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

Chapter 653 Nerchinsk

In the spring of this year, the war machine of the Ming Dynasty was running at full speed, and countless military supplies were transported to the north by sea and canals.

Because there were not enough official ships, the imperial court began to requisition private merchant ships, and the merchants did not resist this.

When the new dynasty requisitioned civilian ships, they had to pay money, and the Mobei grassland was conquered. In the future, these merchants who were requisitioned for civilian ships would get priority market share.

After all, those who can requisition civilian ships are generally big businessmen. They only benefit from temporary losses and need to take a long-term view.

The imperial court had been preparing for the Mobei War for several years, and had prepared its troops for the war half a year in advance. However, the first to start the battle was not the Chinese Army Governor's Office in Beizhili, but the troops of the Heilongjiang Governor's Office.

Yaksa.

Over the past few years, the imperial court built post stations along the Heilongjiang River to open up water conservancy transportation between the north and the south. This place is no longer the original abandoned earth fort.

Relying on the Yaksa earthen fort and the post stations and government offices set up along the river, the Han immigrants gradually formed a frontier town where military and civilians lived together and formed friendly trade relations with the local Solon tribe.

The Manchus and Qing Dynasties initially disliked the remoteness and bitter cold here. After returning from the expedition, they destroyed and abandoned it.

It is certainly impossible for the Ming Dynasty and the New Dynasty to do the same. After all, this is an important frontline town from Heilongjiang to Lake Baikal. Even if they spend money to immigrate, they have to garrison and set up a town here.

Moreover, although the imperial court was indeed spending money to immigrate here at the beginning, as the news spread that the government army was going to build a post station in Yaksa.

Many Heilongjiang merchants who heard the news came here specifically from Heishuitun Port to seize the opportunity to set up trading stations in advance.

Immigration and expansion are sometimes as simple as that.

This also stems from the achievements of the Ming army and the strong national power of the Ming Dynasty. With businessmen injecting vitality here, the town developed very rapidly.

Grain, salt, and people are constantly being transported here. It is estimated that Yaksa will be able to establish a county in less than ten years.

When Yu Kecheng came to Yakesa by boat, he also issued military orders to Lingbei Mansion. Taking advantage of the warmer spring this year, the more than 100 troops stationed in Lingbei would also wait for the opportunity.

In this Mobei war, the total number of troops participating in the battle has exceeded one hundred thousand. If counted as civilians recruited, there are hundreds of thousands.

In such a battle, the more than 100 people in Lingbei Mansion couldn't even make any waves. Their role was basically to keep a lookout in the north.

Once the war starts, the Cossacks in the north will most likely wait for an opportunity to ferry, raid and cut off the Ming army's food routes, and attack Yaksa towns.

After all, this is what the Cossacks did in the Battle of Yaksa decades ago.

If the Cossacks really follow the river and cross the mountains to attack, then more than a hundred people from Lingbei Prefecture can do the job. If there are few people, they will take the opportunity to eat the Cossack reinforcements. If there are more people, they will join forces with the indigenous tribes to stop the attack and notify the Heilongjiang people. force.

According to Besikov, the Cossacks liked to go out and rob the indigenous tribes that surrendered to Tsarist Russia in spring when the snow melted and warmed up.

Even Nerchinsk's Cossack garrison would take advantage of this period to go out in large numbers to extort and rob indigenous tribes and obtain meat and fur from them.

According to records, every 50 Cossacks in Nerchinsk could catch 4000 "wild" sheep in the Lake Baikal region a year.

Just listen to this, 50 to 4000. It can only be said that the Cossacks are experts at catching sheep per capita. In less than half a year of activity, the average person catches one sheep every day. Staff officer Xue Yancong spread out a map and said: "Since His Majesty expelled the Rakshasa envoys, the Rakshasa people in Nerchinsk have become vigilant. In the past two years, they have not only built more castle defenses everywhere, but also tried several times to To find out about Yaksa’s military information, this city defense map was still drawn with the help of hot air balloons from above.”

