Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 572 Lama Banner Comes to a Task Force ([-])

In the late autumn of the 56th year of Qianlong’s reign, the Khalkha Grassland came to a colorful day again. The sun hit the golden branches shaken by the wind, and the air was full of pine fragrance.If you stand on a hill and look far away on horseback, you will see the overwhelming autumn colors of Hangai Mountain. From the grassland to the forest, from the distant mountains to the horizon, the surroundings are peaceful, as if you can hear the sound of thousands of trees growing.

On such a morning like an oil painting, more than [-] equestrians in dark green spotted clothes came from the northeast of the Sabra River.When they came to a hill, they all reined in their horses and looked southwest.At the foot of the hill on the north bank of the confluence of the Sabra River and the Uliasutai River, with five snow-white and brand-new yurts as the center, there are more than a dozen black-looking yurts of different sizes scattered.

"Company commander, look, that's my house!" Mongolian recruit Timur pointed at the yurt in the distance with his horsewhip, and excitedly introduced it to the people around him. "Let Abu make milk tea at home, it's delicious!"

"Hehe, let's go!" Seeing that the leader of the team was about to arrive, Company Commander Wang immediately laughed, and with a wave of his horsewhip, the group rushed down the hillside.

The prairie is very quiet in the early morning, and the wild sparrows are running around in the wilderness, as if the prairie has not yet woken up from a dream
When the horse team passed through a sparse birch forest, the creaking sound of bullock carts slowly came from a distance.Hearing this sound, everyone couldn't help slowing down their horses. Timur explained: "It's probably an ox cart pulling water." After saying that, a smile appeared on his face.For him, all the sights and sounds of his hometown are so dear.

Sure enough, a ragged woman came from the south bank of the river driving a water cart.Timur hurriedly called to greet him, he was confident that anyone here would know him.

"hello!"

"Well, hello?"

The woman driving the carriage stopped like a frightened bird, covering her face with the corners of her kerchief, revealing only her large, sunken eyes.

Timur didn't recognize who the other party was. He thought he must be a newcomer after he was drafted to fight.

"Let me inquire, does Siqin's family still live near here?"

"What did you say? Who?" The woman raised her head cautiously and fearfully, staring at Timur's face intently.

"Siqin is the girl nicknamed 'Swallow'."

The woman's hand held the ox's bit, and she didn't move. She stared at Timur's face stupidly, and never moved away.Feeling strange, Timur couldn't help pushing up the dark green felt military cap with the ear protectors on his head, and wisps of hot air rose from his broad forehead.

Suddenly, the woman's shoulders and the corners of her eyes twitched violently, and her eyes were immediately covered with tears.She tried her best to suppress her voice, and muttered indistinctly: "My God! It's...it's him...Timur!"

The woman yelled "Ah", dropped the waterwheel, and ran crazily towards the hill in the distance. She fell and fell after running far, but quickly got up and ran again...

On the grass where she fell, a few strands of rags were torn from the gown, shaking gently in the wind
Timur scratched his head, thinking who is this?He wanted to go after her, but then thought she might be a madman.Besides, I didn't come back alone, there were dozens of companions.If people saw dozens of big men chasing a woman all over the mountains, it would be too outrageous.So he rode back and explained a few words to Company Commander Wang, but everyone ignored him and continued on their way.

After walking for about a mile, I saw a dilapidated yurt standing not far ahead.In front of the package door stood a thin old lady with a stick and a cane. Her lips shrunk due to tooth loss kept moving, as if she was praying.After a while, she exerted all her strength, moved her footsteps with difficulty, and walked around the yurt from left to right.

Company Commander Wang at the side asked in a deep voice, "Who is this?"

Timur explained in stammering Mandarin: "Company commander, this is the old lady Ganggai. She is blind. She has been begging for half her life and can't walk anymore. She stayed with us a few years ago. She, In the past, when you married and sold your daughter, you got some dowry gifts, and every day you just chanted scriptures and circled around."

