The missionaries had no idea that the fishmonger they were cursing day and night had stopped exploring for a long time. That Mr. Rastochkin organized fishing settlements in Alaska and started a big business buying furs from Indians and Eskimos.
The bolide-like artillery bombardment last year, as well as the successive sinking of his own thin-skinned shuttle boats, left a deep memory for Marshal Fu. During this year, he often woke up in the middle of the night. In his nightmares, the big white ship turned into an all-devouring monster.
At this time, the Songhua River had just thawed, and the ice in the river that was originally like hills had moved away along the river. Jilin Wula Street became noisy again. In the shipyard along the river, five slipways are lined up, and the "Yaksa warship" is being built here.
Don’t get me wrong, the Songhua River does not lead to the sea. The warships built here are all used to transport soldiers and food to Ninggu Pagoda.
It is said that in the seventh year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty (1650), Khabarov, the leader of Tsarist Russia, captured Yaksa in the upper reaches of Heilongjiang. In the fifteenth year of Shunzhi (1658), the Qing government ordered Ningguta Zhangjing Shaerhuda to lead a fleet of 1,400 people and 47 ships to defeat the Russian army at the mouth of the Songhua River.
In the 21st year of Kangxi's reign, in view of Tsarist Russia's invasion of Heilongjiang again, Kangxi made an eastward tour and inspected the Jilin Shipyard. With the beginning of the Battle of Yaksa three years later, the Qing army built a large number of warships, opened up a transportation trunk line throughout the Northeast for transporting military supplies, and opened more than a dozen docks along the Songhua River and Heilongjiang River. After the war, A large number of Manchu and Han officers and soldiers were left to garrison, which had a profound impact on the development of water transportation in the Heilongjiang Basin.
The "Yaksa Warship" has a total length of 20 meters, a deck width of four meters, a depth of two meters, a maximum draft of 1.2 meters, and a displacement of 52.8 tons. The shape of the entire warship is a flat bottom, square bow, and square tail. Both the bow and stern are tilted to adapt to the wind and waves in the river. The mast is 15 meters high, the sail area is 65 square meters, and there are sixteen oars on both sides. The oars are 4.5 meters long and can be paddled in a standing position. There are two stern oars at the stern, which are 6.15 meters long. There are two cannons on the bow of the ship. If calculated based on each soldier and 100 kilograms of supplies, each ship can carry 480 to 500 soldiers and 20 sailors (there is a model of this ship at the Military Expo.) A fleet of thirty warships can carry Transport about 5,000 troops.
Although Fukang'an was quite satisfied with the construction progress of the river warships, the sea warships he was extremely concerned about encountered serious setbacks. The officials of the Military Aircraft Department, including Fukang'an, are now in a dilemma because they have discovered that building sea-going ships, especially English gunboats, is not that simple at all.
It is said that after Fukang'an sent two servants to Guangzhou last year, he asked Shen Jichuan, the general manager of the Thirteenth Bank, to help find a solution.
For Shen Jichuan, Marshal Fu is his benefactor! In the first half of the forty-ninth year of Qianlong's reign, Fukang'an was appointed governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, and tried the case of Tan Dayuan, an elected official, accusing Shen Jichuan of sending military supplies and silver. Tan Dayuan, who finally complained, was dismissed from office and almost spanked and exiled.
The problem was that Shen Jichuan didn't know much about warships. It happened that the next day he was discussing business with a Scottish businessman named John Reed, and he accidentally mentioned a few words. Mr. Reed immediately seized the opportunity. He said he had authorization to sell warship blueprints.
Bullshit authorization! This Mr. Reed had nothing to do with the East India Company at all. What this guy had in his hand was a consular commission authorized by the King of Austria, which he obtained half with money.
From the early eighteenth century to the first half of the nineteenth century, this kind of spending money to buy letters of appointment was common among foreign merchants in Guangzhou. For example, Kirks, the boss of Kirks & Bills & Co. (the predecessor of Jardine Matheson & Co.), received a letter of appointment from the Swedish Navy. The later big opium dealer Diandi received a letter of appointment from the Kingdom of Sardinia.
In fact, this so-called identity was not recognized by the Qing customs, not even by the East India Company.
John Reed happened to have two sets of drawings of third-level battleships and fifth-level battleships obtained from the Hull Shipyard in England. After some haggling, the two sets of drawings were bought by Shen Jichuan at a high price of 30,000 taels of silver, and he was regarded as Marshal Xiaojingfu.
