In the early morning, the stone house was as cold as an ice cellar. Chen Zilong on the kang was also woken up by the cold. He opened his eyes, but did not get up immediately. At least there was a quilt and a dog-skin mattress on the kang, and his sheepskin robe was covered with the quilt.
Although today is New Year's Eve, there is no New Year's atmosphere here. He misses his family at the foot of the mountain, but this is Dangjin Mountain Pass, which is closed by ice and snow for nine months a year.
Chen Zilong, who was exiled to Dunhuang, once thought that he would go to the Dunhuang of the Western Regions written by the poets of the Han and Tang Dynasties. It would be the desert with solitary smoke and long rivers with the sun setting, and the Western Regions where people without a reason left the Jade Gate in the west, and the Qiang flute and the willows complained.
Who knows, but in the end, they only stopped briefly in Dunhuang, a beautiful oasis outside the Great Wall, for a few days, and were finally assigned to guard the Dangjin Mountain Pass.
His entire family was assigned to graze cattle and sheep by Sugan Lake south of the mountain pass.
The conditions at Dangjin Pass are very harsh, with ice and snow covering nine months of the year, but its location is very important. It is located south of Dunhuang and at the junction of the Qilian Mountains and the Altun Mountains. The mountains are steep and the ice and snow period is long.
Today it belongs to Dunhuang County, Anxi Prefecture, Gansu Province, Ming Dynasty. In the early Ming Dynasty, it was the Anding Guard established by the imperial court to surrender to the Mongols. It was called Ruoqiang in the Han Dynasty and Tubo in the Tang Dynasty.
It was originally the place where Sali was afraid of the Uurs. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the Yuan Dynasty granted his clan Buyan Tiemu'er the title of guard for King Ning. In the third year of Hongwu, the Ming Dynasty sent envoys to appease them. In the seventh year, Buyan Tiemu'er sent envoys to pay tribute.
For armor, swords, etc., Zhu Yuanzhang rewarded Buyan Tiemu'er, divided his tribe into four tribes, and awarded Tongyin the four tribes of Atuan, Azhen, Ruoxian and Tili.
In the eighth year, he set up a guard station and named Yan Tiemu'er the king of stability.
The area of Buyan Tiemur is very large, with four guards set up, stretching from the Altyn Mountains to the north, the Kunlun Mountains to the south, and the Xities Mountains on the banks of Xiao Qaidam Lake to the east. This area is vast, although it is bounded by deserts and Gobi mountains.
Mainly, there are many wetlands, grasslands and lakes with rich water and grass.
Later, we experienced the civil strife of the Anding Guards during the Yongli Period, the invasion by the Mongolian Yibula Tribe during the Zhengde Period, and later the invasion by Duoer Zhiba, and then the Yarkand invasion and occupation. The Seven Guards of Guanxi moved eastward to the Pingliang area in Longdong.
The Seven Guards of Guanxi, including Dunhuang and Yumen, as well as Hami, were completely abandoned by the Ming Dynasty and occupied by Ye Erqiang.
Chen Zilong lay down for a while and finally stood up. He dressed quickly without any delay. It was too cold, although he had slowly adapted to the climate here.
When he first came here, his head was so swollen that he almost thought he would die here. He already knew it was called altitude sickness. When the altitude of Jinshan Pass was nearly 3,700 meters, and he grew up in the south of the Yangtze River, he suffered from severe altitude sickness.
If you can't die, you have to continue to hold on, and you will gradually get used to it.
The summer here is still very beautiful, but the summer is too short.
Although the climate of Jinshan Pass is dangerous and the location is remote, it is very important.
Keshote Gushi Khan of the Oirat Mongolia went to Qinghai to defend Tibet. He led the Oirat coalition forces to join forces in Ili and then go south, crossing the Dangjin Mountain Pass, crossing the Tarim Basin, and all the way to the shores of Qinghai Lake. He first destroyed the enemies in Qinghai and then entered Tibet.
Jinshan Pass is located in the far west of Gansu, the northwest of Qinghai, and the southeast of Southern Xinjiang. It is at the intersection of three major regions and is an important route pass.
Since the Ming Dynasty took advantage of the last Oirat attack on Turpan, Hami, it took advantage of the situation to recapture the Kansai guards and garrisoned them here. Naturally, they would not let go of Jinshan Pass, an important place.
After putting on the sheepskin robe, I was still shivering from the cold.
On the kang, other fellow guardsmen were still sleeping soundly. This room was not big, but a group of people were sleeping there.
There will be a change of guard before the mountain is closed, and again after the mountain is lifted.
Chen Zilong is an exile with a low status. In fact, there are only a few good people who can be sent to a place like this. There are thieves, murderers, robbers, rebellious refugees, and slaves who kill their masters.
Many of them were originally punished by death, but in the name of the saint's mercy, the court sent these criminals who should have been executed to exile to remote places to guard the border.
Many people had their whole families or even entire clans exiled and moved here. Their families lived at the foot of the mountain, grazing and farming and reliving their lives here, while the young and strong had to be selected to take on the task of guard duty.
Don't even think about escaping when you get here, there is nowhere to escape.
They can escape, but they cannot escape with their families.
Besides, where to escape?
The Yarkands in the north, the Heshuote Mongols in the south, or the Tangut people? Here they can only huddle together for warmth, and they can only work hard to survive, for themselves and their families.
Chen Zilong used to be the leader of Fushe, a talented man from the south of the Yangtze River, a great talent and a romantic figure who was admired by even the famous prostitutes on the Qinhuai River. Liu Rushi was even his stay-at-home wife.
