26 August 1991

"Uncle Sasa, I'm back!" Jia Lei gave Sasa a big hug at the train station, and Sasa patted him on the shoulder happily.

"Jia Lei, you're finally back, you don't know that I've been worried about you to death these days! I heard that the streets of Moscow are full of tanks, and I'm scared to death!" Sasa said to Jia Lei.

"Don't you worry, I'm not good, my arms and legs are all right, there is no problem at all. Jia Lei patted his arm vigorously and said.

"Jia Lei, are you really okay? You don't know that I was startled when I saw you in the newspaper. Zu Shaman took Jia Lei's hand and said.

"Newspapers, what newspapers?" asked Jia Lei puzzled.

"It's the daily newspaper, you are in the picture where Yeltsin spoke! And I heard that there were dead people in Moscow, but it frightened me. Ushaman patted his chest and said in fear.

"Really, bring me the newspaper!" Jia Lei said in surprise.

Because Jia Lei slipped away too fast! Before the newspaper was printed, Jia Lei ran away on the train, and of course he couldn't see the newspaper on the train.

"Here, I wanted to ask you about Moscow, so I always have the newspaper with me. Wu Shaman poked out a newspaper from the bag he was carrying and handed it to Jia Lei.

Yeltsin was speaking in front of dozens of domestic and foreign media at that time, so the pictures used by each newspaper were different in terms of patterns and angles.

In addition to the classic photograph of Yeltsin standing on a tank and giving a speech like an oil painting in the history books, there are also wide-angle photos of the crowd listening to Yeltsin's speech, just like a graduation photo.

This is to show that Yeltsin has many supporters, but in fact, this is the correct format for taking pictures of the leaders' speeches in those years, and many photos of leaders giving speeches are still used in this routine.

"Damn, there are a hundred people down there, right? Where did you see me?" Jia Lei asked, glancing at the photo that took up half of the page.

"Here! is the black-haired head next to the wheel of the tank, take a closer look if it's you?" asked Ushaman, pointing to a human head less than a square centimeter.

"Hmm...... I guess I was in that position. Jia Lei recalled carefully.

In a group of golden, yellow, and white hair, Jia Lei's black hair is particularly conspicuous!

"That's good! I was right. Ushaman nodded with satisfaction.

"But how did you recognize me from such a large picture?" Jia Lei said curiously.

"I'm not very good at my eyes when I'm old, and I use a magnifying glass when I read the newspaper, and your face is the size of an egg under the magnifying glass, so I can see it very clearly. Ushaman said proudly.

"Oh, so you're old and dizzy, so why haven't I ever seen you with reading glasses?" asked Jia Lei.

"Hmph! I look silly to put reading glasses on my nose every day, what a ** share! I don't bring it, I use this. Ushaman said.

Then she proudly handed Jia Lei a Western-style antique magnifying glass with various gems and pure gold on the handle.

"Come on, look at this! Ushaman said.

"Oh! That's a good idea. Jia Lei reached out to catch the magnifying glass, but unexpectedly his hand sank.

"Damn, this magnifying glass has 500 grams, right?" asked Jia Lei with a heavy magnifying glass.

"With the crystal lenses, it weighs a total of 725 grams. Ushaman said proudly.

"Oh my God, isn't it heavy for you to take it every day to read the newspaper?" asked Jia Lei.

"It's not heavy! I don't use it very often anyway, I've only used it more than 20 times this year. Ushaman said a little weakly.

"It's only been more than twenty times! Oh my God, can't you be honest old man? It's been less than twenty days since this magnifying glass has been in your hand, and you take it out almost every day to use and display it?" said Sasa.

"Huh, there seems to be a story in this, Uncle Sasa, can you tell me about it?" asked Jia Lei.

"Of course you can!" said Sasa.

"No!" Usaman immediately stopped him.

"Aunt Usaman...... Grandma~?What are you nervous about, should it be ...... here? What's inconvenient for me to know, right?" Jia Lei immediately asked vigilantly,

"No, no!" said Ushaman, shaking his head at once.

"Why don't you let Sasa speak?" Jia Lei asked.

"Forget it...... gave birth to such a stupid son, it must be because I have told too many lies in my life. God sent Sasa to punish me!" Ushaman said helplessly.

"Aunt Sasa's grandmother has already promised you to speak, come, come and tell me about the origin of this magnifying glass?" Jia Lei said as he dragged Sasa into his car.

By the way, didn't Jia Lei have a quota for 100 satellite cars, so Jia Lei pulled the cars directly to the Soviet Union and sold them.

As the pride of the Soviets, the Sputnik car is still very popular in the country of Mao Xiong!

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"Didn't you leave us a lot of grain for you to sell when you left?" said Sasa.

"Yes, that's the case. Jia Lei nodded and said.

"Because we were afraid of being stopped on the road, you only let us bring back 300 tons of wheat this time, because my mother asked someone to say hello in advance, so only 30 tons of grain were lost when they arrived home. Sasa said.

"Are these 30 tons going to be used as a toll by the Soviet sentry on the road?" asked Jia Lei.

"Yes, that's right, didn't my mom tell you about it beforehand?" said Sasa.