After Mr. Reed took the money, he was afraid that he would be discovered by the East India Company's Supervisory Committee in Guangzhou. So I didn't even buy any goods, got on the boat and quickly slipped back to Bangladesh.
When Shen Jichuan heard that Reed had left, he was worried about being cheated, so he took the drawings and went to the East India Company's supervisory committee in Guangzhou to inquire. Unexpectedly, after reading the drawings, people were shocked and told Shen Jichuan that the drawings were real. Shen Jichuan felt relieved after hearing this.
Later, after some insinuations, the East India Company's "Guangzhou Office" realized that the Qing government wanted to build warships. So I was extremely enthusiastic and helped make two warship cost lists according to the drawings. After Shen Jichuan got it, he saw that the cost figures were all in pounds, and he asked his men to convert the pounds into silver units.
(The price ratio between pounds and silver at the end of the 18th century needed to be converted into gold. Since 1774, Britain has implemented the gold standard. The gold content of one pound is 6.67 grams of gold, which is almost 0.178 taels; according to the Qianlong period, one tael of gold was exchanged for ten The official price of one tael is 37.5 grams, so one pound is 1.78 taels of silver.)
In this way, Fukang'an's two domestic slaves returned to Beijing with two sets of drawings and cost lists.
In November last year, when Yong Yan, He Shen, Qing Gui and others saw the two cost lists of British warships, they all gasped! Yong Yan's vision went dark at that time, and he almost carried it away before he could take a breath.
"This is too damn expensive!" Even He Shen couldn't help but be stunned on the spot.
The overall cost of a six-hundred-ton fifth-level battleship is twenty-three thousand taels of silver. As for a thousand-ton third-level battleship, the hull alone costs 12,000 taels of silver. If you add in the sail rigging, spare parts and on-board guns, the total cost will exceed 40,000 taels!
At the end of the 17th century, the British Royal Dockyard cost 9,176 pounds and 6,844 pounds to build a level 2 warship and a level 3 warship respectively. These costs did not even include sail rigging, spare parts and guns. wait. Pepys estimated that it would cost £4,800 to build a 600-ton warship, but when it was actually launched, the total cost including other costs on the ship would be about 13,000 pounds.
Yong Yan immediately called the Minister of Industry and asked about the current cost of naval ships.
The Minister of Industry reported that taking the Guangdong "Mi Boat" with the largest load capacity of our navy as an example (this type of ship is called "Tongan Suo Ship" in Fujian), the cost of the new ship is 4,378 taels of silver; the Chinese rice boat The cost is 3,620 taels. As for the big rush boat used by Fukang'an before, the cost was 1,115 taels.
At that time, Yong Yan handed over the cost list of the English gunboat to the Ministry of Industry for calculation. A group of officials worked hard for four or five days before reporting that, taking into account the need for overseas procurement of wood and the number of guns, the total price on the quotation was The cost is quite low.
When Yong Yan and He Shen heard this, their hearts skipped a beat. Why did they even have to buy the wood overseas? What about the cost of artillery?
The minister of the Ministry of Industry was a Mongolian. He was quite honest and he was a hard-working person. He said a few things, which meant that if the slaves didn’t work hard, it really couldn’t be done!
The first is the keel used by the English warship. It is all made of solid hardwood, and the joints are fixed with large copper nails. The inside and outside of the hull are wrapped with thick wooden boards, and the sides and bottom of the ship are covered with copper sheets.
And because our Qing Dynasty engaged in a "shipbuilding competition" with the Zheng family in Taiwan, the giant tree resources in the southeast were exhausted. Right now, if you want to buy large-scale timber, the only options are the mountains in the southwest and the northeast. However, considering the transportation conditions, it is more cost-effective to purchase in Siam.
It is said that at that time, the Zheng family relied on the abundant materials and profits obtained from maritime trade to purchase wood and shipbuilding in places such as Fujian and Zhejiang. Beginning in the 18th year of Kangxi's reign, the vigorous shipbuilding competition reached its climax. The Fuzhou Shipyard of the Qing Dynasty built 400 warships, Chaozhou built 100 ships, and Zhejiang built another 100 ships. As a result, after the Qing government announced the "Sea Exhibition Order", shipbuilding materials were in short supply and ship prices increased year by year.
