I want to be emperor

Chapter 659 Thoroughly Solving the Trouble in the North
With the establishment of a province in Turpan, the remnants of the Jungar people fled westward in embarrassment, and the western frontier of the empire became more stable.

Under such circumstances, the high level of the empire naturally turned its attention to the northern region.

The north of the Great Chu Empire is not empty now, there are still some local uncivilized indigenous people and Russians.

Among them, the Russians are the greatest threat. They are now entrenched in the middle and lower reaches of the Lena River and the Yenisei River. In recent years, they have fought more frequently with the Chu army around the upper reaches of these two rivers and their tributaries. .

A few years ago, the Chu army tried to march from the upper reaches of the Lena River in an attempt to completely expel the local Russian colonists. However, due to supply difficulties, they were not suitable for fighting in the extremely cold northern regions. The most important thing was that the strategic center of gravity of the Great Chu Empire was also It was not placed in these bitter cold places in the north.

Therefore, it failed to capture Yakutsk, the core city of the Russians on the Lena River, and finally had to retreat due to supply problems and severe cold problems.

But although it failed to capture Yakutsk, it also severely damaged Russia's colonial system in the area east of Lake Baikal.

During the fighting that lasted for many years, the Chu army successively captured the northern part of Baikal, the city of Kiliansk in the upper reaches of the Lena River, and the northwest of Lake Baikal, Bratsk, which is located along the eastern tributary of the upper reaches of Yenisei. A city with a certain strategic position.

In addition, it also thwarted the attempts of the Russians to invade the Heilongjiang River Basin and the Pacific coast. In the past few years, these Russians ran all the way to the Pacific coast through some small river tributaries and some dry roads, which is the coast of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. settlements of...

Because there were no people in that broken place, the Great Chu Empire didn't notice it for a while. It was not until a year later when a small fleet of the Navy came here for navigation training that they discovered that there was an extra one in Nima. Russian port city.

Immediately afterwards, the Chu army mobilized its fleet and ground forces to directly land and fight, and killed more than 200 Russian colonists who stayed there.

Since then, the Great Chu Empire has prevented the Russians from running over to establish a colony, and began to take the initiative to establish a number of fortress ports in these coastal places, and sent troops to search and investigate.

But accidentally, I discovered that these Russians went to the northern coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula and built another coastal city. After inquiring, well, this broken colony has been around for more than half a year.

This disgusts the Great Chu Empire!
After destroying this coastal stronghold of the Russians without saying a word, the Great Chu Empire began to carefully consider a question, whether to restore the strategy of the early years, that is, to completely control the Lena River Basin, so as to prevent Russia from continuing to East penetration.

Nima, these Russians are not good at fighting, but they are always wicked. Moreover, Siberia is sparsely populated and the transportation is inconvenient. It will also make it difficult for the Chu army to discover the Russian colonial trends in time. Sometimes Russia establishes a It took a year or two for the colony to discover...

That would be disgusting.

If this continues, these Russians will be like mice, killing one but another one will emerge in a few days.

For this reason, the top leaders of the Great Chu Empire had to reconsider the Lena River strategy that failed a few years ago.

As long as a few Russian strongholds on the Lena River can be pulled out, and then replaced, and inland warships are dispatched to patrol, it will be enough to detect Russia's eastward advance attempt in time and then intercept it.

And after controlling the Lena River, it doesn't matter even if the opponent sneaks across the Lena River. Anyway, the small-scale Russians ran over, but the lack of follow-up organized and large-scale support and supplies will sooner or later be a dead word.

In addition, after taking the Lena River, the Great Chu Empire will be able to focus on the offensive in the Yenisei River Basin. Once the Yenisei River Basin is attacked, these Russians may not have the intention to continue eastward.

If all goes well, the Chu army will even be able to take the Yenisei River Basin in the future, and then connect this area with the Western Regions to the south.

And push the western border to the Ob River and its upper tributary, the Irtysh River Basin.

