Lake Baikal is the largest freshwater lake in the world, accounting for about 20% of the world's freshwater resources. If this lake is within our borders, then we do not need to divert water from the south to the north, and we can directly get a pipe from Lake Baikal to deliver water to the arid areas of the north, and we can perfectly solve the drought problem in the north.
Historically, the relationship between Lake Baikal and China has actually been relatively close. In the Han Dynasty, the North Sea, where Su Wu shepherded sheep, was Lake Baikal. At that time, Lake Baikal was not the territory of the Han Dynasty, but the territory of the Huns. The Xiongnu are also an oriental people, and they are fundamentally different from Westerners.
Since then, Baikal has been ruled by northern nomads such as Xianbei, Rouran and Turkic.
After the Tang Dynasty destroyed Xue Yantuo, it officially included the Baikal region into its own rule and belonged to the Anbei Metropolitan Protectorate. During the Yuan Dynasty, Lake Baikal belonged to the Lingbei Province of the Yuan Dynasty.
During the Ming Dynasty, Lake Baikal was surrounded by nomadic lands of the Mongol-Buryat tribes. It wasn't until the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty that everything changed when Tsarist Russia entered the place. It can be seen that until the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, relations between Lake Baikal and China were very close.
It took Tsarist Russia 25 years to conquer the Buryats
The Buryats, in Chinese historical sources, are known as the Buriyati people. They are also a branch of the Mongols and live mainly on the shores of Lake Baikal.
In 1638, the Russians established the Yakutsk Military Government and began to invade the Lena River valley. As a result, the area around Lake Baikal also suffered.
The Buryats, living east of Lake Baikal, naturally refused to submit to the discipline of a group of Westerners, and they organized a series of counterattacks to resist the Russian invasion.
After 25 years of stubborn resistance, the Buryats were conquered by Tsarist Russia. At this time, Tsarist Russia unilaterally declared its dominion over Lake Baikal.
Because Tsarist Russia believes that this is a borderless land, and Tsarist Russia was the first to come here and build a castle here, so this place should belong to Tsarist Russia. In their eyes, it seems that the Buryats do not deserve this land at all.
After all, the Buryats are also one of the Mongols, one of the forest people conquered by Genghis Khan's eldest son Jochi, so why don't those tribes in northern Mongolia save the Buryats?
In fact, Mobei Mongolia in the late Ming and Qing dynasties was also very difficult. At that time, the Horqin Mongols in the east had already mixed with the Qing Dynasty, and they themselves were unable to restore the Mongolian ancestral industry, and they only wanted to find a decent big brother to rely on, and it was impossible to offend Tsarist Russia for the sake of the Buryats.
When Tsarist Russia invaded the Baikal region, it also sent many envoys to the Mongolian region to persuade the local Mongols to follow Russia, but they were basically refused. Although they rejected Tsarist Russia, they did not dare to offend Tsarist Russia easily because of their lack of information and lack of understanding of the details of Tsarist Russia.
After 25 years of war, the losses of the Buryats are difficult to estimate, but they were divided into three. Some also settled east of Lake Baikal and submitted to Tsarist Russia. Some of them went to live in Mobei Mongolia, and some settled in the northeast.
Mazi played a key role in the negotiation of the Treaty of Brensch
After defeating the Buryats, Tsarist Russia entered the Khingan Mountains, which gave them the opportunity to enter the Heilongjiang Valley. At that time, although the Qing Dynasty had pacified the world, there was still the rebellion of the three feudatories, and after the Qing Dynasty dealt with the rebellion of the three feudatories, it had the strength to go north to deal with the Russian invaders.
In 1685, Tsarist Russia and the Qing Dynasty fought two battles of Yaksa, both of which ended in defeat for Tsarist Russia. It stands to reason that Tsarist Russia should completely withdraw from the Heilongjiang River Valley, or even the entire Far East, but it happened unexpectedly.
At that time, in order to strive for the greatest interests at the negotiating table, Tsarist Russia took the initiative to contact Galdan in the northwest, and funded Galdan to let him enter Mobei Mongolia.
At that time, Mobei Mongolia was covered by the Qing Dynasty, and it was naturally impossible for the Qing Dynasty to stand idly by. For this reason, Tsarist Russia took the opportunity to make a lot of nonsense at the negotiating table, and in the end, in order to avoid a two-front war, the Qing court had no choice but to admit cowardice and sign the "Treaty of Nebuchu" with it.
Generally speaking, this treaty was not a loss for the Qing Dynasty, after all, all the territory south of the Outer Khing'an Mountains was included in the hands of the Qing Dynasty. As for the area north of the Outer Khing'an Mountains, the Qing Dynasty did not rule the Eight Classics, so they ignored it.
