On September 27, 1788, just as the people in the Irkutsk City Council learned about the capture of Verkhnokhnudinsk, the fleet of the Northern Navy crossed Lake Baikal and sailed into the Angara River.
Not to mention that the seals in the lake were frightened by the roar of the motors of the Northern Navy fleet, and the unsuspecting citizens of Irkutsk soon discovered this strange fleet, and they gathered on the river bank to watch. The patrol boat of the Northern Navy responsible for clearing the way saw a sloop flying a double-headed eagle flag sailing out of the dock and approaching it, and asked Zhao Xin how to deal with it.
"Fire! Sink it!"
As a deafening "bang bang bang" sound sounded, the onlookers of Irkutsk citizens saw three soldiers and an officer on the sailboat suddenly explode like a smashed watermelon, and their limbs were broken. It fell into the river with a rain of blood, and then a fire broke out on the wooden boat.
The city has developed from a winter hut for more than 120 years and has never been invaded by foreign enemies. They seem to have forgotten that in the spring, troops and fleets set off to attack China; later, when Suvorov issued a conscription order, there were still people eager to sign up, hoping to go to China to get a vote.
Now the Chinese revenge is coming!
Under the blockade of the 50-pound machine gun on the patrol boat, it was difficult for the local defenders who hurriedly fought to get close to the dock. Even if someone wanted to move the cannon, it was too late.
As the North Korean navy began to disembark, a dense rain of bullets and grenades blew up the fish market near the pier. The fish and shrimps that were too late to clean up flew everywhere with the explosion of grenades. Normally, they can only wag their tails and beg for food. The cat and dog disappeared from sight in the blink of an eye with the unexpected harvest in their mouths. The Cossack soldiers who came one after another from the castle were either riddled with bullets or died in the explosion of grenades.
As the church bells in the city rang rapidly, the residents of Irkutsk who did not have solid mansions had no time to pack up their belongings and ran into the Kremlin to take shelter.
The local Kremlin is a fortress of wood and stone. Except for the Church of the Savior with a masonry structure, the rest of the interior is made of wood. Fortunately, the exterior wall is a mixture of masonry and stone, and is already slightly dilapidated.
Viewed in plan, the Kremlin in Irkutsk is a square with a side length of 130 meters and a wall height of 7 meters. There are eight towers built; three next to the Angara River, 20 meters high, three on the mountain side, 17 meters high, and one in the center of the east and west walls.
In fact, had it not been for the sudden attack by the Northern Navy, this fortress would have almost no military significance; a fire thirteen years ago almost completely destroyed the city center, and the local city council has decided to demolish the fortress. Things like administrative buildings, customs buildings, barracks and gunpowder magazines are all outside the castle.
When the wealthy businessmen and city councilors heard the news of the invasion, they all ran to take shelter in the three-story solid building built with white strips of stone on the embankment of the Angara River. This is the local administrative building. In another time and space, it has been preserved until modern times and is called the "White House" of Irkutsk.
Zhao Xin was not in a hurry to attack the city. His intention was to exhaust Irkutsk's resistance before deciding. So the North Navy had no time to build fortifications in the open space next to the fish market, waiting for armed resistance to be organized in the city.
"Mihailovich, what should we do?"
Facing the question from Councilor Basnin, Mayor Sibiliakov asked an officer running back from the fish market: "Major Grigory, how many are there?"
The major replied: "Sir, the enemy only has a few hundred people, but their weapons are so powerful that we can't even get close without suffering heavy casualties."
"Fight them back!"
"Destroy them!"
Sibiliakov slapped the table and shouted: "They destroyed my fish market! Call all the adult men in the city immediately and open the gunpowder magazine! I want them to have a taste of their power!"
The reason why this man can be the mayor, besides being rich, is that he has a strong fist and no one in the city dares to mess with him. His favorite thing to do on weekdays is to ride in a carriage and drive around the city. As long as he notices a dispute or other troubles in someone's house, Siberiakov will immediately jump out of the carriage and rush in to arrest him if he thinks he is guilty. The guy banged his hammer until the other person bowed his head and admitted his mistake.
At this time, the bishop of the Church of the Savior came to dissuade him: "Your Excellency, Mayor, we should send someone to talk to those bandits to find out what they want to do. After all, we don't even know who they are and where they come from. I don’t even know yet!”
Sibiliakov nodded and said: "What you said makes sense, then how about you, the respected bishop, be responsible for communicating with those people?"
At this time, Basin, the local wealthy businessman and councilor, said: "I am willing to accompany the bishop."
Major Gregory said: "I'll go too, just to get a better understanding of the opponent's strength."
