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From now on, Lake Baikal is collectively referred to as the North Sea.

The freshwater reserves of the North Sea account for 20% of the world's freshwater resources, and there are 336 rivers that provide abundant water sources.

What did this mean in ancient military terms?

This means that as long as you occupy the North Sea, you can send troops by boat to all directions through its huge water system!

The largest river among them is the Selenge River, which originates from Yanran Mountain, flows through the core area of ​​Mobei Grassland, and finally flows into the North Sea. The "subordinate city" that Li Dingguo is about to build is located on the estuary flat land alluvially produced by the Selenge River.

The North Sea is not a real sea. As a lake, you have to go out when you enter.

The only large river flowing from the North Sea is called the Angara River.

It first flows north, then turns west, and finally merges into the Yenisey River, flowing all the way north into the Arctic Ocean.

To be precise, this river is called Lower Angara River.

There is also the Upper Angara River, located at the northeastern end of the North Sea and the third largest river that flows into the North Sea.

The target of Li Dingguo's attack was the city of Upper Angarask, at the mouth of the Upper Angara River. There are mountains on three sides, a lake on one side, and beyond the valley pass, there is a huge and long open flat land.

It's a pity that the open land is covered with forests and swamps, otherwise it would be extremely suitable for farming.

"Look, Kui Niu!"

The chief missionary officer under Li Dingguo suddenly pointed at the animals by the lake and shouted.

"That's a seal, and it's found on the coast of Northeast China. Last time I went home to visit relatives on vacation, there were seal skin sellers in Shenyang City. I heard that it's more expensive to transport it to Nanjing for sale." Li Dingguo laughed.

Li Dingguo's wife and children live in Shenyang, and he plans to bring his wife to him when the children grow up.

Seals, manatees, sea badgers, sea pigs, fur seals... these animal names already existed in the Ming Dynasty. Anyway, the animals on the beach look like something, and they didn’t have names before, so just put the word "海" in front of them and name them.

In the Song Dynasty, this thing would have been called the Seaman Lion.

The chief missionary officer's eyes lit up: "Is this a seal? I've heard of it, but never seen it. There are so many seals in the North Sea, and killing them for their skins is very valuable. There will definitely be businessmen willing to come here in the future!"

Li Dingguo curled his lips. Businessmen might be willing to come, but immigration might have to rely on exiling criminals.

Last winter, they hadn't reached Beihai yet, and they only stayed in the mountain den in the southeast. Fortunately, there were thick wool felt tents and plenty of cotton-padded jackets for the winter, otherwise many people would have froze to death.

The lowest temperature was minus 36 degrees, which almost froze the mercury thermometer.

I heard that as far away as Luzhou, the thermometer is just a decoration, and the mercury will solidify in winter.

The boats they were traveling on at this time were all temporarily built this year. The wood has not been dried in the shade, nor has it been painted with tung oil. Craftsmen and supplies will need to be brought in next year to build a stronger warship.

Li Zheng did not personally lead the troops, but only sent 300 infantry, with a battalion commander coming to help, and he also brought two Cossack captives as guides.

The two sides delineated administrative areas according to the water system. The places reached by the upper reaches of the Heilongjiang River are under the jurisdiction of the Andong Protectorate, and the furthest west is Chita. Further west from Chita is the territory of the Beihai Protectorate. From now on, the Yenisei River Basin will also belong to the Beihai Protectorate.

The fleet went north along the lake shore, passing Ugis Barguzin on the way, where the bastion was empty.

In the future, military immigrants will also be stationed in the bastion here, because it is located at the mouth of the second largest river (Barguzin River) that flows into the North Sea.

As long as they firmly occupy this place, the Cossack strongholds along the Barguzin River will completely block their retreat. Without supplies of gunpowder and other supplies, the Cossacks in the upper reaches would be killed by the natives sooner or later.

"Leave fifty people and food to defend this fortress!" Li Dingguo ordered.

Li Dingguo asked the Cossack guide sent by Li Zheng: "What is this place called?"

The guide replied: "The river is called Barguzin River, and the castle is called Ust-Barguzin."

Li Dingguo thought the name was too difficult to pronounce, so he said: "From now on, it will be called Gujin City and Gujin River."

Incidentally, Upper Angarask and Upper Angara River were also renamed Yinma City and Yinma River by Li Dingguo. It means "drinking horses from the North Sea".

There are still more than a hundred miles away from Yinma City. The Cossack guide pointed to the west and said: "From here, take a boat to the west, in Baikal... On the west coast of the North Sea, there is another stronghold called Severobaikalsk. It is also the entrance of a river. There is a bastion built at the mouth of the lake.”

"It was renamed Muyang City and Muyang River." Li Dingguo chose the name very casually.

Su Wu is the shepherd. This allusion can give rise to many names.

The main city of the Beihai Protectorate, the "vassal city", comes from the honorific title "Su vassal state" given to Su Wu - Su Wu's official position was that of a vassal state and he was responsible for managing the foreign affairs of surrounding ethnic groups.

The Cossack guide continued: "In the southwest of the North Sea, there was originally Nizhny Angarsk, which could be followed along the Nizhny Angara River to the Yenisei River area. But the bastion has not been repaired yet. It was captured by the natives. From then on, the supplies and population of the Yenisei Governor's Region were transported to the north via the Muyang River..."

Li Dingguo found it strange, because he heard that a large area around Beihai was under the jurisdiction of the Yenisei Governor, and couldn't help but ask: "You have never thought of taking back such an important city?"

