Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 375 The Fall of the City of Merchants

On September 1788, 9, as soon as the people in the Irkutsk City Council learned that Upper Henyudinsk had been captured, 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 North Navy fleet's motors, and the citizens of Irkutsk who didn't know it soon discovered this strange fleet, and they gathered on the river bank to watch.The Northern Navy patrol boat in charge of clearing the way saw a sloop with a double-headed eagle flag sailing out of the pier and coming towards him, so he asked Zhao Xin how to deal with it.

"Fire! Sink it!"

With the deafening "bang bang bang" sound, the Irkutsk citizens watching watched three soldiers and an officer on the sailboat burst open like a smashed watermelon, and their limbs were broken It fell into the river with a rain of blood, and then a fire ignited on the wooden boat.

It has been more than 120 years since the city developed from a winter cottage and has never been invaded by foreign enemies.They seem to have forgotten that in the spring, troops and fleets set out from here to attack China; later, when Suvorov issued a conscription order, some people enthusiastically signed up, expecting to go to China to get a vote.

Now the Chinese revenge is coming!

Under the blockade of the .50 heavy machine gun on the patrol boat, it was difficult for the local defenders who rushed to fight close to the pier. Even if someone wanted to move the cannon, it was too late.

As the North Navy began to land, the 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 the grenades, and usually they could only wag their tails and beg for food. The cats and dogs with windfalls in their mouths disappeared from sight in a blink of an eye.The Cossack soldiers who came one after another from the castle were either pierced by bullets, or died in the explosion of the grenade.

As the bells of the churches in the city rang rapidly, those Irkutsk residents who did not have strong mansions had no time to pack up their belongings and ran into the Kremlin to take refuge.

The local Kremlin is a fortress of wood and stone. Except for a brick and stone structure of the Church of the Savior, the rest are wooden buildings.Fortunately, the outer wall is a mix of masonry and stone, which is already a little dilapidated.

Viewed in plan, the Kremlin in Irkutsk is a square with a side length of 130 meters and a wall height of 7 meters.There are eight towers; three adjacent to the Angara River, 3 meters high, three on the side of the mountain, 20 meters high, and one in the center of the east and west walls.

In fact, the fortress would have had little military significance had it not been for the sudden onslaught of the Northern Navy; a fire almost completely destroyed the city center 13 years ago, and the local city council had decided to tear it down.All the administrative buildings, the customs house, the barracks and the powder magazine are outside the castle.

When those wealthy businessmen and city councilors heard the news of the foreign invasion, they all ran to the three-story solid building made of white stones on the bank of the Angara River to take shelter.This is the local administrative building. In another time and space, it has been preserved until modern times. It is called the "White House" of Irkutsk.

Zhao Xin was not in a hurry to attack the city. His intentions would be discussed after exhausting Irkutsk's resistance.So the Beihai Navy spent all their time building fortifications in the open space next to the fish market, waiting for armed resistance to be organized in the city.

"Mikhailovich, what shall we do?"

Facing the inquiry from Councilor Basinin, Mayor Sibilyakov asked an officer who ran back from the fish market: "Major Gregory, how many of them are there?"

The major replied: "Your Excellency, the enemy only has a few hundred people, but their weapons are too powerful. We can't get close at all, and there will be heavy casualties."

"Shoot them back!"

"Destroy them!"

Sibilyakov slapped the table and said loudly, "They ruined my fish market! Immediately call all the grown men in the city and open the gunpowder magazine! I want them to try it out!"

The reason why this person can be the mayor is that apart from being rich, he has a strong fist, and no one in the city dares to mess with him.His favorite thing to do on weekdays is to ride around the city in a carriage. As long as he notices a dispute or other disturbance in someone's house, Sibiryakov will immediately jump out of the carriage, rush in and kill him. The guy with a hammer beat until the other party bowed his head and admitted his mistake.

At this time, the bishop of the Church of the Savior came to dissuade: "Your Excellency, we should send someone to talk to those robbers and find out what they want. After all, we don't even know who they are and where they come from." I don't know yet!"

Sibilyakov nodded and said, "You're right, so how about you, my lord bishop, be in charge of communicating with those people?"

At this moment, Basning, a wealthy local businessman and member of parliament, said, "I am willing to accompany the Bishop."

Major Gregory said: "I'll go too, just to know the opponent's strength."

Two hours later, the three of them returned to the administrative building with earthy faces, and the news they sent back surprised everyone at home.

