The flames of war raged across the banks of the Songhua River, and the Cossack cavalry sweeping in from north to south captured towns one after another. All the property of the people who had a sense of luck was looted, and anyone who resisted was killed without mercy.
According to Gogol's theory, this was enough to give face to the Qing Dynasty. This was just a pretext, not a real war. If the war was really going on, not a single person in these towns would be left alive.
To these invaders, massacring a city is as simple as eating.
By robbing the city without slaughtering it, it seemed that these invaders still had some mercy, but in the hearts of these people, this robbery had already sentenced them to death in disguise.
Outside the customs, the more grain, the better. The further north you go, the lower the level of agriculture. Liaoning is better off because it relies on the Liaohe Plain to produce a large amount of grain every year. However, in Jilin and Heilongjiang, the cold weather is still there all year round. There are high mountains and dense forests, which restrict the development of agriculture here. Food rations for ordinary people are a big problem.
The real transformation of the outside world into a large granary will only be achieved after World War II, when agricultural mechanization increases. Only by relying on the power of mechanization can the Great Beidahuang be reclaimed on a large scale, and the original dense forests of the Greater and Lesser Khingan Mountains be felled in tracts. , the primitive style is gradually replaced by human civilization.
In the current Songhua River Basin, agriculture only accounts for a small part of the economic basis for people's survival. Most people rely on logging, ginseng gathering, gold digging, hunting and other occupations to survive.
The people who had been busy for a year exchanged ginseng, leather goods, wood, medicinal herbs, gold sand and other valuable goods with the caravans, and the food in exchange was the rations to survive the long winter.
This land relies heavily on merchants to import food, especially in the cold winter when the mountains are covered with snow and the rivers freeze. Once the rations are used up, there is no place to replenish them.
The beginning of spring is just as difficult. It is the time of drought. It will take another month for the snow in the mountains and rivers to be unblocked. Only then can people make ends meet by relying on wild vegetables, hunting, and fishing.
And this month's rations have now become the trophies of the Rakshasa ghosts, how can they survive this month? How many women, children and elderly people must have starved to death.
The atrocities aroused public outrage. The men outside the customs are inherently strong-tempered. Since you won't let us live, we will do it with you. From the first day of the plunder, 20,000 Rakshasa cavalry were plunged into the vast sea of people's war.
In the dense forests on both sides of the road, there are hunters firing cold shots almost every day. These natives who come and go like the wind often change places with one shot, kill a dozen Rakshasa ghosts with one shot, and then turn around and run away.
At first, Gogol had the intention to send rangers into the mountains to fight back, but no one expected that the mountains were full of traps, and the thin remaining snow was full of traps for trapping animals. Few of the rangers who chased him in narrowly escaped death.
Not only are the hunters fighting back, but the loggers, farmers, and miners are also organizing to make trouble for the invaders. Are there holes in the ice that have been dug out and then temporarily frozen? Snowflakes roll up in the north for several hours. In a matter of seconds, the thin ice surface was covered with a layer of white snow, and the cavalry that rushed forward could not see anything strange at all.
They didn't even have the slightest bit of psychological defense, so they fell in groups with people and horses, struggling in the ice water like dumplings. With the current temperature, most of these people who fell into the water would not survive.
What is even more depressing is that a large amount of wood is piled up in many narrow places of the river. The cavalry cannot jump or go around it. They can only dismount and rely on manpower to carry it. Time is wasted little by little.
Furmanov was so angry that he said, "Gogol! We can't do this anymore. If we continue to harass like this, when will we be able to get to Vladivostok? Don't you have a lot of ideas? Come up with some ideas."
Gogol growled sullenly, "You despicable pagans, aren't they just going to eat some of your food? How dare you harass the army like this? Do you really think we don't dare to be cruel?"
"Fumanov! You personally lead the team and capture as many people as you want alive in the villages and towns along the two rivers! We will use the prisoners to open the way!"
"I will lead people here to clean up the messy wood. When you come back, I will use the lives of a hundred untouchables to sacrifice the blood of this river. Let me spread the word. On the way we march, if anyone makes trouble for our army again, we will encounter I will kill a hundred prisoners at one place, and two hundred at two places.”
"After three places, I will start massacring the city, and I will never seal the sword! I want to see who is more ruthless than who!"
"Hahaha, this is really a good idea. I was not convinced by you before, but now it seems that it makes sense for the regiment commander to let me be his deputy. Just listen to your first regiment and follow me, and the second and third regiments will be dispersed. Attack and capture them alive!"
Suddenly, people were wailing on both sides of the Songhua River. The common people did not expect that this group of bandits not only wanted food but also arrested people, especially women, children and the elderly. In just half a day, more than a thousand old and weak people were gathered in front of the army.
Gogol sent all his translators, rode fast horses to both sides of the river, and shouted to the empty forests and mountains, "We know you are hiding here, and to tell you the truth, what you have done has made us completely angry." !”
"In order to punish you for your wanton behavior, we decided to kill a hundred people here and use their blood to warn you! Stop harassing the army. If any harassment occurs in the future, the army will kill another hundred prisoners. After three harassments, , we will never seal the sword.”
"Do you hear me clearly? Never seal the knife, never seal the knife."
The translator galloped back and forth on the empty river bed, shouting once after running for a while, and then shouting again after running for a while. In the end, the hidden person in the dense forest was really angry. There was only a gunshot, and the first translator with a leather hat He was knocked to the ground and frightened, he turned around and ran away.
Gogol sighed and said, "You are indeed stubborn! If you don't eat the toast, you will be fined with wine. Kill me."
With an order, more than a hundred frightened women and children were pushed out from the front row. The cavalrymen drew their sabers and slashed down without hesitation. Blood immediately covered the ice.
The prisoners suddenly cried bitterly, and even the heart-rending howls came from the distant dense forest. Furmanov sneered and said, "It is exactly what the Chinese said, no tears will be shed without seeing the coffin!"
"Order the army to come out! Use a carriage to pull these prisoners. I want to see if these people are so cruel that they can attack their own people. Hahaha!"
The white thing is blood, the crystal clear thing is ice, and the bright and dazzling thing is blood! The killing really shocked the resisting people, and from that moment on, the march speed of the Rakshasa cavalry increased again.
But they did not expect that this inhumane massacre would anger one person and change the direction of the battle.
