Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 796 The Winter is Coming
The north wind howls.

Not far to the east of the Okhota River, there is a small bay where several rivers smaller than the Okhota River enter the sea, and a narrow strip protrudes from the bay.

The Cossacks built castles here, and they built wooden houses facing the bay, surrounded by fences of many pointed logs tightly tied together, and dug trenches.

After several years of reinforcement, it became the largest Cossack stronghold along the coast.

When Moskvikin first came here, the journey was full of difficulties. He traveled up the river from Yakutsk on the Lena River, entered the Galdan River, and then walked upstream by boat for five weeks to enter the Maya River, and then walked up two hundred After ten weeks, they arrived at the source of the Uriah River, then crossed the Jugjul Mountains, built a small boat again, drifted downstream for eight days, went ashore to build a big boat, and sailed again. It took five days to reach the mouth of the Uriah River.

From there, a ship was built, and it took three days and nights to reach the mouth of the Okhota River.

The route was so difficult that a new expedition was sent from Oymyakon Castle with twenty Yakuts as guides, led by the Cossack Andrei Ivanovich Karerey Leading, change along the Indigirka River, enter the Guidusun River, a tributary on the left bank, go up, cross the watershed, enter the source of the Okhota River, and then go down the river. It only takes five weeks to get from Oymyakon Arrive at Okhotsk Castle.

Although Oymyakon is [-] miles east of Yakutsk, the two cities of Oymyakon and Yakutsk are located on the banks of the big river, so it is convenient to travel, and there are many stronghold castles for supplies along the way.

It is precisely because of this new route that the number of Cossacks in Okhotsk increased rapidly, and even began to have family members waiting for them.

Compared with Oymyakon, the coldest castle in the Far East built on permafrost, Okhotsk is much warmer.

Through several wars, they defeated a branch of aboriginal people who refused to pay them taxes in kind,

Along the Ulia River live the Ramt people, the Kiryak people who never wash their faces and keep bears, and the Daur people with big beards.

They found that the river here is a marten's world, there are many kinds of wild animals, and there are also all kinds of fish, all of which are very large. There is no such thing in Siberia. They are called Jiayu, salmon, and hunchback woman in those indigenous languages. There are too many fish to count, as long as the big fishing net is cast down, no matter what, it will not be possible to pull up a net of fish.

Where the river is very fast, the fish there are killed by the rapids and thrown onto the shore. There are pieces of fish on the shore, like piles of firewood, where beasts like otters and red foxes eat fish comfortably.

The natives who live by the river catch their fish daily in that season, and dry it to feed them and their dogs all year round.

Two large mountain ranges isolated this coastal area, allowing the natives here to enjoy a unique geographical advantage, and the Cossacks flocked here one after another.

They set up log cabins here to house their families, and some hunters set up tents directly.

They plundered, conquered, hunted, and looked for mines in groups.There are also some adventure teams who use this as a base to go further south to the mouth of the Amur River, or continue to develop along the coast to the northeast.

Winter is coming.

Many Cossacks returned to Okhotsk early, and some of them returned to Okhotsk by boat after resupplying here. It took five weeks to come and more time to go back. Imyacon.

And most of the Cossacks stayed here for the winter when they came back.

After several years, the castle has become stronger and stronger, and now the nearby tribes have been conquered by them, no one dares to attack again, and there are even many hostages from various tribes in their castle.

They also trade here with the surrounding tribes in exchange for their dried fish, dried meat and fur.

There is even grain.

"The Okhota River is frozen."

In the morning, a Cossack came to report.

Ivan, the governor of Okhotsk, was very happy when he heard it. He was sitting in the hall of the wooden house of the governor's mansion. It was cold and there was a fireplace in the room. On his round wooden table, there were a few simple breakfasts.

Fried fish, a hunk of bread, and a cup of tea.

His steward was appointed by the Warlord of Yakutsk, and like many new castles in the Far East, these castles are both a paradise for adventurers and a prison for exiles.

The transportation is inconvenient, very remote, and the conditions are simple.

Those bachelor Cossacks, or those exiles, hunters, and small profiteers who ventured here, all dreamed of getting rich overnight, but found that life was not easy when they came here.

But there are still many people who stayed. In order to be able to stay in this ghost place for a long time, they also established an Orthodox church here. Resident women are wives.

