Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 562

When Zhao Xin received Deng Fei's telegram, he had already left Heilongjiang City and was staying at the mouth of the Huma River for a short time.

Today’s Huma River Estuary is no longer the scale of a military depot plus more than 30 wooden houses a few years ago. With the great improvement of traffic conditions, more and more Daur and Oroqen people have settled here, and there are even some Mongolians. people.Coupled with the immigration resettled here, this village, which is only 160 kilometers north of Heilongjiang City, has become a "small town" with more than 600 households and a population of more than 3000.

Although the local western and northern mountainous areas are rich in gold, coal and quartz sand, the civil administration only arranged for small-scale mining of coal, mainly for heating in winter.

The current economy of the entire town is still dominated by agriculture and fishing.You must know that in Huma in another time and space, the county’s arable land area exceeded 40 mu, and this time and space has only cultivated a total of more than 3 mu, which is far from it!

In order to better protect the gold mines in the entire outer Northeast and Siberia—in fact, to keep an eye on his own pocketbook, Zhao Xin plans to set up a special gold troop next year, whose main task is to inspect and guard the gold mines in various places Resource points to prevent new immigrants in the pass from digging.

Zhao Xin had to visit every settlement he passed along the way north this time, and the town of Humar was no exception.He took A Miao and Wulong under the covert protection of several guards, wandered around the town and around the town after breakfast early in the morning, and chatted with whoever he caught, the purpose of which was to learn more about Humar The actual living conditions of the people in the town, and the views of the border people on the ethnic policy of Beihai Town.

Because Zhao Xin wore a beard and a straw hat, the local people didn't recognize the tall man in front of him as the famous "Prince Zhao", and thought he was the person from the Civil Affairs Bureau to inspect the farmland and water conservancy.

In the afternoon, at the Beihai Trading Company in the town, he met a few Daur people who came to sell grain together, so they struck up a conversation.

In the past few years, under the guidance of technicians sent by the civil affairs department, the Daur people first bought high-yielding rye seeds through the five-year interest-free loan provided by the Beihai Trading Company, and at the same time changed the previous extensive planting methods.And because the Daur family raises horses (an important symbol for the Daur people to distinguish between rich and poor is the number of livestock), Minzheng provided advanced horse-drawn farm tools and taught them intensive farming.After two years, the agricultural production level of the Daur people has improved a lot compared to the period of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. The grain harvested on [-] acres of land every year is not enough to eat except for repaying the loan, so they sell grain in the trading company in exchange for daily necessities.

The days are getting better and better, making the Daur people very grateful to the officials of Beihai Town.Seeing that Zhao Xin had no official airs, they talked more.Zhao Xin chatted very happily, so he bought some cigarettes and alcohol as gifts for them.

The honest Daur people were not as humble and courteous as the Han people. They accepted the gift generously, and one of them named Fu Mingtai invited Zhao Xin and his party to visit their home, and Zhao Xin and the others went happily.

Fu Mingtai's family was the first batch of residents after the completion of the Humar Military Station. At the beginning, they lived in a single woodcut room provided by Beihai Town for free. A new house was built in Shanghai, and the original woodcut hall was given up to the newcomers.

The yard of his house is surrounded by a half-person-high wicker fence, and on the east side outside the yard wall are several barns, in which a dozen Mongolian horses, two cows, and a dozen sheep are kept; In the small vegetable field, some eggplants, beans, pumpkins and scallions were planted, in addition to a few chickens.

The main building in the courtyard is made of pine woodcuts. As the Beihai Trading Company provided a large number of steel tools to the border residents, logging became an easy task, so the woodcuts were also popularized in other parts of Northeast China.However, the houses of the Daur people are in a typical Manchurian architectural style, with four thick pine colonnades standing in front of the front porch and the front door, which is called "beasts come out from the front and back from the wolf's teeth" in their common saying.

When Fu Mingtai's wife saw the guests, she invited everyone to sit in the West Room.According to Wulong's suggestion, when Zhao Xin and others entered the house, they first greeted Fu Mingtai's father who was sitting on the Nankang.

"Hello, old man!"

The old man is over 60 this year, and he is sitting cross-legged on the kang smoking a pipe pot. When he saw Zhao Xin stretching out his hand, he knew that this was the "new etiquette" of Han officials, so he put down the pipe, raised his hand and shook Zhao Xin's hand. grip.

"The distinguished guest is here! I'm sorry, I only have one arm left."

