stubborn thief

Yeniseysk.

This is a wooden fortress located on the left bank of the Yenisei River, with square wooden fences. Although it has been expanded over a period of ten years, it is still slightly smaller than Tomsk.

On the wooden tower, Vasily, a clerk from Moscow, chewed on dried horse meat, gazing forlornly at the Kty River to the west.

Behind him, in the open space of the wooden fortress, piles of furs were being dried, and Cossacks were sitting on the ground near the wooden houses.

Vasily's full name was Vasily Danilovich Poyarkov.

The name sounds long, but it's actually very simple: this person is called so-and-so, is the son of so-and-so, and comes from somewhere.

For example, Liu Chengzong, using this naming method, would be called Chengzong Xiang Yulovich Yan'an Liuski.

The author of the article explains that his ancestors were nobles, while the author of the article, Kovnov, explains it more simply, that his ancestors were mostly commoners.

However, Vasily was not entirely of commoner origin. His grandfather was a Boye nobleman, but he was caught up in political struggles during a chaotic period, and his fief became a royal special territory. By Vasily's generation, he had become a commoner.

For this reason, Vasily's son Peter will take Obichev as his surname. Perhaps it won't be long before Vasily receives a fiefdom in the Ob River basin, at which point his family may take Obsky as their surname.

Of course, such upward mobility was not a certainty in Siberia at that time.

Vasily had a friend named Yerofi, whose surname was Khabarov. He was a peasant and a rare expert in farming in Russo.

Ten years ago, I had accumulated some wealth through farming, but then the Russo-Japanese War broke out. Poland was fighting in the west, the Tatars were looting in the east, and there were countless rebel armies fighting back and forth within the country.

Yerofi bought a few guns, hired a few people, and ventured into the relatively safe Siberia to become an explorer. A few years ago, he obtained a license from Vasily to participate in the exploration of the Lena River basin, where he found salt mines and became a salt trader in the Lena River basin.

Later, Vasily's son Peter established the Yakut Fortress, and Yerofi also developed his own estate on the Lena River. Relying on the farming skills he had honed in his hometown, he grew crops on the frozen soil and became the largest food supplier in the new land.

This sounds like a story of getting rich through hard work.

However, Rus' culture lacked the environment for achieving wealth through hard work.

From the very beginning, it has been associated with war, plunder, submission, and being submitted, especially in Siberia.

Even the land was seized from the people in the forest; they only collected a little money for protecting the furs. Talking about getting rich through hard work is obviously a joke.

If you can steal from others, why can't others steal from you?
Ye Luofei is a master at agriculture on the frozen ground, but when it comes to robbery, he is clearly inferior to others.

He's currently in a cramped cell in Yeniseysk, charged with theft of public property and tax evasion.

The estates, farms, and saltworks in the Lena River basin all came under the control of Governor Peter Golovin.

Vasily visited Yerofi in prison a few days ago and he was very optimistic.

In their view, this is how the world works, and there's nothing to complain about.

Old Ye even inquired with Vasily about the latest news, looking for new opportunities so he could pull off another heist after Vasily's release.

Vasily does have new information.

Rumors from Yakut Castle say that far to the east there is a great river with fertile black soil on both banks. The river water is dark because it is mixed with too much humus due to the excessive nutrients.

More and more legends are coming back from the east, saying that the region is rich in silver, copper and lead mines, as well as abundant furs.

However, the local indigenous people were very fierce, and several explorers who happened to venture there were killed.

Ye Luofei, who was in prison, was very excited about the news. He estimated that he would have to stay in prison for several more years, so it was better to have fierce natives there.

It takes a long time to get involved and establish a foothold. Maybe by then, his old friend Vasily will have become a high-ranking official and lead his troops toward the Blackwater.

However, Vasily clearly did not have the same ambition as Yerofi.

All his attention was focused on the west, or more precisely, on the Keti River to the west.

Compared to the Ob River, Tomu River, Yenisei River, and Lena River, the Keti River is a less well-known tributary of the Ob River, and its ice-free period from October to April each year makes it navigable only for a short time.

However, among all the rivers in Siberia, the Kty River played a crucial role in the eastward expansion of the Rus'.

Because it connects the shipping route from Tomburg to Yeniseiburg.

All goods, people, and ships originating from Moscow and Kazan, traveling via the Tobol, Irtysh, and Ob rivers, eventually converge on the Keti River, passing through Yeniseiburg, a transshipment hub established in Siberia, before continuing their journey eastward.

