Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 421 Tsarist Russia’s Eastern Invasion
"Fall! Throw! Throw him hard!"

"Wuhan! Can you do it! If you can't, get out!"

"I bet on three goats, if you lose, don't even think about going to my house to buy goat milk!"

"Fall! Don't act like a woman!"

At the same time, when Li Dingguo was looking for relatives, Nuergan, more than 4000 miles away from the capital, was holding a lively wrestling meeting.

Compared with four years ago, Nuergan is more prosperous.

Sitting on a throne similar to an arena, Guo Sangdai watched the scene under his feet with great interest.

At this moment, although he was wearing Daming's round neck robe inside, he was wearing the brown bear fur presented by Beishan Jurchen outside.

Putting on that fur, he looked a lot bigger, very burly.

He combed his hair into the Beishan Jurchen's braid, and did not shave it, and the beard on his chin added a lot of majesty.

After four years, he successfully built a city in this icy and snowy Beishan through the supplies from Liaodong and Jingcheng, and took over many tribal cities of Beishan Jurchen, leaving only five more important cities, and Order people to strengthen.

These five cities have only soldiers and horses stationed there, and no residents, and all the residents have moved to Nuergan City.

In Nuergan City right now, a total of 34 Beishan Jurchens have gathered. Some of them are the later generations of Hezhen, some are Ewenki, and some are Oroqen and Feiyaka.

Not only that, but some Siberian Chukchi, Yukagir and Eskimos formed Chukchi also existed.

The reason why they gathered together was, to put it bluntly, because of two things...food and warmth.

Guo Sangdai assured everyone that as long as one person from each family joined the army, he would give the family ten shimi, two sheep, two pigs, and ten chickens and ducks.

Because of his promise, even the deer and dog tribes in East Siberia and Central Siberia have all moved south, not to mention the tribes and guards living in the outer northeastern region.

After they got together, Guo Sangdai gathered more than 5 soldiers and horses, and this is enough to see that there are actually more Jurchens in Beishan than in the south.

It was only due to geography and climate that they could not gather together and form a powerful force.

Otherwise, what the late Ming would have to face would not be Nurhachi, but a more powerful fishing and hunting country.

The current Beishan Jurchen is very powerful. Although Nuergancheng has a freezing period of up to seven and a half months, it can still grow some crops such as potatoes and sorghum in four and a half months.

However, even if the potato with a yield of four shi per mu came to this land, it would only produce one stone, two or three buckets of rice per mu, and the yield of sorghum was only a pitiful four bucket of rice per mu, with an output of less than [-] catties. Behind the shell, there is only less than fifty catties of millet.

In such a harsh environment, even with Daming's support, Guo Sangdai only reclaimed more than [-] mu of cultivated land in four years.

Even if these arable lands are planted with potatoes, they can only produce less than 50 shi of food.

Even if it is based on one catty a day, they can only eat for two hundred days at most, and there are not many local livestock. Even if they eat all of them, they will not survive the winter.

It can be seen from this that in this era, Beishan can't gather too many people without external help, even a city of [-] people can't do it.

They can only survive through hunting if they are dispersed in this vast area by thousands or hundreds of tribes.

But practically speaking, who wants to climb ice and lie on snow if they have hot rice to eat?
Therefore, Nuergancheng with sufficient food will become the "paradise" that Beishan Jurchens yearn for.

Ten stones of rice is the basis for survival, and two sheep, two pigs, and ten chickens and ducks are the guarantee for this family to have a little extravagant meal in their lives.

The thawing period of four and a half months is the time when the chickens and ducks reproduce at the fastest rate. After these four and a half months, they can harvest sixty or seventy young chicks.

After being raised well, they can basically eat a chicken meal every six or seven days in winter, and they can eat a piglet and a lamb in a winter.

Of course, if you want to eat better, you can go out for dozens of miles and hunt on ice and snow.

Hunting, which used to be a survival, has become a pastime for Beishan Jurchens.

As for warmth, although there are many trees in Beishan, in the past, it was very difficult to store enough wood to survive the long winter of seven and a half months.

