Master Yuan, start!

So the Russians' plan to find ways to increase food production failed, but they soon turned their attention to the Chinese.

At the beginning, Chinese people were hired to farm the land, and Russian farmers became landlords, responsible only for collecting grain.

However, the Russians are always greedy. The Chinese have always been respectful, but they keep trampling on this respect, and their behavior becomes more and more excessive.

For example, some arrogant Russian veterans wanted to forcibly buy the farmland of the people in the Sixty-Four Villages of Jiangdong at a low price in order to gain profits.

The reason was that "the land belongs to the Russian Empire and Russians are not restricted in buying and selling it!"

This indeed created a loophole. The Sino-Russian treaty stipulated that the land belonged to Russia. The Chinese government only had people's rule and no land sovereignty. It was natural and reasonable for the Russians to want to buy and sell land.

The grain output of the Sixty-Four Villages in Jiangdong has always been "the richest in Heilongjiang", all thanks to the cultivated land that has been cultivated for many years. The fields newly cultivated by the Russians cannot compare to these cultivated lands at all.

Russian soldiers bought cultivated land at low prices and then sold it to their own farmers. This allowed them to make a profit from the difference, restrict the Chinese people's space for activities, and ensure that grain production did not decline.

Killing three birds with one stone, the Russian Governor of Amur naturally strongly supported this matter.

The Chinese people were forced to sell their land. After reporting to the authorities, the Qing officials were helpless against the Russians and could only protest through diplomatic channels.

But it's clear that Russian officials won't punish their citizens for this.

The people of the Sixty-Four Villages who lost their land had no other skills to make a living, so they often accepted the "invitation" of Russian farmers who bought land, became tenants, and continued to cultivate the land.

In this way, the people are still the same people, the land is still the same land, but there is an additional Russian landlord in the middle, which looks quite ridiculous.

The story of the sixty-four villages in Jiangdong that Yiktang'a was thinking about was exactly what happened to the Chinese farmers whose land was forcibly sold.

While some people swallow their anger, others rise up in resistance.

The Sixty-Four Villages of Jiangdong originally consisted of only one village, inhabited by a few hundred Han, Manchu, and Daur people. It later developed to a size of more than 3 people.

Among them, the Han people mainly have the surnames Wu, Yao, Cao and Xu.

Cao's shack was close to the boundary moat of Jiangdong's sixty-four villages, and across a small river from the Russian 8-man Si Holmol Sanjin Village. As the number of residents in the Russian settlement continued to increase, the retired soldiers assigned there soon set their sights on Cao's shack on the other side of the river.

The Russian peasants first tried to force the purchase, and when that failed, they sent retired soldiers to intimidate them. As a result, most of the people living in Cao's shacks abandoned their land and left.

But Cao Xiaolian from the Caojia Wopeng settlement did not surrender. Instead, he picked up a shotgun and fought against the Russians.

Eventually, he accidentally injured a Russian peasant's arm and was captured by Russian officials in the Kholmoljin settlement and imprisoned in a cell.

Hundreds of members of the Cao clan and friendly villagers went to demand the release of the prisoners, but they were also beaten and captured by the Russians.

When the people of the sixty-four villages in Jiangdong learned about this, they were all filled with righteous indignation and anger.

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Not only the Han people, but even the Manchus and Daur people felt that the Russians were going too far.

Later, even many Chinese tenants who rented land from Russian landlords picked up hoes, turned over all the soybeans in the fields and froze them to death, cut down all the wheat seedlings, and then ran back to the west bank of the Heilongjiang River to avoid the wind.

The incident was so sensational that even the nearby city of Lanpao was affected and got involved.

Hailar is only a few dozen miles away from the Sixty-Four Villages in Jiangdong. The vast majority of the Chinese here come from the Sixty-Four Villages, so they believe that they all prosper and suffer together.

Grain merchants were also unwilling to sell grain to the Russians, and the officials sent to the local area by Yuan Shikai took the opportunity to "suspend the opening" of the trade ports.

In addition, under the organization of the Red Confucian Society veterans, farmers' associations, and trade unions who moved here, fishermen refused to ferry to the Russian settlement in Harbin to sell fish, and miners refused to work in the Russian mining areas.

There are fewer people outside the Great Wall, so it is easier for them to unite against a common enemy.

It was easy to form a situation of business boycott, market closure and labor strike.

It was only because the Sixty-Four Villages of Jiangdong were located outside the Great Wall, making communication inconvenient, and because the country was focused on the news that Yuan Shikai had captured Xuzhou, besieged Yangzhou, and was aiming at Jiangning, that it was drowned out by the numerous news reports.

