On September 2, 1788, Ivan Jacobi's messenger Yevgeny arrived in St. Petersburg.
When he just stepped out of the carriage, the Queen's bodyguard was already waiting for him. The bodyguard saluted Yevgeny with messy hair and beard and asked: "Are you the messenger?"
Yevgeny immediately replied: "Yes, I am the special envoy of Governor Ivan Jacobi."
"Then, let's go see His Royal Highness the Crown Prince now. He and the Palace Manager are waiting for the good news you bring."
Yevgeny hesitated a little when he saw that the guard was so impatient. He looked at his tattered uniform and the soldier's coat with a big hole in it, thinking that it was too disheveled.
So he said to the guard: "You must let me freshen up first and change my clothes to meet the Grand Duke, right?"
The guard smiled and said: "No, His Highness the Grand Duke prefers people like you who return from expeditions and bring news of victory."
Victory? Yevgeny felt a little guilty. He didn't know whether Grand Duke Paul would be furious after hearing about the defeat in Heilongjiang City. So he was full of anxiety and got on the luxurious carriage sent by the Minister of War, all the way to the Imperial Palace Village to meet Crown Prince Paul.
and Hrabovich, the Empress' secretary.
When the future Paul I received Ivan Jacobi's letter and read that "the Chinese have deployed powerful force, causing us to encounter a small setback in Heilongjiang City", the 34-year-old crown prince's face suddenly revealed
Deeply worried. He frowned and said, "Do we need to be more cautious when we start a war with an Eastern Empire that is no smaller than Russia and has an extremely large population?"
Archduke Paul actually disapproved of Catherine II's foreign expansion policy. He wanted Russia to be completely Prussianized. He once implicitly criticized his mother in a military reform paper and stated it bluntly.
She insisted on not interfering in European affairs. The Queen accepted it casually. She felt from her son's articles that he threatened her rights, and deepened her suspicion that Paul was planning his abdication with the forces opposed to the Queen.
Catherine II never considered ruling Russia with him, and when Paul's son Alexander was born, Catherine II seemed to have found a better heir than Paul. She single-handedly raised her eldest grandson Alexander
When he was raised, he repeatedly planned to bypass Paul and directly succeed Alexander. He even brought this plan to the Privy Council for discussion, but only gave up after encountering opposition from most ministers.
Having no relatives in front of power is the same as King Yingzu of the Kangxi and Li dynasties. Any monarch in history who has accumulated great power will instinctively resist anyone who can threaten his throne, but a generation ago
It's much better.
The next morning, the Empress' secretary Hrabovich led Yevgeny to meet with Catherine II. Also present was Besbroko, the head of the Foreign Affairs Committee (de facto Prime Minister).
Yevgeny kissed the back of the empress' hand with fear, while Catherine II expressed her gratitude to the "distant heroes" who occupied Amur.
"Where there has been water, there will be water again. God will bless us and punish us lest we become complacent. As long as we keep moving forward, things will improve. I have no doubt that Suvorov will be at the gate of Yaksa
Beat up those Chinese people."
At this time, Besbroko asked what to do with Major General Alexandrov and others who were trapped in Heilongjiang City. Catherine II said without hesitation: "I will never treat someone who is loyal and does things for me."
People will not save you until they die. Send someone to Irkutsk to discuss with Jacobi how to negotiate with the Chinese. If they don't agree, then we will set the whole Heilongjiang on fire with artillery fire."
As the monarch of a country, after the 59-year-old queen tasted the sweetness of victory in foreign wars, she couldn't stop moving forward with the rapids until she fell into a fanaticism for war and even became obsessed.
In history, this woman created unparalleled glory for the Russian Empire and became famous all over the world. There were at least ten movies and TV series about her in later generations.
She plotted Poland, expanded Russia's territory south to Crimea, and even fantasized about occupying Greece and planting the double-headed eagle's flag into Constantinople.
Regarding the East, what she has never forgotten is the outlet of the lower reaches of the Heilongjiang River, opening up an ice-free port for Russia in the North Pacific and realizing her super-imperial ambition across the Eurasian continent.
But she made almost no contribution to the people at the bottom of Tsarist Russia in this era. Although she tried to correct social injustice in the early years of her succession, her enthusiasm soon disappeared after the Pugachev Uprising.
Pugachev, who claimed to be Peter III fifteen years ago, was not a good bird either. On the one hand, he opposed the rule of Catherine II, but on the other hand, he copied this ruling model in his own team. Even in the end,
Small external details also need to be imitated.
