Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1784 Wusuli River

"Bang! Bang! Bang!" There was a burst of crackling gunshots, and in the deep mountains and old forests of Baishan Heishui, a large cloud of blue-gray smoke floated, accompanied by the choking smell of gunpowder smoke.

Lu Xiaofeng put down the binoculars in his hand, and said to the officers of the Third Infantry Regiment standing behind him: "It seems that they are not Tartar soldiers, they should be local Tungusians, and they are still wearing fish skin."

Following his words, a platoon of infantry rushed over with a bayonet-mounted rifle.They wore big caps, khaki army coats, armed belts around their waists, and the suede boots on their feet creaked and creaked when they stepped on the snow.After arriving at the ground, the platoon leader who led the team carefully inspected the two corpses on the ground first, and then sent someone back to report that it should be the Daur people who lived nearby, and for some reason they actually targeted their group. But it was small enough, and disappeared after firing a volley of guns over the two of them.

"Every Tungus in the south of the Amur River may be a Tartar soldier, or a potential source of Tartar soldiers. The Tartars have been operating here for too long, and we can't compare this. Of course, if you want to The best way to gain greater influence among the Tunguska people and win more people to our side is to use thunderous means, just as we have done in Vladivostok these days." A man in yellow Said the reserve lieutenant.

And the Vladivostok he mentioned just now was occupied by people from the east coast in the last year, and they intend to operate it as an important port.According to the boundary range divided by the local land for the two pioneering teams of Denglai and Heishui, in the future, the two major feudal towns will be bounded by the Songliao watershed in Manchuria, that is, North Manchuria to the north of the watershed plus the vast outer northeast region will belong to the The Heishui Pioneering Team is under the jurisdiction; the Nanman area south of the Songliao watershed is under the leadership of Yantai in Shandong, that is, the Denglai Pioneering Team will govern the Jiaodong Peninsula and the southern half of Manchuria where the climate is relatively mild.

Such an administrative division immediately allocated the most excellent coastlines of Manchuria (i.e., the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea) to Shandong, making the warm-water port that the Blackwater Pioneering Team dreamed of always disappear-although Rishiri Island and other places are year-round It is not frozen, but the industrial and agricultural foundation is too poor, and the population is sparsely populated-no doubt it makes Heishui a little annoyed.

But as the saying goes, arms can't beat thighs and thighs, and the executive committee is bigger than the sky. No matter how the black water masters have opinions, they can only hold back.Therefore, they decided to settle for the next best thing, take a good inventory of the three melons and dates in their hands, and finally found that the small fishing village of Vladivostok is the most reliable and most suitable for building a large port, and even gradually becoming the ruling center of Heishui.

The conditions for the existence of a large port in the center of a region are actually relatively harsh.First of all, there must be a relatively wide hinterland. This hinterland must also be conducive to farming, with a large amount of food output, and thus be able to feed a large enough population.Secondly, the conditions of the port must be very good. The most prominent thing is the wide and deep water, that is, there is a relatively calm harbor with sufficient water depth to anchor ships; if possible, there should be hillsides on both sides of the harbor to block the sea breeze. It is much higher than ordinary ports; and if this port is to be used as a military port, then there must be highlands extending out on both sides of the harbor at least 200 meters above sea level, and build fortresses and cannons on it, closing the narrow port entry channel.

These conditions, Vladivostok, which is still a small fishing village at present, undoubtedly have all of them. No wonder the Russians of later generations chose this place as the home port of their Pacific Fleet. The conditions are indeed good.Therefore, after reaching a peace agreement with Tsarist Russia, the Local Executive Committee issued major guidance on the development direction of the Heishui area, requiring them to suspend their westward march and go south with all their strength to expand the land of North Manchuria, among which the Songhua River and the Ussuri River The watershed is the focus of the focus—of course, the local government has not set any deadline or goal for this expansion, it is very loose, and the speed of progress depends entirely on the Blackwater pioneering team.

Chen Ke, the new captain of the Heishui Pioneering Team, Heishui Security Commander, and former Beihejian District Commissioner, who was airborne from the local area, has made a formal decision a few days ago: to implement the expansion principle of "easy before difficult" to avoid the Qing army's stronger forces. The Songhua River Basin, focusing on opening up the Wusuli River Basin, turning it into a traffic artery, food and other material production base for the Heishui Pioneering Team, and then trying to find a way to go westward, together with Harbin Fort, to attack the enemy in front of us, and finally the whole Take the entire northern land.

