Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 488 The Battle of Usolye ([-])
Although the merchants of the five families have obtained a large share of the tea trade from the Beihai Town regime in the past two years, bringing in income as high as one million rubles, they will never be of one mind with Beihai Town.The most important contradiction among them is that their economic and political interests have been "violated".As for the issue of nationality and belief, it is just a tool that can be used at any time.

Two years ago, in view of the poor local handicraft and agricultural conditions in Irkutsk, Zhao Xin ordered the abolition of poll tax and all taxes unrelated to industrial and commercial product transactions.As a result, the main body of tax collection has naturally shifted from farmers and small citizens to businessmen—especially big businessmen.

At that time, no matter whether it was Kyakhta or Nerchinsk, the mutual market trade had been interrupted for several years, and the market was extremely sluggish. The five major families and other small and medium-sized merchants were already hungry for tea and rhubarb.Everyone is concerned about the large amount of tea and rhubarb provided by Zhao Xin. I will talk about the tax or not later.

Whether it is the East or the West these days, it is only natural for officials and businessmen to collude to pay less taxes.Although the five families do not have the privilege to intervene in city management for the time being, they feel that they can return to the new city council no matter what with the money offensive.However, after half a year, with the arrival of a large amount of tea and the newly promulgated tax regulations, the entire merchant group suddenly exploded.

To put it simply, the tax system of Beihai Town is based on the "Regulations on the Uniform Tax for Industry and Commerce" and the implementation rules promulgated in another time and space in the 50s, to levy taxes on 126 types of industrial project products, commercial retail, service industry and construction processing projects.Among them, the highest tax rate is externally imported tobacco, which is as high as 66%; the lowest tax rate is stamp duty, which is one thousandth of the contract value.

Since Beihai Town is a "public" economy dominated by Zhao Xin's personal capital, and all industrial projects and most of the commercial projects in Beihai Town belong to Zhao Xin's personal investment, so for Beihai Town, tax collection is actually left-handed and right-handed. thing.

In order to encourage farmers under the rule to actively sell grain, Beihai Town currently only sets a tax rate of 1.5% for trade in grain commodities, and a tax rate of only 3% for trade in agricultural, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery products.

But for the merchants in Irkutsk, the 5% commodity transaction tax imposed by Beihai Town not only moved the cheese on their plates, but also cut them severely.

Since Peter I carried out tax reforms in the early 95th century in order to solve financial difficulties, the poll tax has replaced the household tax.At the same time, since the rural population has always accounted for more than [-]% of the total national population, the poll tax paid by the "state peasants", "landlord peasants" and the citizen class has become the most important source of fiscal revenue for the Tsarist Russian Empire.

In the first half of the eighteenth century, the class of merchants was also included in the class of "citizens". They paid the same poll tax as ordinary residents, and the trade and handicraft industries they engaged in had to pay much more taxes than ordinary citizens to make up for those The undertaxed portion of the poor.

In the period of Catherine II, the queen carried out reforms in order to develop industry and commerce.The new tax system implemented between 1775 and 1785 divided urban residents into privileged first-, second-, and third-class merchants and non-privileged citizens. First-, second-, and third-class merchants were exempt from poll tax and military service.

The tax paid by merchants is directly related to the amount of their capital, that is, a direct tax is paid as a percentage of the capital amount.Members of the first class have the right to conduct foreign trade with a capital of not less than 10000 rubles; merchants of the second class have the right to trade in various parts of the country with a capital of not less than 5000 rubles; Trading activities within the scope of counties and cities with a capital of not less than 1000 rubles.As for those citizens whose capital is less than 1000 rubles, sorry, continue to pay poll tax, you!
Here comes the most interesting part, how did the Russian Empire determine the amount of merchant capital and the amount of tax they should pay?Hey, what people are doing is self-declaration.Everything is witnessed by God, and everyone is a good and law-abiding citizen under the Queen's rule.

In the matter of paying less taxes, there is no distinction between ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign, and it is useless for all the gods in the sky and the earth to stare wide-eyed.

All first-class businessmen, no matter how much property they have, declare their figures between 100 and 105; so their annual tax payment is 10 to 5 rubles, the second class is [-] rubles, and the third class is [-] rubles. Level is [-] rubles.

Notice!This tax is not only levied on the merchant himself, but on his family, including his parents, wife, children, brothers, and all relatives who have never separated; of course, their servants are also included.

