On the Liaodong Peninsula outside the pass, the Tairan Sea sighed and shrank in front of the stove. The door was sealed by the heavy snow and no one would come to visit at this time. He finally felt a lot more at ease. It was going to be the New Year soon. The north wind was blowing and snow was falling. But since winter had come, could spring be far behind? Once spring arrived, an unprecedented fate would arrive irresistibly. For the first time in his life, the Tairan Sea was going to be a soldier.
All the changes came from last year, when the Great Master returned to Shengjing from Beijing. This was something that had never happened in more than a hundred years. In the past, there was a tomb sweeping ceremony every year, but it was just some officials sent by the imperial court. This time, the Great Master really returned to the land of prosperity of the Qing Dynasty.
Of course, everyone knew that the reason the Great Master returned was not because he deeply missed the old master who was buried in Shengjing, but because he couldn't stay in the pass anymore and had to escape back to Shengjing. As a servant, of course, he couldn't speak ill of the Great Master behind his back. However, there were all kinds of bad people among the servants. A gossipy servant said in front of the Great Master that the Bannermen in Lushun had cut down trees and sold them to the foreigners, making a lot of money. Therefore, a group of people used the excuse of cutting down trees without permission and destroying the ancestors' Fengshui as an excuse to force the Bannermen who participated in selling the trees to hand over the money. In addition to this, the Bannermen, including the Tairan Sea, were also ordered to fight in the army.
When the Great Master was in the pass, the Tairan Sea and the others lived very peacefully. After having the timber business, everyone's life became more prosperous day by day. Last year, everyone had already cut down the trees and were waiting to put the rafts to sell for money. However, they didn't expect people to sit at home or come from the sky.
Other than sighing, the Tairan Sea had no other thoughts. Before the heavy snow sealed the door, there was some news. It was said that the Han people in the pass would come out and must kill all the Bannermen outside the pass. The Tairan Sea was skeptical about this news. He had never been to the pass and the imperial court didn't allow Han people to make a living outside the pass. He didn't know if the people he saw on the foreigners' ship were Han. However, he didn't see anything special about those Han people.
Another piece of news had also reached the outskirts of the Great Wall. The grave of Great Master Xianfeng, who had passed away a few years ago, had been dug up. Some people said that the craftsman who built the tomb for Xianfeng Great Lord gave the map of the tomb to the Han people, and the Han people dug up Xianfeng Great Lord's tomb. Of course, all the treasures inside were not left behind. They also chopped off Xianfeng Great Lord's head and hung it outside the city gate of Beijing. There was even a rumor that not only the Han people dug out Xianfeng's Great Lord's head, they also did not manage to protect the graves of the other Great Lords who had returned to Heaven.
When he came to deliver the news, the people of the Tairan Sea were gathered together. The high-ranking officials and kings, who were even higher in status than the flag master, stamped their feet and beat their chests when they talked about this matter, tears flowing down their faces. Tairan Sea didn't have any special feelings about this. To him, it was fine as long as he could live a good life, sell more wood, and make more money. The Old Master's grave being dug up was indeed very tragic, but for the Bannermen outside the Great Wall, they just wanted to guard the place where the dragon rose from their ancestors and guard the grave of the Old Master of Shengjing. Their Great Lord retreated from inside the Great Wall to outside the Great Wall, but the land outside the Great Wall was still there. What else did they want?
Just as the Tairan Sea was sighing, there was a knock on the door. Who would come to the door on this snowy day? The Tairan Sea looked at his wife. Some time ago, he was in a bad mood and hit his wife several times. Seeing the Tairan Sea's eyes fall on her, the Tairan Sea's wife shivered.
Too lazy to talk to the woman, the Tairan Sea got up and went to open the door. The person standing outside the door turned out to be the flag master. He was dressed like a cotton bag. This was the big cotton jacket he bought from the foreign devil last time when he traded wood with the foreign devil. This cloth was really good, and it looked much thicker than leather. The big boots on his feet were not the kind of dog leather shoes made by the Bannermen, but boots with rubber soles. The inside was made of strange cashmere, which was light and slippery. At that time, the Tairan Sea thought it was too expensive, but when winter came, he regretted it. Now, looking at the clothes the flag master bought from the foreign devil, he knew the difficulty of walking in the snow for so long, and the Tairan Sea regretted it even more. With this, it would be much more convenient to go hunting. Why didn't he think of it at that time?
After entering the house and sitting down on the kang, the flag master took out a pack of cigarettes from his bosom. The Tairan Sea was illiterate, so he couldn't understand the two words "Yunyan" in the center of the colorful cardboard box. But this cigarette was good. It was strong and didn't have the pungent taste of dry tobacco. However, this cigarette was not cheap, so the flag master bought a lot of it. The Tairan Sea only bought two, and he had already smoked them all.
He hurriedly took a cigarette and felt flattered. He moved closer to the flag master and lit the cigarette with a match. Both of them took a deep puff and enjoyed the comfortable feeling. The flag master took another puff and said, "Tairan Sea, do you want to go to war?"
When the Tairan Sea heard this question, he thought of how his master, who was even taller than the flag master, reprimanded and cursed them. He hurriedly said, "Master wants me to go to war, so I will go to war!"
