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By the way, all the Cossack strongholds mentioned above were provided by Khabarov. This guy is a humanoid precise locator.

Because of Khabarov's many evil deeds, the officers and men of the Datong Army didn't like him, so they wanted to find a chance to kill him directly.But he continued to show his role, and became so obedient that everyone was reluctant to kill him.Even because of his many meritorious service, this bastard has become a low-level officer.

Khabarov is still the guide for this expedition.

However, the information provided by Khabarov is a bit outdated.The target they were about to attack was not a wooden stronghold, but a rammed-earth castle—a castle specially built to defend against the Datong Army.

Moreover, a small number of Cossacks there are already equipped with flintlock guns.

The flintlock gun was invented very early, but it only became popular in Europe in the early years of Chongzhen.However, it is limited to the popular flintlock pistols, which belong to the stuff of nobles.However, the flintlock rifle has many problems, and it is often disgusted by soldiers.

By now, European flintlock rifles had been improved.Although the army has not yet changed its equipment on a large scale, its use has become more common, and it has even spread to Siberia in the past two years.

There seems to be no difference in gun technology between the East and the West.

And rifled guns?

It has been in Europe for a long time, and it still belongs to the collection of nobles.

Zhao Han is also asking the military factory to develop rifled guns, and he has two ideas.One is breech loading, leaking air, and has a very short range; the other is front loading, and the rate of fire is extremely slow.

Either way, there are serious flaws, and a large-scale replacement is impossible.

In the end, Zhao Han went off in person and tried to make mini bombs.

It is true that Emperor Zhao was a soldier in his previous life, but he is not a military fan.Serious conscripts, who would study Minie bombs from 200 years ago?Zhao Han had only heard of this name.

But it must be reasonable for later generations to use conical bullets, so Zhao Han followed this line of thinking.

After nearly ten years of tossing and continuous improvement, it can finally go to the battlefield.

There are already a number of rifled guns available, but the cost of spirally rifled barrels is too high and difficult to manufacture.So far, only more than 1000 have been built, some of which were installed by the imperial city guards, and some were thrown into the northern areas where the land is vast and the soldiers are few.

What Zhang Tingxun held was a rifled gun with a long range and high accuracy, and the reloading speed was slightly slower than that of a smoothbore gun.

Thirty of his soldiers were equipped with rifled guns.

"Bang bang bang bang!"

Hundreds of miles away from Olyok Minsk, Zhang Tingxun heard gunshots coming from the front.

Most likely after the snow melted, the Cossacks came out and forced the Saha natives to hand over their furs, and those who did not cooperate would use force to plunder them.

Zhang Tingxun said: "If you encounter Cossack robbers along the way, ignore them all, and head towards Oryok at full speed, and only destroy Cossack ships when you encounter them!"

The fleet sailed forward mightily, and soon arrived at the tribes plundered by the Cossacks.

Several boats were docked on the shore, tied to trees with ropes.

Three Cossack brigands were guarding the ship, and more brigands were plundering the village.Seeing the Datong army approaching, the three guys immediately jumped out of the boat and fled, shouting in horror: "The Khitan people are coming, the Khitan people are coming!"

Soldiers of the Datong Army rowed over, squatted on the boat and aimed at the woods on the bank.

The native auxiliary soldiers rowed birch bark boats, cut the ropes of the Cossack ships, and snatched all the Cossack boats.There were hundreds of furs on board, which were probably obtained from nearby tribes, as well as the Cossacks' marching rations.

"Don't go ashore to chase, speed up!" Zhang Tingxun ordered.

The fleet of the Datong Army sailed away quickly.

Not long after, more than a dozen Cossack robbers rushed back with more than 30 indigenous servants.They looked at the severed mooring ropes, at the empty river bank, and for a moment didn't know what to do.

It's too late to go back to report the letter, and it's hundreds of miles away from the castle.

They could only rob the birch bark boat of the Saha natives and row back slowly, but would they row back to die?

Zhang Tingxun asked the soldiers and auxiliary soldiers to divide into two groups and row the boats in rotation.

Those who don't row must sleep during their shifts. Whether they can sleep or not, they must close their eyes and rest.I stopped fishing with nets, and I didn’t even go ashore anymore. Let alone eating, shit was all settled on the boat.

In this way, the march is fast.

