On June 22, 1788 in the Gregorian calendar, 5,000 troops from the Western Front of the Northern Navy led by Liu Sheng finally arrived in Heilongjiang City. After hearing the news, the people who came to see the excitement saw that the river was covered with ships of all sizes.
Surprisingly. Among them were two river patrol boats of the Northern Navy, two catamaran passenger ships, two flat-bottomed barges hastily built in Khabarovsk, and twenty Yaksa warships captured in Ninguta.
When attacking the Ningguta camp, because the river from the north of the Shangjian River to the south of the Hualan River was blocked by artillery fire, only a few Yaksa warships of the Qing army on this stretch of water escaped, and the remaining twenty
Many of them have become trophies of the Northern Navy. After removing the artillery on them, they are perfect for use as troop carriers.
The Yaksa warship is a single-masted hard sailing ship with a flat bottom and a square bow, with a displacement of 52.8 tons and a load capacity of 20 to 25 tons. The ship is divided into three layers. The bottom layer is used as ballast with materials and rocks, and the middle layer and part of the deck can be used for human habitation. According to
Calculated at 80 kilograms per person, a boat plus sailors can seat up to 200 people.
Seeing the waves of the Northern Navy coming off the docked ships, including Li Bi and Li Yansheng, the onlookers who had served as officials in the Manchu and Qing court were filled with worries; if such a large army were to march towards
Important places such as Xixi, Mergen, Qiqihar and even Hulunbuir may not be protected.
Although Li Bi was an exiled prisoner, he was once the county magistrate of the Manchu Qing Dynasty after all, and his family members who accompanied him in exile are still in Qiqihar; and Li Yansheng was a third-rank military general of the Qing court, and his living father was granted the title of emperor based on Li's family lineage.
Well, with the mentality of being loyal and loyal to the country, every day in the house in Guanzhuang outside the city, apart from eating and sleeping, I would scold the Beihai Navy and scold my son for why he didn't kill himself to serve the country.
After Liu Sheng and Fan Tong disembarked and took a short rest, they first went to the old city of Aihun to visit the Tsarist Russian prisoners of war. After a hasty meal, they held a military meeting with their regimental and battalion-level officers and Zhao Xin.
First, a small staff officer named Fang from the staff department explained to everyone present the key points and garrison situation of the Qing government in Heilongjiang General's Mansion. This information mainly came from inquiries about the Qing army's wounded and the information sent back by the reconnaissance team.
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Zhao Xin has cast a wide reconnaissance net in these days. With the cooperation of the local Daur people, the Northern Navy's reconnaissance team reached as far north as Murususu and as far southwest as Kolor, only a few meters away from the city of Mergen.
Ten miles away. At the same time, several army staff officers also inquired among the wounded Qing soldiers to learn about the garrison situation in various places, but it was only an approximate number.
The main points of the Qing government's headquarters in Heilongjiang include the six military fortresses of Qiqihar, Mergen City, Heilongjiang City, Hulan River, Hulunbuir, and Butha. Qiqihar is the top priority and is also the headquarters of the General's Office in Heilongjiang.
location.
Of these six cities, although Hulan River City in the south is a subordinate of Heilongjiang City, the two places are more than a thousand miles apart, but they are only more than a hundred miles away from Alchuka, which is under the jurisdiction of Jilin General Mansion;
Qiqihar is 800 miles away from Heilongjiang City, and 200 miles south is the Zhelim League of Nezasak Mongolia; Mergen City is located southwest of Heilongjiang City, 380 miles away; Butha is southwest of Mergen
Eighty-five miles; the farthest is Hulunbuir, 760 miles northwest of Qiqihar.
Fan Tong asked at this time: "Who is Butha's director of animal hunting?"
Zhao Xin, who had specifically inquired about this matter, explained: "This is the military and political agency used by the Qing government to specifically manage the Daur, Ewenki, Oroqen and other ethnic groups. It is also called the Eight Banners of the Animal Control Department. It is mainly responsible for collecting the mink skins paid by the livestock every year.
, of course there are military needs. Other places are under the control of deputy capital commanders or assistant commanders. Butha is managed by a collegial system of three general managers, with one person each for Manchuria, Daur and Solon."
Liu Shengdao: "Is this considered a tribal collegial system?"
Zhao Xin nodded and said, "That's pretty much what it means."
Regarding the Qing government’s garrison situation in the other five cities, the staff officer surnamed Fang explained: “According to our investigations these days and the statistics after the Ningguta war that were sent before, the Qing army is currently in the entire Heilongjiang General Area.
There should be more than 10,000 troops stationed there, including 2,000 in Butha City, 4,000 in Hulunbuir due to its strategic location on the border river, more than 600 in Hulan River City, 3,000 in Mergen City, and 3,000 in Qiqihar.
people."
