When the sailboat from Okhotsk approached the Thor, the eyes of the Tsarist Russians on board showed extremely complex expressions, including shock, confusion, envy, and a variety of emotions.
The first person to walk up the gangway was a stout local official. The man wore a black three-cornered hat decorated with a beige ribbon, and a patch of silver-gray curly hair was exposed from the brim of the hat. His cheeks were cleanly shaved, and he had two delicate mustaches on his upper lip. This person was wearing a silk cotton coat embroidered with gold on his upper body and leggings shorts on his lower body. He walked on the gangway with his head held high.
It is said that in order to get rid of Russia's barbaric and ignorant image in the minds of Europeans, Peter I levied a "beard tax" on men in his country who wanted to grow beards. Xucai became popular again.
Following closely was the priest (priest) of the local church. He looked at the high gangway, first made the sign of the cross on his chest, muttered something, and then walked up.
Following the priest came ten Cossack soldiers in green military uniforms. They wore sheepskin "papaha" on their heads, carried flintlock muskets on their shoulders, and hung a saber on their waists. This outfit is exactly the same as the Cossacks captured on Bitterleaf Island before.
After the group of people slowly walked onto the deck along the gangway, they were all stunned by the sight in front of them. The towering ship building is like a dazzling white castle, and the wide deck covered with red paint is as big as the playground in the military camp. In addition to two huge door-like covers on it, there are two unknown objects. They were all covered with a colorful canvas and covered tightly. In addition, standing on the deck turned out to be a group of strangely dressed Orientals.
Oriental? ! The official who walked onto the deck first was stunned for a moment, and then quickly reacted. He put on a smile and said loudly: "Welcome, friends from afar! I am the director of the Okhotsk Customs - Petro Grigorievich. I would like to represent The people of Okhotsk welcome you. Which of you is the captain of this great sea castle?"
On the deck, two companies of Beihai Town soldiers stood in four rows, standing tall with their guns in hand. The other sailors were all busy with their own business, and no one spoke to them at all. Because they had no idea what the guy in front of them, who was wearing a black tricorn hat and dressed like a clown, was saying.
Seeing that there was no response from the sailors on the ship, Petro Grigorievich felt a little unhappy, but he still changed to French and repeated it.
"I am the captain of this ship, my surname is Ding." Just when Petro Grigorievich was at his wits' end, a tall oriental man in his thirties walked out of the ship's building, speaking in English Said loudly.
Yes, Ding Guofeng's height of 1.78 meters is indeed very tall for Russians of this era. If it weren't for his extremely prominent oriental face and English, Petro Grigorievich would even think that he was The man wearing a snow-white uniform is a European nobleman. Tall Europeans in these days are generally aristocrats, because only aristocrats do not have to run around for three meals a day since they were young. As their nutrition improves, they will naturally grow taller.
"English?" The customs commissioner looked at Ding Guofeng, who was two meters away, and muttered in his heart, feeling a little disdainful. The lingua franca of Europeans in these days is French, and if a gentleman does not know French, it is a sign of lack of education.
"I'm sorry, my English is not very good. After all, we don't have many British people coming here." Petrol Grigorievich's English was stumbling, so Ding Guofeng also listened in confusion.
"So, distinguished gentlemen, are you British?"
Ding Guofeng understood now, so he shook his head and replied word for word: "No, we are Chinese."
Chinese? Qing Dynasty? The country ruled by the Tatars? Petro Grigorievich thought to himself: When did the Tatars have such a big sea ship?
At this time, the priest beside him suddenly said: "I am very happy to meet my friends from China. I am the local priest Semyon Kiselevsky. My Chinese name is Xie Anhua."
wipe! Ding Guofeng thought to himself that this priest would only do it if he didn't open his mouth, but when he opened his mouth, people would be shocked!
"Um...Hello. Why do you speak Chinese?"
"As a member of the Sixth Orthodox Mission in Beijing, I arrived in China's capital at the end of the 36th year of Qianlong's reign. I lived there for eleven years. It was really a nostalgic time." Xie Anhua's official words It was a bit stumbling, after all, he had been away from China for several years.
Great, there was actually a missionary who had stayed in the capital. Ding Guofeng decided not to fiddle with his half-baked English. He calculated that it was the fifty-second year of Qianlong's reign, and this man had been to Beijing sixteen years ago. In his excitement, he blurted out out of nowhere: "Do you know Father Macarius?"