Two hours later, the three people with pale faces returned to the administrative building, and the news they sent back surprised everyone at home.
"What? You said they are Chinese?"
"Oh God, God bless! The Governor was also captured by them?"
"Yes, Count Jacobi also had one of his hands chopped off by them."
"These devils!"
"How much do they want to redeem the city?"
Basnin poured himself a glass of wine and drank it down before continuing: "Gentlemen, the Chinese are not just here for revenge, they want to occupy this place and turn it into their land!"
What? ! Everyone in the room was stunned. occupied? From now on, each of us will have to shave our heads like the people of the Qing Dynasty, and put a rat tail on the back of our head?
The Chinese do not believe in Christ. What will happen to our churches in the future? Change it to a lamasery? God, this is so bad!
Seeing that the room became as noisy as a vegetable market, Mayor Sibiliakov banged his big fist on the table several times and shouted: "Shut up, everyone! Listen to what he has to say! Who is it?" If he makes any more noise, I'll tell him to get out!"
Basnin showed a confused look at this time and said to everyone: "Major Gregory's judgment is correct. There are indeed not many Chinese coming. However, we observed their soldiers carefully and they did not wear braids." , but got a short haircut.”
The bishop added at this time: "They say they are Seris people, descendants of the Ming Empire two hundred years ago."
Representative Dudorovsky who was present suddenly said: "Your Excellency, Bishop, what are you talking about? What about Siris, from the Ming Empire?"
The bishop quickly explained: "Gentlemen, Seris is Latin, which was the name of that country in ancient Rome."
Hey, isn’t that still China?
Even though the congressmen present were all extremely wealthy businessmen, these guys had all built their fortunes under the cruel natural conditions of Eastern Siberia. Don't look at the people who are all dressed up and pretending to be nobles. If you really want to say that they don't have much knowledge, they are very good at killing and setting fires.
Sibiliakov sneered at this time: "It doesn't matter what Seris or Pigtail, this is our city! Hundreds of people want us to surrender, what a joke!"
"You're right! Kill those Chinese!"
"That's it, let Her Majesty the Queen see, we people are not just good at paying taxes, we can also defend the city!"
"But Mikhailovich, they even gave Suvorov."
Sibiliakov interrupted Basnin and said with a serious face: "Basnin, you let the Chinese deceive you! Who is Suvorov? A victorious general! Even the Turks won. How could an incompetent genius be allowed to be captured by the Chinese?"
The mayor's words were echoed by most people in the room, who all expressed their intention to fight the Chinese and kill them all.
The next step is simple. There are people in each family who are able to contribute. Hundreds of local Cossack garrisons and civilian warriors formed a team of 2,000 people, under the command of Major Grigory.
Then, there is no more!
It is said that if the infantry did not line up in battle these days, there would be no war at all. So when the two thousand people from Irkutsk lined up in an irregular queue and aggressively arrived at the Northern Navy position, they were quickly baptized by a hail of bullets.
In less than twenty minutes of fighting between the two sides, the Irkutsk defenders lost hundreds of people. Facing the "overwhelming" artillery fire from the Chinese, many civilian warriors who had never fought in a war were frightened and fled back to the Kremlin castle.
Late that night, the Russians organized another sneak attack. But Zhao Xin had already prepared, and the 18-bead LED strong light flashlight that had once shown its prowess off the coast of Guangzhou came in handy again. Facing the bright lights emitted from the Northern Navy fortifications, half of Irkutsk was illuminated as bright as day, and the Russians who made a sneak attack were almost blinded. Immediately afterwards, hundreds of black guns began to spray dense bullets, harvesting the lives of the sneak attackers wantonly.
When the frightened sneak attackers fled back to the castle, they found that they had lost two-thirds of their manpower. Now no one was leaving, no matter what the gentlemen promised.
This is not a war, it is simply a massacre! There is no chance to fight against the enemy, those Chinese are a bunch of devils!
In fact, what is even more frightening is yet to come.
Starting on September 28, the North Korean Navy set up artillery positions behind the fortifications, and used an "artillery group" composed of two D30 and ten 82 mortars to launch indiscriminate bombings on the Kremlin, barracks, customs and other key points.
Six towers of the Kremlin fortress were blown down, and the remaining two were also crumbling; all the buildings in the barracks were blown down, the gunpowder magazine was detonated, and the blown flesh and blood limbs flew up along with countless rubbles. Hundreds of meters high in the air; hundreds of shops and houses were reduced to ashes by gunfire, leaving thousands of people homeless.
War, that's what it is. Tsarist Russia could go to the Heilongjiang coast to burn, kill and loot, and the Chinese could also let the flames of war ignite their homes.
