"Bang! Bang! Bang! Crackling bursts of gunshots rang out, and in the deep mountains and old forests of the white mountains and black waters, a large cloud of blue-gray smoke floated up, accompanied by the choking smell of gunsmoke.

Lu Xiaofeng put down the monocular in his hand and said to several officers of the Third Infantry Regiment standing behind him: "It seems that they are not Tartar soldiers, they should be local Tunguska, and they are still wearing fish skins." ”

As he spoke, a platoon of infantry had already rushed forward with rifles with bayonets on them. They wore large caps, khaki military coats, armed belts around their waists, and suede boots creaking in the snow. After bowing his head, the platoon commander who led the team first carefully examined the two corpses on the ground, and then sent someone back to report that it should be a Daur who lived nearby, and somehow actually targeted their group, but they were too timid to be able to disappear after a platoon of guns overturned the two people.

"The Tungusic people south of the Amur River are likely to be Tartars, or potential sources of Tartars. The Tartars have been in business here for too long, and we can't compare to that. Of course, the best way to gain greater influence among the Tunguska and win more people to our side is to use thunder, as we do in Vladivostok these days. Said a reserve lieutenant in a yellow coat.

And Vladivostok, which he just mentioned, had only been occupied by the people of the east coast in the last year, and was intended to be operated as an important port. According to the boundaries of the two major development teams of Denglai and Heishui, in the future, these two major feudal towns will be bounded by the Songliao watershed in Manchuria, that is, the North Manchurian area north of the watershed and the vast Outer Northeast will be under the jurisdiction of the Heishui Pioneer Team; The South Manchurian region south of the Songliao watershed was under the leadership of Yantai in Shandong, that is, the Denglai Pioneer Team would govern the southern half of the Jiaodong Peninsula and Manchuria, where the climate was relatively mild.

Such an administrative division suddenly assigned the best coastline of Manchuria (i.e., the coasts of the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea) to Shandong, so that the warm-water port that the Heishui Pioneer Team had dreamed of was never traced—although Rishiri Island and other places do not freeze all year round, the industrial and agricultural foundation is too poor, and the population is sparsely populated—which undoubtedly annoys the Heishui up and down.

However, as the so-called arms can't reach the thighs and thighs, the executive committee is bigger than the sky, and the blackwater monarchs can only hold back no matter how much they have opinions. Therefore, they decided to settle for the next best thing, take a good inventory of the melons and dates in their hands, and finally found that it was still the small fishing village of Vladivostok that was the most reliable and suitable for building a large port, and even gradually became the ruling center of the black water.

The conditions for the existence of a large port in the center of the region are actually quite harsh. The first is to have a relatively large hinterland, which is also conducive to agriculture and has a large amount of food to be able to feed a large enough population. Secondly, the port conditions should be very good, the most prominent is the port wide water depth, that is, there is a relatively calm, sufficient water depth of the harbor to moor ships; If possible, there are also hillsides on both sides of the harbor to block the sea breeze, which is a safe haven, and the level is much higher than that of ordinary ports; And if this port is to double as a military port, then there should be high ground on both sides of the harbor that extends at least one or two hundred meters above sea level, and forts and cannons should be built on top of it to close the narrow passage into the port.

Vladivostok, which is still a small fishing village, undoubtedly has all these conditions, and it is no wonder that the Russians in later generations chose this place as their home port for the Pacific Fleet, and the conditions are indeed good. Therefore, after the peace agreement with Tsarist Russia, the local executive committee gave major guidance on the direction of the development of the Heishui region, requiring them to suspend their westward expansion and go all out to expand the land of North Manchuria, of which the Songhua River and Ussuri River basins were the focus of the focus - of course, the local government did not set any deadline or target for this expansion, it was very relaxed, and the speed of progress was up to the Heishui development team.

Chen Ke, the leader of the Heishui Pioneer Team, the commander of the Heishui Security Guard, and the former commissioner of the Beihejian Region, who was airborne from the mainland, has already made a formal decision a few days ago: to implement the expansion principle of "easy first and then difficult", avoid the Songhua River basin, where the Qing army is strong, focus on opening up the Ussuri River basin, and turn it into a traffic artery and a production base for grain and other materials of the Heishui Pioneer Team, and then find a way to move westward and work with Harbin Fort to flank the enemy in front of them, and finally take the entire land of Beiman.