Historically, starting in 1728, for nearly two hundred years, the Orthodox missions stationed in Beijing did not regard proselytizing as their mission. Instead, they allowed the descendants of Tsarist Russian captives in the Battle of Yaksa to maintain their Orthodox faith. Most of their years in Beijing were spent learning Chinese and Manchu. After returning to Irkutsk, some of these people stayed there to preach, while others returned to Petersburg and were promoted to bishops.
In fact, from the 18th century to the early 19th century, China’s influence on Tsarist Russia in all aspects was greater than we imagined, and the development of Russian Sinology began from this point on. In the words of later Russians, due to the particularly advanced military science and political management in ancient China, the then young Russian civilization was able to draw nutrients from the "Dragon Well" of China.
Xie Anhua beamed and said, "Do you know Macarius? That's great! We met once in Irkutsk, and then he went to Urup Island to preach. I haven't heard of him for several years. I’ve received news about him. How did you get to know him?”
Ding Guofeng thought to himself: Why do I talk so much? So he thought: "Father Ma is a guest at our place. Now he is a doctor in our hospital."
"Hospital?"
The two men asked and answered questions in Chinese, leaving the customs commissioner aside. Petro Grigorievich hurriedly asked Xie Anhua: "Your Excellency, what are you talking about?"
After he finished listening to Xie Anhua's explanation, he said, "Your Excellency, Priest, are they the envoys of the Qing Emperor?"
After listening to Xie Anhua's translation, Ding Guofeng shook his head seriously and said, "No, we have nothing to do with the Qing Dynasty."
"Oh, you are Chinese, and you have nothing to do with the Qing Dynasty? Then you must not be Chinese. Because as far as I know, every Chinese is a subject of the Qing Emperor. But the problem is that you also say that you have nothing to do with the Qing Dynasty. It doesn't matter, then where did you come from?" Petro Grigorievich said a lot to Ding Guofeng, almost making him faint.
"We...we are the Beihai Navy." Ding Guofeng said in his heart that "Beihai Town" was too unimpressive. The town sounded shabby.
"Beijing Navy?" The customs commissioner was very surprised. He recalled it carefully, then shook his head and said he had never heard of it.
Ding Guofeng said to Xie Anhua: "This, this priest, I will call you Father Xie. Please help me translate the next words to the customs commissioner."
Xie Anhua said: "This is my honor, Captain."
Ding Guofeng took out a piece of paper from the pocket of his snow-white uniform, opened it, cleared his throat and said: "The Northern Navy is informing the Russian government that since 1783 AD, Sakhalin Island (Sakhalin is Manchu), Kuri The four southern islands of the Seoul Islands (i.e. the Thousand Islands) are all Northern Navy territory, and any docking or landing on the islands without our permission will be regarded as aggression...I hereby inform you!"
What? Xie Anhua wondered if he heard wrongly.
Seeing Ding Guofeng reading solemnly to a piece of paper, Customs Commissioner Petrolo Grigorievich hurriedly said to Xie Anhua: "Father, what is he talking about? Please translate it to me immediately."
Father Xie translated helplessly, and Petro Grigorievich suddenly became furious: "How ridiculous! The Kuril Islands were discovered by us Russians seventy years ago, and they are not anyone's territory at all!"
Ding Guofeng sneered: "That has been the territory of the Ainu people since ancient times. We have obtained the consent of the Great Ainu Kingdom, and he has transferred all four islands south of Urup Island to us."
Xie Anhua finally realized what he said and asked Ding Guofeng: "Sir, according to your opinion, is Macarius captured by you?"
Ding Guofeng nodded and said: "Yes, they went to the island to preach and build churches without our permission. After some education from us, Markarius and Ferapontov changed their ways and decided to atone for their sins." In the form of lifelong service to Beihai Town."
Xie Anhua's nose turned crooked when he heard this. He thought to himself: "How come there are more shameless people in the world than the British?"
After listening to Xie Anhua's translation, Petro Grigorievich suppressed his anger and glared at Ding Guofeng: "What did you do to our personnel stationed in northern Sakhalin?"
Ding Guofeng said with an arrogant look: "Who gave you the authority to go to Sakhalin? That has been China's territory since ancient times! There is only one fate for invaders."
At this time, the ten Cossack soldiers also noticed something was wrong. Just as they were about to pick up their muskets, dozens of Beihai Town soldiers already had their guns in their hands, with the black muzzles pointing directly at them.
