The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 820 Chiang Kai-shek's tactics are still effective.
April 1802, the 27th year of the Guangzhong reign of the Great Yu Dynasty in China, the 7th year of the Jiaqing reign of the Qing Dynasty, the third month of the lunar calendar.

Just as Mo Zibu began a new round of adjustments within Dayu, gradually tightening internal policies to force people out of their hometowns and prevent them from drinking corn, wild vegetables, and sweet potato porridge at home.

The army led by Mo Gongling, a member of the imperial clan, who was also the Earl of Yizhou, the Commander of the Divine Lightning Guard, a Lieutenant General, the General Who Guards the West, and a member of the imperial clan, has arrived in Yili City.

Mo Gongling brought 20,000 Shen Dian Left and Right Guards, 18,000 troops from the Jingying Yaowu and Guoyong armies, and 25,000 elite troops from the Shaanxi-Gansu Garrison, for a total of 63,000 men.

In addition, Yang Kaijia, the Protector-General of the Xianbei Protectorate, also personally led 5,000 cavalrymen from various tribes in the northern deserts who were subordinate to the Xianbei Protectorate to the scene.

Accompanying him were 45,000 herders with their families, among whom 10,000 armed cavalry could also be assembled.

At this time, the administrative divisions of the Great Yu Dynasty were undergoing drastic changes. The direct jurisdiction of Hebei, which was originally under the Qing Dynasty, was abolished, and a new Hebei Province was established, with its capital located in Baoding.

Zhangjiakou, Chengde, Qinhuangdao, as well as the southern Mongolian region and the southeastern Inner Mongolia region, which were originally under the jurisdiction of Zhili, became the new Beizhili, under the jurisdiction of the Beizhili Governor-General, who was stationed in Shuntian Prefecture, Beijing.

Later, Siberia was divided into three parts: Lingbei (Eastern Siberia), Central Xianbei (Central Siberia), and Western Xianbei (Western Siberia).

Among them, Lingbei Province was under the jurisdiction of the Northeast Envoy's Office, so the Northeast Envoy's Office actually had four provinces at present.

Liaoning Province includes North Korea.

Jilin Province also administers Sakhalin Island and Hokkaido.

Heilongjiang has added Hulunbuir and Manzhouli in northeastern Inner Mongolia, as well as Choibalsan in Outer Mongolia.

As for the other regions of Outer Mongolia and the icy and snowy areas of the Central and Western Xianbei, they were under the jurisdiction of the Xianbei Protectorate.

The Great Yu Dynasty was very fond of the term Xianbei, because the bloodline of the Xianbei people was completely integrated into the Han people, and they can be said to be a significant source of Han people's ancestral origins.

At the same time, after Emperor Xiaowu's path of Sinicization, the term Xianbei came to represent a strong Sinicized meaning.

Therefore, there was even a motion within the Dayu court to unify the various ethnic groups in the Northeast with a high degree of Sinicization from the Jurchen tribes to the Xianbei tribes.

Only those with low or no Sinicization, such as the indigenous people of Beihezhou, continued to be called Jurchens.

Upon seeing the arrival of the army, Crown Prince Da Laosen held a banquet in Yili City to entertain generals such as Mo Gongling, Yang Kaijia, Gui Han, and Yang Fang.

"I have learned from the Embroidered Uniform Guard that the Tsarist Russian Empire has mobilized 170,000 troops to march eastward, and supplies such as money, provisions, and provisions have begun to converge on Orenburg and Tsaritsyn."

This great battle will be the most difficult and largest-scale war in the history of our Great Yu Army.

It is said that the Great Yu Army was definitely the one with the least combat experience, or more accurately, the least bloody battle experience, among all the founding armies of dynasties throughout history.

The most difficult battle was the Battle of Beihe against the Manchus, in which eleven members of the imperial family and generals were killed, along with more than two thousand soldiers from Mingxiang and Xinglong Peninsula. Even Mo Zibu's own personal bodyguard, Pei Changwu, and his cousin, Mo Gong, were killed in action.

From then on, almost every battle was won easily, without any close calls; it was basically a smooth sweep.