"What? You said they were Chinese?"

"My God, God bless! His Excellency the Governor was also captured by them?"

"Yes, Earl Jacobi also had a hand chopped off by them."

"These devils!"

"How much ransom fee do they want?"

Basning poured himself a glass of wine and drank it down, and then continued: "Gentlemen, the Chinese are not only here for revenge, they are here to occupy this place and turn this place into their land!"

What? !Everyone in the room was stunned.occupied?In the future, each of us will be bald like the people of the Qing Dynasty, with a mouse tail on the back of our head?

Chinese people do not believe in Christ, what will happen to our churches in the future?Change Lama Temple?God, this is too bad!

Seeing that the house became as noisy as a vegetable market, the mayor Sibilyakov slammed his big fist on the table several times and shouted: "Shut up! Listen to him! Who If you continue to quarrel, I will let him get out!"

Basning showed a puzzled look at this time, and said to the crowd: "Major Gregory's judgment is correct. There are indeed not many Chinese coming. However, we observed their soldiers carefully, and none of them wore braids. , but a short haircut."

The bishop added at this time: "They say they are from Seres, descendants of the Ming Empire 200 years ago."

Representative Dudorovsky who was present suddenly said: "Your Excellency, what are you talking about? What Siris, from the Ming Empire?"

The bishop quickly explained: "Gentlemen, Siris is Latin, and it was the name of that country in ancient Rome."

Hi, isn't that still China!
The congressmen present may not look like they are all rich and wealthy businessmen, but these guys have all fought their fortunes under the cruel natural conditions of East Siberia.Don't look at all the people who wear all the clothes pretending to be nobles. If you really want to say that you don't have much knowledge, you are very good at killing and arson.

Sibilyakov sneered at this time: "Who cares about Siris or pigtail, this is our city! Hundreds of people want us to surrender, what a joke!"

"That's right! Kill those Chinese!"

"That's right, let Her Majesty see, we people are not only good at paying taxes, we can also defend the city!"

"But Mikhailovitch, they even give Suvorov."

Sibilyakov interrupted Basinin, and said with a serious face: "Basinin, you let the Chinese deceive you! Who is Suvorov? An invincible general! Even the Turks won How could such a genius be captured by the Chinese?"

The mayor's words were echoed by most people in the room, and those people expressed their desire to fight the Chinese and kill them all.

The next step is simple, there are people from each family, and they are able to contribute.Hundreds of local Cossack garrisons and militiamen formed a team of 2000 people, led by Major Gregory.

Then, there is no then!
It is said that if the infantry does not line up in battle these days, they will not fight at all.So when the 2000 people in Irkutsk lined up in an untidy queue and came aggressively to the North Navy position, they were soon baptized by the hail of bullets.

Within 10 minutes of the exchange of fire between the two sides, the Irkutsk defenders lost hundreds of people.Facing the "overwhelming" artillery fire from the Chinese, many Minyong who had never fought before were terrified, turned around and fled back to the Kremlin castle.

Late that night, the Russians organized another surprise attack.However, Zhao Xin had been prepared for a long time, and the 18-bead LED glare flashlight that once showed his prowess in the outer seas of Guangzhou came in handy again.Facing the bright lights from the northern naval fortifications, half of Irkutsk was illuminated like daylight, and the Russians who attacked were almost blinded.Immediately afterwards, the muzzles of hundreds of black holes began to eject dense bullets, wantonly harvesting the lives of the attackers.

When the terrified attackers fled back to the castle, they found that they had lost two-thirds of their manpower. No matter what the gentlemen promised, no one left.

This is not a war, it is simply a massacre!There is no chance to fight the enemy desperately, those Chinese are a group of devils!
In fact, the more frightening thing is yet to come.

Beginning on September 9, the Northern Navy set up artillery positions behind the fortifications, using a "cannon group" consisting of two D28 and ten 30 mortars to bombard the Kremlin, barracks, customs and other vital points.

Six towers of the Kremlin fortress were blown down, and the remaining two were crumbling; In the air at a height of [-] meters; hundreds of shops and houses were reduced to ashes in the artillery fire, and thousands of people were left homeless.

War, that's all.Tsarist Russia can go to the coast of Heilongjiang to burn, kill and loot, and the Chinese can also let the flames of war ignite their homes.