At this moment, Fu Mingtai on the side quickly explained that his Ama's name was Amusu, and he had served as a soldier in the Manchu Qing Dynasty since he was young.In the 24th year of Qianlong, he followed Zhaohui to participate in the war to quell Huo Jizhan, and lost an arm in the "Siege of Heishuiying".Thinking of his bravery in battle and beheading many people, Zhaohui wanted to ask for credit for him, but Amusu felt that his life was not long, so he asked for credit in exchange for returning to his hometown in Northeast China, and Zhaohui agreed without thinking too much.After Amusu returned to the Northeast, his injuries gradually recovered under the treatment of the tribal shaman. Only then did he marry a wife and start a family with the money he had accumulated over the years.

According to the customs of the Daur people, the west room in the main room is the uppermost place, and the south kang is the first place, which is for the elderly in the family;

As soon as he sat down, the old man took a cigarette pot and asked Zhao Xin to smoke a bag, and Zhao Xin also took out a cigarette and asked the old man to smoke.The problem was that the pipe pot was so strong that Zhao Xin hiccupped after only two puffs, which made A Miao, who was standing beside her, giggle.

Because Zhao Xin is an official in civil affairs and a guest, his status is like that of an elder; when he was talking to Amusu, Fu Mingtai could only stand neatly under the kang and talk with him, while his wife went After entering the kitchen, he made arrangements, and after a while, he brought out homemade dry milk and milk tea, and then went to arrange meals for the guests.

Daur people treat people with sincerity and enthusiasm, and they don’t have those vain people. As long as they come, they are guests;And if the guests don't eat it, it is the greatest insult and disrespect to the host.Sure enough, after a while, there were a few screams of chickens in the yard.
Amusu was getting old, and while chatting, he talked about the past when he went west with Zhaohui.Fu Mingtai was a little worried at first, fearing that Ama would offend Zhao Xin by talking about the Qing army, but after a while he saw that Zhao Xin listened with gusto, so he was relieved.

"It's really hard to fight the Black Water Camp! From October to the first month of the next year, it's three months, the weather is freezing, and the food is not enough after a few days. The returning soldiers can't get in, so they run to the upper reaches of the river." To fill the camp, we dug ditches outside the city to drain the water. When thousands of people shot, it was like thunder on the ground. People on both sides shot at each other, and the blunderbuss hit each other like water, and many people died just like that. .That's horrible!"

"Then what happened next? How did you carry it through?" Zhao Xin was fascinated by what he heard, and unconsciously took another puff of his cigarette pouch, and the acrid tobacco smell made him roll his eyes.

"The commander-in-chief has a way! We hid in the woods during the day, and at night, the commander-in-chief asked us to cut down the tree and take out the blunderbuss from the returning soldiers from the trunk."

The old man later talked about the lack of food and water at that time. The Qing army first killed the horses. Later, in order to ensure the number of horses, they had to remove the leather from the saddles and roast them.If it weren't for the dug out of two rooms of old food from the ground when digging the well, thousands of people would starve to death. At that time, everyone said that it was God's help and the emperor's blessing.

"Ah! My arm was broken by the blunderbuss when I was breaking out of the encirclement. It has been almost 30 years."

After listening to the old man's words, Zhao Xin couldn't help but see the scene of thousands of miles of vast sea and beacon fire.You must know that the Qing army was not the Northern Navy armed to the teeth. Thousands of people went deep into the enemy's rear, surrounded by tens of thousands of enemy troops, built a city with soil, and were isolated and helpless. Under such harsh conditions, they could still persist for nearly three months.

Regardless of positions, Zhaohui and the Qing army who participated in the siege of the Blackwater Camp are definitely role models for soldiers.If it were not for the bloody battles of the Qing army, there would be no 190 million square kilometers of land on Tianshan South Road, and there would be no such thing as "indivisible since ancient times"!
Thinking of this, he looked at old man Amusu with respect.

Alas, it is also because Zhaohui is a Manchurian. If this is a Han Chinese, some people in another time and space will not be blown to the sky.I think Li Rusong killed and wounded more than 1000 Japanese pirates at the price of [-] to [-] in the Bi Ti Pavilion, and he was blown into a god by some people.

Just when Zhao Xin fell into deep thought because of Amusu's narration, he heard a loud voice from outside: "Is Brother Fu Mingtai at home?"

"It's here!" Fu Mingtai hurried out of the house to look, and it turned out that there were several familiar Ewenki hunters standing outside the courtyard gate.Because several of Zhao Xin's guards were staying in the yard, the Ewenki didn't know what was going on, so they didn't dare to come in.

At this time, Zhao Xin talked to Amusu, got up and came out, and saw three strong men in roe deer leather clothes standing at the gate of the yard, with muskets on their backs, and a head hanging from a wooden frame on their shoulders. wild boar.

