On Zhongxing Avenue in New Capital City, Yang Guangzong and his father Yang Kaifu were walking among the dense crowd wearing typical fishermen's clothes.
The streets in Xinjing City present a common scene of the intersection of Chinese and Western cultures in Han Dynasty. On both sides of the street, traditional Chinese wooden teahouses, shops and Western-style cement houses are lined up in rows. Among the pedestrians in the center of the street, some are wearing modified Hanfu.
There were ordinary people and white foreigners wearing Western-style suits, as well as military academy cadets in twos and threes wearing light gray officer uniforms.
The Army Officer Academy is located at the end of Zhongxing Avenue. The foreigners wearing Western-style suits are either university teachers working in the Han Dynasty or foreign instructors invited by the Army Officer Academy. The military academy cadets wearing light gray officer uniforms are because they have just finished their training.
During my internship in the army, I took time to come to Xinjing City to have a party and relax.
"Your mother-in-law and your two brothers haven't tasted the smell of meat for a month. Guangzong, please rest in the teahouse for a while. When my father goes to the West Market to buy two pieces of cloth and a piece of meat for the family, we can go back together."
Leaving the dense crowd, Yang Kaifu stood in front of a teahouse called Yuxing Restaurant and gave instructions to his eldest son Yang Guangzong.
"My father, my mother, and my two younger brothers only have two sets of old clothes to wear. Now that my family has paid off its debt to the government, I won't have to spend any money from the family when I leave home in June to attend the preparatory course at the Naval War College.
Dad, while your family is well off, you can buy new clothes for yourself, your mother, and your two younger brothers. You can also buy some cans of canned fruit for your second and third younger brothers. The two younger brothers ate the canned fruit last time.
I’ve always wanted to eat it.”
Yang Guangzong passed the selection examination of the Naval Military School and was about to become a naval reserve officer. Therefore, when his status was about to change, Yang Guangzong began to act with an adult mindset.
"Hey, my eldest brother is very promising. When you become a naval officer in the future, you must take good care of your two younger brothers."
Yang Guangzong tried to communicate with his father as an adult. Yang Kaifu did not feel inappropriate. Instead, he understood that this was a sign of his eldest son's maturity, so he felt very relieved.
"Dad, where are you talking about? I haven't started my preparatory course at the military academy yet, and there are still seven years until I graduate from the Naval War College. If you say this and let other neighbors hear it, it will cause misunderstanding."
"Hey, daddy knows how to behave and won't talk nonsense in front of others."
Yang Kaifu listened to what his eldest son said, and then took out two one-Han yuan banknotes from his pocket and handed them to his son and said, "I have walked dozens of miles without taking a break along the way. You can call me at the teahouse."
After two cups of tea, rest for a while. You can discuss the remaining money with the shopkeeper and buy some tea to take home and drink."
According to the current purchasing power, two Han Yuan is equivalent to more than two hundred yuan. If you use two Han Yuan to buy a few taels of tea of average quality, you will have a lot of surplus.
Yang Guangzong took the money handed over by his father, and after watching his father disappear into the crowd, he turned and walked into the teahouse.
On the second floor of Yuxing Tea House, three young officers wearing latent gray military uniforms and wide-brimmed hats sat at a table, chatting while eating.
"Sir Zhang, how did you kill the Manchu prince Seng Gelinqin?"
A young officer with a lean body and dark skin asked, "The old people in the village say that the Mongolian Tatar prince Seng Gelinqin is very powerful in martial arts. Eight or nine heroes can't get close to him. You were just sixteen when you killed Seng Gelinqin."
Years old, wasn't even Seng Gelinqin your opponent at that time?"
"Old slave Senggelinqin's skills are pretty good, but he's not as powerful as others say."
The tall and sturdy officer, who was about thirty years old, stopped his chopsticks, raised his wine glass and took a sip of wine into his mouth. He said with a proud look on his flushed face, "That year, the 18th Route Nian Army jointly ambushed the Mongolian Tatars."