Despite the technological gap in weaponry, it was still a just war for national rejuvenation—the expulsion of the Tartars.

Given that the Manchu Qing dynasty only had 30,000 to 50,000 elite troops, and that they treated Mo Zibu as a minor prince when the war started, resulting in the loss of most of their elite troops in one battle, the Great Yu dynasty's war to restore the Han dynasty was that simple.

However, in this situation, the Dayu Army is now facing the same problem that the People's Liberation Army Navy and Air Force faced in later generations.

You say you're a good fighter, and you look like you are, with weapon stats so high that the enemy is convinced you're exaggerating.

But nobody thinks you're very capable; they always say you haven't experienced real combat or been tested.

Such remarks have fueled the pent-up anger of the Great Yu Army and its even less-successful Navy, making them eager to find an enemy to prove themselves.

Therefore, when they heard that the Tsarist Russian Empire was actually going to take this seriously and was willing to send so many people to fight, the whole place cheered, as if it were New Year's Day.

Especially the colonel-level officers attending the banquet, all of them shone with an intense desire in their eyes.

Unlike civil servants, military officers may have better benefits, but in terms of power and social status, they are still far behind civil servants of the same rank.

Therefore, every military officer has the desire to climb the ranks quickly, because only when they reach a high position will their military officer status begin to have an effect on their daily lives.

For example, in later generations, a battalion commander or even a regimental commander might not have much influence in the local area, but at the level of deputy division commander, it would be completely different.

However, military officers cannot be promoted like civil servants, who can simply accumulate achievements by governing local areas and then rise rapidly in rank.

For most officers, the only way to get promoted is through war; otherwise, they have to slowly build up seniority, the kind of thing that can drive a person crazy.

"Orenburg is located in the middle and upper reaches of the Ural River, while Tsaritsyn is situated at a transportation hub in the middle reaches of the Itil River. The Tsarist Rus' Empire has stockpiled supplies in these two places, which means they are indeed prepared for a bloody battle with us."

General Mo Gongling, the General Who Guards the West, was so excited that he could hardly contain himself. He was the second elder brother of Emperor Mo Zibu and the son of Mo Zitang, the Duke of Cai who was posthumously granted the title of King Jianmu of Shangcai.

Moreover, he was not the eldest son, which meant he was ineligible for the title of Duke of Cai. Even the title of Earl of Yizhou was only bestowed upon him after the last campaign to quell the Anxi rebellion.

According to the rules of the Dayu royal family, his father could only be posthumously granted the title of King, not even a title of King. The hereditary title of Duke of Cai could only be inherited by the eldest son, while the second and third sons would also receive a title of Marquis.

After the fourth son, members of the imperial clan could forget about receiving a title of nobility; they could only obtain titles of vassal nobility outside the main territory of China.

Mo Gongling happened to be the fourth son, and his maternal family didn't have many resources to support him in expanding his territory, so he had to work hard on his own.

However, this royal status also has another advantage: once you achieve military merit, you can be granted a noble title very quickly.

For example, in the last Battle of Anxi, when the battle was in its final stages, Mo Gongling led his Imperial Guard to deliver the decisive blow, but immediately received the valuable title of Earl of the Imperial Honor.

If we win this battle, I might be able to leap directly to the high position of Duke of a prefecture or even Duke of a state.

Seeing that the commander-in-chief, Mo Gongling, took the initiative to start the conversation, the group of officers lost their appetite for eating and drinking. Their hearts were filled with the sense of accomplishment, and they couldn't wait to go to war.

Therefore, the banquet ended quickly, and the big boss Sen simply hung a huge map in the hall where the banquet was held, and had the chefs from the Crown Prince's residence roast some beef and mutton and bring it over. He then began a military council with nearly two hundred officers of the rank of lieutenant colonel and above.

"Judging from this situation, the Rus' are stockpiling supplies at key points in the upper reaches of the Ural River and the middle reaches of the Itil River. It seems they intend to let us cross the Ural River to attack them!" Yang Fang, the commander of the Divine Lightning Left Guard, said, pointing to the location on the map.

The so-called Itil River is actually the Volga River. The Itil River was the name given to it by the Mongol Golden Horde during their rule.