In fact, the Qing Dynasty suffered a lot of losses, after all, this treaty allowed Tsarist Russia to gain a firm foothold in the Far East, not only obtained a large area of territory in the Far East for no reason, but also laid the foundation for their future invasion of the Heilongjiang River valley in the south.
This is not the end, the real thing that allowed Tsarist Russia to get the Baikal region was the "Brenski" signed between Tsarist Russia and the Qing court in 1727.
In the process of signing this treaty, Tsarist Russia can be regarded as exhausted, and even began to spend money to bribe the important ministers of the Qing court. Among them, the university scholar Ma Qi was one of the targets of bribery.
Ma Qi was born in the Fucha clan, and his niece Fucha was the original queen of Emperor Qianlong, which is commonly known as Bai Yueguang. Therefore, Ma Qi is definitely a person who can speak in the Qing court.
At that time, it was originally Long Keduo who was negotiating with Tsarist Russia, but Yongzheng arrested Long Keduo. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Tsarist Russia hurriedly sent 2,000 taels of gold to Mazi, as well as a large number of mink.
After Long Keduo was arrested, Yongzheng sent Tu Lichen to continue the negotiations, and Ma Qi, who received the benefits of Tsarist Russia, talked with Tu Lichen and other negotiators, and told all the cards of the Qing court to the Tsarist side.
At this time, the Tsarist side of Russia could be regarded as having a bottom in their hearts, so they refused to make any concessions at the negotiating table, and finally forced the Qing court to sign the "Treaty of Brenski" with it. The huge Baikal Lake was completely included in the territory of Tsarist Russia.
Ma Qi himself not only escaped punishment, but was able to enjoy his old age as a supreme minister. Moreover, their Fucha family can also be deeply favored by Qianlong in later generations, and there are a bunch of celebrities, such as Fucha Fu Heng, Fucha Mingrui, Fukangan, etc.
Tsarist Russia can monopolize Lake Baikal, it is not so simple
If Ma Qi told Tsarist Russia about the hole cards of the Qing Dynasty, it was a reassurance to Tsarist Russia, then what could make Tsarist Russia completely get Lake Baikal? It's certainly not that simple.
At the beginning of the negotiations, Tsarist Russia did indeed make a lot of preparations.
- First of all, in order to gain more benefits, Tsarist Russia once again funded the Dzungar Khanate and allowed them to march into Tibet, so as to attract the attention of the Qing Dynasty and let the Qing Dynasty focus on dealing with the Dzungar Khanate.
- Second, before the negotiations, Tsarist Russia had always claimed that its legitimate rights and interests in the Heilongjiang valley had been seized by the Qing Dynasty, and threatened to tear up the "Treaty of Nebuchu" and seize the Heilongjiang valley by force.
- In addition, Tsarist Russia, having already conquered the Buryats, established a series of military bases in the eastern part of Lake Baikal. As a result, the entire area east of Lake Baikal was actually occupied by Tsarist Russia.
After doing all this, Tsarist Russia went to the Qing court to negotiate, and spent money to learn the negotiation cards of the Qing court representatives from the mouth of Ma Qi, an important minister of the Qing Dynasty.
Yongzheng is a governing monarch, and he doesn't want to see the scene of fighting back and forth, especially the situation of being attacked on the belly and back, and it is not what Yongzheng wants to see.
In Yongzheng's view, Tsarist Russia is just a disease of scabies, while the Dzungar Khanate is a big problem. For this reason, Yongzheng was very eager to sign a border treaty with Tsarist Russia as soon as possible, so that he could concentrate on dealing with the Dzungar Khanate.
In order to get rid of the trouble of Tsarist Russia as soon as possible, Yongzheng did make very big concessions. Not only Baikal is gone, but even the Buryat Mongols, who live east of Baikal, do not even want people and land.
Lake Baikal is of great strategic importance
At present, the Baikal region is practically not overdeveloped, so the original ecology of the Baikal region is very well preserved. No way, the population of Russia is really sorry for their large size.
Lake Baikal, which not only has a large amount of fresh water resources, can perfectly solve the problem of severe water shortage in the north of the continent. And it's also the Russian waist, and once it occupies here, Russia will be cut in half.
As the global temperature rises, the strategic value of the Baikal region will grow. After all, this place is cold and freezing, and it is not suitable for a large area of people to live at present. But when the temperature rises, it may become a livable area. When the time comes, everyone will rush here to build a lake-view house, but it is not impossible. It's just that by that time, it was not known who would be in Baikal.