The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 157 Manchuria VS Bohai

On June 6, a delegation of more than 17 people from Manchuria arrived in Xin'an (now Ulan-Ude, Russia), intending to rest here for a few days and wait for the rain to stop before continuing on their way to the capital of the Bohai Sea. Zhongjing (now Chita, Russia).

As summer just entered, the rain began to increase, which made the entire mission's trip difficult. And this is also a common problem in Beihai and even the entire Lingbei region. Flooding rain often makes roads very muddy, which is a disaster for transportation.

In this era, whether it is the Liaodong region (generally referring to the entire Northeast) or the Lingbei region in Daqin, winter is the busy season for transportation between various places. There is constant traffic on ice and snow tools such as sleds and sledges, transporting large amounts of materials to everywhere, effectively promoting exchanges across the country.

In winter, it only takes about ten days to travel from Xin'an to Zhongjing using a dog sledge, which is extremely fast. Some even say that in winter, it is possible to travel from Boli City to the Rakshasa people's Yenisei River stronghold Krasniyar Fort (today's Krasnoyarsk), it only takes about five or six weeks to get there by sledge, which is much faster than in summer, which can't help but surprise people.

Of course, the severe cold weather in winter is a very serious challenge to transportation, especially when encountering extreme snowstorm weather. If you are not careful, you may swallow up an entire convoy driving on the snow and turn it into a car. They become ice sculptures in the wild.

However, fortunately, with the support of Qi State and Beiming, Bohai State also introduced many flat-bottomed galleys. Under the condition that the rivers were navigable in summer and autumn, they implemented segmented transportation in various rivers and could barely support the territory. Requirements for transportation of materials and personnel. In some Jingqili River and Heilongjiang river basins where the rivers are wide and the navigation conditions are better, there are even several small inland river steamers made in Qi State running back and forth in the river.

"Dear boy, that ship is still smoking!" Cen Tai, the leader of the Manchu Eight Banners Zhenghuang Banner, put up a pavilion with his hands and looked at a small steamer loaded with all kinds of supplies. It made bursts of roaring sounds and a thick Smoke continued to float on the river, and I couldn't help but be stunned for a while.

This boat has no sails, no oars, and no trackers. It seems to be running in the river by itself!

His grandma never thought that a barbarian country like Bohai would have such a magical weapon.

That small steamer was a transport ship affiliated to Qiguo Lingbei Trading Company. It took a lot of effort to get this small steamer with a full load of 250 tons to the Beihai area. It was mainly responsible for The turnover and transportation of materials and personnel near the North Sea travel through the Selenga River, Beihai, and Angara River basins, greatly improving the transportation efficiency of the region.

"That ship should be driven by a steam engine, and the thick smoke is also caused by the burning coals of the machine." The chief of the Manchurian mission, Sibeile Yinzhen (later the fourth master Yongzheng) still has some insights, through Mengmeng Yuwu watched the small steamer gradually disappearing at the end of the field of vision. He sighed slightly and said, "It is said that in the Jiangnan and Shandong areas of the Qin State, there are large iron oxen driven by steam engines. Carrying tens of millions of stone goods, they run day and night on the laid rails. They can travel hundreds of miles from morning to night, carrying military weapons. Moreover, the Qin State is building a road from the Central Plains to the northwest. Railway. Once completed, the Qin State will be even more powerful when it attacks the northwest. In this way, both Junggar and Manchuria will probably face a situation of exhaustion, and the future is unpredictable!"

"Master Beile, we are not surprised at all that the Qin State, relying on its huge population and endless financial resources, was able to do so, forcing Junggar and Manchuria to a corner of the northwest, and we did not lose unjustly." Cen Tai Looking at several Bohai officials, surrounded by a group of fully armed soldiers, holding oilcloth umbrellas and welcoming them, they said with a bit of disdain, "But you said that these rebels in Bohai, with just a few It’s really hard to accept that thousands of people, after rebelling against our Qing Dynasty, can make such an impact in just a few decades. ...His grandma must have had some bad luck!"

"Quiet!" Yinzhen glared at Cen Tai, then straightened his clothes, squeezed out a smile, and hurriedly greeted the Bohai officials who were coming.

"Are you planning to surrender to Bohai Kingdom on behalf of your Manchurian tribe?" Su Tu, the commander of Bohai Kingdom in Xin'an, raised his chin and asked arrogantly.

"..." Upon hearing this, Yinzhen immediately suppressed his smile, clasped his hands in fists, arched his hands in the direction of Kobdo, and said solemnly: "I am sent to your country on the orders of my great khan to make good relations between the two families. We are here to help you, rather than paying tribute to become a vassal and surrendering to the Bohai Sea. I am afraid that this Lord Tutong has some misunderstandings."

"Really?" Su Tu glanced around with a half-smile at the Manchu mission personnel who all had angry expressions on their faces, and sneered, "Junggar is about to be defeated, and all the tribes of Khalkha are attached to the Qin State, while you Manchurians are cowering in In the land of Khovd, there are only a few thousand soldiers and less than tens of thousands of citizens. How much support can it possibly hold in the face of the overwhelming power of Mount Tai of Qin?"