This famous river, historically hailed as the great mother river of the Russian people and the cradle of the Russian nation, was not originally inhabited by the Russian people; rather, they were later settlers.

Of course, this was a crucial period in the formation of the national culture of the Tsarist Rus' Empire, and the Rus' people had already begun to call the Itil River the Volga River.

However, its status as the mother river and cradle of culture for the Rus' people has not yet been definitively established.

After all, Pushkin, the great writer who had a deep affection for the Volga River but whose ancestors were actually Ethiopian blacks, was only four years old, while Gorky was not even born yet.

Without these two literary figures who defined the Volga River with their great works, the Volga River at that time did not have such a great reputation, nor was it endowed with such great cultural attributes.

Similarly, Tsaritsyn, the most important transportation hub on the Volga River, did not yet have the famous name it would later become known as Volgograd.

But this also shows why the Tsarist Rus' Empire was so determined to fight the Great Yu.

If they don't fight desperately, the Great Yu will take Volgograd, and then the very existence of the Tsarist Rus' Empire will be in question.

“Then let’s attack Orenburg first. Anyway, for us, every inch we advance westward is an advantage. I’d like to see if the Tsar can stand by and watch us take Orenburg!” suggested the banner general Bao Ning.

The Rus's intention in letting the Yu army cross the Ural River was likely to allow the Orenburg garrison to intercept them downstream once the Yu army had crossed and the two sides were locked in a fierce battle.

This would trap the Yu army in the lowlands along the Caspian Sea between the Volga and Ural rivers, allowing them to be worn down and killed by the natural defenses and convenient access to supplies.

This tactic was precisely the one that the Russian Empire and even the Soviet Union were most adept at using against invaders throughout history: leveraging their vast territory and the Rus' people's ability to endure a long and arduous war to wear down a powerful enemy until they collapsed. Therefore, many people agreed with Bao Ning's suggestion, but Wang Lian, the commander of the Yaowu Army, shook his head.

"The Tsarist Rus' have occupied Orenburg for more than fifty years. Fifty years ago, Orenburg was an important logistical base for the Tsarist Rus' Empire to spy on and attack the Kazakhs. Such a large city is even more difficult to attack than a fortified city."

If we lead our army north along the Ural River and fail to capture Orenburg, the consequences will be equally severe. At that time, the Russian army in Tsaritsyn (Volgograd) will advance eastward and be able to block us again. Therefore…

Wang Lian pointed to the western part of the map, the lower reaches of the Volga River, and said, "I suggest we attack here, Astrakhan!"
The city's defenses here are not as strong as Orenburg's. Furthermore, east of Astrakhan lies the stronghold of the Oirat Durbet tribe. If we capture Astrakhan, we can gain the support of over 150,000 Durbet people.

In terms of the names used to refer to the Mongol tribes, the Dayu people mostly restored the names used in the Ming Dynasty, so they called them Oirat instead of Oirat or Erud.

The Oirat tribe, which once roamed along the banks of the Volga River and the northern shore of the Caspian Sea, was divided into two branches: the Torghut and the Durbet.

After Ubashi led 240,000 people eastward in 1771, some of them were unable to make the journey due to slow progress and the interception by the Tsarist Rus' Empire. The remaining group was the Durbet tribe, which the Sasruds called the Kalmyks.

Of course, when Ubashi returned east, some of the Durbet people went with him, while some of the Torghut people stayed behind. It wasn't strictly a case of the Torghuts returning east and the Durbet people staying behind.

"Your Highness!" As soon as Wang Lian made the suggestion, someone immediately knelt down.

The former Torgut Khan and Prince Jing Shunzhi, who was equivalent to the former Torgut Jasak Khan of the Qing Dynasty, knelt down with a thud and pleaded in a trembling voice:

"Your Majesty, ever since my grandfather Ubashi led his people back to their homeland, the Rus' people have treated us, the people who remained on the Itil River (Volga River), cruelly."

Under the rule of the Rus', they were treated like cattle, their lives worse than death. For twenty years, secret letters have been sent with great difficulty, pleading with His Majesty the Great Emperor of the East, the Heavenly Khan, to send troops to rescue them from their suffering.

