Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 368 The Blonde Girl in Nerchinsk City

On September 1788, 9, Ivan Jacobi's messenger Evgeny arrived in St. Petersburg.

When he stepped off the carriage, the Queen's bodyguards were already waiting for him.The guard saluted Yevgeny, who had disheveled hair and a 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 Chief of the Palace are waiting for the good news from you."

Seeing that the guards were so impatient, Yevgeny hesitated.He looked at his tattered uniform and the soldier's overcoat that was covered with a big hole, thinking that it was too disheveled.So he said to the official guard: "You always want me to freshen up first, change clothes and go to see the Grand Duke?"

The guard smiled and said, "No, His Royal Highness prefers someone like you who returns from an expedition and brings news of victory."

victory?Yevgeny was a little guilty. He wondered if Grand Duke Paul would be furious after hearing the failure of Heilongjiang City.So he sat in the luxurious carriage sent by the Minister of War full of apprehension, and went all the way to the palace village to meet the crown prince Paul and the queen's secretary Hrapovich.

When the future Paul I received Ivan Jacobi's letter and read that "the Chinese have dispatched a powerful force, which caused us to encounter a small setback in Heilongjiang City", the 34-year-old crown prince's face suddenly revealed deep worry.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 a huge population?"

The Grand Duke Paul actually disapproved of Catherine II's foreign expansion policy, and he hoped that Russia would be completely Prussian.He had implicitly criticized his mother in a treatise on military reform, and explicitly stated his insistence on non-interference in European affairs.The queen accepted it casually. She felt his threat to her rights from her son's article, and it deepened her suspicion that Paul was planning to abdicate 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 brought up her eldest grandson, Alexander, and repeatedly planned to bypass Paul and let Alexander directly succeed him. She even brought this plan to the Privy Council for discussion, but she gave up after being opposed by most of the ministers.

There are no relatives in front of power, which is the same as the King Yingzu in Kangxi and Li Dynasty.In history, any powerful monarch would instinctively resist those who could threaten his throne, but the people of the next generation are much better.

The next morning, the empress's secretary Hrapovich led Evgeny to an audience with Catherine II, and the head of the foreign affairs committee (actual prime minister) Besbroko was present.

Yevgeny kissed the back of the queen's hand in trepidation, while Catherine II expressed her gratitude to the "distant heroes" who occupied Amur.

"Where there was water, there will be water again. God bless us and punish us, lest we become complacent. Just keep going and things will improve. I have no doubt that Suvorov will be at Yaksa Beat those Chinese."

At this time, Besbroko asked Major General Alexandrov and others who were trapped in Heilongjiang City what to do, and Catherine II said without hesitation: "I will never treat anyone who is loyal to me. People are desperate. You send people to Irkutsk to discuss with Jacobi how to negotiate with the Chinese. If they don’t agree, then we will set the whole of 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 followed the torrent uncontrollably until she fell into a frenzy for war and even became obsessed.

In history, this woman created unparalleled brilliance for the Tsarist Russian Empire and became famous all over the world. There are at least ten film and television dramas about her in later generations.

She planned for Poland, extended Russia's territory southward to Crimea, and even fantasized about occupying Greece and inserting the flag of the double-headed eagle into Constantinople.

For the East, what she never forgets is the estuary in the lower reaches of the Heilongjiang River, opening up an ice-free port in the North Pacific for Russia, and realizing her super empire ambition across Eurasia.

But she made almost no contribution to the lowest level of the people 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 Pugachev's uprising.

The Pugachev who called himself Peter III 15 years ago is not a good bird either.On the one hand he opposed the rule of Catherine II, but on the other hand he replicated this model of rule in his own ranks, down to the smallest external details.

Speaking of the serfdom system in Russia, the life of the common people was worse than that of the Qing people next door.All farmers recorded in the name of the landlord became serfs, and free people became slaves as long as they worked for others for more than six months.Since Ekaterina II succeeded to the throne, the Russian serfdom has reached its peak, and she alone has given as many as 80 palace farmers and state-owned farmers to the nobility.Landlords take full responsibility for their own peasants in court, and have the right to punish, sentence, sentence, and even execute peasants on their territory; peasants are not allowed to denounce their masters, unless the landlord has rebelled against the tsar or the country.