If this can be achieved, it will be of historic significance for the Central Plains Dynasty!
Because this means that it will be able to completely solve the border problem of the northern grassland that has plagued the Central Plains Dynasty for thousands of years.

Conquering the northern grasslands and defeating a number of nomadic peoples can't completely solve the problem of border troubles in the north. Otherwise, this problem would have been solved in the past thousands of years, especially during the Han and Tang Dynasties.

But no!
Because the Central Plains Dynasty did not completely rule the issue of the northern grasslands, so that the nomads in the north were like leeks. After one crop was cut, it would not take long for another crop to emerge.

And Luo Zhixue's idea is to directly emigrate to the above-mentioned places.

Relying on several major rivers, that is, Heilongjiang, Lena River, Yenisei River, Ob River-Irtysh River to carry out immigration and build cities, cultivate and farm.

Turn these places into the farming land of the Huaxia people in order to achieve complete actual control.

Implement administrative rule in combination with the fixed herding system to prevent the emergence of new uncontrolled large-scale nomadic tribes.

Finally, supplemented by military forces, the remnants of the tribes in the above-mentioned areas were suppressed and wiped out.
With such a complete system in place, Luo Zhixue feels that there is great hope for the Huaxia region to completely solve the problem of border troubles in the north.

Of course, Russia needs to be expelled before that!

After all, strictly speaking, the enemies of the Great Chu Empire in the north are no longer nomads, but Russians.

Now Zhungeer has been disabled by the Chu army, and can only retreat to the upper and middle reaches of Lake Balkhash and the Irtysh River. There are no more than 20 of its tribes, including men, women, old and children, and there is news that, After they moved westward, they competed with Kazakhstan for territory, and the two sides have already fought.

The threat of the Western Regions has been eliminated!

And Mobei Mongolia completely defected to the empire early on.

Under such circumstances, Luo Zhixue felt that the time was ripe.

In February of the 20th year of Chengshun, Luo Zhixue formally discussed the northern issue in the imperial military meeting held by Luo Zhixue.

In the meeting, after discussions among many courtiers, a new round of northern strategy was formally finalized.

This time the northern plan is different from being limited to the Lena River before, not only covering the Lena River Basin, but also the Yenisei River Basin.

The initial strategic goal is to fully expel all Russian barbarians in the area east of the Yenisei River Basin, and to resettle and build cities in the above-mentioned areas, in order to actually control the area east of the Yenisei River and make them an inseparable part of the empire. a part of.

In order to completely solve the problem of border troubles in the north.

If it can be done, there is no doubt that this will be the most magnificent chapter in the history of China.

Because from ancient times to the present, including later generations... There has never been any dynasty that can solve the northern problem from the root... Enemies have changed one after another, but the threat of the north has always existed and never disappeared!
Well, the Yuan Dynasty is not counted, they were originally a trouble in the north... but the trouble here is so fierce that it occupies the Central Plains... It has suddenly become the orthodox dynasty of the Central Plains in some people's minds!
What Luo Zhixue has to do is to completely solve the problem of border troubles in the north, and this is much more difficult than colonialism in Nanyang. It requires not only a strong military force, but also a strong national power as a guarantee.

Because it is useless to defeat the northern enemy for a while, it must be realistic and thoroughly control the vast northern region.

This will be a big issue that combines military and civilian affairs.

What is needed is not only the military's military victory, but also the cooperation of various administrative measures from the cabinet. Both are indispensable.

After the general strategic plan was finalized at the northern strategic meeting in February, the high-level officials of the Great Chu Empire also began to take action.

As the saying goes, the soldiers and horses go ahead without food and grass. Funds must be in place before such a large-scale northern strategy is launched.

The first batch of funds of 500 million Chu Yuan was prepared immediately, and this money was only the first fund, which was used as special war expenses to mobilize troops in advance, maintain logistics lines, and stockpile supplies for the early stage.

