Chapter 1433: Don't Be Afraid — We've Come to Surrender! (Please

By the time Oboi and Yue Le were plotting to betray their country and defect to the enemy, it was already late in the eighth month of the twenty-fourth year of Hongxing — late September by the Western calendar. It was still the Little Ice Age, and temperatures along the banks of the Heilong River and the Shilka River were very low, sometimes dropping below freezing at night.

Still, there had been no snowfall or freezing over yet, and the Songhua River–Heilong River–Shilka River line still retained a certain navigability — at least enough for the inner-river fleet of the Heilong River Navy that Oboi had painstakingly built up over more than twenty years to pass through.

The so-called inner-river fleet was, in fact, a small river flotilla used to support large-scale military operations along the upper Heilong River, the Argun River, and the Shilka River. It was equipped entirely with light, fast sand-boats suited for navigating shallow inland rivers, numbering over a hundred vessels. If all were deployed at once, they could carry tens of thousands of piculs of supplies in a single trip, or transport several thousand men of the "Russian Army" along with enough supplies to sustain them for several months in the Argun and Shilka regions, as well as heavy firepower such as 12-catty short-barreled field guns, all the way to the walls of Nerchinsk.

The reason Oboi had been able to hold the post of Protector-General of Heilongjiang securely for the past ten or twenty years, and keep the Russians on the defensive, not daring to march south, was — apart from the formidable fighting strength of the "Russian Army" — this inner-river fleet.

With this fleet, he could transport a large army to the walls of Nerchinsk whenever the Songhua–Heilong–Shilka line was not frozen over, and could also bring along a sufficient number of siege cannon.

The forces Russia could maintain at Nerchinsk numbered at most 1,000 men, and usually only a few hundred. With so few troops, they simply could not withstand several thousand "Russian Army" soldiers bringing cannon with them. Moreover, Oboi's "Russian Army" had been trained with the help of Spanish military advisors and included many white foreign mercenaries; its tactical level was almost comparable to genuine Russian "Santa Claus soldiers," and the Cossacks under the Yakutsk Governorate were no match for them at all.

Because time was pressing, Oboi and Yue Le could no longer afford to prepare slowly.

So the two men hastily forged a royal command, first moving the jointly-run "Russian Army" of the two protectorates, together with their families (under the pretext that they would build a city at Nerchinsk and settle there long-term), from the vicinity of Huining (Harbin) to the town of Yaksa (located at the confluence of the Shilka and Heilong Rivers); then they ordered the inner-river fleet units stationed at various points along the Heilong to gather at Yaksa with as much grain and fodder as possible; after that, the two men, bringing their trusted personal guards and families, arrived at Yaksa in late September of the twenty-fourth year of Hongxing, and on the twenty-second day of the ninth month of that year, they raised their banners and marched west, advancing on Nerchinsk by both water and land.

While the great army marched west, Oboi and Yue Le also dispatched envoys to Yakutsk — the purpose being to tell the Russians not to be afraid: we are not coming to attack you, but to surrender to you!

This month or so of moving troops and assembling the fleet had been carried out almost entirely in the open, and in order to conceal the true purpose of betraying the country and defecting to the enemy, Oboi and Yue Le not only memorialized the court claiming that the Russian forces at Nerchinsk showed signs of preparing to invade, so they had to strike first, but also spread news of a Russian incursion everywhere throughout Heilongjiang and Andong. For a time, both banks of the Heilong were shrouded in the sudden clouds of war.

Moreover, reports that the Ming army was about to launch a large-scale offensive were carried to the city of Yakutsk by patriotic Russian merchants and laid on the desk of Governor-General Alexander Petrovich Stroganov.

Alexander, who came from the Stroganov family (the very family commissioned to carry out the conquest of Siberia, opening up vast territories for Russia), was, at the moment he received this report, in his office entertaining Count Lev Naryshkin, who had just arrived from Moscow. This man was no ordinary figure — he was the new brother-in-law of Tsar Alexei!