In fact, the Tsarist Russian Empire was a white-skinned Tatar regime. The nomadic and customary cruel ruling methods of the Mongols had long been imprinted in the bones of the country with the rule of the Golden Horde.

To describe the country of Tsarist Russia in one sentence is: I was born a Tatar and wanted to be a Roman, but I didn't realize that everyone regarded me as a barbarian.

After sending Evgeny away, Catherine II suddenly felt some pain in her chest.She suspended the next meeting, lying on the sofa, and said to Secretary Hrapovich: "Suvorov has already defeated the Chinese, and Yaksa has won. Either today or tomorrow, I have a hunch."

As the empress' secretary and steward of the palace, Hrapovich knew that the empress was often deceived by hunches and fell ill with anxiety, especially before a battle.But as long as she knows that the battle has started, her inner peace will be restored, no matter what bad news comes next, she will not be afraid.

So he comforted, "Your Majesty, it's caused by the weather, not a premonition. I'll call the doctor right away."

"No, you don't understand, this time my hunch is correct." The old lady babbled on for a long time, and finally took the medicine prescribed by the doctor, and then fell asleep faintly.

The ambitious old lady didn't know that not only Suvorov had become a prisoner of the Northern Navy at this time, but the flames of war had already spread to the territory of Tsarist Russia
"Boom! Boom!"

"Da da da!"

On the wall of the Nerchinsk Fortress, the shells roared like birds swooping down on the ground, seemingly never stopping.In the past ten minutes, several mortars of the Beihai Navy had already thrown dozens of shells at the wall next to the south gate of the castle. At this time, no one dared to stand on the wall and shoot except for a pile of corpses.

"God, who are these people?! Why are they attacking us!"

"Sir, those few soldiers who escaped by chance didn't even see what the other party looked like. Their weapons are too powerful for us to deal with."

More than an hour ago, a huge fleet of ships came from the lower reaches of the Nercha River. The strange shapes of the ships attracted many people to watch on the river bank.The locals thought it was a trading fleet from upstream, who knew that when the other party approached the pier, the two large black ships at the head of the flotilla suddenly opened fire, killing several Russian soldiers on the pier who were about to board the ship for inspection. He was beaten to pieces.

At this time, there were more than 1780 permanent residents inside and outside the city of Nerchinsk (the population statistic from 1792 to 2503 was [-].) 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 [-] 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 50 people, but they were beaten to death, and finally fled back with less than ten people.This frightened the local chief executive, so he ordered people to close the two city gates that were open regardless.

The sudden battle has been fought 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 had oriental faces, the Beihai Navy’s dress was different from that of the Qing army, which confused the local defenders.
The gunshots 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 Cathedral of the Assumption outside the castle, or hid in their homes and shivered.

Amidst the gunpowder smoke, a soldier of the Northern Navy rushed to the south gate of the fortress with an explosive package tied to a wooden frame, pressed the explosive package against the heavy city gate, and then pulled the fire tube on the fuse .

Different from the ones in film and television dramas, the real pull-type fuse needs to be equipped with a pull-fire tube.This thing is made of brass, and there is a pulling wire and pulling gunpowder inside.When the firing wire covered with glass powder is pulled, it rotates and rubs in the powder, causing the powder to ignite, and then ignites the fuse.

"boom!!!"

With a loud bang, the south gate of the Nerchinsk City Fortress was blasted open a big hole.The Russian soldiers hiding behind the fortifications near the city just got up from the ground and prepared to raise their guns to shoot, when the howling rain of bullets came from the gap in the city gate.Immediately afterwards, several North Navy grenades with wooden handles were also thrown in through the gap, and the successive explosions sent flesh and blood flying across the dozens of Russian soldiers who had no time to dodge.

"Quick! Block the door, they are going to rush in!"

It was a warrant officer who spoke, and following his orders, the people in the castle hurriedly pushed several wagons to the gate of the city, while others were busy stacking everything they could find around on the wagons.At this time, gunshots like popping beans sounded from the gap in the city gate, and the soldiers and prisoners who were pushing carts and carrying things were knocked down one after another, causing heavy casualties.