In the Beishan area where the temperature can reach minus [-] degrees during the coldest winter season, the stove in the house cannot be stopped for twelve hours, and stopping means death.

This continuously burning stove burns at least 130 to [-] catties a day, which is [-] to [-] catties of firewood a year, and the time to collect firewood for them is less than [-] days.

This means that they have to prepare at least [-] catties of firewood every day, and build a pile of firewood to dry naturally.

Two hundred catties of firewood is not much, and even a teenager can collect it quickly, but for a fishing and hunting nation like theirs, a child is also a labor force.

If this child goes hunting, he can hunt at least thousands of catties of meat that year, and the same goes for fishing.

Therefore, the cold winter is an insurmountable existence for Beishan Jurchens.

It's just that this insurmountable existence disappeared after Guo Sangdai's arrival.

Guo Sangdai will distribute [-] catties of briquettes to each household before the arrival of winter.

Although some people died due to improper operation in the first winter, after Guo Sangdai led people to build fire walls, heated kangs and canals, and began to use individual heating methods, this situation basically disappeared.

Three thousand catties of briquette is not much, but after sufficient food, each family can spend several days to store thousands of catties of firewood.

These firewood plus briquettes are enough for them to survive the cold winter.

These various changes are enough to show how much their quality of life has improved.

Therefore, the Beishan Jurchens who lived in Nuergancheng respected Guo Sangdai very much, but at the same time they also knew that it was actually Daming who had been funding them.

Beishan Jurchens are not fools, and the dozen or so large ships that come almost every ten days have been transporting grain, iron and armor, as well as some distributed livestock and briquettes.

Although those ships did not carry the flag of Ming Dynasty, only Da Ming could build ships of that size.

Backwardness does not necessarily mean honesty, but as long as there is a head, no one will be willing to collude with the enemy and betray the country.

The Beishan Jurchens hated the Jianzhou Jurchens in the south. This was a family feud, and Guo Sangdai's distribution of food and livestock was a favor.

No one is willing to give up the favor that is about to be obtained, and exchange information for wealth that may not be obtained.

In addition, Guo Sangdai's distribution of food is basically based on eight buckets a month. This amount of food is not enough for a family to go south and walk nearly a thousand miles to find Jianzhou Jurchen.

This series of means is the premise that the secrets of Guo Sangdai and Nuer Gancheng have not been exposed.

To put it simply, everyone has a goal. Every year, the Nuergan Jurchens will increase their cultivated land by half an acre. Many people think that as long as they can persist for 20 years, they can grow grains to support themselves, and raise many livestock in captivity. A life of meat-eating.

All people are actually the same, only classes are evil.

If Nurhachi and the nobles of the Jin Kingdom didn't want to rebel, they could live a more comfortable life in the feudal era, but they chose to rebel.

Guo Sangdai didn't have that much ambition, because he knew that his lifeblood was in Daming's hands.

True, Nuergan may be self-sufficient in 20 years, but 20 years is too long.

In Guo Sangdai's view, the survival of Jiannu is in the past few years, and after the demise of Jiannu, as long as the court thinks, the court will soon be able to repair the city guards all the way along the Heishui River (Heilongjiang) and go northward to put the slaves in prison Keep it under control.

Besides, Guo Sangdai is not blind, he is a member of Jinyiwei after all, and in order to prevent him from rebelling, Lu Wenzhao would often signal Li Ruolian to release some news about Daming Technology.

In Guo Sangdai's place, the only thing he knows so far is the existence of horse-drawn carriages.

The horse-drawn carriage can transport supplies from Beizhili to Nuergan across four thousand miles in three months, which is already jaw-dropping.

In addition, there is the Beidao Prefecture which is close at hand.

When the time entered June, Yang Wenyue sent people from Beidao Prefecture to Kuwu (Sakhalin Island), and after greeting the local tribes, he appointed them as officials to manage the [-] labor camps who had been relocated to Kuwu. work.

These reform-through-labour labor unions cultivated land and built houses for the local Kuwu people, and the local Kuwu people were only a few thousand. Naturally, they dared not disrespect the more than 1000 Ming troops with [-] reform-through-labor laborers.

