Chapter 796: Yenisei

Yeniseysk.

It was a wooden fortress sitting on the left bank of the Yenisei River, with square timber palisades. Despite ten years of expansion, its scale was still slightly smaller than Tomsk.

On a wooden tower, Vasily, a clerk from Moscow, chewed air-dried horse jerky and gazed west toward the Ket River with a forlorn look in his eyes.

In the open ground of the wooden fort behind him, mountains of furs were being aired, and Cossacks sat everywhere, leaning against the log houses.

Vasily's full name was Vasily Danilovich Poyarkov.

The name sounds very long, but it is actually quite simple: it means this person is called so-and-so, son of so-and-so, from such-and-such a place.

Take Liu Chengzong, for example — using this naming method, he would be called Chengzong Xiangyuluovich Yan'an Liusky.

"Sky" indicates noble ancestry, while "Kov" or "Nov" is simpler, usually meaning commoner ancestry.

However, Vasily was not entirely of commoner stock. His grandfather was a Boyar noble, but during the Time of Troubles, he got caught up in political struggles, his fief became a royal oprichnina territory, and by Vasily's generation, they had become commoners.

Precisely because of this, Vasily's son Pyotr would take Obuchev as his surname. Perhaps before long, Vasily would receive a fief in the Ob River basin, and then their family might adopt Obusky as their surname.

Of course, such matters of class advancement were hard to predict in the Siberia of this era.

Vasily had a friend named Yerofey, surname Khabarov, of peasant origin — a rare master farmer in Russia.

Ten years ago, relying on his farming skills, he had accumulated a small fortune, but Russia was wracked by constant warfare: Poland attacking from the west, Tatars raiding from the east, and countless rebel armies clashing back and forth within the country.

Yerofey bought a few guns, hired several men, and threw himself into the relatively safer Siberia, becoming an explorer. A few years ago, he obtained a permit from Vasily, joined the exploration of the Lena River basin, found salt deposits, and became a salt trader in the Lena River region.

Later, Vasily's son Pyotr established Yakutsk Fort, and Yerofey also developed his own estate on the Lena River. Relying on the farming skills honed back home, he grew crops on the frozen soil and became the largest grain supplier in the new land.

This sounds like a story of getting rich through hard work.

But culturally, Russia had no soil for getting rich through hard work.

From the very beginning, it was tied to war, plunder, subjugation, and being subjugated — and this was even truer of Siberia.

Even the land itself had been seized from the Forest People. Collecting some fur as protection tribute was about right; talking about getting rich through hard work was clearly a joke.

Since you can rob others, why can't others rob you?

Yerofey was a master at farming on frozen soil, but in the matter of robbery, he was clearly outclassed by others.

Now he was squatting in a crude jail cell in Yeniseysk, charged with theft of public property and tax evasion.

His estate, farm, and salt works in the Lena River basin all went to His Excellency the Voyevoda Pyotr Golovin.

Vasily had visited Yerofey in jail just a few days ago. He was very optimistic.

In their worldview, this was simply how the world worked; there was nothing to complain about.

Old Yerofey even asked Vasily for the latest news, wanting to see where new opportunities lay, so he could have another go once he got out of prison.

Vasily did have new information.

Rumors sent from Yakutsk Fort spoke of a great river far to the east, its banks covered in exceedingly fertile black soil. Nourished by overly abundant nutrients, the river water itself appeared dark, tainted by too much decomposed matter.

More and more legends were coming back from the east. People said that region was rich in silver, copper, and lead deposits, and also had abundant furs.

It was just that the local natives were very fierce; several of their explorers who had accidentally ventured there had all been killed.

Yerofey in the jail was extremely excited by this news. He figured he still had several more years to spend in prison, so fierce natives there were all the better.

Getting a foothold from the first venture takes a very long time. Maybe by then his old friend Vasily could also land himself a big official post and lead their expedition toward that Black Water.

But Vasily clearly lacked Yerofey's grand ambition.

All his attention was fixed on the west — to be precise, on this Ket River to the west.

Compared to the Ob, Tom, Yenisei, and Lena rivers, the Ket was a less famous tributary of the Ob. Its freeze-up period from October to April also made its navigable season short.

But among all the rivers of Siberia, the Ket River played a role second to none in Russia's eastward expansion.

Because it connected the route from Tomsk Fort to Yenisei Fort.

All goods, personnel, and vessels coming from Moscow and Kazan via the Tobol, Irtysh, and Ob river routes ultimately converged on the Ket River, passed through Yenisei Fort — this transit hub established in Siberia — and continued onward to the east.

