Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 307 Ultimatum of the Northern Navy
When the sailboat sailing from Okhotsk approached the Thunder God, the expressions in the eyes of the Tsarist Russians on board were extremely complicated, including shock, puzzlement, envy, and various emotions.

The first person to go up the gangway was a stout local official.The man was wearing a black three-cornered hat decorated with a beige ribbon, and a cloud of silver-gray curly hair was exposed on the brim of the hat. His cheeks were clean-shaven, and there were two exquisite mustaches on his upper lip.This person was wearing a silk cotton coat embroidered with gold trim on his upper body, and shorts with tight feet on his lower body. He walked on the gangway with his head held high.

It is said that in order to get rid of Russia’s barbaric and ignorant image in the hearts of Europeans, Peter I imposed a “beard tax” on men who wanted to grow beards in their own country. Since then, the faces of Russians have become clean. Must have become popular again.

Followed by the priest (priest) of the local church, he looked at the high gangway, first crossed his chest, muttered something, and then walked up.

Following the priest came up ten Cossack soldiers in green uniforms.They wear "Papaha" made of sheepskin, carry flintlock guns on their shoulders, and a saber on their waists.This outfit is exactly the same as those Cossacks who were captured on Bitter Leaf Island before.

After a group of people walked up the deck slowly along the gangway, they were all stunned by the sight in front of them.The towering ship building is like a dazzling white castle, and the wide deck painted with red paint is almost as big as the playground in the barracks. Apart from the two covers like huge door panels, there are two other unknown objects, but They are all covered with a colorful canvas, which is tightly covered.In addition, standing on the deck turned out to be a group of strangely dressed Orientals.

Oriental? !The official who walked onto the deck first was stunned for a moment, and then quickly reacted.He put on a smile and said loudly: "Welcome, friends from afar! I am the head of the Okhotsk Customs—Petro Grigorievich. On behalf of The people of Okhotsk welcome you. Which of you is the captain of this great sea castle?"

The Beihai Town soldiers from the two companies on the deck stood in four rows, holding their guns, while the other sailors were busy with their own business, and no one spoke to them.Because they couldn't understand what the guy in front of him, wearing a black tricorn hat and dressed like a clown, was saying.

Seeing that the sailors on board did not respond, Petro Grigorievich felt a little unhappy, but he repeated it again in French.

"I am the captain of this ship. My surname is Ding." Just when Petro Grigorievich was at his wit's end, a tall oriental man in his 30s came out of the ship building, speaking loudly in English. talking.

That's right, Ding Guofeng's height of 1.7 meters is indeed very tall for the Russians of this era. If it weren't for his extremely prominent oriental face and English, Petro Grigorievich would even think that this The person in a snow-white uniform is a European nobleman.The tall Europeans these days are generally aristocrats, because only aristocrats will not rush around for three meals a day since they were young, and they will naturally grow taller if they get better nutrition.

"English?" The customs chief looked at Ding Guofeng, who was two meters away, and muttered something in his heart, and couldn't help feeling a little contemptuous.The lingua franca of Europeans these days is French, and a gentleman who doesn't know French is a sign of lack of education.

"I'm sorry, my English is not very good. After all, we don't have many British people coming here." Pyotr Grigoryevich's English was stuttering, so Ding Guofeng was also confused.

"Then, my lords, are you English?"

Ding Guofeng understood now, so he shook his head and replied word by word: "No, we are Chinese."

Chinese people?Qing Dynasty?The country ruled by the Tatars?Pyotr Grigorievich thought to himself, since when did the Tatars have such a big sea-going ship?

At this moment, the priest beside him suddenly said, "I'm very glad to meet my friend from China. I'm the local priest Semyon Kiselevsky. My Chinese name is Xie Anhua."

wipe!Ding Guofeng said in his heart that the priest would be fine if he didn't speak, but if he did speak it would be shocking!

"Hello. How can you speak Chinese?"

"I was a member of the Sixth Orthodox Mission to Beijing. I arrived in the capital of China at the end of the 36th year of Qianlong. I lived there for 11 years. It was really a memorable time." Xie Anhua's official words were somewhat stumbled , after all, he has been away from China for several years.

Great, there is actually a missionary who stayed in the capital, Ding Guofeng decided not to fiddle with his half-baked English.He calculated that it was the 52nd year of Qianlong, and this person had been to Beijing 16 years ago.Agitated, he blurted out by accident: "Do you know Father Macarius?"

