The 17th century was a time of great change, during which China faced dynastic changes in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. At the same time, Siberia also welcomed a powerful conqueror, Tsarist Russia.
In sixty or seventy years, Tsarist Russia traveled to most parts of Siberia, and when they arrived in the Heilongjiang Valley, the Russian explorers were simply crying. This region is warmer than most of Siberia, and there is a lot of black soil suitable for farming. The most important thing is that it is not far from the sea, which is the eastern part of Asia.
At that time, the Qing army had already entered the customs, and history entered the Shunzhi era of the Qing Dynasty. In 1649, Khabarov led a small detachment of 150 men from the Lena River and invaded five villages in the Heilongjiang River valley. In 1650, Khabarov occupied Yaksa again, while slaughtering a large number of local natives.
It was only at this time that the Qing army realized that the Rakshasas were coming, and after they drove Khabarov away, this guy also specially drew a "map of the Amur River" for the tsar, which made the Russian tsar cry. Therefore, one of Peter the Great's testament was to get the Heilongjiang estuary.
Around 1670, Arshinsky, a Russian officer stationed in Nebuchu, with a few hundred men under his command, dared to write a letter to the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, whom they called Bogda Khan, demanding that Kangxi submit to Tsarist Russia. Where did they get the confidence?
It was too easy for Tsarist Russia to conquer Siberia
When Arshinsky wrote this letter, he was very proud, and he specially emphasized to Kangxi that many countries had submitted to the feet of the tsar, and hoped that Bogda Khan and his subordinates should also follow their steps, submit to Tsarist Russia, pay tribute to Tsarist Russia, and allow free trade between the subjects of both sides.
This year is the ninth year of Kangxi, and it happened to be not long after Kangxi was in power, and it is estimated that the little emperor smiled directly when he saw this letter. The soldiers and horses stationed in the Far East by the other party, with only a few hundred people, actually let the Qing Dynasty, which has hundreds of thousands of iron cavalry, submit to them, isn't it a fool's dream?
In fact, Tsarist Russia had a series of military operations in the Far East, which were basically defeated by the Qing army. Even so, after they had gained a foothold in Nebuchu, they wrote the letter with arrogance. Why do they have such confidence?
The reason is simple, they have had too much comfort in conquering Siberia. The only powerful opponent encountered, the Siberian Khanate, had a total of only 200,000 people, and the living force was only 10,000 or 20,000, and the equipment was backward, so it was not an opponent of the Russian army at all.
Therefore, from the end of the 16th century to the middle of the 17th century, it took 50 or 60 years for Tsarist Russia to conquer most of Siberia.
From the Ural Mountains to the Heilongjiang River Basin, how far away is this? But they conquered a series of peoples and khanates along the way, and it took little effort.
This kind of smoothness made the Russian army that arrived in the east begin to become arrogant and domineering. They were eager to make a mark in the East, which, at the time, was much easier than in the West.
Mistakenly thought that the Qing Dynasty was the same as other Tatar khanates
Tsarist Russia has come this way, and there are too many Tatar khanates to clean up. In the 16th century, Ivan IV conquered the more difficult Kazan Khanate, the Astrakhan Khanate on the northern shore of the Caspian Sea.
At the end of the 16th century, it took another 19 years for Tsarist Russia to conquer the Siberian Khanate. Some of these khanates were strong, some were weak, but each of them submitted to the feet of Tsarist Russia.
As they continued eastward, they came into contact with many Mongolian tribes, which were not even as strong as those of the Tatar khanates.
For example, the Buryats, the Yakuts, etc., all surrendered to the feet of Tsarist Russia in a very short period of time and became subjects of Tsarist Russia.
In the East, Tsarist Russia continued to instigate the local tribal chieftains to defect to Tsarist Russia and become subjects of Tsarist Russia. For example, Ghentmul, the chieftain of the Saurons in the Nebuchu region.
When the Tsarist Russians attacked him, he was humiliated and chose to settle in the Nenjiang River valley south in 1653, and obtained the official position of Sipin Zuo Ling of the Qing Dynasty.
