Astrakhan, known as Moscow's "window to the East".

Goods from Moscow, through the Volga and its tributaries, can be quickly transported here. Then, crossing the Caspian Sea is Persia. In the same way, goods from Persia can also be easily transported to Moscow through this trade route.

Alexei was a soldier in this city, where his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather had always been soldiers.

His great-grandfather was even involved in the construction of the fortress.

More than 100 years ago, Yin Fan IV created a shooting army, bypassing the traditional aristocracy and recruiting freemen to train musketeers. His great-grandfather was one of them, and at that time he was invincible in the Volga Valley, and any enemy was terrified at the sight of the shooting army.

Today, Alexei is still a shooting army, and it must be, and it must be, and children and grandchildren must be.

Due to the stationing on the border, Aleksei had at least muskets, and many of the archery corps in the interior did not even have muskets.

There are more than 20,000 shooting corps in Moscow, and a large part of them are in the role of police and firefighters. Firefighters, in particular, can only receive rations, weapons are just a few buckets, and they usually have no salary to pay. More than 10 years ago, the nation's shooting corps still had to pay taxes, and they had to pay a poll tax no matter what they did.

After Alexei I came to power, the shooting army finally did not have to pay for work, but it was also ...... That's all.

There were 300 standing border guards in the fortress, and that was the tsar's own son. There is a military salary, you eat well, you don't have to work, you just have to fight.

And a shooting army like Alexei is, to put it bluntly, similar to the Ming army. When they meet a benevolent commander, they can still receive rations, and when they meet a mean commander, they have to work on their own to earn money to support their families. And they also have to serve as free handymen in the fortress, and they do all the hard work, and the reward is at most a meal.

The fortress was surrounded by rebels, and Alexei was very happy.

Because as long as the enemy continues to besiege the city, they are not afraid of starvation, and the governor must give food to the shooting army in order to stabilize the morale of the army.

The governor's name was Yakov Bezobrazov, a great nobleman from Moscow. This position was bought, after all, it was the window to the East, and being the governor of Astrakhan was fat, and he could get a lot of oil and water from the past merchants.

I am not afraid of war or anything, although this place is the border of Russia, Persia has not gone north for decades, and it is impossible for other forces to break through the fortress.

Of the three rebel armies, two have gone.

The rest of the Mongols also had to work, and it was impossible to besiege the city with a large army all the time, and only more than 2,000 horsemen remained on the east bank of the Volga.

Governor Yakov completely relented and resumed his days of drinking.

Alexei became sad, and he wished that the fortress would always be surrounded by enemy troops and that he would be able to barely eat every day.

Why didn't the enemy continue to besiege the city?

On this day, Alexei was called to work, and he served an officer of the standing army. Like his great-grandfather, these standing armies were freedmen conscripted by the Tsar, but they could now be driven as slaves.

The roof of the officer's house was smashed by Racine's small cannon, and the tables, chairs and benches were also smashed.

Several shooting corps were called to repair the house for free, and also to clean the messy house. Alexei was whipped several times by the officers because of his slow work, and he did not even eat a bite of food from morning to night.

When he returned home hungry, his wife and children were counting on him.

He had four sons and three daughters, three of whom died of hunger and disease. In the past, they could go to the bazaar (big bazaar) on the other side of the fortress to work, and the salary of the husband and wife was barely enough to support the family. However, the bazaar was sacked by the rebels, many wealthy merchants were killed, and the people at the bottom rebelled north with Racine.

In this case, Alexei could not find a job and completely lost his financial resources.

After a few more days, the whole family was so hungry that even the table was ground into powder and bread was made with what little flour was left. Alexei looked for people everywhere to borrow money and food, but his friends were all shooting soldiers, who in the bitter family had surplus food?

When he came home again, his wife was crying, but it was his youngest son who died, and I don't know if he died of illness or starvation.

At night, a friend from the shooting army came to visit the door, and Alexei's family was curled up in bed with hunger.

"Yegor, why are you here?" Alexei asked.

Yegor said: "More than 200 shooting troops, all of them have run out of food at home. We have already agreed that we will collectively go to the Governor tomorrow to borrow food, otherwise we will all starve to death, and the Governor does not want to see such a thing happen. Are you going? ”

Alexei said: "Of course I have to go, I have no food at home. ”

The next day, more than 200 shooting troops surrounded the governor's palace.

Governor Yakov's first reaction was to bring in a standing army to suppress it. After learning that the shooting army had only come to borrow food, Yakov laughed again: "Lend them some food, but don't starve the cattle to death." ”

"My lord is really merciful." The butler praised heartily.

Since it is a grain loan, of course it will have to be returned in the future, and interest will also be calculated.

