Not far to the east of the Okhota River, there is a small bay, where several rivers smaller than the Okhota River enter the sea, and a narrow strip stretches out of the bay.
The Cossacks built a castle here. They built wooden houses facing the bay. The wooden houses were surrounded by fences with many pointed logs tightly tied together, and trenches were dug.
After several years of reinforcement, it became the largest Cossack stronghold along the coast.
When the Moscow Vikings were the first to come here, the journey was full of hardships. They went upstream from Yakutsk on the Lena River and entered the Gardan River. Then they took a boat upstream for five weeks and entered the Maya River, and then walked upstream for another 200 years.
Here, we set up a winter camp, spent the winter and then changed to a small boat. After ten weeks, we reached the source of the Urya River, then crossed the Jugjur Mountains, built a small boat again, drifted downstream for eight days, then went ashore to build a big boat, and started sailing again.
It took five days to reach the mouth of the Uriah River.
From there, a sea-going ship was built, and it took three days and nights to reach the mouth of the Okhota River.
This route was so difficult that a new expedition was sent from Oymyakon Castle with twenty Yakut guides, led by the Cossack Andrei Ivanovich Kalerei.
The leader of the army changed his route along the Indigirka River, entered the Guidosun River, a tributary on the left bank, went up, crossed the watershed, entered the source of the Okhota River, and then went down the river. In just five weeks, he could reach Oymyakon from Oymyakon.
Arrive at Okhotsk Castle.
Although Oymyakon is 1,600 miles east of Yakutsk, Oymyakon and Yakutsk are both located on the banks of a large river, so travel is easy, and there are many strongholds and castles for supplies along the way.
It is precisely because of this new route that the number of Cossacks in Okhotsk increased rapidly, and they even began to have family members waiting to come over.
Compared to Oymyakon, the coldest castle in the Far East built on permafrost, Okhotsk is much warmer.
Through several wars, they defeated groups of indigenous people who refused to pay them taxes in kind.
Along the Uriya River lived the Lamut people, the Kiryak people who never washed their faces and kept bears, the Daur people with big beards, etc.
They found that the river here was a paradise for martens, with many kinds of wild animals, and a variety of fish, all very large. There was no such thing in Siberia. In the indigenous languages, they were called jia fish, salmon, and hunchbacked woman.
There are so many fish that you can’t even count them. If you cast a big fishing net down, you won’t be able to pull up even a single fish.
Where the river is very fast, the fish there are killed by the rapids and thrown to the shore. There are flakes of fish on the shore, like piles of firewood, and beasts like otters and red foxes eat fish happily there.
The natives who lived by the river would catch fish every day during that season and then dry them in the sun, which would feed them and their dogs throughout the year.
Two large mountain ranges isolate this coastal area, allowing the indigenous people here to enjoy a unique geographical advantage, and Cossacks flock here.
They built wooden houses and settled their families here, and some hunters set up tents directly.
They went in groups to plunder, conquer, hunt, and find mines. Some adventure teams used this as a base to head further south to the mouth of the Amur River, or continued to develop along the coast to the northeast.
Winter is coming.
Many Cossacks returned to Okhotsk early. Some of them returned to Okhotsk by boat after replenishing supplies. It took them five weeks to arrive and more time to return. They rushed back to Okhotsk before the river froze.
Imyakon.
After most of the Cossacks came back, they stayed here for the winter.
After several years, the castle became stronger and stronger. Now the nearby tribes have been conquered by them. No one dares to attack anymore. There are even many hostages from various tribes in their castle.
They also traded with surrounding tribes here in exchange for their dried fish, meat, skins, etc.
There's even food.
"The Okhota River is frozen."
In the morning, a Cossack came to report.
Ivan, the general manager of Okhotsk, was very happy after hearing this. He was sitting in the wooden hall of the general manager's house. It was cold and a fireplace was lit in the room. There were several simple breakfast items on his log table.
Fried fish, a piece of bread, and a cup of tea.
He, the steward, was appointed by the Yakutsk Governor. Like many new castles in the Far East, these castles were both a paradise for adventurers and a prison for exiles.
The transportation is inconvenient, it is very remote and the conditions are simple.
Those bachelor Cossacks, or those exiles, hunters, and small-time profiteers ventured here, all dreaming of getting rich overnight, but after arriving here, they found that life was not easy.
