In the late Ming Dynasty, rising from the grassland

Chapter 7 Dove occupying the magpie's nest
Hay is flammable but not flame-resistant, so fires come and go faster.

The fire only lasted for half a quarter of an hour before it dimmed and then went out, leaving only traces of smoke among the ashes, and the ten tents were reduced to ashes.

Except for some ceramic and iron utensils and unburned long and short swords and arrowheads, there were only charred corpses left.

At this moment, the entire camp was filled with a burning smell.

Except for Lin Ruiniu's wife and 16 other people, the two Han people were the only ones still alive.

At first, after they woke up, they wanted to rush out to put out the fire. Naturally, they were stopped by Mrs. Niu and the others and tied up.

So after making sure that all the Tatars in the entire camp were burned to death, Sister Niu and the others escorted the two of them to Lin Rui.

"Brother Lin, what are you going to do with these two rip-offs?"

"I think we should just kill them. These two beasts usually bully us, and just now they actually wanted to resist."

Everyone looked at the two of them angrily.

The two people were so frightened that they just knelt on the ground and kowtowed to beg for mercy.

"Lock them up first and wait until I interrogate them."

Lin Rui waved his hand. There was no time to deal with the two of them now. After speaking, he gave some instructions to Sister Niu and the others, then picked three horses, called two of the men, and hurried out of the camp.

At this time, the sky was already turning white.

"Brother Lin, where are we going?"

After what happened last night, the three of them all admired and convinced Lin Rui very much. The youngest among them, named Wang Gouwa, was curious as soon as he came out of the camp.

"Go pick her up. She escaped with me."

After Lin Rui finished speaking, he urged the two of them to hurry up.

It has been almost a day and a night, and I am very worried about Zhang Xiuying's safety.

The three of them rode horses and quickly arrived at the place where Zhang Xiuying was originally placed. But looking around, they saw a vast expanse of white, with no fur blanket at all.

It was obvious that he had been completely submerged by the wind and snow, so Lin Rui had no choice but to shout at the top of his lungs.

"Sister Xiuying..."

After shouting for a long time without getting a response, Lin Rui's heart sank to the bottom of the valley, and he started digging frantically in the snow in the general direction.

Wang Gouwa and another person saw this and hurried forward to help. Fortunately, the snow was not thick, and Lin Rui quickly found the fur blanket covering Zhang Xiuying.

"Sister Xiuying..."

After lifting the blanket, he saw that she was breathless and unconscious. Lin Rui was also very anxious. He quickly called two people for help, tied her and the leather blanket to the horse, and hurried back to the camp.

"Brother Lin, who is this? What happened to her?"

Back at the camp, everyone saw Lin Rui carrying someone off his horse, and they all gathered around him out of curiosity.

"This is Sister Xiuying, Sister-in-law Niu, please finish making the hot soup and come over here, and then bring over a basin of snow..."

Lin Rui said nothing, then carried Zhang Xiuying into a tent, placed her on the couch, and took off her clothes.

"Brother Lin, what are you doing?"

After Mrs. Niu and another woman came in with hot soup and snow, Lin Rui had already taken off all her clothes.

Faced with the two people's inquiries, Lin Rui did not explain, but began to rub her body vigorously with the snow until her body was all red and hot, then he opened her mouth and fed her a few mouthfuls of ginger soup.

After some inspection, it was found that her heartbeat had obviously become stronger and her pale face had a trace of blood. Lin Rui breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

"Sister-in-law Niu, please bring us two more braziers and two more blankets."

"Okay." Mrs. Niu didn't ask any more, she just answered and ran out. After a while, she ran in with a few women carrying a brazier, blankets and a pot of cooked mutton.

"Brother Lin, we have cooked a pot of mutton. You can eat some first. We will take care of her."

"That!"

Looking at a large bowl full of steaming mutton, Lin Rui's belly growled for a while, and he immediately began to eat a large portion of it, not forgetting to ask: "By the way, have you eaten yet?"

"Haha, I've eaten before. You guys have never eaten meat so openly!"

