In the camp on the bank of the Heilongjiang River, Liu Yu was staring at the captured Russians with burning eyes.

In order to be able to grab more credit in this war, it can be said that it is exhaustive. You have to use some skills, and the head-on attack will definitely be useless.

The fold sent back said that he was ready to do a big vote, which could be regarded as a preventive injection for the emperor in advance. If you can't succeed, try to find out.

The grass stalks that he was chewing and playing with in his mouth no longer smelled of grass, and he spat out the saliva mixed with grass clippings and green water, and pointed to a Russian young man beside the fire in the distance and asked the old man next to him, "What is the name of that chicken with its hair?" ”

"Mikhail, or Michael, Michael...... In the name of the Archangel. He was an intern who came out with Bering. They asked him what he had done. ”

"Nothing. Ask him to borrow something. ”

The old man turned his head to look at Mikhail and said curiously: "What does he have to lend to adults?" Maps and the like were taken away by adults. ”

Liu Yu stretched out a finger, scratched his neck, and said with a smile: "Isn't there another head?" It can be borrowed for use. Go ahead and call the vice-captain of that expedition, not the first mate, but the vice-captain of the Rakshasas. ”

The old style went away in response, and I don't know why.

Along the way, Liu Yu was observing these captured Russians. It was found that the young man named Mikhail seemed to have a good relationship with the deputy captain named Alexei Cherikov, and the two of them often muttered that they did not know what to say.

The composition of this expedition is interesting.

The captain and the first mate were foreigners, and the captain was a Russian, and half of them were explorers and draftsmen; Half of the intern lads.

The vice-captain, Cherikov, was by the fire at this time, expecting the water in the teapot in front of him to boil quickly.

In Cherikov's eyes, the Khitan officer on the opposite side was still very generous. The copper kettle produced by the Tula Arsenal where he boiled water, the Khitan officer did not confiscate it, but continued to let them use it.

Tea cakes, which could only be drunk in the upper class of Russia, were nothing more than rations after meals in this Khitan expedition. Cherikov and others also got some.

The summer on the banks of the Heilongjiang River is not warm, and the grass is always wet at night, so drinking a pot of tea at this time is simply a pleasure.

Life in captivity was not as bad as it could have been, but Cherikov kept trying to escape.

The Danes, Swedes, and Khitans offered them a high price, and promised to send them back in the south on a Dutch ship if they had the chance.

Only the Russians, the attitude of the Khitan expedition leader, has never been clear. Cherikov wondered if these Khitans had already declared war on Russia?

There was a lot of rumor in the ranks.

Some people suspect that the Khitan Khan wants to learn from the Byzantines and form a Varangian guard, so they should not think about returning to Russia in this life. It would certainly have been sent to their capital, dressed in silk, as the Varangian guard of the Khitan Khan.

It is also said that in the time of the Mongols, the Mongol Great Khan also had a Russian guard, which was stationed in Beijing.

The Russians in the ranks had mixed feelings about this speculation.

Some people thought that if the Khitan Khan allowed them to continue their orthodox religion, then it would be good to stay in the Khitan as a Varangian guard. If you really have silk clothes to wear and tea to drink every day......

Others believe that they may be captured by these Khitans and returned to the capital, stripped naked, with feathers glued to their buttocks and paraded through the capital. Or, like the Ottoman Sultans, castrated them as court eunuchs. Most people are quite frightened of this possibility, but there are also one or two people who think that this is fine, they are emasculation believers, and they believe that procreation itself is original sin, castration can end sin, and you can go to heaven after death.

For the vast and rich China with its legends, these Russians could only guess their future lives from the Ottomans and Mongols they had come into contact with.

Cherikov was suspicious of these rumors and kept looking for an opportunity to escape. Every day when he poops, he observes the situation in these neighborhoods, and the guards are only allowed to act in groups, and if they want to escape, they have to wait for a suitable opportunity.

The people in the team could not be trusted, and in this captive environment, everyone hid their true thoughts.

The only person Cherikov could see through his thoughts was the brown-haired naval intern named Mikhail.

This is a very nice lad with a lot of spirit.

He is usually very diligent on the ship, and at night he will seize all the time to learn various mathematical skills, and he can master the use of the sextant proficiently.

Even after being captured, this young man still faces life with a smile every day.

He said that a person who cannot laugh must not be a qualified explorer, and a person who is depressed does not dare to face the vast sea and the endless sea journey.

The young man believed that the Pythagorean theorem was correct in the schools of Petersburg, and it must have been correct in the Khitans. These Khitans are not barbarians, they use muskets, they know how to survey, they are not barbarians, and they will be released when the war is over.