According to plan, at least a thousand people and a large quantity of supplies should have passed through Yenisei Fort this year, then dispersed to forts further east: Rybinsk, Tutur, Yakutsk, Zhigansk, Olyokminsk, and others.

But for four months now, not a single vessel had come from the Ket River.

This was not good news for Vasily.

He knew of the disastrous defeat in the Tomsk campaign; even Voyevoda Ivan had been captured, his fate unknown.

That critically important fortress had also become territory of the Temur Khanate.

On the fringes of this frozen tundra, there were countless nomadic powers — the Kazakhs, the Dzungars, the Khoshut, the Khotogoid, the Zasagt Khan, and so on — but this meant little to the Russian explorers.

Because none of those khanates cared about the land here or the Forest People. They merely treated them as livestock breeding on the ice plains, collecting some fur tribute at fixed intervals.

All along, whenever they encountered strangers, they would use friendship and trade as a pretext to penetrate their tribes and probe their true strength.

If they proved truly powerful, they would negotiate trade and exchange goods, thereby gaining passage rights and building forts at the edges of their territory.

Those not strong enough would be subjected to war and plunder, and have rules imposed on them.

So the Temur Khanate should be the same. Moscow would probably send a new envoy this year to negotiate with them — fight if they could, demarcate boundaries if they couldn't — in exchange for keeping the water route open.

It shouldn't be like it is now, with the entire Ket River as if blockaded.

It must be said that Russia's expansion into Siberia had been extremely successful. Moving from west to east, they built forts along the crisscrossing rivers. Though they never set foot on the lands between the rivers, they had explored as far east as the Amur River.

But with the Tomsk campaign and the emergence of the Taimeng Garrison, this route had been cut right through the middle.

All the forts across thousands of li to the east had become rootless duckweed, cut off from support.

This could not help but fill Vasily with confusion and worry.

He could not understand — had Moscow sent no envoys or troops at all? Had they abandoned all the forts in the east?

"Vasily, get down from the tower, quick! The Golden Khan's cavalry is here!"

A shout from inside the fort interrupted his thoughts. Vasily gazed south and saw shadowy figures moving in the distant dense forest. Beneath golden banners, light cavalry wearing red hats and carrying bows and sabers emerged from the woods on horseback, one after another.

Vasily furrowed his brow.

The Golden Khan was their title for the leader of the Khotogoid tribe, Erdeni.

In the broader Mongol world, Erdeni was merely a Khong Tayiji; to Liu Chengzong, he was a Regional Commander. But in the mouths of the Russians in Siberia, he was a true Khan.

Because the first person Oros made contact with was Erdeni's father, Sholoi Ubashi.

At that time the Khotogoid tribe had just come into being — the Jasaghtu Khanate's Laihur Khan conquered the Oirat and installed his cousin Sholoi Ubashi as Khong Tayiji, serving as the Khalkha's forward outpost for controlling the Oirat.

Their rule over the Oirat lasted more than twenty years, until Baatur Khong Tayiji's father Khara Khula raised troops. After suffering multiple defeats, he finally united the Four Oirat tribes and attacked and killed Sholoi Ubashi on the upper reaches of the Irtysh River, reclaiming their pastures and the right to rule.

That is to say, when Oros first began dealing with the Khotogoid tribe, they were still the masters of the Oirat, their power at its zenith.

The Khotogoid tribe now, on the other hand — though their territory is still vast, reaching the Altai Mountains to the west and crossing the Tannu Mountains to the north, occupying an enormous basin around a salt lake — their pasture population has withered and shrunk, reduced to merely scraping by.

In truth, they are just a tribe of losers.

But losers have their advantages. When Sholoi Ubashi was in power, he simply ignored Oros entirely — their people were killed the moment they appeared in the forest.

The so-called title of 'Golden Khan' was earned through sheer slaughter.

It was only after their decline, when Erdeni succeeded to the throne, that he changed his father's confrontational policy of refusing contact with Oros and continuously sought to mend relations, all for the sake of obtaining gunpowder, firearms, and military aid.

Only then did the two sides enjoy a few years of honeymoon period.

Just last year, the voivode of Yeniseysk Fort, Pyotr Golovin, sent men to contact the Golden Khan, hoping he would join them in sending troops to attack the Temur Khanate, which occupied Tomsk.

Earlier this year, the Golden Khan had already agreed to send troops, but then for some unknown reason withdrew his army, and even advised them to hold off on the campaign and wait for his return to discuss it further.

As it now appears, the Golden Khan has returned.

As Vasily ran down from the tower, Voivode Pyotr also hurried out of the official residence: "What's going on? Why have the Golden Khan's cavalry come?"

Pyotr had never liked Erdeni.