When encountering such a thing, local Russian officials would naturally report it to the governor, but at that time the Russians were confronting Japan and had not yet established contact with France, so they did not resort to military action.

Therefore, Russia decided to send someone to discuss compensation and apology with Wu Daji.

Neither Wu Daji nor Yiktang'a were willing to apologize or pay compensation, and the situation came to a standstill.

In the end, both sides took a step back, and the hundreds of people who later supported Cao Xiaolian were gradually released by the Russians, in exchange for the Chinese government's resumption of port trade.

Only Cao Xiaolian is still in prison.

The local people were not satisfied, and Yiktang'a was not satisfied either, but the main force of the National Defense Force was in the south, so this was the only way to deal with it.

Now that the situation in Jiangnan has calmed down temporarily, Yiktang'a intends to go to the Sixty-Four Villages in Jiangdong with the intention of rescuing Cao Xiaolian.

By the time the Russians reacted, the Wehrmacht army had already moved north, so they naturally did not dare to act rashly.

But Yiktang'a didn't expect that before he could use force, the Russian governor sent a letter to "surrender"

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What exactly is Prince Gong up to? Yiktang'a was surprised by the instructions in Prince Gong Yi's telegram.

However, as a member of the Eight Banners outside the Great Wall, Yiktang'a not only has the feelings of being a Manchu in his heart, but also has the creed of defending the border.

"Zhi Jing, call Wei Ting and have him transfer Jin Weidong, commander of the Fourth Regiment of the National Defense Army stationed at the Yalu River, to the Tumen River on the east coast of North Korea."

Yiktang'a raised his forehead and said in a deep voice: "As for us, let's go and meet this Russian governor first!"

Chapter 286: The Hongmen Banquet

Blagoveshchensk, Russian Empire, Far East.

This city, commonly known as "Hailanpao" in Chinese, has seen its proportion of Chinese people drop from 8% at its peak to about half as the Russian population continues to grow.

However, although there are fewer Chinese people, those who remain are becoming increasingly important.

Whether it is the large number of migrant workers in the city, small vendors and handicraftsmen, or even farmers in the suburbs.

They did all the dirty, hard and tiring work that the Russians were unwilling to do, such as digging manure in the summer, fishing in the winter, sweeping snow in the spring, and harvesting fields in the autumn.

The Chinese maintain the most basic operations of this city.

After the trackers on the Volga River were sent to the Far East, they thought they would face hardships, but who knew that they would unexpectedly escape from the sea of ​​suffering.

It’s not that the living standards in the Far East are much higher than in Europe, it’s just that in the Far East, there are people who are inferior to these Russians.

That's the Chinese.

The new Governor-General of Amur in the Far East stipulated that Chinese people must find a Russian guarantor to do business and sell goods in Harbin, and they cannot use the same guarantor for multiple purposes.

This means that the more than 200 Chinese businesses of all sizes engaged in commercial activities here have to find a Russian every time they sell goods, give him a sum of money, and have the distinguished Russian master sign a guarantee.

Although only one percent of the money for the goods was required each time, it had to be paid every time. Even compared with the likin charge in the mainland before, the degree of exploitation was no less.

It doesn't matter if the Chinese hate this policy. As long as they want to do business with Russia and make money from the Russians, they can only accept it.

Because almost all Russians in the Far East support it.

Even though the Amur Governor issued a Russian notice stating that everyone had to hand over half of the deposit collected.

But for these people, keeping half is also a good deal. They can just sit at home and money will fall from the sky. Such a life is simply unimaginable.

As a result, the Russians no longer bothered to do the work of boat trackers with hemp ropes hanging on their shoulders. Relying on their white skin, they transformed themselves from being subordinates to Europeans to being superior to the Far Easterners.

...

In front of the Harbin Wharf, Yiktang'a and Wu Daji slowly walked down from the troop transport ship. Cao Jian, the owner of the "Tong Yongli" business who had been waiting there for a long time, hurried forward to pay their respects.

"I, Cao Jian, pay my respects to Master Yi and Master Wu!"

"Manager Cao, there's no need to be so distant." Wu Daji offered a hand to support her, and without further ado, he asked directly, "How is Cao Xiaolian now?"

Cao Jian was from Ye County, Shandong Province. He grew up in a poor family. During the severe drought in 1873 during the reign of Emperor Guangxu, when he was only 16, he fled all the way to the outside of the Great Wall and eventually came to Harbin to work as a casual worker.

