Chapter 1452: Is This the Treaty of Nerchinsk?

The real Russians' desperate breakout charge slammed, with no suspense whatsoever, into the steel wall of the fake Russian army!

This was Li Kui running into Li Gui — and getting beaten black and blue. It sounds unbelievable, but in fact there was nothing surprising about it.

The manpower, material resources, and financial strength of the Heilongjiang basin and the Anton coastal region had always far exceeded those of such frozen, bitter lands as Yakutsk, Irkutsk, and Nerchinsk!

Although under the extreme weather conditions of the Little Ice Age, the Heilongjiang and Anton regions were not very suitable for agricultural production either (not that nothing could be grown — no matter how cold Heilongjiang is, it is still a bit better than Yakutsk, right?), they were still considerably better off than Yakutsk, Irkutsk, and Nerchinsk. In particular, starting twenty years ago, with the help of Spanish and Dutch friends, cold-resistant and frost-hardy oats and rye had been introduced into the Heilongjiang and Anton regions, greatly increasing their grain output. And the economic prosperity of the Ming's southeastern and central provinces had opened up markets for Heilongjiang and Anton ginseng, furs, eastern pearls, cattle, sheep, mules, and horses.

Therefore, the manpower, financial resources, and material resources controlled by the Ming's two protectorates of Heilongjiang and Anton far exceeded those of Russia's Yakutsk Governor-Generalship.

Moreover, these two protectorates had a very strong sense of crisis: on the one hand, they had to resist the Ming court's "reduction of the feudatories"; on the other, they had to compete for territory with the Chahar Khanate, the Tumed Khanate, and the Daning Military Governorship. So they never dared relax their military build-up for a single moment!

In addition, they had long been Tartars with their eyes open to the world, and they knew where the strengths of Western military science lay. Naturally, they would absorb the strengths of both East and West, and even directly bring in foreign officers and foreign soldiers. The "fake Russian army" that Oboi and Yue Le relied on as their Great Wall was precisely such a new-model mercenary force mixing foreign and Tartar troops!

In terms of equipment quality, training level, and actual combat experience, it could almost compare with the new-model musketeer regiments that had absorbed Western military technology (historically, Russia's military reforms were not accomplished overnight either, but went through a process of constant gradual progress). The Russian troops here in eastern Siberia — who knew what rank they counted as within Russia — even if they formed up for "volley fire by ranks," would still be no match for this "fake Russian army," let alone when attacking the parallel trenches and breastwork defenses held by the "fake Russian army"?

After leaving behind a field of corpses, the real Russian army slunk back into Nerchinsk, and an envoy to negotiate surrender was dispatched to the camp of Oboi and Yue Le.

The man who came this time was still Peter Andropov. He walked into an enormous ox-hide tent with an extremely heavy heart. The instant he stepped inside, he had a feeling of absurdity to the extreme — because he was very likely the first diplomat in history, at least in the history of Russia, perhaps in the history of Europe, to be forced to accept the enemy's surrender!

And he was also very likely to have his head cut off by an enraged His Majesty the Tsar for accepting the enemy's surrender!

What a senseless way to die!

"Envoy Andropov, speak — has your Governor-General agreed to Guan's demands? Guan came from afar to submit, traveling by boat and by road the whole way; it was not easy. If you Russians still refuse to allow Guan to surrender, that would be truly unreasonable!"

The speaker was Oboi. Yue Le had gone to inspect the front lines, so he was alone in the main camp. He was, after all, a man who in history had served as a regent, and he was quite capable of turning black into white! He was clearly forcing the Russians in Nerchinsk to surrender, yet he insisted on saying that he himself wanted to surrender.

Oboi's words were translated into Russian by his son Namofo: "When you go back, tell your Governor-General: if you want to live, then let us surrender! Otherwise, once we break the city, neither old nor young will be spared!"

Oh God! Andropov cried out in his heart: You come and judge this — where in the world is there such an arrogant surrender party? The one surrendering is threatening the one accepting the surrender... and "neither old nor young will be spared" — is that even human speech?

