The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 353 Panasonic (I)

Jiang Liu'er looked around and soon discovered a large pit more than a meter deep hidden behind the pine tree. The hole was covered with thatch branches and leaves, and the thatch was covered with blood and some black bear hair. The ferocious and terrifying brown bear, for some unknown reason, broke into the tiger's den. It was probably because the safety of the cubs was threatened that the mother tiger risked her life to fight it.

"Bears and tigers are equally matched. When they meet, neither will fight to the death."

Alessa picked out a piece of fur from the gap between the tiger's claws, which was obviously left by a brown bear.

Jiang Liuer took off his outer cotton armor and came to the cave entrance:
"The bear encountered something even scarier, so it panicked and strayed into the tiger's den."

"What are you going to do?"

Jiang Liuer ignored the Jurchen hunter's dissuasion and Hu Biao Hu Biao crawled into the pit.

He groped around in the pit and found animal bones all over the ground. He searched for a while and didn't find any human bones, so he breathed a sigh of relief.

There were two little tigers in the den, but they were both dead. Jiang Liuer opened the tinder and saw that they had shocking wounds on their bodies, which were the work of the giant bear.

Jiang Liuer crawled back to the ground and said to his two companions:

"It's very deep inside, and the Rakshasa ghost can't find it."

He wiped the blood off his face and exchanged glances with the two men. Lao Qian and Alessa had no objections.

They acted immediately. The three of them carried their teammate's body over, dragged it with a rope, and carefully lowered it into the tiger's den.

Jiang Liu'er covered the dead body with leaves and climbed up. The three of them worked together to push the bloody tigress into the cave, and then began to fill it with soil. The entrance of the cave was compacted with soil and rocks, and covered with a layer of pine needles.

After doing all this, Jiang Liuer was exhausted and out of breath, and Lao Qian was almost exhausted, his face was pale, and sweat was pouring down his forehead.

Jiang Liuer handed him a coconut ladle, fearing that this weak teammate would be the third to die.

Only Alessa was still busy.

The wild Jurchen tribe used the tiger as their totem, and Alesa was a kind man, so he decided to perform a shamanic ritual for the tigress free of charge, to pray for the soul of the deceased. As Jiang Liu'er and Lao Qian watched, the Jurchen hunter, barefoot and with her hair loose, danced around a large pine tree, chanting an ancient incantation. The incantation was mysterious and full of magic. Translated into Chinese, it went like this:
"Go back, go back, a tiger cub is still alive, it only eats fish and not vegetables, go back, go back."

Jiang Liu'er was no longer surprised by these strange and bizarre things. Only Lao Qian and the little tiger cub stared blankly at the half-baked wizard with their mouths wide open.

Half a wizard, a warrior, and two burdens, it seems like they can't win.

When Old Qian saw Alessa jumping for joy, he quickly thought of his son who was far away in Kaiyuan, wondering if he had recovered from his illness.

If a child unfortunately dies young, the civil affairs officials may not allow his family to invite a Taoist priest to come and perform rituals on the body (similar to the shaman dance, popular in western Hubei).

Old Qian's worries were unfounded. Kaiyuan believed in freedom of religion, and the Protector of the Country did not interfere with the beliefs of the people of all ethnic groups. As long as they did not believe in cults like the Wenxiang Sect or the White Lotus Sect, it did not matter what the people believed in.

Of course, after conquering Kyushu Island and becoming the Archbishop of Asia, Franciscan Mashiying Senti began to subtly guide the people of Liaodong to believe in the new doctrine.

Not everyone is required to be religious, but at least before eating, everyone still has to recite the prayer of more than 300 words (in order to avoid readers questioning the narrator's word count, the prayer will not be repeated here) to bless the Protector of the Country.

In short, in Liaodong, shamanism is allowed, Taoism is allowed, not to mention Buddhism.

It is possible that fetishism will rise in the future.

But now is not the time to discuss this issue, especially on the Kuyi Island where there are few people and wild animals everywhere.

