The place chosen by the emperor to "perform the Qi dance" was a Russian castle near the Hulunbuir grassland, between the Erguna River and the Hailar River.

The place where Liu Yu wanted to lead people to reconnoiter was a little far away, and considering that it was unlikely that the Rakshasas would have field troops, he only brought more than eighty people.

The Hulunbuir grassland is an excellent grassland, but near the Erguna River, it is now almost a no-man's land.

In the past few years at the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, too many things have happened.

The eastward expansion of Tsarist Russia, the eastward invasion of Dzungaria, and the replenishment of troops by the Daur people and the Saurons in the Later Jin Dynasty resulted in few people left in this fertile grassland.

Either they ran south to avoid Tsarist Russia; or eastward to the Nenjiang and Songhua River basins; Either he was captured by Houjin to replenish the Eight Banners and died on the battlefield in Guannai.

Dashun also tried to station some people here in the early days, but at that time, the Xiaoice period had not yet passed, and it was really impossible to harvest food.

The frost-free period is too short, and often the grain has not yet grown, which is a frost.

Li Guo was probably misled by some books in his previous life, Khrushchev possessed him, thinking that corn was a divine food that could be grown anywhere, and he was instructed by the posthumous training, but he didn't even receive half a corn cob.

The Daur people are one of the few ethnic groups in the Heilongjiang River basin and the outer northeast region, and Dashun also tried to use the unflavored government military system of the Songhua River basin to garrison troops here.

However, for several years in a row, the people sent to the garrison worked together to cook the grain seeds and plant them in the ground, and the annual harvest was lost.

They are not stupid, they don't want to be on the border in such a bitter cold place at all, and the harvest will be lost year after year, and the court will let them go to a warmer place as soon as possible.

It wasn't until someone reported it later that the court knew about boiling seeds.

But it was only disposed of slightly, and there was not even a human head. This incident also made it clear to the imperial court that people's hearts were unusable, and if they were forced to stay here, something would happen sooner or later.

Later, I also tried, even if I didn't cook the seeds, I often planted one and harvested two, and at that time there was still war in the country, so I finally gave up.

In the past few years, the weather has been getting warmer, the country has been recuperating for a long time, the imperial court finally has money and people, and the Russian rye has spread here, and potatoes can be grown here, so it is finally possible to try to control here.

It is possible to be nomadic in this steppe, but there are no border troops stationed, and the imperial court is not worried about those Mongol tribes.

Taking advantage of the eastward expansion of Tsarist Russia, some tribes moved south and ran eastward, if they could control the Hulunbuir grassland at this time, on the one hand, they could follow the example of the feudal system of Monan and change nomadism to settled field herding; On the other hand, it is also possible to settle and divide a part of the Mongolian tribes in this grassland, such a good grassland, who is obedient to whom to distribute.

Provided, of course, that there is a garrison here.

Even if it still can't grow enough grain, even if it still has to transport grain from the Songhua River and Nenjiang River every year, the imperial court is determined to garrison the army.

Spend less here and probably spend more in the future. After the former dynasty shrank its borders, even cities like Datong could be attacked and slaughtered, and it would still lose money. The lessons of the previous dynasty must be taken.

The lessons of this dynasty cannot be ignored, and the Daur people and locals must be sent as the main ones, and troops must be recruited from the interior to forcibly garrison the border, so that they are not familiar with the place and have nowhere to run.

These people who came with Liu Yu, although they are not from the mainland, it is the first time they have seen such a prairie. As soon as they passed the Xing'an Mountains, they were all dumbfounded.

The phrase that almost everyone can recite is that the wind blows the grass and sees the cattle and sheep, and it almost instantly pours into everyone's mind, and I really can't find any other words and phrases that can better describe everything in front of them.

The white clouds seem to be dyed by the blue sky, and the blue water can be squeezed out by squeezing it. The half-man-high meadow stretches to the horizon, and the river is like a painting pasted on the grassland, which feels like it can be wiped off with a touch of the hand.

"This place is a good horse."

