Spring blossoms, the snow melts, the stream rushes, and my father's injuries heal. Qin Beiyang was flustered, and his eyelids jumped. Early that morning, the troops gathered more than a thousand men and went to the valley to quarry, which was almost all the troops. They blew trumpets and beat drums, just like the armies of Napoleon's time, except with shovels, hammers, drills and other tools on their shoulders. Walking to a steep canyon, the officer shot the goat, the bullet hit the rocks on the top of the mountain, coupled with the echo of the gunshots, and the factor of melting snow, accidentally triggered a flash flood and mudslide, burying more than 1,000 young men.

The Qin father and son followed the sound, but when they saw the gray and rocky ground, they could only find broken military uniforms, shovels and other tools. They dug into the ground for a long time, and it was full of flesh and blood, and there was no possibility that there would be any living holes. In order to avoid the plague of so many corpses, it was necessary to bury them in situ. Qin Beiyang also burned paper money for these people and cried a lot.

The catastrophe destroyed the main forces of the army, killing all the officers. Dozens of survivors remained in the camp, but they were all small soldiers, so they scattered as birds and beasts, and each crossed the mountains and mountains, deserted, and escaped without a single one left.

At the huge construction site of Emperor Hongxian's mausoleum, only the Qin father and son remained.

Qin Beiyang wanted to flee back to Beijing as soon as possible, but Lao Qin decided to stay: "Do you think that if you leave, you will have a way to live?" Perhaps, as soon as you arrive in the city of Beijing, you will be caught and shot. You know, we still have 500 yuan left in Beijing, and we can't do without that money! ”

"But we can't stay and die!"

"No, there are more than 1,000 people in the barracks, so much food and medicine, enough for us to survive for a long time. You see, there are also weapons and ammunition, and we can go up to the mountains every day to hunt. Wouldn't you still use this generator? ”

"Daddy, you still don't want to give up your old profession and want to build a tomb beast, right?"

"Yes, why do you care who the emperor is? Surname Aixin Jueluo? Surname Zhu? Or is it surnamed Yuan? Does it matter? As long as we are given a salary and an official position, it is worth working hard, this is our spirit of being a craftsman! Taking a step back, the money has been collected, and we have to fulfill our promises, even if no one is watching. ”

"A gentleman's promise?" Qin Beiyang muttered to himself dejectedly, "That's right, okay, I'll stay too." ”

That night, father and son heard the howls of wolves on the top of the surrounding hills, almost calling the moon down. Lao Qin suddenly realized that none of the soldiers who deserted and fled escaped, and they were all eaten by wolves on the road?

Early in the morning, he and his son carried rifles on their backs and headed to the canyon where the flash flood occurred. This is the only way for deserters to go, and I want to see if there is still a way to live.

"Help......

Qin Beiyang heard it from a distance, and the two of them followed the sound and walked down, only to see a group of gray wild wolves, with their tails between their legs, flowing with their horns, revealing their sharp teeth, besieging a ragged soldier. There were three corpses lying around, deserters killed by wolves, with a broken throat, a large hole in the chest, and internal organs and intestines running all over the ground. What wolves love to eat most is the human heart.

The only living creep was unarmed and desperately brandished a twig. The wolves also seemed to be full, and did not want to kill him right away, but surrounded him for fun.

"Damn brute!"

Lao Qin raised his gun and hit the strongest head wolf, Qin Beiyang shot another male wolf, and the rest of the wolves fled.

In the valley of the cold spring, the dead wolves and dead people are steaming. The little soldiers they rescued were about the same age as Qin Beiyang, and they were already frightened like frightened birds.

"Hey, my name is Qin Beiyang, what's your name?"

"Qi Yuanshan."

Xiao Bing's eyes flashed with tears, and he firmly grasped the young Qin Beiyang, and his hands were so hot that he seemed to be able to burn a hole in the flesh.

Many years later, standing in front of the firing squad, Qi Yuanshan will not forget that in the spring of 1917, when he was sixteen years old, he curled up in the Wild Wolf Valley in the depths of Taihang Mountain and saw the sixteen-year-old Qin Beiyang......