Speaking of the serfdom system in Russia, the common people lived a worse life than those living next door. Peasants who were recorded in the name of a landlord became serfs, and free people became slaves as long as they worked for others for more than six months. Since Yekatye
Since Lena II came to the throne, Russian serfdom has reached its peak. The number of palace peasants and state-owned peasants she granted to the nobility reached as many as 800,000. Landowners were fully responsible for their peasants in court and had rights in their territories.
Peasants were punished, sentenced, sentenced and even sentenced to death; peasants were not allowed to denounce their masters unless the landlords committed rebellion against the tsar or the country.
In fact, the Tsarist Empire was a Tatar regime with white skin. The nomadic and customary cruel ruling methods of the Mongols had long been imprinted into the country's bones with the rule of the Golden Horde.
To describe the country of Tsarist Russia in one sentence: I was born a Tatar and wanted to be a Roman, but I didn’t expect everyone to regard me as a barbarian.
This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! After sending Yevgeny away, Catherine II suddenly felt some pain in her chest. She paused the next meeting, lay on the sofa, and asked her secretary Herabo
Vicki said: "Suvorov has defeated the Chinese, and Yaksa has won. Either today or tomorrow, I have a hunch."
As the queen's secretary and palace steward, Hrabovich knew that the queen was often deceived by premonitions and would fall ill when anxious, especially before a war. However, as soon as she learned that the battle had begun, her heart would return to calm, no matter what happened next.
She is not afraid of any bad news coming down.
So he consoled him: "Your Majesty, this is caused by the weather and has nothing to do with the premonition. I will call a doctor right now."
"No, you don't understand. This time my premonition was accurate." The old lady kept talking for a long time. Finally, she took the medicine prescribed by the doctor and fell asleep.
The ambitious old lady didn't know that not only had Suvorov become a prisoner of the Northern Navy, but the war had spread to Tsarist Russia...
"Boom! Boom!"
"Da da da!"
On the walls of the Nerchinsk Fortress, the whizzing shells were like birds swooping down to the ground, seemingly never stopping. In the past ten minutes, several mortars from the Northern Navy had been targeting this place next to the south gate of the castle.
Dozens of cannonballs were thrown at the city wall. At this time, except for the corpses on the wall, no one dared to stand up and shoot.
"God, who are these people?! Why are they attacking us!"
"Sir, those few soldiers who were lucky enough to come back didn't even see clearly what they looked like. Their weapons are too powerful, and it's hard for us to deal with them."
More than an hour ago, a huge fleet came down from the Nercha River. Those strange ship shapes attracted many people to the river bank to watch. The locals thought it was a trading fleet coming from the upper reaches. Who knew?
When the other party approached the dock, the two large black ships at the head of the fleet suddenly opened fire, beating several Russian soldiers on the dock who were about to board the ship for inspection to pieces.
At this time, there were more than 2,500 permanent residents in and around Nerchinsk (the census from 1780 to 1792 was 2,503.) These included Cossack families who were exiled here, priests who opposed the empress’ confiscation of church estates, and several
Hundreds of Buryats and a dozen Swedish exiles; and in the mountains about 300 kilometers southeast of the local area, there are hundreds of miners composed of farmers, recruits and a few exiles.
The defenders of Nerchinsk Castle rushed to fight. They first sent a team of fifty people, but they were beaten to pieces. In the end, less than ten people escaped. This frightened the local chief executive.
He ignored it and ordered people to close the two open city gates.
The sudden battle has been going on for more than an hour, and the defenders in the Nerchinsk Fortress still don’t know who the enemy is. Although some people saw that the enemies outside the city all had Eastern faces, the Northern Navy was different from the Qing army.
Dressed to confuse the local defenders...
The gunfire woke up the peaceful town, and many residents living outside the city had no time to escape into the castle, so they either ran to the Assumption Cathedral outside the castle, or hid in their homes and shivered.
Amidst the billowing smoke, a soldier from the Northern Navy rushed to the south gate of the fortress with an explosive package tied to a wooden frame. He pressed the explosive package against the heavy city gate and then pulled the fuse on the fuse.
.
Different from the ones shown in movies and TV shows, a real pull-type fuse is equipped with a fire tube. This thing is made of brass and has a fire wire and gunpowder inside. When the puller is covered with glass powder,
When the fire wire is pulled, it rotates and rubs in the gunpowder, causing the gunpowder to ignite, and then ignites the fuse.
"boom!!!"
With a loud bang, the south gate of Nerchinsk City Fortress was blown open with a big hole. The Russian soldiers hiding behind the fortifications near the city just got up from the ground and were about to raise their guns to shoot, when a hail of bullets came whizzing by.
The attack came through the gap in the city gate. Immediately afterwards, several wooden-handled grenades of the North Navy were also thrown in through the gap. The continuous explosions scattered the flesh and blood of more than a dozen Russian soldiers who had no time to avoid.
"Quick! Block the door, they are going to rush in!"