As a result, at the instigation of Tsarist Russia, he chose to betray the Qing Dynasty and fled to the side of Tsarist Russia. Such tribal chiefs who submitted to Tsarist Russia were not a minority at that time.
Therefore, the Russian army naively believed that the Qing Dynasty, like other khanates and tribes in Siberia, was also a vulnerable country. They even felt that the Qing Emperor Bogda Khan, and the chieftains of other tribes were of the same rank.
This is understandable, after all, the exchanges between China and Russia only officially began in the 17th century, and before that, everyone was thousands of miles apart, one was the Eastern Asian countries, the other was the Western European countries, and there could be no intersection at all.
Indignant at the Heilongjiang River Basin
When Kangxi received the letter, not only did he not agree, but instead strengthened border patrols to resist the harassing Russian troops in the south. At that time, the expeditions of Tsarist Russia did not bring enough food to eat, so they always used local materials, even the local aborigines, and directly became their rations.
If Kangxi hadn't been busy pacifying the three feudatories and collecting the treasure island, it is estimated that he would have sent troops north to pacify Nebuchu long ago. It wasn't until around 1685 that the Russian army built a castle in Yaksa, making it their base.
If this continues, then Tsarist Russia will definitely use this as a base to constantly sweep the surrounding village chiefs and towns. So at this time, Kangxi sent troops to kill Yaksa twice, and the other party had no power to fight back. Of course, the Russian army is still only a few hundred people.
There was no way, the transportation was too poor at that time, and they were simply unable to transport troops on a large scale, let alone transfer the main forces of the European part to the Far East to fight. Therefore, you can only bow your head and admit defeat.
Even if they conceded defeat, Tsarist Russia was not idle, they found the Dzungar Khanate, and instigated them to launch an attack on Khalkha Mongolia. In this case, the Qing Dynasty naturally had no time to look north.
Therefore, in the Nebuchu negotiations, Tsarist Russia took a big advantage, and the two sides signed the "Treaty of Nebuchu" in 1689, which was actually bounded by the Outer Khingan Mountains.
Of course, the Qing Dynasty felt that it was at a loss, after all, the Russian army came from the west, and its strength was weak, so it had no ability to attack cities in the east. In this way, they also occupied Nebuchu. However, due to the cold and freezing north of the Outer Xing'an Mountains, no one wanted to go, and Kangxi felt that it was a pity to lose it, so he agreed to the Russians.
Russia, on the other hand, actually felt that it had suffered a loss. They felt that the Heilongjiang River basin was the first to be discovered by Russia, so it should belong to them. Due to the lack of strength of the Russian army back then, it was exploited by the Qing Dynasty.
Therefore, they have always held a grudge and vowed to take back the Heilongjiang River basin. They have remembered this for more than 200 years.
After more than 200 years, he almost ended up with Bogda Khan's hometown
From 1858, when Tsarist Russia tore up the first border treaty with the East, they began to let themselves go completely. In 1860, on the basis of the "Aihui Treaty", Tsarist Russia signed the "Sino-Russian Beijing Treaty" with the Qing Dynasty, cutting off more than 1 million square kilometers north of the Heilongjiang River and east of the Ussuri River.
Nearly 200 years have passed since the signing of the Treaty of Nebuchu, and Tsarist Russia has finally completed what their ancestors failed to accomplish.
Even so, the Tsarist authorities felt that there was a fly in the ointment. Because they wanted the entire Heilongjiang River Basin, not the north of the Heilongjiang River, they occupied the Northeast in 1900 and completely obtained the entire Heilongjiang River Basin.
However, at that time, the times were different, and there were various connections between the East and the West, and between the countries of the world, and it was no longer as simple as a competition for territory between two countries. Therefore, in 1905, Japan, supported by United Kingdom, defeated Tsarist Russia in the Russo-Japanese War, causing it to withdraw from the northeast.
If it weren't for this war, the wish that Tsarist Russia had not been able to fulfill for many years would have really come true at this moment.