he put in another half of the bowl.Yongshan kept stirring with a spoon in front of the stove, and when the millet noodles were almost cooked, he threw in two handfuls of wild vegetable leaves picked yesterday.

Mother Li couldn't eat after drinking half a bowl. She said her chest was tight and nauseous, but she actually wanted the brothers to eat more.After breakfast, Debao and Yongshan took their hoe and hatchet and went out together.

His family has a hectare of land eight miles south of the village—that is, one hundred mu, which was reclaimed by Qi Ding dispatched from Jilin in the early years.It sounds big, but Debao's family of three orphans and widows can't handle it at all.

In fact, not only his family, but also most other families in the village.Because they don’t know how to farm, the highest harvest of each family is only sixty-seven out of ten, and many people don’t even get half of it. The vast majority of people who live in poverty or can only make ends meet rely on the allocation of food and rewards from above every year. Silver barely makes ends meet.

From the moment they moved here, many people fled back to the capital in different ways, and the most serious ones even went so far as to beg for food.Once the bannermen who escaped back in the early days were captured, they were either beheaded, or the whole family was sent to Urumqi or Ili as slaves.Moreover, officers and soldiers on duty at various important points along the way will also be implicated.

Since the 51st year of Qianlong, due to the rise of Beihai Town, the task of guarding the border has become more and more onerous. In addition, Qianlong has also increased the punishment, requiring no matter whether it is a "returning bannerman" or a "sending bannerman", as long as they escape If they were caught, they would be beheaded on the spot, and their wives and children would be slaves.But even so, Banner who fled back could not be stopped.

The two brothers left Zhuangzi, and it took half an hour to stop and go before arriving on the ground.On the way, Yongshan saw a hare running past, and chased after it for a long time with his eyes shining, throwing stones and "hungry tigers rushing to eat", not to mention that he didn't catch it, and exhausted a lot of energy.

Before planting in the spring of this year, the land must be burned first to warm up the ground, and plant ash can also be regarded as fertilizer.However, spring plowing and wasteland burning cannot be directly burned, and firebreaks have to be cleared around their own land.Because there is a boundary tree between the various fields, it is not acceptable to burn the tree.In addition, some dry grass and branches must be obtained, otherwise the fire will not start.

How did the Debao family know this when they first came from the capital!Like many Bannerman families, he, Ama, looked at the acre of land allocated to his family, which was really "tigers eating hedgehogs" - he couldn't do anything about it.Only a year later, the farm cattle distributed to his family also died of illness, and they couldn't afford to buy them any more.

Debao asked his younger brother to go to the edge of the forest to pick up branches, while he brandished a hoe to clean the firebreak.He worked for a while and rested for a while, and soon he was tired and sweating profusely.After two sticks of incense, Yongshan suddenly ran back from the woods empty-handed, wheezing and panting, but still frightened.

"Brother, there are monsters in the woods!"

"Monster? Where is it?"

Debao didn't believe what his younger brother said, where did the monster come from in the blue sky, he said casually, "Where is the firewood I asked you to pick up?"

"Lost."

Debao was a little angry, he took the hoe, asked his younger brother to follow behind him, and ran through the woods.When he arrived at the place where the branches fell, Debao grabbed his hoe and looked into the woods for a while. The surroundings were quiet, except for the sound of the wind. Then he boldly shouted: "Who?"

As soon as the voice fell, I heard a few "shua shua", and several figures suddenly appeared from behind the tree.

"Ah~~~" Debao yelled in fright, and his brother Yongshan behind him also yelled.However, at this time, the two brothers felt that their legs were sore and weak because they were hungry and had no energy, and they were frightened, and they struggled to walk.

At first, Debao thought he had encountered a monster, but as the other party walked towards him, he quickly realized that those guys were human; they were different from himself, but they also had two hands and two feet, two eyes and one nose .

These people were all wearing colorful coats and helmets of the same color, which made people dizzy; their chests and waists were bulging, with many things hanging on them, and a strange object was slung over their shoulders.The most special thing is that the faces of these people are all smeared with black and green, and their white eyes are exposed, which looks very pervasive.Debao felt that if he ran into him at night, he would surely scare him to death.

"Boy, what are you doing here?"

Hearing the other party ask him in Manchu, Debao heaved a sigh of relief and stammered: "Open, open up wasteland and farm."

"How far is it from Lalin City?"

"No, it's not that far. Go east for more than 30 miles and you'll be there."

The person who led the questioning grinned, stepped forward and pulled up Debao who was slumped on the ground, patted the dirt behind his buttocks, and asked, "What's your name?"

"Debao, the one with the blue flag. This is my younger brother." As soon as Debao finished speaking, there was a "grunt" in his stomach.He blushed, feeling a little embarrassed.

"My name is Bamangong. I'm from Bertuna. It used to be decorated with red flags. Here, these are biscuits, oh, that's pastry."

While talking, the man took out several rectangular things half the size of a palm from the backpack behind the person next to him, and then, under the surprised eyes of the two brothers, tore off two pieces of paper wrapped outside and handed them over.

The aroma of the food made Debao ignore the content of Bamangong's words, and his and Yongshan's mouths began to secrete saliva continuously.Bamangong handed two compressed biscuits to their hands without any explanation, and said with a smile, "Eat it. This one is enough for a meal."

