Alexei has night blindness and can't see clearly at night.

He walked from the Grand Bazaar of the city to the river, quietly swam across the Volga, and went far around the fortress.

You don't need eyes in the dark, just run to the east anyway, it's all the territory of the Hurgot. Historically, when the Turks returned to the east, even the west bank of the Volga River was occupied by them, and the fortresses and cities of Tsarist Russia were surrounded by the grasslands of the Turks.

I don't know how long I walked, Alexei was so tired that he was out of breath, and his malnourished body was already unable to support it.

He couldn't see what was going on around him at all, so he could only open his throat and shout, "Is there anyone?" Is there anybody? ”

As he shouted, he was finally heard by a herdsman who rushed out of his tent and grabbed him.

The two sides could not communicate, and ordinary herders did not speak Russian.

The next morning, Alexei was taken to the chief, who in turn took him to the king.

Xie Yuan had planned to visit the Khiva Khanate on the way, but before he could set off, he heard that some Russians had defected. After a brief understanding of the situation, Xie Yuan asked, "Why does the shooting army in the castle want to take refuge here?" ”

Alexei said: "We are dying of hunger, and in the past half a month, I have starved to death of a son and a daughter. ”

Xie Yuan was puzzled: "Is there a shortage of food in the castle?" ”

Alexei replied: "The Governor is not short of food, but our shooting army is short of food. ”

Xie Yuan was even more confused when he heard this: "Aren't you soldiers?" The Governor does not pay his salary? ”

Alexei said: "We are a shooting army, we were born to be. My dad is, so am I, and so am my son. When there is a war, we take up arms. When we weren't fighting, we looked for work to support our families and had to deal with the errands of the old men. Some time ago, the city was ransacked, and now we can't find a job. ”

Xie Yuan suddenly realized that this person in front of him was a Tsarist military household.

"How many more people are there like you?" Xie Yuan asked.

Alexei said: "There are more than two hundred. ”

Xie Yuan asked again: "I usually live in the castle. ”

Alexei nodded: "They all live in the castle." ”

Xie Yuan asked again: "Do you all have muskets?" How much ammunition is there? ”

Alexei said: "Some of them don't have muskets anymore. There is not much ammunition either, we usually have no ammunition, it was sent down some time ago when we were defending the city. ”

"How many other defenders are there?" Xie Yuan continued to ask.

Alexei said: "There are three hundred border guards, and there are more than twenty servants of the governor. These soldiers, unlike us, can have enough to eat. ”

Xie Yuan turned around and said in Mongolian: "Your Royal Highness, you have to build a capital city, I think this Astrakhan is suitable for being the capital." ”

Shukuer Daiqing was moved to hear this, but hesitated: "Could this person be a fraud?" ”

"Then it's up to you to bet." Xie Yuan said.

A Yuqi said: "Grandpa, you can gamble." ”

Astrakhan was not only a fortress, but also a city on the other side of the river, a center of trade on the Caspian coast. By occupying this place, Tsarist Russia had to cut off trade with Persia, and if you wanted to do business, you had to pay taxes to the Turks honestly.

With such an important city, Tsarist Russia will not rest on its laurels, and it is very likely that tens of thousands of troops, or even more than 100,000 troops, will come to attack.

Opportunities and dangers coexist, and it depends on whether the Turks can bear it.

Shukul Daiqing was still hesitating, and he said truthfully: "The Russians we have dealt with can kill hundreds of thousands of troops. If we take the city, we will face endless attacks, and if the tsar sends an army of one or two hundred thousand, how can we hold it? ”

Xie Yuan sneered: "I don't eat the meat in my mouth, and I don't dare to occupy the city next to my pasture, so why do you stay here?" Settle it as soon as possible, otherwise there will be more and more Russians by the river, and you won't even be able to keep the pasture in a few decades. ”

This comes to the root, if you don't occupy the castle at this time, you will never think about it in the future.

Like another time and space, the pastures of the Turghut tribe spread across the banks of the lower Volga River. But the Russian castle stood by the river, like a nail in the heart of the Mongols, who could only submit to the tsar and face endless military service.

The tsar also did not collect taxes from them, but he conscripted troops every once in a while. Sometimes one or two thousand, sometimes three or five thousand, pulling the Mongols to fight, the casualty rate is generally around 20%.

If you win the war, you will not be able to reap the benefits, and if you lose the war, you will suffer heavy losses, and the population of the Huerhut Department will continue to decline.

"I'll give you an idea," Xie Yuan said, "after taking the castle and the city, you have to try to accept other peoples. It doesn't matter if it's an Orthodox Church or a Green Church, you allow them to believe freely. No matter how much tax is levied in Tsarist Russia, you will reduce it a little. Let everyone know that it is more cost-effective to be your subject than to be a subject of the tsar. ”

In the city on the other side of the fortress, the bazaar is called the Grand Bazaar, and you can tell what religion you believe in by listening to the name.

Freedom of religion was necessary for the state of Hurgots in order to unite the Orthodox, Green, and Buddhist populations. Otherwise, without the call of Tsarist Russia, they themselves will have civil strife.

