The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 630: The Self-Redemption of a Lost Dog

The place where Fukang'an's tribe was located was the northernmost part of the negotiated area stipulated in the Treaty of Nerchinsk.

There is a big river here called the Udi River (Udi River), which flows from west to east into the Udi Bay of the Sea of Okhotsk.

Fukang'an's tribe was located on the Hebei side, which was probably Antekan in the Khabarovsk Krai of Russia in later times.

Xinwan Town is on the south bank of the river, which is probably the Chumikan in the Khabarovsk Krai of Russia in later times.

The Wude River has a profound influence on Chinese history. The Wude tribe, which is named after the Wude River, was also called Udegai. In the history of the Central Plains dynasties, it was often called Huligai.

The Wudi River is the famous one. It has the same origin as the Jurchens, but it is not the birthplace of the Huligai people of the Jurchens of the Jin Dynasty.

The Huligai later split into two branches, one of which was integrated into the Mongolian Uriankhai. For a long time, many people believed that the Uriankhai was the Huligai.

The other group, unable to endure the extreme cold weather, continued to migrate southwards. Finally, with the permission of the Ming court, they gradually settled in the south and later formed the Jianzhou tribe of the Jurchens.

Yes, the Huligai people are actually the Jianzhou Jurchens, who are the earliest ancestors of the Manchus.

Although the Manchus absorbed many other ethnic groups and even Han people as they continued to grow and develop, their ancestry can be traced back to the Huligai people.

Moreover, this is not the first time that Han people have set foot in Xinwan Town.

Because in the early Ming Dynasty, this was the settlement area of the Wudehe Guard of the Ming Dynasty. It was not until the Battle of Tumu Fort almost wiped out the Ming Dynasty that this place was abandoned.

The cold winter is over, and although spring has not yet arrived, at least there are no blizzards sweeping across the north, and people can start traveling with the help of sleds and other tools.

Another half month passed, and the sun in the sky was finally no longer just a decoration, but could make people feel a little warmth.

Although the Wu River has not completely thawed, the ice is already very thin and you can see the water flowing underneath with the naked eye.

The contact between the various departments, which had been cut off for several months, was slowly restored at this time.

At this time, the population of the Tungusic tribes north of the Greater Khingan Range had declined significantly due to attacks by Russian adventurers and the killing of large numbers of deer and especially seals.

From about 250,000 people during the Kangxi period, it has declined to less than 100,000 people now. Of course, the Qing Dynasty also contributed to such a rapid decrease.

The Nerchinsk area and its vicinity, where Fukangan is now staying, have almost all been plundered as if they were the Solon people.

The fact that there are several thousand people now is the result of Fukangan's painstaking efforts to recruit them after he arrived at Wude River.

Although he was the headman, Fukang'an's house was not big, but with mud walls on all four sides, doors and windows, it was larger than many others.

Most of the Ewenki, Oroqen, Xibai and other tribesmen under him still lived in tents. When the cold winter wind blew, the whole family had to huddle together to avoid freezing to death.

One of Fukang'an's women took the children out to work. Even the headman's wife and children needed to work, so only one woman was left in the house to continue making the original version of the iron pot stew.

This is a supreme delicacy north of the Greater Khingan Range, because other families cannot own a large iron pot like the one in Fukangan's home, so even if they want to make it, they cannot.

Most of them could only grill the meat or bury it under the fire and simmer it with some seasonings.

Fukangan looked at Lebao, who had lost a lot of weight due to the intense travel, and kept giving him meat and wine. After the three of them were full, Fukangan drove the woman out and then looked at Lebao and asked:

"What's the matter that's worth you traveling all the way from Ewenburg through the ice and snow?"

The location of Evenburg is near the later Russian city of Okhotsk. It is only about 100 kilometers away from the Kamchatka Peninsula and is the northernmost point that Fukangan can control.

Lebao can be considered an old brother who followed Fukangan all the way from Beijing to the Greater Khingan Range. Lebao's father is Wen Fu, who died in the battle of Jinchuan.

He was originally arranged to take charge in Xi'an, but he was unable to leave due to illness. When Fukang'an left Beijing, he followed him.

Lebao drank the last drop of wine in the glass, and even raised the glass and poured it into his mouth twice. Only when he saw that there was indeed no drop of wine left did he put down the glass.

