Unlike the empire that had Zuo Menggeng, Russia's eastward expansion was actually a bit smoke and mirrors.
Russia chose to expand eastward for three reasons;
First, Russia has been severely obstructed in Europe, so that it has no good access to the sea and waterways, which has seriously affected trade.
Therefore, top Russian officials are eager to find new outlets to the sea.
Their initial goal was to head north.
As a result, after exploring all the way to the North Pole, we discovered that the ice and snow here made it impossible to sail.
To the south, Ottoman Turkey lay across the front, guarding the entrance to the Black Sea.
Although Russia had fought wars with the Ottoman Turks for hundreds of years, and although they won more than they lost, they were never able to achieve a decisive victory.
Therefore this road is blocked.
Forced by desperation, Russia had no choice but to look eastward for an outlet to the sea.
As a result, when they marched eastward, they suddenly discovered that all the khanates in the east, large and small, were extremely weak and could not stop them at all.
As a result, the Russians lost control and expanded their territory thousands of miles in just over a century.
Second, it stems from the Russian people’s innate desire for endless land.
The environment in Russia is too cold, which severely limits life and production. Therefore, the Russians are eager to have more land and better land.
It is precisely because of this spirit that drives the Russians to take risks and embark on a journey of thousands of miles.
The third is the benefit of fur tax.
Because of the cold weather, there is a huge demand for fur in Russia, which has also led to the prosperity of related industries.
When money is made, there is a driving force, making more people willing to go to the mountains and forests to capture animal skins to make money.
No doubt, you have to go all the way east to do this.
But in any case, in the process of Russia's eastward expansion, it actually didn't know much about the empire.
Although they have successively established contact with the Junggar Tribe, Khalkha Mongolia and other forces, they are still very unfamiliar with the empire.
On the contrary, under Zuo Menggeng's words and deeds, the entire empire had long been wary of Russia.
This also led to the Russians suffering a big loss when the two sides met unexpectedly.
In the wilderness, Russian explorers are still enjoying a rare rest, but the Wehrmacht has quietly begun hunting them.
Zuo Mengeng made it clear that all the land here belongs to the empire. There is nothing to say about fighting the invaders.
When the gunfire rang out, the Russians were horrified and quickly resisted.
But to no avail.
The combat capabilities and weapons of the two sides are not on the same level at all.
One by one the Russians were accurately shot, but their muskets had no effect.
When more than half were killed or wounded, the Russians wisely chose to surrender.
Zheng Cheng led his men up and gathered all the prisoners.
None of them understood Russian, so they had no way to interrogate him, so they had to take the person back to Okhotsk and hand him over to the superiors.
Zheng Cheng didn't know yet that among the prisoners they captured, there was a leader named Mikhail Stadukhin.
In the original history, it was this man who led the expedition to the Kolyma River and later established Fort Okhotsk. Subsequently, Russia completed its march into Kamchatka Peninsula, Alaska and the Aleutian Islands based on his foundation.
However, now this area has long been under the jurisdiction of the empire. As soon as Stadukhin brought his people to the vicinity, he was discovered by the National Defense Forces. He was beaten to a bloody head and became a prisoner.
After a long journey, the situation in the north was finally sent to the center.
Zuo Mengeng immediately became alert and held an enlarged meeting.
"It turns out that the Russians have reached our side and invaded our land. We must carry out an all-round attack on the Russians and drive them back to Europe."
Chen Zhi was a little embarrassed.
"The Far North is too desolate. If we want to attack it in a big way, I'm afraid it will delay the construction of all parts of the country."
If you want to fight a war, you must prepare massive supplies.
The output from the Far North now needs to be supplied to all parts of the mainland. Once used for military purposes, it will lead to a shortage of resources in the mainland.
The others are similar, considering the overall situation and being somewhat resistant to fighting.
Regarding this, Zuo Mengeng knew that they were wrong.
"The Russians have come thousands of miles away, so how can they afford a big battle? They just send expeditions to explore. In this case, expeditions against expeditions, small units against small units, are enough to drive them out. If Russia increases its troops, we will concentrate our forces and fight to decide the outcome."
In the original Battle of Yaksa in history, the Qing Dynasty dispatched a large number of troops and spent a lot of resources before finally winning, but it only recovered the land in the outer Xing'an Mountains.
Investigating the reason, the long distance is one aspect, and the Qing Dynasty's lack of force is the main reason.
In desperation, we can only rely on numbers to win.
But here in the empire, this problem does not exist.
With the same number of people, the empire's force is definitely much more powerful than Russia's.
Then it was decided that the empire did not need to prepare for large-scale operations. It only needed to launch expedition teams and small troops, which would be enough to complete the strangulation of the Russians in the Siberian wilderness.
Although Russian high-level officials will definitely increase their troops when they learn of the situation, the troops of the Northern Strategic Cluster are nearby and can cope with it.
After hearing Zuo Menggeng's explanation of the combat method, everyone in the center finally relaxed and no longer objected.
After reaching an internal consensus, Zuo Mengeng immediately, in the name of the supreme commander, gave orders to the Northern Strategic Cluster and the local government, asking the expedition teams and the National Defense Forces to fight in small groups and attack Russians on the spot wherever they were found.
Northern Strategic Cluster Command.
After receiving the order, Bai Xiaoqi was overjoyed.
After working as a state official in Beidu for a year, dealing with government affairs all day long almost drove him crazy.
It's still fun to be an army commander and fight.
"The First Front Army is responsible for the north and west, with the maximum regiment level as the unit, and expands as much as possible. The Second Front Army returns to Liaodong and assists the expedition team there to squeeze the Russian space. According to intelligence, the Russians have established Bastion, this requires regular troops to dismantle it.”
Although the central command was to fight in small groups, given that the Russians had built many strong castles, large-caliber artillery was necessary to break these castles.
Therefore, Bai Xiaoqi was very flexible when executing orders, allowing each department to choose the scale of operations according to the situation.
It is conceivable that from now on, the Russian exploration and expansion in the vast land of Siberia will inevitably encounter heavy losses.
Yakutsk.
The cold wind is howling outside, but the fire in the castle is strong and makes people very comfortable.
But the local governor Stepanov frowned.
"Isn't the Seventh Expedition Team back yet?"
The deputy said quickly: "They haven't come back yet. According to the agreement, they were supposed to come back the day before yesterday, but there is no news yet."
Stepanov felt something was wrong.
He stood up and walked to the wall, opened the wooden window, and looked out at the lead-clouded sky.
"I hope nothing happens."
