In the early morning at the end of May, as the thick fog had just dissipated, the dock near Chita in Tsarist Russia also ushered in chaos and noise.
Dozens of barges and log rafts coming from Irkutsk have appeared in people's sight on the dock. Some of these boats are packed with immigrants, some are carrying restless cattle, and some are loading Full of hay, grain seeds, farm tools and the like.
In the hold of the barge, farmers who had migrated from Tobolsk and Yeniseysk provinces mingled with Cossack prisoners recently released from their Siberian penal colonies. Drinking, swearing, frowning, and more people are full of fear and anxiety about their future life. They quietly look outside through the window railings on the barge.
Since Catherine II determined the plan to attack the Heilongjiang Basin, in order to achieve the goal of rapid immigration after the invasion of the Far East, General Suvorov suggested that Catherine II move from exile to Tobolsk Province and Yekaterina Ten thousand serfs in Niseisk Province were selected and sent to the Irkutsk Territory to reclaim wasteland in order to reduce the logistical supply pressure on the army next year. After the attack plan is completed, these people will be transported to the Heilongjiang Basin.
In 1767, Catherine II issued an order prohibiting peasants from suing their masters. From then on, any accusations brought by serfs against landowners were considered false accusations and were punishable by life-long exile. In the next five years, more than 20,000 serfs were exiled to Tobolsk and Yeniseisk provinces alone.
On a barge waiting to dock, a Cossack man wearing a dirty and torn pullover and a pair of old riding boots with open mouths was drinking from a bottle and humming out of tune. folk songs. He looked around, then suddenly turned around and approached a beautiful girl wearing a square shawl. He shook the bottle in his hand and said, "Girl, we are finally here. Come on, let's celebrate with a sip of vodka." .”
The girl was only thirteen years old. She pulled the shawl with some fear, covering half of her face, and turned her head to the woman holding a child next to her. The woman had a sad look on her face, and she and her husband were sitting on the luggage package behind them.
Seeing that the girl was ignoring her, the Cossack man reached out and pinched the girl's face gently, saying, "Who are you showing me with such a sad face? Are you afraid that you won't be able to find a man in the future? What do you think of me?"
The girl screamed and hid in the woman's arms. The woman's husband, who had been silent all this time, jumped up, grabbed the Cossack by the collar, and said angrily: "You dirty drunkard! She She’s my niece, if you dare to touch her again, I’ll throw you into the river to feed the fish!”
The drunkard cursed: "Egor, what are you in a hurry? Polya is not married to anyone she marries." Just as he was about to continue, he saw many sullen Cossacks in the cabin looking at him angrily, and he couldn't help but be frightened. I have to stop talking. After Yegor pushed him away, the drunkard walked towards the cabin door angrily.
At this time, the beautiful Polya suddenly burst into tears in the woman's arms. The woman reached out and stroked Polya's blond hair, comforting: "Child, don't cry, everything will be fine. Forget about them, they are already in heaven now."
As she spoke, the woman herself began to cry. A sigh suddenly sounded in the cabin.
Polya came from Yenisei Province. Two months ago, her family won a lottery and had to move again. People and animals were mixed along the way, and the air in the cabin was poor. Her parents and a dozen immigrants all contracted scurvy and died. They were finally wrapped in white cloth, tied with stones, and sunk into the river for burial.
Now that the destination has arrived, she is the only one left in the family. Is this the happy life that officials talk about?
Yegor is Polya's uncle, of course he can take her in. However, because Yegor's two cows could not get water on the boat, they broke the rope and jumped into the river. In the end, they were strangled to death by the barge behind them. How can farmers farm without cattle?
Poor Yegor took out his pipe, smoked the bitter and spicy local tobacco leaves, and murmured to himself: "God, why do you want us to leave our homes?"
The cabin door opened, and an officer in charge of the escort stuck his head out and said to everyone in the cabin: "We've arrived, everyone, get off the boat!"
At this time, a disheveled guy stood up and said to the officer: "Hey, officer, can you make a fortune by bringing me here from Irkutsk?"
The officer said calmly: "You can make a fortune if you dare to sacrifice your life. Why, do you still dare to question the Governor's words?"
The Cossack holding the wine bottle at the door glanced at the officer and asked, "Are there many women here?"