But there are still many people who stayed. In order to stay in such a ghost place for a long time, they also established an Orthodox church here. After initially conquering the indigenous people by force, they persuaded them to be baptized into Christianity, and then found ways to marry those original people.
The resident woman is his wife.
Because they are too far away from the Russian mainland and their number is too small, their usual strategy is that as long as they are willing to pay the fur tax honestly, these Rakshasa ghosts will not massacre the indigenous tribes, nor will they drive them away.
They can still continue to live their lives. If they are willing to be baptized, the fur tax they pay can be reduced, and they can even come to the castle to trade with more trust.
And if tribal women marry them, then they and their family members will be more trusted, and the sons they give birth to will be treated as citizens of Tsarist Russia.
In order to live a warmer life in this remote ghost place, they all tried to find ways to marry indigenous women. No matter whether they were Hezhe, Sauron, Feyaka, etc., in the eyes of these Tsarist Russians, there was actually no difference between these people.
it's the same.
Except for the Kiryak people who never wash their faces and bathe in their lives, they can smell the smell of dead fish from a distance, and they are always full of fleas, and it is difficult to see their true colors until they die.
They are all willing to have young women.
In order to marry a young indigenous woman, they also tried their best, taking out bows and arrows, iron axes, armor, hunting nets and other things as gifts, in order to marry a young woman so that someone would warm their bed during the long night.
I also pray that I can have children and have a family in this remote frontier place.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! They also hope that when they go out for adventure, there will be a woman in the wooden house in their castle taking care of the children and taking care of the home.
Otherwise, they will feel that they are lonely ghosts in a foreign land, and they will always be lonely.
Ivan was sent as the general manager, and he only brought a few clerks and more than 20 military personnel. He knew very well that his first task was to collect the fur tax, so he and the Cossacks such as Wigin who had just come here before
Different, he won't rob.
On the contrary, he was very polite to the tribal leaders, because he wanted to use them to collect the fur tax for him. Each young man had to pay eleven mink skins a year.
He directly asked the heads of various ministries to collect the taxes on his behalf and paid them salaries.
They would also hire the chief's children to work in the castle, pay them on time, etc. During holidays, they would also hold banquets in the castle and invite them as guests.
If there was a conflict between tribes, he would even lead troops to help mediate.
He also recruited some people from their children as castle military personnel and paid them salaries, but usually transferred them to other castles and exchanged them for some local indigenous military services from other castles to avoid threats from them.
In the eyes of the primitive tribal indigenous people who still use stone tools and bone tools, the Rakshasa people with the power of thunder and firearms are unable to fight against them. Therefore, after they brutally looted and massacred, they replaced someone to rule with gentleness.
Although taxes still have to be imposed, they are already very satisfied.
Ivan is always smiling and playful. This son of a run-down nobleman from Moscow has been in Siberia for more than ten years. It is not easy to reach his current position as the general manager of Okhotsk step by step.
Even if the bread made by his Evan maid was too hard, he would not reprimand him. Even shortly after he arrived here, he personally married the daughter of a tribal leader, although he still had a wife and children in Moscow, and even
He had worked in several castles such as Oymyakon and Yakutsk, and had married indigenous wives, but this did not affect him.
After chewing two bites of the hard bread, Ivan picked up the tea and drank it. The tea was still fragrant.
This tea is hard-won and very expensive. It was traded with the Mongols from Irkutsk on Lake Baikal, and then transported along the Lena River to Yakutsk, then to Oymyakon, and then
It took another five weeks to get here, which was not an easy journey.
A brick of tea is worth a mink skin.
"The Okhota River is frozen, and the Sea of Okhots will also be frozen. It seems that the Ming army on the other side of the Amur River will not invade, and we can finally spend the winter with peace of mind."
Maxim, the clerk, laughed and said, "We have been too nervous during this period and scared ourselves. How about we hold a banquet and invite the tribal leaders to bring their wives and children to drink and dance together.
There are also a lot of people spending the winter in our castle. If we can bring some people together to get married, then our Okhotsk Castle will be a little stronger. When the freeze thaws next year, we will be able to add many new generations."
"It's good. In order to prevent the Ming Dynasty from attacking, we didn't urge the tribes to pay taxes. Now we can urge them."
"Send someone to take a look at Fort Uriah. If they find no trace of the enemy, ask them to come to the banquet. Let's set the time in one week."
Ulya Castle was the first stronghold established by Viking when he came south from Yakutsk and arrived at the seaside. It was located on the Ulya River. Later, because the Okhot River route was more convenient, the new center was located here.
side.