"I never thought that after coming to this place where we once rose from the dragon's nest, I wouldn't even be able to drink a sip of liquor. The tribe's grain harvest was poor again this year, and every grain is precious. I can't bear to spend money on making wine!"

After sighing, Lebao pointed to the strong man beside him and said to Fu Kang'an: "My lord, he is Gao Leisi, who has been staying in Europe and volunteered to learn from Shen Baoxu and go to the Winter Palace of Luosha Kingdom to cry for the court."

Fu Kang'an remembered that there was indeed such a person. He was born in the Plain White Banner of the Han Army and was trained before the Sticking Rod Office of the Imperial Household Department was eliminated.

He was the one who conveyed the correspondence between His Majesty (Qianlong) and King Louis XIV of France and Empress Catherine II of Russia.

"So it's Brother Gao." Fu Kang'an bowed, "Times have changed. When we asked Brother Gao to go to the Winter Palace of Luosha, we still had Heilongjiang and part of Jilin, which were still of some value.

Now, we are so poor that we only have tens of thousands of people left, not even enough to protect ourselves. We are of no use and cannot support the Rakshasa people."

Gao Leisi bowed to Fu Kang'an and said in the Beijing Mandarin that had become a little awkward after not speaking it for many years: "My Lord, even if we still have Heilongjiang, the Russians are unreliable.

Since Peter the Great went to study in Western Europe, Russia has always dreamed of integrating into Europe, mainly England and France.

At the same time, having been slaves for hundreds of years, they felt very inferior to their origins, clung to the only noble and refused to let go, dreaming of restoring the Roman Empire.

All of this meant that the Rakshasa Empire couldn't possibly invest too much strength in the East, let alone confront a giant like China."

After dealing with the Rakshasa people extensively, Fu Kang'an naturally understood these situations, so he changed the subject and asked:

"Brother Gao has been in the Western Regions for eight years, and I think he's become accustomed to life there. Yet, he's willing to give it all up and come to the last refuge of our bannermen. He truly is a man of loyalty and righteousness."

Fu Kang'an was not praising Gao Leisi, but asking him why he abandoned his family business in Europe and ran to the snowy land of the Greater Khingan Range.

Gao Leisi coughed lightly, and a bitter smile appeared on his face, which was scratched by the wind and snow.

He pointed to his head. The front half had only a few sparse hairs, which was in stark contrast to the thick back half.

This is a typical situation that only occurs when people have kept braids for many years and have used medicine to clean the front half of their yin-yang hair.

"Sir, it was not until the Qing Dynasty was gone that I realized that those Europeans were very clear about the affairs of the East. They did not regard us bannermen as Seres at all, but always regarded us as barbaric Tatars.

When the Qing Dynasty was still around, they wanted to benefit from the Qing Dynasty's maritime trade and would even admit with a pinch of their nose that we were civilized and prosperous Seres.

But now the Qing Dynasty is gone, and I, my brother, have immediately turned from a civilized white person into a barbaric Tatar in the West.

The wife I married took away all my property, using the excuse that I had deceived her and made her mistakenly believe that I was a Seres. My friends also began to dislike me, saying that I was dishonest.

So after the defeat of the Russian Empire, I quickly fled eastward. The British and French were merely disdainful, but the Russians truly had a deep-seated feud with the Tatars. If I had stayed west of Russia, I would have died without a burial place."

Hearing Gao Leisi's words, Fu Kang'an also sighed, "This family, this country, this court, only when it's gone, do we realize how important it is.

Brother Gao, although we are already in such a difficult situation, as long as you are willing to stay, this will be your homeland."

Le Bao looked at Fukang'an in surprise. In the past, Fukang'an would have been talking about the Qing Dynasty, not the country or the court.

"My Lord, when I came back, I borrowed the title of a jasak of the Buryat tribe, and thus got some information.

The Russians planned to go down the Wude River after the ice and snow melted in two months and eliminate the Han people's Xinwan Town on the south bank of the Wude River estuary.

This deployment was massive, approved by Lieutenant General Jacob Ivanovich, Governor-General of Irkutsk, and implemented by Major General Ivan Andreevich Ram, Governor-General of the Kamchatka Region. Over 6,000 troops from the Irkutsk Sub-Governor's District were mobilized. Fu Kang'an understood why Le Bao had brought Gao Leisi with him; this was clearly an opportunity to make a new choice.