According to the plan, at least a thousand people and a large amount of supplies should pass through Yenisei Fortress this year, and then disperse to the fortresses in the east such as Rebin, Tutur, Yakut, Zhigan, and Olyomukin.

However, it has been four months since any boats have come from the Keti River.

This is not good news for Vasily.

He knew of the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Tomsk, and that even the commander Ivan had been captured and his fate unknown.

That extremely important fortress also became part of the territory of the Themon Khanate.

On the edge of this frozen tundra, there were countless nomadic powers, such as the Kazakhs, Dzungars, Khoshut, Khotokht, and Zasaktu, but this was nothing to the explorers of Russo.

Because those khanates didn't care about the land and the people in the forests; they only treated them as livestock bred on the ice plains, collecting furs and other goods at fixed times.

They have always approached strangers with the pretext of making friends or trading, then infiltrated their tribes to investigate their true intentions.

If they are truly powerful, then negotiate trade and exchange goods in exchange for passage rights, and build fortresses on the outskirts of their territory.

Those who are not strong enough resort to war and plunder, and establish rules.

Therefore, the same applies to the Khanate of Thermopylae. Moscow should send new envoys this year to negotiate with them. If they can fight, they will fight; if they cannot fight, they will demarcate the boundary in exchange for unimpeded waterways.

It shouldn't be like this now, with the entire Keti River seemingly blocked off.

It should be said that Rus's exploration of Siberia was very successful. They built fortresses along the crisscrossing rivers from west to east. Although they did not set foot on the land between the rivers, they explored as far as the Heilongjiang River.

As a result, with the outbreak of the Battle of Tomsk and the appearance of the Taimengwei, this shipping route was cut off in the middle.

All the fortresses and strongholds thousands of miles to the east became rootless duckweed, losing all support.

This left Vasily puzzled and worried.

He couldn't understand why Moscow hadn't sent any envoys or troops and abandoned all the fortresses in the East.

"Vasily, come down from the tower! The Khan's cavalry is coming!"

The shouts from inside the fortress interrupted his thoughts. Vasily looked south and saw figures moving in the distant dense forest. Under the golden banners, lightly armed cavalrymen wearing red hats and carrying bows and swords rode out of the forest.

Vasily frowned. "Golden Khan" was their title for Erdene, the leader of the Hotokhite tribe.

Erdeni was merely a Khuntaiji throughout the Mongolian world, and a deputy general under Liu Chengzong, but among the Rus' people of Siberia, he was the true Khan.

Because the first person Erdeni came into contact with was Shuleiubashi, Erdeni's father.

At that time, the Toghit tribe had just been established. It was Laihuer Khan of the Zasagtu Khanate who conquered the Oirat and appointed his cousin Shulei Ubashi as Khuntaiji, as the Khalkha outpost for controlling the Oirat.

They ruled the Oirat for more than twenty years until Batur Khuntaiji's father, Harahula, raised an army. After several defeats, he finally united with the four Oirat tribes and attacked and killed Shulei Ubash on the upper reaches of the Ertis River, regaining pastureland and rule.

In other words, when Rus' first dealings with the Toghetto tribe, they were still the masters of the Oirat, and their power was at its zenith.

On the contrary, the Hotohuit tribe, although still possessing a vast territory that extends west to the Altai Mountains and north beyond the Tannu Mountains, and sits in a huge basin surrounding a saltwater lake, has seen its pastoral population shrink and become mere surviving.

It's really just a tribe of losers.

But the losers have their advantages. When Shuleubashi was in power, he completely ignored the Rus', and their people were killed as soon as they appeared in the forest.

The title of "Golden Khan" was earned through legitimate means.

Instead, after the decline, Erdene succeeded to the throne and changed his father's confrontational policy of refusing to contact Rus', continuing to make peace in order to obtain gunpowder, muskets and military aid.

Their relationship then enjoyed a honeymoon period of a few years.

Just last year, Peter Golovin, the warlord of Yeniseiburg, sent someone to contact the Khan of the Golden Horde, hoping that he would join forces to attack the Khanate of the Temeng, which occupied Tomsk.

At the beginning of this year, the Golden Khan had already agreed to send troops, but for some unknown reason, he withdrew the army and advised them not to send troops for the time being, saying that everything would be discussed again when he returned.

It now appears that the Golden Khan has returned.

As Vasily ran down the tower, Governor Peter also rushed out of the office: "What's going on? Why are the Khan's cavalry here?"

