Early in the morning, the city lord Albasi, their Hara leader Ravkai, and his brothers Shirkinei, Kildega and others rode to the city.
This Sauron city gate on the north bank of Sakhalin-Ula was currently occupied by a group of Tsarist Russian bandits.
They captured many Sauron and other tribesmen and forced them to strengthen the camp fence and trim their furs.
"Who are you and where do you come from? Why do you want to invade our city gate!"
On the city gate, the bearded Khabarov looked at the five Saurons and said hello with a smile, "Dear friends, we are here to buy furs, not only to do business, but also to make friends."
Ravkai cursed angrily, "Fart, we have known the true identity of you group of bandits for a long time. You are Russian Cossacks. Cossacks have been here before. They said they came to do business to collect furs. We entertain them with good wine and meat."
, and gave him our best sable skin. He promised to trade it together the next day, but in the middle of the night, he took our skin and ran away, and even tried to rape my brother Shirkinei's wife.
, my sister-in-law resisted with all her strength, so he killed her and then escaped."
Shirkiney stepped forward a few steps and glared angrily at the Cossacks in the city who were holding firecrackers with red eyes. "I swore to God when I held my wife's body that I would definitely find those Cossack robbers and kill them."
kill,"
Khabarov was exposed, but he didn't take it seriously.
However, there were not many good people among the Russians who came to the Far East. Those who came to take risks were all criminals who fantasized about getting rich overnight, or were criminals who could not stay in Russia. Even the Cossacks themselves were not good people.
Due to the oppression of the landowners and nobles and the persecution of the Tsar, many serfs and urban poor in Russia, Ukraine and other places could not bear it, so they fled and lived in other places.
In southern Russia, where the grasslands were vast, sparsely populated, and rich in resources, the Tsarist rule was beyond the reach, so this group of fugitives took refuge and hid here, and gradually formed several settlements.
They call themselves free Cossacks, which means free people or brave people. They are distinguished by the different regions they live in. Those who live along the middle reaches of the Don River and its tributaries are called Upper Cossacks, and those who live in the lower reaches of the Don River are called Lower Cossacks.
Those in the lower reaches of the Dnieper River were called Zaporozhye Cossacks, and later the Volga Cossacks appeared.
To put it bluntly, these people are just like the refugees in Yunyang or southern Gansu before the Ming Dynasty. They left their homes due to taxes, disasters and famine, and went to sparsely populated mountainous areas to cultivate wasteland and avoid labor and taxes.
In the mid-Ming Dynasty, millions of refugees poured into southern Jiangxi, Yunyang and other places. However, the Ming Dynasty later sent troops to encircle and suppress the areas, and established governors and other officials to manage them, so these refugees were not allowed to escape from the court's control.
But the Cossacks ran to the steppe, beyond the reach of the tsar and unable to control them.
These Russian refugees lived a free life and elected military commanders, centurions, captains, etc., and these people formed the Cossack Supreme Military Council to lead their own armies.
The Cossacks largely maintained their autonomy.
Tsarist Russia had no control over these people, but found that these people were brave and capable of fighting, very tough, and easy to bribe, so they bribed the upper echelons of the Cossacks by enfeoffing land, promising autonomy, and allocating salaries to drive the Cossacks to fight for them.
Tsarist Russia invaded and expanded into Central Asia, Siberia and other places, and the Cossacks were the vanguard.
These people were undisciplined and burned, killed, and looted wherever they went, gaining a bad reputation. They even often rebelled and mutinied, killing Tsarist Russian officials.
The Cossacks are not a nation or a country. They are just a group of autonomous refugees. Although they have escaped to the grasslands and are free, their lives are still mostly poor. Therefore, the Cossacks like to take risks and are willing to work as mercenaries for Tsarist Russia. They are even driven by the upper class to take advantage of them.
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Many Cossacks were not good at production, so they had to work for others to make money and make a living from the loot they robbed.
Initially, Cossacks were Tatars and Slavs who fled from the Golden Horde to nomadic grasslands in southern Russia. Cossacks also mean free people in Turkic. Later, more and more serfs and urban poor fled to join, and finally several groups were formed.
A large group of refugees, they have gradually developed a unique cultural habit of being good at riding and shooting without being controlled.
They provided their own equipment, such as Don horses, Cossack scimitars, and spears, and became fierce light cavalry. During the off-farm periods, they would rob in groups outside their own territory, especially caravans and even other Cossacks.
Grab it too.
Anyway, it has become the tradition of the Cossacks to farm, rob, work as a mercenary, or go to the East for adventure and robbery.