Either he could help the Russians capture Xinwan Town, block the Han people's way north, let the Russians control the Nerchinsk area, and then he could continue to migrate north with his tribe, and finally become a local chief under the protection of the Russians.

Either he could help the Han people defend Xinwan Town, or even wipe out the Russians, a decisive force in the Greater Khingan Range, and then rely on this merit to gain the forgiveness of the emperor in Beijing and become a Han Chinese.

Lebao looked at Fukangan longingly and said, "Brother Gao, you can no longer survive among the Russians. In the eyes of the Russians, any Oriental who is not Han Chinese is a Tatar and they do not treat him as a human being at all."

Gao Leisi also nodded vigorously, "Master, no matter if it's the Ming Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty or the Dayu Dynasty, we must always have a home.

Everyone in this world needs a great emperor who can protect them. If not, their end will be very miserable.

You make the decision. If you decide to help the Rakshasa people, we will be savages in this ancestral land for the rest of our lives."

Gao Leisi said that he wanted to be a savage in his ancestral land for the rest of his life, but anyone with eyes could tell what he really wanted to do.

"Sir, you're just a dog anyway. It's better to be a dog for the Han people than for the Rakshasa ghosts." Le Bao also took a breath and advised in a deep voice.

If time went back even three years, he would not have thought so, but now, Le Bao really wanted to go to Beijing and kowtow to Emperor Mo and beg for mercy.

They are all fucking bastards!
"Father, don't surrender to the Rakshasas. We have a deep blood feud with them!"

The door was pushed open with a bang. Baoan, Fukangan's adopted son and the son of Hetai, the former governor of Heilongjiang, had been eavesdropping outside the door.

When the security guard came in, he knelt on the ground and kowtowed to Fukang'an repeatedly, begging him.

"Alas!" Fu Kang'an sighed, first pulled the security guard up, and then said to Le Bao and Gao Leisi:
"You guys still haven't realized that the Xinwan Town built by the Han people is not for business at all. It is a bait deliberately placed in the mouths of the Russians.

Chen Guangyao, Prime Minister of the Northeastern Mission, was just waiting for the Russians to be fooled so that he could lure them out and catch them all in one fell swoop.

If we mobilize our forces now, we will certainly not be able to hide it from the Luosha people. If they become alert and do not send their entire army forward, we might end up doing something more serious than what we thought was right."

Le Bao's eyes widened. "That's impossible! Xinwan Town has only existed for three years, and its population has never exceeded six hundred at its peak. How can they be so confident that they can withstand a siege from a Luosha army ten times their size?"

"They must have some way to quickly mobilize troops from Temple Street, perhaps using those ships belching black smoke, which are said to be equipped with steam engines."

Fu Kang'an said this with a little uncertainty, then he took out a stack of numbers written on animal skin with a brush and showed them to the two of them.

"Look, these are the various furs and medicinal herbs we've sold to Xinwan Town over the past three years, and these are the various scarce supplies the Han people in Xinwan Town have sold me over the past three years. Have you discovered anything?"

Le Bao and Gao Leisi were truly shocked. Under such difficult conditions, with the tribes so different and so far apart, Fukang'an actually managed to secretly keep statistics year after year.

"Hiss, the furs, medicinal herbs, mountain products, etc. we've sold over the years, plus the in-demand goods we bought from the Han people, the trade volume is only a mere 20,000 silver dollars!"

"Yes, even if you include the Rakshasa's, it's at most 50,000 silver dollars, which is only 16,000 to 17,000 silver dollars a year, or just over 1,000 silver dollars a month.

There are 200 Han people living permanently in Xinwan Town, and 600 people need to be maintained in the summer. The salaries of these people alone would cost several thousand silver dollars, which is completely insufficient to cover the profit. Therefore, I am 100% sure that this is a bait."

"Hiss!" Lebao gasped, "No wonder life has been so good these past few years. The hazel mushrooms, wood frogs, flying dragons, and dried fruits in the mountains can all be sold at a good price. I thought it was because there were too few people in the Northeast Mission and no one was doing this hard work.

It turns out that the Han people are fishing for the big fish, the Rakshasa, and we small fish and shrimps profit because we can eat the scraps that the Han people use to make nests.

"My Lord, the way you put it makes me want to kowtow to Emperor Mo even more. Some people have such a hard time making a nest. If the Han people are defeated and can't come, we will be in hell."

