When Fei Yinghuan and his wife returned to their hometown, Yang Zhenqing, Li Dingguo, Cao Bianjiao, and Wang Tingchen all returned to Beijing.

All four of them were made county dukes, handed over their commands, and were transferred to the Central Governor's Office.

It's not that Zhao Han is afraid of them, but they are all older. After more than 30 years of fighting in the territory, it is time to return to Nanjing to enjoy the blessings, give a duke to let them enjoy their old age in peace, and by the way, supplement the senior talents of the Governor's Mansion - Zhang Tieniu, Gu Jianshan and others, who are sick, die, and retreat, and there are vacancies in the Central Governor's Mansion.

The most powerful Houjun Governor's Mansion was taken over by the Hunan general Wang Huilai, who was also a descendant of the Datong Army and sat in Beijing.

Qin Liangyu's grandson, Ma Wannian, took over the Anxi Protectorate and ruled the entire Western Regions.

The Left Army Governor's Mansion in the Northeast was managed by Wang Fuchen, and Xiong Lai, a general in Jiangxi, was his deputy.

Just looking at this series of arrangements, we know that Zhao Han is weakening the local influence of the Jiangxi Military Meritorious Group. The governor of the Later Army is from Hunan, the governor of the Left Army is from Shanxi, and the Metropolitan Protector of the Western Regions is from Sichuan.

Of course, we also have to take care of the emotions of the Jiangxi people, and most of the rising stars from Jiangxi have been appointed as the second and third leaders of various military regions.

In particular, Zhang Tieniu's son Zhang Tingxun, in the ninth year of Yang Zhenqing and Li Dingguo's enthronement, was transferred to the newly established "Jianhe Metropolitan Protectorate" as the Grand Protector.

The River of Sword, that is, the Yenisei River.

The Protectorate of the Sword River, the Yenisei Governor's Military Region of Tsarist Russia.

The Jianhe Protectorate of Datong China was a second-level institution subordinate to the Beihai Protectorate, but it also had a strong military autonomy, because it could fight the Cossacks at any time.

The Yenisei Governor Military District of Tsarist Russia, with its headquarters in Yeniseisk.

The headquarters of the Jianhe Metropolitan Protectorate under Zhang Tingxun's headquarters is more southerly, located at the confluence of the Yenisei River and the Angara River. It is possible to travel by boat along the river, and to the southeast can lead directly to the North Sea, and to the southwest and northwest can control the Tomsk Military District of Tsarist Russia.

The Tomsk Military Region of Tsarist Russia is probably the northern part of western Xinjiang and the vast area in the northern part of the eastern Kazakh steppe.

In the north of Xinjiang, the Datong army and the Cossacks fought all year round!

The scale of the war was relatively small, and the total number of troops invested in each battle was basically less than 1,000.

Zhao Han's original plan was to take the Yenisei River Valley. But it backfired, and the Cossacks next door were too poor, and they always came to the territory of the Datong army to plunder, and occasionally went south to Xinjiang to rob the herdsmen.

In the face of such a situation, it is impossible to defend passively, and you must take the initiative to play out!

……

In the second year of Hongye, the world is stable and the sea is rich.

In distant Moscow, Tsar Peter succeeded in seizing power, and Princess Sophia was placed under house arrest in a monastery.

History has long changed, and Princess Sophia's number one thinker and lover, Golitsyn, has been studying advanced knowledge and culture hard in Nanjing, and has never returned to China to assist her in governance. And his right-hand man, the leader of the shooting army, Khovansky, worked as a beggar in Nanjing for two years, and finally "alarmed" the emperor Zhao Han, and sent him back to Moscow with money and laughter.

But the general direction remained the same, and the aristocratic power structure of Tsarist Russia remained the same.

By the way, Princess Sophia belongs to the reformers. On the contrary, it was Peter the Great's grandfather's family, which belonged to the staunch conservative faction and was purged in the change of power.

Peter the Great's recapture of power from Sophia was a victory for the conservative aristocracy over the reformist aristocracy!

