The Treaty of Nebuchadnezzar was the first formal international treaty signed between our country and a foreign country, which defined the territorial borders of the two countries (the Qing Dynasty and Tsarist Russia), and in a sense, it opened up a diplomatic precedent in the true sense of our country. Although this treaty is a negotiated consensus between the sovereign states of the two sides on the same level, and it is an equal treaty, the evaluation of it by future generations is mixed, and it seems to be unsatisfactory for both sides.
From the Chinese side, we have made huge concessions, ceding the Baikal region to the Russians, making the world's huge freshwater lake exotic.
From the Russian side, Lake Baikal belongs to Russia "as it should be", and the loss of their navigation rights in the Heilongjiang River is a huge loss, so difficult to accept, and the face of the aggressor is clearly revealed.
Above_ Photocopy of the full text of the Treaty of Nebuchadnezzar
As a descendant of The Chinese, the loss of the land is certainly painful, but the Treaty of Nebuchu is a treaty signed by the two governments under equal conditions. The signing of this treaty was not a simple matter, but the result of a long-term victory in the Qing government's struggle against aggression.
Some friends can't help but ask, why do we have to make huge concessions when we win? Can we avoid such concessions and strive for greater benefits? Let us recall, with questions, the causes and consequences of that resistance to foreign aggression.
Photocopies of the original Latin text of the Treaty of Nebchu (Preserved by the Russian Side)
First, Tsarist Russia was in a position to look after the tiger
The feudal dynasty of Tsarist Russia, in Europe, was relatively backward in economic development and civilization. However, the emperors of Tsarist Russia had an enterprising heart to expand their territories, and the significance of the sea in Europe, where maritime civilization was the mainstay, was self-evident for a country. There is an idiom called "looking at the ocean and sighing", but in the beginning, the Tsarist Empire did not even have the opportunity to "sigh", such an embarrassing situation aroused the ambition of the Russians to plunder territory, and saw the ocean become the common goal of several generations of tsars.
Under such a target trend, the Tsar's army marched south to the north, to the west they went to the Baltic Sea, established the second capital - St. Petersburg, to the east the Tsar conquered the extremely cold Siberian Plain, in order to further see the sea to the east, the "Far East" became the place that the Tsar was eager to conquer, and this area was under the jurisdiction of the Qing Dynasty at that time, which would undoubtedly cause friction with the Qing government.
"Friction" was never a concern for the Tsar, and years of territorial plunder had made the Russians accustomed and unscrupulous. The Russians took the lead in launching an invasion of the Far East, relying on the advance of their weapons, plundering the sparsely populated areas of the Outer Hing'an Mountains and Sakhalin Islands, and even establishing city strongholds, and the cities of Nebuchu and Yaksa were established by the Russians during this period. Although the Russians started to operate in the Far East, due to the limited investment of manpower and material resources, it did not form much climate, that is to say, the Russians did not establish a foothold in the Far East.
Above_Map of Tsarist Russia
Second, the Qing government's countermeasures against aggression
The Russian invasion began during the Qing Shunzhi period and lasted until the early years of the Kangxi Dynasty, but during this period, the main energy of the Qing Dynasty was still focused on chasing deer in the Central Plains, which is also easy to understand, and it is the dream of several generations of Qing rulers to win the Central Plains, just as the Tsar longed for territorial power. By the time of the Kangxi Dynasty, most of the resistance in the country had been eliminated, but the Kangxi Emperor did not slacken off, further leveling the San Domain and recovering Taiwan, making the rule of the Qing Dynasty basically stable. Around the twenty-second year of the Kangxi Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty finally "freed its hands" and began to deal with the invasion of the Russians in the northeast.
In fact, there was no unity of opinion between the Qing Dynasty and the public on how to deal with the Russian invasion, and it was a war to make each side hold its own opinions. The main war side naturally believes that it is indispensable to defend the country, while the main concession faction is mainly jealous of the Russians' force and unwilling to fight deep into the bitter cold of the northeast, that is, it lacks spiritual motivation. In the Kangxi Emperor's view, how could the northeast, as the land of the Great Qing Dynasty and the territory of the Qing Dynasty, tolerate the trampling of foreigners? Therefore, the Kangxi Emperor's opinion was to fight the main battle, but the ultimate goal was to seek peace through war, which set the tone for the attitude towards Russian aggression.
Above_ Ai Xin Jue Luo Xuan Ye (1654–1722), also known as the Kangxi Emperor
After the tone of the first post-war peace was set, how to fight became a new question, whether to fight a battle to beat the Russians away, or to fight the Russians for a long time in the northeast of the battalion? The officials of the imperial court, especially the military generals, also calculated their own "small nine-nine", the northeast border of the garrison is obviously a hard job, the environment is harsh and tun tian production, if a war is fought, the time is short and they can ask for merit and rewards, obviously they are more inclined to the latter personally, so the strategic suggestions received by the Kangxi Emperor are mostly quick battles and quick decisions. Such a strategic Kangxi Emperor did not think so, he knew very well that it was difficult to drive away all the Russians who were wandering in the northeast by relying on a temporary victory, not to mention that once the battle line was too long and the logistics supply could not keep up, the battle was likely to fall into an embarrassing situation.