Gao Leisi was not so close to Fu Kang'an, so it was inconvenient for him to speak so directly. So he shook his head and asked doubtfully, "Master, but the Luosha people are not fools. Can't they see it?"

"It's very likely that you can't see it. At least when you were over there, Brother Gao, you didn't think of this possibility." Fu Kang'an laughed.

"I've observed that most of these Luosha people from the Xianbei Desert came here because they couldn't make it in the west. How could they, some of them crude people, notice such details?

Moreover, even if they knew, what could they do? The policy of the Russians in the Eastern Xianbei Desert was to starve us locals to death, so they killed seals in large numbers, robbed deer, and strictly restricted the outflow of food.

However, the Han people came and brought everything we needed, which directly broke the blockade of the Russians.

If the Russians do not want their decades of efforts to go to waste, they must drive back the Han people heading north.

Furthermore, according to the Treaty of Nerchinsk, these areas of ours still belong to the Rakshasa Kingdom, so they must also show some respect."

Gao Leisi pondered for a moment, then nodded in agreement, "That's true. Even if the Russians have one or two knowledgeable people, they are far away in Yakutsk or even Irkutsk. It's impossible for them to accurately grasp the situation in the east.

Regardless of whether the Han Chinese are fishing or not, they really have to take action, otherwise all their efforts will be in vain."

At this point, Gao Leisi finally believed in Fu Kang'an's ability. He cupped his hands and said, "Master, please make the decision. Whether it's life or death, we will follow your lead."

Fu Kang'an stood up and took two steps, then said in a trembling voice, "Mo Guangzhong has had dealings with my family for a long time. He is not a bloodthirsty person. Moreover, they have killed enough people in Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Hangzhou, Nanjing, and Jingzhou.

But it was not easy to gain this person's forgiveness. Those bannermen who could continue to live a good life in the new dynasty all played a significant role.

For example, my cousin Mingde, the former governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, offered Yunnan and killed Zhu Gui, the person the emperor wanted to execute the most, so he could become a rich man with 200,000 taels of silver.

Hailancha, Baoning, Hailu, Zhu Shedou and others were all forgiven because they were still useful and could fight for the emperor.

So if we want to go back, we must show our role."

After hearing this, Le Bao stood up and looked towards the south. The desire in his eyes could no longer be controlled. After a while, he sat back down somewhat dejectedly.

"Master, I understand what you mean. It seems we can't leave this place anymore. But as long as I can get a position that keeps me from starving and freezing, I, Lebao, will guard this far northern border for the Emperor."

Fu Kangan finally showed a smile, "So helping to wipe out the Luosha people is only part of the story. More importantly, we must have the ability to bring these 100,000 wild Jurchens from the Eastern Xianbei Icefield to join Dayu. Only then will we be accepted.

Brother Gao, please take the trouble to go to Temple Street. My family has some old ties with Emperor Mo. I will write a letter, and you are going there with military secrets such as the movements of the Russians. The Han officials in Temple Street will definitely ask you to go to Birobidzhan to meet the military governor, or even the general of Jilin.

Lebao, you'd better get ready quickly. In the Outer Khingan Mountains, quality of soldiers is more important than quantity. Secretly mobilize a thousand people and equip them with weapons.

We will not participate in the battle of Xinwan Town, but wait until the Russians are unable to capture Xinwan Town and are forced to retreat, and then we will attack them.

And me!" Fukang'an's voice lowered, "I will now arrange for the tribal people along the way to take shelter in the mountains.

The Russians know we have a grudge against the Han people, and they might come and capture our men, or even use us as rewards to boost morale."

"As you command!" Gao Leisi stood up and bowed to Fu Kang'an, then said to Lebao:

"Lord Le, there's no need to be discouraged. Last year, I received news in Yakutsk that a Russian expedition team had discovered a route from here to North America.

They even established a Rakshasa American Company and occupied a piece of land. Although it was still covered with ice and snow, it was said that if they continued to go south, they would reach the colonies of the British and Spanish.

After we join Dayu, we can take over the territory of Luosha America Company and present it to His Majesty the Emperor.

I think it's not too much to say that this great achievement of opening up a land route to America and giving our descendants a chance to enjoy the glamorous world of Tangshan is not too much to ask!"

(End of this chapter)