Because the Tsar had just married his sister Natalia Kirillovna (the birth mother of Peter I) as his second wife, he had been sent to Siberia as an inspector — in truth, just to line his pockets!

In the presence of this young, handsome nobleman from the west, Alexander — now in his fifties and having served eight years as Governor-General in Yakutsk — actually showed a look of terror on his face.

"Governor-General," Count Naryshkin, a very perceptive man, said, "what terrible thing has happened?"

"The Chinese have started a war!" said Alexander Stroganov. "They have already assembled several thousand men and a fleet, and are preparing to launch a massive assault on Nerchinsk!"

"So what?" The young count did not yet grasp the gravity of the situation. "Our war with the Chinese has been going on for many years now, and has it not been indecisive? And we still hold the advantage!"

Although the Great Ming and Russia had never formally declared war, military clashes between the two sides had begun as early as when the Great Ming absorbed the Dzungar tribe as a vassal. They had continued intermittently, never really stopping. Especially after Sengge conquered Transoxiana, Russia, having joined the anti-Dzungar alliance, was practically in a formal state of war with the Great Ming.

On the eastern front, Nerchinsk, under the jurisdiction of the Yakutsk Governorate, had also been broken into by Ming forces several times. Of course, each time, shortly after the Ming army took the city, Alexander Stroganov would personally lead a great army to "defeat" the invaders and recover the lost territory.

Because reports of victory from Yakutsk kept arriving, Moscow had always believed that the situation in Eastern Siberia was acceptable, and that Governor-General Stroganov was a capable and battle-worthy commander.

But Alexander Stroganov himself knew perfectly well how those victories had really come about.

Those victories were only possible because the Chinese Governor-General of Heilongjiang, "Oboisky" (the alias Oboi used when posing as a Russian, which the Russians later also used to address him), had conflicts with his own court and was unwilling to coordinate by sending troops from the Heilongjiang direction; and because Nerchinsk was simply too desolate a place for the Chinese court to care about. That was why, after taking Nerchinsk several times, they had simply set fire to the city and left, allowing Alexander to pick up a few easy merits.

But this time the situation was different — "Oboisky" had moved! This meant the Chinese Emperor had given him enough benefits, so now the Yakutsk Governorate was about to face real trouble...

Just as Alexander was speaking with Count Naryshkin, one of his adjutants, a young nobleman from Kazan named Andropov, walked in excitedly and brought Alexander a stack of letters.

"What is it?" Alexander asked. "Peter, what good news have you brought me?"

"Yes, Governor-General," Peter Andropov nodded. "Tremendous news. Oboisky's envoy has arrived at Petrov Fortress, and has brought a letter in his own hand."

"A letter demanding surrender?" Alexander asked.

"No, he intends to defect to His Majesty the Tsar. In the letter he says he has been persecuted by the Nanjing side, and therefore wishes to bring his followers and come over to us."

"What?" Count Naryshkin's face lit up with delight. "That would be wonderful!"

"This is a plot!" Alexander said with absolute certainty. "They do not believe in God, so they are especially fond of using schemes and tricks — but they cannot deceive me... because I have read this."

He pointed at a very thick book lying on his desk.

Count Naryshkin picked up the book and flipped it open for a look. It was printed in Latin, and the title was "The Legend of the Three Kingdoms."

"This is a book devoted entirely to explaining Chinese-style schemes and stratagems!" Alexander said. "I have read it many times, so I know very well what Oboisky is trying to do! He wants to feign surrender!"

"Perhaps not?" said Count Naryshkin.

"Then it would be even more troublesome!" Alexander shook his head.

"Then what should we do?" the count asked. "Are we to simply sit in Yakutsk and do nothing?"

"Of course not," Alexander took a deep breath. "We must go to Nerchinsk... If it truly cannot be held, we will have to set up defenses at Lake Baikal!"

(End of Chapter)