Du Feng and other border soldiers couldn't help but praise it, and ran to the river to let the horse's hooves make ripples, ruining a static picture.

These young border soldiers from their hometowns are either Shandong, Henan, Jingzhou, or southern Hunan, and they have never left the picturesque Nuer Gandu Division since they were born.

Even if the painting is beautiful, I am tired of seeing it, and occasionally I hear my family talk about my hometown, and I have a feeling that I am thousands of miles away.

The Celestial Empire is very large, and the scenery is different, but in the eyes of these people, it is an unimaginable scene.

It's like hearing people talk about white and black, square and round jars, and hot and cold snow that makes people sweat...... I've never seen it, how can I imagine it?

Liu Yu came to the middle of this group of people, and when he drank the horse, he asked with a smile: "I haven't seen such a grassland, have you?" ”

Du Feng smiled and sighed: "I'm not afraid of adults laughing, there are many things I haven't seen." ”

"The temple fair in the capital, the dragon boat in the south of the Yangtze River, the Yangguan in the northwest, and the garden in the southeast...... I haven't seen anything I've heard in these books. When I was a child, I read Yongmei poems, and I thought, what is this plum blossom like? ”

The partners argued, some said it looked like hawthorn flowers, and some said it looked like cherry blossoms. It is also said that plum blossoms and plums are the same thing, and the green plum of the hero of the green plum boiled wine is actually the fruit of the plum blossom......"

Speaking of which, the rest of the people also asked some strange-sounding questions.

"My lord, I've heard that oranges are oranges, what does this orange look like?"

"My lord, do these bamboo shoots and radishes taste the same?"

"Have you ever seen a lotus root?"

"Have you ever seen a green plum?"

"Have you ever seen bamboo?"

"Have you ever eaten a peach? Are peaches as mountain red delicious? ”

"Does the lotus pod look like a reed mallet?"

These poignant-sounding questions provoked Liu Yu to laugh deliberately.

With a flick of the horsewhip, he pulled out a water streak, and said with a smile: "Want to see it?" Simple. Perform well and make a big difference. ”

"After the battle, in the future, I will not only take you to meet the dragon boat garden temple fair Yangguan, cook a bowl of green plums, and eat two catties of peaches...... Perhaps, I will take you to see the sacred tree of Fuso, which is as tall as a pine tree, has no leaves and is covered with thorns; Go see the emus in the Classic of Mountains and Seas; to touch the snow in the south of Guangdong; Go to the Colosseum, which is made of stone by Westerners. ”

With a pull on the reins, he kicked out a pile of water to wash the faces of the men, and then turned to the group of soldiers who were a little dumbfounded, and said, "You have asked me so much, then I will ask you a question too." The rebels of our dynasty are to protect the world. They all say the world, the world, what is the world? What is the world of protection? ”

In the silence and hesitation of the group, Jiao Lao Butu thought of something and replied tentatively.

"Even if you haven't seen oranges, you know that oranges are born in Huainan; Even if you can't think of what plums look like, heroes think about green plums and cooking wine; Even if I think that the lotus flower looks like a reed mallet, I also think of those fishing girls who sing about the lotus picking girls who shuttle through the lotus fields at night. Where are there people who think like this, where is the world? ”

"Hahahaha......" Liu Yu laughed loudly, lifted the reins, crossed the small river, and shouted: "Peaches are delicious, green plums are not plum blossoms, and lotus pods don't look like mallets." ”

"In this situation, I want to chant a poem and sing a song."

On Hainan Island, flowers are already in full bloom;

On both sides of the Yangtze River, willow branches have just sprouted;

In the Great Khing'an Mountains, snowflakes are still flying;

Ah, it's big, but it's not big enough!

A group of people laughed and shouted, "My lord, let's concentrate on fighting, this is also called poetry?" ”

"Let's go, follow the adults to make meritorious contributions, and in the future I will eat peaches and watch the emus......"

The horses' hooves flew, crossed the creek, raised their whips, and a group of people stepped on the grass and galloped towards the northwest.

