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

Chapter 634 Eastern Siberia
Tsarist Russia established four major military districts in the vast Siberia, namely Tobolsk, Tomsk, Yakutsk and Yeniseisk military districts.

These military districts are managed by the central Siberian Governor's Office. There are castles and villages under the military districts, and the castles also have their own military governors.

Now, Yakutsk in the four major military districts has been captured by the Heilongjiang Navy and renamed Lingbei Prefecture.

Over the past few years, more than a hundred people have immigrated to Lingbei Prefecture, all of whom are death row prisoners exiled from the south.

For these immigrant prisoners, they were indeed exiled, and the environment in which they were exiled was even harsher and harsher than that of Ninggu Pagoda during the Manchu and Qing Dynasties.

After that year, even with Xu Sanfu and other garrison troops from Lingbei Prefecture, more than 30 people still froze to death and disappeared. Half of the remaining 70 people were sick and almost died in Lingbei City.

The 30% mortality rate shows how harsh the environment in Siberia is. Xu Sanfu and the garrison troops have reduced the casualty rate because they have adapted to Heilongjiang for a long time and learned from the experience of the Sauron natives in Heilongjiang.

Anyway, Sun Ruhai of the Heilongjiang Navy immediately reported to Heilongjiang Commander Yu Kecheng after handing over supplies. If he moves to Lingbei City or further north in Heilongjiang, he should first get used to it in the Heilongjiang and Lelang areas. He cannot just go there all at once. Send it over.

The Lingbei garrison officer is now a formal official position and is directly responsible to the Heilongjiang Dusi.

The current guard is still Xu Sanfu, but starting this year, he has been promoted to a deputy. After another two years, the deputy should take over, and he himself will return to Heilongjiang and be promoted to another position.

Xu Sanfu stayed in Lingbei Prefecture for several years. In addition to cutting down trees, building ships, and farming, he also maintained long-term contact with the Shilu tribe and often traded supplies.

Up to now, more than half of the Han people in Lingbei City have intermarryed with the Shilu tribe. It's just that it's too cold here. Even if there is normal intermarriage and reproduction, it will not be able to support a large population in a short period of time.

Everything has to come slowly.

However, while Xu Sanfu was farming land, building ships, and building infrastructure, he was also not idle. Starting from the warmer spring and summer of the next year, as long as they have the energy, they will take boats along the Lena River (Lena River) and its tributaries, march towards the north and northeast, and conquer the Cossack castles built along the river.

Continuous small-scale wars continued, and the Ming army in Lingbei Prefecture successively ousted many Cossack castle strongholds such as Zhigansk and Zahiversk.

These strongholds and castles were not as powerful as the Ming army imagined. Instead, they were pitifully fragile. Most of them were wooden walls without even rammed earth, and the Cossack garrison was pitiful.

There were only fifty or sixty Cossacks at most. The Ming army only led the troops to conquer those strongholds with a little attack.

Just like when the Qing Dynasty defeated Yaksa, they captured the castle and killed all the Cossacks, then destroyed the simple castles built of wooden villages, and then returned directly by boat.

There is no way, this is really not a place for people to stay, it is almost close to the Arctic Circle, and the land here is even permafrost.

The Ming army soldiers led by Xu Sanfu could not imagine how these Cossacks survived in such a cold place where they could not farm.

Anyway, the Ming army was completely unwilling to stay. They just laid down the castle and massacred all the Cossacks they saw, leaving no one alive before destroying the castle and leaving.

Those Cossack strongholds were cut off and the wooden castle was destroyed. Even if the furs were snatched, there was no way to exchange them for supplies. And without a permanent home, even if there are Cossacks who slip through the net, the severe cold weather in the Arctic will make it difficult for them to survive.

They were lucky enough to survive, but without supplies and ammunition to replenish, these Cossacks could not defeat the local Chukotka natives.

The Cossacks of Tsarist Russia have been at war with the Chukotka natives for many years, but due to environmental and climate constraints, even the Cossacks were unable to launch a large-scale war against the Chukotka people.

Tsarist Russia often launched expeditionary forces, and the Chukotka people took advantage of the favorable geographical location and climate to avoid fighting and escape. When the Tsarist Russian army withdrew, the Chukchi people came over to attack and expelled the indigenous tribes conquered by the Cossacks.

It lasted until the outbreak of the Opium War, and the Chukotka people were still difficult to conquer by Tsarist Russia.

Moreover, the Chukchi people became more and more difficult to deal with. At the beginning, the Chukchi people were still using wing armor made of hard leather and bones. As the war broke out, the Chukchi people gradually learned the iron smelting technology. In the later period, they even used muskets. On.

Tsarist Russia was beaten so hard that it could only recognize the independence of the Chukotka people, but the Chukotka people had to declare their allegiance to the Tsar and did not have to pay fur taxes to the Tsarist Russian government.

Well, it can be understood as Jixizhou in ancient China.