The second is the issue of artillery. At present, among the rice boats of the Guangdong Navy, the largest one has a load capacity of more than 2,000 kilograms and is equipped with eight guns; the gun positions are all set up on the deck, and there is no place for the artillery to hide. Not to mention the big boats, which only have two cannons on the bow at most.
An English third-class battleship has two gun decks and 64 to 80 guns, including 26 24-pound guns, 26 12-pound guns, and 12 6-pound guns. Even a 600-ton warship has two gun decks and 26 to 54 guns.
At present, even if all the Wucheng Yonggu general guns (3,600 to 7,000 kilograms, 27-pound guns) in the country are added together, it is enough to build two ships.
Thirdly. Thirdly, the Mongolian minister did not dare to say this. If he said this, his head would be lost. He was determined to rot in his stomach. That is the 40-year maritime ban from Shunzhi to Kangxi, which made the shipbuilding technology of coastal shipyards extremely backward. Even if they had enough money, wood, and artillery, they would never be able to build it!
Moreover, with such a large sum of money for the project, it is unknown how many people worked on it during the construction period. Don't talk about others, the person in front of you, He Zhongtang, is going to make a big chunk out of it.
So Yong Yan and He Shen fell in love with each other.
He Shen said to Yong Yan at that time: "Fifteenth Master, the money is not bad, but this time alone is too late. Let alone purchasing the wood, the time for casting the cannon is not rushed. It takes a long time from the start of construction to the launch of the water. Seven months! And my slave heard that the maneuvering method of this English gunboat is completely different from that of our Great Qingming Navy warship. It has soft sails on it. A ship requires at least several hundred sailors and gunners. Train these people to cooperate skillfully and It will take at least a year or two. Slowing down will not help!"
The other bachelors in the Military Aircraft Department also rolled their eyes. It’s not that we don’t cooperate, we really don’t understand this! In desperation, Yong Yan had to report to Qianlong for instructions.
Qianlong was shocked by the cost when he heard it. But then he figured out that this time it was not to annihilate all the Oros people, but to make them "both fear the military power of the Celestial Empire and obey the moral character of the Celestial Empire." By driving them away, the goal was achieved.
Besides, what about third-level, first-level, second-level, third-level, Westerners’ strange skills and tricks? I have millions of soldiers on land in the Qing Dynasty. No matter how powerful the battleship is, can it still reach the land?
After clarifying this idea, Qianlong issued an edict to Agui and Fukang'an, who had just arrived in Wula, Jilin. It said that English gunboats were expensive to build and it was unnecessary to start building barbarian ships. However, you are allowed to build more artillery and troop transport ships in Jilin to make up for the lack of sea firepower.
After receiving the imperial edict, Agui and Fukangan saw that the battleship could not be built, so they had no choice but to modify their marching strategy.
The original plan of the two of them was to gather the maritime fleet in the Niuzhuang area and cooperate with the land army to completely annihilate the enemies at the mouth of the Xila River in June and July.
Now that the sea has been moved (RUA), we can only build more artillery and strengthen land power. First, the army was transported from Wula City in Jilin to Ninggu Pagoda via the Songhua River waterway, and then moved eastward from Ninggu Pagoda to Fuldan City. After that, the army started from Fuldan City and divided into two groups, attacking eastward from the Furjaha River, passing through the Sikhet Mountains, and attacking southward, making sure to drive the "Oros" out of the country.
If you look at it this way, 15,000 people are still not enough. Fukang'an was Han Xin's order of troops, and the more the better. He sent three memorials to Qianlong in April, requesting the recruitment of another five thousand to ten thousand troops.
Agui, on the other hand, is a veteran in military affairs. He has been working under Zhang Guangsi in Jinchuan since the 13th year of Qianlong's reign. He is very familiar with all matters on the battlefield. Nowadays, the road is clear of ice and snow, making it easier for traffic. He decided to use a two-pronged approach. First, he sent an envoy to go to the mouth of the Xila River with Anthony as a guise to persuade the E people to leave on their own, so as to make the enemy paralyzed; second, he recruited brave border people in Ningguta and Hunchun to cooperate with them. The scouts scouted the mountains and rivers along the way and made preparations for the army to move eastward and southward.
In early May, as dozens of laborers headed by Shu Haili joined the demolition and reconstruction army of Fuldan City, Fuldan City was finally occupied by Beihai Town without bloodshed.
Because of the cold weather and Zhao Xin's special instructions, migrant workers and soldiers usually wear cotton hats when going out. So people like Shu Haili didn't even notice that the people in Beihai Town didn't have braids on their heads.