In the mist of tears, the boy kicked the dead wolf and stretched out his hand to him. I thought I was going to die, but I just waited for the wolf's claws to open my chest and let myself see what my heart looked like. Is this a dream? He held Qin Beiyang's hand tightly, and the two of them were like finger wrestling, and it was difficult to separate each other. Qin Beiyang smiled slightly and dragged him up from the ground.

He smelled the scent of mountain flowers blooming...... It's good to be alive!

The Qin father and son buried the bodies of three sappers and dragged two dead wolves to protect Qi Yuanshan back to the camp. The appearance of Emperor Hongxian's mausoleum is quite rudimentary, and the civil construction of the tomb road has also been completed. That night, the three of them set up a bonfire and roasted wolf meat to feast on. A pair of green eyes on the top of the mountain, howling from time to time, looked at the men who ate wolf meat. Qin Beiyang grabbed a Hanyang-made 88-style rifle and fired two bullets at the mountain, driving away those man-eating beasts.

"One day, I'll take down that Sirius that wants to devour China." Qin Beiyang looked at the clean and thorough starry sky, and there was a bright star in the south, "Among the twenty-eight constellations, the well of the seven Nakshatras of the Southern Vermilion Bird, the Jingmu Xuan, is a huge wild wolf. ”

The twenty-eight constellations, the thirty-six Tiangang, and the seventy-two earthly evils were also taught to his son by Qin Customs.

"There are still dozens of boxes of ammunition in the camp, enough for us to kill these wolves!" Qi Yuanshan changed into a clean military uniform, the bonfire illuminated his face, his eyes were like stars, his eyebrows were thick, the bridge of his nose was high, and he was an angry young man, and he casually chanted, "I will hold the bow like a full moon, look northwest, and shoot the wolf!" ”

Lao Qin read countless people, and he had already seen that this child was unusual: "You are not an ordinary peasant child, are you?" ”

"Well, I am a person from Zhili Zhengding, born in the year of Gengzi."

Qin Beiyang patted him on the shoulder: "I was also born in the year of Gengzi, we are both the same year, and we are both sixteen years old!" ”

"My father's name was Qi heavy soldiers, and he followed Yuan Shikai to envoy Korea on an errand in his early years. After the First Sino-Japanese War, Yuan Shikai trained in a small station, and his father was a member of the first batch of Beiyang New Army. In the year of Xinhai, his father did not want to be a rebellious minister and thief in the Qing Dynasty, and opposed Yuan Shikai's forced palace and was assassinated. The engineer commander was my father's old department, and he took me in as a small soldier. There are no other relatives in the family, only a younger brother, who has long been separated and whose life and death are unknown. ”

"In this way, do you hate Yuan Shikai to the core?"

"Hmm." Qi Yuanshan wiped away his tears, "Having said that, but everyone has become the emperor, what can I do with a small soldier?" Are you going to stay and continue to build the tomb? Then I'll stay too, it's chaotic outside, but it's a paradise here. ”

The next day, Qin's father and son began to make tomb beasts.

Qi Yuanshan could not enter the underground palace, and could only stand guard at the entrance of the tomb to prevent wild wolves or bandits from invading.

In Yuan Shikai's underground palace, Qin Customs drew the "Nine Palaces of Beast Making" again-

1st house: vow recital. Lao Qin still recited the expression handed down by his ancestors, and burned incense and prayed in the underground palace. Hearing the sentence "Fu Yi Dide is all over the world, China and foreign countries have seen the prosperity of Zhongxing, and the emperor has graced the universe", Qin Beiyang felt nauseous and wanted to rush out and vomit.

The design of the second palace is about Yuan Shikai and his people - the early Republic of China reported a prosperous industry, and all kinds of gossip and lace news continued, including the president's marriage to several aunts, the preferences of the eldest son and the second son, and so on. The Southern Revolutionary Party's article on Yuan Yuwen was also published in the newspaper in a grand manner. No matter how bad it is, take out a piece of "Yuan Datou" silver yuan from your wallet, and you can also know its appearance.

The task of drawing drawings fell to Qin Beiyang. What is Yuan Shikai most like? He was under the oil lamp in the underground palace, thinking about it for three days and three nights, and suddenly something popped up-