The situation of the Qing army has been mentioned, and next is the situation of Tsarist Russia. However, since Tsarist Russia has now withdrawn its entire line back to the Yaksa area, the reconnaissance team heading to Ulusumudan has not yet sent back any news. The current situation is from the north of Zhongan to Mu
There is no trace of the Tsarist Russian army in this area of Lususu.
The situation has been introduced here, and the next step is to decide the next action. At this time, everyone in the meeting looked at Zhao Xin, after all, this is the boss in charge of the military and political affairs of Beihai Town.
In fact, despite the fact that the Northern Navy is invincible in every battle, if it really takes down the other five cities in the Heilongjiang General's jurisdiction, it will be very difficult to manage.
From a strategic perspective, if we capture Qiqihar, we must directly face the Mongolian tribes of Nezasak; if we capture the Hulan River, the Qing army of Alchukha must attack, and then in order to cut off the Qing army's troop transport route to Heilongjiang, they must attack further south.
Bertune must also be defeated.
With more than one million square kilometers, countless waterways, post roads, and countless barren mountains and ridges, trying to control it with the more than 200,000 people in Beihai Town will definitely drive Zhao Xin and others crazy and bring Beihai Town to its knees.
Zhao Xin estimated that the population of Beihai Town would need to reach 400,000 to control the Heilongjiang General Mansion. This is why he pressured Xu Dayong to transport at least 100,000 people this year.
The current market in Beihai Town is too big, covering millions of square kilometers in the outer northeast, the three counties of Southern Kyushu, Kuye Island, Ezo, and the southern islands of the Thousand Islands. Zhao Xin will dominate wherever there is a gold mine.
There are the Linggao Gold Mine, the Hongzhimu Gold Mine, the gold mine on Ulupu Island, the gold mine in Solenji, and even the "Laogou Gold Mine" of later generations in the south of Heilongjiang City.
"Let me tell you what I think." Zhao Xin pointed to the map hanging on the wall and said to everyone: "Everyone knows how complicated the geography of the outer Northeast is, with high mountains and narrow roads. The so-called post roads can only be used by small troops.
It is not suitable for large troops to travel with fast horses that report news. From Shunzhi to Qianlong, the Manchu and Qing Dynasties mobilized troops, horses and supplies through waterways.
Whether we can fully control the five major water systems of Heilongjiang, Ussuri River, Songhua River, Hulha River and Nen River is also the key to whether we can capture the entire outer Northeast. We only have control over the two main grains of Sanjiang Plain and Songnen Plain.
Only by fully developing the production areas can we compete with the landlords and gentry in the Central Plains and even Jiangnan in the future."
This was the first time that Zhao Xin explained his war strategy against the Manchus to the regimental and battalion-level officers of the Northern Navy. Everyone present was attentive. The core of what he said was to prepare for the future move south to enter the customs by seizing land and expanding food production.
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Take Shandong as an example. As of the 52nd year of Qianlong's reign, the population of Shandong as a whole exceeded 25 million, and the per capita cultivated land was less than 2.5 acres. The land fertility has been exploited to the limit. This is the case in Hubei, Henan and even Zhili Shanxi.
Moreover, due to the large number of floods and droughts in recent years, people's livelihood in the entire north has been extremely difficult. Due to successive years of disasters, land has been continuously concentrated in the hands of landlords and powerful people, and it is getting worse day by day. In fact, whether it is Shandong or Zhili, Henan,
Probably more than half of the cultivated land has been divided up by landlords, and many homesteaders have become tenants or bankrupt farmers. As the saying goes, "There are only 12 out of 10 people who occupy land, 45 out of 10 people who are tenants, and 34 out of 10 people who have no land to cultivate."
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The relatively famous big landowners during this period, such as the Hao family in Huairou on the outskirts of Beijing, owned thousands of hectares of high-quality fertile land; the Cha family and the Sheng family in Wanping were also famous wealthy people.
The military minister He Shen had 8,000 hectares of land, and his domestic slaves Liu Quan, Ma Baishan and others all occupied more than 600 hectares of land. Bai Ling, the former governor of Guangdong, occupied 5,000 hectares of land less than a year after he took office.
acres of fields.
A salt merchant named Kang in Pingyang Prefecture, Shanxi Province, had a family fortune of tens of millions, tens of thousands of acres of land, and more than a thousand granaries. Even Qianlong said, "I have always thought that the world is rich.
There is no such thing as a salt merchant. Now when you hear about the Kang clan, you are like a little witch seeing a big witch!"
The reason why no peasant uprising broke out in such a dire situation is because the Qing government continued to provide disaster relief, which kept these people from having enough to eat and starving to death. It seemed that there was always a glimmer of hope; just like a carrot hanging in front of a donkey.
You can see it but you can't eat it. The second is that the Manchu government paid great attention to local civil unrest and quickly sent troops to put it out at the first sign of trouble. With the policy of obscuring the people and the huge number of people, who would dare to rebel?
