Chapter 814: Rakshasa

Each merchant convoy also bore missions such as intelligence gathering and geographic surveying. Wang Dou in particular placed great importance on the convoy heading to the North Sea. Before Lai Mancheng set out, he summoned him personally and instructed him to pay close attention to gathering intelligence on the various Buryat Mongol tribes along the North Sea, and also to note whether any Red Barbarians were present near the North Sea.

Although Lai Mancheng found it strange that there would be Red-haired Devils on the grasslands as well—didn't they all come from the sea?—he dared not be remiss with Wang Dou's orders. He still meticulously gathered intelligence on all the surrounding tribes, especially inquiring whether there were any Red-haired Devils nearby.

When the intelligence was finally sent back, although the convoy had not yet encountered any Red-haired Devils, from the mouths of various Buryat tribes they had confirmed that at both the western and northern ends of the sea, there appeared Red-haired Devils whom the locals called Rakshasa Ghosts, and they had even built wooden forts and stockades.

According to the locals, these Rakshasa Ghosts were all golden-haired and blue-eyed, with the appearance of demons; even their beards were red. Not only were they terrifying to behold, but they were also cruel by nature, extremely fierce and belligerent.

The Buryats recalled that they first saw the Rakshasa Ghosts in the fourth year of Chongzhen. At that time, some tribes lived along the Angara River on the western shore of the North Sea, making a living by hunting and fishing, and also raising some livestock.

They recounted that the Rakshasa Ghosts were very fond of sailing along the rivers in small boats with masts and decks or flat-bottomed wooden boats. The sails were made of kneaded deerskin, the cables were also made of deerskin, and the anchors were made of wood with stones tied to them. Wherever they went, upon seeing tribal populations, they used force to compel the payment of food, sable pelts, and valuables.

The Buryats clashed with the Rakshasa Ghosts many times, but the Rakshasa Ghosts were incomparably fierce. Not only were they strong in combat, but they also possessed excellent armor, various finely crafted weapons, and even more formidable firearms. They could fight equally well mounted or on foot, and in every clash, it was the Buryats who suffered losses.

Two years ago, the various Buryat tribes on the western shore of the North Sea had united, sending over a thousand men to besiege and ambush sixty Rakshasa Ghosts who had gone out to search for hay. Yet they fought for an entire day, from morning till night, and still could not finish off those sixty Rakshasa Ghosts. In the end, they had no choice but to retreat.

Now, the various tribes fear these red-bearded Rakshasa Ghosts as if they were tigers. Especially after the Rakshasa Ghosts built a wooden stockade along the Angara River not far from the sea, the Buryats on the western shore all withdrew to the eastern shore.

Hearing that over a thousand men besieging and ambushing sixty Rakshasa Ghosts had failed to defeat them, and that the various Buryat tribes of the western North Sea were being oppressed by fewer than a hundred Rakshasa Ghosts, Lai Mancheng's expression was one of astonishment. This astonishment of his was even evident all the way through his intelligence report, until it was delivered before Wang Dou.

Wang Dou, however, was not surprised. A few hundred Spaniards had conquered South America. The Kangxi Emperor had led an army of twenty thousand to besiege a few hundred Cossacks at Yaksa, besieging them until only a few dozen men remained on the opposing side, yet still failed to breach the timber-and-earth structure of the Yaksa fort.

After the Viceroy of the Far East threatened to send two thousand reinforcements, the Great Qing was so frightened that it hastily sued for peace, ultimately ceding the lands from Nerchinsk to Lake Baikal to settle the matter.

In comparison, a thousand Mongols besieging sixty Cossacks and failing to defeat them was nothing to make a fuss about.

Corroborating the intelligence obtained by the Intelligence Division, Wang Dou generally deduced the situation of the various Buryat tribes around Lake Baikal. They practiced a patrilineal clan system, with customs such as blood feuds and clan mutual aid. They were semi-nomadic, engaged in hunting and fishing, believed in Shamanism, and were generally in a primitive tribal state.

The Buryats lived in extreme poverty, with an acute shortage of all kinds of daily necessities, especially lacking ironware. The arrows they used had heads made of bone. With such equipment, how could they fight against the Cossacks?

The Cossacks could be considered a group of people thirsting for adventure and conquest. They were energetic and yearned for freedom. Finding it hard to survive in society, they liked to roam the wilderness, and war was their primary profession. To put it in Great Ming terms, these people were roving bandits, and the elite Old Camp among roving bandits at that.

Even disregarding equipment, in one-on-one combat, most of the natives of Siberia were no match for these professional soldiers. Moreover, they possessed excellent weapons and equipment, finely crafted plate armor, and various weapons forged from fine iron. Mounted, they favored lances and sabers; on foot, they used firearms or other weapons.

These men already possessed the embryonic form of a modern army: strict in discipline, meticulous in thought, methodical, and possessing a wealth of skills and knowledge. This could be seen from the bastion forts they built everywhere—without a certain foundation in mathematics, one could not construct such bastions.

Judging from the places they chose to build camps and forts, they also possessed rich knowledge of geography and hydrology, and brilliant surveying experience, able to fully utilize the surrounding geography and terrain, especially making use of the rivers of Siberia as natural passageways.

Exploring and drifting along the rivers year-round, the lands they passed through were mostly uninhabited wilderness and vast forests. This also required extreme endurance, as well as the courage to constantly battle hunger, disease, severe cold, and accidents.

Thus it is understandable: how could such an adventuring group, so full of fighting and sacrificial spirit, yet also brimming with greed and desire, and nearly stepping into early modern capitalism, not sweep all before them when fighting the primitive tribal natives of various lands?