But there are still some people left there, but in winter, they basically all move back.
At that time, Viking also went south along the coast, all the way to Oudi Bay, and arrived at the Chantal Islands. However, they ran out of food at that time, and finally returned before winter arrived, just one step away from finding the Amur they were looking for.
estuary.
In the past few years, many Cossacks have gone south and have learned the location of the Amu Darya River from the indigenous people. Previously, Vasily Danilovich Boyarkov went south over the mountains and entered Heilongjiang along the Jinqili River. In the end, he was arrested for looting.
The Sauron people were besieged by the Sauron people and went all the way south to the mouth of the river. As a result, they were trapped there in the winter. After they ran out of food, they ate the Sauron people and finally ate half of their companions. They waited until the seawater thawed and hurried to Oho by boat.
Tsk, rested there and then fled back.
Tsarist Russia now has detailed information about Heilongjiang, knowing its upstream, downstream, and even some tributaries in the middle. They conquered Heilongjiang from several directions. However, compared with the north of the Greater Khingan Mountains, the indigenous tribes are sparse and their tribal strength is extremely weak. The Heilongjiang Basin
, there are many tribes that are not weak in strength, but these Rakshasa people were beaten to death without warning.
On the side of Fort Okhotsk, people were also sent south along the coast to conquer, but the progress was also very slow. They did not dare to easily take a boat directly to the Heilongjiang estuary to land, because they heard from the natives that the Ming Emperor's army came over there, and the army was huge.
There are many ships, cannons, muskets, and many soldiers and horses.
Fort Ulya is located three days and nights southwest of Hotsk. Ivan regarded it as an outpost and stationed a group of Cossacks there to garrison it, as well as recruiting some indigenous children.
Drinking tea, chewing hard bread, and chewing fried fish pieces, Ivan, the manager, looked out the window.
Snowflakes were falling from the sky.
"Snowing."
In the past, he hated snow, hated winter, and hated the ice period, which meant that he could not communicate with the rear for several months. But now, when he saw the snow and the ice, he felt relieved and felt very safe.
.
"Can the Emperor of China really send a fleet of giant ships and artillery to the Amur River? Do you think they will come north to attack us?"
Maxim disagreed, "I think the indigenous people must be exaggerating the facts. They are just a bunch of smelly primitive people who don't bathe. Moreover, since China has never had any influence on the area north of the Stanov Mountains (Outer Xing'an Mountains, Beishan) before,
There is no real rule, even north of the Amur River, so the furthest they can go is to reach the mouth of the Amur River and collect some tribute from the natives."
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Ivan sipped the tea from China, "I received some news that the original emperor of China was seduced by a braided barbarian girl from the Northeast a few years ago.
The real people were defeated, but China was too big. When they were defeated and only half of the country was left, a very outstanding young royal prince came out and led his men to successfully recover, and even defeated the Jurchen Khan Bogda Khan all the way to the north.
They escaped, and now even the Mongolian tribes to their north are vying to claim vassal status and pay tribute.
I heard that the Chinese emperor was very young and very wise. He developed trade and defeated the Netherlands and Portugal at sea. He even got Spain and Britain to compromise with him and reach a maritime trade agreement. According to reports from Moscow, this
The Emperor openly declared war on our envoys on New Year's Day and said he would drive us all west of the Ural Mountains.
I think this emperor is so strong, then his army will come sooner or later. Even if the rivers and seas freeze this year, they will definitely come next year. If they don’t come next year, they will come the year after next. They will come sooner or later. We must come early.
prepare for."
Maxim still disagreed, "We have a castle, artillery, muskets, and powerful Cossacks. If he doesn't come this year, we can bring more artillery and troops next year. If he comes again in a few years, there will be more
It's not something they can capture.
We will defeat as many as you come. Why should you worry so much, sir? Just think about the banquet. The long winter is too boring. I hope there will be more clean and beautiful Tungus women this time. If there is a way, I can buy a few.
Just like the Chinese slave girls, let me see what they are like. I heard that they are all very fair and clean, and also gentle and gentle."
Ivan laughed and said, "I heard that Chinese women are all very good at cooking. What I want most now is to have a good cook."
"When the Sea of Okhotsk is unsealed next year, I will definitely go to Nuer personally and snatch a boatload of Chinese women back from her!"
"Hahaha, when the time comes, there will be two of us!"