This old man is Mu Zhehu's father, Mu Kulun, the old patriarch of the Taior tribe.

After meeting Luo Yue, Mu Kulun said a few polite words, and then said to Mu Zhehu: "You go and deal with the aftermath, I have something I want to talk to Luo Junmen alone." He turned to Luo Yue again and said, "Luo Junmen has time to talk to me, an old man, alone!"

Luo Yue nodded and said, "Okay, I'm happy." ”

Seeing that both of them said this, Mu Zhehu didn't say anything more, said goodbye to Luo Yue and Mu Kulun, and left with his children. And Mu Kulun and Luo Yue walked out of a distance side by side, and there was no one else within more than 10 meters around, Luo Yue said, "Is there anything the old man wants to tell me?"

Mu Kulun nodded, looked at Luo Yue, and said, "Is Luo Junmen really appointed by the imperial court to come here?"

Luo Yue was slightly stunned, looked at Mu Kulun, and saw that his eyes were blazing, as if he meant something, so his heart also moved, and said, "Does the old man have doubts about us?"

Mu Kulun laughed and said: "Please forgive me for being blunt, if Luo Junmen is a person sent by the imperial court, how can he not have his hair and braids, I don't believe that the foreign affairs will do it until even the braids are cut." ”

Luo Yue nodded, this old man knew much more than Mu Zhehu, so he said: "It seems that the old man knows a lot about the affairs in the Guannei, I heard the patriarch say that the old man was born in martial arts, but I'm afraid he is not an ordinary general." ”

Mukulun said: "I don't hide it from Luo Junmen, when we settled here, Ah Hu was only 12 years old, and when I resigned, Ah Hu was not yet 10 years old, so Ah Hu didn't know much about my previous affairs, 30 years ago, I was the capital of Heilongjiang." ”

Luo Yue was also taken aback, it has been 5 years since he came to this era, he has a considerable understanding of the official system of the Qing court, from which it is a military official position, all of which are unified in the military attache sequence of the Qing court, but it is a very large official position, and it is a unique official position of the Manchu military generals. The Eight Banners are divided into Manchu, Mongolian, and Han banners, so there are a total of 24 people in total.

However, after the Qing court entered the customs, the affairs of the eight banners have been carefully divided and arranged, and the functions and powers of the capital have gradually been hollowed out, and they are not in charge of the affairs of the banners, and they are not limited to the commanders of the banners.

It turns out that Mukulun was indeed the number one person in the Qing court in the past, not only that he personally served as the commander of Heilongjiang, but also was born with a yellow flag, and made great contributions in the battle of Yaxa, so he was awarded the title of hereditary auxiliary general, and he was stationed in the northeast for generations. After the Opium War, Russia invaded from the border on a large scale, and Mukulun fought with his grandfather and father against the Russian army.

It's just that the Qing court was incompetent, and successively signed the [Beijing Treaty] and the [Treaty of Xuanhui] with Russia to cede a large amount of territory. If it was Hanchen, the Qing court would have removed Mukurun from his post long ago, but because Mukurun was a Manchurian, the Qing court only demoted Mukurun to the rank of commander as punishment. However, Mukulun was not a disciple of the Eight Banners after all, and not only was he disappointed in the Qing court, but he also abandoned his official position in a fit of rage, crossed the Ussuri River with some old tribes and tribesmen, and established his own tribe in Russia.

The Russians are vigorously immigrating to the Far East and suppressing the local population, so a large number of people of all ethnic groups have fled from the big cities and have been accepted by Mukulun's tribes.

Mukulun passed the position of patriarch to his son Mu Zhehu 6 years ago, and he was not in charge of the affairs of the clan, but Mukulun was still quite concerned about the affairs of the Qing court, whenever a caravan came to the tribe, Mukulun would ask them about the major events that happened in the Qing court, so the Sino-French War, the First Sino-Japanese War, the Wuxu Change, the Gengzi State Change, the return of overseas Chinese, etc., Mukulun basically knew, of course, what he knew was only the surface, but he didn't know much about the inside story. It turned out that when he first resigned, Mukuren still had some hopes for the Qing court, believing that the court would be reorganized after a wise emperor, but these events later also made Mukurun almost completely disappointed with the Qing court.

