Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1547 End and Beginning ([-])

It was already mid-to-late April when the large group of people arrived in Bekchisalay, and the Crimean Peninsula was full of vitality.Gao Wengang never tires of seeing the vast and magnificent scenery here, just as he is fascinated by the La Plata Prairie. Unfortunately, it is too far away from the east coast after all, and it cannot be grasped like the La Plata Prairie. It is a pity that the ground controls here.

However, the fact that the Crimea Peninsula cannot be occupied by the people on the east coast does not mean that they will sit back and watch it be controlled by the Russians—or, to put it more darkly, it is really in line with the rule of the East if it is controlled by Ottoman Turkey, the suzerain of the Tatars. They prefer to maintain the status quo in the South Russia Plain, and the Crimean Khanate will continue to exist as a key to limit the power of Russia on the mainland.

All continental powers, whether France, Ottoman Turkey, Russia, or China, must be greatly contained on the east coast of a seafaring nation.In addition to limiting their economic strength, they must also worsen their diplomatic environment, strictly block their possibility of acquiring new technologies (unless the people on the east coast have other strategic needs to open a hole for them), and try to weaken their strength.Only in this way can the east coast, which is located in a corner of the world, be able to jump down more happily. Otherwise, when people like Napoleon establish a powerful land power, what are the people on the east coast?This is absolutely unacceptable!

Today's Crimean Khanate is a seed quietly planted by the people on the east bank as the seed to contain Russia's first line.As for whether the seeds can grow into towering trees, it’s hard to say, but at least the Crimeans have a strong will to strengthen themselves so that they can better resist the threat of Russia, which is enough Now - don't think that the rulers of this semi-nomadic, semi-feudal country are fools. In fact, this predatory country has done a good job for 200 years.

They first relied on Ottoman to obtain a big backer, and then took advantage of the changes in the surrounding situation to continuously join the second-strongest party to attack the strongest party. In the early years, they dispatched tens of thousands of cavalry to attack the Lithuanian Grand Duke who conquered Ukraine, making his country weak and finally merged with Poland; later they It also joined the Russian side against the powerful Poland, because the Poles' rule in Ukraine has seriously threatened the survival of their country; and then it was to help the Cossacks become independent from the Poles, and to help Poland attack Russia, which annexed the Cossacks. In short, the balance policy It is quite good, which is enough to prove that the leaders of the Crimean Khanate are not stupid and fools, although they have not been without mistakes over the years.

Of course, strictly speaking, their mistakes cannot be blamed on themselves, because since Moscow was bloodbathed by 12 Tatar cavalry many years ago, the strength of the Russians has been steadily increasing over the years, and the country has been steadily rising. It has never been interrupted. This is not the fault of the Tatars, because they do not have the strength to interrupt, but can only delay it. In fact, they have achieved the ultimate in delaying the rise of Russia.

But the times are changing, technology is developing, and productivity is improving. The system of the Crimean Khanate showed its clumsy and backward side in the 17th century. The Russian shooting army of the cannon does not take much advantage.On the contrary, because of the gap in national power, they were defeated by Russia in the process of competing for the heritage of the Golden Horde such as Astrakhan and Nogai, so that the land was limited to the peninsula and the northern shore of the Black Sea, and no further progress There is no room for them, unless they defeat Russia, which has become a life and death enemy!

Such a locked-up Crimea has created a group of nobles who are anxious about the future of the country, and this also gives the people on the east coast room to manipulate.Otherwise, why would people think that what you said was right?How old are you?

The first step for the people on the east bank to transform the Crimean Khanate is to persuade their great khans and political aristocrats to establish a "modern" standing army instead of continuing to use the backward system of mobilizing herdsmen to join the army. , because it will only become more and more difficult to parry Russia's rapidly advancing army.