The person who spoke was a warrant officer. Following his order, the people in the castle hurriedly pushed several cargo carriages to the city gate, while others were busy piling everything they could find around on the carriages. At this time, Baodou
Like gunshots rang out from the gap in the city gate, and the soldiers and prisoners who were pushing carts and moving things were knocked down one after another, causing heavy casualties.
"Kill!"
A platoon of Northern Navy soldiers rushed in, followed closely by more Northern Navy soldiers. As gunshots like exploding beans rang out rapidly in the city, more than 20 minutes later, the defenders in the city finally gave up their resistance.
This once the largest "prison fortress" in the upper reaches of Heilongjiang fell.
On the pier at the northeast corner of the castle fortress, a company commander of the Northern Navy reported to Liu Shenghui: "Commander-in-Chief, we have found more than 30 single-masted boats, but no large ships."
"Burn them all! Leave nothing behind!" After Liu Sheng finished speaking, he turned to the guards and communications soldiers beside him and said: "Notify all troops to board the ship and set off in two hours!"
It was past noon, when those who were hiding from the war in the church noticed that the gunfire outside had subsided, so some people climbed up to the bell tower of the church to check. On the pier on the river bank not far away, black smoke columns were seen rising into the sky.
Below the smoke column are dozens of burning fishing boats, and the crackling sound of burning wood can be clearly heard. In the fortress to the north, whether it is the tall wooden tower or other buildings, there are billowing thick smoke.
cigarette.
Nerchinsk's fortress fell, which made the residents outside the city even more frightened. In this era, the fall of a town often meant the beginning of the plunder of civilians.
Even in later generations, except for one army in the world, almost all armies will collect food from civilians in occupied areas. Although every army boasts that it will pay civilians or issue receipts, during the war
, any bill is just a piece of waste paper, and civilians are unwilling to distribute their stored food to the army, whether it is the enemy or their own country. Even if the armies of various countries try their best to maintain military discipline, as the war continues to deepen, it will often become
An empty talk.
Fourteen-year-old Polya and her aunt hid in the cellar under the floor of their house since there were explosions in the castle. They didn't know what happened. Aunt Natalia wondered if it was in prison.
The prisoners rioted.
Natalia gently patted the child in her arms, while looking toward the cellar entrance uneasily; the huge explosion from the fortress scared the two-year-old child to tears.
Sitting under them were two grain bags filled with rye, as well as a bag of potatoes and half a bag of sugar beets. These were their rations to survive the winter. Uncle Igor followed the 1st Transbaikal Infantry Regiment
After leaving, there has been no news for more than two months. Without a strong laborer, the family is only supported by two women, one older and one younger. Life is very difficult. This little food is not enough for the three people to survive this winter.
"Natalia! Polya! My dear, are you at home?"
Hearing a familiar man's voice above their heads, Polya and her aunt's eyes suddenly widened. They covered their mouths in disbelief and couldn't stop their tears from flowing down.
Polya stood up and walked towards the entrance of the cellar, shouting loudly: "Uncle, is it you?"
The wooden planks pressing down on the cellar were removed, and Igor's head was exposed. He looked at Polya with tears on his face and said eagerly: "I'm back! Thank God, are you all okay? I
I just went to the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption to look for you, where is our little Ivan?"
After the two women came out of the cellar, and the family was filled with joy and sorrow, Polya, who was standing aside, noticed that her uncle was no longer wearing the green military uniform with red cuffs, but a change of clothes.
She was now wearing clothes with spots and strange styles, and her feet were no longer the original riding boots, but instead turned into a pair of shiny black boots with tight cuffs.
"Uncle, why have your clothes changed?"
Natalia also looked at Igor and asked: "Dear, have you been promoted?"
Igor wiped the tears on his face with his big hands and said with mixed feelings: "No, I am helping the Chinese now. The good news is that we no longer have to go hungry, and maybe there will be fifty acres of land in the future...
..."
"Chinese?" The two women were stunned for a moment and didn't listen at all.
At this time, someone's voice suddenly came from outside the Ilgo family's hut, but neither Natalia nor Polya could understand it.
"Igor, how's it going? Have you found your family?"
Igor hurriedly turned around and opened the door, speaking in a strange and jerky tone to the people outside the room: "Yes! oгpomhoecпacn6o, dear Fan!"
"Then hurry up and pack your things, we are about to board the ship and leave."
Looking for the voice, Polya looked outside the house and saw a fair and fat man with a Tatar face standing outside his yard. Behind him were several others in the same attire.
The person carrying the "musket".
"Blonde girl?" Fan Tong's smile grew wider when he saw Polya, who had red lips and white teeth, and wore a headscarf to reveal a few strands of hair.