The Tomsk Fortress is immersed in the smell of gunpowder smoke, with broken walls and ruins shot by gunfire and shells everywhere.
In this majestic frozen city founded by Tsarist Russia for thirty years, the red-bottomed regimental dragon flag of the Tianshan Army has been planted on the domed bell tower.
In the simple office of the Governor's Office, Sunday Qiang rummaged through piles of official documents with a look of disgust on his face to find what he wanted.
Compared with the simple warehouses, arsenals, troop barracks and residences of grassroots officials in the fortress, the Governor's Office is actually a good residence. It is a wooden two-story building with good lighting and a lot of furs. There are even
A protruding wooden balcony makes it easy to shout orders from the fort.
Warm and cozy.
But for Sunday Qiang, the place where he lived when he was at his lowest was much better with these things.
Even in the winter when the Lion Army first entered Qinghai and built shabby huts all over Juerwan, the commander-in-chief did not let him suffer any injustice.
At that time, he lived in a second-level courtyard twelve liang outside Xining City, with a fire pit and fine wine. He lived comfortably all winter, and did not go to Qinghai Lake to work until spring.
Obviously, the generalissimo still loves him.
With this rather complacent mood, Sunday Qiang looked at the official documents of Tsarist Russia with a critical eye.
He couldn't read the letters on it. To be precise, what he was looking at was not an official document, but the paper used by Tsarist Russia to write official documents.
As a civil servant and an imperial official in charge, Zhou Zhouqiang is very familiar with paper and understands the huge responsibility that paper bears.
In his eyes, the workmanship and quality of paper are equivalent to the prosperity of the country.
The more expensive the paper, the more important information it carries.
But these "papers" in front of Zhou Qiang made his heart extremely complicated.
There are piles of writing utensils made of sheepskin and cowhide, as well as lots of real paper.
The animal skin paper is extremely delicately made and is cut very thin. Although the raw materials are a little behind, it is obviously made by skilled craftsmen and is completely different from the crude animal skin paper used by the Mongolian tribes in Qinghai.
Let me fall in love with you on Sunday.
Even if it is primitive, no one hates exquisite things.
Especially these original and exquisite things from enemy countries, those who like them even more.
But those real pieces of paper made Sunday Qiang's mood a little complicated, even confusing.
Because the level of production on this stuff...it's so fucking uneven.
The most exquisite paper, the color and quality are no less than the mulberry paper used for making fans, but it is rougher and has a heavy light curtain pattern, as if it was dried on a mat.
And this thing is obviously not bleached, but original color paper made from carefully selected raw materials.
Of course, mulberry paper is not a good paper. The Ming Dynasty's paper bleaching technology was ridiculously advanced in this era. White paper is as cheap as yellow paper. You can buy a hundred sheets for three coins.
The most expensive ones in the Ming Dynasty were dyed papers, such as porcelain blue paper, which were very exquisite and beautiful, and the price was also very good. Ten sheets cost one tael of silver. For writing and painting on them, mud gold was commonly used, which is ink made of gold foil and glue.
Huizong of the Song Dynasty, Zhangzong of the Jin Dynasty, and Xuanzong of the Ming Dynasty all agreed to use it.
However, there was no bleaching technology in Europe during this period. All paper was original color paper, and dyeing was not possible at all.
Not to mention compared with the Ming Dynasty, the Lee Dynasty of Korea, the Tokugawa Shogunate and even Zheng Ruan Vietnam were three centuries behind Europe.
So as for the more paper, Sunday Qiang couldn't tell. He really didn't think those things with things written on them were called paper.
It's worse than the fire paper used to trick ghosts into graves, and it stings the buttocks even when using the toilet.
Fortunately, the civil servants in Tomsk did a good job, and Sunday Qiang quickly found what he wanted in the pile of parchment—several route maps of Tsarist Russia's river strongholds across Siberia.
Although, he couldn't understand a word.
However, these pictures of strongholds drawn on sheepskin still fascinated Zhou Qiang and greatly enhanced his understanding of this land.
Not only did it make him sigh at the scale of Tsarist Russia's advance on this land, but it also made him lament that Siberia was too vast.
To the east from Tomsk, Tsarist Russia also had two strongholds in the upper and lower reaches of the Yenisey River basin, and two strongholds were also established by the Tsarist Russians further than the Yenisey River.
Sunday Qiang is confident that the scale of the stronghold worthy of a special map will not be smaller than Tomsk.
However, after comparing the different textures of several pieces of leather paper, the different production times, and the different distribution of strongholds on the pictures, Zhou Zhouqiang discovered something that puzzled him.
His focus is not on strongholds, but on the connections between different river basins.
The key point of the entire "Taimengwei" plan is that Orusi cannot bypass Tomsk in the process of competing for fur origin.
Only if they cannot bypass this place will it have the capital to become a tug-of-war. Sunday Qiang will continue to spend money here to strengthen the walled city, build cities, establish rule and even provide official positions to Kyrgyz tribes, and weapons will be meaningful.