There is no doubt that this is a grand strategy, a grand strategy that sets the direction of the development direction of the Blackwater Pioneer Team in the next few decades! At present, the Heishui Pioneer Team has urgently mobilized to adjust various policies, allocate various resources, mobilize all kinds of manpower, and began the construction of the two newly established settlements of Vladivostok and Shuangchengzi in the summer of 1678 with the limited response of the five settlements established in advance: Pak Soon, Hei Cheng, Pyonggang, Phong Run, and Licheng.

However, the support that Beishun and other five townships mentioned above seems to be quite limited at present, which can be seen from the fact that they have not been able to succeed in grain assets so far, not that local cadres cannot manage, not that the pioneers and ordinary people cannot farm, but that the environment is too bad. The environment here does not refer to the natural environment, in fact, although the climatic conditions are not friendly enough, but the soil fertility is absolutely first-class, and later generations are also famous as a large granary, and the "harsh environment" here mainly refers to the environment in terms of safety and defense.

Yes, that's right, it's the environment in terms of security and defense! The colonial forces of the people on the east coast who went south from Boli County were strongly counterattacked by the local Jurchen tribes who had been influenced by the Qing court for many years, and various public security incidents emerged one after another, and the work in the early stage was greatly affected.

In addition, the people on the east coast also learned through various channels that the Kangxi Emperor in Beijing issued an edict to reprimand the powerful ministers who had lost power and were idle at home. The reason why this is so is because when the situation in Liaodong was tense a few years ago, this person didn't know who he had listened to, and he actually wrote a letter asking to give up Ningguta and let all his troops go south to support Liaodong to prevent the loss of the land of Longxing.

At that time, after some discussion, the Qing court finally did not listen to this person's opinion, but only chose to send a part of the elite men and horses from the Ningguta area to the south to participate in the siege of the reclamation point on the east bank of Liaodong, and after the battle, they all withdrew, and brought many shotguns, iron cannons and medicines, and the strength was enhanced to a certain extent, which shows the importance that Kangxi and others attached to this first line of defense against the control of North Manchurians by the people on the east coast.

Ao Bai was a former minister who gradually lost power, and now he is idle at home, which will be turned over by people Old accounts, it is really not far from death, and it is miserable to think about. And it seems that it will be difficult to avoid this time, because the people on the east coast are in Vladivostok and Shuangchengzi (these are two very strange names in the eyes of the Qing court...... At this time, as a nail to divide the east and west groups on the east bank (referring to the colonial forces in the Songhua River and Ussuri River basins respectively), Ningguta has no reason to withdraw, and not only can it not be withdrawn, but it may also have to find a way to strengthen it.

Therefore, the colonization efforts of the people on the east bank in the Ussuri River valley were naturally met with strong counterattacks by the Qing court, and five points such as Beishun Township repeatedly fought with the enemy, with heavy casualties and material losses, and there was no opportunity to farm at all, which was a very heavy burden in the long run, and could no longer be supported by the Heishui area alone, so they could only continue to transfuse blood from Ningbo and Denglai, including both money and food, as well as personnel, to supplement the pioneer peasants killed and wounded by the Qing army.

This situation, logically speaking, is likely to cause the top management of the Blackwater Pioneer Team to feel that the cost is too huge and retreat. However, Liao Xiaoyao of Shandong insisted on it, saying that he would raise money and food from Denglai and support veterans with combat experience, and encouraged them, saying that his persistence in the Ussuri River valley would play a huge role in reducing the pressure on Dandong and Kuandian on the banks of the Yalu River in Liaodong, and could effectively contain the power of the Qing court, so he must insist.