Because the man was utterly impervious to reason, refused to shoulder any responsibility, and endlessly pestered them for arms and munitions.

Yet the Tsar of Oros had long since issued orders forbidding them to give him any firearms, so that envoys sent to the Khotogoid tribe often met with poor results.

Pyotr himself had once gone as an envoy to Erdeni's khan's tent by Lake Uvs, and even now he still remembered that unpleasant experience vividly.

At the time, Erdeni sat cross-legged on a chair bought from Cathay, and without any preamble simply asked whether they had brought back the firearms he wanted from Moscow.

Upon receiving a negative reply, Erdeni did not hesitate to order the Mongol soldiers beside him to strip every member of their envoy delegation of their sidearms and keep them for their own use.

And Pyotr was not the first envoy delegation to receive such treatment.

At that time, Oros urgently needed to open a trade route to Cathay, and the Golden Khan was the only khan in Siberia who could communicate with them, so much so that Oros tirelessly dispatched envoy after envoy to him.

So much so that every year they were forced to provide Erdeni with several dozen firearms.

This went on for several years, with all the fine words exhausted. Erdeni never said a word, merely extorting firearms without pause.

Later, Oros recognized the reality of throwing meat buns to a dog, and refused to have any further contact with Erdeni, even forbidding his tribesmen from coming to Tomsk to trade.

As a result, Tomsk was attacked by Zhou Riqiang.

In truth, regarding Erdeni's erratic behavior this year — first agreeing to send troops, then running off to who knows where — Pyotr, the voivode of Yeniseysk Fort, was not the least bit surprised.

This Golden Khan was simply that kind of man.

If he agreed to do something and actually went and did it, that would be the strange thing.

Of course, Oros was the same kind.

Oros wanted Erdeni to pledge allegiance — they would never get it. Erdeni wanted Oros's guns and cannons — Oros would never give them.

Both sides were cunning players who would not release the hawk until they saw the hare.

The Chakhar Ligdan Khan's western campaign swept mightily through the Tumed tribes along the way.

Although that western campaign, in the eyes of the Later Jin, the Great Ming, and Liu Chengzong, was nothing more than the Chakhar tribe's desperate flight to escape.

But it terrified Erdeni.

Ligdan Khan's westward migration could not hold the lands south of the Great Wall, but north of the Great Wall, a legitimate Mongol Great Khan — especially one like Ligdan Khan, who would even fight his own when mad — wherever he encamped, the nobles nearby would tremble in fear.

For this reason, Erdeni urgently needed more military support and psychological reassurance, so much so that he staged a farcical oath-of-allegiance ceremony.

His brother-in-law, Tabunang Tayiji, swore allegiance to the Tsar of Oros on Erdeni's behalf; and the Oros envoy Yakov Dukhachevsky swore allegiance to Erdeni on behalf of the Oros Tsar.

This was a classic double-deception in the style of Shen Weijing and Konishi Yukinaga.

However, Ligdan Khan came quickly and left just as fast, and soon went to his eternal rest at Eight Corner City.

With the crisis resolved, Erdeni flatly refused to acknowledge the matter of the oath of allegiance.

Oros sent two successive envoy delegations solely to confirm the Khan's allegiance, but Erdeni first disarmed them, then declared: "What nonsense are you talking? When did I ever swear allegiance?"

To this day, the degree of mutual trust between the two sides is no less than that between Liu Chengzong and Hong Taiji — both firmly believe the other is no good thing.

So for Pyotr, the voivode of Yeniseysk Fort, Erdeni sending men over could never bring good news.

Before long, the wooden gate of Yeniseysk Fort opened, and Yakov, who had earlier sworn allegiance to Erdeni, strode quickly forward clad in chainmail.

Before Voivode Pyotr could even greet this double-sworn Oros envoy, Yakov was already shouting loudly at the Cossacks in the clearing: "Muster all troops at once! Take up your best blades and guns! The Golden Khan is raising an army and will lead us into the territory of the Cathay Khan!"

"The road to Cathay is open!"

The brainless Cossacks cheered, grabbing horses and tugging belts, assembling with a clatter and clang.

But Voivode Pyotr and the scribe Vasily were both dumbfounded, exchanging bewildered glances, unable to believe the news.

Pyotr pulled Yakov aside and asked in a low voice: "Is what you're saying true or false? Can it be trusted? The Golden Khan is going to lead us to retake Tomsk?"

"Tomsk? Forget about that."

Yakov shook his head and waved his hand: "It's Cathay — the Cathay Marco Polo wrote about in his book, where gold covers the ground! We will be the first troops to enter Cathay!"

Good afternoon!