Sister-in-law Niu said with a smile, and the others also laughed, and two people even subconsciously touched their bellies.

They have never eaten meat openly, but they have never eaten meat at all since they were young, especially mutton.

"Haha, so many cattle and sheep are enough for us to eat until we die." Lin Rui burped equally comfortably and laughed.

This was the most satisfying meal he had ever had since his rebirth.

"By the way, Brother Lin, the sisters just took stock. Including the lambs, there are about a thousand sheep, more than 200 horses, and only more than 50 cattle. However, we burned almost half of the forage. I'm afraid that Not enough for them to eat.”

"Well, then kill all the sheep and cows and save the horses." Lin Rui thought about it and said.

"Ah, it's such a waste to kill them all."

Everyone looked reluctant to give up. How much food and money would they be worth if they brought so many cattle and sheep back to the pass?

"There's nothing we can do about it. It's winter anyway, so it won't rot. Eat it slowly. If you can't finish it, just turn it into dried meat!" Lin Rui waved his hand.

After what happened last night, everyone had already regarded Lin Rui as their backbone, so naturally they would not refute his words and just nodded.

"In addition to livestock, there are ten tents. We found a lot of leathers, some weapons and bows and arrows inside. We only found more than 500 kilograms of grain, mostly coarse grains, and some salt, tea, cloth..."

Mrs. Niu started to introduce the items she had just counted again. After that, she looked at Lin Rui and asked, "Brother Lin, what should we do in the future? Should we stay here or go back to the Central Plains?"

Everyone else also looked at Lin Rui.

"To travel in winter is to court death. For the time being, we can only stay here. As for whether to go or stay in the future, we will decide later!"

Lin Rui thought about it and said, and then discussed it with everyone, leaving the youngest Xiaocui to take care of Zhang Xiuying, and then left the big tent with everyone.

It was only then that Lin Rui had the two Han men taken over and prepared for a careful interrogation.

The two men were named Liu Si and Wang Wu. They were both in their thirties, but looked to be in their forties. Faced with Lin Rui's interrogation, they naturally did not dare to say anything false.

Both of them were craftsmen near Datong. In the fourth year of Chongzhen's reign, they were robbed and moved to the grassland by Lin Dan Khan of the Chahar tribe.

Since one of them knew blacksmithing and the other knew carpentry, they had been responsible for helping Lin Dan Khan build weapons, and their life was good. Even if Lin Dan Khan was defeated and retreated to Xihai Lake, he was not willing to leave the two of them and a group of Han craftsmen behind.

In July of this year, after the Chahar tribe surrendered to the Jin Dynasty, Huang Taiji dismantled the Chahar tribe to pieces.

As a result, nearly [-] Chahar people were divided into hundreds of tribes, some of which were resettled in Hetao, and some of which moved back to the Liaohe area.

In order to appease the hundreds of tribes, Huang Taiji did not ask for the slaves and craftsmen of the Chahar tribe. In the end, the two were assigned to this small tribe. They helped the Tatars repair weapons, tools, carriages, etc. on weekdays. It's not as moisturizing as before, but it's passable.

"For the sake of being Han Chinese, I will give you a chance to change your ways. From now on, just be obedient and obedient. If you dare to have any bad thoughts, those Tatars last night will be your fate. !”

After understanding the situation, Lin Rui said sharply.

Not to mention that the two of them were Han Chinese and had been robbed in the first place. Even if they were Tatars, he had to keep them.

After all, Tatars know the importance of blacksmiths and carpenters, how could a modern man like him not know this?
"Yes, yes, we must be honest and obedient, and we must work hard without complaining!"

Both of them nodded quickly. At this time, they also understood the situation and had a glimmer of hope in their hearts, hoping that they could follow everyone back to the Central Plains.

Lin Rui then asked Mrs. Niu to untie their ropes, and then he couldn't wait to assign tasks to the two of them, asking them to use the burnt knives, arrowheads and iron tools to beat everyone first. Get out the long knife and a long gun.

(End of this chapter)