Yu Kecheng quickly glanced at the map and couldn't help but exclaimed: "No wonder those Cossacks want to build a city here? In the past few years of fighting, this is the first time I have seen such a ghostly terrain."

Since Emperor Zhu officially declared war with Tsarist Russia, the Cossacks here in Nerchinsk received the news and began to frantically mobilize manpower and materials around Lake Baikal to desperately build up the castle's defenses.

Even Shcherbatov, the governor of Yeniseisk, took a boat to Chita City last year to take up permanent residence.

The reason for so much effort was not only that Nerchinsk was warm enough and had a large number of furs and indigenous tribes, but also that the Cossacks discovered a silver mine here twenty years ago.

Even if the taxes dedicated to the tsar were removed, Shcherbatov and Nerchinsk warlord Vlasov could still make a lot of money from it, plus there were acres of furs and farms here.

The terrain of Nerchinsk is far more complicated than that of Yaksa, and supplies are also more difficult.

The Cossacks built two castles here, each placed on two islands in the middle of the river, across the river, surrounded by water on all sides, and they were all bastion structures.

As long as the warship comes from Heilongjiang, it will bear the brunt of the attack from two castles.

Xue Yancong said: "Although these Cossacks are barbaric and cruel, they also know how to take advantage of the terrain. If they want to capture Nerchinsk, they can either directly attack by force and attack the city one by one. Or they can only abandon the ship and take a detour and cross the northern border. Launching an attack from across the Cossack city along the rivers and mountains is not only time-consuming and labor-intensive, but also risky.”

Yu Kecheng thought for a moment and said: "The court has been preparing for this battle for several years, and there must be no mistakes. There are too many variables in the detour through the mountains. Once the food route and logistics are cut off, our army is likely to be surrounded and trapped by the enemy." Let’s choose the first option, attack directly and remove the Cossacks from city to city. What the court wants is Nerchinsk without Cossacks. There is no need to take risks for this, and it will disrupt the overall deployment. "

The tactical plan was finalized, and a total of 5,000 Ming troops were sent to Heilongjiang. Together with the warriors from the Sauron tribe and the Han people recruited, the total force exceeded 10,000.

After marching all the way down, the Sauron tribes in the Songhua River and Heilongjiang river basins were all recruited by the imperial court.

Those station stations and outposts established by merchants along the river were also semi-forced to recruit and transfer boat manpower to serve as food transporters.

The war was about to begin, and the population in the area under the jurisdiction of Heilongjiang City was too small, so they could only adopt a semi-forced conscription method to levy grain transporters.

Although the imperial government gave the money as military pay, except for the local Han people and the Sauron tribe who surrendered to the imperial court, all the other merchants who just came to do business were numb.

They just came to Heilongjiang to do business. How could they know that when the imperial court was at war, the government wanted them to work as civilian husbands?

If you give money, you will indeed give money. Your Majesty still has this credit, but they are not short of money!
The army set out from Yaksa and marched westward along the Heilongjiang River to Nerchinsk.

Looking from a distance along the river, we can see the mighty fleets of large and small ships, with a rough count of at least a thousand ships.

There are the main warships of the Heilongjiang Navy, as well as official ships of the post station and civilian ships of the commercial station, and even the fishing boats and canoes of the local Sauron tribe are among them.

Cossacks are so hated that even after so many years, the hatred still cannot be eliminated.

When the fleet of the Heilongjiang Ming Army crossed the boundary demarcated by the Treaty of Nerchinsk, Yu Kecheng stopped the ship, destroyed the boundary markers and sank the river.

This boundary monument was a treaty signed between Kang Mazi and Tsarist Russia. After selling Lake Baikal and Siberia, the monument was engraved in Manchu, Mongolian, Chinese and Latin, and it was erected without even the legal system.

(End of this chapter)