Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 358 Zhao Xin's Outer Northeast Strategy
On June 1788, 6, the 22 troops of the Northern Navy's western front led by Liu Sheng finally arrived in Heilongjiang City.The people who came to watch the excitement after hearing the news were all surprised to see the river covered with ships of all kinds, large and small.Among them were two inland river patrol boats of the Northern Navy, two passenger catamarans, two flat-bottomed barges hastily built in Khabarovsk, and twenty Yaksa warships captured in Ningguta.

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 escaped on this section of water, and the remaining more than 20 All of them became trophies of the Northern Navy.After removing the upper cannon, it is perfect for a troop carrier.

The Yaksa warship is a flat-bottomed square-shouldered sloop with a displacement of 52.8 tons and a load capacity of 20-25 tons.The ship is divided into three layers. The bottom layer uses materials and stones as ballast, and the middle layer and part of the deck can be used for human habitation.Based on the calculation of 80 kilograms per person, a boat plus sailors can seat up to 200 people.

Watching waves of Northern Navy coming down from the docked ships, including Li Bi and Li Yansheng, those onlookers who had served as officials in the Manchu Qing court were filled with worry; In the west, important places such as Morgan, Qiqihar and even Hulunbeier may not be guaranteed.

Although Li Bi was an exile, he was the county magistrate of the Qing Dynasty after all, and his family members who accompanied him in exile are still in Qiqihar; and Li Yansheng is a third-rank military general of the Qing court. En, the mentality of serving the country with loyalty, every day in the mansion on the official village outside the city, apart from eating and sleeping, he scolded Bei Haijun and scolded his son why he didn't kill himself to serve the country.

After Liu Sheng and Fan Tong disembarked for a short rest, they first went to the old city of Aihui to visit the Tsarist Russian prisoners of war. After a quick meal, they held a military meeting with their regiment and battalion-level officers and Zhao Xin.

First of all, a small staff officer surnamed Fang from the staff department explained to everyone present the main points of the Qing court in the Heilongjiang General's Mansion and the situation of the garrison. This information mainly came from inquiries about the wounded in the Qing army and the news sent back by the reconnaissance team. .

Zhao Xin has spread a wide reconnaissance network in these days. With the cooperation of the local Daur people, the reconnaissance team of the Northern Navy has gone as far as Mulususu in the north and Kolor in the southwest, only a few meters away from the city of Mergen. ten miles.At the same time, several army staff officers also inquired about the situation of the garrisons in various places among the wounded in the Qing army, but they were only approximate figures.

The main points of the Qing court in the Heilongjiang General's Mansion include Qiqihar, Mergen City, Heilongjiang City, Hulan River, Hulun Buir, and Butha Dashou. location.

Among these six cities, although Hulanhe City in the south is a subordinate of Heilongjiang City, the distance between the two places is more than 1000 miles, but it is only more than 100 miles away from Alchuka under the jurisdiction of the Jilin General Mansion; Heilongjiang City is 380 miles away, and 85 miles to the south is the Zhelimu League of Nezasak Mongolia; Mergen City is located in the southwest of Heilongjiang City, with a distance of 760 miles; Butha is [-] miles southwest of Mergen; the farthest Hulunbeier is located [-] miles northwest of Qiqihar.

Fan Tong asked at this time: "What is Butha's sacrificial supervisor?"

Zhao Xin, who had inquired specifically about this matter, explained: "This is the military and political institution used by the Qing government to manage the Daur, Ewenki, Oroqen and other ethnic groups. , Of course, there are also military needs. Other places are governed by deputy capitals or co-leaders, but Butha is managed by a collegial system of three chiefs, with one Manchurian chief, one Daur chief, and one Sauron chief.”

Liu Sheng said: "Is this a tribal collegial system?"

Zhao Xin nodded and said, "That's almost what it means."

Regarding the situation of the Qing court's garrison in the other five cities, the staff officer surnamed Fang explained: "According to our investigation these days and the post-war statistics of Ninggu Tower that we sent before, the Qing army is currently in the entire Heilongjiang general area. There should be more than 1 troops in the garrison, including 600 in Butha City, 3000 in Hulunbeier because it is located in an important border river channel, more than 3000 in Hulan River City, [-] in Moergen City, and [-] in Qiqihar."