Regardless of the small number of troops participating in the war in the northern region, the cost is not small, especially the logistical expenses will be extremely huge!

Previously, the scale of battles in the northern region was not large. Most of the battles between the Chu army and the Russians in areas such as the Lena River were actually small and medium-scale battles involving hundreds of people, and thousands of people were killed.

So far, neither side has conducted even a single battle with more than 5000 troops!
This distance is too far, and the local climate and environment are very harsh. With the current transportation technology, it is very difficult to maintain the logistics supply of a large-scale troop thousands of kilometers away. If it is necessary to maintain a large-scale troop force, the cost will be It will be very scary.

This is true for the Chu army, and it is also true for the Russians.

In fact, the food and grass expenses of the local garrison are usually solved through reclamation and grazing on the spot. The goods transported to the rear are usually weapons, ammunition, clothing, tents and other materials. There is actually not much food and grass...

If food and grass have to be transported thousands of miles from the North China Plain, with the current transportation technology, we should stop fighting at all...just go home and farm.

However, if the Chu army wants to take the Lena River and the Yenisei River Basin, it will inevitably have to use more troops. If more troops are needed, the front-line reclamation and grazing will not be able to meet the needs of the army.

As for sending fewer troops, that's not enough... After all, there are actually quite a few Russians in the area.

After decades of continuous immigration, there are at least 10,000+ people in the Yenisei River Basin and the Edong area.

Except for a few of these immigrants who are in the army, the young and strong among the rest of the immigrants can also be armed. It is not good for offensive warfare, but it is still available for defensive warfare.

In this regard, overseas immigration in most countries is similar, and the young and strong immigrants who have emigrated can basically be used as militiamen.

The Great Chu Empire organized immigration to Malacca, and all young and strong immigrants will be organized into militias and issued with basic weapons... This is not just matchlock guns and cold weapons, but a lot of Decommissioned old two-year-style flintlock rifles were issued to these militiamen.

The purpose of distributing weapons to the militia is mainly to allow them to deal with the local aborigines, and secondly to assist the regular army in defensive operations when they are attacked by the enemy's regular army.

The Great Chu Empire did this, and the Russians were no exception...

In fact, the Russians who dared to emigrate to Siberia these years are the poorest poor who cannot survive.

They didn't want anything, or they came to Siberia with difficulty and snatched a piece of land and livelihood from the local indigenous people.

For land and livelihood, they really dare to risk their lives.

In addition, among the people who came to Siberia, there are still quite a few desperadoes who only have money in their eyes, not to mention these people, the typical example of money and life, such as those Cossack mercenaries.

The cavalry of the Chu army fought against them many times, and concluded that these barbarians are not easy to deal with... Although the weapons and equipment are not good, they are very brave, and they are especially good at fighting inland rivers.

Anecdotal knowledge, these days the most powerful Cossacks are not fighting on horseback, but are good at inland river warfare. The Russian dignitaries hired Cossacks to Siberia to serve as military forces, and they valued their inland river combat capabilities. As for cavalry combat capabilities, that was incidental!
Finally, the Russians can also get some local indigenous soldiers!

Because the Russians also controlled a large number of local indigenous populations and recruited soldiers from them.

The eastern expansion of the Russians is not the same as the overseas colonization of other countries. After defeating the local indigenous regime by force, they generally establish a ruling institution on the spot, rule and naturalize the local indigenous people... and treat the colonized indigenous people as outsiders in the same way as Britain and France Similarly, the Russians are adopting an assimilation policy, turning all the natives into their own people...

This is also the main reason why the Russians were able to expand from Europe to the Pacific coast in just a few decades. Their colonial policy is relatively loose and can be accepted by ordinary local indigenous people.

Of course, this is also because there are not many indigenous people in Siberia, and the total number is only a few hundred thousand. The Russians can assimilate... If the Russians go to India to colonize, they will face hundreds of millions The third buddy, probably doesn't have the guts to play with the assimilation policy.