Now that Liao Xiaoyao has returned to China as the chairman of the executive committee, his influence is increasing day by day, so after Captain Chen Kechen of Heishui took office, the first thing he did was to refute any voice that wanted to retreat in the Ussuri River Valley, saying that he would face the difficulties, repel the Qing army, and control this large piece of fertile land in his own hands. For this reason, he did not hesitate to adjust the general direction of the strategy, thinking that this action would endorse - of course, there would be almost no voice to evacuate the Ussuri River basin, and the soil on which Gain's original proposal appeared was that the war with Tsarist Russia had consumed too much manpower and material resources, and it was once overwhelmed, and some people had little confidence in persevering there, thinking that the blackwater stall was too open, and if they didn't care about their heads, something would happen sooner or later. But now that these unfavorable factors have disappeared, and the Russians have reconciled again, the problem is so big to focus on the management of the Ussuri River basin.

Chen Ke has even planned to move the ruling center of Blackwater here after the initial construction of Vladivostok in the future. Therefore, he had just ordered the adjustment of the post of Lu Xiaofeng, who had already served as a regional commissioner, and transferred him back from the Heilongjiang area to Vladivostok in the south to serve as the commissioner of the Ussuri River Regional Administration and the commander of the garrison.

Lu Xiaofeng had just received the order last month (October 1678), so after spending some events and handing over the work of his successor, he led dozens of his attachés—a large line-up, who were the ones he had sent to the Ussuri River to perform his duties—and took a boat down the river to the port of Boli before the river was frozen. Here he joined up with a company from the 3rd Infantry Regiment that had gone north from Fort Model, first by boat and then on foot, to Vladivostok.

Although this journey was hard, it also gave Lu Xiaofeng an excellent opportunity to observe the land, customs, products, people's conditions and other aspects of the Ussuri River Basin. Moreover, during this period, he experienced no less than ten battles, large and small, especially after the winter, which made him extremely surprised by the "stubbornness" of the Jurchen tribes in Haixi here, and at the same time, he was also very dissatisfied with the ineffective work of the officials in charge of this place before - this Jurchen people are not all tendons to cast the Qing Tartars, it has been a few years, why can't you win over and divide a group of them? This job is really bad, there should be no upward path in the future, and I must take it as a warning.

The brave Siberian Cossacks drove the Daurs, Buryats, Evenks, Oroqens, Hezhes, etc. like dogs, so that they were afraid to the marrow, and then the merchants brought the goods in demand from Russia, and the missionaries appeased the people's hearts.

Now that the people from the East Coast are here, they have ready-made experience in front of them, so they should naturally follow suit. After arriving in Vladivostok, Shuangchengzi and other places, he first used the limited forces at hand (the battalion headquarters and two companies of the third battalion of the Third Infantry Regiment had already arrived in Vladivostok by sea by boat in advance, and began to build wooden fortresses), took the local Jurchen tribe closest to the Qing court, and killed the prestige of these people, shocked the other tribes, and let them know that the situation has changed greatly, and if they continue to follow the Qing court, they will have to pull the list in the future, just like those tribes in the outer northeast. Aren't they all now part of the Russians and the East Coast? How many others have something to do with the Qing court? Not a single one!

And after fighting a few beautiful battles to establish prestige, and then through trade channels with those natives to pull relations. These Jurchens are very hard-working, and they actually have a great demand for all kinds of goods from the outside world, and the Qing court can trade with them, and the people on the east coast can naturally do it, and there will only be more varieties of trade, and I don't believe that I can't get the favor of these people.

With such a two-pronged approach, Lu Xiaofeng believes that as long as he persists for more than five years, it will be effective; If it persists for more than ten years, the situation will be very different, and the foundation of the Qing court in the local area will be greatly shaken or even crumbled, and it will be replaced by the unparalleled influence of the people on the east coast.

By that time, including Beishun Wuxiang and the newly established places of Vladivostok and Shuangchengzi, they were almost initially able to support themselves and had spare support for military operations of a certain scale, so the time for a counteroffensive also appeared. At that time, if the colonization action in the area of the Songhua River also made significant progress, and the two sides of the army directly advanced together, and the Qing court could hold out for a few years after the accumulation of time, these armed forces and strongholds in North Manchuria? Five years or ten years? Maybe shorter! It all depends on the determination and commitment of the people on the East Coast.