Kuwu was taken down, and with Yang Wenyue's means, it is estimated that thousands of troops could be stationed there in three years.

What do thousands of Ming troops represent?Guo Sangdai knows better than anyone else.

As long as he dared to think about what he shouldn't, the Liaodong Ming army would go north in an instant, and the Kuwu Ming army would come across the sea in an instant.

With internal and external attacks, he would be wiped out in just a few months.

There is no chance of rebellion, and there is no possibility of separatism after the rebellion. This is the reason why he, Guo Sangdai, is desperately loyal to Daming.

Guo Sangdai didn't have any intention of separatist regimes, so Guo Sangdai didn't need to put too much pressure on himself. Therefore, after getting the armor sent from the south and distributing the armor to his soldiers and horses, let them guard the main road where Jianlu might flee north. Guo Sangdai relaxed.

The Beishan Jurchens were actually the Sauron soldiers that Kang, Yong, and Qian dynasties in the Qing Dynasty liked to use very much. Although they were not well equipped, their individual soldier capabilities were not bad. .

Therefore, after Guo Sangdai used the training methods of the Ming army, they actually reached the level of a world-class army.

From this, we can see how badly the Eight Banners of the Kang, Yong, and Qian dynasties were corroded.

A Min with a few thousand Jianzhou Jurchens can sweep three 10,000+ Beishan Jurchens, and such Beishan Jurchens actually became the top combat power in the Kang, Yong, and Qian Dynasties.

I am afraid that Nurhachi and Huang Taiji know that Nengqi has a cerebral hemorrhage...

"General..."

Just when Guo Sangdai was thinking about the more than 3 Beishan Jurchen soldiers and horses he had placed in the south, a naturalized Jurchen soldier who had been trained with him to become a Jinyiwei walked up to him and bowed his head and said:

"There is news from the south, related to Jianlu..."

Gaotai told the news one by one from the visitors from Shangjing, and Guo Sangdai frowned slightly when he heard the words:

"You must tell His Highness about this matter immediately. When will the next sea ship go north?"

"Tomorrow." Gaotai replied without hesitation, while Guo Sangdai nodded slightly:

"Then bring the news to them and let them go south to tell Jingcheng what happened, and Jingcheng will convey it to His Highness."

"Yes..." Gao Tai responded, and Guo Sangdai turned his attention to the duel on the wrestling ring.

It's just that in the next second he realized that the person next to him hadn't left yet, so he looked sideways at the Gaotai next to him with doubts: "Is there anything else?"

"Yeah!" Gaotai showed a serious face, and after thinking about what to say, he opened his mouth and said:

"The deer department in the north found traces of people when they were nomadic in the upper reaches of the Lena River. After investigating, they saw a group of people with wide and short heads, broad faces, high and big noses, and light yellow and wavy hair. It's European."

"European?" Guo Sangdai was taken aback for a moment, then frowned and said:
"This group of people came from the west. Didn't they travel tens of thousands of miles? How many people are there?"

"According to the words of keeping the Lubu behind, there should be only 40 to [-] people, but they think this is just a butang for exploring the way, so they want to ask the general to send troops to support." Gaotai expressed his idea of ​​keeping the Lubu behind, while Guo Sangdai frowned. frown.

In fact, most of the Beishan Jurchens have come to Nuergan except for the Beishan Jurchens who are too far away.

If it weren't for Zhu Youjian's order to ask Guo Sangdai to arrange some people to stay in the north, he might not have let the people from the Lu Department stay there.

At present, Ming Dynasty's defense in East Siberia is even more empty than in history. In history, there were at least tens of thousands of Beishan Jurchens scattered here, but right now there are only seven to eight thousand people.

Guo Sangdai arranged for 200 people from the Lu Department to stay behind along the Lena River, and set up ten stone castles, each with 120 people.

These 120 people are basically wearing Ming cloth face armor, holding some bird guns and short soldiers that were eliminated by the Ming army.

They were not the only ones, the Beishan Jurchen soldiers basically had seven or eight hundred bird guns in each battalion, which was quite a number overall.

