From now on, Lake Baikal is collectively referred to as the North Sea.
The North Sea's Dan water reserves account for 20% of the world's Dan water resources, and a total of 336 rivers provide abundant water sources.
What does this mean from an ancient military perspective?
This means that as long as you occupy the North Sea, you can send troops by boat to all directions through its huge water system!
The largest river among them is the Selenge River, which originates from the Yanran Mountain. It flows through the core area of the Mobei Grassland and finally flows into the North Sea. The "national city" that Li Dingguo is about to build is located in the alluvial area of the Selenge River.
River mouth flatland.
The North Sea is not a real sea. As a lake, if you enter, you must exit.
The only large river flowing from the North Sea is called the Angara River.
It first flows north, then turns west, and finally merges into the Yenisey River, flowing all the way north into the Arctic Ocean.
To be precise, this river is called Lower Angara River.
There is also the Upper Angara River, located at the northeastern end of the North Sea and the third largest river that flows into the North Sea.
The target of Li Dingguo's attack was the city of Upper Angarask, at the mouth of the Upper Angara River. It was surrounded by mountains on three sides and faced the lake on one side. After passing the valley pass, there was a huge and long open flat land.
It's a pity that the open land is covered with forests and swamps, otherwise it would be very suitable for farming.
"Look, Kui Niu!"
The chief missionary officer under Li Dingguo suddenly pointed at the animals by the lake and shouted.
"That's a seal, and it can be found on the coast of Northeast China. Last time I went home to visit relatives on vacation, there was a seal skin seller in Shenyang City. I heard that it's more expensive to transport it to Nanjing and sell it," Li Dingguo said with a smile.
Li Dingguo's wife and children live in Shenyang, and he plans to bring his wife to him when the children grow up.
Seals, manatees, sea badgers, sea pigs, fur seals...these animal names have been around since the Ming Dynasty. Anyway, the animals on the seaside look like anything, and they didn't have names before, so just add the word "sea" in front of them to name them.
In the Song Dynasty, this thing would have been called the Sea Man Lion.
The chief missionary officer's eyes lit up: "Is this a seal? I've heard of it, but never seen it. There are so many seals in the North Sea, and killing them for their skins is very valuable. There will definitely be businessmen willing to come here in the future!"
Li Dingguo curled his lips. Businessmen might be willing to come, but immigration would probably have to rely on exiling criminals.
Last winter, they had not yet reached Beihai, and they only stayed in the mountain den in the southeast. Fortunately, they had thick wool felt tents and sufficient cotton-padded jackets for the winter, otherwise many of them would have frozen to death.
The lowest temperature was minus 36 degrees, which almost froze the mercury thermometer.
I heard that as far away as Luzhou, the thermometer is just a decoration, and the mercury will solidify in winter.
The ships they were traveling on at this time were all temporarily built this year. The wood was not dried in the shade, nor was it painted with tung oil. Craftsmen and supplies would need to be brought in next year to build a stronger warship.
Li Zheng did not personally lead the troops, but only sent 300 infantry, with a battalion commander coming to help, and he also brought two Cossack prisoners as guides.
The two sides delineated administrative areas according to the water system. The area reached by the upper reaches of the Heilongjiang tributaries is under the jurisdiction of the Andong Protectorate. The furthest west of Chita is Chita. Further west from Chita is the territory of the Beihai Protectorate. In the future, the Yenisei River
The river basin must also belong to the Beihai Protectorate.
The fleet went north along the lake shore and passed Ugis Barguzin on the way. The bastion there was already empty.
In the future, troops and immigrants will also be stationed in the bastion here, because it is located at the mouth of the second largest river (Barguzin River) that flows into the North Sea.
As long as they firmly occupy this place, the Cossack strongholds along the Barguzin River will completely block their retreat. Without supplies of gunpowder and other supplies, the Cossacks in the upper reaches will sooner or later be killed by the natives.
"Leave fifty people and food to defend this fortress!" Li Dingguo ordered.
Li Dingguo asked the Cossack guide sent by Li Zheng: "What is this place called?"
The guide replied: "The river is called Barguzin River, and the castle is called Ust-Barguzin."
Li Dingguo thought the name was too difficult to pronounce, so he said: "From now on, it will be called Gujin City and Gujin River."
Incidentally, Upper Angarask and Upper Angara River were also renamed Yinma City and Yinma River by Li Dingguo, which means "Drinking Horse Beihai".
There are still more than a hundred miles away from Yinma City. The Cossack guide pointed to the west and said: "From here, take a boat to the west, in Baikal... On the west bank of the North Sea, there is another stronghold called Severobaikalsk. It is also the entrance of a river.
There is a bastion built at the mouth of the lake."
"It was renamed Muyang City and Muyang River." Li Dingguo chose the name very casually.
Su Wu shepherds the sheep, this allusion can give rise to many names.
The main city of the Beihai Protectorate, the "vassal city", comes from the honorific title "Su vassal state" given to Su Wu - Su Wu's official position was that of a vassal state and he was responsible for managing the foreign affairs of surrounding ethnic groups.
The Cossack guide continued: "In the southwest of the North Sea, there was originally Nizhny Angarask, which could be followed along the Nizhny Angara River directly to the Yenisei River area. But the bastion has not been repaired yet.
It was captured by the natives. From then on, the supplies and population of the Yenisei Governor's Military District were transported to the north via the Muyang River..."
Li Dingguo found it strange, because he heard that a large area around Beihai was under the jurisdiction of the Yenisei Governor, and couldn't help but ask: "You have never thought of taking back such an important city?"
