In the second half of the 19th century, the control of the Manchu Qing government over the border, which was much less powerful than before, declined, and a group of criminal gangs on the border with Russia appeared in Manchuria that robbed, kidnapped and illegally mined gold mines, and in order to hide their eyes and ears and increase their deterrence, they wore devil masks and red beards on their mouths when engaging in robbery activities, so they were called "red beards" by the locals.
Redbeard captured by the Russians
Redbeard had hundreds of members at its peak, and they were on the move en masse when they looted villages and towns, and the security forces in the towns and villages were completely powerless. The Red Beards' area of activity is not limited to Manchuria, and they often cross the border to rob Russian settlements. In the 19th century, the border defense of China and Russia was weak and sparsely populated, the red beards ran away when they fought, and the residents on both sides of the border lived in fear all day long.
Redbeards usually choose spring and summer to commit crimes, as these two seasons allow them to take refuge in the forest after the looting is complete. In the summer and winter, they would wear decent clothes, look no different from ordinary businessmen, and they would go to the cities of the northeast to be happy and squander the money they had.
Qing dynasty people in the 19th century
In 1867, after the discovery of gold in Askold (50 kilometers from Vladivostok) in the Russian Far East, the RedBeards embarked on this new way to make a fortune, not to mine themselves, but to organize the miners of the Ussuri River to illegally mine, and they would draw more. In the villages where Redbeard cooperated with the gold mining, they won the hearts and minds of the people and were responsible for law and order, and in the eyes of the local people, they became the righteous soldiers of anti-Russian imperialism.
The Russians executed Redbeard
Pursuit by the Russian army
Red Beard ran rampant on the Russian border for more than a decade, robbing, kidnapping, selling opium and illegal mining of gold, the most unbearable thing for the Russians was the illegal mining of gold, and finally the Russians began to organize military forces to arrest Red Beard. In the face of the arrival of the Russian army, the miners and red beards worked together to fight back, when there was no chance of victory, they would flee across the border to flee to the Qing Dynasty, the Russian regular troops could only stop chasing the border, and when the Russian army withdrew they came back, so repeatedly annoyed the Russians.
Russian troops fighting Redbeard
Of course, in the face of the large and weak Qing Russians did not always follow the rules, sometimes their Cossack cavalry would cross the border to hunt down Red Beard, and they even had a skirmish after encountering Qing soldiers in Manchuria, causing a diplomatic dispute between the two, so russian diplomats apologized to the Qing dynasty without pain. Although the Qing government was troubled by the border bandits, it was unable to organize large-scale clearances, so local officials in Manchuria often turned to the Russian army to help suppress the bandits.
According to Russian records, on one occasion Russian steamboats found Redbeard, who had been stolen on the banks of the river, and they engaged in a fierce firefight with Redbeard during the course of the attack, in which three Russian crew members were captured, and Redbeard dismembered the three Russian crew members in front of the remaining crew, and the other crew members fled in fright.
In the face of the brutal red beards, the Russian army intensified its attack, and the Chinese settlements on the Russian border were burned down by the Russian army one by one, forcing many people to return to the Qing side.
A miner's settlement on the Russian border
Red beard in the early 20th century
In the 20th century, after the outbreak of the Boxer Rebellion, the Red Beards often fought side by side with the Qing Dynasty troops against the Russians, so they were regarded by the Manchurians as warriors to maintain territorial integrity.
When the Russo-Japanese War broke out in 1904, Redbeard wandered between Japan and Russia, contracting assassination and sabotage missions. Under the direction of the Japanese army, they specialized in the sabotage of the Russian Far East Railway, and during the Russo-Japanese War, they engaged in 512 large and small sabotage activities against the railway, the most influential of which was the bombing of a railway bridge north of the Gongzhuling Railway Station.
Russian troops in the Far East
The fall of the Qing government in 1911 and the fall of Tsarist Russia in 1917 created favorable opportunities for the development and growth of the Redbeards. They continued to engage in looting on both sides of the border, serving as mercenaries against the Soviets, fighting the remnants of Belarus for the Soviet army, and fighting for the Japanese army.
The Russians captured the railroad saboteurs
In the 1930s, Redbeard's banditry came to an end, and the Soviets tightened their grip on the Sino-Soviet border and severely cracked down on banditry on the Soviet side. With the Japanese army occupying the northeast and vigorously eliminating the bandits in the northeast, the history of red beard finally came to an end.