I

Chapter 1017 – 1013 [Tsarist Russian Military Household]

Chapter 1017 1013 [Tsarist Russian Military Household]

Astrakhan, known as Moscow’s “Window to the East”.

Moscow’s goods can be quickly transported here through the Volga River and its tributaries. Then, across the Caspian Sea is Persia. Similarly, goods from Persia can also be transported to Moscow very conveniently through this trade route.

Alexis served as a soldier in this city. His father, grandfather, and great-grandfather have always been soldiers here.

His great-grandfather even participated in the construction of the fort here.

More than a hundred years ago, Ivan IV created the shooting army, bypassing the traditional nobles, and recruiting free people to train musketeers. His great-grandfather was one of them. At that time, he was invincible in the Volga River Basin. No matter which enemy saw the shooting army, he was terrified.

Today, Alexei is still a shooting army, and it must be, and all children and grandchildren must be.

Because they are stationed at the border, Alexei at least has firearms, while many shooting troops in the interior don’t even have firearms.

Moscow has more than 20,000 shooting troops, a large part of which are acting as police and firefighters. Especially firefighters, they can only receive rations, and their weapons are just a few buckets, and they usually have no salary to get. More than ten years ago, shooting troops across the country had to pay taxes, no matter what they did, they had to pay poll taxes.

After Alexei I came to power, the shooting army finally didn’t need to pay for their work, but that’s all… that’s all.

There are three hundred standing border guards in the fortress, and that is the Tsar’s own son. There is military pay, good food, no need to work, just fight.

And a shooting army like Alexis, to put it bluntly, is similar to a Ming military household. When they meet a benevolent commander, they can still receive rations; when they meet a mean commander, they have to work to earn money to support their families. And they also have to serve as free handymen in the fortress. They do all the hard work, and the reward is at most a meal.

The fortress was surrounded by rebels, and Alexei was very happy.

Because as long as the enemy continues to besiege the city, they will not be afraid of starvation. In order to stabilize the morale of the army, the governor must take care of the shooting army.

The governor’s name is Yakov Bezobrazov, a great nobleman from Moscow. This position was bought. After all, it is the Window to the East. Being a governor in Astrakhan is a lucrative job, and you can get a lot of lucrative money from passing business travelers.

I’m not afraid of war or anything. Although this is the border of Russia, Persia has not gone north for decades, and it is impossible for other forces to break through the fortress.

Three rebel armies, two of which have left.

The remaining Mongols also had to work. It was impossible for the army to besiege the city all the time. Only more than 2,000 horsemen remained on the east bank of the Volga River.

Governor Yakov completely slacked off, and resumed his days of debauchery.

Aleksey became sad. How he wished that the fortress would always be surrounded by enemy troops, and he could barely eat enough every day.

Why didn’t the enemy continue to besiege the city?

On this day, Alexei was called to work, and the object of his service was an officer of the standing army. These standing armies, like his great-grandfather, were also freemen conscripted by the Tsar, but now they could drive him as a slave.

The roof of the officer’s house was smashed by Racine’s small cannon, and the tables, chairs and benches were also smashed.

Several shooting troops were called to repair the house for free and clean the messy house. Alexei was whipped several times by the officer because he worked slowly, and he didn’t even eat a bite from morning to night.

Back home hungry, his wife and children are counting on him.

He originally had four sons and three daughters, but three died of hunger and disease. In the past, they could go to work in the bazaar (big bazaar) on the other side of the fortress, and the salary of the husband and wife was barely enough to support the family. But the bazaar was looted by the rebels, many wealthy merchants were killed, and the people at the bottom rebelled northward with Racine.

In this case, Alexei could not find a job and completely lost his source of income.

A few days later, the whole family was so hungry that even the table was ground into powder, and bread was made with the little flour left. Alexei looked for people to borrow money and food everywhere, but his friends were all shooting soldiers. Who in the bitter family has surplus food?

Going home again, his wife was crying, but his youngest son died, whether he died of illness or starvation.

At night, a friend from the shooting army came to visit, and Alexei’s family was curled up on the bed to endure hunger.

“Egor, why are you here?” Alexei asked.

Yegor said: “There are more than 200 shooting troops, all of them have run out of food at home. We have already discussed that tomorrow we will collectively go to the governor to borrow food, otherwise we will all starve to death. The governor doesn’t want to see this happen, right? .are you going?”

Alexey said: “Of course I’m going, I don’t have any food at home.”

The next day, more than 200 shooting troops surrounded the Governor’s Mansion.

Governor Yakov’s first reaction was to transfer the standing army to suppress. After learning that the shooting army was only here to borrow food, Yakov laughed again: “Lend them some food, so don’t starve the animals to death.”

“Master is really kind.” The butler praised him sincerely.

Since it is borrowed grain, of course it will have to be repaid in the future, and interest will also be calculated.