Looking at the scene in front of him, Timur suddenly felt heartache.He remembered what Mishilan, the deputy head of the detachment, said at the "complaint meeting": "Those lamas asked you to pray, let you suffer, and seek relief in the afterlife, but can this save the poor on the grassland?"

"No!" Timur suddenly shouted unconsciously, like a ignited cannonball bursting out!So much so that he and his companions around him were startled, and the horse under his crotch also raised its ears straight like sheep's horns, and snorted non-stop.

"Gangaiji, hello!"

The old lady stopped when she heard someone talking, and answered in a very soft voice.But Timur didn't hear it, and when he wanted to ask again, the old man muttered a spell again and continued to circle around.Every time she took a step, she had to use a cane made of birch to explore the way.

As soon as he returned to his hometown, Timur was a little surprised to meet such two people first. Images of the crazy woman and the old lady in front of him alternately appeared in his mind.

In fact, in his heart, there is a girl standing on the bank of the Uliasutai River, always shining, wearing a pink scarf, that is Siqin, whom he misses day and night.
At this moment, the horse that Company Commander Wang was riding was suddenly frightened, neighed and jumped to the side of the road, almost throwing him off.Timur came back to his senses, reined in his horse and looked around, only to see a child's body lying on the road, half buried in the soil, half exposed outside.

After everyone got off their horses and re-buried the child's body, and marked it with tree branches, the joy of riding the horses just now was gone.The group simply led the horses on foot, and in less than 10 minutes, they came to a yurt with gray smoke.

Before Timur could reach the front of the bag, he shouted loudly: "Abu! Erji! I'm back!"

A wrinkled old man opened the shabby door curtain and came out. He was holding a tea bucket in his hand. He had obviously just boiled tea. He poured the tea into the bucket. When he saw Timur, his hand The tea barrel fell to the ground with a "boom", and the hot tea was spilled all over the floor.

"Ah! Timur"

Immediately afterwards, a woman with a wrinkled face also rushed out of the yurt. When she saw Timur, she sat down on the ground with her legs limp, covered her mouth and cried, "They, they said that you died in battle. God bless you!" !"

Timur's father stepped forward, stroking Timur's strong shoulders with trembling hands, and then his red face, tears flowed from the dry eye sockets.
An hour later, there were laughter and laughter inside and outside the yurt.Because there were too many people to sit down, Company Commander Wang simply suggested sitting outside, so everyone sat on the ground outside the package of Timur's house.Timur's parents poured bucket after bucket of boiled milk tea to everyone, and they were very busy.Because the tea was boiling hot, everyone was sweating profusely after drinking it, so everyone took off their military uniforms and only wore a grass green sweater, and they were still drinking while wiping their sweat.

Timur drank a full meal of the milk tea at home, and told his parents about his experience in the past year, and the two old people couldn't help but click their tongues.When he was about to ask about Siqin, he heard the sound of horseshoes behind him, and saw a guy in a dark blue satin robe a dozen steps away looking at him and the others in surprise. Followed by seven or eight servants who also rode horses.

"Goncourt?"

"Timur? You didn't die? Oh! Since you went out with the general, we all expected you to come back soon, and today you are back, which is really happy! Timur, you must know that in such a windy In rainy years, people hope that heroes will be by their side. Don’t they?”

Timur was really not used to Master Goncourt's extraordinary hospitality and compliments.You must know that Master Goncourt, who usually covers the sky on this grassland, has never been so peaceful and approachable to the poor.

The comrades around came over and asked, "Timur, who is this?"

"Master Goncourt, the nephew of the local lama banner merchant Zhuoteba."

In the Qing Dynasty, there were seven lama banners in the Khalkha Mongolian region, occupying a large area of ​​fertile grassland; specifically, the Saiyinnuoyan tribe where Uliasutai is located had five lama banners.Timur's family belongs to the "Nalu Panchan Hutuktu Banner", but this banner is the poorest of all Lama banners.

"Monsieur Goncourt, I've just come home. What do you mean by calling me 'a hero'? What kind of hero am I? It's just that you were sent to serve as an arrow and suffered a year of torture!"

