At the end of the seventh year of Dongxing.

Heavy snow and strong wind.

Sixty-six degrees north latitude, sixty-six degrees east longitude, the center line of the northern end of the Sardege Mountains (Ural Mountains). The elevation of the Sardege Mountains drops sharply at this point, and is divided into two parts by the Sauber River.

The Sauber River is frozen solid in winter, and at the pass of the eastern foothills of Saridege Mountain, a white castle appears on the gentle slope of the south bank of the river.

Her original face is definitely not white, but it is hidden by the long ice and snow season.

It can be seen that the castle is purely wooden, with a radius of about ten miles. A wooden castle with a radius of ten miles stands on the south bank of the little-known Sauber River. It is still inaccessible and one of the few on the south bank of the Sauber River that crosses the Sazydege Mountains.

It's very puzzling.

Here, there are only four months of ice and snow every year, and the average temperature is minus ten degrees Celsius. In winter, it plummets to about minus thirty degrees Celsius, and even reaches minus fifty degrees Celsius in the coldest time.

It's now minus thirty degrees.

Starting from the Sauber River, the mountains to the north of the Sardege Mountains are obviously shorter. Not to mention that at such a high altitude, the mountains to the north became fragmented due to erosion and cutting by glaciers hundreds of thousands of years ago. Therefore,

The icy cold wind from the Arctic Ocean can roar here unbridled.

The unbridled cold wind mixed with large and messy snowflakes ravaged everything he encountered, including stones, soil, trees, moss, and animals, without exception.

But there are still animals living here tenaciously.

In winter, this place becomes a paradise for reindeer and gray wolves.

There is also an animal that appears specifically in the dark, the black wolf that is most worshiped by the locals.

Wherever there are animals, there are traces of humans, so it is not surprising that humans build castles here.

Sober Castle came earlier than in history and is larger in scale. It is a typical castle built by Russians who are not afraid of the cold.

At this longitude and latitude, if you put it to another hostile force, you will not find this at all. Among Russia's major enemies, Sweden in the west is still four thousand miles away. They have neither the motivation nor the ability to penetrate so far into Russia.

place.

Then there is Daxia in the south. By the way, it cannot be said to be completely south, because the east is also the land of Daxia.

The temperature in Soberburg is minus 20 degrees Celsius. On the nearby mountains, with an altitude of about 400 to 500 meters, the temperature drops sharply to minus 30 degrees Celsius due to the cold wind!

There are dozens of large and small cave entrances in the middle of the mountain, and each cave entrance is filled with hibernating black bears.

In the largest cave in the middle, the former black bear couple was replaced by three people.

There are three men wearing bear skins, and there are three bear skins hanging in the cave. The bear skins on their bodies were naturally obtained from other places.

The location of this cave entrance is very special. There are straight cliffs on its left, right, top and bottom, at least three feet away from easy climbing places. I don't know how the black bear climbed here, but in any case, this cave has changed its owner.

Three people shivering from the cold.

No, no, no, there is another person, but he doesn't seem to be afraid of the cold. He is wrapped in a bearskin and sleeping soundly.

Among the four people, one was lying down and sleeping, the two were sitting with their backs to each other, and one of them was looking at the entrance of the cave with a monocular telescope.

After a while, the man retreated from the entrance of the cave into the cave.

The man did not speak after returning to the cave, but glanced at the man who was sleeping soundly, and then said with a smile: "This Zhang Qi is still a Han, and when he came to this cold place, he was better than me."

It’s really rare for someone who comes from the forest to be able to withstand the cold.”

It was dusk, and the sky would soon darken. Here, close to the Arctic Circle, in winter, the days are extremely short and pass quickly.

This person actually spoke Chinese. At the northern end of the Sardege Mountains, surrounded by thousands of miles of Russians and places that were vassal to the Russians, there were actually Han Chinese!

The cave was very dark, and the faces of several people could not be seen clearly, but when night fell completely, a small bonfire was finally lit.

It is strange to say that when there was no fire, the man named Zhang Qi slept soundly. After the fire was lit, the man actually woke up.

It is Zhang Qi whom everyone is familiar with, the Yuyuan thief from Shandong, the leader of the famous Gray Guards Action Team in Daxia, who is now forty years old.

As mentioned before, Zhang Qi is one of the few martial arts masters among the Gray Guards. In the past, he could shoot a three-stone bow and was good at wielding a two-meter-long sword. There were also flying stones in the pocket on his waist. He could throw stones.

Kung Fu is said to be somewhat close to the legendary Zhang Qing with no feather arrows.

Of course, if Zhang Qi still wields his three-stone bow when he goes deep into such a remote place where the enemy is at risk, a two-meter-long sword will definitely not work.

Fortunately, the Samoyeds (the collective name for the Nenets, Komi, Vogurs and Osgaks who live at the northern end of the Ural Mountains) living nearby also have large bows for killing moose and black bears, but the largest

Zhang Qi had no choice but to exchange a small bag of salt and a knife for such a bow from them.

The Samoyed bow is made of beech tree mixed with antlers, and the bowstring is made of reindeer sinew mixed with beech bark. After their special tanning method, it can still be used in places with dozens of degrees below zero.

, which made Zhang Qi very curious.

Since the rise of the Russians in the Sardege area, their two-foot-long curved daggers derived from the Mongols and Turks have also been introduced here. Therefore, each of these four people carries such a

A knife.

In addition, Russian fire sickles, flints, and tinder used to make fires are naturally also carried.

Each person has a large bow with a stone power, a short knife, Zhang Qi and a bag of stones, which are all the weapons of these people. Of course, a Samoyed-style sled for each person is also indispensable.