His desire to return to his motherland is like that of an infant longing for its parents, and his wish to be loyal to Your Majesty is as clear as day!

If the court is willing to send troops to Astrakhan, I am willing to personally lead elite troops to infiltrate the Dörbet tribe ahead of time, to coordinate an attack from within and without!

Huo Shaoqi is the eldest grandson of the hero who returned east, Ubashi. His father, Tsering Namzhal, passed away ten years ago.

Huo Shaoqi ascended the throne at the age of six. He was precocious and governed the region with great skill. Mo Zibu personally ordered him to graze his livestock in the Ili River Valley, making him a local strongman whom the court trusted relatively.

However, Huo Shaoqi's words were not actually out of genuine sympathy for the fate of the tribesmen left behind on the Volga River, but rather to continue to glorify the Torghuts' return to the east and the man named Ubashi.

The actual return of the Ubashi to the east was not about them not forgetting their homeland or their roots; rather, it was about them returning to seize territory.

He heard in the Volga River region that the Dzungar Khanate, which had forced them to move west, had been destroyed by the Manchus, and that the Torgut people were living like pigs and dogs under the oppression of the Tsarist Rus' Empire. So he prepared to return.

Well, strictly speaking, it wasn't about seizing territory. It was that Ubashi thought the Manchus couldn't occupy this area, so he came back to take advantage of the situation.

As a result, Ubashi underestimated the cruelty of the Salo people and Catherine II's keen sense of smell, and was followed and intercepted by the Rus' cavalry all the way.

After he returned east, his 240,000 troops dwindled to less than 70,000, and he had no chance of winning against the Manchu Qing army stationed in Yili.

Then Ubashi had a sudden inspiration and said that he had returned to submit to the Qing Emperor because he could no longer endure the oppression of the Tsarist Rus'.

Just then, Emperor Qianlong also felt that Ubashi's return to the east could be used as a model of Manchu-Mongol unity, reinforcing his status as the supreme ruler of all Mongols. So, he took the opportunity to acknowledge Ubashi's return.

“The loyalty of the Shunzhi Emperor is commendable, I will remember it.” Asen nodded first to express his appreciation, because the narrative of the Torgut’s return to the east was more needed by the Great Yu than by the Manchus.

After all, the Great Yu Dynasty did not unite the Manchus and Mongols; on the contrary, it was a pure Han dynasty. Therefore, it needed this kind of narrative to reinforce the legal basis that the Han emperor was the great emperor of the East.

Having received praise and made a name for himself in front of so many high-ranking military officers of the Great Yu Dynasty, Huo Shaoqi reinforced the heroic and righteous nature of his grandfather Wobaxi's return to the east, and immediately withdrew.

As a minor Khan with only a hundred thousand or so Mongols, he dared not act arrogantly on such an occasion.

“Your Highness, we can indeed attack Astrakhan, but we need to quickly build a small steam fleet and immediately destroy the Saros fleet of Tsar Rus in Enzeli, on the southern coast of the Caspian Sea.”

Dong Jinfeng, Assistant Minister of the Anxi Envoy, Deputy Governor-General of Anxi Military Forces, and Commander of Yangwu Army, said.

At this time, the Tsarist Rus' Empire had a fleet in the Caspian Sea, one of which was located in Astrakhan on the northern shore of the Caspian Sea, and the other in Enzeli, a narrow coastal lowland in northern Iran on the southern shore of the Caspian Sea.

As for Dayu, it basically had no Caspian Navy.

Because the territory currently occupied by Dayu has no major rivers flowing into the Caspian Sea, and there isn't even a suitable coastal location to serve as a naval port.

Meanwhile, the large amount of timber used to build the warships was also under the control of the Tsarist Russian Empire. As a result, the Great Yu currently only has about thirty flat-bottomed boats of twenty or thirty tons that can operate in the shallow waters of the Caspian Sea.

"The port of Enzeli was mostly burned down by us during our last attack on the Caucasus region."