At this, Goncourt smiled cunningly.Just like a hunter standing on a post looking for clues of wild animals, he believes that with his alert eyes, he can see into the bones of the opponent in just a few glances.But when he glanced at Timur and the people around him, a chill suddenly appeared on the back of his neck, because he suddenly felt more like a prey being targeted by a hunter.

When he took a closer look, cold sweat broke out.He suddenly noticed that apart from Timur's father, all the people present had small cropped hair that was almost bald and had no braids at all!
"You, you, you joined the rebellion?" Goncourt said boldly, his teeth chattering.

"You're talking nonsense! They're not traitors, they're the Beihai Navy!" Timur stared at the other party and said word by word.

"That's right! It's the Northern Navy! The Northern Navy!" Goncourt smiled suddenly and bowed to Company Commander Wang. He had already seen that this person was the leader.

"Dare to ask the military master what's the purpose here?"

Company Commander Wang walked a few steps in front of Gong Gul, and said with a straight face, "We are a task force sent by the Beihai Navy's 'Southern Detachment'. This time, we are here to make friends with fellow Mongolians."

"Make, make friends?" Goncourt didn't think about it for a long time.

"Yes, I visited the herdsmen and had a heart-to-heart talk with everyone. Our Beihai Navy is not the ghosts and ghosts that the Qing Dynasty said. We came here to reduce the burden on the herdsmen. There will be no apportioned servants in the future."

Timur added something casually, he said: "From now on, everyone in the world will be equal!"

"Oh! That's good, that's a good thing! It's a good thing!"

Gong Guoer froze for a moment, then suddenly smiled and stroked his horoscope.To him, the sudden appearance of Company Commander Wang and his aggressive attitude seemed to constitute an unsolvable mystery!

It seems that Timur is no longer the silly boy he was a year ago!As the saying goes, if you don't know how deep the river is, you can't enter the water easily.So Gongcourt said kindly: "Oh! I'm sorry, I was wrong just now. Mr. Wang, you and your subordinates should have a good rest. I will treat you to dinner tonight. I really want to hear Bei Haijun's story. situation."

After that, he led some servants away.

When they were talking, because of Timur's rude and impolite words, the parents, who were sweating from worry, turned around and shook their heads at Timur with a bit of blame.

The distraught Siqin still pulled the water truck back. She seemed to be suffering from a serious illness, and her whole body collapsed. As soon as she unloaded the cows pulling the cart, she walked towards her broken and black yurt with heavy steps. , walked two steps, and suddenly heard someone shouting from the owner's bag: "Take away the ashes and pour it out."

She had no choice but to turn back and walk into the snow-white bag.Goncourt's eldest wife scolded: "Why does it take so long to pull a cart of water? Did the wolf bite your heel, or did the bull flirt with you? Damn woman, don't even look at your poor face!"

Siqin, who was used to being abused day and night, bent down to take out the ashes box and dumped it on the ashes pile not far from the yurt.At this time, I saw Goncourt and his servants who had just gone hunting, and returned for some reason.Goncourt's face was as gloomy and terrible as the sky before the rain!After dismounting, he threw the reins of the horse into the hands of the servants, and hurried into the yurt where his father lived.

"Abu! Abu! The Northern Pirates are here! Timur is back!"

When Siqin, who was outside the yurt, heard this, her heart suddenly jumped, and a burst of courage came from nowhere, prompting her to approach the yurt and eavesdrop.

"What? What's the hurry! Speak slowly."

"The big thing is not good! I don't think he knows about Siqin. Let's deal with it. How about we run away?"

Due to excessive fear and tension, Siqin only heard a few words intermittently. She felt a little dizzy, shivered all over her body, and almost collapsed!She gritted her teeth and stiffened her teeth. As soon as she walked into the door of the bungalow where she lived, she fell down on the ground covered with hay.She grabbed a handful of hay with convulsive hands, sparks appeared in front of her eyes, a fire seemed to be burning in her chest, her mouth was dry, and she wanted to drink water
"Timur, why did you come back? Why did you come back?!...Now that I've become like this, how can I see you?...No! I can't see you even if I die, I can't see you!."

(End of this chapter)