On September 27, 1788, just as the people in the Irkutsk City Council learned about the capture of Verkhnokhnudinsk, the fleet of the Northern Navy crossed Lake Baikal and sailed into the Angara River.
Not to mention that the seals in the lake were frightened by the roar of the motors of the Northern Navy fleet, and the unsuspecting citizens of Irkutsk soon discovered this strange fleet, and they gathered on the river bank to watch. The responsible person
The patrol boat of the Northern Navy that was clearing the way saw a sloop flying a double-headed eagle flag sailing out of the dock and approaching it, and asked Zhao Xin how to deal with it.
"Fire! Sink it!"
As a deafening "bang bang bang" sound sounded, the onlookers of Irkutsk citizens saw three soldiers and an officer on the sailboat suddenly explode like a smashed watermelon, and their limbs were broken.
It fell into the river with a rain of blood, and then a fire broke out on the wooden boat.
It has been more than 120 years since this city developed from a winter hut, and it has never been invaded by a foreign enemy. They seem to have forgotten that in the spring, armies and fleets set out to attack China; later when Su
When Wolof launched the military conscription order, there were still people eager to sign up, hoping to go to China to earn a vote.
Now the Chinese revenge is coming!
Under the blockade of the 50-pound machine gun on the patrol boat, it was difficult for the local defenders who hurriedly fought to get close to the dock. Even if someone wanted to move the cannon, it was too late.
As the North Korean navy began to disembark, a dense rain of bullets and grenades blew up the fish market near the pier. The fish and shrimps that were too late to clean up flew everywhere with the explosion of grenades. Normally, they can only wag their tails and beg for food.
The cats and dogs holding the windfall in their mouths disappeared from sight in the blink of an eye. The Cossack soldiers who came one after another from the castle were either riddled with bullets or died in the explosion of grenades.
As the church bells in the city rang rapidly, the residents of Irkutsk who did not have solid mansions had no time to pack up their belongings and ran into the Kremlin to take shelter.
The local Kremlin is a fortress of mixed wood and stone. Except for the Church of the Savior with a masonry structure, the interior is all wooden buildings. Fortunately, the outer wall is a mixture of masonry and stone, and it is already slightly dilapidated.
From a plan view, the Kremlin in Irkutsk is a square with a side length of 130 meters and a wall height of 7 meters. It has eight towers; 3 towers are close to the Angara River and are 20 meters high, and three are on the mountain side.
It is 17 meters high, with one in the center of the east and west walls.
In fact, had it not been for the sudden attack by the Northern Navy, this fortress would have almost no military significance; a fire thirteen years ago almost completely destroyed the city center, and the local city council has decided to demolish the fortress. Like
The administrative building, customs building, barracks and gunpowder magazine are all outside the castle.
When the wealthy businessmen and city councilors heard the news about the invasion, they all ran to the three-story solid building built with white strips of stone on the embankment of the Angara River to take shelter. This is the local administrative office.
The building, in another time and space, has been preserved until modern times and is known as the "White House" of Irkutsk.
Zhao Xin was not in a hurry to attack the city. His intention was to exhaust Irkutsk's resistance forces later. So the North Navy had time to build fortifications in the open space next to the fish market and wait for armed resistance to be organized in the city.
"Mihailovich, what should we do?"
Facing the inquiry from Councilor Basnin, Mayor Sibiliakov asked an officer running back from the fish market: "Major Grigory, how many people are there?"
The major replied: "Sir, the enemy only has a few hundred people, but their weapons are so powerful that we can't even get close without suffering heavy casualties."
"Shoot them back!"
"Destroy them!"
Sibiliakov slapped the table and shouted: "They destroyed my fish market! Call all the adult men in the city immediately and open the gunpowder magazine! I want them to have a taste of the power!"
The reason why this man was able to become the mayor, in addition to being rich, was because he was tough and no one in the city dared to offend him. His favorite thing to do on weekdays was to ride around the city in a carriage, as long as he noticed who was having a dispute.
Or if there was any other trouble, Siberiakov would immediately jump out of the car, rush in and beat up the guy he thought was guilty until he bowed his head and admitted his mistake.
At this time, the bishop of the Church of Our Savior came to dissuade him: "Your Excellency, Mayor, we should send someone to talk to those robbers to find out what they want to do. After all, we don't even know who they are and where they come from.
I don’t even know yet!”
Sibiliakov nodded and said: "What you said makes sense, so how about you, the respected bishop, be responsible for communicating with those people?"
At this time, Basin, a local wealthy businessman and councilor, said: "I am willing to accompany the bishop."
Major Gregory said: "I'll go too, just to get a better understanding of the opponent's strength."
