I'm sure of the prosperous age of Kangxi and Qianlong!

Chapter 493 They are all political prisoners

Today's Yaksa City is under the jurisdiction of the Heilongjiang Capital Region.

Decades ago, the Manchu Qing Dynasty and Tsarist Russia fought a war here. The result of that battle was the signing of the Treaty of Nerchinsk. Tsarist Russia was forced to abandon the city of Yaksa in exchange for the Manchu Qing Dynasty recognizing Tsarist Russia's legal possession of Nerchinsk.

Judging from the results, it’s hard to say whether it’s a win or not.

If it were a win, Nerchinsk would be gone, and the Udi River Basin would become an area to be discussed. If it was not considered a victory, Yaksa was successfully recovered by the Qing Dynasty.

Of course, there is no difference between recapture and confiscation. The Qing Dynasty's recapture was to destroy Yaksa City, expel the Tsarist Russian troops inside, and then withdraw to Heilongjiang City (Yuanhui).

Well, it's like being so full that I'm full.

This time, after nearly fifty years, the "army" of Tsarist Russia finally made a comeback.

However, the people who came this time were not Cossacks, nor regular troops of Tsarist Russia. They were all nobles of Tsarist Russia...former nobles, in layman's terms, political prisoners.

Just two years ago, Empress Catherine I of Tsarist Russia died of illness. It was her first life, not her second life.

This Catherine I, who created the first empress of Tsarist Russia, is far more famous than her descendants who are only one character apart. Not only does she not have the reputation of an empress, but she has also been completely treated as a puppet during her short three-year reign.

Only on the issue of cutting military expenditures did the queen, who was forced to take office, have a little say. Her greatest contribution to Tsarist Russia was to follow the will of Peter the Great, establish the Central Academy of Sciences, and establish the Supreme Privy Council, initially implementing centralized rule.

Then, the empress got a heart attack in her dissolute state. Before her death, she lived up to her expectations and appointed Peter II, the 13-year-old grandson of Peter the Great, to succeed him according to the wishes of the powerful minister Menshikov. She also exiled a large number of people. The political enemy nobles went to far Eastern Siberia.

Today, these political prisoners in Tsarist Russia have just learned that China has changed dynasties, and the once powerful Manchu Qing Dynasty has been defeated by another Ming Dynasty.

So they came back again, with a group of hired Cossacks and recruited Siberian natives, ready to try their luck here in Heilongjiang.

Yaksa and the others did not dare to go, for fear of running into the indigenous tribes or patrolling Chinese troops there.

Winter has just entered, and the strength of these motley crews, composed of former Tsarist Russian nobles, Cossacks, and Siberian natives, has already doubled. In addition to the originally employed Cossacks, there were also many recruited natives, totaling at least a thousand people.

These guys are entrenched in the Udi River Basin. They plan to wait until the snow melts in spring and then use the Cossack tradition to plunder the towns near the Heilongjiang River.

If the Chinese army here in Heilongjiang is not strong, then they will directly occupy it and build a city.

Naturally, Nanjing didn't know about such a trivial matter. Even the Heilongjiang Dusi didn't notice it. If he did, he wouldn't pay much attention to it. It was just a miscellaneous army of more than a thousand people, and he would just dispatch troops and horses to push back.

This winter is quite cold. It has just started snowing in Nanjing.

Facing the cold winter, Zhu Yijiong also put on her furs, lit the heater, and began to review snow disaster memorials from all over the country.

From the late Ming and early Qing dynasties to the early Qianlong period, there was always a period of ups and downs of the Little Glacier. Either there was snow in June, severe droughts occurred everywhere, or sudden heavy rains caused the Yellow River to burst. In the middle of the Kangxi period, even Taihu Lake could freeze.

Even though the Ming Dynasty and the New Dynasty had already prepared countermeasures, many people still froze to death and fell sick when the cold wave broke out.

Even Zhu Yijiong's princes and daughters took great care to keep themselves warm, but they still got cold and sick.

Fortunately, allicin is always available in the palace, and now there are medicines such as quinine. There is no need to worry about a minor cold or the death of the prince.