From the 22nd to the 23rd year of the Kangxi Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty successively raised troops on the northeastern border and fought a war against the Russian invaders. Although these generals were reluctant to fight in the northeast region, when the war broke out, these people still showed the spirit of the Eight Banners, and were not afraid of the relatively advanced arms of the Russians, beating the Russians to retreat until they were reduced to the city of Yaksa, and the Qing army besieged the city to force the Russians to surrender, while the imperial court sent people to pressure the Tsarist government. Under strong pressure, Tsarist Russia agreed to negotiate with the Qing government.
Above_Battle of Yaksa
Third, there are difficulties on both sides
Why was the Qing in a hurry to seek peace and russia did not continue to increase its troops in the Far East?
In fact, both sides have difficulties.
First of all, the Qing Dynasty, after all, the northeast border plug is far from the central government, there are still many difficulties in continuous combat, as far as the input of troops is concerned, the total investment of the various armies of the Qing government is only six or seven thousand people, and there are many Mongolian soldiers. It was difficult for the Mongols to stay on the northeastern border for long, because another, more threatening enemy of the Qing Dynasty, Kaldan, was on the verge of moving, which was the real fear of the Kangxi Emperor. The Qing Dynasty hoped to reconcile with Russia as soon as possible, in order to prevent Kaldan from taking advantage of the situation and to worry about its alliance with Tsarist Russia and launching a war against the Qing.
Looking at Russia, the Far East is even more distant from the central government of Moscow, and the first to invade the border of the Qing Dynasty in the Far East are mostly a group of rabble-rousers, it is said that these people can't find food when they are cold, they even eat people, and because of the difference in race, their appearance is different from the yellow people, so many people think that they are the legendary Luocha ghosts, plus the Russian name pronunciation is similar to Luosha, so at that time Russia was called Luochaguo. Later, because the Qing government began to raise troops on the northeast border, the Russian government also sent formal troops to garrison the Far East, but it is said that the regular army and the "rabble" in the Far East were not harmonious, and the regular army was not popular.
In addition, the Russian Western Front and Turkey at this time clashed, the Russo-Turkish war was about to break out, the Western Front was more important to Russia, and russia was simply unable to continue to invest troops and national strength in the Far East, and it was obvious that Russia was in a more difficult situation.
Above_ Golovin, the main Russian negotiator of the Treaty of Nebchu
Fourth, the Russians know better the rules and gameplay of the international game
But the question arises, why are the Russians, who are still at a disadvantage and in a relatively more difficult situation in the confrontation with the Qing army, not in a hurry to make peace?
In fact, it is not that the Russians do not want to make peace, but that the Russians know their opponents better and understand the "art" of international negotiations. The Qing Dynasty's eagerness to seek peace has long been well known to the Russians, and the secret collusion between the Russians and Kaldan has also allowed them to learn a lot of information from it, and the Russians have made Russia invincible in the negotiations in the way of "falling donkeys and not falling".
Although the Kangxi Emperor arranged several western missionaries as negotiators, the changes in the international form could not be understood by one or two missionaries, not to mention the Russians, who were more familiar with the rules of the game, were good at blocking news and creating illusions to confuse the Qing negotiators, and more importantly, the attitudes of the two sides towards the disputed territories were different, compared with the Qing Dynasty, the Russians were more eager for the Far East, so their negotiation attempts were more active and their words were more resolute.
Through a series of actions such as these, the Russians made a series of erroneous decisions between the delegation of the Qing Dynasty and the Kangxi Emperor, and finally let the Russians exploit the loophole and become the greater beneficiaries of this so-called equality contract. This was actually a victory in the diplomatic power of the Russians, and had nothing to do with force.
Above_Where Lake Baikal is located
Although the Russians had already gained benefits in the Far East, they were not satisfied, and finally at the time of the decline of the Qing Dynasty, Tsarist Russia once again sent troops to invade, and finally took the coveted large area of the Far East territory into its own, and the Russians had the territorial rights of the Far East, and they had the right to sail in the Heilongjiang River.
To this day, the descendants of China can only look at that territory across the river; the beautiful and rich Lake Baikal (the largest freshwater lake in Eurasia) can only be understood from the song.
Text: Wang Jinbai
Reference: "Qing Dynasty Character Research", Dai Yi (author) Palace Press
The text was created by the History University Hall team, and the picture originated from the Internet and the copyright belongs to the original author