Because they are too far away from the mainland of Russia, and their number is too small, their usual strategy is that as long as they are willing to pay the fur tax honestly, then these Raksha ghosts will not slaughter those indigenous tribes, nor will they drive them away. They can still continue to live their own lives. If they are willing to be baptized, the fur tax they pay can be reduced, and they can even come to the castle to trade with more trust.

And if tribal women marry them, then they and their family members will be more trusted, and their sons will be treated as citizens of Tsarist Russia.

In order to live warmer in this remote ghost place, they tried to find ways to marry aboriginal women, no matter who he is, Hezhe, Sauron, or Feiyaka, anyway, in the eyes of these Tsarist Russians, there is no difference between these people. it's the same.

Except for the Kiryaks who have never washed their faces and bathed all their lives, can smell the smell of dead fish from a distance, and are always covered with fleas, and it is difficult to see their true colors until they die. They are all willing to want young women.

In order to marry a young native woman, they also tried their best, taking out bows and arrows, iron axes, armor, hunting nets and other things as gifts, in order to marry a young woman, so that someone could warm the bed during the long night, I also hope that in this remote frontier, I can have children and have a family.

They also hope that when they venture out, there will be a woman in the log cabin in their castle who will take care of the family with the children.

Otherwise, they will feel that they are lonely ghosts in a foreign land, always accompanied by loneliness.

Ivan was sent to be the general manager, and he brought only a few clerks and more than 20 military service members. He knew that his first task was to collect the fur tax, so he was different from Viking and other Cossacks who had just come here before. , he will not go to rob.

On the contrary, he was very polite to the tribal leaders, because he wanted to collect fur tax for him through them, and each young and strong man handed in eleven mink furs a year.

He directly asked the leaders of the various ministries to collect and pay back the salary.

They will also hire the children of the leaders to come to the castle to do things, and pay them their salaries on time, etc. During the holidays, they will also hold banquets in the castle and invite them to be guests.

If there is a conflict between the tribes, he will even lead troops to help mediate.

He also recruited some of their children as military service members of the castle, and paid them salaries, but usually transferred them to other castles, and exchanged some local native military service from other castles to avoid their threats.

In the eyes of those primitive tribal aborigines who still use stone and bone tools, the Raksha people with thunderous firearms are unable to resist, so when they change to Huairou to rule after the brutal plunder and massacre, Although taxes still have to be imposed, they are already very satisfied.

Ivan is always smiling. This son of a run-down nobleman from Moscow has been in Siberia for more than ten years. It is not easy to achieve the current position of Okhotsk's general manager step by step.

Even if the bread made by his Evan maid was too hard, he would not reprimand him. He even married the daughter of a tribal leader himself not long after he came here. Although he still has a wife and children in Moscow, even In several castles such as Oymyakon and Yakutsk, he married indigenous wives, but these did not affect him.

After chewing two mouthfuls of hard bread, Ivan picked up the tea and drank it, which was still fragrant.

This hard-won tea is also very expensive. It was traded with the Mongols from Irkutsk on Lake Baikal, and then transported along the Lena River to Yakutsk, and then to Oymyakonburg, and then It took another five weeks to get here, and it was not an easy journey.

A tea brick is worth a mink fur.

"The Okhota River is frozen, and the Sea of ​​Okhotz will also be frozen. It seems that the Ming army on the Amur River will not invade. We can finally live through the winter with peace of mind."

The clerk Maxim said with a smile, "We are too nervous during this time, we are scaring ourselves, why don't we hold a banquet and invite the leaders of the tribes to bring their wives and children to come and drink and dance together. There are also a lot of people spending the winter in our castle, if we can get some people to marry and get married, then our Okhotsk Castle will be stronger, and after the thaw next year, we will be able to add a lot of new generations."

"That's okay, we didn't urge the tribes to pay taxes to prevent the Ming Kingdom from attacking, but now we can urge them."

"Send someone to Fort Uriah to take a look. If they don't find any trace of the enemy, then ask them to come to the banquet too, and the time will be set in a week."

Fort Ulia was the first stronghold established by Viking when he arrived at the sea from the south of Yakutsk. It was located by the Uria River. Later, because the route of the Okhot River was more convenient, the new center was here. side.