The officer rolled his eyes at him and continued to yell at the cabin: "Hurry up! Everyone get off the ship!"
So the timid farmers got up, shouldered their luggage and packages, and got off the barge amidst the noise, crying, and complaining.
More than ten days later, the Yegor family followed the foreman to a camp south of Chita. The original felt-like grass here has disappeared and been replaced by densely packed tent camps. Not far away, at the edge of the forest, a large area of tree stumps left after felling was exposed.
Yegor's job is to go to the forest every day to cut down trees, then remove the branches from the felled trees, saw them into wooden boards, and finally send them to the drying room for drying. I heard from the foreman that these wood are reserved for next year's shipbuilding. And not just here, large-scale logging and land reclamation work is going on from Chita to Nerchinsk, from Barguzin to Selengesk.
Speaking of shipbuilding in Tsarist Russia in the 18th century, it was really destroying the forest. Relying on rich forest resources, a large part of the newly built inland barges every year are disposable. That is to say, after one transportation is completed, it will be sold directly as firewood, and another batch will be made next year. Even by the mid-19th century, there were more than 20,000 ships plying the rivers in Russia every year, and nearly 70% of them were sold as firewood after unloading their cargo.
As the instigator of this invasion plan, Ivan Jacobi knew better than anyone else that to occupy the Heilongjiang Basin, killing alone would not work; having people under official governance was a symbol of sovereignty. He used lies such as that the bottom of Heilongjiang was paved with gold and that he would be happy when he got there, to bring these yeoman farmers, serfs and prisoners together in order to realize his immigration strategy.
Relying on the Ob River-Irtysh River system, a large number of military supplies and immigrants were transported from Kazan to Eastern Siberia, and then transported all the way to Irkutsk through the Yenisei River system.
In order to prevent the invasion plan from being leaked in advance, Ivan Jacobi set up the gathering points of troops and supplies in Irkutsk and Chita. Because it is located in the upper reaches of the Heilongjiang River, when the offensive begins next year, all ships will move down the river and it will only take a few days to cross the border.
At the same time, groups of spies disguised as nomadic Mongols began to move toward the Sino-Russian border between Selengesk and Nerchinsk, waiting for opportunities to cross the border. Their mission is to cross the border to spy on information, obtain hydrological data, and at the same time find opportunities to instigate the Khalkha Mongolian tribe and Beihai Town.
"Three, two, one, detonate!"
"boom!!!"
A roar like a thunderbolt suddenly resounded through the wilderness, and a large amount of soil and gravel flew into the air more than 20 meters and scattered to the ground. The rising smoke and dust lingered for a long time. The migrant workers hiding in the bunker a few hundred meters away had never seen such a scene in their lives. They all covered their ears and turned pale with fear.
Fan Tong, wearing a safety helmet, popped up from behind a bunker. Looking at the thick smoke billowing in the distance, he said excitedly: "It's so exciting!"
Cao Peng, who was responsible for operating the blasting, said with a proud face: "This is where we are. In a few days, there will be a mountain blasting at Whale Bay, which will be even more exciting."
Fan Tong asked curiously: "Exploding mountains?"
"Yeah, I heard that a seaport town is going to be built over there. There is a hill that is too much in the way." Cao Peng closed the cover of the detonator and asked: "We will organize a shooting at the shooting range tomorrow. Will you go?"
Fan Tong said: "I heard Wu Ping'an talk about it this morning, but I ignored him."
Cao Peng smiled and said, "Are you still angry with him?"
Fan Tong arrived two weeks ago with the last batch of fifteen people recruited. After they got off the plane, Wu Ping An drove them to Vladivostok for two days, and then took them to Zhao Xin's small ranch.
After one night, when Fan Tong finally understood, he was already in the eighteenth century. In anger, Fan Tong could do nothing to Zhao Xin and could only curse Wu An'an as an old liar.
Fortunately, Wu Ping'an has been a leader for many years and is very good at appeasing people. He told Fan Tong that although there are no blond girls here, there are also many girls from island countries. Whichever one you like, I'll help you be a matchmaker, brother.
Fan Tong had no choice but to sign the trust document. He idled around in Beihai Town for a few days and wandered around. He found that the island girl in this time and space was not who he imagined at all, so he jumped up and scolded Wu Ping'an again, saying that he was So fooled. After that, I finally came to the blasting site to help. In fact, I just came to see what was new.