After listening to Mu Kulun's speech, Luo Yue also admired this old man a little, although he was also a man, but he still retained a bit of blood, thought about it, and then said: "Since the old man knows these things, then he should have heard about us." ”

Mukulun nodded and said, "Of course I've heard of it." ”

Luo Yue said: "Actually, it is true that we want to recover the lost land, but it is not on the orders of the imperial court, but our own intentions. This action has nothing to do with the imperial court, and it is completely an action that we have planned at our own discretion. ”

After all, Mu Kulun is also a person who has been a high-ranking official, and he immediately understood what Luo Yue meant, that is to say, overseas Chinese are actually not under the jurisdiction of the imperial court, originally he was a little strange after hearing about the overseas Chinese, overseas Chinese have such a great ability, why should they obey the orders of the imperial court, if it is in other dynasties, it can also be explained by the same line of China, but the Qing court is a country established by the Manchus, and the overseas Chinese are Han Chinese, and they are descendants of the previous dynasty, why should they be loyal to the Qing court, and after listening to Luo Yue's words, it suddenly dawned on him, this is reasonable。 If it was before Mukulun resigned, of course, he would have been quite dismissive of the overseas Chinese, and even hostile, but first, because he was older, he could see it, and secondly, he was completely disappointed in the Qing court, so he did not feel that there was anything wrong.

Mukulun was silent for a long time before he said, "Luo Junmen came to our tribe this time, I think there should be something else to do. ”

Luo Yue nodded and said, "Yes, we are surveying the geography of this area this time, and since you are residents living in this area, you are very familiar with the terrain here, so we hope that you can help us when we send troops here." Serve as a guide, or form a team to help us fight against the Russian army, of course, we will not let you go into battle to fight the Russian army, but help us transport food and grass materials, guard the rear points, maintain local order, etc., and hope that you can persuade other tribes to help us fight against Russia. ”

Mukulun smiled and said, "You have a lot of requests. ”

Luo Yue also smiled and said: "These requirements are all required of your willingness, we will never force it, if the old man and the patriarch think that the risk of helping us is too great, we only have the tribe to rest for one night, and leave early tomorrow morning, and we will never affect the tribe." ”

Mu Kulun said: "Luo Junmen is too serious, you have saved our tribe twice, how can we help you, not to mention that although you are not under the jurisdiction of the imperial court, but after all, you are Han Chinese, there are many Han people in our tribe, so as long as you call here, it is our duty to serve as a guide, but other matters are very important, we need to negotiate again before we can reply to Luo Junmen." Please also ask Luo Junmen to wait for a day or two. ”

Luo Yue said: "This is also human nature. But we can only wait a day at most, and the next morning, we have to leave. ”

Mukulun said: "Okay, one day is enough. ”

As they spoke, the men had cleared the battlefield, killing 215 bandits and taking 73 prisoners. On the Taior tribal side, together with the previous two days of fighting, the tribesmen killed a total of 52 people and wounded 89 people, but such casualties are very rare, although the first two times repelled the attack of the bandits, but the casualties of the tribesmen in the battle exceeded 100, and the People's Army still did not have a single casualty.

According to the identification of the captured bandits, the body of Black Wind and Sand was found among the killed bandits. This time, the Black Wind and Sand brought a total of more than 600 people to attack the Taior tribe, and after this battle, not only nearly half of the casualties, but even the leader was killed, which can be said to be a great injury to the vitality, and it is even very likely to completely collapse, so the threat of the tribe can be regarded as completely removed.

And the seized bandits also have a lot of materials, because the bandits are prepared to fight a protracted war, so they brought enough food to support more than 10 days, who knows that on the third day was crossed, most of the food is left, naturally become the trophies of the tribe, in addition to the seizure of various rifles 63, more than 1,500 bullets, more than 200 knives and guns, 41 horses, and 34 dead horses, which can be used as food.

For the Taior tribe, this harvest is quite rich, and every tribe knows that this victory can be achieved entirely by the combat effectiveness of the People's Army, all the trophies, including the weapons and materials captured by the previous defeat of the Russian army, the People's Army did not want, all of them were given to the tribe, so the whole tribe is grateful to the People's Army, and after cleaning up the battlefield, the People's Army was very enthusiastic to welcome the People's Army into the tribe, and packed out a few rooms for the People's Army to live.

In the evening of the same day, Luo Yue received a message from the Kunming ship, and it turned out that after receiving Luo Yue's report, the Qingdao Military Commission also agreed with Luo Yue's suggestion, if he could win the support of the Taior tribe, it would indeed be of great help to the future battle in Vladivostok, so he authorized Luo Yue to grasp the scale by himself, and the ways and conditions for consultation and cooperation with the Taior tribe, etc., without having to inform the Military Commission.