"I thought about it, but failed," the Cossack guide said. "The Yenisei Governor sent troops to attack several times, but was repelled by the fierce Buryats. However, the Buryats also suffered heavy losses. Over there There was originally a unified big tribe, but it was split into several small tribes. They usually fought among themselves, but every time the Cossacks killed them, they were able to unite to fight. The warlord also thought about buying internal agents, but the Buryats Unwilling to cooperate.”

Li Dingguo's mouth twitched when he heard this, and he despised the Cossacks.

How much evil must be done to unite the Mongolians who are divided and fighting internally.

Li Dingguo said: "First remove Yinma City, and then attack Muyang City!"

The army arrived at Yinma City by boat, but failed again.

It was estimated that there were only about 200 Cossacks in the city, and they felt that they would not be able to hold it, so they all fled to the Shepherd City to assemble.

Li Dingguo had to leave 50 people to guard the city, turned west, crossed Beihai, and came to Muyang City.

There are 368 Cossacks and more than 900 indigenous servants in the city.

The large area outside the city is a fertile plain formed by the joint accumulation of several rivers. Were it not for the cold weather, this would be an excellent farming area.

Even so, Shepherd City is also the most important Cossack grain-producing area in the North Sea region. Moreover, it is also suitable for grazing and is a Cossack war horse breeding base. Li Dingguo was right to name this place Shepherd City.

The bastion in Shepherd City was built very early, decades ago. Since there was no threat from the natives in the surrounding area, no additional construction was carried out.

That said, the castle is quite small.

The more than a thousand garrison under the wall had been overcrowded, and the women, children, and slaves were all driven out of the city. These Cossacks were so ruthless that in order to hold on to the bastion, they even gave up their wives and children and allowed their families to be captured by the Datong Army.

Li Dingguo brought 2,000 infantry and 100 cavalry, while the civilian husband only brought a few hundred.

The soldiers and civilians dug holes together, and also used hot-air balloon bombing tactics sent by Li Zheng.

The terrain here is much easier to fight than Nerchinsk. Outside the castle is all flat land suitable for farming.

Depending on the wind direction, three bastions can be bombed.

The Cossacks in the castle had never participated in the Battle of Nerchinsk. When they saw three hot air balloons floating over, they all looked up stupidly.

"Boom boom boom!"

Thousands of enemies fell to the ground and exploded, instantly killing and injuring more than 20 people.

Li Dingguo was also surprised when he learned the situation: "Is hot air balloon bombing so effective?"

Three more bullets were dropped by the enemy, and the Cossacks and servants on the three bastions were so frightened that they fled to the nearby city wall.

The bombardment begins!

Six artillery positions aimed at the city wall and fired in parallel.

Although most of the shells missed due to lack of accuracy. But as long as a cannonball lands on the top of the city wall, it will ricochet and take away a large number of enemies. The enemy troops gathered on the city wall will be smashed to pieces.

There is a hot air balloon over the bastion, and if you run to the city wall, you will be bombarded again. The enemy troops in the city no longer know how to fight.

On the first day of the siege, we bombed vigorously.

Before the fuel of the hot air balloon burned out, it was completely smashed by ten thousand enemies. It was immediately dragged back, took the fuel and ten thousand enemies and took off again.

At the end of the bombing, there was not a single enemy on the bastion, and all the enemy on the wall were squatting close to the parapet.

The next day, every time the hot air balloon took off, there was no chance to drop the bomb. So under the cover of artillery, the launch location was changed, and the position was adjusted to hit the city wall.

Under such circumstances, Li Dingguo ordered the fleet to sail into the river.

He drove past the city in a swaggering manner, not afraid of being shelled by the castle.

Li Dingguo planned to bomb the city for three days and then attack the city. Unexpectedly, the Cossacks could not bear the pressure on the second night.

These guys had few soldiers, and they lost their cities one after another. Even the governor died in Nerchinsk. As long as you're not stupid, you'll know that you can't defend this place, so you might as well run away at night.

They escaped by boat and were discovered not far from the city.

Li Dingguo's camp was built by the river, and all Datong troops were dispatched.

Some of them stood guard on both sides of the river, lit torches, and fired guns randomly into the river. It was pitch dark and it was unknown how many people were hit.

Some of them shot on board to stop these Cossacks.

There are small cannons installed on the ships of both sides, and the Datong army's small cannons have been firing blindly. The Cossacks' ship-borne cannons always failed to fire, because they did not light the torches and wanted to use the darkness to rush through. Once there was light, they would become targets.

The fight was lively, but you couldn’t see clearly.

The next morning, when I checked the situation after dawn, I saw wooden boards and corpses floating everywhere on the river.

There is no way to count how many enemies died and how many enemies broke through.

In this regard, Li Dingguo uprooted all the Cossack strongholds around the Beihai. The main reason why he fought so easily, in addition to the hot air balloon bombing tactics, was Li Zheng's victory at Nerchinsk.

In the Battle of Nerchinsk, the Cossacks took away the main forces around Beihai, and Li Dingguo killed most of them in empty cities.

A second wave of embassy missions from the tsar arrived in Yeniseisk in the autumn.

By chance, the Cossacks who broke out also brought the news here.

The envoy was led by his old acquaintance Baykov. However, most of the accompanying personnel were replaced by young nobles. They were sent by the tsar and the prime minister to learn China's advanced technology.

"What? All the castles and strongholds around Lake Baikal are gone!" Baykov was shocked.

Not only was Lake Baikal lost, but also the Yenisey Military Command was gone. The vast Yenisey Military District now didn’t even have a chief officer.