Chapter 698: The Qing Dynasty's First Cossack!

"Imperial Ama, this is a memorial from Ebilun, the Angbang Zhangjing of Ningguta... it's marked urgent..."

Fan Wencheng, holding the memorial that had just arrived from Ningguta beyond the pass, quietly walked over to Dorgon's side. In Dorgon's Chonghua Palace great hall, a banquet was underway at that moment, and the guests were several red-haired foreigners — Bruis van Diemen and his party.

Back in October, Bruis had received transfer orders from the East India Company — the military advisor to the Great Qing was to go train generals for the Great Ming, serving as chief advisor at the Army Staff College.

And the team he had brought to the Great Qing was to be withdrawn along with him!

The East India Company, however, had not made the matter final, instead having Bruis tell Dorgon that he had been promoted and was returning home, and that new advisors would come to the Great Qing shortly to continue serving Dorgon.

When Dorgon heard that Bruis had been promoted, he was quite happy for him, and had two lavish gifts prepared — one for Bruis, and one for Cromwell — though who knew whether Cromwell would ever receive it?

In addition, Dorgon wrote a personal letter, entrusting Bruis to deliver it to the Russian Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, asking him not to continue sending troops into the Jingliqi River and Amur River basins.

Otherwise, the Qing Imperial Ama would lead the Manchu and Mongol armies in a march on Lake Baikal!

This was not merely a threat — the Qing Imperial Ama was serious!

Because militarily speaking, sending troops to the Jingliqi River and Amur River basins was more difficult than sending troops to Lake Baikal!

For a campaign toward Lake Baikal would go through the Mongol steppe, where men and livestock could be requisitioned from the Khalkha Mongols. With so many Mongols helping with the herding, logistics for an army of twenty or thirty thousand would be no problem at all.

But sending troops to the Jingliqi River and the Amur River... was far more troublesome, requiring passage through vast forested wilderness, or travel by water — neither was easy.

And most critically, a campaign to the Jingliqi River and Amur River would have no Mongol cannon fodder, and no Mongols providing cattle, sheep, and horses. Everything would have to be supplied by the nine banners beyond the pass, and the nine banner gūsas beyond the pass were all within Dorgon's and Dodo's sphere of influence — eating their resources was no different from eating Dorgon's own!

So if war with Russia had to be fought, Dorgon hoped the decisive battle could be fought in the Lake Baikal region.

Of course, he actually had little confidence either, which was why he wrote to the Russian Tsar — fighting over a patch of old forest simply wasn't worth it. Couldn't everyone just live peacefully?

The farewell banquet for the "English friends" was reaching its liveliest moment when a whole roasted lamb was carried in. A Mongol cook was carefully carving the lamb, portioning the meat into silver bowls. Every slice was glistening with oil, wafting an enticing aroma, and with the addition of various spices, every guest at the table felt their appetite stir.

The Qing Imperial Ama had just finished a slice of lamb, his mouth still shiny with grease, when Fan Wencheng came up beside him.

"What is it?" Dorgon turned to look at Fan Wencheng, who appeared somewhat anxious.

"Imperial Ama, Ebilun, the Angbang Zhangjing of Ningguta, reports that in late summer of this year, the stockaded town of Yaksa, seat of the Daur chieftain Arbaia, was attacked and taken by about 200 Russian soldiers! Then at the end of September, another 200-plus Russian soldiers carrying three cannons invaded the mouth of the Ujala River on the lower Heilong River and seized the Ujala town of the Hezhen people! Moreover, these two invasions killed quite a number of Daurs and Hezhen..."

Dorgon slammed the table: "Damn it all, these Russians really look down on us! Four hundred men and they dare seize our Great Qing's land and towns! By the way, has Ebilun sent troops out?"

"Imperial Ama," Fan Wencheng said, "didn't you want to launch a campaign from the Khalkha Mongols? Yaksa and Ujala are both in the Heilong River and Jingliqi River region..."

"Rubbish!" Dorgon said angrily. "That doesn't mean we let a few hundred men run roughshod over us! Seizing our towns, killing our tribesmen — if we don't deal with them severely, where is the Great Qing's heavenly prestige?"