What?Debao and Yongshan curiously took a small bite, and an inexplicable aroma soon filled the mouth to nasal cavity, and it also had a slightly sweet taste.Debao was very surprised, he immediately took a big bite, just like Zhu Bajie eating ginseng fruit, and it went into his stomach in a blink of an eye.Look at Yongshan again, his thin face is bulging like a squirrel.

"Brother, I want more."

"Yongshan, it's not that I don't want to eat for you, you are a sensible child, take the rest back and give it to Ernie."

"But I'm not full."

"You..." Debao felt a little ashamed, wishing he could find a crack in the ground and sneak in.

Bamangong smiled and smacked the little guy's head twice, and said: "Little guy, don't underestimate this pastry, it will make you fat after drinking some water. If you eat another piece, it will burst your stomach. It’s better to take it home and cook it.”

"Ah? Alright." Yongshan sucked his finger and nodded helplessly.

"Young man, we still have something to do. Let's meet again when we have a chance. Remember, don't tell anyone that you have seen us!"

"Oh." The two silly boys nodded ignorantly.

When the figures of Baman Gong and others disappeared, Debao felt that he had gained strength, so he asked his younger brother to gather the branches on the ground, and he went back to work in the field by himself.When Yongshan was picking up a branch, he saw the biscuit wrapper that had been thrown away before, picked it up without thinking, and then put it in his arms.

The two brothers stayed busy until the afternoon, and picked some wild vegetables on the way home.As soon as he entered the door, Yongshan greeted his mother who was lying on the kang, and said excitedly: "Ernie, today we met a good man, he treated us to a meal, and gave us a few extra yuan!"

Although Mrs. Li had a fever and didn't have any energy, she still stroked her youngest son's head pitifully.The two brothers were not at home all day, and the kang was cold, so they were busy lighting the fire again, and then cooking and medicine.

When Debao was cooking, thinking about Bamangong's words, he took a piece of compressed biscuit and put it in the pot, and started cooking.Unexpectedly, after cooking for a long time, Yongshan couldn't melt it, so Yongshan kept stirring it with a wooden spoon.

At this moment, someone outside knocked on the door, and a familiar voice called Debao's name.Yongshan went out and saw that the person who came was a man named Shuangcheng in armor. This person and their father used to work as a errand, and they had a good relationship. They have taken care of their family for the past two years.

As soon as Shuangcheng entered the room, he said, "Both of you pack up your things right away. The deputy governor has sent a message to the yamen, telling all the residents of our former Lantun to go to Lalin City."

"What happened?"

"The North Sea Pirates are coming, and they are attacking Bodune. The higher-ups have asked all the residents in the surrounding villages to go to Lalin City to help defend, and they will send people here early tomorrow morning. I will come here ahead of time to take you into the city, and find a place to stay first." If there are too many people tomorrow, there will be no place at all.”

Hearing this, Debao said with a troubled face: "Uncle Shuangcheng, Er Nie is so sick that it is difficult to walk. There is no horse at home, how can I get there?"

"Master Vice Dutong issued an order. If you don't leave tonight, don't you have to leave tomorrow?! How about this, you pack up your things at home, take everything you can bring, and let you ride my horse and give the quilt to me. She puts on."

While Shuangcheng was speaking, the compressed biscuit that was boiling in the pot also began to dissolve, emitting bursts of aroma. He asked in surprise, "What's cooking in the pot?"

After that, he lifted the lid of the pot.As the water vapor rises, aromas mixed with sesame, bean flour, wheat, milk, beef and other flavors rush to the face, making Shuangcheng's throat unable to help but make a "grunt" sound.

Because Shuangcheng is not an outsider, Debao explained: "When I was burning wasteland during the day, I met a few officials from Bodune, and they said it was decorated with red flags, and they gave it to me."

Bertuna?Bordered with a red flag?Shuangcheng asked in surprise, "What do those people look like?"

After listening to Debao's narration, Shuangcheng's face became more and more weird. He tilted his head and swept the faces of the two brothers, which made Debao feel a little hairy.

"Is that pastry still there? Take it out and let me see."

Debao then went to the back room and took out the remaining two pieces from the grain cabinet.Shuangcheng took it and glanced over and over at the fire of the stove, and immediately took a breath of air.On one side of the compressed biscuit wrapping paper, there are a few small blue characters printed on it-"Made by the Logistics Department of the Northern Navy"!
God!I'm really afraid of what's coming.Shuangcheng suddenly realized that the few people the brothers met were not covered with red flags, they were clearly the North Sea Pirates!
Involuntarily, he tore off the wrapping of the two biscuits and threw them into the pot, and then threw the wrapping paper into the fire, until they were turned into ashes before he felt at ease.

"Remember, both of you, the day's affairs must be rotten in your stomach, and you can't mention it to anyone. If people find out, they will lose their heads!"

Both Debao and Yongshan were taken aback, and asked in amazement, "Why?"

"Do you know who those people you met? They are North Sea pirates! Maybe they are sentinels!"

"Ah?!" Debao and Yongshan's eyes widened, and their faces turned pale in an instant.