After these "good guys" arrived in Siberia, they had no taboos, and the Russians were also happy to use these Cossacks to open roads for them to explore, and even rob and kill.
Tsarist Russia received land or taxes, while the Cossacks looted furs and obtained commissions, each benefiting from it.
Khabarov was not a Cossack, but a poor peasant who was little better than a serf. He joined the ranks of Eastern exploration more than 20 years ago. However, his early explorations were not successful. Later, he started selling salt in Yakutsk.
The farm had just become rich, but the former governor confiscated all his salt fields and land, confiscated all his wealth and threw him into prison.
If it hadn't been for the new governor, he would have died long ago if he offended the governor.
This time, he was able to get out of prison by telling the new governor that he knew a new route to Heilongjiang. He recruited seventy Cossacks and went south with guns and artillery. He used the secret shortcuts he had learned while selling smuggled salt to successfully escape from Le.
The upper reaches of the Na River enter the upper reaches of Heilongjiang through several tributaries.
He was eager to seize more furs, especially mink furs, and also hoped to seize more new lands and city gates for the warlords, and conquer more eastern tribes.
Unfortunately, his trip did not go smoothly.
I met some small tribes on the road, but didn't grab much. I finally entered the big river Heilongjiang, but the Sauron people from several city gates ran away early.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Three empty cities, with neither fur nor women.
No property could be snatched, and no fur tax could be levied, let alone gold, silver or lead mines.
The Cossacks under his command were already very dissatisfied. These people had always been unruly. Khabarov knew very well that if he could not lead them to plunder wealth, these people might kill him at any time.
The last expedition team in Yakutsk was Secretary Boyarkov. He led more than 100 people from the east to the south, crossed the Waixing'an Mountains, and then followed the Jingqili River to Heilongjiang, and even reached the mouth of the Heilongjiang River.
Although they looted a lot of furs, they were trapped in the cold winter and could not return. In the end, the camp ran out of food. The Cossacks not only ate all the captured tribesmen to satisfy their hunger, but even ate half of the Cossacks in the end.
If he gets ruthless, he will even kill his own people.
He now urgently needs to grab some skins, at least some Sauron women to satisfy the dissatisfied Cossacks.
"My dear friend, the Cossack you are talking about is the scum of the Cossacks. We are both reputable businessmen. I am a Russian, not a Cossack.
Dear friends, please come in and talk. We have brought many good things for trading, including iron pots, blankets, gunpowder, mink traps and nets. Whatever you want, you can come and exchange it. The price is negotiable.
That’s it.”
"You are just a group of bandits, get out of our territory immediately, otherwise we will not be polite!"
"Friends, we are just here for business. We don't mean any harm. We saw that there was no one in this city gate, so we settled here temporarily. Friends, please come in and have a drink first. We have good wine and we just killed one.
A deer is being roasted."
It's just that Ravkai and others knew the Cossack bandits very well. These people were full-fledged bandits, burning, killing, looting, and even stealing. They came from upriver and had robbed many people.
They captured the elderly and women who had difficulty in escaping, tortured them, set them on fire, and forced them to interrogate the tribes about the situation of the surrounding tribes, their routes, etc.
After getting a lot of detailed information, they followed the river to the Yaksa area. Unfortunately, the leader Ravkai, who had five cities and a large population, fled without fighting.
When they ran away, they took everything they could with them.
In the end, Khabarov got nothing. He also interrogated the captured Saurons and found out that Ravkai was contacting other Saurons everywhere to gather troops to surround and annihilate them.
After receiving this information, Khabarov, who only had 70 men under his command, hesitated for a while, and then quickly returned to Yakutsk with a few of his men. At the same time, he reported to the warlord that he had successfully reached the upper reaches of Heilongjiang. He also reported to the warlord Fran that
Tsbekov presented some stolen furs and stolen wheat samples from Heilongjiang, and even a hand-drawn map of Daur and some survey records.
He described to the governor that the Daur area was full of vast fields, pastures and forests, with developed agriculture and animal husbandry, rich in furs, and richer than the entire Siberia. The previous expedition was indeed right.
When he came back, he not only reported the good news, but also asked for more troops. He also said that with only 6,000 troops, the entire Heilongjiang could be conquered.
The governor reported the news, maps, samples, etc. he sent back to Moscow, requesting the deployment of 6,000 troops to conquer Heilongjiang.
He wrote to Tsar Alexei that if the entire Heilongjiang River could be conquered and those Daur people were forced to be responsible for farming, Tsarist Russia would no longer have to work hard to transport grain to Yakutsk, and Daur would be more profitable than the Lena River.