"Your Majesty, Russia must be reformed!" Returning home, Golitsyn was immediately hired by Peter the Great as a court advisor.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Nashokin also said: "Your Majesty, there can be no further delay. ”

Peter the Great, who was still young and had not yet traveled to Western Europe, hesitated: "I do want to reform, but the nobles who support me are all staunch conservatives." If I reform, who will support it? ”

Thanks to his sister Princess Sophia, Peter's grandfather's house was cleaned, otherwise Peter the Great would have to take his own outdoor knife first!

Golitsyn, who returned from Nanjing, said: "Under the pretext of punishing the princess's remnants, he disposed of several nobles and took the opportunity to get some money from the nobles. Using this money to reform the shooting corps in Moscow and completely control the army in Moscow can also enhance the combat effectiveness of the capital's firing corps. With the army, it is possible to reform the Duma and the gentry, suppress the disobedient by force, and gather sufficient executive and financial power. ”

Nashokin said: "I have read Golitsyn's work on China many times. We should learn from China, but we should not copy China and carry out reforms based on Russia's reality. ”

Peter the Great, who was young and vigorous, made up his mind to reform.

Nashokin was appointed the head of the reform, and Golitsyn, who had studied in China for twenty years, served as a reform adviser and Nashokin's deputy.

The first is to take a few arrogant nobles and use the pretext of purging the princess's remnants to exile and raid the family to obtain land and money.

Immediately afterwards, the capital shooting corps was reorganized and the army in the whole of Moscow was controlled.

Then he ordered a meeting of the National Duma, and called all the local nobles to the meeting. Troops were sent to surround the meeting site, and it was immediately announced that the Senate (similar to the cabinet) would be set up with 11 committees (similar to 11 ministries). The Grand Imam was immediately deposed and replaced by the Religious Council, the Church became the administrative body of the state, and the Tsar controlled the entire Church. The country was divided into 50 provinces, and middle and low-level nobles and high-ranking bureaucrats were dispatched.

Following the example of China's eighteen-level ranks, Russian civil and military officials were divided into fourteen ranks, and officials had to be promoted according to merit, regardless of their family background.

The content of these reforms is similar to that of history.

The difference is that Peter the Great, in another time and space, advocated the implementation of the whole West (hmm...... ). It even stipulated that beards should not grow, court officials were required to wear suits, and smoking and coffee drinking were encouraged.

In this time and space, he blindly worships the East and encourages the study of Chinese beards. He also led by example and changed to Chinese clothing, but felt that the wide robe and large sleeves were too much of a hindrance, and all implemented the regular clothes worn by Chinese emperors and officials. The Chinese royal family admired yellow, and Peter the Great admired purple, stipulating that only the Russian royal family could wear purple clothing.

Also, smoking and tea drinking are encouraged.

But Russia does not produce tobacco tea, especially tea, which is so expensive to ship to Russia that the tsar and the nobles can only choose to smoke.

In terms of social reform, Peter the Great founded secular schools, introduced the Roman calendar, standardized the Tsarist Russian script, and learned from China to create newspapers. Then it encouraged the development of industry and commerce, reduced taxes for industrial and commercial owners, allowed business owners to go to the countryside to buy serfs to work, and encouraged young aristocrats to study in China.

The imperial examination system was introduced, but only a little.

That is, the literate were ordered to go to Moscow for examinations, and 50 people were admitted every year, regardless of their background, and they could be appointed to low-level officials.

A series of reforms were dazzling, and the traditional aristocracy and monks complained. But it did not provoke a rebellion, because Peter the Great's father and sister had been carrying out reforms, and the staunch diehards had been purged several times.

Moreover, the external environment in Europe is also conducive to the reform of Tsarist Russia, and the surrounding countries are either in internal strife or in weakness...... Only in the East, China swallowed up large colonies of Tsarist Russia.

But Peter the Great's reforms did not benefit the people at the bottom, and even made life even worse in the short term.

In order to alleviate the opposition of the aristocracy, Peter the Great imposed stricter restrictions on serfs in the early years of the reforms, so as to ensure the interests of the local nobility. At the same time as reducing taxes on industrial and commercial owners, Peter the Great raised taxes on citizens and peasants in order to obtain sufficient funds for reform.

The common people rebelled because of this?

Then rebel, anyway, there are local nobles to suppress the rebellion.

A large number of political prisoners who opposed the reform were exiled to Siberia. Countless people of Tsarist Russia who could not survive, despite the government's ban and the arrest of the nobles, turned into Cossacks and went to Siberia.

