Tepchin did not expect that what he came to was a China hand. He looked at the piles of gold bars placed on the table. There were Russian letters imprinted on them. It seemed that they were the gold stocks of the Tsarist Russian government. This was also proof. The identity of the visitor.
"General, there is no need to hesitate. Giving this order will be of great benefit to you. First of all, this is the decree of the court and you must carry it out. Secondly, we have chosen a road less traveled by, which will not give you any trouble." cause any trouble to the people”
"Our vanguard will go up to Heilongjiang, directly enter the frozen Songhua River, and go south along the Songhua River. It will take us at most a week to enter Sanxing City. From there, we can go south along the dense forest without disturbing any people. In another week we can You can cut to the rear of the rebels."
"Killing all the way downstream along the Suifen River, we will reach General Vladivostok in two or three days. Five thousand taels of gold will only cost our army half a month to cross the border. This deal is really a good deal!"
Tepuxin's hands were trembling slightly, and his face was a little pale. The Russian envoy knew the tangle in his heart, but Tepuxin didn't know that the Rakshasa ghost opposite him was actually more tangled and anxious than him.
One week later, in the far north of the Mongolian steppe and on the banks of the Shilka River east of Lake Baikal, a burning tribe was locked in a desperate fight.
This is a small tribe of 3,000 people attached to the rule of the Chechen Khan. They have lived under the rule of the Chechen Khan from ancient times to the present. The Chechen Khan has surrendered to the Manchus since the late Ming Dynasty and received support from the central government. Canonized as Mongolian prince.
This has been the case for more than two hundred years. The herdsmen who grew up here knew that their master was the Chechen Khan, and the Chechen Khan's master was the Qing emperor in Beijing. They paid taxes to the Han, and they also paid fur, cattle and sheep to Beijing as a gift. tax.
In return for surrender, the Chechen Khan could receive annual royal salaries and rewards from the Qing Dynasty, while ordinary herdsmen could see caravans from the far south regularly throughout the year.
There are no longer the embarrassing days of the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty’s control over grassland trade was too strict. The herdsmen on the grasslands could not enjoy the ironware, salt, tea, and cloth in the pass. The ordinary people lived very poor. At that time, The tribesmen on the Shilka River couldn't even buy an iron pot for the price of three cows.
It wasn't until the Manchus and Mongols reached an alliance to form the common Manchu-Mongolian Eight Banners system that the life of the herdsmen on the grasslands gradually improved. Years of conflicts disappeared without a trace.
Although some Mongolian princes rebelled, each rebellion could not get the support of the vast majority of Mongolians. It would always be a rebellion, and then the Qing emperor could entangle all the remaining Mongolian tribes to conquer together.
The land that was not conquered by military means was easily captured by economic means. The salt, cloth, silk, ironware, tea and other products of the Central Plains that were transported to the Mongolian prairie every year easily captured the Mongols. heart of.
The herdsmen are loyal to the Chechen Khan, and the Chechen Khan is loyal to the emperor. Once this model runs for two hundred years, it will form a strong psychological inertia, giving the herdsmen an extremely strong centripetal force towards the Beijing regime.
Until after the Sino-Russian Beijing Treaty, after the Shilka River, a tributary of Heilongjiang, was ceded to Tsarist Russia, these herders who were abandoned on the grasslands of Northern Mongolia still unswervingly paid tribute and taxes to the Chechen Khan, and still welcomed people from afar every year. of Han caravans.
The treaty has been signed for nine years, but the tribal leaders and every child of the herdsmen firmly believe that they are Qing people and the people of Chechen Khan governed by the Qing Dynasty. This will never change.
Until the spring of 1869, the herdsmen tribes on both sides of the Shilka River encountered an extremely powerful uninvited guest. From the western horizon, a black line rushed towards them with a sound like thunder.
There has been no war for a long, long time. The young herdsmen were a little at a loss. Only the oldest herdsmen realized what they were doing. They rushed out of the tent and shouted, "The enemy! That's tens of thousands of cavalry charging! Get ready to fight! That's definitely not the case." guest"
All the chanting lamas worshiped by the tribe came out. They sat cross-legged on the snow and turned prayer wheels to pray for the tribe. They hoped that the protection of the gods and Buddhas would enable the tribe to avoid this disaster.
The adults roared, the children wailed, and the women hid in their homes and trembled. The tribe of three thousand people quickly mobilized a thousand young men, riding war horses to attack the cavalry wave in the distance. At that moment, their backs were extremely tragic. .
"The Eagles on the banks of the Shilka River greet our friends from afar, please slow down and avoid the gathering area of our tribe. We have the best kumiss to entertain you."
"Oh, Buddha! They are not Mongols, they are Rakshasa ghosts! They are tens of thousands of Rakshasa ghosts."
What greeted them was the sound of a row of muskets being fired. The roaring cavalry fired a round of muskets, and then there was the sound of sabers being drawn out.
"Cossacks! Assault! We need all the food supplies of this tribe! Attack without leaving any one alive!" The leading cavalry force numbered ten thousand.
Three waves of attack were formed on the four-kilometer-long charge section, and ten thousand sabers reflected the sunshine and captured the soul!
The young herdsmen are desperate, but they cannot run away like cowards. There are parents, wives and children behind them who need to be protected.
"Descendants of Genghis Khan! Don't embarrass your ancestors! Kill them."
"Kill!" A thousand immature cavalry bravely rushed head-on. With a bang, the sound of broken bones and the neighing of war horses could be heard in people's ears.
The saber slashed in circles, and blood arrows shot out. No matter how brave the herdsmen were, they could not reverse the huge disparity in troops. In the end, the 10,000 cavalrymen rammed them with the power of their war horses, and trampled the corpses with their huge horseshoes. With just one charge, all the herdsmen were killed. The army was destroyed.
The Eagles of the Shilka River finally knew that they had met the God of Death, a God of Death who had closed the door to negotiations. People fled from the tents with their children in their arms and ran wildly in all directions.
The prairie was full of wild horses, and women and children chose different directions to break out. They only asked the Buddha to protect the Rakshasa ghost from chasing them.
This is the best way to survive. Run for your life in different directions. Rakshasa ghosts cannot chase them in every direction. There will always be survivors who survive and leave some of the Eagle's blood behind.
Women and children can run away, but the old people will not run away. The strong men died in the battle, and there are old people. Those white-haired old men wearing ill-fitting leather armor once again stepped on the war horses, pulled the bow strings and drew out the scimitars.
It's a pity that the era is no longer the one in which they ruled the roost. Bows and arrows are not as sharp as muskets. The so-called precious swords in their hands are simply no match for the hundred-forged knives made by Western industrialized punch machines.
The sharp saber chopped off the head of the tribal elder, and the head rolled down in front of the chanting lama. The young lamas behind the old lama were so frightened that they hid behind the master in panic.
Only the old lama with white eyebrows could still shock the scene. He said in unskilled Russian, "Tsarist Russian Cossacks? Where did they come from? Tannu Ulianghai? Or Khovd?"
The general who kicked the head didn't expect that there was an old monk here who was proficient in Russian. He suddenly became interested. "Do you know Russian? Very good. We are from Central Asia. My hometown is in the Caucasus. Do you know?"
The old lama's eyes suddenly lit up: "Are you the Tsarist Russian cavalry who support the traitor Agub? Are you going to the Far East?"