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After the report was received, Franzbekov first gave Khabarov some experience and asked him to recruit a group of troops in Yakutsk and rush back to Yaksa to establish a fortress and stronghold as the vanguard of the army.
Khabarov spread good news in Yakutsk, saying that he had found a treasury in Yaksa, where there were fertile fields, pastures, and many sable skins, etc., to recruit adventurers.
In the end, only 117 people were recruited. The warlord gave him 21 more Russian troops, so he gathered 138 people. He also asked the warlord for three iron cannons and a batch of ammunition.
Khabarov immediately returned to Yaksa.
During the time when he went back to mobilize troops, the Sauron people did not attack Yaksa, and the dozens of Cossacks who stayed behind did not dare to act rashly. They made small moves secretly, stole and looted, and never dared to stay away.
When Khabarov just came back, he had about 200 men and iron cannons, and he was preparing to attack Ravkai's camp, but Ravkai came first.
Ravka also knew that these Cossacks had arrived with reinforcements, and they came to ask the Cossacks to leave on their own.
If they leave, let them go, but if they don't go, they will fight to the death.
Khabarov was exposed before his eyes.
At this time, I stopped pretending and just showed my cards.
"I am the vanguard sent by the Yakutsk governor to conquer Sauron for the Tsar. The Tsar is great and majestic and possesses all the kingdoms. The Tsar's conquests have always been invincible. If you are wise, surrender quickly and become the Tsar's slaves forever.
I heard that you paid tribute to Bogda Khan before. From now on, you can only pay tribute to the Tsar. You should send someone to the Tsar to announce to Bogda Khan that Bogda Khan and his people should also pay tribute to the Tsar with gold, silver, gems, and colorful silks.
Mink etc.
If Bogda Khan and his subjects accept the rule of the tsar and pay taxes and tribute, they can stay in the original town, and the tsar will order his own army to protect you.
If you refuse to hand over the furs of the hostages, we, Russia, will use war to pacify them, destroy and occupy your cities, and kill all those who refuse to pay the fur tribute, including women and children!"
He also took out a letter, which was written by the Yakutsk governor to the Emperor of the Central Plains, "I am sending Khabarov as an envoy to China to declare the Tsar's favor and ask the Chinese Emperor to surrender to the Tsar and become his servant forever. If he refuses,
If they surrender, all Chinese men, women, old and young will be killed."
Murderous.
Rafkai looked at the arrogant face of the bandit and cursed, "The emperor of China is no longer Bogda Khan, but the Holy Khan, the Great Tomorrow. And I tell you, the Holy Khan, the Great Tomorrow, has already
Announce to the world that we declare war on Russia. Everything east of the Ural Mountains belongs to the Ming Dynasty. If the Russian bandits do not evacuate, they will all be killed!"
This chapter is not over yet. Please click on the next page to continue reading! "Also, the Emperor of Heaven has sent the most powerful army to attack you bandits. Run away quickly. It's still too late. Otherwise, when Master Wang arrives, not one of you will be killed."
Keep."
The general translated the words sentence by sentence to the Russians on the city gate.
After hearing this, Khabarov was a little stunned.
“Has China changed its emperor?”
According to the information previously collected in Yakutsk, the Saurons, Evenkis, etc. in the Heilongjiang River Basin all paid tribute to the Jurchen Emperor. That emperor was called Bokda Khan. Why did he become the Holy Khan now?
Is it a big day?
The new emperor openly declared war on Tsarist Russia and sent troops to attack them?
But as far as he knew, the Chinese emperor was very far away from here and had no direct control over the Heilongjiang River Basin. These were small tribes that were barbaric and backward.
His deputy Onufry Stepanov, the leader of the Cossacks, said on the side, "They must be deceiving us and trying to scare us. There is no need to pay attention to them. I will lead people out of the city to capture them and then kill them."
They went to the camp and captured all these people. The men were made serfs and shackled to work in the fields. The women were captured and brought back to be prostitutes. They found all the mink skins, gold and silver."
"We have three cannons, more than 200 warriors, and so many muskets. Even if there are thousands of Saurons, you don't have to be afraid. Just kill them and be done with them."
"Okay," Baharov agreed, "I want to capture those alive and interrogate them properly."
The gate opened, and Stepanov personally led a group of Cossack light cavalry to rush out, but the white-haired leader of the Sauron people, Ravkai, was also on guard. As soon as he saw them opening the door, he immediately began to turn his horse's head, and directly
Withdrew.
Stepanov rode on horseback and chased after him, but he still couldn't catch up. He was so angry that he raised his blunderbuss on his horse and fired, but it only startled a few birds.