After only half an hour of reviewing, Zhu Yijiong couldn't help but sigh: "How difficult it is for people's livelihood!" "When anyone comes, immediately send an order to the cabinet and ministers to come and discuss the matter."

"According to the order."

The secretary on duty resigned after receiving the order.

Within half an hour, all the cabinet ministers came in a hurry, all wearing fur coats with patches of snowflakes on them.

"Meet Your Majesty!"

"Free, get up!"

Zhu Yijiong did not chat and went directly to the topic: "I see this snow disaster. Although officials from various places have actively provided disaster relief, there are still many local people dying of cold and illness due to lack of money and food. The cabinet ministries still need to urge officials in various places to do their best. We will do our best to rescue and provide disaster relief. However, in places where there is a shortage of money, food and medicine, and the disaster is severe, the central government must not neglect it. We will never allow local people to freeze to death or die of illness due to a lack of money and food and failure to provide disaster relief."

The tone of these words was very calm, but it was still obvious that the emperor was a little angry.

Fortunately, he was only a little angry, and the emperor was not angry, because it was indeed not entirely the fault of local officials. In some places, there is a sudden cold snap, or even heavy snowfall, and the local government responds by mobilizing relief supplies. During this period, people will always be affected by the disaster.

It can be said that the current disasters in various places are basically under control, which is quite good. At least it is much better than the prosperous days of Kangxi and Qianlong in the pseudo-Qing Dynasty, when there was great famine every year.

In the prosperous age of Kangxi and Qianlong, it was so famous that even in the prosperous places south of the Yangtze River, there was great hunger every year and people could eat each other. It really lived up to its reputation!

"The ministers obey the order."

The cabinet ministers did not dare to neglect and quickly responded with their hands in hand.

Zhu Yijiong immediately said: "There are also other places in Liaodong and Monan. This year's cold winter was so unexpected, even the south was affected by disasters. These herdsmen and indigenous people in the northern grasslands are probably not going to have a hard time. With the establishment of the three major capitals, the herdsmen here , the indigenous people are also our people in the Ming Dynasty and the New Dynasty. The Ministry of Household Statistics made some statistics and distributed some winter clothes and coal as soon as possible. Other medicines such as allicin can also be used for part of it. If you get sick in the cold winter, if you don’t have enough medicine, you may get sick. Many people died from the disease.”

Chen Ji, the Minister of Household Affairs, had no objection, but just asked: "Your Majesty, the people in Liaodong and Monan need to procure winter clothes, coal, and medicines. What should happen to the areas under the jurisdiction of the Wei Division?"

In the eyes of these ministers, only the reclassified Han people, naturalized herdsmen, and indigenous people can be regarded as common people. The other canonized guards are equivalent to chieftains and must not be counted.

Zhu Yijiong thought for a while and said: "Since we have been enthroned as Wei Si, we will treat them equally. Otherwise, if we only give it to the people in the jurisdiction and not to these Wei Si, won't we force them to alienate our Ming Dynasty?"

"Your Majesty is wise!" All the ministers shouted in unison again.

Zhu Yijiong nodded and said: "Now that Monan Dusi has been pacified and surrendered, when the snow melts in the spring next year, we can officially send troops to recover Yunzhong Dusi."

It was the Ming Dynasty's established strategic plan to send troops in the spring of next year to completely pacify Yunzhong Dusi.

It's just that this unexpected snowstorm made the Ming Dynasty a little overwhelmed, but after thinking about it, it was actually not a big deal.

It is nothing more than allocating money and food to provide relief to disaster areas, and at the same time issuing orders and urging officials in various places to actively carry out emergency rescue and disaster relief.

The Ming Dynasty just launched a large-scale anti-corruption campaign across the country last year. Many officials in various places were newly appointed carrot pits after that. Some of them were temporary and could be promoted to regular positions if they did well.

Not to mention the anti-corruption deterrence in front of me, this is a free and fast promotion channel, so no one will try to make trouble at this time.

(End of this chapter)