"Tsk!" The flag master frowned. "I told you to tell the truth!"
"The truth?" The Tairan Sea carefully looked at the flag master's stiff face. After walking for so long, his face was frozen stiff, so it was hard to see his expression immediately. After carefully analyzing the flag master's expression, the Tairan Sea said tentatively, "Flag master, I don't want to go to war!"
"If you don't want to go to war, then you have to follow me and work for Master. But you better keep your mouth shut. You will still be a soldier, but being a soldier is different from going to war, "the flag master said in a dignified tone.
"Ah?" The Tairan Sea didn't quite understand what this meant. Being a soldier but not going to war? How could there be such a good thing?
At this time, the Tairan Sea's wife had already left. Only the Tairan Sea and the flag master were left in the room. The flag master fiercely took another puff of the cigarette. After exhaling the smoke, he said, "Master said that the imperial court has no money now, and the foreign devils are still buying wood from us. In the future, if we want to cut down trees and sell wood, it will be the Master who asked us to do it. You are an honest person, so I pulled you to do it. If you want to do it, then follow me. "
Tai Lanhai was confused by this news. Why didn't the one who chopped the tree was the master above? Now, the one who wanted to continue chopping the tree was still the master above. Which master was the one who had the final say? However, being a soldier and going to war was something that happened more than 100 years ago for the Bannermen outside the pass. They had never seen a war in the past 100 years. The Tairan Sea quickly nodded and said, "I'll listen to you!"
The flag master nodded with satisfaction, but he immediately pulled a long face and said, "But you better keep your mouth shut. If you hear this news from someone else, I won't let you go!"
"Yes! Yes! " The Tairan Sea nodded repeatedly, but after a while, he couldn't help but ask, "How big is the Master?"
"It's the order from our Lord. How big do you think he is?" The flag master said impatiently.
Hearing the word "Lord," the Tairan Sea was completely relieved. The Lord was second only to the Master. With such a person giving the order, no one else would be able to do anything!
After the two finished a cigarette, the flag master got up and left. Looking at his hurried appearance, it seemed that he was going to find someone else. The flag master saw the Tairan Sea looking at him putting the cigarette into his pocket. He snorted, took out the cigarette, and threw it to the Tairan Sea. "At that time, you earned a lot of money. Why didn't you think of buying more?"
The Tairan Sea quickly took the remaining half box of cigarettes and said with a smile, "That's because I'm afraid of being poor. This time, I'll follow you and the Lord. When I earn money, I'll buy enough for a year!"
After the flag master left, the Tairan Sea quickly took out a cigarette and lit it on the stove. Looking at the snow outside the window, he took a deep breath. When he was ordered to hand over the money he earned from selling the wood, the Tairan Sea only handed over a small part of it. The rest of the silver was buried. Now that he could cut wood and sell it, it seemed that the good days were far from over.
The snow inside the pass was much lighter than outside the pass. At this time, the headquarters of the North Military Region was located in Beijing. The Bannermen were swept away, and the Bannermen who insisted that they were Han were also sent to Huoyang. At this time, Beijing had almost become a city of soldiers. There was a cotton coat inside the Type 65 winter suit. The political commissar of the North Military Region, Ruan Xihao, was wearing a military coat and reading the latest order. The Liberation Army's advance was too fast, and the result of sweeping the world naturally increased the logistical pressure. Therefore, the central government's latest order was not to chase the enemy, but to build two railways, one from Beijing to Tianjin, and the other from Beijing to Changshan. Then it would go all the way south to the Yellow River opposite Zhengxian County.
For Vézé, this railway line was naturally the famous Beijing-Guangzhou Railway, the northern section of the Yellow River. Moreover, Vézé decided not to use the name Shijiazhuang. It should be known that Vézé had seen a liberation war movie a long time ago, and the name seemed to be the liberation of Shijiazhuang. At that time, the young Vézé thought it was very strange. What was so good about a broken village?
Later, when he bragged to his brothers in Hebei, the brothers who were born in Shijiazhuang all thought that the provincial capital should be called Zhengding or simply Changshan. Changshan Zhao Zilong, a great hero that the people were familiar with, a handsome man with a silver spear and a white horse, would definitely bring glory to the provincial capital of Hebei. Therefore, Shijiazhuang was not marked on the railway map, but the name of Changshan was written boldly.
Ruan Xihao was from Guangxi. Of course, he knew the name of Changshan Zhao Zilong, but he did not know about these disputes in later generations. Even if he did know, Ruan Xihao would not be in the mood to joke about it. The current workload could really be described as time was tight and the task was heavy. Not only these two railways, but the Beijing-Hankou Railway also had a branch line to Handan, which was built for the Handan Iron and Steel Group, which was still on paper.
Of course, more importantly, the Central Military Commission told the Northern Command that when they advanced into the northeast and Mongolia, they were afraid that war with Russia would be inevitable. Although they did not have as strong a naval force as the British, the Russian army was not weak either. For the time being, they did not fully move north because they wanted to try their best to complete the railway line. They were making logistical preparations for a larger war.
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