There is no doubt that this is a grand strategy, a grand strategy that sets the development direction of the Blackwater Pioneering Team for the next few decades!The Heishui Pioneering Team has mobilized urgently, and has begun to adjust various policies, deploy various resources, and mobilize various personnel. They have established five settlements in Beishun, Heicheng, Pinggang, Fengrun, and Licheng. Under the limited support of the government, the construction of the two new settlements of Vladivostok and Shuangchengzi in the summer of 1678 began.

However, the aforementioned five townships such as Beishun seem to be able to provide quite limited support at present. This can be seen from the fact that they have not been able to successfully produce their own food so far. Farming, but the environment is too harsh.The environment here does not refer to the natural environment. In fact, although the climate conditions are not friendly enough, the soil fertility is definitely first-class. Later generations are also famous as large granaries. The "bad environment" here mainly refers to the environment in terms of security and defense.

Yes, that's right, the environment in terms of security and defense!The colonial power of the people from the east bank who came south from Boli County was strongly counterattacked by the local Jurchen tribes who had been influenced by the Qing court for many years. Various security incidents emerged one after another, and the previous work was greatly affected. No one dared to say such words as being driven away, gaining a firm foothold.

In addition, the people on the East Bank also learned through various channels that Emperor Kangxi of Beijing had issued a decree to reprimand Obai, a power official who had lost power and was at home. It seems that there are rumors that he was ordered to die, and they don’t know if it’s true or not. .The reason for this is that when the situation in Liaodong was tense a few years ago, this person had listened to someone's bewitching, and even wrote a letter requesting that Ninggu Pagoda be abandoned, and all his troops should go south to support Liaodong, so as to prevent the loss of Longxing land. .

At that time, after some discussions, the Qing court finally did not listen to this person's opinion. Instead, it only chose to dispatch some elite troops from the Ningguta area to the south to participate in the siege of the reclamation point on the east coast of Liaodong. They all withdrew again, and brought a lot of shotguns, iron cannons and sub-drugs, and their strength has been enhanced to a certain extent. This shows how much Kangxi and others attach importance to this first line of defense against the people from the east coast to control North Manchuria.

Aobai was a former official who was gradually losing power, and now he is at home, so people will find out his old accounts. He really is not far from death, and it is miserable to think about it.And it seems that it is difficult to escape this time, because the presence of people from the east coast in Vladivostok and Shuangchengzi (two very strange names in the eyes of the Qing court...) made the Qing court's flank in North Manchuria suffer There is a serious threat, and there is a danger of being cut off by strategic encirclement. At this time, as the nail that separates the two major groups on the east bank (referring to the colonial forces in the Songhua River and Wusuli River basins), Ningguta There is no reason to withdraw, and not only can't withdraw, but maybe find a way to strengthen it. At that time, Oboi will be pulled out for another round, and it will be difficult not to die.

Therefore, the colonization efforts of the people on the east bank in the Ussuri River Basin naturally received a strong counterattack from the Qing court. Beishun Township and other five points repeatedly fought with the enemy, resulting in heavy casualties and material losses, and there was no farmer at all. Opportunity, in the long run, is a heavy burden. The Heishui area alone can no longer support it. It can only continue to receive blood transfusions from Ningbo and Denglai, including money, food, and personnel to supplement the pioneer farmers killed by the Qing army. .

This situation, logically speaking, is likely to cause the top management of the Blackwater development team to feel that the cost is too huge and retreat.However, Liao Xiaoyao from Shandong persisted, saying that he would raise money and food from Denglai and support veterans with combat experience, and give them encouragement. The pressure of the land is huge and can effectively contain the power of the Qing court, so it must be pushed down.