On September 9th, after two consecutive days of saturated bombardment, Mayor Siberiakov and a group of MPs who supported the resistance saw that the scarred city had become shattered, and years of hard work were about to be destroyed. Once, the white flag was finally raised, agreeing to surrender unconditionally.

Under the complex eyes of all the city councilors and the local bishop, Zhao Xin squeezed 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 Into the mouth, and then nodded.

Seeing that the Chinese lord on the opposite side had accepted his surrender, the hanging hearts of the businessmen were finally relieved.

"One connects to the customs building, the second connects to the barracks and the gunpowder depot, and the third connects to the Kremlin. The guard company will follow me into the Sibilyakov Palace!"

Following Zhao Xin's order, various departments of the Beihai Navy launched operations separately.Since the city council had notified in advance, thousands of local residents were ordered to return home and not to go out. Those whose houses had been destroyed by the war could only temporarily live in the church.From cracks in doors and windows they watched as bands of heavily armed and helmeted Orientals ran through the streets and began to take over the city.

It's going to change!Many people think so.But what they are most worried about is what will happen to the city after the Chinese come.Will you drive people like yourself away?If you leave, where can you go?
When Zhao Xin led the guard company and came down to the gate of the White House led by a group of congressmen and businessmen, seeing the blackened outer wall and the big crater blasted by the shells, he felt very happy!
During subsequent meetings with local officials in Irkutsk, Zhao Xin accidentally discovered a customs official named Peter Markovich Rodionov.This person had lived in Beijing for 11 years with the Sixth Orthodox Missionary Mission, and was sent by the Tsarist Russian Foreign Affairs Committee three years ago to take charge of the local trade work.However, since Ivan Jacobi had no intention of resuming the Kyakta trade, he had to stay at the customs to do some paperwork.

Although Markovich has been away from China for many years, he still has not forgotten all his spoken English.After exchanges of sincerity and friendship plus coercion and lure, Zhao Xin learned that although the local area belongs to the area directly managed by the tsar, it has actually been controlled by merchants for a long time.

From 1762, when Catherine II abolished the official monopoly on fur exports, Siberiakov, Milinkov, Basinin, Dudorovsky, Suledovs These five major families controlled various trades in Irkutsk.In addition to participating in the trade of Kyakta, they also monopolized the production and supply of wine, salt, and bread, as well as mineral transactions in Eastern Siberia.

The number of people engaged in business in Irkutsk accounted for 52% of the total population, and the rest were artisans, clerks and hired workers.In addition, there were many exiled serfs from the Yenisei Province growing grain, hops and sugar beets on the outskirts of the city.

The city council, composed of the five major merchant families and other medium-sized merchants, has become the dominant force in the city's social life, and even Ivan Jacobi can't get involved.These people not only obtained huge commercial benefits through collusion between officials and businessmen, but also exploited the civilians who were exiled here.

The tentacles of the five major business families spread all over the city. Churches, shelters, hospitals, schools, theaters and libraries, and even many streets in the city are named after them.

It is said that with the Agricultural Products Fair held in 1768, Irkutsk became the main commodity distribution center in the entire Eastern Siberia region.As of 1787, the turnover of goods reached 370 million rubles, accounting for almost 6% of the turnover of all Russian goods trade.It can be regarded as the distribution center of Eastern and Western trade in Tsarist Russia, and you can even buy wine and luxury goods from France locally.However, with the suspension of the Kyakta trade three years ago, the trade impact on tea, silk, fur and rhubarb was extremely severe.

After listening to Markovich's introduction, Zhao Xin couldn't help but think of a certain nation.So when he asked Peter, sure enough, three of the five major families were Jewish.

Zhao Xin first appointed Peter Markovich Rodionov as the local liaison officer of the Northern Navy, who was responsible for drafting the Northern Navy's decree in Russian and conveying it among the local residents.

Although Markovich tried his best to refuse, but after Zhao Xin expressed his disapproval and exiled his family to the lower reaches of Heilongjiang, the cowardly civil servant who called Zhao Xin a "devil" had no choice but to express his willingness to serve.

Afterwards, Zhao Xin ordered Markovich to find the heads of the five major families, including the mayor Siberiakov, and he dispelled half of the hatred of these people with just one sentence.

"I have a huge supply of silk, rhubarb and tea, which one of you wants?"

Fools don't want it!The five families were silent for a moment, and Mayor Siberiakov said, "What tea?"

Hehe, this is really an expert!

(End of this chapter)