Two hours later, the three people with pale faces returned to the administrative building, and the news they sent back shocked everyone at home.
"What? You said they are Chinese?"
"Oh God, God bless! The Governor was also captured by them?"
"Yes, Count Jacobi also had one of his hands chopped off by them."
"These devils!"
"How much do they want to redeem the city?"
Basnin poured himself a glass of wine and drank it down, and then continued: "Gentlemen, the Chinese are not only here for revenge, they want to occupy this place and turn it into their land!"
What?! Everyone in the room was stunned. Occupy? From now on, each of us will have to shave our heads like the people of the Qing Dynasty, and put a rat tail on the back of our head?
The Chinese do not believe in Christ. What will happen to our churches in the future? Should we turn them into lamaseries? God, this is too bad!
Seeing that the room had become as noisy as a vegetable market, Mayor Sibiliakov banged his big fist on the table several times and shouted: "Shut up, everyone! Listen to what he has to say! Who is it?"
If he makes any more noise, I'll tell him to get out!"
Basnin looked confused at this time and said to everyone: "Major Gregory's judgment is correct. There are indeed not many Chinese coming. However, we observed their soldiers carefully and they did not wear braids."
, but got a short haircut.”
The bishop added at this time: "They say they are Seris people, descendants of the Ming Empire two hundred years ago."
Representative Dudorovsky who was present suddenly said: "Your Excellency, what are you talking about? What about Siris, from the Ming Empire?"
The bishop quickly explained: "Gentlemen, Seris is Latin, which was the name of that country in ancient Rome."
Hey, isn’t that still China?
Even though the congressmen present are all extremely wealthy businessmen, these guys have all built their fortunes under the cruel natural conditions of Eastern Siberia. Don't look at the fact that all of them are dressed like dogs and pretending to be nobles. They really want to be knowledgeable.
Actually, there aren't many. Everyone is very good at killing people and setting fires.
Sibiliakov sneered at this time: "It doesn't matter what it is, Seris or Pigtail, this is our city! Hundreds of people want us to surrender, what a joke!"
"You're right! Kill those Chinese!"
"That's it, let Her Majesty the Queen see, we people are not just good at paying taxes, we can also defend the city!"
"But Mikhailovich, they even gave Suvorov..."
Sibilyakov interrupted Basnin and said with a serious face: "Basnin, you let the Chinese deceive you! Who is Suvorov? A victorious general! Even the Turks won.
How could an incompetent genius be allowed to be captured by the Chinese?"
The mayor's words were echoed by most people in the room, who all expressed their intention to fight the Chinese and kill them all.
The next step is simple. Each family has someone to contribute, and they can contribute. Hundreds of local Cossack garrison and civilian warriors formed a team of 2,000 people, and were led by Major Grigory.
Then, there is no more!
It is said that if the infantry does not line up in battle these days, there will be no war at all. So when the two thousand people from Irkutsk lined up in an irregular queue and arrived in front of the Northern Navy's position in an aggressive manner, they quickly
Suffered the baptism of bullets and bullets.
Within twenty minutes of the exchange of fire between the two sides, the Irkutsk defenders lost hundreds of people. Facing the "overwhelming" Chinese artillery fire, many civilian warriors who had never fought were frightened and turned around to flee.
Back to the Kremlin Castle.
Late that night, the Russians organized another sneak attack. But Zhao Xin had already prepared, and the 18-bead LED flashlight that had once shown its power off the coast of Guangzhou came in handy again. Faced with the bright lights emitted from the North Navy fortifications
, half of Irkutsk was illuminated as bright as day, and the Russians who attacked were almost blinded. Then, hundreds of black guns began to spray out dense bullets, wantonly harvesting the lives of the attackers
.
When the frightened attackers fled back to the castle, they found that they had lost two-thirds of their manpower. Now no one was leaving, no matter what the gentlemen promised.
This is not a war, it is simply a massacre! There is no chance to fight the enemy desperately, those Chinese are a bunch of devils!
In fact, what is even more frightening is what lies ahead.
Starting on September 28, the North Korean navy set up an artillery position behind the fortifications, and used an "artillery group" composed of two D30 and ten 82 mortars to launch indiscriminate bombings on the Kremlin, barracks, customs and other key points.
Six towers of the Kremlin fortress were blown down, and the remaining two were crumbling; all the buildings in the barracks were blown down, the gunpowder magazine was detonated, and the blown flesh and blood limbs flew up along with countless rubbles.
Hundreds of meters high in the air; hundreds of shops and houses were reduced to ashes by gunfire, leaving thousands of people homeless.
War, that's it. Tsarist Russia can go to the Heilongjiang coast to burn, kill and loot, and the Chinese can also let the flames of war set their homes ablaze.
