Daxinganling mountainous area, at the turn of winter and spring.

Wei Wendu picked up a bowl of milk tea and took a sip comfortably. In this early spring when the snow has just melted, the weather in the wild is still very cold, and it is really a treat to be able to sip hot soup or hot tea anytime, anywhere.

The tea is a cow's milk tea with sugar, which is slightly surprising from the customs of the grassland, but it tastes good - of course, it is only "not bad", as the eldest grandson of Wei Aiwen, one of the early army veterans, it is not surprising that Lieutenant Wei Wendu Wei said that he was born with a golden spoon. Coupled with the great abundance of local material life, Lieutenant Wei has never lived such a hard life since he was a child. However, it is his own choice to come to the Far East to experience and make contributions to the Hulunbuir grassland, and he can't complain about others, so no matter how much hardship, no matter how tired, and how much he is not adaptable, he has to bear it by himself, and he can't do things that give up halfway!

His current location is located in a small village on the south bank of the Mengkuyi River, which is small in population and quite hidden, and was established about a little more than a year ago, and is now inhabited by more than 600 people of Han, Mongolian, Daur and Oroqen ethnic groups who have descended from Yaksa south, mainly by grazing, hunting and small-scale cultivation in the mountains.

It stands to reason that such a life must not be easy. Gayin is located in the depths of the Great Khing'an Mountains, with inconvenient transportation, cold climate, and sparsely populated, and there is not even a trade object, which is quite hard to say. However, fortunately, the Heishui District Administration knew their plight, and sent two groups of mules and horses to this place a year to transport necessities including weapons and ammunition, daily necessities, medicine and woollen wool, and even because there was no food, some extra capacity was also sent to the officers and soldiers and herdsmen guarding here to send some spirits, tobacco, spices, cane sugar, dried fruits, canned food, biscuits, chocolates and other high-end food, but the quantity was relatively scarce.

These two groups of mules and horses both set off from Yaksa, one team in late spring and the other team in early summer, the scale is not large, but the maintenance cost is not low, and it costs a lot of the government budget of the Blackwater Pioneer Team every year. After crossing the river from Yaksa, the mule and horse team followed the road that had been opened up for many years in the mountainous area of the Great Khing'an Mountains, and went south along the relatively flat valley of the old trough river through Mohe Fort (established more than two years ago, which is not yet self-sufficient in food, but already has complete military defense facilities), and finally arrived at Manguitun.

There is no doubt that the area that the mule and horse team traveled along the way was a strange area that had never been infiltrated or influenced by the people of the east coast, and the local natives were mostly mountain tartars living in the mountains, brave and fearless of death, and Huang Taiji was the favorite to capture a few decades ago. In other words, the Qing court also had a certain degree of influence over the local tribes living in the mountainous areas, and although this influence had been greatly weakened over the years, it was an indisputable fact that its "mass base" was better than that of the eastern coast.

Therefore, the two mule and horse teams that set out from Yaksa must be equipped with a certain number of elite guards each time, otherwise they will not be able to walk. As a result, expenses will inevitably increase dramatically, which is a big burden for the Yaksa Regional Administration and even the Blackwater Pioneer Government, which is already very tight.

However, who let the southward crossing the Heilongjiang River and advance into the Hulunbuir grassland be the grand strategy set by Chen Ke, the captain of the pioneer team? Since it is the intention of the supreme leader, no matter how difficult it is for the people below, they naturally have to transfer personnel, raise materials, and scrape together funds to share the worries of the leaders. As a result, the Mohe Fort hanging south of the Heilongjiang River was established, and the Manguitun further south was reluctantly established with the support of the Yaksa side gritting its teeth - for this reason, Hailan Pao, Jieya, Huma and other places also supported a batch of money and goods - all of this was naturally to cross the barrier of the Great Khing'an Mountains and enter the Hulunbuir steppe with abundant water and grass, bordering the local Mongol forces.