The situation of the Qing army has been mentioned, and the situation of Tsarist Russia follows.However, since Tsarist Russia has shrunk back to the Yaksa area across the board, the reconnaissance team going to Ulu Sumudan has not sent back news. The current situation is that the shadow of the Tsarist Russian army has not been seen from the north of Zhong'an to Mulususu.

The situation is introduced here, and the next step is to decide on the following actions.At this time, everyone in the meeting looked at Zhao Xin. After all, this is the boss who is in charge of Beihai Town's military affairs.

In fact, regardless of the fact that the Beihai 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 the perspective of the strategic situation, to defeat Qiqihar, you must face the various ministries of Neizasak Mongolia; to defeat the Hulan River, the Qing army in Alchuka must fight, and then in order to cut off the Qing army’s troop transport route to Heilongjiang, go further south. The Boduna must also be shot down.

More than 100 million square kilometers, countless waterways, post roads, and countless barren mountains and ridges, if you want to rely on the more than 20 people in Beihai Town to control it, you will definitely drive Zhao Xin and others crazy, and drag Beihai Town down.

Zhao Xin estimated that the population of Beihai Town had to reach 40 to control Heilongjiang General's Mansion, which is why he pressed Xu Dayong to transport at least 10 people out this year.

The stalls in Beihai Town are too big now, with millions of square kilometers in the outer northeast, the three counties of Southern Kyushu, Kuye Island, Ezodi, and the southern islands of the Thousand Islands.Wherever Zhao Xin has gold mines, he will dominate them, such as Lingjia Gold Mountain, Hongzhiwu Gold Mine, Urupu Island Gold Mine, Solenji Gold Mine, and even now there is a "old man" in the south of Heilongjiang City. Ditch Gold Mine".

"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. There are mountains and mountains, and the roads are narrow. The so-called post roads can only be used by small troops. It is not suitable for large troops to travel with fast horses reporting letters. From Shunzhi to Qianlong, the Manchu and Qing Dynasties mobilized troops, horses and supplies through waterways.

Whether the five major water systems of Heilongjiang, Wusuli River, Songhua River, Huerha River, and Nenjiang River can be fully controlled is also the key to whether we can seize the entire Outer Northeast.Only by mastering the two major grain-producing areas of the Sanjiang Plain and the Songnen Plain and fully developing them, can we compete with the landlords and gentry in the Central Plains and even in the south of the Yangtze River in the future. "

This was the first time that Zhao Xin explained his combat strategy against the Manchus to the regiment and battalion officers of the Beihai Army, and everyone present was attentive.The core of what he said was to prepare for the future southward entry by seizing land and expanding food production.

Take Shandong as an example. By the 52nd year of Qianlong, the population of Shandong as a whole exceeded 500 million, and the arable land per capita was less than 2.5 mu. The land has been exploited to the limit. This is the case in Hubei, Henan, and even Zhili Shanxi.

Moreover, due to a large number of floods and droughts in recent years, people's livelihood in the entire north is extremely difficult.After years of disasters, the land has been continuously concentrated in the hands of landlords and dignitaries, and it is getting worse day by day.In fact, whether it is in Shandong or Henan in Zhili, more than half of the arable land has been divided up by landlords, and many self-cultivating farmers have become tenants or bankrupt farmers.The so-called "one or two out of ten occupy land, four out of ten are tenants, and three out of ten have no land to cultivate."

The relatively well-known big landlords during this period, such as the Hao family in Huairou in the suburbs of Beijing, had tens of thousands of hectares of high-quality fertile land; the Cha family and Sheng family in Wanping were also well-known rich men.

He Shen, Minister of Military Aircraft, has 83 hectares of land, and his slaves Liu Quan, Ma 600 and others occupy more than [-] hectares of land; Bai Ling, who was the governor of Guangdong, took office for less than a year, and actually occupied [-] hectares of land .

And a salt merchant surnamed Kang in Pingyang Prefecture, Shanxi has tens of millions of property, tens of thousands of hectares of land, and more than 1000 granaries, large and small.Even Qianlong said, "I always thought that the richest people in the world have never been richer than Yan merchants (salt merchants). Now that I hear about Kang's family, it is like a little witch seeing a big witch!"

The reason why the peasant uprising did not break out in such a dire situation is that the Qing government’s continuous disaster relief made these people hungry and starving. It seems that there is always a glimmer of hope; I can see but can't eat.The second is that the Manchu and Qing government attached great importance to local civil uprisings, and quickly dispatched troops to extinguish them whenever there was a disturbance; who would dare to rebel if the policy of ignoring the people and the death of people were rolling in?