Siberia was also mostly icy plains and vast forests, sparsely populated. A few hundred people constituted a large tribe; most places were likely small village stockades of just over a hundred people. As could be seen from the Buryats, multiple tribes had to unite just to muster a thousand able-bodied men. Once a battle was lost, each tribe's vitality was immediately severely damaged.

With tribes thus scattered and lacking any national or racial consciousness, they were easily defeated piecemeal, or incited into internal strife and conflict among themselves—just as the Spaniards did with the Indians. The Spaniards who conquered South America were few, but the numbers of various Indian tribes who submitted and collaborated were not small.

The same was true for the Cossacks: their own numbers were not large, but the various tribes that submitted to them were not few.

Putting down the intelligence report, Wang Dou sank into deep thought. Inwardly, he still felt some admiration for these Cossacks. Regardless of their original intentions, the fact remained that they left vast, resource-rich lands for their descendants.

It was just that thinking of how these people, with fewer than a thousand men, had conquered millions of square kilometers of land—a small investment for a huge gain—was rather displeasing.

In essence, this was a feeling of regret and jealousy. Wang Dou did not deny this. But now that he was here, with him, Wang Dou, present, could those Cossacks still have such good fortune in the future? Competing with him for territory destined them for a tragic end.

He did not deny that the Cossacks were very formidable and possessed some qualities of modern soldiers. However, they could not compare with the Border Pacification Army, and their small numbers and great distance from their homeland were their fatal weaknesses.

Regarding the forts the Cossacks had built in various places, Wang Dou held an attitude of delighted approval. It was perfect; in the future, he would attack these forts one by one, saving time and effort. These Cossacks were very good at choosing locations; the forts they built were all strategically vital future cities, saving him the trouble of carefully selecting city sites later.

He calculated how to arm the Buryats and the various tribes of Mobei, letting them fight the Cossacks, so that when the snipe and the clam grappled, the fisherman would reap the profit.

There was a great disparity in combat effectiveness between the Buryats and the Cossacks, a major reason for which was weapons and equipment. Their bone arrowheads and small amounts of crude ironware posed little threat to the well-equipped Cossacks.

Tribes similar to the Buryats abounded throughout Siberia. This was also why, when the Cossacks wanted to conquer a certain place, they often sent out only a dozen or a few dozen men to conquer a vast tract of land. When the number of men dispatched exceeded a hundred, it was already considered a large-scale war.

However, if the Buryats and others possessed fine iron armor and weapons, even if their combat skills were inferior, they could still pose a significant threat to those Cossacks.

As for how to make the two sides clash, Wang Dou also had a plan. The key lay in two words: furs and pelts.

In the process of conquering Siberia, the value of the furs obtained by the Russian colonists was astonishing. In just the first year of the seventeenth century, the state treasury received two hundred thousand black sable pelts, ten thousand black fox pelts, five hundred thousand squirrel pelts, as well as many beaver pelts and marten pelts.

In the early seventeenth century, Siberian fur revenue accounted for only seven percent of the Tsarist state treasury annually. Yet by the mid-seventeenth century, Siberian fur revenue already accounted for one-third of the state treasury's total annual income.

Once he began large-scale purchasing, supplemented by appropriate prices, not only the Buryats but all the tribes of Mobei would vie with each other to engage in this trade. With one side purchasing at suitable prices and the other side plundering by violence, conflict would surely be unavoidable.

Wang Dou smiled faintly. Let those Mongols and Russians fight each other to the death.

In his intelligence report, Lai Mancheng also described the appearance of the Cossacks with heavy strokes. Wang Dou, however, paid it no mind; it was merely a difference in race.

It was that line, "It is heard that these men are golden-haired and blue-eyed, with the appearance of demons," that gave him some cause for emotion. In ancient times, golden hair and blue eyes were a symbol of ugliness in the eyes of his countrymen. Even the dark-haired Romans of old had viewed the golden-haired, blue-eyed Germanic peoples as symbols of barbarism. Yet in later ages, this had been reversed.

This was also a stark contrast in the strength of civilizations. Thirty years on the east bank of the river, thirty years on the west.

The Protectorate was flourishing, and everything was on track, putting Wang Dou in a very good mood.

When the Grand General was happy, his subordinates were happy too. Zhong Susu, in particular, was all smiles every day.

Since Wang Dou arrived at Guihua City, she had spent the most time following him among all the chief officials and great generals. Actually, with the Protectorate in a period of development, the officials and generals of each division were all attending to their respective duties and were all extremely busy. Even if they wished to follow behind Wang Dou, they had no time.

Only Zhong Susu could always find the time, perhaps related to her being a woman.

Now Zhong Susu was the Deputy Head of the Staff Department and also the Tiger Guard General among the Five Great Generals, with her jurisdiction in the Central Garrison of Monan. This could be considered "the waterside pavilion gets the moonlight first." She was always following him in and out, always had matters to report before Wang Dou every day, and her speech was full of Wang-style terminology.

Seeing her like this, colleagues from various divisions exchanged wry smiles. Even if they wanted to emulate this Zhong Xiancai, they could not bring themselves to be so thick-skinned.

Fortunately, having followed Wang Dou for many years, they knew that what the Grand General valued most was getting things done, so they had no other thoughts.

However, privately, following her old nickname "Runs Often" from the Xuanfu Garrison days, Zhong Susu had newly acquired another nickname: "Follows Closely."

Construction in Monan continued to surge with heat. In mid-July, the Information Division planned a series of propaganda activities.

That day, Zhong Susu walked excitedly into her council hall, holding a stack of documents forwarded from the Secretariat Hall. Looking at her subordinates, she said loudly, "Good, documents have arrived. Let us continue to deeply study the guiding spirit of the Grand General's instructions and launch a vigorous, grand upsurge in construction..."

Looking at the thick stack of documents in her hand, her subordinates all groaned inwardly in unison.