Otherwise, after putting in a lot of effort, Orusi could easily get around it and not play this trick with him at all. Then why would he be able to accomplish much here?
After all, this is not the Central Plains, and even in the Central Plains, the manpower and material resources required to build a city are not a joke.
And in these Orusi maps, Zhou Zhouqiang discovered something strange.
In the extreme north of Tomsk, along the Ob River until downstream, it runs through the ocean.
On maps from earlier years, there is an Orusi stronghold in the inland bay near the estuary.
However, the texture clearly appears to be from the maps of the past ten years, and there is no trace of the existence of that stronghold at all.
It was as if it had been deliberately erased.
Sunday Qiang is very concerned about this stronghold that does not exist on the new map.
If there is an Orus seaport there, then the Tianshan Army must continue to capture it, hold the seaport in its hands, and transport enough guns and soldiers to completely cut off the sea channel for furs flowing westward in Siberia.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Just as he was looking at the map worriedly, someone knocked on the wooden door of the governor's office, and Sunday Qiang's Mongolian personal entourage reported: "Captain, General Dai of the Tianshan Army is here.
"
It's Dai Daozi.
Zhou Qiang was surprised when he saw Dai Daozi coming: "General Dai? I thought only the general came here."
Dai Daozi is a very special person in Tianshan. On the one hand, as a direct descendant of Liu Chengzong, he is naturally one of the real representatives of the Marshal's Office in Tianshan.
On the other hand, he was the first general of the Marshal Army that Batur Hutaiji knew, and he also enjoyed extraordinary trust among the nobles of the Oirat tribes.
It is equivalent to the contact person between the two major forces.
This special status gave him a high status in Tianshan, making him the number three figure after Liu Chengzu and Zhou Zhouqiang.
And starting from this year, Dai Daozi's power has undergone some subtle changes.
Cao Yao, the governor of Gansu, began to transport people to him.
In the melee in Shaanxi, Cao Yao, who was fighting on the northern front, assumed a special mission from Liu Chengzong, that is, after capturing Ningxia, he would send the Qingfan population to Tianshan for judgment by Dai Daozi.
Dai Daozi's daughter died at the hands of Lieutenant Fengguo of the Qing Dynasty. On the first day he was sent to the Lion Camp, Liu Shizi promised that if he had the chance, he would take revenge with his own hands.
Unfortunately, Dai Daozi's enemy had already died of illness at that time.
He will never have the chance to take revenge with his own hands in this life.
Cao Yao's order to Liu Shizi was not implemented efficiently, and the Northern Route Army has not broken through Yinchuan until now.
However, they destroyed several Zhuangzi of the Qing Dynasty during the attack, and immediately packed up the captured stewards, flattery department heads, internal officials, military academies and others and sent them to Tianshan.
The first batch of more than 200 people arrived in Barkol last month. Sunday Qiang thought that Dai Daozi was torturing those people in Urumqi, but he did not expect that he followed Liu Chengzu.
Dai Daozi entered the house with a smile while holding a jar, and looked at the furnishings and decorations of the two-story wooden house. His vision was not as high as Sunday Qiang's, and everything he saw felt novel.
He excitedly said to Sunday: "General Zhou, according to statistics from outside, we have gained a lot!"
With that said, he handed a document to Sunday Qiang.
It recorded the gains of the siege of Tomsk, including the capture of 147 people including the warlord Ivan, the Cossack leader Kabelov, and the mercenary leader Miller.
In addition to the prisoners, the biggest harvest was the city's sixteen small iron cannons, one thousand one hundred and twenty-two long and short muskets, and an astonishing amount of food and leather goods stored in the warehouse.
"Originally there should have been more prisoners."
Dai Daozi shrugged his shoulders: "The soldiers of the Fourth Beggar Tribe followed the Tianshan Army into the city. They killed everyone they saw and didn't care whether they surrendered or not. Only some grey-eyed Tatars who were well-dressed could be taken as prisoners by them."
Sunday Qiang knew that the four beggars he was talking about were Kyrgyz people, also known as beggars.
Regarding the small number of prisoners, Zhou Zhouqiang didn't care and nodded: "It doesn't matter, a hundred or ten people are enough to torture the intelligence. Orusi has invaded this place for decades, and the local people have been oppressed by it because of violence. There is no common blood feud."
Dai Tian.”
"If the Heavenly Army is defeated in this battle, the fate of the local tribes will not be much better than theirs, so there is no need to be harsh."
Dai Daozi was originally a Tangqi veteran on the front line of the border defense, and followed Liu Chengzong to fight in Hehuang and go deep into Kangning. War, battlefield, turmoil and death were the normal conditions of life for him. No matter how many people died, it would be difficult for him to move to compassion.
Heart.
He shook his head, raised his hand and pointed to the west, saying: "I don't care, it's just a matter of killing Tatars. The general attack on the other side of the river has also begun. Chuhu'er's group of Wala Tatars are so ruthless."
Hearing him talk about Chu Huer, Sunday let out a strong sigh.
