In July 1687, Pavel Shulykin, the new military governor of Yakutsk and a minor nobleman (usually a Cossack), led a group of men and horses in the direction of Nerchensk.

Prior to becoming the supreme governor of the most remote administrative region of the Russian Empire, Shulygin fought for the Tsar in Central Asia and rose to the position of military and political governor of Tobolsk. Later, because of his relatively good relations with the Dzungar Mongol leader Gazan (Kaldan) during his tenure and the thwarting of a series of attacks by the Kazakhs, Shuligin came into the eyes of the tsar and was given a hereditary title.

Since then, Pavel Shulygin has been working even harder in the service of the Tsar, keeping Tobolsk in good order, increasing his trade income, and producing agriculture and animal husbandry. Although the whole region is still plagued from time to time by the Dzungar Mongols' grassy valleys, the losses have been minimized, which is not easy.

And it was precisely because of the relatively good realization in the Tobolsk region that the tsar ordered Shulygin to be transferred east to serve as the head of the key Yakutsk military and political district, and at the same time allowed him to bring many of his subordinates, including Semyon Vishnyakov, Lyubium Yevsevev, and Grigory Longshakov, to take office, and the level of trust was unprecedented. You must know that since the incident of many officials, including Chernihivsky, an officer of Lithuanian origin, colluding with each other, stealing the state treasury, deceiving superiors and subordinates, and becoming a matter of separation, Moscow has been very cautious about the composition of local officials at all levels, and in principle, no one is allowed to bring his own team to take up his post, so as to avoid a second Chernigorsky time.

Therefore, we can see from this how difficult it was for Shulygin to bring three main helpers and other attachés to Yakutsk. At the same time, it can be seen how much the Tsar - well, in fact, the eldest princess Sophia is commanding the world - has placed great expectations on Shulygin. If he is not able to properly solve the series of problems facing the Yakutsk military and political district today in office, I am afraid that the end will not be very good. The Tsar was sometimes extremely generous, but many times also ruthless!

When it comes to the problems facing the Yakutsk region today, or the work to be carried out, there are actually many things, but the most important ones are nothing more than a few: first, compromise relations with the people on the east coast, do not let them become dissatisfied and take advantage of the opportunity to make trouble, and at the same time, do not let them encroach on the land of His Majesty the Tsar and cause unnecessary losses to the country; 2. Deal with trade affairs, paying special attention to the purchase of many commodities, including tea, silk, porcelain, and furs, especially high-grade furs, which Moscow urgently needs to sell to Turkey or England in exchange for funds; 3. To combat banditry and the disobedient Tungusic tribes in the territory of the country, and to prevent the flow of the Tungusic or Buryat Mongols into the territory of the people of the Eastern Coast; 4. To assist the clergy in proselytizing, so that more Tungusic people have the correct faith and strengthen their cohesion between the Tsar and Russia; 5. Properly govern the localities, develop production, crack down on corruption and theft of the state treasury and other criminal acts, and directly execute lawless elements who do not have the status of nobility; 6. Sponsor expeditions to discover a path to the sea in order to expand the space.

These six requirements, relying on any one of them alone, actually need to spend a lot of effort to do, not to mention the six put together, it is simply a person's life, so Shulijin will be under a lot of pressure.

He pondered and pondered, and finally decided that it was better to deal with the first few things first, so he and his entourage went through hardships to the border city of Nerchensk, and planned to stay here for a long time, carefully dealing with various affairs.

They arrived here about a week ago. As soon as he arrived, Shulygin announced that the Cossack officer Nikivor Trusov was given 2,000 rubles to recruit men, disguise himself as merchants, and see if he could break out along the Amur River to the east. This was the easiest way to venture eastward, and there was a faint news of the river leading to the East on the eastern bank, so the tsar ordered the Yakutsk to find out if this was true, and to find other ways to the east, especially to the north, if there was spare time.

Trusov was a Cossack who had lived in the Far East for many years, was loyal to His Majesty the Tsar, and had great abilities in his own right, so it would be better for him to be in charge. And this guy also has some good brothers in the local area, these people have a lifelong friendship with him, and can even bear the cost of the journey to the east together, what a heroic spirit - of course, it also shows from the side how eager they are to desire wealth, as for how wealth comes, of course, it is robbery!

It may sound childish to spend 2,000 rubles to find the coast to the east, but it can't be helped, Yakutsk is not a rich place, and this work is not the most important job, so it is already the limit to spend so much money. What's more, this is all real silver coins and cash, you must know that in the Yakutsk region, many military or civil servants are paid half in gold and half in kind.