By mid-May, the city of Fuldan, which had completed major demolition work, had a completely new look. The original east and west fort gates were enlarged to accommodate four two-wheeled carriages passing side by side; the two small gates in the north and south were also enlarged to accommodate two carriages traveling side by side. The inner and outer walls of the castle were reinforced with wooden piles, and the uneven tops of the walls were smoothed.
Inside the castle, several huge wooden structures have risen from the ground. The construction platform for laying exterior walls and roofs has been set up, and workers are applying fire-fighting paint to the wooden structures; later, color steel plate walls and roofs will be laid. . This will be used as a war readiness material warehouse to store food, feed, medical supplies and other materials.
Liu Siting's medical station has been built. Three large wood-carved rooms will be used as operating rooms, surrounded by tents for wounded soldiers.
Another wooden suite is used as a logistics headquarters, and Chen Qingsong will come to sit here to direct logistics.
In the old city of Jurgen, two kilometers west of Fuldan City, trench defenses have begun to be dug. The entire defensive position is laid out from northwest to southeast, divided into two sections, with a total length of three kilometers.
Digging trenches is a very learned thing. First of all, the selection of the position must meet three conditions: the first is that the soil does not collapse and is relatively soft, so that it is easy for the soldiers to dig and transform; secondly, the water level is low, so that water will not appear when digging deeply. Once water emerges, it will not only affect the defense line, but also affect the morale of the soldiers; the last one is that there should not be too many rocks. In addition to being conducive to excavation, during the enemy's shelling, if these rocks are exploded, then the gravel will be will become a weapon of destruction.
The area around Jurgen Old City belongs to the Sanjiang Plain. The soil here is very soft and there are almost no rocks. However, because there are many swamps nearby and the soil moisture content is very high, excavators often seep out a large amount of water during construction. At this time, arrangements must be made for pumping water and laying anti-seepage materials.
Zhao Xin was completely indifferent to the construction of fortifications. He could only dig trenches based on the information at hand and the height of the soldiers in Beihai Town. The depth of all defense lines and traffic trenches was 1.8 meters, the top width was 80 centimeters, and the bottom width was Sixty centimeters. Firing platforms were dug out every eighty centimeters in the trenches for riflemen and machine gunners. All machine gun firepower points are divided into two levels, one is forward on the flank, and the other is on the flank of the first-line trench.
In addition, he also deployed ten "ZU-23" horizontal firing positions on the flanks of the two fortifications. Thick earth walls will be built around the preset anti-aircraft gun positions.
In the middle area between the old city of Jurgen and the city of Fuldan is an artillery position consisting of five D30 guns. This thing Zhao Xin can only copy the deployment method of the German army during World War II.
The diameter of each artillery firing position is 10 meters, and in the center is a circular launching platform with a pit depth of 0.5 meters and a diameter of about 6.4 meters; the ground and pit walls of the platform are paved with logs. A 0.5-meter-high protective wall was formed around the launch pad with three layers of logs, and the outside of the wooden wall was reinforced with soil.
There are two artillery shell storage points, one is the artillery shell storage point located in the pit on the front side of the artillery, and the other is the artillery shell storage point located in the V-shaped pit on the rear wall of the firing position. The purpose of the corner pit is to prevent being hit by enemy artillery and weaken the damage caused by the explosion of ammunition. Directly behind the artillery position is a ramp for artillery access. Each artillery position will be connected by a communication trench at the rear. After the artillery is stationed, a company will be arranged here to defend against enemy sneak attacks.
On May 15, Liu Sheng ordered Serdan and Elu to each lead a reconnaissance team. Conduct reconnaissance along both sides of the post road to Hunchun, and eliminate or drive away the Qing troops at Karen outposts along the way.
After Zhao Xin set off in Serdan, he immediately returned to Beihai Town through the jade pendant. He ordered Deng Fei to go to Ezo and lead Pan Xiucheng and Liji's two companies as well as the Shachuan people to attack Matsumae City; Wang Yuanfang and Ding Guofeng led a force of 3,000 people to go north to Fuldan City; Zhang Bo, Liu Zheng, and Yalha led A team of 2,000 migrant workers, including Maosuke, followed Wang Yuanfang and the others to the north. Wu Siyu, the unpromising one, asked to stay and garrison Beihai Town.
(End of chapter)