"I would rather have broken jade than complete tiles!" Yinzhen said in a deep voice: "Although our tribes in Manchuria have few people and weak military strength, and the output of the land of Kobdo is limited, if we want to make Manchuria bow down, Kneel down and submit to others, even if you step on the corpses of tens of thousands of men from our clan, you will never be able to force Manchuria to surrender!"

"You love the Xinjueluo family, so I'm afraid all you can do is be harsh!"

"Do the words and deeds of this Lord Tong represent the leader of your country?" Yinzhen's face darkened, and the other party's aggressive attitude made him feel cold.

Is this Bohai country still jealous to this day because of the execution of its founding leader Shaerhudamanmen during the Shunzhi period of the Qing Dynasty?

Of course, at that time, in addition to killing Shalhu Damanmen, all the generals and soldiers who betrayed our Qing Dynasty with him were severely punished, and all the adult males of the family members who stayed in Beijing and Shengjing were beheaded. , women and children were also demoted as slaves, and they were inevitably pardoned. The fate of everyone was extremely miserable.

This domineering Bohai capital thought he was a descendant of those rebellious people back then, so he spoke rudely and ridiculed our Manchurian mission.

If everyone in the Bohai Kingdom has this attitude, then the prospect of this mission may be very bad!

"Haha... Don't blame me, your Majesty. What Su Tudutong said is a little biased, and naturally it cannot represent the leader of our country." Chen Shiyang, the prefect of Xin'an, took a step forward, made a haha, and said harmoniously: "It's raining here in abundance, your Majesty." The envoy will ride in the carriage with us and go to the city to settle down and rest first. When the weather clears up, we, the Bohai State, will send someone to escort the envoy to Zhongjing to meet with our king."

"Thank you, sir." Yinzhen nodded and breathed a sigh of relief.

"There are people from Qi in Sibeile." After boarding the carriage, Ertai, deputy envoy of the mission and commander of the Xianglan Banner, approached Yinzhen and whispered.

"I saw it." Yinzhen responded expressionlessly.

With the iconic large cap, navy blue military uniform, beautiful ribbon, and eye-catching epaulets and collar, this outfit can easily be recognized as a Qi soldier.

Before the mission, Manchuria also knew that the people standing behind the Bohai Kingdom were the Qi people. Relying on the sophisticated firearms provided by the other party, they fought all the way from Heilongjiang to Beihai, and then established the Bohai Kingdom.

Pushing forward a few decades, if the Qi State had not obstructed and restricted everything, I would have wiped out the resistance forces across the mainland one by one early in the morning, completely unified the Central Plains, and established the Qing Dynasty for ten thousand years.

Who would have thought that the Qing Dynasty had been in control of the Central Plains for decades, but was finally overturned by the puppet Qin, so that it fell short of success and had to flee to the northwest to survive. It can be said that Qi State is the biggest sufferer of our Qing Dynasty, and the main culprit of the decline of our Qing Dynasty!

So, how much influence will Qi have on Bohai State's foreign policy?

Will they prevent Bohai State from cooperating with Manchuria and helping each other? ——

In the evening of July 7, the Manchu delegation arrived at Meihe Fort (today's Shilok Town) and prepared to rest here overnight.

This is a settlement located at a river bend. A small river meanders on the south side of the fort, and its name is naturally also called Meihe (today's Shilok River in Siberia).

Meihe Fort is not large in scale. It should have been a small settlement of local tribes before. Because it is on the east-west traffic route, it was placed under the direct jurisdiction of the Bohai local government, and officials and soldiers were stationed to manage the place and surrounding areas. Tribes and households.

There are less than two hundred households here, and except for forty or fifty households that are local Feyaka people, most of them are immigrants. In fact, the obvious differences between them can be judged from the types of houses in the village.

Because most of the houses of immigrants are relatively regular, and the materials are a mixture of rammed earth and wood. The overall layout includes courtyards, wing rooms, utility rooms, and livestock sheds. There are also various kinds of plants planted in front of and behind the houses. Vegetables, looking like a typical Central Plains farmer.

The houses that the local Feyaka people live in are composed of tents made of birch bark, branches, boards and leather. There was a large warm plank placed against the wall of the tent, which was heated by the stove chimney; in the middle of the tent, there was a high platform between four pillars, on which the dog slept.

Yinzhen even saw a few-month-old bear cub tied to a pillar in the large open space in the tent. It seemed that the owner had caught it for fun. There are several wooden poles set up under the ceiling to hang clothes and various rags. On both sides of the entrance door of the tent are stoves with pots on them. The Feyaka people will use this pot to cook for their families and dogs.

Each household has a small storage house raised on pillars near the river, which stores fish, wild fruits, vegetable roots and animal oil, as well as a small amount of grains, which are their main foods. Those dried fish should be the most important food for the Feyaka people, just like bread for Europeans and rice or pancakes for Central Plains people.

This kind of tent and its attached utility room are the most important possessions of the Feyaka people. Apart from this, they have almost nothing, and there are no big livestock in sight - mainly because they have no experience in raising livestock.