"I'm really prepared, but isn't 30 tons of grain too much?" Jia Lei asked with a frown.

"Not much! If it weren't for the fear of the shaman's wrath, I'm afraid we would have lost half of our food! You must know that many troops have been in arrears for three months. Sasa said.

"It seems that the food is really tight now!" Jia Lei nodded and agreed.

Although Jia Lei knew from various sources in his previous life that the years from 1991 to 1994 after the collapse of the Soviet Union were very chaotic before Russia completely gained a foothold!

The Ushamans are officially recognized as one of the few autonomous tribes, and they are privileged in many respects!

"Forget it, let's not mention them! Let's talk about something happy, tell me how this magnifying glass of the Ushaman came from?" Jia Lei put aside the annoying things for a while, and asked gossips.

"This is what my mother bought from the old priest of the brown bear tribe in the next mountain. Sasa said.

"Oh! This beginning is very exciting at first hearing, continue?" Jia Lei hurriedly asked.

"The brown bear tribe on the hill next door to us is a large tribe of more than 3,000 people, and their tribe has always been the largest in our region, and their elders and priests are usually very proud. When Ushaman used to go there, he was especially envious of the things and pomp used by the shamans of the brown bear tribe!" Sasa said.

"In other words, this thing was used by the shaman of the brown bear tribe before?" Jia Lei immediately answered.

"Yes!" Sasa said, nodding.

"But according to what you said, usually you small tribes listen to other people's words to make offerings to others, but why did the brown bear tribe suddenly give gifts to Wu Shaman this time?" Jia Lei asked puzzled.

"Isn't it for your batch of grain! A small tribe like ours has small benefits. A big tribe like the brown bear tribe has big problems with big problems!" Sasa said.

"Are they short of food?" Jia Lei asked with an eyebrow.

"Of course there is! No tribe in the whole of Siberia will be short of food this year!" said Sasa for sure.

"Go on?" Jia Lei gestured to Sasa.

"A small tribe like ours, when this kind of thing happened in previous years, one hundred and eighty people would starve to death in one winter! With your food this year, our tribe will not starve to death. But in previous years, even if the people of our tribe hunted desperately to fill their stomachs, those prey could only eat 30% full. Sasa recalled that Jia Lei couldn't help frowning when he heard this.

"But there are a number of prey in each mountain, and there is little prey in winter, and there are too many brown bear tribesmen, and the prey caught cannot be accounted for in the rations. In previous years, they would have starved to death of three or four hundred people, especially when a natural disaster like this year's one came together, and the situation was even worse. Sasa said.

"Did they come to Wu Shaman to buy food?" asked Jia Lei.

"Yes! Someone in their tribe saw that our tribesmen had come back with a large amount of grain, and they told their patriarch what had happened. The patriarchs and priests of the brown bear tribe came to talk to my parents in person. Sasa said.

"Wu Shaman shouldn't have taken this opportunity to ask for this pure gold magnifying glass?" Jia Lei asked.

That's what my mom did, and my mom said she could buy food if she wanted, but the priests of the brown bear tribe had to give her the magnifying glass as payment. Sasa said.

"Huh, I thought Wu Shaman would take it for nothing?" Jia Lei said in surprise.

"That's what my mom thought, but my dad said that our tribe should live here forever in the future, and we can't do things too much! Sasa said.

"Payment...... no wonder Wu Shaman was so nervous when he heard me ask about the origin of this magnifying glass, it turns out that the real owner of this thing is me!" Jia Lei looked at the magnifying glass in his hand and said with a strange smile.

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"Is the living environment of the tribes in Siberia really so bad?" Jia Lei asked Sasa after laughing.

"Of course! we are a penal colony here, and all who live here are prisoners and their descendants. The penal colony is for people to suffer, so how can they give the prisoners a comfortable living environment?" Sasa said.

"But so many people have died, does the government not care?" Jia Lei asked.

"How can there be a government now? The newspapers say that the Soviet Union is going to collapse, and they can't even take care of themselves, how can they take care of us, the herdsmen of nomadic tribes thousands of miles away. Now even the people in the city go hungry once in a while!" Sasa said.

"But you can kill reindeer, cattle and sheep, can't you just watch Russia die?" Jia Lei asked.

"You don't understand! There are conventions and customs in the nomadic tribes, and after a certain percentage of livestock is killed, they cannot be killed again! Otherwise, there will not be enough livestock to breed next year, and everyone in the tribe will starve to death. Sasa said.

Jia Lei was silent, this is probably the most demanding food chain relationship in nature...... If killing causes a creature to perish, the creature at the top of the food chain will die with it.

"But now this is no longer a place of exile, there are many factories and mining areas in your country, even the descendants of prisoners have citizenship rights, why are you living so hard?" Jia Lei asked.

"Who told you that this is not a penal colony, the Soviet government has been exiling prisoners in Siberie all these years. Sasa said.

"I'm sorry! There's so little news about the Soviet Union from the outside world, I don't know about it. Jia Lei said.

In the 90s, people outside knew about the Soviet Union about the same as we know about the DPRK now...... I want to talk about "Rebirth 1990: The Invisible Rich" with more like-minded people, pay attention to "excellent reading literature" on WeChat, talk about life, and find confidants~