"I thought about it, but failed," the Cossack guide said. "The Yenisei warlord, I sent troops to attack several times, but they were all repelled by the fierce Buryats. However, the Buryats also suffered heavy losses. Over there
There was originally a unified big tribe, but it was split into several small tribes. They usually fought among themselves, but every time the Cossacks killed them, they were able to unite to fight. The warlord also thought about buying off internal agents, but the Buryats
Unwilling to cooperate.”
Li Dingguo's mouth twitched when he heard this, and he despised the Cossacks.
How much evil must be done to unite the Mongols who are divided and fighting internally.
Li Dingguo said: "First remove Yinma City, and then attack Muyang City!"
The army arrived at Yinma City by boat, but failed again.
It was estimated that there were only about 200 Cossacks in the city, and they felt that they would not be able to hold it, so they all fled to the Shepherd City to assemble.
Li Dingguo had to leave 50 people to guard the city, turned west, crossed Beihai, and came to the foot of Muyang City.
There are 368 Cossacks and more than 900 indigenous servants in the city.
The large area outside the city is a fertile plain formed by the joint accumulation of several rivers. If it were not for the cold weather, this would be an excellent farming area.
Even so, Muyang City is also the most important grain-producing area for the Cossacks in the Beihai region. It is also suitable for grazing and is the Cossack war horse breeding base. Li Dingguo was right to name this place Muyang City.
The bastion in Shepherd City was built very early, decades ago. Since there were no indigenous threats in the surrounding area, no additional construction was carried out.
In other words, the castle area is very small.
The fort was overcrowded with more than a thousand defenders, and women, children, and slaves were all driven out of the city. These Cossacks were so ruthless. In order to hold on to the fort, they did not even want their own wives and children, and allowed their families to be captured by the Datong army.
.
Li Dingguo came with 2,000 infantry and 100 cavalry, while the civilians only brought a few hundred.
The soldiers and civilians dug holes together, and also used hot-air balloon bombing tactics sent by Li Zheng.
The terrain here is much easier to fight than Nerchinsk, and outside the castle is all flat land suitable for farming.
Depending on the wind direction, three bastions can be bombed.
The Cossacks in the castle had never participated in the Battle of Nerchinsk. When they saw the three hot air balloons floating over, they all looked up stupidly.
"Boom boom boom!"
Thousands of enemies fell to the ground and exploded, instantly killing and injuring more than 20 people.
Li Dingguo was also surprised when he learned about the situation: "Hot air balloon bombing is so effective?"
Three more bullets were thrown down by the enemy, and the Cossacks and servants on the three bastions were so frightened that they fled to the nearby city wall.
The bombardment begins!
Six artillery positions were positioned to fire parallel shots at the city wall.
Although most of the cannonballs missed due to lack of accuracy. But as long as one cannonball landed on the top of the city wall, it could ricochet and take away a large number of enemies. The enemy troops gathered on the city wall were smashed to pieces.
There are hot-air balloons over the bastion, and if you run up to the city wall, you will be bombarded again. The enemy troops in the city no longer know how to fight.
On the first day of the siege, the bombing was vigorous.
Before the fuel of the hot air balloon was burned out, it was completely destroyed by thousands of enemies. It was immediately dragged back, took the fuel and took off again with thousands of enemies.
At the end of the bombing, there was not a single enemy on the bastion, and all the enemy on the wall were squatting close to the parapet.
The next day, every time the hot air balloon took off, there was no chance to drop bombs. So under the cover of artillery, the launch location was changed, and the position was adjusted to hit the city wall.
Under such circumstances, Li Dingguo ordered the fleet to sail into the river.
He drove past the city in a swaggering manner without fear of being shelled by the castle.
Li Dingguo planned to bomb the city for three days and then attack the city. Unexpectedly, the Cossacks could not bear the pressure on the second night.
These guys had few soldiers, and they lost cities one after another, and even the governor died in Nerchinsk. As long as you are not stupid, you will understand that you can't defend here, so you might as well take advantage of the night to escape.
They escaped by boat and were discovered not far from the city.
Li Dingguo's camp was built by the river, and all Datong troops were dispatched.
Some of them stood guard on both sides of the river, lit torches, and fired guns randomly into the river. It was pitch dark and it was unknown how many people were hit.
Some of them shot on board to stop these Cossacks.
There are small cannons installed on the ships of both sides, and the Datong army's small cannons have been firing blindly. The Cossacks' ship-mounted cannons have always been misfired, because they did not light the torches and wanted to use the darkness to rush past. Once there is light, they will become targets.
The fight was lively, but you couldn't see clearly.
The next morning, after dawn, I checked the situation and saw wooden planks and corpses floating everywhere on the river.
There is no way to count how many enemies died and how many enemies broke through.
At this point, Li Dingguo destroyed all the Cossack strongholds around the North Sea. The main reason why he fought so easily, in addition to the hot-air balloon bombing tactics, was Li Zheng's victory at Nerchinsk.
In the Battle of Nerchinsk, the Cossacks took away the main force around Beihai, and Li Dingguo fought his way through most of the cities that were empty.
The second wave of envoys sent by the Tsar arrived in Yeniseisk in the autumn.
By chance, the Cossacks who broke out also brought the news here.
The envoy was led by his old acquaintance Bayinkov. However, most of the accompanying members were replaced by young nobles. They were sent by the tsar and the prime minister to learn China's advanced technology.
"What? All the castles and strongholds around Lake Baikal are gone!" Bayinkov was shocked.
Not only was Lake Baikal lost, but also the Yenisey Governor's Army was lost. The vast Yenisey Governor's District now didn't even have a chief officer.