Aleksey owed the governor a lot of food, and he couldn’t remember how much he should pay even the principal and interest. His father also owed money and food to the previous governor. The former governor was very kind and didn’t care about it when he left. He just took his sister away to pay the debt.

But this time the governor didn’t borrow much, because the fortress was not really safe and could be surrounded again at any time. The governor had to save food for the defense of the city.

Alexei came home happily with a sack of flour to find his wife, weeping, grinding the rest of the table.

His eldest daughter died too!

The couple ignored their backs, speeding up the process of grinding the table into powder and mixing it with the flour to bake bread.

There is very little flour, so I have to save it, and I don’t know how long it will last.

Alexis hopes that the enemy will come to besiege the city again, and he also hopes that the enemy will leave completely, so that the business travel can be restored so that they can work and support their families.

After a few days like this, the Mongols finally withdrew.

Governor Yakov drove all the wealthy businessmen and civilians who fled into the castle back to the city on the other side, ordering them to return to normal as soon as possible. But it can’t be normal. This is a commercial city, and Racine is still looting upstream, and the business travel has long been cut off.

Alexey went to the city to look for a job, but no one hired him. Because there are too many people looking for work, if there is a laundry job, the women will fight in the street to fight over it.

People starved to death every day in the urban area, and two shooting troops in the fortress also died one after another.

The shooters went to the governor to borrow food again, but this time they borrowed less food.

Aleksei had no choice but to take his 12-year-old second daughter and went to the city to beg the rich to take him as a slave. The fast-running rich people are very rich. They have a good relationship with the governor, and they hid in the castle with money and food. Now they return to the city to continue to live a comfortable life.

Aleksei’s daughter is pale and emaciated, no one would want to give it away, let alone sell her daughter for a sum of money.

He really couldn’t think of any other way, and finally knelt down in front of the rich man’s housekeeper and begged, but he was greeted by a big foot that kicked him to the ground.

Back home, Alexei took out the old matchlock gun, which was an antique passed down from his great-grandfather. Although it has a history of hundreds of years, it has not been shot a few times, and it is usually well maintained-the most valuable thing in the house, of course, it must be taken care of.

Alexei took out his musket, not intending to kill or rob, but to sell it in the city.

Many shooting troops in Tsarist Russia lost their weapons due to poverty.

Holding a matchlock gun, I wandered around the city several times. Customers who were willing to buy guns could not be found, but I ran into several shooting soldiers selling guns.

“Egor, are you also selling guns?” Alexei asked.

Egor said: “If I don’t sell guns, my whole family will starve to death. In the past few decades, I have lost two brothers, one sister, and three children, but I have always been reluctant to sell guns. I don’t sell them now. No, I can’t find a job at all.”

Alexei sighed: “Oh, who made us the shooting army?”

Yegor missed it infinitely: “It would be great if Ivan the Terrible was still there. I often heard from my grandfather how beautiful the shooting army was at that time. There was a military salary and rations. They lived like nobles. Same as the old man.”

“We didn’t catch up with the good times. It is impossible for Russia to have Ivan the Terrible again,” Alexei said. “If Ivan the Terrible is resurrected, I will be loyal to him and give up my life to fight for him.”

Suddenly, a voice came from the side: “Without Ivan the Terrible, we can fight for ourselves and for our family!”

Alexey turned around to look, but it was Nikita, the small leader of the Shooting Army.

Yegor asked: “How do we fight? Are we going to fight the Tatars and rob the Tatars of food?”

Nikita said: “I know the Cossack leader Racine. If Racine continues to besiege the city for a few more days, I will definitely join the shooting army as an internal response. Racine is fighting for the poor. He is not a traitor, but our brother. “

“Korasin has left with the Cossacks,” Alexei said.

Nikita said: “Rasin lived in the tribe of the Tatars for two years, and he has good relations with the Tatars. We can call ourselves friends of Racine and go to the east to join the Tatars. We have muskets in our hands , can also fight, and the Tatars will definitely be willing to take us in.”

Alexei exclaimed: “But the Tatars are heretics!”

Nikita said: “Pagans can give us food, and the governor only borrows a little bit of food each time. He hangs us to prevent us from starving to death, and will not let us have enough food, let alone the life and death of our family members.”

Egor said: “Can you guarantee that the pagans will really take us in?”

Nikita said: “You can send someone to contact first. I am a low-level officer in the Shooting Army. I can’t leave for too long at will. Who of you would like to help me take a trip to contact the Tatars in the east?”

Yegor hesitated.

Alexei gritted his teeth and said, “I’ll go, but you have to take care of my family!”

Nikita said: “I still have a little bread at home, and your family is my family.”

“I’m not going back to the fortress today, but I’ll stay in the Grand Bazaar in the city,” Alexei said. “When it gets dark, I’ll go quietly to the east to find the Tatars.”

(end of this chapter)