Historically, starting from 1728, for nearly 200 years, the Orthodox missions stationed in Beijing did not regard preaching as their mission, but let the descendants of the Tsarist Russian prisoners in the Battle of Yaksa maintain the Orthodox faith.Most of their years in Beijing were spent learning Chinese and Manchu.After these people returned to Irkutsk, some stayed there to preach, and some returned to Petersburg to be promoted to bishops.

In fact, from the eighteenth century to the early nineteenth century, China’s influence on Tsarist Russia was greater than we imagined in various aspects, and the development of Russian Sinology also began from this.In the words of Russians of later generations, due to the special development of military science and political management in ancient China, the young Russian civilization at that time was able to draw nutrients from the "Dragon Well" of China.

Xie Anhua beamed and said, "You know Makarius? That's great! We met once in Irkutsk, and then he went to Urup Island to preach. I haven't heard of him for several years. I heard about him. How did you meet him?"

Ding Guofeng thought to himself, why am I talking so much!So he said with a sudden heart: "Father Ma is a guest at our place, and now he is a doctor in our hospital."

"Hospital?"

The two asked and answered in Chinese, leaving the customs chief aside.Petro Grigorievich hurriedly asked Xie Anhua: "Your Excellency, what are you talking about?"

After he finished listening to Xie Anhua's explanation, he said, "Your Excellency, can you ask if they are the envoys of the Qing emperor?"

After listening to Xie Anhua's translation, Ding Guofeng shook his head seriously and said, "No, we have nothing to do with the Qing Dynasty."

"Oh, you are Chinese, and you have nothing to do with the Qing Dynasty at the same time? Then you should not be Chinese. As far as I know, every Chinese is a citizen of the Qing Emperor. But you said that it has nothing to do with the Qing Dynasty, then Where did you come from?" Pietro Grigorievich babbled a lot to Ding Guofeng, almost making him faint.

"We...we are the Beihai Navy." Ding Guofeng said in his heart that "Beihai Town" is too imposing, and the town sounds shabby.

"Northern Navy?" The customs chief was very surprised. He recalled it carefully, then shook his head to express that he had never heard of it.

Ding Guofeng said to Xie Anhua: "This, this priest, I will call you Father Xie. Please help me translate the next words to the customs chief."

Xie Anhua said: "It is my honor, Your Excellency the captain."

Ding Guofeng took out a piece of paper from the pocket of his snow-white uniform, cleared his throat after opening it, and said, "The Northern Navy is telling the Tsarist Russian government that since 1783 AD, Sakhalin Island (Sakhalin is Manchu), Kurui The four islands in the south of the Seoul Islands (that is, the Thousand Islands) are all the territory of the North Navy, and any behavior of docking or landing on the island without our permission will be regarded as an invasion. We hereby inform you!"

What?Xie Anhua wondered if he heard it wrong.

Seeing Ding Guofeng read aloud to a piece of paper in a serious manner, Customs Commissioner Petrolo Grigorievich hurriedly said to Xie Anhua: "Father, what is he talking about? Please translate it to me immediately."

Father Xie reluctantly translated, and Petro Grigorievich immediately became furious: "It's ridiculous! The Kuril Islands were discovered by us Russians 70 years ago, and they are not anyone's territory at all!"

Ding Guofeng sneered and said: "It has been the territory of the Ainu people since ancient times. We have obtained the consent of the Great Ainu Kingdom. He transferred all the four islands south of Urup Island to us."

Xie Anhua finally realized something when he heard this, and asked Ding Guofeng: "Your Excellency, according to your opinion, Makarius was captured by you?"

Ding Guofeng nodded and said: "That's right, without our permission, they went to the island to preach and build churches without permission. After some education from us, Makarius and Ferapontov changed their past, and they decided to atone for their sins." in the form of serving Beihai Town for life.”

Xie Anhua's nose turned out of anger when he heard it, and he thought to himself, why are there people in this world who are more shameless than the French?

After listening to Xie Anhua's translation, Petro Grigorievich suppressed his anger, glared at Ding Guofeng and said, "What did you do to the personnel we stationed in northern Sakhalin?"

Ding Guofeng said arrogantly: "Who gave you the right to go to Sakhalin? It has been China's territory since ancient times! There is only one end for the invaders."

At this time, the ten Cossack soldiers also sensed that something was wrong. Just as they were about to pick up their muskets, dozens of soldiers from Beihai Town were already holding guns in their hands, and the black muzzles of their guns pointed directly at them.