"Put down the gun! Don't be impulsive!" Petro Grigorievich shouted hurriedly.
Ding Guofeng said: "You little brat, you still want to take action?" He waved his hand to a crew member and motioned for him to come over.
"Open the hatch and let them see the prisoners!"
"yes!"
The huge gray steel hatch slowly seemed to rise. Xie Anhua cautiously walked to the edge and looked down. The people inside also raised their heads and looked up.
"Father! Father, save us!"
"Dear Kiselevsky, is it really you? I am still alive to see you. Thank God!"
Hearing the screams for help coming from the warehouse, Petro Grigorievich also came over. This sight made his fair cheeks become even paler.
"Oh my God! Grigorievich, you are here too. Get us out quickly."
"These are the people we sent to Sakhalin..." The customs director was stunned. He took a quick look and found that there were more than a hundred people locked up in the cargo hold. Among these people, he did not see a single Cossack soldier.
Ding Guofeng said to Xie Anhua: "We captured a total of 956 crew members. This time we brought 900 people, and the other seriously injured people stayed in Sakhalin for treatment."
The crew of a three-masted sailing battleship in the 18th century required at least more than 270 people; for a large battleship, it required seven to eight hundred people, like a sea fortress. The fact that Okhotsk can send four three-masted sailboats this time is already unprecedented. You must know that this town currently only has a total population of 2,000 people.
"Mr. Captain, please be kind to these people. I need to go back and report to Chief Ogren immediately!" Like a rabbit bitten by a snake, Petro Grigorievich suddenly woke up and shouted to him. Ding Guofeng said.
Ding Guofeng followed Zhao Xin's example and nodded and smiled: "No problem, I'll give you one day. You can also take this statement back with you."
...
More than an hour later, when Okhotsk Administrator Kaslov Ogren listened to the reports from the customs director and Xie Anhua, he angrily swept everything on the desk to the ground with his hand.
"They are provoking the Empire and Her Majesty the Queen! They are declaring war!"
The customs commissioner said: "Yes, you are absolutely right! But Mr. Ogren, the first thing we have to do is how to get them to release the captured crew members."
Xie Anhua also lost no time in interjecting: "Yes, Mr. Ogren. These pagans slaughtered three hundred Cossacks without mercy. They are not gentlemen, but devils in hell. God will curse them." Yes! But those children are innocent, we should rescue them."
Ogren calmed down after venting. He picked up the "statement" from the ground, which he didn't recognize a word of. He slowly sat back on the chair, looked at Xie Anhua and said: "My priest, tell me what those Chinese people are still saying." What requests were made?”
"In addition to what is said on the paper, they also require that our ships going south in the future are not allowed to dock at the above-mentioned islands without permission." Xie Anhua said while observing Ogren's face carefully.
"They demanded that we must abide by the provisions of the Treaty of Nerchinsk and not send any more expeditions into the mouth of the Amur River. Because according to them, those places have been Chinese territory since a thousand years ago..."
Ogren slapped his hand on the table angrily and shouted: "Nonsense! These damn Chinese, I'm going to beat them to death with a whip! Who do they think they are? They want to conquer the empire with a big white ship" Be patient. How many cannons are there on the ship?"
The customs director tried his best to recall, and then confirmed: "Well, we didn't see the artillery."
"you sure?"
"Yes, Your Excellency, although there are all kinds of strange mechanical equipment on the main deck of that ship, we did not see a single artillery piece..."
Ogren was stunned for a moment, then interrupted: "What about the gun deck?"
"This is exactly what I want to report to you next. That ship does not have a gun deck."
"Grigorievich, do you mean to say that it was just a merchant ship?"
"I think so, and it's a merchant ship covered in steel."
"Oh my God!" Ogren gasped suddenly. He stared into the eyes of the customs commissioner. This news was simply unbelievable to him! A country that can build huge merchant ships covered entirely with steel, what will their warships look like?
"In addition, there are a thousand elite musketeers on their ship, and Captain Ding showed us hundreds of them. Your Excellency, this is really not an opponent we can deal with."
After a long silence, Kaslov Ogren decided to focus the negotiations on the release of the captured crew. Facing a force that could defeat three hundred Cossack musketeers, capture four warships, and even build a large ship out of steel, he simply did not dare to start a war.
Orgren didn't want to let Okhotsk fall into ruins because of his recklessness. So he said: "Okay, let's discuss how to get those poor young people back."
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