Jiang Liuer said to the little tiger cub:

"You are alone, so come with me."

The little tiger cub was indifferent and meowed.

Jiang Liuer knew that it wanted to eat the delicious dried fish from Hunhe River again.

"No, no."

Seeing that the little tiger was not giving in, Jiang Liuer had no choice but to open his sleeves, take out the last two pieces of dried fish, and wave them in front of the little tiger.

"Is it a lot? Not much!"

The Jurchen hunter curled his lips and said disapprovingly:
"The tiger is a forest spirit, and spirits all have names."

Jiang Liu'er nodded thoughtfully and asked the old hunter what he should call it. Alessa explained to the young Han Chinese that since you discovered the tiger, you should name it. Others' names don't count. But you have to think carefully, because tigers are very difficult to raise.

"Don't you Han people have a saying, 'Raising a tiger brings disaster,'"

"Just saving its life."

Jiang Liuer finished speaking and leaned over to look at the tiger cub:

"I found you under a pine tree, so I call you Pine Tree."

So the tiger cub's name became Panasonic.

Songxia wagged his tail at Jiang Liuer.

Jiang Liuer reached out and stroked the tiger's whiskers, pulling them gently, looking very familiar. The little tiger cub bared its teeth and growled repeatedly.

"Let's go."

Songxia circled the pine tree twice, raised his head and wailed, then followed them into the depths of the valley.

Wisps of green smoke rose from the valley, and the Rakshasa people's camp was set up in front of an oak forest.

"Captain Huang said arson, what does that mean?"

The taciturn old Qian thought for a while and said:
"It's a code signal, a code signal for reinforcements. The people on the ship will reinforce us when they see the fire."

The wild Jurchen shook his head and said:
"He wants us to burn the Rakshasa ghost to death."

The three of them talked as they walked, and when they were two miles away from the smoke from the cooking fires, they crawled in the bushes and stopped talking.

The Rakshasa ghost is right in front of us, and it's time for revenge.

Jiang Liuer was about to emerge from the bushes when he was grabbed by the shaman.

Alessa pointed ahead, where a Cossack musketeer stood on a branch of a tall oak tree, looking around.

A small river flows by the edge of the woods. There are thatched huts scattered along the river bank, looking tattered. A few shirtless Rakshasa ghosts staggered over and stood by the river to urinate. It seemed that they had just drunk some alcohol.

"Why are they all shirtless? Aren't they afraid of the cold?"

"They are not human beings, they are animals, and animals are not afraid of the cold."

Jiang Liuer looked down at the pine tree crawling at his feet:
"Matsushita, are you cold?"

Before he could finish his words, a distant musket blast was heard. The shaman instinctively shrank his neck and simultaneously pressed down on Jiang Liu'er's head. A dozen lead bullets landed a dozen paces ahead, striking a birch log and sending sawdust flying.

Jiang Liuer said anxiously:

"The Rakshasa ghost discovered us?!"

Alessa looked into the distance and saw more than a dozen Rakshasa ghosts walking out of the straw hut, holding long-barreled muskets. After the fuse was lit, there was another burst of explosions when they aimed at Jiang Liuer and others.

This time the volley hit the three of them a little further away. The Jurchen hunter saw this and laughed:

"They're hunting."

Looking in the direction of Alessa's finger, a dazed wild boar was hit by a lead bullet. It let out a sharp roar and fell to the ground motionless.

Jiang Liuer knew why the black bear went crazy.

When he was in Shenyang, he heard the workshop craftsmen talk about the heavy matchlock gun, which was quite powerful and not inferior to the flintlock gun.

The Cossacks' firearms were powerful, and for the three of them to force their way into the camp would undoubtedly be courting death.

Jiang Liuer stroked the tiger's whiskers under the pine tree, looked up at the straw hut, his eyes blazing with anger:
"Rest here, set fire at night, kill people, and take revenge!"

(End of this chapter)