In such an era of great bankruptcy, countless people had no choice but to sell themselves and seek refuge with powerful and powerful landlords as slaves.When a Daotai takes office, there are hundreds of domestic slaves accompanying him;

Beihai Town is now a traitor in the eyes of the common people. They want to rob the Qing court of their population and send the common people across the sea to the Northeast, but they are unwilling to follow if they think they can survive.Another thing is the inherent Chinese concept of "people leave their hometowns and be humble". Even if they are guarding their huts and eating grass roots, as long as the illusion of "carrots" is not shattered, they will not want to go to sea by boat.

If the Beihai Navy went south to enter the customs, they would not have the land in their hands, and would not have a large amount of food in their hands. Facing the counterattack of the landlord and gentry class in force and the economic plunder, would they keep a bunch of feudal dignitaries to make fun of themselves?

Those landlords and gentry who have been deprived of a large amount of surplus land, labor and even the right to speak, and even want to counterattack, expect them to cooperate with Beihai Town to complete the process of industrializing the country. Isn't this a joke!
If you say a thousand words and ten thousand, no matter how powerful the machine guns and cannons are, it will be useless for the common people to have enough food and clothing!

When Zhao Xin finished talking about this, everyone present suddenly realized, and only heard him continue: "In addition to the Nen River water system, among the other four water systems, the Ussuri River has been completely controlled by us, and the other three are only partially controlled by us. Once the Li and Sanxing cities are established, together with Ningguta and Heilongjiang City, the river courses 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 that the city of Mergen and Hulan River will not fight, and the defense system of Heilongjiang City will be strengthened. There is only one enemy right now, and that is Tsarist Russia!"

Fan Tong asked: "Then how do we fight next?"

Zhao Xin's answer was resounding: "Go up the river, regain all the lost ground, and capture Irkutsk before this year's winter!"

At the same time, at the construction site in Yaksa City.

The serfs who were moved here by the queen's order were brought to work on the construction site as soon as they disembarked, 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 quickly transported to the construction site and became part of the building.

What was built here is a large four-pointed star-shaped bastion.After the invasion of Tsarist Russia, a large number of Cossack serfs staying in Nerchinsk and Chita followed the Russian army to Yaksa and became the main labor force for building the castle.

The walls of this military fortress are low, and every two sides of the fortress are combined to form a sharp wedge protruding outwards. There is also a defense wall without any shelter in front of each wall; The walls of the city are all inclined structures, and the middle is a wide and deep trench.Outside the main gate of the bastion, there is also an outer bastion which is independent of the city wall and has a lower height.This is used to cover the city gate and is connected to the city wall through a drawbridge.

From the beginning of the advent of mobile artillery in the sixteenth century, some people have keenly grasped the root of the concept of countermeasures.Since artillery can do most damage to high walls, the new walls must be built low.However, the city wall is low, and it is easy for the enemy to launch a surprise attack and climb over the city wall along the ladder to enter the interior of the fortification.The new fortification system requires the ability to resist artillery fire while keeping enemy infantry from approaching, so the bastion that trades depth for height came into being.

In fact, the most powerful thing about the bastion is not its defensive power, but the slanted design of the fortress wall that increases the thickness of certain areas in disguise. The thickness of the frontal wall is much thicker than that of the flat wall.Therefore, the appearance of the bastion is actually to better display firepower, rather than pile up passive defense capabilities.The wide trench and low wall allow a large amount of earthwork to be piled up in front of the trench to build a defense wall.

In this era, the strike surface of the front-mounted cannon is a line rather than a point. When a cannon with a straight ballistic trajectory faces a slanted anti-battery wall, it is impossible to reduce the risk of ricochet by adjusting the artillery position.Thanks to the extremely small angle, the anti-battery slope will not collapse and bury the trench in the face of shelling.

For the defensive side, the anti-battery wall with carefully calculated angles and slopes can in turn use the ricochet of the smoothbore gun to form a terrifying continuous killing zone, causing serious damage to the offensive side from the side.At the same time, the anti-battery wall greatly compresses the shooting dead angle in the maximum depression angle of the artillery at close range, turning the safe city below into a death corridor.

Suvorov was very satisfied with the design of Yaksa's castle, with multiple layers of defense, strong firepower coverage, and no dead ends of firepower.

What he needs now is time. He feels that with such a castle, even if the Qing army comes with 5000 people, it will be broken.

(End of this chapter)