It's like the Great Chu Empire didn't dare to play any kind of enlightenment in the few colonial strongholds in India... No one else, there are too many indigenous people in this poor place, and they are really assimilating, and they don't know who will assimilate whom.

Therefore, the Great Chu Empire did not engage in any enlightenment policy in its colonies in the Indian region. Basically, the garrison and the militia cooperated to gradually expel the aborigines piece by piece, and then immigrated from the country to cultivate them.

As for the puppet regions that are not directly under the overseas territories but controlled by the Great Chu Empire, they adopt a proxy colonial rule similar to that of the United Kingdom, focusing on plundering economic interests.

No matter what kind of overseas expansion policy, in the end, there will inevitably be a large number of people and indigenous troops.

If the Chu army attacked Russian immigrant settlements on a large scale, in addition to the Russian colonial army, the enemies they would face would be a large number of Russian militias and the native troops they recruited.

If the offensive force or firepower is insufficient, then it is very likely that you will not be able to get in!

The failure of the Chu army to attack the Russian stronghold on the Lena River before was because they underestimated the mobilization ability of the Russians, thinking that there were only one or two thousand enemy troops defending the city on the opposite side.

As a result, although their army was only one or two thousand, they were armed with thousands of militiamen... In the end, the Chu army was forced to withdraw because of too few troops and insufficient firepower.

If the northern strategy is launched this time, the Great Chu Empire Army will never make the same mistake as before!
They are now counting the enemy's military strength... not only the enemy's regular army, but also the young and strong, and even the population.

Just like they estimated the military strength of the Zhungeers before, they all estimated directly based on the opponent's population... because these nomads are playing all the people as soldiers.

The men of his clan are taller than wheels, and those who have not lost all their teeth can ride horses and fight with the Chu army...

Therefore, you will see the Zhungeer headquarters and the combined tribes. These nomadic tribes actually have a population of only a few 10, but the Chu army mobilized 20 troops to fight a Zhungeer!

Because you don’t think they have a population of only 10, but they are all soldiers, and there are at least 10,000+ people who take weapons to the battlefield.

This Chu army has fewer troops, and it is possible to overturn it!
This time, the Chu army treated these Russian colonists as nomads who were all soldiers. Regardless of the combat effectiveness of these colonists in their youth, they should be counted against the regular army first, and then their own side will always be prepared. That's right.

Doing so would cost a lot of money, of course!

It's not about how much direct military expenditure is. After all, no matter how many troops there are, it is estimated that tens of thousands of people will top the sky.

But in order to maintain the front-line army operations, it is almost necessary to establish a complete logistics supply route in the rear.

Then consider the resettlement of immigrants.

Then the entire northern strategy is no longer a purely military issue, but a comprehensive issue that combines military and immigration development.

That's why it costs so much money.

What the Great Chu Empire wants is not just to defeat Russia and recover large areas in the north in name, but to rule these places in real terms.

These two concepts are completely different, and the expenditure is also very different.

The first batch of 500 million Chu Yuan funds is just preliminary preparation funds. When the plan is really launched, tens of millions will definitely be invested in the next few years.

As the imperial center finalized the northern strategic plan, the war machine of the Great Chu Empire started again!
It's just that the early stage has nothing to do with the war, but it's all concentrated in the rear!
For example, in the north, a small arsenal was built in the 'City of Kur' (Irkutsk) on the banks of the Angara River, the upper branch of the Yenisei River, to produce ammunition, cold weapons, muskets, and even some simple weapons on the spot. artillery.

Although the output cannot be large, it can more or less replenish the frontline army on the spot.

After all, if all weapons and ammunition have to be transported from the rear, it is really far away, not to mention the cost, and it is extremely expensive.

Therefore, it is very cost-effective to directly establish a small arsenal locally and provide weapons and ammunition to the front-line army on the spot.