Now Liao Xiaoyao has returned to China to serve as the chairman of the executive committee, and his influence is increasing day by day. Therefore, after taking office, Captain Chen Kechen of Heishui, the first thing he did was to refute any voice that wanted to retreat in the Wusuli River Basin, expressing that he would Go straight up against the difficulties, repel the Qing army, and control this large piece of fertile land in your own hands.For this reason, he did not hesitate to adjust the general direction of the strategy, thinking that this action was endorsed—of course, there would be almost no voices saying that he would evacuate the Ussuri River Basin, because the soil for this proposal was the cost of the war with Russia. Too much manpower and material resources were spent, and at one time it was battered. Some people were not confident enough to persevere there, thinking that the Heishui stalls were too spread out, and that accidents would happen sooner or later.But now that these unfavorable factors have disappeared, and Tsarist Russia has reconciled again, then the problem of focusing on operating the Ussuri River Basin is not so big.

Chen Ke has even planned to move the central city of Heishui here after the initial construction of Vladivostok in the future.Therefore, he had just ordered to adjust the position of Lu Xiaofeng, who had already served as the commander of the Yaksa garrison and regional commissioner, and transferred him back from the Heilongjiang area to Vladivostok in the south to serve as the commissioner of the Ussuri River regional administration and garrison commander. To grant full authority, it is necessary to manage this place that he is very optimistic about.

Lu Xiaofeng had just received the order last month (October 1678), so after spending some time handing over the work to his successor, he led dozens of entourages—a huge lineup, and it was he who went to the Ussuri River area The team members who performed their duties - took a boat down the river when the big river was not frozen, and arrived at the port of Khabarovsk.Here he joined a company from the 10rd Infantry Regiment heading north from Fort Model, and sailed, then walked, to Vladivostok.

Although this journey was hard work, it also gave Lu Xiaofeng an excellent opportunity to observe the land, scenery, products, people's sentiments and other aspects of the Wusuli River Basin.Moreover, during the period, he experienced no less than ten battles, large and small, especially after the winter, which made him extremely surprised by the "stubbornness" of the Jurchen tribes in Haixi, and he was also very concerned about the work of the officials who were in charge here before. I am very dissatisfied with the ineffectiveness-these Jurchens are not all single-minded and want to vote for the Qing Tartars. It has been a few years, why can't you win over and divide a group of them?This job is really bad, and there should be no upward path in the future, so I must take it as a warning.

The natives are fearful of power but not moral. You must first show strong military capabilities, conquer them and fear them, just like what Tsarist Russia did in the outer northeast. The Ryats, Evenkis, Oroqens, Hezhes, etc. were driven like dogs, making them fear to the bone marrow, and then the merchants brought in tight commodities from Russia, and the missionaries to appease the hearts of the people, so hard and soft, It was only then that they gradually won the hearts of many indigenous residents in the outer northeast.

Now that people from the east coast are here, they have existing experience, so naturally they should follow suit.After arriving in Vladivostok, Shuangchengzi and other places, first use the limited forces at hand (the battalion headquarters and two companies of the third battalion of the [-]rd Infantry Regiment have already arrived in Vladivostok from the sea by boat in advance, and started to build wooden fortresses), take the local The Jurchen tribe who walked closest to the Qing court took the knife and killed the prestige of this group of people fiercely to deter other tribes and let them know that the situation has changed drastically. If they continue to follow the Qing court, they may have to make a list in the future. Just like those tribes in the outer northeast, haven't they all belonged to the Russians and the people on the east coast now?How many others are related to the Qing court?None left!

And after fighting a few beautiful battles to establish their prestige, they will use trade channels to build relationships with those natives.These Jurchens are very hard-pressed, and they actually have a great demand for various commodities from the outside world. If the Qing court can trade with them, so can the people from the east coast, and there will only be more types of trade items. Believe it or not Gain the favor of these people.

With such a two-pronged approach, Lu Xiaofeng believes that as long as it persists for more than five years, it will produce results; if it persists for more than ten years, the situation will be very different. The foundation of the Qing court in the local area will be greatly shaken and even collapsed. The unparalleled influence of the people on the coast.

By that time, places including the five townships of Beishun and the newly established Vladivostok and Shuangchengzi were almost able to support themselves and have enough to support a certain scale of military operations, so the time for counterattack appeared.At that time, if the colonial operation in the area of ​​the Songhua River has also made significant progress, the two groups of people will directly advance side by side, and the Qing court will last for a few years with these armed forces and strongholds in northern Manchuria?Five years or ten years?Maybe it will be shorter!Everything depends on the determination and dedication of the East Coast people.

(End of this chapter)