The size of the standing army is more than 3000 people, mostly infantry and artillery, recruited from the Tatar feudal lord on the northern shore of the Black Sea, and a small number of bankrupt herdsmen from the peninsula, stationed in the famous "Tatar trench" line of defense on weekdays.Those who taught these people infantry tactics were soldiers from Ottoman Turkey, the suzerain country. Of course, there were also a small number of officers on the east coast, but they did not account for the mainstream.

Of course, more than [-] people alone cannot defend such a huge line of defense, so there are still a group of cavalry troops stationed there with the same number of [-] to [-] to guard and help each other with the infantry.However, in principle, this cavalry team is not supported by Bekkisarai, but by local feudal lords and nomadic leaders who take turns to send their own troops to defend, and the command right belongs to Adil Khan himself. It is a bit similar to China. The relationship between Zhou Tianzi and the princes in the Spring and Autumn Period.

The money needed to feed and maintain a standing army of thousands of people is not a small amount, especially for a semi-nomadic country like Crimea, because they have too many things to import from the outside world .Fortunately, over the years, the continuous slave trade between the people on the east coast and them has greatly enriched their treasury, so that they have sufficient capital to update their military equipment and even buy things such as tobacco, sugar, and spices. "luxury" enjoyment.

In addition, the trade on the Dnieper River also made them feel a little bit (although this trade line is somewhat unstable due to the international situation), and the Tatars who acted as tax collectors conservatively estimated that they could receive more than 32 gold coins from it every year. Although the tax payment does not seem to be a lot, it is not without small subsidies. At least [-] [-]-c flintlock rifles can be imported from the east coast at a discounted price.

Furthermore, we must not forget that the people on the east coast tried their best to help them design the grain plantation industry on the fertile black land on the northern shore of the Black Sea. The Italian city-state troubled by food provided the Crimean Khanate with an additional source of income and at the same time an additional window for foreign exchanges—although this window was artificially created because of the monopoly of Ottoman merchants on the grain trade. It has been closed a lot, but it is a huge progress after all, an opportunity to prevent them from being gradually alienated by civilized society. Whether they can treat me in the future depends on their own efforts.

All in all, the Crimean Khanate currently has a good relationship with the east coast, and trade between the two countries is quite frequent.The East Bank provided limited assistance through trade, and the Crimean Khanate carried out a certain degree of reform in the face of the real crisis, rather than the increasingly difficult situation in the 18th century as in history. I just thought of looking for a change.However, people on the east coast should not be too optimistic. Unlike Ottoman Turkey, which has a large population, prominent ethnic conflicts, and complex religious beliefs, the culture of the Crimean Khanate has a lot of problems. , the degree of industriousness is not even comparable to that of the Turghuts, and the whole country is almost lying on slaves for a living, and there is no one else.

Moreover, whether the Crimean Tatars can break through the limitations of Sharia law and Genghis Khan's code, and evolve new ideas in line with the trend of the times, is probably unknown.The descendants of Ottoman Turkey can produce a Kemal, but a country with a weak foundation like Crimea may not be able to.However, this is all a long time in the future, and no one can say for sure what will happen at that time. What the people on the east coast should do now is what they have to do. Everything is going according to plan. Containment must start little by little.

"The Crimea peninsula itself is still a little dry, which is a little unfavorable for grain cultivation." Sitting in a stone-built house in the city of Bekchisalay, Gawain just sat in his own cup of coffee. Opposite the assistant Marati, he said in a commentary tone: "Once the territory on the northern shore of the Black Sea is lost, the Tatars must live in a very sad life relying on the Tatar trenches. The Crimea Peninsula cannot support many people. and the army, at best, to disgust the Russians and prevent them from acquiring good ports."

"However, in order for the Tatars not to lose their land on the northern shore of the Black Sea, relying on their own strength is actually not enough, and they must seek foreign aid." Malati, who was originally from Tatars, said calmly.He grew up and lived on the east coast since he was a child, but he didn't have much affection for Crimea. Even if he was appreciated by Adil Khan because of his blood and parentage, it wouldn't change anything. After all, his career was in the east coast.