In truth, Dorgon didn't particularly care about the Great Qing's heavenly prestige. What he cared about were the "wild men" of the Heilong River basin and the Outer Khingan Range — these "wild men" were blood-related to the Jurchens, also fishing and hunting tribes, and could easily be organized into the old Eight Banners as cannon fodder.

If Russia killed them all off or conquered them, the old Eight Banners' supply of cannon fodder would become a problem.

"Imperial Ama," Bruis, who had not yet left his post and was still dutifully offering his advice, said, "although there are only 400 Russian Cossacks, they won't be easy to deal with. The individual fighting ability of Russian Cossacks is very strong, not inferior to the Manchu white-armored soldiers, and they also have Don warhorses — extremely formidable.

If you send troops, you should select a small force of elite soldiers, equip them with good firearms and warhorses, and deliver a devastating blow. You must teach the Russians a sufficiently heavy lesson, otherwise they will keep infiltrating the Heilong River basin."

Cossacks were not first-rate in Europe, but used in the right place they were very formidable.

These Cossacks were not much good at fighting pitched battles, but they were especially skilled at destruction — killing and burning without the slightest hesitation — and their combat skills happened to be the perfect counter to nomadic and fishing-hunting peoples. In places like Siberia and Outer Manchuria, if you sent Maurice of Nassau with Dutch soldiers, whether they could even survive would be in question.

But Cossacks could handle the harsh living conditions there!

To some extent, the Cossacks were Russia's Manchus — except that Russia's military power was strong enough to keep the Cossacks in check. Yermak, the Cossack chieftain who conquered Siberia for the Russians, had earlier rebelled against the Tsar, only to be beaten into submission by Ivan the Terrible, after which he obediently became the Tsar's dog and the vanguard of Russia's eastward aggression and expansion!

Reminded by Bruis, Dorgon now realized the matter was somewhat thorny. The Heilong River and Jingliqi River region had no military farming settlements, so troop supplies could only come from Ningguta, and Ningguta had no capacity to supply a large army either. Therefore, only a few hundred elite troops could be dispatched to contend with the Cossacks...

"Issue an edict," Dorgon said, "summon Oboi to Beijing!"

Oboi was the foremost warrior of the Manchus — it seemed the job of fighting the Cossacks would have to be his!

He then said to Bruis: "General Bru, We have one more favor to ask of you — find a way to get Us a batch of good guns... not matchlocks, but wheel-lock guns. If that won't work, flintlocks will do. Two or three hundred will be enough, and price is no issue!"

Wheel-lock and flintlock firearms had both already been invented, and flintlocks were gradually becoming widespread in Europe.

They were still relatively rare in the East, however. Zhu Cilang had already had the arsenal under the Royal Trading Company begin trial production, and Dorgon's side also had a small number of wheel-locks and flintlocks — but not as weapons; they were treated as luxury items.

Dorgon had a few in his own possession, so he knew these firearms were far more useful than matchlocks. He therefore wanted Bruis to help him acquire some — enough to make up three hundred to give to Oboi and create a unit of white-armored musketeers!

"Very well, I will find a way!" Bruis assured Dorgon.

Dorgon thought for a moment, then asked Fan Wencheng: "What has Zhu Cilang been busy with lately?"

Fan Wencheng said: "Imperial Ama, he has been busy finding food."

"Finding food?" Dorgon was taken aback. "The southern court is out of food again?"

The Great Qing, for its part, kept a constant watch on the Great Ming to the south — the five-year peace treaty was nothing more than a piece of paper. If a real opportunity arose, how could they possibly let it pass just because of a piece of paper?

And the weakness of the Southern Ming that the Great Qing had discovered over the past two years was precisely this recurring grain shortage.

Fan Wencheng explained: "The southern court has many people and little land, so grain prices are high, and every time the old crop runs out before the new one comes in, famine is inevitable. So Zhu Cilang is busy finding food for his people — managing the Yellow and Huai Rivers, campaigning against the southern barbarians, and recently recruiting farmers to go to places like the Jinghai Army and Jin'ou Army to open up land and farm... all of them scorching hot places in the south, and who knows whether there's miasma and pestilence?"

"He certainly is busy!" Dorgon exhaled. "Then We can rest easy... let them stay busy for now. We must first deal with the Russians in the north."