Shaytkul a merchant from the Bukhara Khanate[1]. Ablin was really bitter and regretted at this time.

It has been more than 20 days since he was "detained" in the military camp of the Bogda emperor who appeared out of thin air on the shore of Lake Baikal. Or, to put it more accurately, it should be called "retention": at least to this day, neither the officers nor soldiers of the Qing State have ever acted rudely towards themselves. But Ablin knew that he had such a "courtesy" because of the Qing Emperor's letter to the Moscow government.

Although he ate and drank well every day, and could even move around freely, and he could go to his companions at any time, he could not leave the camp. All the Chinese soldiers were polite when they saw him, but they must have received strict orders, and they all cherished words like gold, and they would never speak without speaking; Even his own Islamic Sunni faith, the Qing soldiers gave him full respect, allowing him to pray loudly and praise Allah Allah every morning and evening without interference. Even a few Tatar soldiers from the Mongolian steppes of the same faith invited him to participate in the chanting ceremony, but even so, the "parishioners" remained tight-lipped.

Not willing to be placed under house arrest, Ablin did not think about escaping, but after careful observation and rigorous analysis, he finally gave up on this stupid and terrible idea.

First of all, the greatest achievement of his mission to the Qing State this time was the letter of the Bogda Emperor, but now it is detained in the hands of the Qing officers. Although I asked for it several times, it was fruitless. If you just return to Tobolsk empty-handed [2]. It's all in vain, and the little goodwill I've built up over the years with Lord Overseer will be gone! If that were the case, the consequences would be unimaginable for a businessman who had come to the East and the West to do business in the past......

Secondly, it is almost impossible to escape from such an almost impregnable castle and such a group of trained professional soldiers. Although the square military camp of the Qing Kingdom is not large, it is very solid and sturdy - the length of each side of the castle is about 30 Russian zhang [1 Russian zhang is 2.134 meters], the height is two Russian zhang, and the top of the city wall is also wide enough to be two Russian zhang, which is enough to deploy the city defense artillery. The castle is surrounded by two layers of wooden fences and walls filled with stones. There was a trench dug outside the wall. There are towers at the four corners of the city wall. The tower has a lookout, and there are gun holes in the fence wall and in the tower. In the middle of the castle was a high mound of earth, several cannons were erected, and a well was dug underneath. It seems that the Qing soldiers are ready for every possible fierce battle.

The number of soldiers in the castle is actually not very large. The appearance of up to four hundred people. But they always maintain a high degree of vigilance, and at first glance they are professional soldiers with extremely high quality. In comparison with them, the vagabonds and Kazakh barbarians of less than two thousand men under the Tobolsk overseer Syrkov[3]. It's more like some folk explorer! To say goodbye without saying goodbye from under the noses of these professional soldiers is simply whimsical!

Finally, and most crucially, here is the so-called "Siberia", which is near Lake Baikal! If you flee in a hurry, instead of being prepared, it is very likely that you will die in the mouth of a tiger or wolf in the coming harsh winter, or freeze to death and starve to death! You know, starting from the small castles that already exist near Lake Baikal, even if you bring enough supplies, you will have to stop and go for about a few months before returning to Tobolsk!

But when he thought of the small castles near Lake Baikal that once existed, Ablin wondered why they had disappeared without a trace. It's as if it didn't exist at all......

Knowing this, he and the Cossack leader Yaryzhgin would never have listened to Fyodor, who was self-righteous with a little aristocratic blood. Ivanov's bastard suggested! Alas! Perhaps the mistake was made even earlier, when three years earlier [1652] he was killed by the "Grand Duke[4]" Alexei. Mikhailovich chose the time to send an envoy to China......

Originally, this trip to China was quite smooth, especially as a Bukhara merchant who has traveled between the East and the West many times, and I still know very well what the Chinese value most, that is, their unswerving "etiquette" to the death! Therefore, after promising the standard "three prostrations and nine prostrations" to their emperor in the Qing Dynasty, they met with the young Emperor Bogda and received a generous gift of up to 600 roubles. Know that the gift you brought from Tobolsk, even in the name of the Tsar, was only 120 roubles! Not to mention the priceless letter from the Emperor Bogda!