On September 30, after two consecutive days of saturation bombardment, Mayor Siberiakov and a group of councilors who supported the resistance saw that the scarred city had become shattered and that years of hard work was about to be destroyed.
Once, finally, the white flag was raised and unconditional surrender was agreed.
Under the complicated and unspeakable looks of the city councilors and the local bishop, Zhao Xin pinched a small piece of bread from the silver tray held by Siberiakov, dipped it in the salt in the silver bowl, and put it on
He took it into his mouth and nodded.
Seeing that the Chinese man opposite had accepted his surrender, the merchants finally felt relieved.
"The first connection is for the customs building, the second connection is for the barracks and gunpowder magazine, the third connection is for the Kremlin, and the guard company is following me into the Sibiliakov Palace!"
Following Zhao Xin's order, various branches of the North Navy launched operations. Since the city council had notified in advance, thousands of local residents were ordered to return home and were not allowed to go out. Those whose houses had been destroyed by the war could only temporarily shelter in churches. They have since
Through the cracks in the doors and windows, I watched groups of heavily armed Easterners wearing helmets running through the streets and beginning to take over the entire city.
Things are going to change! Many people think so. But what they are most worried about is what will happen to this city after the Chinese come. Will they drive people like themselves away? If they leave, where can they go?
When Zhao Xin led the security company, led by a congressman and businessmen, to the gate of the White House, he felt so happy when he saw the outer wall blackened by artillery fire and the large crater blown by the shells!
During the subsequent meetings with local officials in Irkutsk, Zhao Xin accidentally discovered a customs official named Peter Markovich Rodionov. This man had followed the Sixth Orthodox Mission
After living in Beijing for eleven years, he was sent there by the Tsarist Russian Foreign Affairs Committee three years ago to take charge of trade work with Qing Dynasty. However, since Ivan Jacobi had no intention of resuming Kyakhta trade, he had to stay at the customs and do some paperwork.
finishing work.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Although Markovich has left China for many years, he still has not forgotten all his spoken language. After a sincere and friendly exchange with coercion and inducement, Zhao Xin learned that although the local area was under the direct control of the Tsar
area, but it has actually been controlled by merchants for a long time.
Starting from 1762, when Catherine II abolished the official monopoly on fur exports, Siberiakov, Milenkov, Basnin, Dudorovsky, Suledovs
These five major families control various trades in Irkutsk. In addition to participating in Kyakhta trade, they also monopolize the production and supply of wine, salt, bread, and mineral transactions in Eastern Siberia.
The number of people engaged in business in Irkutsk accounts for 52% of the total population, and the rest are craftsmen, clerks and hired workers. In addition, there are many exiled serfs from Yenisey Province outside the city growing grain, hops and
beet.
The city council, composed of the five major business families and other mid-level businessmen, has become the leading force in urban social life, and even Ivan Jacobi cannot get involved. These people not only obtain huge commercial interests through collusion between officials and businessmen, but also exert influence on those who
The civilians who were exiled here were exploited.
The five major business families have their tentacles in every part of the city, including churches, asylums, hospitals, schools, theaters and libraries, and even many streets in the city are named after them.
It is said that with the Agricultural Products Expo held in 1768, Irkutsk became the main commodity distribution center in the entire Eastern Siberia. By 1787, the turnover of commodities reached 3.7 million rubles, accounting for almost 10% of the total commodity trade turnover in Russia.
6%. This can be regarded as the distribution center for East-West trade in Tsarist Russia. You can even buy wine and luxury goods from France locally. However, with the suspension of Kyakhta trade three years ago, the demand for tea, silk fabrics, furs and rhubarb has increased.
The impact of trade is extremely serious.
After listening to Markovich's introduction, Zhao Xin couldn't help but think of a certain ethnic group. So when he asked Peter about it, it turned out that three of the five major families were Jewish.
Zhao Xin first appointed Peter Markovich Rodionov as the local liaison chief of the Northern Navy, responsible for drafting the Northern Navy's decrees in Russian and communicating them among local residents.
Although Markovich tried his best to refuse, after Zhao Xin expressed his disagreement and exiled his family to the lower reaches of Heilongjiang River, the cowardly civil servant who called Zhao Xin a "devil" in his heart had no choice but to express his willingness to serve.
After that, Zhao Xin ordered Markovich to find the heads of the five major families, including Mayor Siberiakov, and he dispelled half of their hatred with just one sentence.
"I have a lot of silk, rhubarb and tea. Which of you wants it?"
No fool would want it! The five major families were silent for a moment, then Mayor Siberiakov said: "What kind of tea?"