Shukul Daiqing did not resist religious freedom, otherwise he would not have been mixed with the Don Cossacks, he nodded and said, "That's all." ”

Before the defeat of the Russian expeditionary army, there must be freedom of religion, and all ethnic groups must be united in their outward relations.

Xie Yuan said: "Your diplomatic form is not bad, the Don Cossacks in the west are allies, the Bashkirs in the north are also friendly with you, and the little Yuz in the east is a plate of scattered sand. By the way, what is the relationship between the Khiva Khanate in the southeast and you? ”

Shukuer Daiqing said: "There is no contact, and there is still a small Yuzi territory." ”

"I'm going to make a trip to the Khiva Khanate to help you build an alliance." Xie Yuan said.

……

Alexei ate with a round stomach, and he hid some food in his arms, intending to take it home for his wife and children to enjoy.

He waited until the evening to sneak back to the river, then hid near the fort and came out the next morning and a half. After returning home, he was not in a hurry to deliver the news, but took out the food for his wife and children.

Looking at the gobbling family, Alexei comforted: "I won't go hungry in the future, I have already thought of a good way." ”

When his wife asked him where the food came from, Alexei kept silent, saying only that he would not go hungry in the future.

In the afternoon, Alexei found Nikita: "The Tatars in the east, who have been canonized as kings by the Khitan emperor, have received the support of the Khitan emperor. They intended to occupy the castle and establish a capital here. If the archers can open the city gates, they can get a piece of land outside the city. Those who were willing to stay as soldiers were also taken in by the Tatar Khan, and they could receive their salaries. ”

"Will the Khan convert us to Buddhism?" Nikita asked.

Alexei said: "No, we can continue to believe in Orthodox Christianity, and the Turks in the city can continue to believe in the Green Religion. The Khan also said that the Slavs were allowed to raise their own funds and continue the construction of the Holy Trinity Cathedral. ”

Holy Trinity Cathedral, has been built for decades.

Due to lack of funds and craftsmen, even the main frame has not yet been completed.

Nikita frowned and thought that he planned to defect to the Mongols with his shooting army, but he did not think of helping the Mongols take the castle. Once the castle is captured, it is tantamount to stabbing a hornet's nest, and the tsar will do whatever it takes to take it back.

Alexei continued: "The Khan also said that the state of Turghut, which he founded, was a country of the poor. He will give tax cuts to the poor, and everyone is doing better than before. ”

"It's done!" Nikita slapped her thigh.

The two sides made an appointment to act at dawn.

The Marksmen first set fire to the houses inside the fortress, creating chaos and keeping the defenders busy fighting the fires. Seeing the fire, the Mongols outside the city quickly approached the castle, while the archers killed the guards in the confusion and opened the gates.

The whole plan went extremely smoothly, and the governor and the border guards were not prepared in the slightest.

Historically, Racine relied on this method to capture the city, and used the same method to capture several fortresses in the Volga valley one after another. At that time, because it was too smooth, Razin's whole body swelled and threatened to establish a Cossack republic on the Volga.

"Master, go quickly, the Tatars have come in!" The housekeeper panicked.

Governor Yakov is also big-hearted, some time ago the city was besieged, and he can still sleep tonight when the castle is on fire. I just got up halfway, asked a few questions, and learned that I was already fighting the fire, so I ran to sleep again.

Yakov finally panicked at this time and asked, "How could the Tatars come in?" ”

The steward said, "It was the shooting army that opened the gates. ”

"Those damn animals, I'm going to starve them all to death!" Yakov was furious.

"Kill the Governor!"

The cattle in Yakov's mouth were approaching the Governor's Palace at this time.

The shooting army owes the governor a lot of money and food, no matter what happens in the future, it is right to kill the governor anyway, and the best way to repay the debt is to pay the debt.

Hearing the shouts, Yakov was so frightened that he put on his clothes in a panic, and before he had time to go to the stables, he fled through the back door. After running a few steps, he saw several shooting troops rushing towards him, and Yakov immediately pinched his throat and shouted: "Kill the governor!" ”

"Kill the Governor!" The shooters shouted, thinking that Yakov was also an accomplice.

Yakov mingled with the archers and rushed to the governor's palace to kill himself. Blinded by the black light, and unable to see his clothes and appearances clearly, he deliberately slowed down his pace, waiting for the shooters to run away, and then turned and fled in the other direction.

His family was in Moscow, where there were only mistresses and illegitimate children, and it didn't matter if they were killed by the shooting army.

This guy really took advantage of the chaos and ran away, and fled all the way north to Tsaritsyn, which scared the governor of Tsaritsyn very much.

The uprising in the north had not yet subsided, and the tsar could not take care of this side for the time being. When the uprising was quelled, the Tsar's grain and grass were almost exhausted, and it was estimated that it would take another three or five years to delay before he could gather tens of thousands of troops to conquer the Turks.

Tens of thousands of troops are already the limit.

After all, Tsarist Russia was simultaneously at war with Poland, the Ottomans, and even China in the Far East.

The occupation of Astrakhan by the Mongols was tantamount to a stab in the face of Tsarist Russia economically, and the already difficult finances of Tsarist Russia were bound to worsen.

Moscow's window to the East, closed!