In order to hide from being discovered by the Jianlu, they basically do not go out of the stone fortress and the city. On daily patrols at the top of the city, they will also wear animal skins on the outside of the cloth mask, so that people cannot see it and feel very primitive.

Compared with the south side, the north side is much bolder, and the armor of the Ming army can be exposed.

However, since the armor of the navy and the infantry are different, Guo Sangdai is not sure whether the group of Europeans recognize Ming's armor and flag.

Moreover, according to the description of the deer department, this group of people is not like the Anelia, Franz, Francie and other countries that Daming had contacted with.

If it is true what the Shilubu said, those dozens of people are Butang, and there should be thousands of people in the follow-up, which is a bit of a threat to His Majesty's decree and mission.

"Send a battalion of soldiers and horses from Nuergan to garrison each fort, and let people go to the west of the Lena River to find out what these Europeans mean, tell them that the east of the Lena River is my territory, and tell them not to be presumptuous. .”

"Yes... Gaotai agreed, then turned around and mobilized troops according to Guo Sangdai's words.

There are four battalions of soldiers and horses in Nuergan City, more than 1 people.

Gaotai mobilized a battalion of soldiers and horses, and after they received the order to mobilize, they started preparing big and small bags.

Nu'er didn't have many horses, only [-] rough horses, all of which were transported from Jingcheng. Therefore, in terms of material mobilization, except for summer, the locals used sleds most of the time.

It is summer now, and although there is a shortage of horses, the people in the deer department have domesticated more than 2000 reindeer. These reindeer are their partners no matter in winter or summer, and they can pull a cart weighing more than 500 kilograms when fully loaded.

Gaotai brought a thousand reindeer from the deer stables, put them on a cart, and led people to bring bags of grain from the warehouse.

Each reindeer can pull four stone meters, as well as sleigh carts and soldier's armor.

"Four thousand shi rice is enough for us and our local brothers to eat for two months."

After the truck was fully loaded, the general of the Ming army who was about to lead his troops northward patted the food with a smile.

He is one of Jin Yiwei's naturalized Jurchen, and after he finished speaking, Gaotai next to him also took the opportunity to say:
"It's about two thousand miles from here to the stone fort at the northernmost end of the Lena River. It is estimated that the food will only last for a month at most when we go to the north."

"You have people transport the food to the northernmost stone fort, and tomorrow I will arrange 300 people to bring a thousand deer carts northward, and try to make each stone fort have a month and a half of grain storage."

"Okay!" General Shen nodded with a smile, then looked around again, and sighed:
"It's bitterly cold in the north of Beishan, so I don't know why His Highness wants to guard it."

The general was a little discouraged, but Gaotai patted him on the shoulder: "Your Highness should have his reason for letting him guard, you and I just do what His Highness said."

"You don't have to worry about food. There are still [-] sled dogs in the city. When the snow season comes, these [-] sled dogs can pull [-] shi meters north."

"They run fast, and it only takes more than 30 days to go back and forth. With the reindeer, we can guarantee that your rations will be fine."

"Hehe..." The general shook his head:
"I'm not worried about the food. No, I can take people to hunt some wild deer and bears to eat. I just think that kind of place is fine."

"Forget it..." Gaotai patted him: "Okay, stop talking..."

Seeing that the general complained twice in a row, Gao Tai had no choice but to comfort him, then turned and left.

After he turned and left, General Shen led three thousand Jurchen soldiers in cotton clothes to the north, gradually disappearing from the wilderness.

At noon the next day, the supply ship from the south arrived as scheduled. Guo Sangdai greeted him personally, but found an unfamiliar face.

"This time the ship came from Yingzhou. In the future, all the supplies that I will do will be sent from Yingzhou."

"Take an inventory of the supplies. There are 200 shimi in total, [-] million catties of honeycomb coal, [-] catties of gunpowder, and..."

On the pier, Guo Sangdai was holding a document in his hand, and not far away were twenty merchant ships with [-] supplies, and they brought more supplies than the previous cargo ships.