In just a few years, the Tomsk Military Region of Tsarist Russia rapidly increased its population by more than 30,000.

Peter the Great strictly forbade the Cossacks to provoke China and tried to avoid war with China. However, the population of the desolate Tomsk Military Region increased dramatically in a short period of time, and it was impossible to survive by clearing the wasteland, so it could only go to China's territory to plunder the indigenous people and herdsmen.

……

Sword River City (Strelka).

"Duhu, the imperial court has come with a military order."

"Give it to me!"

Zhang Tingxun cut off the sealed fire paint, glanced at the contents, and immediately said excitedly: "It's finally going to be a big battle, it's not good to make a small fight!" ”

Due to the increasing frequency of the Cossack raids, the Nanjing court was completely enraged, and Xinjiang and Jianhe sent troops at the same time next year.

The Western Regions Metropolitan Protector mobilized the main force of northern Xinjiang, and at the same time led the Mongolian cavalry in northern Xinjiang to attack Kuznetsk first, and then directly took the Tomsk Governor's Palace.

Zhang Tingxun's army of the Jianhe Protectorate rushed to the northwest to attack the hinterland of the Tomsk Military District, capturing or destroying Cossack strongholds on the banks of the river along the way.

At the same time, the imperial court also sent envoys from the Kazakh steppe north to contact Kaldan, who had fled to the north. As long as Galdan was willing to submit to the imperial court, he gave him the position of protector of the Mongol capital, and let him attack and harass the southwestern part of the Tomsk Prefecture.

Whether Galdan agreed or not, the Kazakh army would be dispatched, and the head Khan himself led a large army to help the court in the war - and the Kazakhs were often plundered by Cossack bandits.

On the side of the Nanjing Imperial Court, if there is no war, it will be done, and once the war starts, it will be an all-round attack!

Early summer of the following year.

The Xinjiang Datong Army uprooted two strongholds, successfully surrounded Kuznetsk, broke the city after a month and a half of siege, and then directly took the Tomsk Governor's Palace.

During the siege of Kuznetsk, the Tomsk governor had already urgently mobilized, and entire village Cossacks were transferred to Tomsk to defend the city. The fortifications on the periphery of the castle were also reinforced, with three layers inside and three layers outside, and it would take at least half a year to forcibly attack them. Even, some local natives and slaves have been murdered and made into adult jerky, making it clear that they want to defend this castle.

The Xinjiang Front, stuck outside the city of Tomsk, destroyed the outlying fortifications little by little - the Cossacks already had a way to deal with hot air balloons, building forts in key areas, and the defenders hid in forts to guard against air raids.

Farther west, the combined forces of Kazakhstan and Galdan, after successfully uprooting several Cossack strongholds, were also stuck outside the castle and could not continue. They lacked artillery and did not know how to attack the fortress, so they had to rely on human lives to pile up, and the morale of the army was declining due to the heavy casualties.

The Southern Route Army and the Western Route Army all fought a siege war and a war of attrition.

Zhang Tingxun's Eastern Route Army, however, was well advanced, attacking the enemy's north, which was cold and barren and relatively sparsely populated. The size of the castle and the number of defenders were far inferior to those of the south, and some Cossacks were transferred to the south to help.

Zhang Tingxun's troop composition is also very special, with only 2,000 standing troops, of which 25% are Han Chinese, 20% are Buryat Mongols, 25% are Kyrgyz (homologous to the Kyrgyz), and 30% are Beishan Jurchens (Hezhe, Evenki, Oroqen, Feiyaka, etc.).

No matter what ethnic group they come from, they all belong to the regular Datong Army.

The criteria for enlistment are to be able to speak Chinese and be able to communicate in Chinese. When I first recruited, I lowered my standards and could only say "hello" and "thank you", and after joining the army, I gradually became able to speak everyday language.

In addition to the regular army, there were 2,000 tribal warriors who went into battle with the army. All of them came from the Kyrgyz tribes in the Yenisei River Valley, and they were not only auxiliaries, but also people who transported grain and grass, and the Datong Army provided regular grain ships.

All of the above nationalities have a blood feud with the Cossacks!