But there are still some people left there, but in winter, they will basically withdraw.

At that time, the Vikings went south along the coast until they reached the Bay of Udi and reached the Chantar Islands, but they ran out of food at that time, and finally returned before the winter came, and they found the Amur they were looking for so hard. estuary.

In recent years, many Cossacks have gone south, and have already known the location of the Amu River from the indigenous population. Before that, Vasily Danilovich Poyarkov went south over the mountains and entered Heilongjiang along the Jingqili River. The Saurons, who were besieged by the Saurons, went down to the estuary on the south road, and were trapped there in winter. After they ran out of food, they ate the Saurons, and finally ate half of their companions. They survived until the sea water thawed, and hurried to Okho by boat. Tsk, where he rested and fled back.

Tsarist Russia now has detailed information on Heilongjiang, knowing its upstream, downstream, and even some tributaries in the middle. They conquered Heilongjiang from several directions, but compared with the few indigenous tribes north of the Greater Khingan Mountains, the tribal strength is extremely weak. The Heilongjiang River Basin , there are many tribes that are not weak, and these Raksha people were beaten and fled without being careful.

On the side of Fort Okhotsk, people were also sent south along the coast to conquer, but the progress was also very slow, and they did not dare to land directly at the mouth of the Heilongjiang River easily, because they heard from the natives that the army of the Ming Emperor came over there, and it was huge. There are many ships, cannons, firecrackers, and many soldiers and horses.

Fort Uria is located in the southwest of Hotsk, three days and nights away. Ivan regards it as an outpost, and sends a group of Cossacks to garrison there, and recruits some native children.

Drinking tea, gnawing hard bread, and chewing fried fish pieces, the manager Ivan looked out the window.

Snowflakes fell from the sky.

"Snowing."

In the past, he hated snow, hated winter, and hated the freezing period, which meant several months without being able to communicate with the rear, but now, when he saw the snow and the ice, he felt relieved and felt very safe. .

"Can the Emperor of China really send a fleet of giant ships and cannons to the Amur River? Do you think they will come north to attack us?"

Maxim disagreed, "I think those natives must be exaggerating the facts, they are just a bunch of stinky primitives who don't take a bath, and since China has never had any control over the area north of the Stanov Mountains (outer Xing'an Mountains, Beishan) What kind of real rule is there, even there is no real rule north of the Amur River, so the farthest they can reach the mouth of the Amur River is to collect some tribute from the natives, "

Ivan tasted the tea from China, "I have received some news that the original emperor of China was defeated by the Jurchens, the braided barbarians in the northeast of China a few years ago, but China is too big, and they were beaten to leave half of the country. At that time, a very outstanding young royal prince emerged, led his subordinates to recover successfully, and even beat the Jurchen Khan Bogda Khan and fled all the way north. Now even the Mongolian tribes to the north of them are competing to pay tribute ,
I heard that the Chinese emperor was very young and wise. He developed trade and once defeated the Netherlands and Portugal at sea. He even made Spain and the United Kingdom compromise with him and reached a maritime trade agreement. According to the news from Moscow, this The emperor declared open war on our emissaries on New Year's Day, and said he would drive us all west of the Urals.

I think this emperor is so powerful, so his army will come sooner or later. Even if the rivers and seas are frozen this year, they will definitely come next year. If they don’t come next year, they will come the next year. They will come sooner or later. prepare. "

Maxim still didn't take it seriously, "We have castles, artillery, firecrackers, and powerful Cossacks. If he doesn't come this year, we can bring in more artillery and troops next year. If we come a few years later, there will be even more people here." It's not something they can conquer.

We can defeat as many as you want, but why are you so worried, let's think about the banquet, the long winter is too boring, I hope there will be more clean and beautiful Tunguska women this time, if there is a way, I can buy a few The Chinese female slaves are fine, let me see what they are like, I heard that they are all very fair and clean, and gentle and gentle. "

Ivan laughed, "I've heard that Chinese women are all good cooks. Now I want to have a good cook."

"After the sea of ​​Okhotsk is unsealed next year, I will definitely go to Nu'er to do it myself, and take her back with a boatload of Chinese women!"

"Hahaha, it's time for me to be two!"

"must!"

(End of this chapter)