When he left the city of Khan Bali [5] three months ago, he and his deputy, the Cossack leader Pyotr. Yarezhkin first went north in a decent way, preparing to return the way he came. But after crossing the Great Wall, the abominable nobleman's descendant, who had never seen much of the world, and who had finally come out of the Tsar's side to play. Ivanov, however, stared at the lucrative cargo of the caravan behind him, and suddenly proposed that he should first go to the places of the nomadic Mongol Taiji[6] and exchange the middle and lower grades of these gifts for some gold and rhubarb, which the tsar was more interested in!

Damn Ivan! The Emperor Bogda generously gave us a lot of silverware, velvet and brocade, as well as tiger, snow leopard and seal skins, which will make your Alexei Tsar drool! But you're still so greedy...... The Cossacks were also unreliable, and as soon as they heard about the word gold, they immediately agreed with great anticipation! I had to listen to your misdirection, who made me just a merchant in Bukhara, and one of you is a nobleman and the other is a soldier?

Who knew that the Mongol Taiji in the north were not so happy with our arrival, and they heard them mention after drinking that a large field army of the Emperor Bogda had just passed through here and was going to train in a distant land. Cowardly Ivan! As soon as he heard the news, he was terrified, and cried and cried to find the nearby castle of the Siberian Overseers near here, and avoid the limelight first! So, we completely deviated from the route from which we came, and led by the Cossacks to Lake Baikal. Oh! Allah the Almighty, these infidels should indeed be punished well, and now it seems that the Cossacks acting as guides did not know that the stronghold near Lake Baikal had mysteriously disappeared!

(Chapter to be continued)

[1] The Khanate of Bukhara was an Islamic feudal state located in the Transoxiana region of Central Asia from 1500 to 1920, named after the move of its capital to Bukhara in the mid-16th century. The Khanate of Bukhara was divided into three dynasties: the Shaybani dynasty (1500-1599), the Astrakhan dynasty (also known as the Zani dynasty, 1599-1785), and the Manjit dynasty (also known as the Haidar dynasty and the Emirate of Bukhara, 1785-1920). In 1920, it was annexed by Soviet Russia.

[2] Tobolsk was a city in what is now the Tyumen region of the Russian Federation, located where the Tobol River flows into the Irtysh River. It was built as a castle in 1587. From the late 16th century to the late 18th century, it was the military, administrative and transportation center of Siberia. At the end of the 19th century, the Trans-Siberian Railway declined without the city.

[3] This "Shirkov" was not a Tsarist government official who built the Eastern Railway and Harbin city facilities at the end of the 19th century, but the highest military and political governor of Tobolsk at that time. He. Shirkov was the vanguard of the Russian invasion of Siberia.

[4] The term "Grand Duke" here is the official title given to the Tsar by Tsarist officials in real history. As mentioned above, the so-called "Tsar" mistaken by the Chinese is a full name. According to the official documents of the Siberian local government to Moscow in the seventeenth century included in the "Central State Archive of Ancient Documents" during the Soviet period, the general title of the "Tsar" referred to by ordinary Russian officials to the Chinese at that time was: "Great Russia, Little Russia, White Russia and other all-Russian autocratic monarchs, Tsar Alexei?" Grand Duke Mikhailovich". In other words, the tsar is more like a knighthood in other people, and the official official position should be "Grand Duke"! Please remember!

[5] Khan Bali City is Beijing. From Marco Polo's Marco. The "Khan Bali" mentioned in the Travels of Polo. "Khan Bali" is a Turkic word meaning "city of emperors". At that time, Russians generally called the city of Beijing.

[6] Taiji was the title of a Mongolian prince and nobleman during the Ming and Qing dynasties. During the Ming Dynasty, the Mongols referred to Genghis Khan's golden family members as Taiji, which is most likely a transliteration of the Chinese "prince", of which the higher status is called "Huntaiji" or "Huangtaiji", which is most likely a transliteration of the Chinese "crown prince". During the Qing Dynasty, Taiji became a title for the Mongolian nobility. There are ruling Taiyoshi, there are idle (not governing) Taiyoshi, there are hereditary Taiyoshi, and there are non-hereditary Taiyoshi. The idle Khan, Wang, Beile, Beizi, and Gong of the Borzigit clan of the Inner and Outer Zasak Mongols are all Taiji. The rank of the auxiliary national prince is divided into four classes, from the first class Taiji to the fourth class Taiji, which is equivalent to the first rank official to the fourth rank official. (To be continued......)