"Kill!"

A platoon of Northern Marines rushed in, followed by more Northern Marines.With bursting bean-like gunshots sounding quickly in the city, more than 20 minutes later, the defenders in the city finally gave up resistance, and this once the largest "prison fortress" in the upper reaches of Heilongjiang fell.

On the dock at the northeast corner of the castle fortress, a company commander of the Northern Navy reported to Liu Shenghui: "Commander, we have found more than 30 single-masted boats, but no large ships."

"Burn them all! Not a single one left!" Liu Sheng finished speaking, then turned to the guard and signal soldier beside him and said, "Notify all troops to board the ship and set off in two hours!"

After noon, when those who were hiding from the fire in the church found that the gunfire outside had subsided, some people climbed up the bell tower of the church to check.On the riverside wharf not far away, black smoke columns shot up into the sky. Below the smoke columns were dozens of burning fishing boats, and the crackling sound of burning wood was clearly audible.In the fortress to the north, whether it is the tall wooden tower or other buildings, there is billowing smoke.

The fortress of Nerchinsk fell, which made the residents outside the city even more frightened.In this era, the fall of a town often means the beginning of looting of civilians.

Even in later generations, except for one army in the world, almost all armies will collect food from the civilians in the occupied areas.Although every army brazenly says that it will pay the civilians or issue receipts, but during the war, any bill is a piece of waste paper, and the civilians are unwilling to distribute the food they store 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, it will often become empty talk as the war continues to deepen.

14-year-old Polia and her aunt hid in the cellar under the floor of their house after explosions sounded one after another from the castle.They didn't know what happened. Aunt Natalia guessed whether the prisoners in the prison had rioted.

Natalia patted the child in her arms, but looked anxiously at the entrance of the cellar; the loud explosion from the fortress scared the two-year-old child into tears.

Below them sat two sacks of rye, and a sack of potatoes and half a sack of beets, which were their rations through the winter.Uncle Igor left with the [-]st Transbaikal Battle Infantry Regiment, and has not returned for more than two months.The family without a strong labor force and only two women, one big and one young, lived a very difficult life. This little food was not enough for the three of them to survive this winter.

"Natalia! Polya! Are you home, dear?"

Hearing a familiar man's voice above their heads, the eyes of Polia and her aunt widened, and the two of them covered their mouths in disbelief, tears streaming down uncontrollably.

Polya got up and walked towards the entrance of the cellar, shouting loudly, "Uncle, is that you?"

The wooden boards pressing on the cellar were removed, and Igor's head was exposed. He looked at the tearful Polya and said eagerly: "I'm back! Thank God, are you all okay? I I went to the Church of Our Lady of the Ascension to look for you just now, where is our little Ivan?"

After the two women came out of the cellar, and the family was filled with grief and joy, Polya, who was standing aside, noticed that the clothes on her uncle's body were no longer the green uniform with red cuffs turned up, but a change of clothes. He was dressed in strange clothes mixed with spots, and his feet were no longer the original riding boots, but a pair of black shiny tight boots.

"Uncle, why did your clothes change?"

Natalia also looked at Igor and asked, "Honey, are you promoted?"

Igor wiped the tears on his face with his big hands, and said with mixed joy and sorrow: "No, I am helping the Chinese now. The good news is that we don't have to go hungry anymore, and there may be fifty acres of land in the future."

"Chinese?" The two women were stunned for a moment, and they didn't listen to the words that followed.

At this time, someone's voice suddenly came from outside the hut of Irgo's house, but neither Natalia nor Polia could understand it.

"Igor, what's the matter? Have you found your family?"

Igor hurriedly turned and opened the door, speaking to the people outside the house in a strange and jerky tone: "Yes! Огромноеспасибо, dear Fan!"

"Then pack up quickly, we're going to board the ship soon."

Finding the sound of the voice, Polya looked out of the house, and saw a fat man with a Tatar face and a clean face standing outside her yard, and behind him stood several others in the same outfit, The person carrying the "gun".

"Blonde girl?" Fan Tong saw Polia with red lips and white teeth, wearing a headscarf with a few strands of hair exposed, and the smile on his face deepened.

(End of this chapter)