The Ming army in Lingbei Prefecture has already contacted the Chukchi people, and the two sides reached a verbal agreement:

First, the Chukotka people declared their allegiance to the Ming Dynasty Chinese Emperor. China would not interfere in the internal affairs of the Chukotka people and allow them to govern themselves.

Second, Ming China and the Chukchi alliance jointly fought against the Cossack invaders in Siberia.

Third, Ming China and Chukotka have reached bilateral trade. The Chukotka tribe can trade their various furs with Ming China for materials such as cotton-padded jackets, salt, tea, and even iron weapons and armor.

For the Chukchi people, the "tribe" of Ming China was much friendlier than the group of Cossack bandits.

Those shameless Cossack bandits only knew how to rob their fur property and kill their tribal warriors. And these friendly, even somewhat silly, Chinese people were actually willing to exchange salt, cotton-padded jackets, which they urgently needed and were important to all tribes, as well as powerful iron tools that they did not have, in exchange for the fur specialties that can be seen everywhere here.

The Chukotka people feel that they have made a lot of money, and they are very happy to maintain this strategic alliance and trade relationship with the Chinese.

Lingbei Prefecture also sends ships north every year to trade their "worthless" furs from the Chukchi people.

The current Heishuitun military port has become increasingly prosperous.

The merchants in the south were almost immediately moved by the news. After learning that there were a large number of precious furs in the north, they quickly set up a trading station in Heishuitun to seize the trade quota here.

Today, Heishuitun Military Port no longer exists as a military hub, but has become a commercial town that combines military and business.

Many of the people here are storekeepers who have been stationed here for a long time, as well as some migrant workers recruited locally.

In the pre-Ming Dynasty, salt was used to prepare grain and fodder for border garrison troops.

The method used today by the Ming Dynasty and the New Dynasty is almost similar, except that the salt is replaced by precious fur goods from the north. Those merchants transported grain from the south and handed it over to the Heilongjiang garrison. They then obtained the fur goods from the Heilongjiang garrison and transported them to the south for sale.

This forms a virtuous cycle, and it is much better than salt. Although Yanyin was still able to play well in the early days, the imperial court ultimately controlled merchants to transport grain. Essentially, merchants still had to pay out of their own pockets, and the "fur-grain" trade route of the New Dynasty was purely voluntary.

The newly built post stations and garrisons along the river in Heilongjiang now rely on these merchants to provide almost half of their food.

The financial pressure on money and food in the north, just relying on war and fur, is gradually reducing year by year.

Moreover, since the cooperation with the Chukchi people was reached, the wealthy businessmen in the south have welcomed an upstart luxury product.

That is walrus skin, which is a pure rarity.

If the Ming army from Lingbei Prefecture hadn't gone north to sweep the Cossack strongholds and met the Chukchi people who also resisted the Cossacks, they would have never known that the world is so vast and that there are such rare animals in the far north.

The name of the walrus is also simple and unpretentious. It has long tusks and is fat. It still lives in the sea, so it is not a walrus!

Merchants who came to Heilongjiang transported the walrus skins and walrus tusks to the south, where they quickly fetched extremely high prices.

Especially those wealthy and powerful people in Nanjing City, who have never seen the skins of such rare and exotic animals.

Even the emperor specially issued a decree and sent two walrus skins and walrus tusks to the palace.

Of course, Zhu Yijiong was just curious. If it weren't for the warm weather in the south, and he didn't know how to raise walruses, he would have had to bring two of them into his royal zoo.

With the emperor's free advertising, those businessmen quickly took advantage of it and joined forces to eat Heilongjiang's walrus skins and walrus tusks, directly forming a monopoly in Heilongjiang.

These traders also reached an agreement to cooperate with each other. The walrus skins and walrus tusks sold in the south every year must be in a fixed quantity and must be notified to others.

This is a plan to use hunger marketing and join forces to monopolize the walrus skin business.

So far, the price of these walrus skins has almost caught up with sable skins. Rare things are more expensive, and rare things are more expensive. Moreover, those businessmen are still continuing to speculate, and I am afraid that the price will become even more terrifying before long.

The court was aware of this, but pretended not to know.

Anyway, walrus skin is a luxury product. The more expensive it is, the more commodity tax the court will receive.

The most important thing is that the prices of these things are getting more and more outrageous, and the heat brought by it will also make people all over the world pay more attention to the north.

In short, there will always be people who want to get rich.

By the way, Besikov, the Cossack traitor, is still alive and well. The Ming army originally planned to find an opportunity to kill this guy after taking advantage of it, but this guy was too smart.

Not only did he never make mistakes and was extremely respectful to the Ming army, but he also continued to play his role, including but not limited to reading maps, pointing out Cossack castle strongholds, and acting as an interpreter with the indigenous tribes.

Xu Sanfu felt that it would be a pity to kill this guy, so he made a special trip to mention it to Sun Ruhai, who came by boat to replenish supplies in Lingbei City, not only to show his merit, but also to show that this guy was still valuable.

(End of this chapter)