"So we have to find a way to help the Crimean Tatars contact their 'relatives' (descendants of the Mongols, although they may not necessarily consider Tatars as relatives) living in the hometown of Astrakhan, such as Turghut people, Durberts, etc. But the difficulty is not small. The Turghuts think highly of themselves and have never looked down on Tatars who believe in Christianity. The relationship between the two sides is also quite There is some disagreement, and it is hard to say whether they can be persuaded to join forces with the Crimeans." Gao Wengang stirred the coffee cup vigorously with a spoon, and said with a frown, "By the way, this time I will contact Stepan How is the matter of the Racine uprising troops going? I remember that it has been a long time since the last message was sent back..."

"There is no new news, but I think they are probably still alive, because there are quite a lot of good players in the past this time, and the equipment is not bad, but the situation over there is chaotic, and a lot of news is inconvenient. I guess, they are very It may have penetrated deep into the lower Volga area. If the local Mongols or the Russian local army scattered by Racine did not attack them, they might be lucky enough to reach the Caspian Sea area, because many people say that Racine is currently staying there .” Malati took out a hand-drawn map from his bag, gestured on it, and said: “Actually, if it is confirmed that Racine and his subordinates are really active in that area, then entering through the Persian territory, It should be a more reliable thing to get in touch with them, but I don’t know if this guy is as arrogant as in the legend, and he looks down on us. Of course, whether the Persians allow us to enter is also a problem, although I think It's not a big problem."

"Do your best, obey the destiny, fight for it if you can, let it go if you can't." Gao Wen just put down the spoon in his hand, thought for a while and said: "Otherwise, what can we do, we have done our best, and no one can criticize us. Containing a country like Russia is a long-term national policy, and it cannot be expected to be achieved overnight. This time it will not work, and next time, Racine can’t blame others for his own death. I don’t believe that we can’t do anything without him. The local Mongolians and Their descendants can’t be ignored. If you can contact them, please contact them. Even if you can’t persuade them to serve the interests of our country, it’s still a way to do business in the future. Don’t worry, the tsar’s rule in those places is too careless. Moreover, his main force was held back by the Poles on the left bank of the Dnieper River. Although Russia and Poland have signed an agreement to carve up Ukraine, they are currently guarding a lot of anti-Russian Cossacks, which is a headache for them. Did Tsar Alexei dare to withdraw his troops without withdrawing his troops? Without the [-] elite field troops, it would be difficult to cover everything by relying on some mixed-race troops in southern Russia with complex ethnic groups and dubious combat effectiveness. You couldn’t even wipe out the rebel forces in Racine, so you had to resort to the embarrassing method of recruiting security, didn’t you?”

Malati looked down on those slow, clumsy and demoralized Russian troops from the bottom of his heart, but he also admitted that their combat effectiveness was higher than that of the Racine uprising troops, which consisted mainly of exiled Cossacks, bankrupt serfs, and horse bandits. In the war, it is almost an unavoidable fact that the uprising troops were wiped out.Fortunately, the current main force of the Tsar is dragged in the area of ​​Eastern Ukraine, unable to mobilize enough troops to go east to quell the uprising, so they can only sit back and watch the Racine uprising army attack cities and lands in various parts of southern Russia, and divide the land by beating local tyrants (well, beating local tyrants Yes, there is no division of land...), so that in the end, he had to pinch his nose and "amnesty" in an attempt to recruit An Razin and his group. This is very uncommon among the Russian nobles who have always been cruel and harsh to the lower classes. , It can also be seen how much trouble the Racine Uprising caused to the Tsar, and it was almost impossible to sign a peace agreement with the Poles, and put Eastern Ukraine in peace.

"Take your time, this matter is not urgent." Gao Wengang finally said: "Ukraine has become a geographical term, the old pattern has ended, and a new pattern is being shaped. This is also our glorious and sacred mission."

(End of this chapter)