He originally wanted to recruit some Orusi water thieves for his own use. After all, the next step was to strengthen the city's defenses when labor was needed.
However, Chu Huer and his battalion soldiers fought like mad dogs. After the battle, they stabbed everyone alive, just like a reward for the soldiers who participated in the battle, and there was no way to persuade them.
Thinking of this, Sunday shook his head forcefully.
On Tianshan North Road, Liu Chengzu, Batur Huitaiji, Zhou Qiang and Chu Huer, it is really hard to say who can control whom.
Fortunately, after this battle, Tai Mengwei finally gained a foothold.
He planned to recruit Kyrgyz people and blacksmith Tatars as guards, set up an arms bureau here, and build a large number of three-eyed muskets to equip the guards, so as to reduce dependence on the Chuhuer camp.
Zhou Qiang raised his head and asked Dai Daozi: "How long will the food in the city be enough for the army?"
Dai Daozi was staring at the map and said casually: "It depends on how many people the general plans to keep in the city. Five hundred will be enough for half a year."
After saying that, he suddenly came to his senses and quickly handed over the glass jar he was holding and said: "This jar from Gray Eyed Tartar is pretty good. I heard it was fired in the Kazan kiln factory in the west. There are some in the warehouse.
Tens of thousands of jars of pickles.”
"If these cans are shipped to Xining, they will probably be sold for a lot of money."
Sunday Qiang looked at the sealed glass jar, which was transparent and contained pickled cucumbers. He shook his head slightly and said, "Glass jar?"
Glass is a rare item for ordinary people, but its value is not ridiculously expensive.
When he was the magistrate of Lijin County, Shandong Province, there was a transparent vase in the government office. The quality was much better than these clumsy things.
Deep down in his heart, Sunday Qiang has a Ming-style pride and contempt for anything in this world that requires the use of intelligence.
He believes that his hometown has the best intelligence in the world, and in the field of craftsmanship, craftsmen can do anything at a glance.
It can also be done better than the original version.
Therefore, he would only care about the distant Kazan Kiln Factory, which existed somewhere unknown, and would not have much expectations for these bottles and jars.
Therefore, he said: "Instead of wasting transportation capacity, it is better to send the furs back. How many people can the Tianshan Army leave to station?"
Dai Daozi had difficulty with this question, not because he didn't know the answer.
In fact, Liu Chengzu had talked to him about this matter when he was counting the spoils of war in the city just now.
He was just afraid that the answer would make Sunday Qiang feel dissatisfied. After all, this battle was completely initiated by Sunday Qiang's personal will.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! For Liu Chengzu, this is a superfluous battle. Bringing troops to fight here is not even as good as letting him lead the Tianshan Army to go to Oirat and fight.
The Kazakh front is more worthy.
At least if the Tianshan Army went there, it would be able to establish more of the power of the Marshal's Mansion in Oirat during the war.
As for the more remote north, regardless of victory or defeat, it will be of no benefit to the overall situation.
Anyway, even if Orus built forts and occupied all the land, the behemoth Oirat gave an order to the people in the forest, and the small tribesmen like the Kyrgyz people would still have to bring the furs over.
Dai Daozi explained: "The Tianshan Army can only spare 500 men at most. The general also knows that it is time to change the defense. No one wants to garrison here throughout the winter."
After all, when the Tianshan Army came over, Liu Chengzong agreed with them that they would be stationed in Tianshan for three to five years. Now that it has been three years, Liu Chengzong may not let them go back this year, but he has this in mind, just in case he has to leave Tianshan and go home in winter.
Where is it?
"These five hundred people cannot all be stationed in Tomsk. The six forts on the lower reaches of the Ob River must also be stationed in separate areas to prevent enemy sneak attacks and to alternately send messages and call for reinforcements."
After Dai Daozi finished speaking, he raised two fingers to Zhou Zhouqiang and said: "The Tianshan Army can garrison two hundred troops in this city."
On Sunday, I was very embarrassed.
It is impossible for the Chuhuer camp to stay here for a long time. What it lacks is not troops but manpower.
The repair of the fortress, the creation of weapons, and most importantly, the suppression of the native people.
If there were only 200 people, once the weather turned cold, the Kyrgyz tribe might be able to surround the fortress and kill them all for food.
After all, after the river freezes, this place becomes a no-man's land, and anything could happen.
"But this place looks worse than Tianshan." Dai Daozi became happy as he said it, and said with a smile: "I can also provide the general with a team of 100 people. They are all Qingfan's lackeys sent by the general from Ningxia. They can be used at will.
.”
"That's the only way it can be. Zhou would like to thank the general for his help."
Sunday forced open the wooden door on the second floor, walked to the balcony, looked down at the fortress standing on the wasteland riverside, and took a deep breath of the air filled with the smell of gunpowder smoke and blood.
He said in a voice that only he could hear: "On the eighteenth day of the eighth month of the eighth year of Chongzhen's reign, Captain Zhou Qiang of Huaiyuan of the Grand Marshal's Mansion set up Taimeng Guards west of the Tuomu River, in the border town of Yongzhen."