Chapter 1017 1013 [Tsarist Russia military household]
Chapter 1017 1013 [Tsarist Russian Military Household]
Astrakhan is known as Moscow’s “Window to the East”.
Goods from Moscow can be transported here quickly through the Volga River and its tributaries. Then, crossing the Caspian Sea is Persia. Similarly, goods from Persia can also be transported to Moscow very conveniently through this trade route.
Alexey served as a soldier in this city. His father, grandfather, and great-grandfather had always been soldiers here.
His great-grandfather even participated in the construction of the fortress here.
More than a hundred years ago, Ivan IV created the Shooting Army, bypassing the traditional nobility and recruiting free people to train musketeers. His great-grandfather was one of them. At that time, it was invincible in the Volga River Basin. No matter which enemy saw the Shooting Army,
Everyone was frightened after hearing the news.
Today, Alexey is still a shooter, and he must be, and his descendants must be.
Since he was stationed on the border, Alexei at least had muskets, while many shooting troops in the interior did not even have muskets.
There are more than 20,000 shooting troops in Moscow, and a large part of them are acting as policemen and firefighters. Firefighters, in particular, can only receive rations, their weapons are just a few buckets, and they have not been paid for more than ten years.
Before, the shooting troops across the country had to pay taxes, and they had to pay a poll tax no matter what they did.
After Alexey I came to power, the shooting army finally did not need to pay for its work, but...that's all.
There are three hundred standing border guards in the fortress, who are the real sons of the Tsar. They are paid and fed well. They don't have to work, they just fight.
Shooting troops like Alexey are, to put it bluntly, similar to military households in the Ming Dynasty. When they meet a kind commander, they can still receive rations. When they meet a mean commander, they have to work to earn money to support their families. And they also have to serve as
The free menials in the fortress do all the hard work, and the reward is at most a meal.
The fortress was surrounded by rebels, and Alexey was very happy.
Because as long as the enemy continues to besiege the city, they will not be afraid of starvation. In order to stabilize the morale of the army, the governor must provide food for the shooting army.
The governor's name is Yakov Bezobrazov, a great nobleman from Moscow. This position was bought. After all, it is the window to the East. Being the governor in Astrakhan is a good job, and you can travel from the past.
A lot of oil and water was caught there.
There is no fear of war. Although this place is the border of Russia, Persia has not moved northward for decades, and it is impossible for other forces to break through the fortress.
Two of the three rebel armies have already left.
The remaining Mongols also had to work, and they could not continue to siege the city with a large army. Only more than 2,000 horsemen remained on the east bank of the Volga River.
Governor Yakov completely relaxed and resumed his days of debauchery.
Alexei became sad. He wished that the fortress would always be surrounded by enemy troops and he could barely eat enough every day.
Why didn't the enemy continue to besiege the city?
On this day, Alexey was called to work, and the person he served was an officer of the standing army. Like his great-grandfather, these standing soldiers were also free people recruited by the tsar, but now they could use him as a slave.
The roof of the officer's house was hit with a hole by Racine's cannon, and the tables, chairs and benches were also smashed.
Several shooting troops were called to repair the house for free and clean the messy house. Alexey was whipped several times by the officer because he worked slowly, and he didn't even have a bite of food from morning to night.
When he returned home hungry, his wife and children were counting on him.
He originally had four sons and three daughters, but three of them died due to hunger and disease. In the past, he could go to work in the Bazaar (Grand Market) on the other side of the fortress, and the couple's wages could barely support their family. However, the Bazaar was looted by the rebels.
Many wealthy merchants were killed, and the lower class people followed Racine in rebellion and headed north.
Under this situation, Alexey could not find a job and completely lost his source of income.
A few days later, the whole family was so hungry that even the table was ground into powder and used to make bread with the remaining flour. Alexei looked for people to borrow money and food everywhere, but his friends were all shooting soldiers.
Who in Kuhaha’s family has enough food?
When he returned home again, his wife was crying, but it was his youngest son who died. It was not known whether he died of illness or starvation.
At night, a friend from the shooting army came to visit, and Alexey's family was curled up in bed to eat.
"Egor, why are you here?" Alexei asked.
Yegor said: "There are more than 200 shooting troops, and all of them have no food at home. We have already agreed that tomorrow we will collectively go to the governor to borrow food, otherwise we will all starve to death. The governor does not want to see this happen."
.are you going?"
Alexei said: "Of course I want to go, I don't have any food at home."
The next day, more than two hundred shooting troops surrounded the Governor's Mansion.
Governor Yakov's first reaction was to call in the standing army to suppress it. After learning that the shooting army was only here to borrow food, Yakov laughed again: "Lend them some food, but don't starve the animals to death."
"Master is so kind." The butler praised sincerely.
Since it is a loan of food, it will of course have to be returned in the future, and interest will also be calculated.