"Put down the gun! Don't be impulsive!" Petrov Grigorievich shouted hastily.

Ding Guofeng said: "Small guy, do you still want to do something?" He waved his hand at a crew member, motioning for him to come over.

"Open the hatch and let them see the captives!"

"Yes!"

The huge gray steel hatch slowly seemed to rise. Xie Anhua walked to the side carefully and looked down, while the people inside also raised their heads to look up.

"Father! Father, save us!"

"Dear Kiselevsky, is it really you? I should live to see you. Thank God!"

Hearing the yelling for help from the warehouse, Petro Grigorievich also came over. Seeing this, his fair cheeks immediately became even paler.

"My God! You are here, Grigorievich. Get us out quickly."

"These are all the people we sent to Sakhalin." The head of the customs was stunned. He scanned around and found that there were more than 100 people locked in the cargo hold.And among them he did not see a single Cossack soldier.

Ding Guofeng said to Xie Anhua: "We captured a total of 950 and six crew members. This time we brought 900 people, and the other seriously injured stayed in Sakhalin for treatment."

The crew of a three-masted warship in the eighteenth century required at least 270 people; if it was a large battleship, it needed seven to eight hundred people, just like a sea fortress.Okhotsk's ability to send four three-masted sailboats this time is already a breakthrough. You must know that this town currently has a total of only 800 people.

"Mr. Captain, please treat these people well. I need to go back and report to Officer Olgren immediately!" Petrov Grigorievich suddenly woke up like a rabbit bitten by a snake, and shouted Ding Guofeng said.

Ding Guofeng nodded and smiled like Zhao Xin: "No problem, I will give you one day. You can also take this statement back."

More than an hour later, when Kaslov Ogren, the chief executive of Okhotsk, heard the report from the head of customs and Xie Anhua, he waved his hands angrily and swept everything on the table to the ground.

"This is an act of provocation against the empire and Her Majesty the Queen! It is a declaration of war!"

The customs chief said: "Yes, what you said is absolutely right! But Mr. Ogren, the first thing we need to do is how to let them release the captured crew members."

Xie Anhua also interjected without losing the opportunity: "Yes, Mr. Olgren. These heretics slaughtered [-] Cossacks without mercy. They are not gentlemen, but devils in hell. God will curse them Yes! But those children are innocent and we should get them out."

Algren calmed down after venting. He picked up the "statement" that he didn't understand a word from the floor, slowly sat back on the chair, looked at Xie Anhua and said, "My priest, tell me that those Chinese are still What demands did you make?"

"In addition to what was said on the paper, they also demanded that our ships going south in the future should not stop at the above-mentioned islands without permission." Xie Anhua said while carefully observing Olgren's face.

"They demanded that we abide by the provisions of the Treaty of Nerchinsk and that we are not allowed to send expeditions into the mouth of the Amur River. Because according to them, those places have been Chinese territory since 1000 years ago."

Olgren slapped the table angrily, and shouted: "Nonsense! These damned Chinese, I will whip them to death! Who do they think they are? With a big white boat, they want to make the empire Keep your head down. How many cannons are there on that ship?"

The head of customs tried to recall, and then confirmed: "Uh, we didn't see the artillery."

"you sure?"

"Yes, sir, although there are all kinds of strange mechanical equipment on the main deck of that ship, we did not see a single cannon."

Algren was stunned for a moment, then interrupted: "What about the gun deck?"

"That's exactly what I want to report to you next. That ship has no gun deck."

"Grigorievich, you mean it was only a merchant ship?"

"I think so, and it's a merchant ship covered in steel."

"My God!" Olgren gasped suddenly, and he stared into the eyes of the head of customs. The news made him unbelievable!A country that can build huge merchant ships covered in steel, so what would their warships look like?

"In addition, according to Captain Ding, there are a thousand elite musketeers on board, and we saw hundreds of them when we boarded the ship. Your Excellency, this is really not an opponent we can deal with."

After a long silence, Kaslov Olgren decided to focus the negotiations on the release of the captured crew members.Facing a force that could win three hundred Cossack musketeers, capture four warships, and even build large ships out of steel, he dared not start a war at all.

Ogren also didn't want to let Okhotsk become ruins because of his recklessness.So he said, "Well, let's have a good discussion about how to get those poor young people back."

(End of this chapter)