God did not make a sound, nor did He hurl down a bolt of lightning to strike Oboi dead. So Andropov could only say humbly to Oboi: "Protector-General Guan, you and your great army have come from afar, and of course we welcome you. But surr— surrender is too great a matter; our Governor-General does not have the authority to accept it. It must be approved by His Majesty the Tsar! How about this: we hand over Nerchinsk to you, and then go to Irkutsk. Once there, we will send someone to Moscow to request instructions. As soon as His Majesty the Tsar approves, we will accept your surr— surrender."

Namofo turned back to his father and said: "Ama, this Russian still wants to use a delaying tactic. He is only willing to hand over Nerchinsk — he is not willing to let us surrender!"

"Hmph!" Oboi's face darkened, murderous aura radiating from him!

He said: "Tell this damned Russian: they have one hour. If they still refuse to surrender — no, if they still refuse to allow us to surrender — then the bombardment will continue, and we will blast them all to death. Not one of them will live!"

Namofo turned his head and said fiercely to Andropov: "You have one hour. If you still refuse to allow us to surrender, then we will open fire!"

Andropov returned with Oboi's ultimatum and reported to Troganov and Ulasov.

The two Russian Governor-Generals were both on the verge of tears without any tears left to shed!

Since Russia's eastward expansion began, they had never encountered such unreasonable people — in the past, it had always been they themselves who were the most unreasonable. Now, they had met the ancestors of unreasonableness!

"It seems we can only be forced to accept their surrender!" Ulasov said dejectedly to Troganov. "I suppose His Majesty the Tsar will forgive us?"

Troganov sighed: "Whether he forgives us or not still depends on the specific terms of surrender! Fyodor, this time I will go negotiate with those barbarians. You stay behind and organize the defense. If those barbarians' surrender terms are truly too harsh, then we can only die for His Majesty the Tsar!"

Oboi and Yue Le certainly could not surrender unconditionally. So after agreeing in principle to their surrender, Troganov went out of Nerchinsk together with Andropov, bringing along several Russian merchants fluent in Chinese to serve as interpreters, and went to the military camp of Oboi and Yue Le to conduct formal negotiations.

This time Oboi and Yue Le appeared together, and still had Namofo serve as the Russian interpreter.

The negotiating venue was set up inside a large tent. A long table had been placed inside, covered with a red tablecloth, and the two parties sat facing each other. First Andropov introduced the two sides. After that was done, Oboi did not waste words with the other party, and directly had his son lay out the terms he and Yue Le had agreed upon.

"Governor-General, our terms are as follows. First, you hand over the Nerchinsk fortress intact. Second, you hand over 1,000 muskets, 20 cannons, 1,000 jin of gunpowder, and 2,000 jin of various cannonballs and bullets. Third, with Lake Baikal as the boundary, all lands to the south and east shall belong to the Republic of Siberia!"

"What country?" Troganov's family had been the vanguard of Russia's conquest of Siberia — the Khanate of Sibir had been destroyed by people his family had hired. Now, hearing the name "Republic of Siberia," he naturally grew wary.

"The Republic of Siberia!" Namofo said. "You know what a republic is, right? It is a country like the Commonwealth of England or the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. Oh, and in ancient times in Europe there was also the Roman Republic. Doesn't your Russia also claim to be the legitimate heir of Rome? You ought to know what a republic is."

"We also plan to establish one, called the Republic of Siberia! Our fourth surrender term is that Russia must accept the allegiance of the Republic of Siberia. Your His Majesty the Tsar shall serve as the Chief Elder and First Citizen of our Republic of Siberia!"

Even "Chief Elder" and "First Citizen" had come out. Troganov truly did not know whether to laugh or cry — were these people Tartars or Romans?! But on second thought, he felt that these "Roman Tartars" had a rather good idea. Giving His Majesty the Tsar a tall Roman hat would also let him know that this gang of Tartars — Oboisky and Yueletov — were not so simple!

They knew everything, and were no different from the bandits over in Europe!

(End of Chapter)