These Feyaka people make a living by hunting, hunting furs and meat, and exchanging other corresponding living supplies with local farmers and wandering traders.

It can be seen that these Feyaka people are very satisfied with their current life. A few years ago, they were in very short supply of grain and salt, not to mention the various "gods" brought by merchants from Qi and Beiming: cane sugar, cut tobacco, spirits, biscuits, canned fruits, and fish. Canned goods and other luxuries. In recent years, as business exchanges in the Lingbei region have become increasingly frequent, luxury goods such as these have become widely popular in the region. Not only they, the Feyaka people who have never seen "advanced civilization" like it, but even the Rakshasa people further west like it very much. Unfortunately, these things are limited to long-distance transportation and are expensive. It is really painful to enjoy them. .

The arrival of Yinzhen and his party aroused the curiosity of the residents in the fort. However, when the immigrants, some from Qin and Korea, learned that they were Manchurians, they immediately showed a very unfriendly attitude. There were even some people who cursed in a low voice, such as "dog Tatars", "establishing slaves", "remnants of the pseudo-Qing Dynasty", etc., which made the Manchu mission personnel feel angry and a little embarrassed.

These were all sins committed by their ancestors when they invaded the Central Plains decades ago!

Fortunately, the Feyaka people were relatively simple and honest. They took the initiative to talk to Yinzhen and learned about the local people's livelihood and conditions. They were also willing to respond, and they were very hospitable and entertained them with dried fish and dried fruits.

However, the information they can provide is relatively crude or difficult to understand. For example, when expressing the harvest at home, they can only gesture with their fingers, and then proudly point to the grain and furs stored at home, and ask about the distance between this place and Beijing. How much distance is left cannot be accurately described in words, but only a few lines are drawn on the board with charcoal blocks to indicate how many nights it will take to sleep on the way to a certain place by horse (deer), sleigh or rowing.

As for the local customs, special products, weather, and other tribes, they all looked confused, or they knew in their hearts but could not explain it in detail in Chinese. This made Yinzhen confused after the conversation. So.

These people look very majestic and very strong. They will definitely be good hands in the army, comparable to my Eight Banners of Manchuria Baya La. Back then, when the Qing Dynasty established the Central Plains, in order to supplement the vacancies in the Eight Banners, we organized troops many times to go deep into the Ussuri River and Heilongjiang areas, capture the Ewenki and Oroqen people there, and incorporate them into the Eight Banners of Manchuria. Those people are just like the Feyaka people in front of them. They have strong fighting ability and are not very afraid of death. They are definitely the best soldiers (cannon fodder). But they are brave, but their level of civilization and productivity are too low.

However, the Bohai Kingdom seems to be working hard to naturalize and tame these "savages". There is a school in the fort. Although Yinzhen did not go in to see it in person, when school was over in the evening, he found many Feyaka children following the Han and Koreans. People and children ran out of it, playing and playing in the street.

It is said that the Bohai State government also established a simple post communication system under the guidance of Qi State advisors, using caravans as intermediaries, and collected information about local people's livelihood customs and tribal events from various settlement points and military strongholds. All matters, big and small, were then passed to the nearest town, and finally gathered one by one in Zhongjing, the capital of the kingdom, and presented to King Bohai and the cabinet ministers as the basis for governance.

The dozens of Bohai officers and soldiers accompanying the escort mission did not prevent them from communicating with the locals. They did not seem to mind that the Manchus were trying to find out the reality of their country in this way, and their eyes showed a hint of indifference towards them. of contempt.

Also, since the establishment of the Bohai Kingdom decades ago, they have been in a state of continuous expansion. With their sharp firearms and superior military strength, they drove the Rakshasa people from the Heilongjiang River Basin all the way to the Yenisei River Basin, occupying This extremely vast territory.

It can be said that Bohai State has almost no competitors in the Lingbei region. With the support of Qi State and Beiming, it will use more efforts to gradually clear out the tribal peoples under its rule, consolidate the foundation of domestic rule, and develop the economy and people's livelihood. And if they always maintain an army that is good at conquering and fighting, it will not be difficult for them to eventually occupy this land covering an area of ​​millions of square kilometers. The big deal is just to spend more time. If ten or twenty years are not enough, then forty or fifty years will be enough. Without being disturbed by others, the Bohai Kingdom can slowly digest the occupied territory and stand tall in the north of the mainland.

But the question is, can Bohai Country really develop smoothly and stably without being disturbed?

These Feyaka people who have lived in the dense forests of Lingbei for thousands of years are inevitably involved in the changing regional situation under the influence of the surging world trend. The Bohai Kingdom is dominating the north and eyeing the Central Plains. How could he be spared?

When Qin defeated Junggar and conquered the northwest frontier, their attention would inevitably shift to the north. At that time, how could Qin tolerate the emergence of such a powerful country on the north side.

"Perhaps, facing the common threat of Qin, we Manchuria and Bohai can join hands with each other to establish a certain degree of military alliance to cope with future changes." Yinzhen thought to himself.

(End of this chapter)