Lieutenant Wei Wendu was the first batch of people to come to Manguitun to build an advance base. This third generation of the army, who originally served in the army cavalry system - I am afraid that the third generation of the army is also a little unreliable, because his father is just a director of the War Department with a small future - after some operation, he became the head of the so-called "Hulunbuir Advance Detachment", with 100 soldiers under his command and more than 500 farmers and herdsmen from complex sources (the largest of which is the Mongols who took refuge, about 300 people), and his main job is to gain a firm foothold in this mountainous area. Then lay the foundation for the next step of advancing into the Hulunbuir grassland.

In other words, in fact, the people of the east coast are far from breaking into the Hulunbuir grassland and intersecting with the local Mongolian tribes. They are still "struggling" in the Daxing'an Mountains, which stretch for thousands of miles, trying to extend their tentacles to the relatively densely populated Hulunbuir grassland. Wei Wendu, as the head of this advance detachment whose conditions can be called "extremely arduous", did not fail to complain to some bureaucrats at the upper level, complaining that they often invest hundreds of thousands of yuan in some infrastructure such as roads, railways, reservoirs, locks, and wharves that in his opinion are not so urgent at all, but it is difficult for their advance detachment to raise even 5,000 yuan in funds, and the difference is so great!

However, he also knew that that kind of large-scale spending would only appear in the hands of the central government, and that it would be quite good for a poor frontier area under the jurisdiction of an overseas colony like theirs to raise thousands of dollars to support an operation, who would make them poor? After all, the economic foundation is the most important factor that determines everything, and the income of the Blackwater Pioneer Team is so much, and the resources that can be mobilized are also very limited, and there are so many places to use money, food, materials and personnel that can be used for expansion, and naturally there will not be much more.

Therefore, it is an indisputable fact that although they are not self-financing and self-supporting, they have to find a way to provide a large part of their own supplies, but it is an indisputable fact that this is very difficult in the sparsely populated mountainous area of Daxinganling!

"Detachment leader, please eat." A second lieutenant staff officer ran up to Wei Wendu and handed over a big man full of fish meat.

"Alas, look at our head fish feast, what kind of food are we eating, not even a sturgeon." Although Wei Wendu said this, he still quickly put the tea bowl aside, took the big wrist and chopsticks handed over by the second lieutenant, and feasted on it. The fish in the bowl is accompanied by soup, a lot of seasoning, and even some precious chili peppers, which makes people appetite when they see it. The second lieutenant immediately greeted Wei Wendu after seeing him eating, so some officers and leaders who were a little far away from the shack also cheered and picked up the bowls in their hands and lined up to serve fish meat and fish soup in the big iron pot.

There were a lot of fish boiled in the big iron pot, which were caught by some Oroqen or Mongols in the army on the ice of a nearby river. They follow the ancient fishing and hunting customs, in the turn of winter and spring on the river ice with an iron hook fishing - in fact, it is to dig a hole in the ice, and then use the iron hook to hook out the fish gathered - the fish caught is called "head fish", it is also said that there is also the meaning of divination of a year's harvest, it was the most popular in the Liao era in the past, and has been evolving down to become an important custom of the local people.

"In the past, Wang Gongchen, the servant of the Song Dynasty, sent an envoy to Liao, and Liao Xingzong received him by the mixed river, and set up a fish banquet to entertain him. At that time, whenever he caught a big fish, Xingzong had to persuade Wang Gongchen to drink and eat fish, and personally played the pipa for him. Wei Wendu quickly finished eating the fish in the bowl, put the bowls and chopsticks aside, motioned to his subordinates to bring him another bowl, and then said: "During the Tianqing period of Emperor Liao Tianzuo, he mixed the hook fish by the river in Chunzhou, and held a head fish banquet...... ）。 Now think about it, what a high-spirited man, all the Jurchen tribal chiefs within a thousand miles were present, whether it was by the river, on the plains or in the mountains, the emperor gave an order, and one by one came to cheer on the starry night. When will we be able to do this in Manchuria, gentlemen, you will tell me about it. Don't be restrained, today everyone drinks and eats fish, so it's time to gossip. ”

