"Fire!" With the order of the gunner, the artillery on the side of the shallow water gunboat of the "Amur" class fired a salvo. After the salvo, the gunboat, with a displacement of only 250 tons, even moved a few dozen centimeters in the direction of the center of the river as a whole due to the reaction force.

Four shells of different calibers landed on the soft black soil on the bank of the river, bounced a few times in the middle of a group of wild men dressed in fish skin and roe deer skin clothes, and the six or seven people who rubbed and touched all fell to the ground screaming, and blood splattered out of the mouth of the stump and severed arm, making the whole scene look extremely bloody.

"One to six platoons landed, seven, eighty, nine platoons covered, and the grenadier platoon was armored!" Captain Li Renjun, the commander of the 105th Company of the Army, drew his bright saber and gave a loud order. Following his order, the 240 officers and men of the whole company immediately took urgent action, they stood on the side of the gunboat on the left side, and when the gunboat came to a stop, they immediately jumped off the low side of the ship at the sound of the officer's command, and landed on some small wooden boats that had long been laid down, and then the sergeants on board immediately propped themselves up to the shore with wooden poles.

The fishskin tartars on the shore did not dare to get too close to the riverbank, they were not uninformed. The Russian Cossacks had long taught them the power of muskets, and they understood that the poorly made wooden bows and bone arrows they had at hand were ridiculously vulnerable to well-trained musketeers. So they stood far away from the river bank early to avoid being shot by the musketeers on the big smoky boats in the middle of the river. But they dodged the musket fire, but they could not dodge the artillery fire, and the shells fired from the eight east coast gunboats in turn caused damage in the crowd.

Although their crowd density was already low, there were still many casualties in the raining of shells. At this moment, the musketeers of the East Coast Army rowed towards the shore, and their will to fight finally loosened. It's not that they're cowardly and afraid of death. It's really this asymmetrical way of fighting that makes them very aggrieved. The enemy can use the advantage of firepower to torture you. But you have nothing to do with them.

This kind of grievance they had already experienced once before, and that was the Cossack riders who came and went from the west and the north. These fierce warriors overwhelmed these hunter-fisher, half-farmer, and half-fisher, hunter-gatherer, half-farmer savages with sabers, spears, and muskets, and finally succumbed to their iron hooves, and obediently offered their hard-earned furs, dust, livestock, and a pitiful grain, or the whole village would be destroyed. This is not a joke, these Cossacks are all demon kings who kill people without blinking, and even those bankrupt serfs in Russia are not good at stubble, and they are all good at killing people and plundering goods when armed.

Originally, these Cossacks who were galloping on land were already a headache. But now suddenly there is a large group of "river thieves" from the river, also carrying muskets and cannons, the same fierce, the same unresistible. Especially when they seemed to be much more numerous than the Cossacks, who numbered at most one or two hundred, which frightened the village elders who had settled along the river.

The battle ended five minutes later, and the landed East Bank Army formed a tight formation and smashed any attack attempt by the savages with skillful volleys of gunfire. Captain Li Renjun, who went ashore with a saber in his hand, also saw that he was full of spirit, and it was these modern professional infantry who relied on these modern professional infantry to march all the way east, bulldozing all the barbarians along the way, such as the Tatars, Mongols, Turkmens, Kazakhs, Jurchens, and Manchurians, destroying countless countries and expanding thousands of miles. As for the Cossacks? I'm sorry. The cavalry was only in a subsidiary position in this process, and they could not even handle the Turkmen herdsmen. Repeatedly defeated by the Kazanists, not to mention the skilled Mongols, it was the hard-working Russian infantry, a third-rate infantry known for its low combat effectiveness and incompetence in Europe, that really played a decisive role.

The elders of the stockade respectfully knelt at the feet of the people of the East Coast, begging for their forgiveness. Captain Li Renjun was armed with a saber and guarded by the soldiers, looking at these savage Jurchen tribes dressed in tatters with the proud gaze characteristic of the victors. After assuming his might, he waved his hand lightly and asked the officers and soldiers of the Heilongjiang Security Regiment (a temporary force composed of 1,500 people in Miaojie and other four villages) who were from the Zhongshan Dan people who had landed on the shore to talk to them in the local language, demanding that they pay taxes and submit to the rule of the people on the east coast.

The tax is really not light for the savages of these villages, but what can be done, now people are swords, I am fish and meat, accept fate, small lives are held in the hands of others. Is it possible to abandon your family and run away to a distant land? That's a life-and-death thing, and if no one helps, I'm afraid it will be difficult to survive this winter.

After reluctantly paying the tax, Captain Li Renjun told them that they were now under the protection of the Republic of East China, and that if any more Russians or Manchurians came to collect taxes from them, they could sternly refuse. If those people are still unrelenting, then report to the nearest Republic, and the people on the east coast will organize a raid party to defend their interests. Of course, some accidents will inevitably occur before the expedition team arrives, and if they are worried about their safety, then they can move their families to Gonghe Village or even further downstream Jiangdong Village, Henggon Village, Temple Street and other places to settle down, and become colonists under the rule of the Republic of East Coast of China.

After collecting the taxes, Li Renjun led his army to evacuate the village after forcibly recruiting a few guides, and then continued to march south of the river, sweeping all the villages he saw. Some villages were far away from the river banks, and Li Renjun even sent the main force of the army to cooperate with 1,500 soldiers of the Heilongjiang Security Regiment to go ashore and go deep into the interior to carry out attacks.