Peter had never liked Erdene.

Because this guy is completely unreasonable, refuses to take any responsibility, and keeps demanding weapons from them.

Unfortunately, the King of Rus' had already ordered that he not be given any firearms, so the envoys sent to the Toghtod tribes often did not have good results.

Peter had once traveled as an envoy to Erdeni's Khan's tent at Lake Uvs, and he still vividly remembers that unpleasant experience.

At that time, Erdeni sat cross-legged on a chair he had bought from the Khitan. Without any opening remarks, he simply asked them if they had brought back the muskets he wanted from Moscow.

After receiving a negative reply, Erdeni did not hesitate to order the Mongol soldiers around him to remove all the sidearms from the entire delegation and keep them for their own use.

Peter was not the first mission to be treated this way.

At that time, Rus' urgently needed to open trade routes to the Khitan, and the Golden Khan was the only Khan in Siberia with whom they could communicate, so Rus' tireless efforts in sending missions to him.

As a result, they were forced to provide Erdene with dozens of muskets every year.

They went back and forth like this for several years, and no amount of sweet talk was ever stopped, except Erdeni, who kept extorting guns from them.

Later, Rus's realization of the humiliation of his actions led him to refuse any further contact with Erdene, even forbidding his followers from trading in Tomsk.

As a result, Tomsk was heavily attacked on Sunday.

Peter, the warlord of Yeniseiburg, was not at all surprised by Erdene's repeated promises to send troops this year, only to go off to do something else.

That's just how the Golden Khan is.

It would be strange if he actually did something he promised to do.

Of course, Rus's behavior was the same.

The Rus' ideology demanded Erdene's loyalty, but he could never obtain it. Erdene wanted Rus' guns and cannons, but Rus never gave them to him.

Both sides are cunning characters who won't act until they see results.

Ligdan Khan of Chahar launched a westward expedition, sweeping across the Tumed tribes along the way.

Although that westward expedition was seen by the Later Jin, the Ming Dynasty, and Liu Chengzong as a very chaotic and desperate escape for the Chahar tribe.

But it terrified Erdene.

When Ligdan Khan moved west, he couldn't hold the area south of the Great Wall. But north of the Great Wall, a legitimate Mongol Khan, especially one like Ligdan Khan who would fight even himself when he went mad, would cause the surrounding nobles to tremble with fear wherever he settled.

Therefore, Erdene desperately needed more military support and psychological dependence, to the point that he once held a farcical oath-of-loyalty ceremony.

His brother-in-law, Tabunangtaiji, pledged allegiance to the Chakhan of Rus' on behalf of Erdeni; while Yakov Dukhachevsky, the envoy of Rus', swore allegiance to Erdeni on behalf of the Chakhan of Rus'.

This is a classic double-dealing scheme, like that of Shen Weijing and Konishi Yukinaga.

However, Lindan Khan arrived quickly and left quickly, soon retiring to his quarters in Bajiao City.

With the crisis resolved, Erdene refused to acknowledge the oath of allegiance.

Rus' sent two delegations to confirm the Khan's allegiance, but Erdene disarmed them first and said, "You're just talking nonsense. When did I swear allegiance?"

This friendship has developed to the point where the level of mutual trust between the two parties is no less than that between Liu Chengzong and Huang Taiji—both firmly believe that the other is no good.

Therefore, for Peter, the warlord of Yeniseiburg, the arrival of Erdene's men was definitely not good news.

Not long after, the wooden gate of Yenisei Fortress opened, and Yakov, who had previously pledged allegiance to Erdene, strode in, clad in chainmail.

Before Commander Peter could even greet the Rus' envoy who had pledged allegiance to both sides, Yakov had already shouted loudly to the Cossacks in the open space: "Quickly assemble all the troops, grab the best swords and guns, the Golden Khan is going to form an army to take us to the territory of the Khitan Khan!"

"The road to the Khitan is now open!"

The mindless Cossacks cheered, pulling on their horses and belts, clattering as they assembled.

But Governor Peter and his clerk Vasily were dumbfounded, looking at each other in disbelief at the news.

Peter pulled Yakov aside and whispered, "Is what you're saying true or false? Is it believable? Is the Golden Khan going to lead us to retake Tomsk?"

Tomsk? Forget about that.

Yakov shook his head and waved his hand, saying, "It's the Khitan! Marco Polo wrote about the Khitan, a land overflowing with gold! We will be the first army to enter the Khitan!" (End of Chapter)