After arranging this matter, Pavel Shulygin left Nerchensk with a group of cavalry and officials, and went to the trading city of East and Russia to check the trade situation.

Roughly located near the later Pri Ergunask, the Buying and Selling City was a town that was born out of trade, and is now home to thousands of merchants, farmers and herdsmen, and is geographically part of the Russian Empire. In fact, the original location of the trading city, which was stipulated in the peace treaty between the two parties, was not here.

In the early years, when the dispute between the two countries had just settled, the East Coasters and Russians discussed finding a suitable place to trade in the border between the two countries, and that would be a place close to the Yaksa Castle, roughly on the East Bank. Later, the Russians argued that the distance was too far for their merchants, so the two sides negotiated and moved the location of the trading city to the west to the fort of Erguna, a new tax collection camp built by the Russians (historically built in 1682), and worked on it for several years.

Later, due to the frequent raids of horse bandits (sometimes even poor Cossacks in disguise), the location of the trading city changed again, and finally moved to its current location. In order to avoid the nuisance of horse bandits, after consultations between the two sides, it was decided to set up an armed force in the city of Buying, with a personnel of 200 people, half of which each side should occupy, and the expenses should be borne by each other, so as to protect the security here.

The armed forces of professional soldiers were naturally not something that small bandits could fight against, and in addition to the strict investigation of Cossacks who pretended to be horse bandits to attack merchants, and a number of people were executed, the business of buying and selling the city began to flourish rapidly, and finally settled in its current position.

The city now provides both parties with more than 15,000 rubles in tax revenue per year. To be honest, this money is already a huge amount of money for the Russian side, and a lot can be done. Even if half of it were to be given to the government on the east coast, it would be 7,500 rubles, enough to form four Trusov expeditions to the East.

Of course, the greatest benefit to the Russians from buying and selling cities is the abundance of oriental goods, compared to taxes. These goods may seem insignificant to the people of the East Coast, but to the remote Russian Empire, they were invaluable. Whether it is mink, fox skin, bear skin and other precious furs, or raw silk, porcelain, tea and other Chinese specialties, or high-quality hardware tools produced on the east coast, the Russians want to buy in large quantities. Once these things are shipped to Moscow, the profit margins in them can make every merchant crazy, so this is the real value of the existence of the trading city.

From this, it can be seen that in fact, in the bilateral trade of buying and selling cities, the Russians are the party that imports more. They were very interested in every item of goods in the hands of the people on the East Coast, but the people on the East Coast were not necessarily so interested in the goods in their hands, so they needed to export a large amount of hard currencies such as gold and silver to balance the trade, and over time, a lot of gold and silver flowed into Yaksa and other places, and the local market prospered.

Pavel Shuligin spent three whole days in the city, listened to the reports of the Russian officials in the market, and gained a more comprehensive understanding of the trade practices here. Later, he watched with great interest the "drama" in which a total of nineteen steppe horse bandits were tried and finally executed by the joint court of the Buying and Selling City, including even a Cossack officer, which raised Shulygin's understanding of the complex situation around the trading city to a new level.

Shuligin also noted that the prosperity of the trading city led to a large number of Tungusic and Buryat Mongols. The tents or bark huts of these men were set up just outside the city, and there were often small merchants from the East Coast who were selling their wares. However, Russian officials told Shulygin that the businessmen may also have played the role of lobbyists, as they often lured indigenous tribes to live in the eastern-controlled areas, especially the Buryat Mongols.

The Russians even suspected that the East Coast had abducted so many Buryat Mongols in order to form a large cavalry force. But the people on the east bank told them very clearly that the east bank did not have much interest in forming a Mongol cavalry, at least not for the time being. Their goal was the Manchus, not the Russian Empire, please don't be nervous, and even less misjudge, it doesn't make sense.

Shuligin was somewhat silent when he heard this explanation. He instructed his men to bring the map, and after carefully looking at the surrounding situation, his brows furrowed even deeper. Why did the East Coast get so many Buryats? It is said that most of them went to the other side of the river, which was the territory of the Mongols under the rule of the Qing Dynasty, did they want to start a war with the Mongols?

Shuligin didn't figure it out after thinking about it for a long time, and then he didn't think about it at all, anyway, the people on the eastern coast were dealing with the Manchu Bogd Khan, not the people of His Majesty the Great Tsar, so what did they do so much? Nerchensk still has a bunch of business to deal with, so it's better to go back quickly.

As for the concern of many people that in case of another war between the East Coast and Russia, Shulygin said that the possibility is not very high, unless the East Coast people really make up their minds to turn against His Majesty the Tsar in Ukraine, but he is very skeptical that the East Coast people have this determination.