"Listening to what the detachment leader said, this Laoshizi Daliao Emperor is indeed majestic, and he does have a hand in rectifying these native tribes. I don't know what they did, but I think it's not very different from what we did, maybe even worse than us! The second lieutenant officer who had given Wei Wendu Sheng Yu just now said with a smile: "The emperor of the Liao State is just a strong force, plus the materials supplied by the Han land and the natives to trade with each other, one hand military, one hand economy, unite a large group, isolate a small handful, divide and pull together, it takes a few decades to do everyone obey the order." ”

"Xiao Song, what you said is in place." Wei Wendu took another bowl of fish and meat, and commented while eating happily: "Those Jurchen tribes back then were actually the ancestors of these indigenous peoples who live in Beiman today. Just like now, at that time, they were bitter, ignorant, and poor, but their combat effectiveness was very strong, and they were very good soldiers. The Khitans ruled them, half with kindness and righteousness, and half with force to deter, which could barely be driven. We should follow this path now, but more thoroughly than the Khitans, that is, we should open schools to naturalize them, so that they will identify with us and not rebel easily. Aguta can rebel under the hands of the Khitans, and we can't allow people like Aguta to appear on the east coast. ”

"That's nature, we won't allow it!" A group of rough officers roared into the promise. At this time, some Mongolian waiters brought several large jars of precious liquor, so the atmosphere in the shack became more and more enthusiastic, and some enthusiastic people even began to shout that in a few years, "the local chiefs from thousands of miles nearby will come to Manguitun to participate in the head fish feast", which made everyone laugh and toast with them.

"Haha! You can say that again! Wei Wendu also took a few sips of the wine glass, and then laughed and said, "Let's set this goal today!" Not only the bald fish feast, but also the head goose feast! I heard that in the past, when the rivers thawed every spring, the emperor of Liao would bring his ministers to the rivers to catch geese and feast. The courtiers beat the flat drum in their hands by the river, startled the geese, geese, ducks and other animals in the water, and then released a famous eagle called 'Haidongqing' offered by the local chieftain to catch geese and ducks. ”

"I'm not afraid of being told jokes, I'm here today, Lao Tzu will go to the Hulunbuir grassland to hold a head fish banquet and a head goose banquet in the future, if there is a Mongolian and Shandan tribe within thousands of miles nearby, Lao Tzu will send troops to destroy him! Everyone is my old brother, I hope you will help me Wei someone, and in the future, I will be promoted to become rich and have a wife! Wei Wendu picked up the wine bowl in his hand, drank all the spirits in the bowl, and said proudly.

And his words unsurprisingly caused a burst of extremely enthusiastic cheers from the officers under his command. These people left the relatively well-built Yaksa, came to Manguitun, a barren and dangerous forward base with nothing, and accompanied him Wei Wendu to eat ice and snow, fight and kill, what are they trying to do? Isn't it the bright future of the future? Therefore, the words of his Wei detachment leader are really in everyone's hearts, so it is normal for everyone to cheer.

Of course, from a realistic point of view, the strength of their advance detachment is still too weak, not to mention the completion of the grand strategic goal of "advancing thousands of miles into the prairie" formulated by Chen, and even how to gain a firm foothold in the mountainous area of the Great Xing'an Mountains, which also stretches for thousands of miles, and build it into a relatively reliable logistics base, has already made them scratch their heads extremely much. After all, do you think there are no hostile forces in this mountain? How is this possible!

However, the development of the past few decades has also told everyone here that in the northeast thousands of miles away, anyone who is the enemy of our Great East Coast will not have good fruit to eat in the end. The Manchus were like this, and so were the Russians, not to mention these unknown tribal chieftains, who had to come and bow down sooner or later. Therefore, everyone's morale is still relatively high, and they have no doubts about the final victory, at best, they just feel that the process may drag on for a long time.

And when they really succeed in advancing into the steppes with abundant water and grass, and then infiltrate, influence, and even conquer a large part of the Mongolian tribes, then their strength will snowball and become a decisive force. From then on, it would be much easier for them to either attack the rear of the Manchu Brain Wencheng Metropolitan in the east, or to conquer the wider Mongolian steppe pastures in the west.

So what is really difficult is actually the early stage of this dismal business, and the future is bright!