Therefore, the five families that almost monopolize all commercial trade in Eastern Siberia, each of them only needs to pay 105 rubles a year.Isn't this poaching?
However, after the promulgation of the new regulations in Beihai Town, the five major families headed by Sibyakov and other third-level businessmen felt as if they had been hit with a heavy hammer on the head, and they were instantly stunned.No matter how much capital you have in Beihai Town, taxes will be collected according to the amount of commodity transactions.

In the past, no matter how many goods they bought and sold, they only paid 105 rubles in total; now, for tea alone, they have to pay tens of thousands of rubles a year; Silver mine project.

The various industries under Sibyakov's name alone were taxed more than 7.8 rubles last year.Moreover, Beihai Town does not accept banknotes from Her Majesty's rotten streets, only silver or gold coins.The silver content of a silver ruble is 780 grams, and one hundred thousand rubles is at least [-] kilograms of silver ingots.

Can this not be hated?His silver mine in Nerchinsk could not extract so much silver in a year.

In addition, Beihai Town also deprived merchants and priests of their privileges to participate in city management, suspended the city council, and prevented merchants from intervening in any newly established public facilities.At the same time, the new tax regulations also include that the church must pay taxes according to the area of ​​the land it owns.

Since then, not counting the new immigrants, Beihai Town has won a small amount of support among the original low-level farmers and small citizens, and the first, second, and third-tier merchants and priests, the big landlord class, have all stood on the opposite side.As far as they are concerned, if the rule of the Tsarist Russian Empire cannot be restored, their interests will suffer even greater "losses".

The problem is, Zhao Xin doesn't care about this!
It is imperative for Beihai Town to eradicate all the rule of Tsarist Russia in Eastern Siberia, and those unruly businessmen will have to leave sooner or later.If you want to stay on this land and earn money, you have to follow the rules of Beihai Town. The land, mountains, forests, lakes, and oceans must all be owned by the public.

Some people say, I am gold, I want to shine.

Zhao Xin said, the silver is mine, and the gold is also mine, you can flash it however you want!
On August 1790, 8, after 29 days of arduous trek, the Fourth Northern Navy Regiment led by Pan Xiucheng, under the leadership of the reconnaissance team, arrived at the settlement on the west bank of the Oka River along the virgin forest at the northern foot of the Sayan Mountains. Three kilometers south of Jima Village.

According to the early reconnaissance of the reconnaissance team and the information obtained before, there is a small village called Moldino two kilometers north of Zima Village, and there seems to be a mine nearby.The Russian army stationed here has only one cavalry squadron, which is responsible for guarding the bridges and ferries on the Oka River. At the same time, some supplies transported from Nizhny Uginsk are also stored here.

After connecting to the radio station, Pan Xiucheng followed Liu Sheng's order, and after a short half-day rest, he dispatched his two battalions in order not to let anyone go.

More than 1000 people from two infantry battalions launched an attack at one o'clock in the afternoon, and it took only 10 minutes to wipe out more than 100 Russian troops near the river bank.Then quickly headed north, and an hour later, the village of Mordino was also conquered, and no one escaped from the villagers to the miners.

Afterwards, Pan Xiucheng ordered his subordinates to bring all the mine workers and dozens of villagers from Mordino Village back to Jima, and put them under centralized custody in case anyone escaped and reported to Uginsk.

Zima is not far from Irkutsk, just over 200 kilometers away.The settlers here have long heard of the name of the Northern Navy, and some even went to Usoliya many times to buy salt and tea.After learning that as long as they didn't run away, they wouldn't be harmed, the hundred villagers who were still in shock had no choice but to calm down.

Then, Pan Xiucheng sent troops across the Oka River, destroyed several ferries on the opposite bank, confiscated all the ships, but did not destroy the bridge.

Liu Sheng said very clearly to Pan Xiucheng in the telegram that if you break the bridge, the Russian army will definitely not leave here. Along the hundreds of kilometers of the Oka River, a regiment of more than 2000 people will defend the bridge no matter what. Can't live.But if you want to keep the bridge, the enemy will feel that there is hope, and they will rush over desperately.

After studying the terrain, Pan Xiucheng decided to deploy most of his troops on the north and south wings of the bridge, in order to form crossfire against the enemy on the other side of the river.At this moment, he only asked the Russian army to escape slowly, so as to give him time to build fortifications.