But now here, he is just an exile guarding the border.
Quickly open the door and curtain, go out and close it again. It is already bright outside, and you can see the snow-capped mountains and the connected peaks.
The majestic scenery once intoxicated him, but now he has no interest in even reciting a poem. The first thing to consider here is survival, not romance.
He turned around and entered the kitchen, a low stone room, and started to light a fire.
It was too cold, so he had to melt the ice and boil water for cooking.
Fortunately, there is no shortage of food here. Before the heavy snow closed the mountains, Hong Chengchou and Wu Sangui not only added many beacon forts in Guanxi and restored many passes, but also sent some more troops and sent some exiles. At the same time, they sent
There are also many supplies for winter, from food to clothing, salt, etc.
When the garrison personnel at Jinshan Pass also arrived at a post, there were three platoons and more than a hundred people. Not only did they bring rice and wheat, they even slaughtered frozen fat sheep, cattle and frozen fish.
Dry leaves ignited the fire, then added leaves and twigs, and the fire started. He added the reserved dried cow dung, and the fire in the stove was bright red, making him feel very warm.
With the fire and water boiling, he sat in this strange and difficult place that was not like the human world, and he couldn't help but doubt himself again.
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The mountain is blocked by heavy snow and news is blocked. Basically no one will cross the mountain pass. Even herdsmen or caravans, whether they are selling salt, tea or cattle and horses, will not cross the mountain pass in such a season. It is too dangerous.
They stay here, and sometimes they don't see anyone passing by for a month or two.
He had not seen his family for several months. His family was confiscated from the Central Plains and exiled to the Western Regions. He traveled all the way. When hundreds of members of his family finally arrived at Sugan Lake, more than a dozen people had died on the road.
After they settled down here, it was difficult for them to adapt to the new life. Life was too difficult.
Before going up the mountain, he heard that Hong Chengchou, Wu Sangui and others quelled the Shaanxi-Gansu rebellion and that Milayin, Ding Guodong and others were also annihilated. He wanted to go find them to see if the situation could be changed.
But there was no chance, and without paperwork and directions, they couldn't even leave the base a hundred miles away.
When the officer at Jinshankou Guancheng, a fierce-looking Guanzhong man, ignored his request at all, he even suspected that he did not understand his words at all.
Here, no one cares where you come from or your past.
Here, they have only one common identity, exiles.
When the water boiled, Chen Zilong got up and cooked the pimple soup, which was simple and convenient.
After his rice was cooked, four other people from his class came over. Everyone sat there in silence, warming themselves over the fire, drinking pimple soup and eating steamed potatoes.
After eating and drinking, I got up with some reluctance, went to the warehouse to get weapons, and started patrolling.
There is a sentry stationed in the pass, with three platoons below, one platoon has three teams, and one team is divided into three squads.
There are fifteen people in a team and five in a class.
The outpost is divided into three shifts and is guaranteed to be manned 24 hours a day.
The people on duty were divided into three groups, one with a fixed sentry, one with patrolling outside, and one on standby, all taking turns.
There is no wind, no snow outside today, and there is still some sunshine.
It looks very peaceful and beautiful.
However, Chen Zilong knew that the beauty outside contained hidden dangers. The high altitude, extremely cold weather, and blizzards that could appear at any time could take away the lives of the patrolling guards outside at any time.
But the guard commander of the Guanzhong people did not care about their life and death. Anyone who dared to be lazy and disobey orders would be punished by military law. The lighter case could be whipped, or he could strip naked and crawl on the ice and sleep in the snow. The worst case could be beheaded directly.
That is the Black King of Hell.
It doesn't matter whether he is illiterate or not, he was once the leader of Fushe, or he was once the Minister of Public Affairs. He doesn't get any special treatment.
I added two more layers to my body, then picked up my weapon and went out to patrol in the thick snow.
"When the blockade is lifted next year, I guess Yarkand will be wiped out, right?"
"Definitely, I heard that the saints are going to Dunhuang to celebrate the New Year. All the Mongolian tribes in the northern and western parts of the country come to worship. Hong Chengchou, Wu Sangui, Zhang Yong and other killing gods are the first, and then there are the imperial guards of the emperor's camp, plus the Mongolian troops, Ye
Can Erqiang survive?"
"When the Yarkand is wiped out, will we no longer have to stay in the mountains for the winter? Can we spend the winter directly at the foot of the mountain?"
"In your dreams!"
"Even if the entire Western Region belongs to the Ming Dynasty, it doesn't matter to us damn exiles."
Chen Zilong listened to the four people in his class talking, but did not interrupt. The few people in his class were not good people. In his opinion, they were even despicable people. Some committed murder and robbery, and some committed adultery.
There were also deserters. He was ashamed to be with this group of people, but the King of Hell had no choice but to assign them, but he was unwilling to chat with them more.
"The mountains are covered with heavy snow and there are no ghosts. What are we guarding here? If we can still see someone, maybe even meet a woman, even if we can't do anything, at least we can satisfy our eyes. He
Damn, there’s not even a single live ewe on the mountain right now.”
"Stay through it until the lockdown is lifted, then you can go home from work, reunite with your family, and farm and herd."
"What a hell, I'm a single man, and my entire family would have died in the Chongzhen Year."
"Then behave well. Maybe you will be assigned a female prisoner then, or you can save some money and ask an exile's daughter to start a family."
The fierce old bachelor in his forties looked at Chen Zilong with a smile, "Old Chen, do you have a suitable daughter? How about marrying one to me?"
Chen Zilong stared at him and said in a low voice, "Get out!"