However, since we lack ships and cannot establish a foothold in Enzeli Port, and the Sharo Empire has recently repaired it, we should destroy this port before launching an attack.

Dong Jinfeng continued, "Last time, the Anxi army destroyed Enzeli Port entirely by using the army to brute force through the fortifications. Fortunately, the Tsarist Russian Empire's garrison there was not strong, so the Anxi army actually had a slight advantage."

"However, warships, even small ones weighing two or three hundred tons, cannot be built in a short time."

"Moreover, we simply don't have the right timber to build warships, otherwise His Highness the Crown Prince would have already begun building the Caspian Navy." Wang Guoyuan, a close advisor to the Crown Prince and a Grand Secretary of the Left Spring Palace from Guizhou, reminded him.

The wood used to build warships cannot be just any kind of wood; there was basically no suitable wood available in the four provinces of Anxi.

Even the Siberian larch that is barely usable cannot compare to oak or teak in terms of hardness. Furthermore, since most of it grows in the Altai Mountains, it is very difficult, or almost impossible, to transport in large quantities to the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea, which is controlled by the Great Yu.

Moreover, these pine trees are more prone to drying out and cracking than timber from coastal areas, requiring highly sophisticated moisture retention techniques.

The atmosphere quickly cooled down. The Caspian Sea was much larger than it was in the 21st century, so Astrakhan, which is not on the Caspian coast in later generations, was on the Caspian coast at this time.

To attack Astrakhan, the Tsarist Rus' fleet must first be destroyed; otherwise, it can be basically declared that the attack is impossible, or the cost of attacking it will be prohibitively high.

Faced with difficulties, some are already considering reactivating the plan to launch a strong attack on the more difficult Orenburg, where at least the navy is not an obstacle.

"Generals!" At that moment, Lin Zexu, a seventeen-year-old Hanlin scholar who had been personally selected by the emperor to accompany the army and had achieved fame at a young age, suddenly spoke:
"Although the Tsarist Russian Empire was a great power, it was extremely cold and barbaric, and was considered a barbarian country in Europe. Moreover, Caesar Paul I of the Tsarist Empire was very harsh and stingy, and treated the nobles as if they were traitors in his own house."

Compared to my Great Yu, the Shaluo Empire is impoverished and has no future. Is the Shaluo expeditionary force in Enzeli Port truly so loyal to the Tsar, who is so far away?

Boss Sen's eyes lit up. "Lin Yuanfu, do you mean we should bribe the Saroli Navy of Enzeli Port?"

"Your Highness, that is exactly what I meant." As he spoke, the historical Lin Wenzheng Gong extended his left hand, raising his fingers from one to five.

"If 10,000 silver dollars isn't enough, then 20,000 silver dollars will do. If 20,000 silver dollars isn't enough, then we can give 50,000 silver dollars, or even more."

With so much gold and silver poured in, and a fiefdom carved out for them to live in in the river, I refuse to believe that I can't bribe Enzeli Port's mere two thousand naval troops and twenty-one gunboats.

"That's right, that makes sense!" Dong Jinfeng clapped her hands and laughed. "If we get the Salo gunboats of Enzeli Port, we can install steam engines on these gunboats."

In this way, my fleet can move freely in and out of the Caspian Sea, fighting and retreating as it pleases. Astrakhan will be captured in no time!

"In that case, I will immediately send an urgent message to Father Emperor to dispatch officers and soldiers skilled in using steam gunboats from the Yangtze River Navy to come overnight." Asen laughed heartily, having immediately come up with an idea.

“Ankenian, get ready to go to Enzeli Port yourself and see who can be bribed.”

Ankenian was originally named Anenkov. He was the son of Jacob Ivanovich, the former governor of Irkutsk in the Tsarist Russian Empire. Before Ivanovich committed suicide, he made Ankenian surrender to the Great Yu to save his life.

In recent years, Annankov has been promoted to the fourth rank of Da Yu for his meritorious service in subduing the Cossacks and Rus' colonists hiding in Siberia.

At the same time, he also has a fiefdom in Beiting, with more than 4,000 people who are already loyal dogs of the Seris Empire, so it is just right to let him handle this matter.

(End of this chapter)