Fu Mingtai smiled and explained to Zhao Xin that these three were his good friends, and today he killed a wild boar, and wanted to come and exchange some food with him to bring back.The Beihai Trading Company and the border residents accept leather products, mountain products and medicinal materials, but wild boars are not accepted. You must know that Beihai Town has opened five pig farms.

Everyone who comes is a guest, Fu Mingtai greeted him to come in after speaking, but Zhao Xin's guard wanted to stop him, but Zhao Xin shook his head slightly and stopped.

Several Ewenki put down their prey, and first went to Westinghouse to say hello to Amusu.With so many people coming, there was no room to sit in the room, so Zhao Xin proposed to sit and chat in the yard, anyway, the weather is not cold now.

Everyone was busy working together. First, they set up a kang table in the yard, and then used wood as a stool. Fu Mingtai also lit a bunch of wormwood on the open space to drive away mosquitoes.

Seeing the wild boar, Amusu said happily, "Shaman God blesses us, the Chinese New Year is coming early!"

The three Ewenki hunters were very nimble, and it took only an hour to pluck, disembowel and tidy up. After Fu Mingtai's wife stewed the pork, they came to sit on the ground and drink milk tea.

Zhao Xin took out cigarettes from his pocket and signaled them to take them by themselves. The Ewenki people did not hesitate, lit one each, and smiled at Zhao Xin.Xiao Wulong, who was acting as a translator, just reached out and wanted to get one, but was slapped back by Zhao Xin.

"Children with big farts don't learn well!" At this moment, Prince Zhao completely forgot that he was only 15 years old when he learned to smoke.

"I'm not young anymore, I'll be sixteen after the new year." Oolong lowered his head and muttered, showing a bit of dissatisfaction.

Zhao Xin smacked the back of the opponent's head twice and said, "Let's talk about it after eighteen!"

The Ewenki hunters laughed when they saw this, so Zhao Xin introduced himself as a civil affairs clerk from Heilongjiang City, and chatted with the three of them.He learned that the three Ewenki people named Dawa, Nayanzhuo and Ubuli all lived in the nearby mountains and did not settle in Humar Town. Zhao Xin was a little surprised and asked why they didn't go down the mountain to settle down.

Dawa said while blowing clouds and mist: "My lord, the government not only sent people to build a house for us, but also set up a fence and dug a well to draw water for him to drink. It is said that we should thank the official. But my lord, An This thing is used to drinking mountain spring water, and the water drawn from the well will stick to its mouth, and it doesn't drink at all."

Zhao Xin knew that the "犴" in the other party's mouth referred to reindeer, so he asked curiously, "Is it so difficult to raise?"

"Ah! I listened to the government and went down the mountain with my 20-odd animals. Three months, six of them died of illness in three months." After Dawa finished speaking, he raised his hand to wipe the tears from the corners of his eyes. It really hurts!
After listening to Oolong's translation, Zhao Xin patted the other person's shoulder sympathetically, and then asked, "How is your sika deer breeding going?"

"This is good!" Ubud, who is in his 40s, said vigorously: "I have raised more than ten sika deer. Last year, I made a lot of money by cutting antlers and selling them to Beihai Trading Company. This year, I plan to sell all the deer at home. Sika deer."

As soon as this remark came out, Dawa and Nayanzhuo showed envious expressions on their faces. If there were not too many reindeer at home and it was difficult to take care of them, they would also want to settle down and raise sika deer.The sika velvet antlers cut by the border residents in the past two years were all purchased by the Beihai trading company, and then sold to the south and island countries by the Ministry of Trade, as much as they wanted.

"Compendium of Materia Medica" says that pilose antler produces essence and nourishes marrow, nourishes blood and nourishes yang, strengthens tendons and bones, and cures all debilitation, deafness, dark eyes, dizziness and dysentery.It has been a precious medicinal material since ancient times.

Zhao Xin didn't know anything about deer antler at first, so he thought why all deer antlers were the same.Later, when I was eating at Shen Jingdan's house, I casually said a few words, and Wu Xianning, who happened to come to visit, taught me a lesson.Only then did he know that deer antlers pay attention to tenderness, the less bone the better, and the sika deer has the least bone and the best medicinal properties, followed by red deer and reindeer the worst.

In the past, due to the ban on the Northeast by the Qing Dynasty, the supply of velvet antler in the south was not large, so some drug dealers used red antler from Shaanxi and Gansu to sell it as sika antler. Wu's pharmacy was cheated once.Later, when Wu Xianning was in charge of a clinic in Heilongjiang City, he heard that the Sauron people had reindeer breeders, so he asked someone to cut some antlers. But when he tried it on patients, the medicinal properties were not as good as red deer.