Alexei owed the governor a great deal of grain, and he could not remember how much he should have repaid with the profits. His father also owed money and food to the former governor, who was very merciful and left without care, but only took his sister away to pay the bill.

But this time the governor borrowed little, because the fortress was not really safe and could be surrounded again at any time, and the governor had to save food for the defense of the city.

Alexei returned home happily with a small bag of flour and found his wife crying while grinding the rest of the table.

His eldest daughter is also dead!

The couple didn't care about their backs, and quickly grinded the table into flour and mixed it with flour to bake bread.

There is very little flour, you have to save it, and you don't know how long it will last.

Alexei hoped that the enemy would come back to besiege the city, and that the enemy would leave completely, so that he could resume his business and work to support his family.

After a few days like this, the Mongols finally withdrew.

Governor Yakov drove all the wealthy merchants and civilians who had fled into the castle back to the city on the other side of the city, and ordered them to return to normal as soon as possible. But it can't be normal, this is a commercial city, Racine is still looting upstream, and business travel has long been cut off.

Alexei went to the city to look for work, and no one hired him at all. Because there are too many people looking for work, if there is a job to do laundry, the women can fight in the street in order to fight for it.

People starved to death every day in the city, and two of the archers in the fortress died one after another.

The shooters went to the governor again to borrow food, but this time they borrowed less.

Alexei had no choice, so he took his second daughter, who was only twelve years old, and went to the city first to ask the rich to be taken as slaves. The rich men who ran fast were very rich, and they had a good relationship with the governor, and they hid in the castle with the money and food, and now they returned to the city to continue their comfortable life.

Alexei's daughter has a yellow face and thin muscles, and no one wants to give it away, let alone sell her daughter to get a sum of money.

He really couldn't think of any other way, so he finally knelt down in front of the rich butler and begged, but was greeted by a big foot and kicked him to the ground.

Back at home, Alexei pulls out an old arquebus, an antique handed down from his great-grandfather. Although it has been around for hundreds of years, it has not fired a few shots, and it is usually well maintained - the most valuable things in the house, of course, must be well served.

Alexei took out his musket, not intending to kill and rob, but to take it to the city and sell it.

Many of the archery corps in Tsarist Russia lost their weapons due to poverty.

Holding an arquebus, I walked around the city several times, and the customers who were willing to buy guns could not find it, but I ran into several shooting armies selling guns.

"Yegor, you're here to sell guns too?" Alexei asked.

Yegor said: "If you don't sell guns, your whole family will starve to death." In the past few decades, I have lost two brothers, a younger sister, and three children, but I have always been reluctant to sell my guns. If I don't sell it now, I can't find a job at all. ”

Alexei sighed: "Alas, who made us the shooting army." ”

Yegor misses infinitely: "If only Emperor Yin Fan Thunder were still here, I often heard my grandfather talk about how beautiful the shooting army was at that time." There are military salaries to receive, rations are sufficient, and life is like that of a noble lord. ”

"We didn't catch up with the good times, and there could be no more Yin Van the Terrible in Russia," Alexei said, "If the Yin Van the Terrible is resurrected, I will definitely be loyal to him and sacrifice my life to fight for him." ”

Suddenly, a voice came from the side: "Without Yin Fan Thunder Emperor, we can fight for ourselves and our families!" ”

Alexei turned to look, but it was Nikita, the small leader of the shooting corps.

Yegor asked: "How can we fight?" Do you want to fight the Tatars, to rob the Tatars of their food? ”

Nikita said: "I know the Cossack leader Razin, and if Razin besieges the city for a few more days, I will definitely join forces with the firing corps. Racine fought for the poor, he was not a thief, but our brother. ”

"Kolashin has already left with the Cossacks." Alexei said.

"Racin lived in the tribe of the Tatars for two years, and he had good relations with the Tatars. We can claim to be Racine's friends and go east to join the Tatars. We have muskets in our hands, and we can fight, and the Tatars will certainly be willing to take us in. ”

Alexei exclaimed: "But the Tatars are infidels! ”

Nikita said, "The infidels may give us food, but the governor only borrows a little at a time." He hung us to prevent us from starving, to feed us, and to keep our families alive or dead. ”

Yegor said, "Can you guarantee that the infidels will take us in?" ”

Nikita said: "You can send someone to contact you first, I am a junior officer in the shooting corps, and I can't leave for too long." Which of you would like to help me on a trip to the Tatars to the east? ”

Yegor hesitated.

Alexei gritted his teeth and said, "I'll go, but you have to take care of my family!" ”

Nikita said: "I still have a little bread at home, and your family is my family. ”

"I will not return to the fortress to-day, but will remain in the Grand Bazaar in the city," said Alexei, "and when it gets dark, I will go quietly to the east to look for the Tatars." ”