In this way, when the time came to the end of June and the beginning of July, this army on the east bank of the east bank had already reached the city of Boli at the junction of the Ussuri River and the Heilongjiang River. At this time, Boli City naturally had nothing, and the city established by the Han immigrants in Guannai in later generations did not even have a shadow at this time.

However, there are also many local residents (Hezhe, Daur) who live by fishing and hunting, but strangely enough, they hardly engage in agricultural activities, and the Hezhe, Daur, Oroqen or Feiyaka people who are further north and west than them all grow some grains such as rye oats to a greater or lesser extent. as a supplement to food. But the inhabitants of the vicinity of Boli City seem to be planting nothing. Full-time fishing and hunting for a living. and paid only taxes to Bogd Khan in Manchuria, while also providing horses and soldiers to Bogd Khan's army, and the relationship between the two sides was very close, if not intimate, since they were the first few wild Jurchen tribes to take refuge in Huangtaiji.

"Do you only obey the rule of Bogd Khan? Very good! Looking at the soldiers of the Heilongjiang Security Regiment who jumped from the gunboat like dumplings, Captain Li Renjun, who served as the commander-in-chief of the operation, sneered, and then "brushed" the command knife at his waist and raised his head towards the walled city built by these savages, saying: "Everyone fight bravely. Xu Xicheng for two days! ”

After hearing Li Renjun's latest "instructions", these soldiers, who had hardly fought any decent battles along the way, immediately shouted long live, and then slaughtered the walled city by the river with red eyes. However, they were not carried away by the excitement of being able to rob and kill at will, and they continued to fight mechanically in accordance with the rules of war.

The tribes under the command of Bogd Khan were indeed stronger than those savages in the north, because some elites in cotton armor appeared in their crowd, and many of them were also using metal crossbow arrows, which surprised the soldiers on the east bank who were accustomed to seeing wooden spears and arrows.

But it was only a surprise, and by the time the people on the east coast formed a tight formation and dragged up four field light guns, the defeat of these Hezhes and Daurs was already doomed. Heavy artillery fire knocked the stockade made of trees and flew sawdust. The fierce volley of guns struck every warrior who tried to appear at the head of the city, and the ferocious attack frightened the savages.

They attempted to send part of their cavalry to storm the artillery positions of the people on the east bank or the phalanx of musketeers. However, the 1,500 spearmen of the Heilongjiang Security Regiment who were guarding the side told them the truth that this scattered cavalry charge would not play any role for them, and only added some extra merits to them.

The wooden fortress could not stop the concentrated fire of the 8-pounder guns, and the gate was breached first, followed by the wooden walls on both sides of the gate. At this time, the East Coast artillery also reloaded the artillery with loose shells, and the musketeers began to cooperate with the artillery advance attack, knocking down any enemy who tried to get close to the ground. After cleaning up the enemy's organized resistance, the soldiers of the Heilongjiang Security Regiment shouted "Wansheng" three times under the leadership of Wang Shichuan, and then put on armor and spears to kill them, and the enemy's resistance began to collapse irrepressibly.

The battle finally came to an end at about three o'clock in the afternoon. The soldiers of the Heilongjiang Security Regiment who rushed into the city began a bloody city cleansing operation, and all the adult men of the Hezhe or Daur tribes in the walled city were killed, and the women and children were taken away. Of course, in the process, he was privately intercepted by the soldiers who entered the city, and Captain Li Renjun did not see it.

After cleaning several walled cities within a radius of several tens of kilometers near Boli City, Li Renjun ordered the entire army to land and began to build the walled city. Along the way, they collected large taxes in kind such as grain, livestock, furs, and gold and silver, and they decided to repair and rebuild the enemy's old stockade and set up a strong stronghold there. At the same time, eight gunboats also returned in batches, preparing to go to Temple Street to bring a group of people and supplies over to enrich the new stronghold named Boli Village.

And just after the people on the east bank guarded the junction of the Heilongjiang River and the Ussuri River and began to overhaul the walled city, the Manchu Ningguta Zhang Jinghaise finally received the news that many villages under his rule were bloodied by a stream of "bandits in yellow clothes who suddenly appeared". To be honest, he was extremely shocked by the news, the thief in yellow appeared in the Heilongjiang area?

Haise is Ningguta Mel Zhangjing, not a low-level banner man who knows nothing, and he still knows more or less about what happened in the south of Guannai. The Mo Dashuai of the yellow-clothed thief has made a great name in the three provinces of northern China, and he is naturally very clear as a middle-level general of the Eight Banners. And it was precisely because he knew a lot of things that he was even more shocked at this time. After thinking for a while, Hai Se, who felt bad in his heart, immediately ordered the five hundred Eight Banners garrison officers and soldiers in the city, and at the same time requisitioned seven or eight hundred strong men in the nearby villages, and then rushed towards the junction of the Ussuri River and the Heilongjiang River with two small-caliber artillery pieces and a large number of horses.

He'd have to go see what's going on over there, or he'll feel uneasy! Of course, before he set off, he had already sent a messenger to Shenyang on horseback, so as to convey this astonishing news to the remaining generals there as quickly as possible. (To be continued......)