Multifactorial analysis of the main characteristics of Chinese ships during the siege of Albazin

In the middle of the XVII century, the active development of Eastern Siberia and the Far East by the Muscovite Kingdom began. The actions of the Russian expeditionary detachments of Cossacks and pioneers turned out to be quite successful and led to the emergence of an extensive system of fortified strongholds - prisons located on the coastal territories of river shipping routes. So, in 1665-1666, the Albazin fortress appeared - the first fortified settlement of Russian pioneers on the Amur River. The current situation could not but worry the Emperor of Qing China, in connection with which the Manchu military leaders paid serious attention to the repair and construction of military river vessels. The construction of warships, as well as the training of their crews, became an urgent need in solving problematic logistics issues related to the first attempt to redeploy Manchurian troops to the north for the upcoming siege of Albazin in the 80s of the XVII century. Continuing to study the composition of the Manchurian expeditionary force, the authors in the present work demonstrate the replacement of trivial classical methods of theoretical research of history by the method of systematic data analysis, which allows us to identify fairly new scientific facts without using any new and previously unknown information. Having clearly illustrated the obvious advantages of such a methodological transition using typical examples closest to the subject of the described study, namely, determining the actual number of artillery pieces and the total number of soldiers directly involved in the first siege of the Albazin fortress in the summer of 1685, the composition of the Qing river flotilla formed to conduct this siege was revealed.

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