Just looking at the material list, Guo Sangdai felt like a bright mirror in his heart. He knew in his heart that this was an arrangement by the imperial court to use Yingzhou to increase the control over slaves. However, he didn't feel uncomfortable, but said frankly:
"There are more supplies than before. Thank you, Your Excellency. I just don't know if we will send the ship to Jingcheng in the future, or..."

He tentatively asked, but the chubby ship owner said with a smile: "The information will still be sent to Jingcheng, but we will transport the furs dried by slaves to the south in the future."

"Since Yingzhou was captured, the rice, wheat and coal from Yingzhou can be sent to Nuergan, and the furs of Nuergan can be shipped to Jingcheng, and some sugar and cloth from Jingcheng can be sent to Yingzhou, so the general doesn't have to worry about anything. It's just a normal trade movement."

"Naturally, naturally..." Guo Sangdai didn't believe the fat captain's nonsense at all, but took out the handwriting he had prepared earlier and sent it:

"This is information about Jianlu, please take it to Jingcheng, please Jingcheng send it to His Highness."

"I take orders." Hearing the information, the fat man's eyes flashed, and then he took the handwriting with a smile.

"The Supervision Department..."

They are all thousand-year-old foxes, and Guo Sangdai saw something wrong with this fat man at a glance.

Beizhen Fusi didn't need to be replaced, and Nanzhen Fusi couldn't control outside the customs, so Guo Sangdai didn't need to use his brains to know that the fat man was from the Supervision Department.

It's just that Nu Ergan, who was originally managed by Beizhen Fusi, is now replaced by someone from the Supervision Department, which makes Guo Sangdai a little uneasy.

"Could it be that something happened to Jin Yiwei?"

Before Guo Sangdai could find an answer, the fat man put away the handwriting, and then said:

"His Highness just happened to have a military order for the general."

As he said that, the fat captain took out a handwritten letter, and Guo Sangdai took it with both hands and opened it to read.

The letter was written by Zhu Youjian in June. Zhu Youjian instructed him to set two tasks. The first one was to stick to the main road and not allow Jianlu to flee north. If a European appears, notify him immediately.

"Huh?" Seeing this handwriting, Guo Sangdai was stunned. He didn't expect His Highness to be able to predict things thousands of miles away in Beizhili.

Although he didn't know why his Royal Highness cared so much about the Europeans west of the Lena River, but adhering to the principle of doing things well, he still said to the ship owner:

"Report from the deer department that some Europeans with broad and short heads, broad faces, high and large noses, and light yellow and wavy hair have recently appeared in the west of the Lena River."

"I thought it was a trivial matter, so I sent an additional battalion of troops to the north, but I didn't want His Highness to ask me to notify early, so I can only trouble you to convey it."

"The number of Europeans in this group was around [-] to [-]. After being discovered by the people from the Deer Department, they retreated to the west of the Lena River. It is very likely that it was the first Butang."

"Okay, I will pass it on to you next time." The fat captain immediately bowed back when he heard the new information, and Guo Sangdai did the same.

After the two bowed to each other, they chatted about what the slaves did, and watched a ship of supplies being removed, and a ship filled with bundles of furs.

The fleet that arrived at noon finally headed south to Jingcheng with a boat of furs and nineteen empty boats at dusk.

Looking at their backs heading south, Guo Sangdai touched his chin, and Gaotai also noticed something was wrong and said:
"Today's captain..."

Before he finished speaking, Guo Sangdai explained first:
"It should be a member of the Supervision Department. It seems that there is something wrong with Jinyiwei, or His Highness is very concerned about Nuergan, otherwise he would not replace the Beizhen Fusi who supervised Nuergan with the Supervision Department."

"Then what are we going to do?" Gao Tai immediately felt a little parched when he heard the Supervision Division enter the arena.

Compared with him, Guo Sangdai was very aware of Nuergan's position in Zhu Youjian's heart, so after glancing at the fleet that had disappeared, he said frankly:

"You don't have to do anything, just do your own thing."

"It's better for you and me to leave early when Jianlu is gone."

After finishing speaking, Guo Sangdai turned and left, and Gaotai also took a look at the disappearing fleet, and then followed his pace.

(End of this chapter)