Cao Peng laughed for a while and then said: "You, don't even think about it, how many good-looking people can be found in those who have been working hard for many years. I heard Fatty Chen from the Civil Affairs Bureau say before that these people used to be hungry people. Like zombies in movies.”
The two of them were chatting while the person responsible for inspecting the explosion site finished checking all the explosion points and announced that the alert was lifted. As sharp whistles sounded in various bunkers, thousands of migrant workers entered the blasting site to clean up the stones.
Fan Tong leisurely picked up the thermos bottle and was about to refill the tea. He found that the kettle was empty, so he called to a young man seven or eight meters away: "Chun is coming, go get a pot of hot water."
After hearing this, Chun Lai quickly walked into the bunker and went out to fetch water with an empty thermos. He was transferred from the town office of Fuldan City. On the surface, he took care of the daily life of the people on the construction site and helped dispatch migrant workers, but in fact he was a "little spy" installed by Zhao Xin.
Wu Ping An is currently in charge of the construction of the Beihai Town Thermal Power Plant, while Zhao Xin and Chen Qingsong each have their own busy schedules. According to what Zhao Xin and Wu An'an had previously agreed upon, the more than a hundred new travelers would be under Wu An'an's own control.
There are specialties in the art industry, Zhao Xin understands this. But even though he didn't interfere, the gold medal spy still made some arrangements. So whether it's a power plant construction site or the daily life of these newcomers, he can know any trouble.
A few days later, Fan Tong was transferred to another construction site by Wu Ping'an, responsible for the road construction from the port to the power plant area. This road will be used to transport coal from the port to the power plant in the future, so the requirements for the road are very high. The roadbed will be excavated in the early stage, and then paved with stones, and finally the road surface will be hardened. In order to reduce further troubles in the future, all roads, water supply and drainage, circuits, etc. in the project must be constructed in advance. In these days, there is no need for seven connections and one leveling. Three connections and one leveling are enough.
At the turn of spring and summer, there are many major projects to be launched in Beihai Town, including thermal power plants, small fertilizer plants for producing synthetic ammonia, and the entire Whale Bay port project. The Portuguese engineer Pereira now followed Zhao Xin's instructions and began to survey and design the military port to the east. Unlike Whale Bay, two breakwaters and several forts were to be built on the military port.
In June, the exercise headquarters issued an order for the troops from the Beihai Town training base to go north in batches. At the same time, during the march north, all units were required to conduct day and night combat exercises with actual troops in company units.
The scale of this troop mobilization is based on battalions, and each batch is two battalions. The purpose of this is to allow each battalion to conduct actual military exercises in advance on the way to Fuldan City, so as to mobilize the enthusiasm of each department to participate in the exercise. At the same time, it also enables each department to become familiar with various tactical actions before the official start of the exercise.
So on the way from Beihai Town to Fuldan City, the wild animals in the mountains and forests were made to panic by the sudden intrusion of humans and were exhausted. Pheasants, wild boars, roe deer and the like became the meals of the first few groups of troops, and they were regarded as tooth-beating sacrifices.
Because it was the first time to conduct a confrontation exercise during the march, each battalion made various mistakes. Some were mistakes by the commanders, and some were tactical errors by the soldiers; as for the lack of proper maintenance of the firearms, and the lack of experience in night fighting in the mountains and forests, it was a joke.
For example, a certain company is responsible for defense, and the fixed sentry posts responsible for duty must dig trenches and clear the firing range. As a result, some people used too much force, dug the trench too deep, and the surrounding grass was not cleared away. When the opponent crawled up, he couldn't see anything and was directly blocked in the trench.
Some troops practiced defensive shooting at night, and all the machine guns on the position fired at the same time, not even leaving spare ones. The result is a simultaneous ceasefire and loading of bullets.
What's more, the platoon leader of a certain platoon asked his men to run behind and report the situation to the company commander. Without saying a word, the soldier stood up and ran towards the back. In just a few dozen meters, he was scratched by countless branches and tripped by countless tree roots. After he finished reporting the situation, he turned around and continued running. Halfway there, he realized that the shouting in front of him had stopped. A closer look revealed that the platoon had been completely wiped out. The situation he just reported was tantamount to farts.
(End of chapter)