This kind of dress is a common dress for the bold Samoyed "warriors" here. Even the Russians will not be suspicious if they see it, because some of the Samoyeds have the same appearance as the Orientals.

The person who was looking out with a telescope just now was An Ba, whom we were familiar with before. The man who almost used his own life to protect the Gray Guards in the Liaodong Campaign had gone to great lengths to get a list of Manchus from Shenyang.

Later, after taking the city of Beijing, he married Princess Changping, the last princess of the Ming Dynasty.

Time flies, Anba, who was in his early twenties, is now thirty-four years old. He is still the top leader of the gray-clothed guards of the Daxia Kingdom in Anxi, holding the rank of major general.

For Anba, who used to be the equivalent of the nine-door admiral in Beijing, to personally come to the Russian hinterland to conduct investigations, someone with a higher status must have come to Anxi.

Yes, the highest-ranking member of the Great Xia Kingdom’s gray-clothed guards, Gari, has arrived and is taking charge of Linhuang Mansion to direct all matters.

Gari came here three years ago, and the affairs of Middle-earth were basically left to Ouyang Jiong, the former imperial guard of the Ming Dynasty. If he can do this and bring Anba, who is also from Sauron, something big must have happened.

In addition to Anba and Zhang Qi, Kuma, the son of Kuchuk from Yakutia, and Sitku, the son of Gari, are also among them. These two are young men in their early twenties, and they are obviously here to practice.

.

Anba comes from the Nahata tribe, one of the three tribes of Ulan-Ud Solon, Kuma comes from Yakutsk, and Sitku comes from the Beishan savages. They are all people who can withstand freezing and can only give birth at night.

I couldn't sleep until after the fire. I didn't expect that Zhang Qi from Heze, Shandong Province could resist freezing better than them.

Of the four, Anba was naturally the leader. Zhang Qi did not understand Sauron nor Samoyed, so he could only pretend to be a mute and follow Anba.

In addition, Anba and Kuma look somewhat similar to the Nenets who also speak Samoye German, while Zhang Qi and Sitku are obviously the Evenki people who are still distributed in the Ob River Basin.

Already.

After serving as an official in Beijing for several years, Anba returned to the ranks of gray guards. Soon he brought Princess Changping to Anxi and settled in Dingyuan City.

Cold, extremely dizzying cold is what he likes in the end. As the second generation of forest dwellers, Sitku Kumar is actually already familiar with life in the city. When he came to this far north, he also wanted to

Let them relive the scenes of their ancestors.

As a Han Chinese, Zhang Qi did it purely because he liked this job.

The kind of days when he wanders outside all year round without restraint and only returns when reporting. As one of the highest-ranking people in the Gray Guards Action Team, he has been to almost every identity in the Ming Dynasty, and has also been to Japan, North Korea, and the Western Regions.

I have been to other places, but I have never been to the northern part of Siberia. When I learned that there was such a mission, I quickly signed up for it.

Naturally, Anba is eager to see Zhang Qi join him.

Among the four, the one with the strongest individual combat ability and the most experience is Zhang Qi.

In the dark night, on the mountain five miles away from Soberburg, the firelight was obscured by the entrance of the cave. The people standing at the foot of the mountain couldn't see what was happening here, let alone Soberburg outside of the force. But if

It was daytime, and Anba didn't dare to light a fire carelessly - although the firelight could be obscured by the hole, the black smoke above could not hide it.

Fortunately, the days here are extremely short in winter and most of the time it is dark.

The night gave me black eyes, but I used them to look for light.

What is the light that Anba and the others are looking for?

"Crack, crackle, crackle"

The firewood soaked in fire fox urine made a crackling sound when it burned, making everyone suddenly alert, but Zhang Qi smiled and said: "In such a cold place, the old guys will definitely not come here at night. Now they are all staying in the wooden house

As for Li Maodong, this is the territory of black bears. The people nearby suddenly respect black bears very much and will not disturb them in winter. Therefore, under normal circumstances, there are only black wolves patrolling in the dark in the four or five miles nearby.

Nothing else.”

Lao Maozi was originally a special name given to Russians by Emperor Nikan of the Great Xia Kingdom, and later spread throughout the country.

Everyone nodded, yes, in this alpine zone, in addition to the common gray wolves, there is also a kind of black wolf that specializes in reindeer at night. This kind of wolf is completely black and is very good at hunting in the dark. It is the local wolf.

One of the most worshiped animals by humans.

The fur of the black wolf is also extremely valuable. It is said that among the Russians, it is almost the same as the fur of a firefox. Based on this, the number of black wolves in the northern section of the Sardege Mountains is also decreasing day by day.

"Ouch..."

Just as he was talking, a unique wolf howl came from outside. This wolf howl was very different from other wolves. This sound was close to that of a feline. The low roar announced his huge size.

Zhang Qi arrived at the entrance of the cave in a short step, and saw small lanterns swinging around dozens of meters below the entrance.

In the past, Zhang Qi, who loved hunting most, would definitely have gone on a killing spree in Daxia Kingdom, but now he only showed half of his face at the entrance of the cave.

While staring down the mountain, he carefully smelled the smell around him.

In order to hide their presence from others, they did not roast meat after lighting a fire. Instead, they baked long, hard, black bread obtained from the Russians, in order to prevent animals that were highly sensitive to smells from finding them.

"Could it be..."

He fully revealed his face.

What he didn't expect was that tonight was a night with extremely bright stars, but it was impossible to see the smoke clearly on such a night, but the smell of the smoke...
Chapter completed!