Cavalry team, after the war, I and more than a hundred brothers in the same battalion were responsible for searching for the hiding Mongolian Tatars. At that time, other brothers dispersed to other areas, and I was the only one in the wheat field near the woods."
The tall and strong officer paused for a moment and glanced at the empty wine glass. The young officer who just asked the question saw the other person's expression and raised the bottle to fill it up for him.
A slight smile appeared on the corner of the tall officer's mouth. After drinking another glass of wine, he continued, "The wheat field is less than half an acre in radius. Several brothers who passed by checked and found no trace of the Tatars. After I searched the surrounding area,
, I thought about searching the wheat field carefully, and then when I entered the wheat field, I found a piece of bright yellow silk cloth with blood on it. I became vigilant at that time, so I followed the yellow cloth left on the ground.
After searching carefully, I finally found a Mongolian Tatar wearing armor in the middle of the wheat field."
"What does Seng Gelinqin look like? Is he eight feet tall? His face is ferocious?"
The young officer couldn't help but ask.
"Haha, I'm not going to lie to you two recruits Guazi. I was sixteen years old at the time. When I saw a Mongolian Tatar for the first time, I didn't bother to see what he looked like. I just took out the red tassel gun and stabbed him to death with one shot.
After I killed him, I didn’t pay attention to check. Later, I heard that a Mongolian prince had died in the Tartar court, and I realized that the identity of the Mongolian Tartar I stabbed to death was not simple."
"Seng Gelinqin was stabbed to death with one shot?"
The young officer You Zi did not want to believe that a famous Tartar prince died so cowardly at the hands of a small soldier.
"What else can he do? No matter how powerful Senggelinqin is, he still has one head and two arms. If he takes one shot from me, he will still die."
Officer Gao Zhuang raised his voice and shouted dissatisfied. Then he changed his appearance as a superior officer and lectured the young officer, "Lu Rongting, do you think that I killed Seng Gelinqin in a weak manner?"
Without giving the other party a chance to defend himself, Officer Gao Zhuang asked and answered, "Tell you, kid, even though I was only sixteen years old when I killed Seng Gelinqin, nineteen years ago, when I was just ten years old, I followed the leader of the Zhang Lexing Alliance to make Manchu."
The Qing court rebelled, and when you were ten years old, you didn't know where to play in the mud. You are far from me."
"That is, Captain Zhang is a young hero. Otherwise, how could he be favored by His Highness and personally send someone to pick up Commander Zhang and come to the Han Kingdom."
Lu Rongting looked serious, but in reality he was joking about the other party's scandals.
The tall and strong officer named Zhang Lingyun, formerly known as Zhang Pizhu, killed the famous Manchu general Seng Gelinqin in 1865. In 1873, Zhang Lingyun was on the way to join the National Defense Forces when he was drunk and accidentally told the story of killing Seng Gelinqin.
After the report was sent to the Manchu government, Zhang Lingyun rushed to the base of the Ministry of National Defense in Xiamen overnight, and then identified himself. The person in charge of the Ministry of National Defense stationed in Xiamen urgently dispatched a ship to transport it to northern Annan, and finally followed the immigration fleet to Han.
For the sake of Zhang Lingyun personally killing Seng Gelinqin, Li Mingyuan met with him once. However, after the meeting, except for allowing Zhang Lingyun, who was not yet twenty years old at the time, to enter the Army Officer School, Li Mingyuan did not pay much attention to him.
Therefore, what the young officer Lu Rongting said made Zhang Lingyun blush. He muttered that he would teach Lu Rongting a lesson when he returned to the military camp. However, he was reminded by the other party that they had completed their internship service and would not return to his service.
Xiao Bing, the rebuttal made him feel unhappy.
Zhang Lingyun and Lu Rongting's rest time was not as serious as in the army, and making a few irrelevant jokes to each other would not make each other really angry. Therefore, after Zhang Lingyun became sulky, he quickly found it on the wine table.
In order to save face, he forced Lu Rongting, who had a pretty good drinking capacity, to get drunk on the table. In the end, Wang Shizhen, who was dining with him, took Lu Rongting back.