The Great Chu Empire did this when they were in the Western Regions. The Lanzhou Arsenal, the Jiayuguan Arsenal, and the Turpan Arsenal and Yili Arsenal, which have just started construction, are all very typical and purely for front-line operations. arsenal.

The purpose is to solve the problem that transporting weapons and ammunition from the rear is too far away and costs too much.

And if an arsenal is built on the site in the city of Chur, then weapons and ammunition can be directly supplied to the garrison in the Yenisei River Basin from the local area, and it can also be transported by land for a certain distance before entering the upper reaches of the Lena River, and then go down the river to deliver weapons. Ammunition was transported to the garrison in the Lena River valley.

Setting up an arsenal here can radiate more than half of the Siberia region nearby, and the strategic role it can play is very large.

Don’t worry about safety. This place was originally the most important fortress city of the Great Chu Empire in the (Little North Sea) Lake Baikal area, and also the most important reclamation area. It has more than 3000 troops and thousands of immigrants stationed all year round. .

It is also the seat of Xiaobeihai Prefecture.

The Little Beihai Mansion of the Great Chu Empire was also the former Beihai Mansion. However, since the Great Chu Empire officially called the Sea of ​​Japan the North Sea, Lake Baikal was renamed "Little Beihai", and by the way, it surrounded Lake Baikal The Beihai Mansion established in the area was also renamed Xiaobeihai Mansion.

The Xiaobeihai Mansion is directly under the jurisdiction of Mobei Province, and it is also a prefectural-level organization with the largest area under the jurisdiction of the Great Chu Empire...In its actual control area, the farthest from north to south reaches more than 200 kilometers...The east to west is the longest. The width reached more than 800 kilometers.

It includes the entire Little North Sea, that is, Lake Baikal, and its northern end extends to more than 600 kilometers from the northernmost end of Lake Baikal, and it also covers a large area in the southeast of Lake Baikal.

The total area is more than 70 square kilometers!

However, in the huge Little Beihai Mansion, there are not many ordinary people under its jurisdiction. The total sum is more than 2 people. This has to include the local administrative officials, which are not as many as the local garrison...

This is also impossible. The bitter cold north is difficult to attract domestic immigrants. Some of them are prisoners sentenced to exile organized by the government, and some are businessmen. Although the north is bitterly cold, fur resources are very rich. Many fur merchants will Run over to buy fur.

As time goes by, many people will naturally settle down in the local area.

The last part is all kinds of risk takers, speculators and so on.

A mess of people, together with administrative officials and their families, only made up more than 2 people.

This is not a unique situation in Xiaobeihai Prefecture. In fact, this situation is very common in the northern regions. People's senses of these places are not even good for the Western Regions.

Many people would rather emigrate to the Western Regions than emigrate to the north.

At any rate, there are still a few large oases in the Western Regions that can be used for normal reclamation, or they can be used as herdsmen or something.

But in the north... especially the northernmost Xiaobeihai mansion, several newly established mansions in the north of Heishuilong, it is really a bitter cold place.

This year, half of the year has been winter... and the temperature in winter is tens of degrees below zero at every turn.

Under normal circumstances, no one wants to run over and suffer.

Even if you can’t survive and want to immigrate, there are still a lot of places to choose from, not to mention overseas, not to mention some places in the south of China, even the northern Liaobei Province and the southern part of Heishuisheng are better than places like Xiaobeihai Province what!
The harsh natural environment has greatly affected the empire's immigrant settlements in the north, which has also caused the local ordinary population to fail to increase.

Strictly speaking, there are not as many immigrants from the Great Chu Empire in the north as there are from Russia... After all, there are a lot of people in Russia who can't survive and have nowhere to go, so they can only come to Siberia to beg for a living.

It would normally take a long time to increase the local population.

And what the top leaders of the Great Chu Empire have to do is to shorten this time!
By what to shorten?
What else can I rely on, throwing money at me!
As long as the money is in place and other supporting policies are done well, organizing a certain number of official immigrants will not be a big problem in the past.

(End of this chapter)