After more than 20 years of ups and downs here, he finally made a career. The business he founded, "Tong Yongli", ranked first among the Chinese businesses in Harbin, second only to the Russian "Qiulin Company" and the German "Kongshi Foreign Company".

His businesses involved restaurants, inns, small shops, and traveling merchants in towns. He also employed a group of carpenters, bricklayers, electricians, gold miners, and coolies.

After Wu Daji took charge of communications with Russia, he went to Hailanpao and Jiangdong Sixty-Four Villages many times to understand the people's sentiments. After a few visits, he became familiar with Cao Jian, so he asked him not to be so polite.

As the saying goes, when one person succeeds, the whole family will prosper. After the news of Cao Jian's success outside the Great Wall reached his hometown in Shandong, some members of the Cao family went to Heilongjiang alone to seek refuge.

During the Anti-Curtain Campaign, Shandong and Zhili were plagued by banditry and military troubles. The Cao family wanted to avoid the war, so they took their families and boarded the ship arranged by Yuan Shikai to the north.

With Cao Jian's communication, they were settled in the southeast of the Sixty-Four Villages in Jiangdong to reclaim new land. Because there were so many people with the surname Cao, the settlement was simply called Cao's Wopeng.

Cao Xiaolian, who was imprisoned by the Russians because of X, was the distant nephew of Cao Jian, the first Chinese businessman in Hailar.

"Russia still won't release him, and my nephew is quite stubborn. He won't give in even after being beaten or scolded." Cao Jian said worriedly, "If he is interrogated a few more times by the Russian police, I'm afraid he won't survive until spring."

Si "My Lords, is it possible to go on strike again?"

3. "Strike and boycott of business?" Wu Daji waved his hands quickly after hearing this.

"Manager Cao, this is a strategy that will cost you 800 men and injure the enemy 1000 men. Use it as little as possible." Wu Daji said with lingering fear:

"What's more, after the last strike, the Russians even threatened to expel the people of Hailanpao and the Sixty-Four Villages of Jiangdong. We can't take that risk!"

As a technical and pragmatic bureaucrat of the Qing court, Wu Daji had never witnessed the power of strikes and boycotts under the capitalist system.

The last strike led by the Red Confucian Society gave him a small proletarian shock.

After encountering a strike and a boycott, the Russians put great pressure on Wu Daji through diplomatic channels, even threatening his life.

Wu Daji also felt that such a strategy was not a long-term solution, so he finally took a step back and used the restoration of business as a bargaining chip in exchange for the Russians releasing hundreds of people who were later arrested.

In his opinion, this was a ruthless move that could easily lead to crazy retaliation. Unless one had sufficient strength to guarantee it, it would be better not to use it lightly.

"Master Wu, Master Yi!" Cao Jian saw that the two seemed to be worried and thought they were weighing the pros and cons. So he gritted his teeth, bowed and said, "If it really doesn't work, let me raid the camp in the middle of the night!"

"Hey! What are you talking about, Manager Cao!" Wu Daji's eyes widened, and he immediately heard the hidden meaning.

"How could the Qing soldiers refuse to rescue the people of Qing!" Wu Daji pointed at Yiktang'a beside him and said seriously, "Lord Yi and I came here at the invitation of the Russians to celebrate their New Year. We were planning to discuss this matter at the banquet!"

"A Russian invitation?"

Cao Jian's eyelids twitched twice. When did the Russians become so kind that they actually took the initiative to invite people to a banquet.

"That's exactly why it's so crucial to have someone familiar with the Russian situation. I came here this time to invite Manager Cao to join us for the banquet."

Yiktang'a shook his sable shawl and extended an invitation to Cao Jian.

How could he not know that this trip was dangerous? On the one hand, it was Yi D's telegram request, and on the other hand, it was necessary to rescue the hostages. If Cao Xiaolian could be rescued without violence, it would be worthy of the trust of these people.

...

It was snowing on a winter night. Although Blagoveshchensk was located deep in the interior of Northeast Asia, it had electricity. In the garden where the banquet was held, poles of electric lights rose from the ground.

The thick white snow on the side of the road reflected the yellow light, making the whole garden extremely bright.

Yi and Wu dismounted and walked into the garden. Cao Jian served as an interpreter beside them, followed by several personal guards, and there were more at the door.

There is a large wooden house in the garden. There are not many people inside, but most of them are foreigners with deep eyebrows and high noses. They are not afraid of the cold weather and are chatting everywhere with drinks in their hands.