At noon on August 8, the Russian army inside and outside Zaimka Fortress finally tasted the ruthless blow from the North Navy's long-range artillery fire.The multi-faceted star-shaped fortress that had been built with the efforts of countless people was destroyed one by one by 29 high-explosive bombs, and it turned into a masonry ruin two hours later.The Russian infantry and cavalry, who were responsible for launching field battles outside the castle, were also devastated by the Beihai Third Regiment, Sixth Regiment, Second Cavalry Battalion and Ainu Battalion.

The tens of thousands of Russian troops who fled from Zaimka were divided into two groups. One group fled northward to the Brat Castle at the confluence of the Angara River and the Oka River, while the other group retreated westward to the Cheremhovo, 17 kilometers away, joined the large Russian army stranded here for rest.

Rumyantsev, commander-in-chief of the Russian army, had already retreated to the village of Kutulik, 29 kilometers away from Cheremhovo. After a hasty lunch, he led his staff to deploy the next retreat.As the commander in chief, he should not only lead the soldiers to attack, but also organize the troops to withdraw from the battle and bring them home when the situation is unfavorable.

Rumyantsev had already received news from his scouts that might have plunged his army into an even more desperate situation.Scouts report: Thousands of "armies" of Tatars have arrived in the village of Mikhailovka, accompanied by more than 20 big green box monsters, which travel faster than horses, and can Running for tens of versts is really infiltrating.In addition, the enemy also dispatched hundreds of cavalry.

According to what the scout said, the enemy might want to cut off his line of communication and surround his exhausted [-] troops.If such an idea had arisen before yesterday, Rumyantsev would have found it ridiculous.Thousands of troops want to surround tens of thousands of people, and no one will believe it.But today's battle made him understand that there are really people in this world who dare to use thousands of elite infantry to fight tens of thousands of people in a battle of annihilation.

Rumyantsev thought about it for a long time, and he decided to use layers of blocking methods to withdraw the troops across the Oka River first.

At four o'clock in the afternoon, on the road from Cheremhovo to the village of Kutulik, the exhausted [-] Russian troops began to retreat.The endless and chaotic queues, artillery, carriages, and all kinds of baggage vehicles formed a long queue, and the rear vehicles chased the front vehicles, forming three or four rows, blocking the not-so-spacious road.As far as I could hear, there was the rattle of wheels, the rumble of gun carriages, the clatter of horses' hooves, the clatter of whips, the yelling of horses, and the cursing of soldiers, orderlies, and officers.

Hundreds of wounded were huddled on top of artillery carts and baggage wagons, crying helplessly, or staring blankly at the road below them; The carriage fell out of the carriage, and then fell into the soil under the car body along the gap between the planks.

From time to time, skinned dead horses could be seen on both sides of the road, those broken carriages were pushed beside the road, and some skirmishers were sitting on the side of the road waiting for something.On the way up and down the slope, the crowd seemed more dense, and people kept shouting and neighing.The soldiers were lifting the heavy cannon body, or pushing the wheels of the cannon cart vigorously, the whips were constantly whipping, and the noose was about to burst, and everyone was screaming desperately.The officers in charge ran back and forth in the convoy sometimes, their voices could be faintly heard amidst the noise of the crowd, and they had completely lost control of the chaotic situation.

After dark, when the rear of the Russian army retreated from the village of Cheremhovo, puffs of smoke rose from the village.Soon, the houses in the village were engulfed in flames.And those previously abandoned carriage frames were simply disassembled, and countless felled tree trunks were piled up on the road. The wood splashed with whale oil soon caught fire. When the fire was blown up by the wind, it spread quickly. When it opened, the flying dry grass and branches and leaves were swept into the air by the northwest wind, and then ignited the weeds in the wilderness, and swept away towards the southeast.

At this moment, in the village of Mikhailovka, more than 20 kilometers away, the two infantry regiments, two artillery regiments and one cavalry battalion of the Northern Navy have all arrived.

Zhao Xin's previous plan was to rest overnight and start the pursuit at dawn the next day.However, when he heard the scouts report that the Russian army had set off a fire to block the road, he hurried out of the house, pressed his tongue and tried his finger in the air, his expression changed immediately.

"Order everyone, immediately clear a 100-meter-wide ring-shaped fire belt around the camp! Prepare a lot of water, and you must be quick!"

(End of this chapter)