In such an era of great bankruptcy, countless people had no choice but to sell their lives and join the powerful landlords as slaves and maids. When a Taoist official came to power, there were hundreds of domestic slaves accompanying them. They cheered in front of them and supported them, which was very impressive.
Beihai Town is now a rebel in the eyes of the people. It wants to compete with the Qing government for population and let the people cross the ocean to go to the Northeast. Anyone who thinks they can survive is unwilling to follow. Then there is the inherent Chinese "people are separated"
The concept of "village and lowly" means that even if one sticks to a thatched hut and gnaws at grass roots, as long as the illusion of "carrot" remains unbroken, one is unwilling to take a boat out to sea.
If the Northern Navy goes south and enters the customs, it does not control the fields or a large amount of food. Faced with the military counterattack of the landlords and gentry class and the economic plunder, will it keep a bunch of feudal nobles to entertain themselves?
Isn’t it a joke to expect those landlords and gentry who have been deprived of a large amount of remaining land, labor and even the right to speak, and even think about counterattack and counterattack, to cooperate with Beihai Town in completing the process of industrializing the country?
To put it bluntly, no matter how powerful the machine guns and artillery are, it will be in vain if the people cannot have enough food and clothing!
When Zhao Xin finished speaking, everyone here suddenly realized, and they heard him continue: "Now, except for the Nenjiang River system, the Ussuri River is completely controlled by us in the other four water systems, and we only partially control the other three. And Bo
Once the Three Surnames City takes hold, together with Ninggu Tower and Heilongjiang City, the rivers of Mudanjiang, Heilongjiang and Songhua River can be basically controlled. In the future, with the railway, the military and political system of Beihai Town can be freely mobilized throughout the outer northeast. Therefore
, my attitude is not to fight Mergen City and Hulan River City, but to strengthen the defense system of Heilongjiang City. There is only one enemy at the moment, which is Tsarist Russia!"
Fan Tong asked: "Then what's our next move?"
Zhao Xin's answer was resounding: "Go up the river, recover all the lost territory, and seize Irkutsk before winter this year!"
At the same time, on the construction site of Yaksa City.
Those serfs who were moved here by the Queen's order were taken to the construction site to work as soon as they got off the ship, cutting down trees and digging earth and rocks. Not far away, several brick kilns were emitting black smoke day and night, and the fired bricks were very hot.
It is quickly transported to the construction site and becomes part of the building.
What was built here was a large four-pointed star-shaped bastion. After the invasion of Tsarist Russia, a large number of Cossack serfs who stayed in Nerchinsk and Chita followed the Russian army to Yaksa and became the main labor force in building the castle.
The walls of this military fortress are low. Each two sides of the fort wall come together to form a sharp wedge-like protrusion. In front of each wall, there is an unobstructed anti-gun wall; the anti-gun wall and the rear
The city walls are all sloped structures, with a wide and deep trench in the middle. Outside the main entrance of the bastion, there is an outer bastion with a lower height that is independent of the city wall. This is used to protect the city gate and is connected to the city gate through a drawbridge.
The city wall connects.
Since the advent of mobile artillery in the 16th century, some people have keenly grasped the fundamentals of the concept of countermeasures. Since artillery can most damage high walls, the new city wall must be built low. However, if the city wall is low, it is easy for the enemy to launch attacks.
For a sudden attack, climb the ladder over the city wall and enter the interior of the fortifications. The new fortification system required being able to withstand artillery fire while not allowing enemy infantry to approach, so the bastion that traded depth for height was born.
In fact, the most powerful thing about the bastion is not its defensive power, but the sloping design of the wall increases the thickness of certain areas in disguise. The thickness of the front wall is much thicker than that of the flat wall. So the bastion
The appearance of the trench was actually to better develop firepower, rather than to build passive defense capabilities. The wide trench and low wall allowed a large amount of earth to be piled in front of the trench to build an anti-gun wall.
The striking surface of front-loaded cannons in this era is a line rather than a point. When a cannon with a straight trajectory faces an anti-artillery wall with an inclined design, it is impossible to adjust the artillery position to reduce the risk of ricochet. Thanks to the extremely small
The angle prevents the artillery slope from collapsing and burying the trench in the face of shelling.
For the defender, by carefully calculating the angle and slope of the anti-artillery wall, the ricochet of the smoothbore cannon can be used to form a terrifying continuous killing zone, causing serious damage to the attacker from the side. At the same time, the anti-artillery wall allows artillery to be fired at close range.
The shooting dead zone within the maximum depression angle was greatly compressed, turning the safe city into a corridor of death.
Suvorov was very satisfied with the design of the castle in Yaksa, with its multi-layered defenses, strong fire coverage, and no blind spots for fire.
What he needs now is time. He feels that with such a castle, even if the Qing army comes with 5,000 people, they will be beaten to death.