The lad pestered Cherikov every day, asking questions about cartography. I am sure that when I return one day, Her Majesty will organize a new expedition, and then he will be able to become a full-fledged draftsman.

This is an optimist, and in the panic of those endless rumors, like the sun after the polar night in Arkhangelsk, it always brings warm hope.

He was the youngest, and everyone in the team liked him. Sometimes, when everyone was depressed and thought they were going to be castrated, the lads would sing some Cossack songs to cheer up the spirits, or tell the story of the high society of St. Petersburg: the story of Peter Emperor being reprimanded in the boys' army by his fellow brother Duke Romodanovsky. It's like he's the illegitimate son of a big man and knows a lot of stories that others don't know.

Today, as usual, Cherikov waited here for the water to boil, Mikhail next to him to tell some interesting facts about Petersburg, and in a moment the lad would come and ask him some details about the Mercator projection.

As soon as the tea cakes were thrown into the kettle, Cherikov was called by a voice, and after hearing the interpreter's words, he reluctantly put down the teapot and followed the interpreter into the tent.

In the tent, Liu Yu prepared a pot of wine and a few pieces of pickles. Cherikov smelled the wine in the tent and swallowed uncontrollably, but inwardly warned himself to be careful of the devil-like young man in front of him.

Liu Yu made a gesture of please, and after two glasses of wine, Cherikov's mind was still clear. Liu Yu also asked some questions, which were not secret, and Cherikov thought that these questions would be worth it if they could be exchanged for some alcohol.

For some time afterward, Cherikov was invited to the tent every day to drink. The questions asked were also about expeditions in Siberia or Okhotsk.

One day, shortly after crossing the Ussuri River, when Cherikov was about to continue drinking in his tent as usual, several guards suddenly rushed into the group of captured people and took out the brown-haired young man Mikhail.

Liu Yu said a few words of Chinese that Cherikov did not understand, and the interpreter followed behind and translated loudly: "Mikhail Petrovich Terekin." It has been reported that you are planning to flee and that you are guilty of inciting others to flee, and it is decided to be executed. ”

Before Mikhail, who was holding a copy of Peter I's The Art of Surveying, could shout when two soldiers dragged him away.

Near the camp, a soldier with a captured Tula flintlock pistol pointed it at his head, followed by a gunshot.

All the captured Russians in the team looked at the still twitching and writhing corpses in the distance, and then they all turned their eyes to Cherikov.

Liu Yu was very satisfied with this gaze, and pretended to draw a cross on his chest with his left hand, telling these captured Russians solemnly.

"You are criminals who have been caught and have entered the border with weapons without customs clearance paperwork. The crime is not serious, and you can be released in the future. However, this is close to your fortress, and it is absolutely not allowed to escape. If someone escapes, they have the option to report it, which can reduce some of their sentences, and even have alcohol as a reward. ”

With that, he left without looking back, leaving a few soldiers to watch over the captives, digging a pit in the ground and burying Mikhail's body in it.

While digging the pit, a Russian prisoner approached Cherikov's side, shook his shoulder, and slammed his elbow into Cherikov's stomach.

"Judas!"

"Phew!"

"Disgusting like maggots."

"The wine that the Khitans gave you, keep it for your mother to wash underneath, your mother contracted syphilis in a brothel in Petersburg."

I don't know who scolded first, but several people who were digging the pit rushed over in turn, and the soldiers in custody wasted a lot of effort to pull these people away.

Cherikov clutched his stomach, the corners of his mouth twitched, and he squatted on the ground. Looking at Mikhail, whose head was blurred by lead bullets in the pit, he clenched his fists as he listened to the scolding in his ears.

That night, Cherikov was not with the rest of the Russian prisoners, but alone in a small tent.

There were no guards in the tent, and Liu Yu left him three things.

A bag of wine.

A duel pistol produced by the Tula factory and seized by Liu Yu. It was filled with gunpowder, and there was only one buckshot.

and, a hairpin to tie up the hair.

Cherikov didn't sleep all night.

After drinking all the wine, his hands kept wandering between the hairpin and the pistol.

As the day was about to dawn, Cherikov finally reached out and untied the hussar-style braid on his head.

He didn't know how to tie his hair, but he did what the guards did, and he wrapped his untied hair around his head and tore a piece of fabric from his clothes with his teeth to tie it up.

After the last hesitation, he finally inserted the hairpin into his hair that he had pulled up haphazardly.