…………

Near the Rakshasa fortress on the Erguna River, Du Feng led a few people, riding horses, showing off his equestrian skills outside the limit range of the musket of the Rakshasa Castle, and shouting at the city a Russian sentence that Liu Yu taught them.

"Sukabule!"

A Russian translator who followed Liu Yu shouted inside: "Your female tsar is a Polish military chicken, when your tsar saw her, she was pregnant, but your Peter likes to ...... with a big belly."

The Cossacks in the city laughed and laughed, not paying any attention, and some of them shouted: "More details!" ”

"Hey, tell me a little bit of detail!"

"Be louder! Inaudible! Want to tell a story so quietly? ”

"The Khor girls who sell eggs in Cherkassk are louder than yours!"

Despite such insults, the Cossacks in the city did not come out. The officers kept order in the city and told the Cossacks who wanted to hear the story to shut up, but there were still Cossacks who stood on the low wall with their ears bent.

There were not many people outside the city, but the officers already knew something about what was happening in the east, and they severely restrained the Cossacks from going out of the city to attack.

The surrounding wheat fields have been harvested, and although they are not yet fully ripe, they can still be used as horse feed. The nearby wooden houses were also burned down, and the shooting boundary had already been cleared.

The Cossacks in the city knew that there might be a hard battle, but they still tried to have fun.

They were ordered to hold on, reinforcements might or may not, and if they don't, then surrender. Kill more people and you can win a qualified surrender with dignity and a conditional surrender of your weapons.

It was difficult for Liu Yu to judge how many people were in the city, so he could only draw the outline of the outer city first.

I asked someone to dig up a few shovels of soil, tested the soil quality here, and took a telescope to observe the outer defense of the Rakshasa Castle.

The soil here is still relatively easy to dig, with a layer of hard-to-dig grass roots on top, and thick soil underneath the grass roots.

Probably to guard against the Mongol riders, the city was built a little higher, which was wrong in the gunpowder age, but for the Mongol tribes, who were desperately short of gunpowder and had no guns at all, it was effective for adapting to local conditions.

There were a few cannons hidden in the distant fortress, and I couldn't see it, so I had to wait for the army to come and observe it condescendingly with a hot air balloon.

After going around twice and drawing the outer structure of this simple fortress, Liu Yu smiled and said, "It's just this thing, it's not just a casual attack?" Just bully and bully the nearby tribes, and they don't even have a jack cannon. ”

"You said how many years have it been since the Troubled River Alliance? Now that the river of tribulation has been lost, it is really ...... The era of steppe nomads is really over. ”

Jiao Lao Butu also agreed, pointing to the steppe in the distance and said: "In the future, as long as the national dynasty builds some such forts along the line, it doesn't take too much, and the Mongolian tribes should not dare to have different intentions, right?" ”

"Well, almost. It depends on whether the court is reluctant to spend money. At the end of the day, it depends on how the battle goes. Fighting well, the Khalkha Mongols were subdued by the military prestige, and let them help repair it, and spend some money to buy the upper class, but in fact, it is not too expensive. Military coercion is not a long-term solution. I don't know what the imperial court will do. ”

Unfolding the map that Bering "sent", Liu Yu sighed: "Right now, it's another few boring siege battles. If this city is fought again, there will be no major battles in the future. ”

Puzzled, he asked, "Won't the rakshasas send reinforcements?" ”

"Where are you going? Qi Guogong took people to negotiate with Rakshasas. If this fortress is easy to attack, the Rakshasas are still afraid that the Duke of Qi will take the fortress near Lake Baikal. In order to show the prestige of the country, the guards brought by Qi Guogong to negotiate at the border, can they talk about it, at least they look energetic. The attack here is so strong that they don't dare to send troops over. There are fewer people, and it is useless; There are too many people, and they are afraid of a sneak attack by Qi Guogong. With Rakshasa here, he can muster a total of 3,000 mobile troops, right? For today's war, the imperial court built post stations, built grain ships, and stockpiled grain five years in advance. ”

"You can't win a field battle, you just scatter and defend the city...... Just think about the old things in Liaodong. ”