Zhang Tingxun set out by boat from Jianhe City, ran hundreds of miles to the northwest, and arrived at the Cossack outpost castle of Nizhandrino. Due to the early dispatch of troops and the high dimension here, the snow outside the castle has not yet melted.

When the Cossack defenders were in an emergency defense, Zhang Tingxun said directly: "One battalion stayed, led 500 tribal warriors to besiege the city, and the rest of the troops continued to march!" ”

Together with the auxiliary warriors, the army of 4,000 people in total was divided when it encountered the first enemy fort.

The defenders didn't react at all, thinking that Zhang Tingxun was going to surround the rear, and hurriedly dispatched troops to strengthen the troops in the northwest. But seeing three-quarters of the Chinese fleet heading north without stopping, he understood what Zhang Tingxun wanted to do.

But it was too late to report the news, and the fleet left behind blocked the river!

Zhang Tingxun even pinched the time to march, and even asked the whole army to stop the ship for two hours on the way, and suddenly appeared outside the city of Nikulino the next night. It was the largest Cossack city in the north, and thousands of Cossacks settled in the surrounding Cossack villages, after the population exploded in recent years.

The defending generals were unaware of it, because even if the Chinese army were killed, they would have to pass through Lower Chadrino first. This is not a front-line castle, it is a thousand miles away from Zhang Tingxun's lair.

"Boom, boom, boom!"

The lights were dark, and suddenly there was a sound of shelling, and the east and south sides of the castle were firing wildly.

And the Datong army and the tribal warriors have already circled to the north and west in advance. At the moment when the cannon sounded, he carried the ladder and began to climb the fortifications on the outskirts of the fortress. Immediately afterward, several hot air balloons rose and bombed the buildings in the city, soon setting fire to several wooden houses.

Outside the city was shelled and soldiers were attacking, and inside the city there was a fire, and the Cossacks in the city were completely stunned, and when they woke up in their sleep, they did not even know where to defend first.

It is true that thousands of Cossacks lived in this area, but most of them were scattered in various villages, and the defenders and inhabitants of the city numbered only a few hundred.

The whole battle was devastating.

The next morning they went into the city to rest, and in the afternoon they again divided their forces and went out by boat to attack the surrounding Cossack villages. Those villages, which were originally indigenous, were robbed by the Cossacks as settlements. The natives either fled, were killed, or became slaves.

The Datong army was fairly disciplined, but the tribal warriors who went out with the army had a blood feud with the Cossacks. They stormed the Cossack village and killed them, and at the same time freed the indigenous slaves and took them with them to kill.

The Cossacks in the village, mainly serfs who had fled from Tsarist Russia, had very few muskets, and many did not even have serious weapons. In the face of the butcher's knives of the tribal warriors, the Cossack villagers were powerless to resist, and all the slow runners were shot and hacked to death.

And the number of tribal warriors is getting more and more.

Some of them came from freed slaves, and some of them were native people. The natives were expelled from the riverside and hid in the dense forest, and when they heard that some people were beating Cossacks, they rushed to help.

A month later, the number of tribal warriors under Zhang Tingxun reached an astonishing number of more than 8,000.

Immediately, the army waved westward, recruiting indigenous warriors along the way, and swept the Cossack villages everywhere. The entire hinterland of the Tomsk Military Region was stirred into a pot of paste by Zhang Tingxun.

Until Zhang Tingxun led his army south to encircle Zha Vartovsk, the retreat of the main Cossack force was cut off, and the Tomsk Overseer's Office became an isolated city.

In this battle, Zhang Tingxun only led 2,000 regular troops and 2,000 tribal auxiliaries to the battle, but he fought thousands of miles in four months. Five Cossack castles were stormed, more than a dozen Cossack strongholds were uprooted, and more than 80 Cossack villages were destroyed. The casualties of the Datong army were only in single digits, and the tribal warriors only suffered more than 300 casualties.

Fight to fame!

Two years later, the Sino-Russian Tomsk Treaty was signed, and the Tomsk Governor's Military Region of Tsarist Russia was divided into two, with China occupying the east and Tsarist Russia occupying the west.

The entire Siberian region north of Xinjiang is Chinese territory.

Peter the Great's prestige was greatly lost, and the conservatives took the opportunity to stir up trouble, and the gains of reform were most likely to be wasted.