Zhao Xin said to Dawa and Na Yanzhuo: "Did you hear that? Why do you have to raise sika deer? Isn't it better to raise sika deer? Besides, each family will be allocated [-] acres of land when they settle down in the mountains. The civil affairs department will give you seeds and tools. The canals have been repaired for you."

Dawa just kept his head silent when he heard this, and he was really unwilling to ask him to give up dozens of pigs.But Na Yanzhuo hesitated for a moment, and finally plucked up the courage to say: "My lord, I'm not going to say something nice. Back then, the imperial court also let us farm in Zhao'erlisu, but they stopped after only three years. Drive us back to the mountains and set An to hunt."

After Zhao Xin heard this, he asked quickly, but Na Yanzhuo saw that the other party was not angry, so he simply told the story.

It turned out that in the 20th year of Qianlong, Hu Erqi, who was then the general manager of Hulunbu Yuer, was ordered to lead the officers and soldiers of Sauron and Barhu to Xinjiang. But when they returned in triumph five years later, they found that the local Sauron and Barhu People's livelihood is very difficult, many people have been reduced to fishing hygiene, and some even beg for a living.

So Huer started to ask Qianlong to reclaim wasteland and farm in Hulunbu Yuer.Although the attitude of the Military Aircraft Department was ambiguous, Qianlong still agreed.After that, the Qing court allocated seeds, repaired canals, and returned livestock. In addition, they specially transferred "Tarya Qin Huizi" from the northwest to teach them how to farm.

Although the Saurons are not good at farming and the harvest is not high, they can always solve the problem of food and clothing, and they are getting stronger every year.But who knows that in the third year, the imperial court suddenly issued an order to withdraw the "Tali Yaqin Huizi" and the tool cattle that had been issued. animal husbandry.

After hearing this, Zhao Xin understood what was going on, so he smiled and said: "The Manchu court did not allow you to plant land because the Manchus in the pass were no longer able to fight. They all ate, drank and had fun, but what about you? Living in the mountains and forests, you live by hunting all day long. You encounter wild boars, bears, or tigers. They are tough. That's why they don't let you learn to farm, so that you can continue to serve as soldiers for the Manchus. But our Beihai town It’s different, the better off the people are, the happier we are.”

Dawa suddenly said: "What's the difference? Hunting is a skill passed down from our ancestors! Besides, didn't the Beihai Navy also recruit hundreds of people from our tribe? My brother went."

"Hehe, Brother Dawa, you are still in the military! Do you know that besides training, they also need to learn official Chinese and read and write?"

"What! Teach them to read? Then, will Wen Dai of my family be able to become a scholar in the future? My family will also be able to produce scholars!" Dawa couldn't read Chinese characters, and he didn't even open the letter Wen Dai sent before he left for Nanyang.Hearing Zhao Xin's words at this moment, he opened his mouth in disbelief.The shaman in the clan said that scholars are all stars descending from the sky.

"Of course, when they leave the army in a few years, they will be able to go to work in factories or towns, and they will never go hungry again. Look, now there are restaurants in Heilongjiang City, Yaksa, and even Nerchinsk. School. Even if you don’t want to live in Heilongjiang City, you can still go to Yakesa and Nerchinsk? The civil affairs department will send people to teach you how to raise sika deer and teach you how to grow rye and sugar beets. Isn’t this day better than hunting and letting go?”

Zhao Xin's biggest feeling is that he has to teach the frontier people advanced agricultural technology so that they can walk out of the mountains; the other is to popularize education and spread Chinese culture.

Advanced productivity and strong culture are the driving force for the integration of ethnic minorities. Coupled with intermarriage, within 100 years, most of the border residents on this land will become part of the Han nationality.

In the evening, Fumingtai's son and daughter also returned home from the school in Humar Town.Zhao Xin and his party and three Ewenki people ate a sumptuous meal of hand-picked wild boar and stewed chicken at Fu Mingtai's house, but Zhao Xin felt that the bowl of mixed willow sprouts was the best.He bit the bullet and drank two glasses of white wine before he couldn't drink anymore. If A Miao hadn't blocked him and said that Zhao Xin was not in good health and couldn't drink more, he would probably have to be carried back by the guards.

But Zhao Xin thinks that this one time is enough, and next time he will not eat anything.Not to mention that he didn't pluck the pig hairs from the meat, old Amusu put two chicken heads into his bowl, saying that only distinguished guests can eat chicken heads.

Looking at the oolong eating chicken wings, Zhao Xin really wants to change it!

　Taliyaqinhuizi was a Junggar captured in the war to quell Xinjiang.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)