On September 30, after two consecutive days of saturation bombardment, Mayor Siberiakov and a group of councilors who supported the resistance saw that the scarred city had become shattered and that years of hard work was about to be destroyed. Once, the white flag was finally raised and unconditional surrender was agreed to.
Under the complicated and unspeakable looks of the city councilors and the local bishop, Zhao Xin pinched a small piece of bread from the silver tray held by Siberiakov, dipped it in the salt in the silver bowl, and put it on He took it into his mouth and nodded.
Seeing that the Chinese man opposite had accepted his surrender, the merchants finally felt relieved.
"The first connection is in charge of the customs building, the second connection is in charge of the barracks and gunpowder magazine, the third connection is in charge of the Kremlin, and the guard company is following me into the Sibiliakov Palace!"
Following Zhao Xin's order, various branches of the North Navy launched operations. As the city council had notified in advance, thousands of local residents were ordered to return home and not go out. Those whose houses had been destroyed by the war could only temporarily shelter in churches. They watched from cracks in doors and windows as groups of heavily armed Orientals wearing steel helmets ran through the streets and began to take over the city.
Things are going to change! Many people think so. But what they are most worried about is what will happen to the city after the Chinese come. Will you drive people like yourself away? If you leave, where can you go?
When Zhao Xin led the security company, led by a congressman and businessmen, to the gate of the White House, he felt so happy when he saw the outer wall blackened by artillery fire and the big crater blown by the shells!
During the subsequent meetings with local officials in Irkutsk, Zhao Xin accidentally discovered a customs official named Peter Markovich Rodionov. This person had lived in Beijing for eleven years with the Sixth Orthodox Missionary Group. Three years ago, he was sent to the local area by the Tsarist Russian Foreign Affairs Commission to take charge of the trade work of the Qing Dynasty. However, since Ivan Jacobi had no intention of resuming the Kyaktu trade, he had to stay at the customs to do some paperwork and filing work.
Although Malkovich has been away from China for many years, he still has not forgotten all his spoken language. After a sincere and friendly exchange with threats and inducements, Zhao Xin learned that although the area was under the direct control of the tsar, it had actually been controlled by businessmen for a long time.
Beginning in 1762, when Catherine II abolished the official monopoly on fur exports, Siberiakov, Milenkov, Basnin, Dudorovsky, Suledovs These five major families control all trade in Irkutsk. In addition to participating in Kyakhta trade, they also monopolized the production and supply of wine, salt, bread, and mineral transactions in Eastern Siberia.
The number of people engaged in business in Irkutsk accounts for 52% of the total population, and the rest are craftsmen, clerks and hired workers. In addition, there are many exiled serfs from Yenisey Province growing grain, hops and sugar beets on the outskirts of the city.
The city council, composed of the five major merchant families and other mid-level businessmen, became the dominant force in the city's social life, and even Ivan Jacobi could not intervene. These people not only obtained huge commercial benefits through collusion between officials and businessmen, but also exploited the civilians who were exiled here.
The five major business families have their tentacles everywhere in the city. Churches, shelters, hospitals, schools, theaters and libraries, and even many streets in the city are named after them.
It is said that with the Agricultural Products Expo held in 1768, Irkutsk became the main commodity distribution center for the entire Eastern Siberia region. As of 1787, the turnover of goods reached 3.7 million rubles, accounting for almost 6% of the total Russian merchandise trade turnover. It can be regarded as the distribution center for Eastern and Western trade in Tsarist Russia, and you can even buy wine and luxury goods from France locally. However, with the suspension of Kyakhta trade three years ago, the impact on the trade of tea, silk fabrics, furs and rhubarb was extremely serious.
After listening to Markovich's introduction, Zhao Xin couldn't help but think of a certain nation. So when he asked Peter, it turned out that three of the five major families were Jewish.
Zhao Xin first appointed Peter Markovich Rodionov as the local liaison officer of the Northern Navy, responsible for drafting the Northern Navy's decrees in Russian and conveying them to local residents.
Although Markovich tried his best to refuse, after Zhao Xin expressed his disagreement and exiled his family to the lower reaches of Heilongjiang River, the cowardly civil servant who called Zhao Xin a "devil" in his heart had no choice but to express his willingness to serve.
After that, Zhao Xin ordered Markovich to find the heads of the five major families, including Mayor Siberiakov. He dispelled half of these people's hatred with just one sentence.
"I have a lot of silk, rhubarb and tea. Which of you wants it?"
No fool would want it! The five major families were silent for a moment, then Mayor Siberiakov asked: "What kind of tea?"
Haha, this is really an expert!
(End of chapter)