Alexei owed the governor a lot of food, and he could not remember how much he had to repay with interest. His father also owed money and food to the former governor. The former governor was very kind and did not care about it when he left.
My sister took it away to pay the bill.
But this time the governor did not borrow much, because the fortress was not really safe yet and could be surrounded again at any time. The governor must save food for defense.
Alexey returned home happily with a small bag of flour and found his wife crying while grinding the rest of the table.
His eldest daughter died too!
The couple didn't care about their backs and hurriedly ground the table into powder and mixed the flour with it to bake bread.
There is very little flour, so I have to eat sparingly, and I don’t know how long it will last.
Alexei not only hoped that the enemy would besiege the city again, but also hoped that the enemy would leave completely so that he could resume business travel and work to support his family.
After enduring like this for several days, the Mongols finally withdrew.
Governor Yakov drove all the wealthy businessmen and people who had fled into the castle back to the city on the other side, ordering them to return to normal as soon as possible. But it was impossible to normalize. This was a commercial city, and Racine was still looting upstream, and business travel had long been cut off.
.
Alexey went to the city to look for a job, but no one hired him. Because there were so many people looking for jobs, if there was a job doing laundry, women would fight in the street over it.
People starved to death every day in the city, and two of the shooting troops in the fortress also died one after another.
The shooting army went to the governor again to borrow food, but this time the food borrowed was even less.
Alexey had no choice but to take his second daughter, who was only twelve years old, and went to the city to beg rich people to take him as slaves. The rich people who ran fast were very rich. They had a good relationship with the governor and hid in the castle with their money and food.
Now go back to the city and continue to live a comfortable life.
Alexei's daughter was sallow and thin, and no one wanted her even if she gave it away, let alone got a sum of money from selling her daughter.
He really couldn't think of any other way, so he finally knelt down in front of the rich man's housekeeper and begged, but what greeted him was a big-footed man who kicked him to the ground.
Back home, Alexey took out an old matchlock gun, which was an antique handed down from his great-grandfather. Although it was hundreds of years old, it had never been fired a few times, and it was usually well maintained - the most popular gun in the family.
Of course, valuable things must be taken care of well.
Alexei took out his musket, not to kill or rob, but to sell it in the city.
Many of Tsarist Russia's shooting armies lost their weapons due to poverty.
Holding the matchlock gun, I walked around the city several times. I couldn't find any customers willing to buy guns, but I bumped into several shooting soldiers selling guns.
"Egor, are you here to sell guns too?" Alexey asked.
Yegor said: "If we don't sell guns, the whole family will starve to death. In the past few decades, I have lost two brothers, a sister, and three children, but I have always been reluctant to sell the guns. I won't sell them now."
No, I can't find a job at all."
Alexei sighed: "Oh, who made us a shooting army?"
Yegor remembered it endlessly: "It would be great if Ivan the Terrible was still around. I often heard my grandfather talk about how glorious the shooting army was at that time. There were military pay, sufficient rations, and life was like that of a nobleman."
Just like the master."
"We have not caught up with the good times. There will be no more Ivan the Terrible in Russia," Alexey said. "If Ivan the Terrible is resurrected, I will definitely be loyal to him and give up my life to fight for him."
Suddenly, a voice came from the side: "Without Ivan the Terrible, we can fight for ourselves and our families!"
Alexei turned around and looked, but it was Nikita, the small leader of the shooting army.
Yegor asked: "How can we fight? Are we going to fight the Tatars and rob the Tatars of food?"
Nikita said: "I know the Cossack leader Rasin. If Rassin besieges the city for a few more days, I will definitely join the shooting army as an internal response. Rassin fights for the poor. He is not a rebel, but our brother."
"
"Korasin has already left with the Cossacks," Alexey said.
Nikita said: "Rasin has lived in the Tatar tribe for two years, and he has a good relationship with the Tatars. We can call ourselves friends of Rasin and go east to join the Tatars. We have muskets in our hands.
, is also capable of fighting, and the Tatars will definitely be willing to take us in."
Alexey was shocked: "But the Tatars are pagans!"
Nikita said: "The pagans can give us food to eat, but the governor only borrows a little bit of food each time. He doesn't let us starve to death, nor does he let us have enough to eat, let alone the life and death of our family members."
Yegor said: "Can you guarantee that the pagans will really take us in?"
Nikita said: "You can send someone to contact you first. I am a low-level officer in the shooting army. I cannot leave for too long at will. Which of you is willing to help me go and contact the Tatars in the east?"
Yegor hesitated.
Alexey gritted his teeth and said, "I'm going, but you have to take good care of my family!"
Nikita said: "I still have some bread at home, your family is my family."
"I won't go back to the fortress today. I will stay at the Grand Bazaar in the city," Alexey said. "When it gets dark, I will quietly go to the east to find the Tatars."
