Chapter 1450: You Lay Down Your Arms, We Surrender

Bang, bang, bang — the door to Governor Alexander Stroganov's office was pounded heavily, and then came the frantic voice of Stroganov's adjutant, Pyotr Andropov: "Your Excellency the Governor-General, they're here!"

Governor-General Stroganov and Governor-General Ulasov, who had been discussing whether to hold the city or flee, exchanged a glance, and Stroganov said loudly: "Pyotr, come in and report."

No sooner had he spoken than the door was pushed open and Andropov's face, piled high with panic, appeared. This young nobleman had served as an officer in the Streltsy, had fought the Mongols in Central Asia, and had seen mountains of corpses and seas of blood — what on earth could have frightened him into such a state?

Governor-General Stroganov asked at once: "Pyotr, what's happened? Who's coming? It can't be Oboi, can it?"

Andropov nodded admiringly: "Your Excellency, you've guessed right! A report just came in from the Petrov checkpoint — the Tartar army is coming, at least 150 oar-sail ships moving up the Shilka River toward Nerchinsk."

With a scrape, Governor-General Stroganov was already on his feet; he had risen so abruptly that he shoved the chair behind him back half a step, knocking into something or other.

Governor-General Ulasov of Irkutsk, who moments before had been brimming with confidence, was now a little tense as well: "How is that possible? The mud and floods haven't passed yet; the roads are utterly impassable for a large army, and the current on the Shilka is so swift."

"Those Tartars have a very troublesome river fleet," said Governor-General Stroganov, who had served many years as Governor-General in Yakutsk and knew Oboi's strength very well. "They know the Amur and the Shilka extremely well; it's no surprise they can navigate in flood season."

As he spoke, Stroganov's expression suddenly darkened. "Damn it all — the roads are far too muddy right now, and it will be very hard for us to withdraw from Nerchinsk. Unless..."

There was no water route from Nerchinsk to Lake Baikal, and the roads of Siberia, once the thaw set in, were for a stretch of time too muddy to be passable.

Of course, Governor-General Stroganov could still leave with a small party, but the thousand-odd garrison troops inside Nerchinsk and the roughly equal number of Russian merchants could not get away — a small party could each be given several horses, and thus carry enough supplies to cover the ten to twenty days' journey back to Fort Baikal on the southern shore of Lake Baikal. But if too many people retreated, there would not be enough horses in Nerchinsk, and wagons would be needed to haul supplies and goods... yet the roads had all turned to mud pits — how could wagons possibly get through?

As he spoke, Stroganov cast an expectant look at Ulasov — go on, suggest that this Governor-General transfer to Fort Baikal!

"Sir," Ulasov said with a resolute face, rising to his feet and giving a military salute, "the entire garrison of Fort Nerchinsk and I will not let you down. We have a strong fortress and well-trained defenders... even if a hundred thousand Tartars came to attack, they could never take our fort!

With us here, the land of Nerchinsk will forever belong to Russia, and to His Majesty the Tsar!"

Hearing this, Stroganov could hardly bring himself to propose a retreat — if he fled before battle, he would be made the scapegoat for certain!

If Fort Nerchinsk were taken by the Tartars, this Ulasov before him, so long as he could get away (judging from the current attitude of Oboi and Yue Le toward Russia, even if they took Nerchinsk they would not massacre everyone), would surely shift the blame onto the Governor-General of Yakutsk who had fled before battle. After all, the Governor-General of Yakutsk was the supreme military and civil commander of Eastern Siberia, and his flight before battle would deal a severe blow to morale.

And if Ulasov held Fort Nerchinsk, then Stroganov would be even worse off... even worse off! Ulasov would become the hero who defended Russian territory and the Tsar, while he, Stroganov, would be the cowardly, utterly corrupt criminal!

"Very well then!" Stroganov suppressed his urge to flee. "We shall defend Nerchinsk together — we must show the Tartars what we're made of!

But before battle begins, we should still send an envoy to the Tartar army and deliver them a stern warning!"

He glanced at his adjutant. "Pyotr, take some men to see Oboi. Tell his people to leave Russian territory at once! Otherwise, the Cossacks and the Streltsy will annihilate them all!"

The military envoy Pyotr Andropov, dispatched by Stroganov to negotiate, had not gone far from Nerchinsk before he encountered the great Tartar host, which had just come ashore to rest, in front of the Petrov checkpoint that had just been occupied by the forces of Oboi and Yue Le.

The area around Nerchinsk was a large basin, and the Petrov checkpoint stood at the basin's eastern entrance — the vital pass along the Shilka River into the basin, a little over a hundred li from Fort Nerchinsk. The Russians had built a wooden fort there against the mountainside, but had not stationed many defenders, and it could not possibly hold back the endless stream of Oboi and Yue Le's troops. After a brief resistance, the garrison had abandoned the fort and fled.

When Pyotr Andropov arrived, at least a hundred wooden boats were moored along the riverbank below the wooden fort. As Andropov followed several "pseudo-Russian soldiers" through the mud toward the wooden fort, he took care to observe his surroundings.

He noticed that most of the wooden boats were completely empty, though a few had soldiers standing guard. Andropov also found a chance to take a glance through the telescope he carried, and saw that one of the wooden boats was conspicuously mounted with two large-caliber mortars, while another carried a cannon that looked very large indeed!

These barbarians had actually brought heavy artillery to Nerchinsk — could Nerchinsk still hold out?

No, they were not barbarians... because their dress and equipment looked much like the Russian Streltsy ("Santa Claus soldiers"), and the muskets slung over their shoulders looked even a bit better than those of the garrison inside Nerchinsk!

Moreover, these Tartar soldiers, who looked so much like the Russian "Santa Claus soldiers," were present in great numbers — spread over the hills and fields, perhaps more than ten thousand of them. They were felling trees and expanding the Petrov checkpoint, seemingly intending to enlarge it into a wooden fort capable of garrisoning a large army.

Pyotr Andropov thought to himself: it looks like this Battle of Nerchinsk is going to be a hard fight!

With an uneasy heart, this Russian noble officer from Moscow finally met Oboi and Yue Le inside a large tent within the checkpoint.

Both men wore red robes much like the "Santa Claus soldiers," and red hats as well. Oboi was old; his hair and beard had turned white, making him look like a genuine Santa Claus.

Oboi's son Namofo, having long been stationed at Yaksa and constantly dealing with the Russians, had even taken a Russian woman as a concubine, and so could speak Russian. He was also in the great tent today, serving as interpreter.

He said to Andropov in Russian: "My father Oboiski and his ally Yue Letov, having been persecuted by the Emperor of China, have now brought twenty thousand troops to Nerchinsk to lay down their arms and surrender. From now on, we shall be officials and lords of Russia!"

Lay down their arms and surrender?

Was this for real?

Surrendering with such righteous confidence — what on earth goes on in you Easterners' heads?

Still uncertain, Andropov probed with another question: "Will you really hand over your weapons to us? Is that what you meant just now by laying down your arms and surrendering?"

"No, no," Namofo shook his head repeatedly. "You misunderstand. Laying down arms and surrendering means you lay down your arms, hand over your weapons and Nerchinsk castle, and withdraw west of Lake Baikal — and then we surrender to you!"

So that's what "laying down arms and surrendering" means in your East? Andropov was dumbfounded. What kind of divine logic was this? In the West, the side that hands over its weapons and territory is usually the one surrendering, while the side that receives the enemy's weapons and territory can in no way be counted as surrendering!

(End of Chapter)