On the way, I encountered another group of Cossack robbers, who still quickly grabbed the boat and left.

A few days later, we arrived in Olyok Minsk.

"You told me this is the wooden wall?" Zhang Tingxun put down the binoculars, turned around and asked.

Khabarov was stunned: "It used to be a wooden wall, and I don't know when it became a rammed earth castle."

"Accelerate the landing!" Zhang Tingxun shouted.

The castle is located at the confluence of the Lu River (Lena River) and the Olyokma River. At this time, the Cossacks also saw the Chinese fleet and shouted frantically into the city to defend.

Since it was a sudden attack, the gunners in the city were not in place yet, and some were even drunk and sleeping in broad daylight.

They definitely didn't have any surplus grain to make wine, but after the snow melted for more than a month, they robbed or bought a lot of goat's milk wine from the nearby natives.Except for a few who stayed for the winter, the rest of the sheep's milk wine was drunk openly, for fear that it would be stolen if it was drunk too slowly.

When the drunken gunners were in place, the Chinese fleet had already landed, and only some of the native auxiliary soldiers in birch bark boats were still within range of the artillery.

"Boom boom boom!"

The sound of the cannon sounded, and the two birch bark boats were overturned by the waves, and the aboriginal auxiliary soldiers swam frantically to the shore with the shells on their backs.

Zhang Tingxun led his army to land from the north of the city, and Khabarov shouted: "The west coast of the city is the farmland of the Cossack robbers!"

"You don't need to remind me!" Zhang Tingxun said angrily.

More than a dozen Cossacks are supervising hundreds of slaves farming.The snow has melted for a period of time, and the surface of the permafrost has also melted away. It is a critical period for planting potatoes and other crops.

Some Cossacks, as well as native servants, were fishing in the nearby river.

Seeing the Chinese army approaching, the Cossacks in the cultivated fields fled frantically, while the native slaves froze in place, at a loss.

As for the ones on the river, they had already sailed away.

Zhang Tingxun didn't care about the enemy in the west of the city at all, and led the soldiers to attack the city with ladders on their shoulders.

The rammed-earth castle is very short, and given the conditions of Siberia, it is impossible to build it taller.Under a surprise attack, they might be able to break through in one fell swoop, otherwise they would have to slowly siege the city until it was almost winter and retreated in desperation.

"Bang bang bang bang!"

As soon as they approached the bastion, gunshots rang out, and two soldiers of the Datong Army fell down.

Fortunately, the enemy was not prepared, some went out to plunder, some went out to farm and fish, and not many stayed in the castle.And under the panic, the castle defenders were not fully in place yet.

This is a very short-lived opportunity. If you miss it, the expedition will definitely return without success.

From the river bank to the bastion, there are wooden fences and ditches in between.At the bastion to the south, the cannons also rang out, and one of the shells killed and wounded two Datong troops and five native auxiliaries.

The wooden fence is two layers, and the middle is filled with soil, so it will not collapse at all.

Zhang Tingxun led people to climb over with ladders, stood on the wooden fence again, and took the ladder behind to cross the ditch.

By the time they reached the bottom of the bastion, the Datong Army and the native auxiliary soldiers had suffered heavy casualties.

Zhang Tingxun was completely overwhelmed. He only had a few dozen soldiers in total, and he still needed a supply team to make up a hundred. Every time a soldier died, his heart would bleed.

"Shhhhhh!"

This is the indigenous servants of the Cossacks shooting arrows. An arrow hit Zhang Tingxun's chest and was blocked by the cotton armor.

The Cossack in the castle, only two meters away from Zhang Tingxun, was reloading in a panic.Because his hand was shaking so much, he failed to stab the gun barrel several times. Seeing that Zhang Tingxun had climbed up, he quickly swung his knife and slashed down.

Zhang Tingxun held down the ladder with one hand, and swung a knife with the other to block the enemy's weapon, and then suddenly rushed to stamp his mouth.

The bastion here is not only simple, but also has no roof, similar to ordinary city walls.

"boom!"

On the other side of the bastion, some strong man unexpectedly threw an enemy of ten thousand people.

Zhang Tingxun, who had just climbed up the bastion, was about to fight bloody, when he heard a loud noise.The enemies at the explosion site were all down, only a few standing around Zhang Tingxun.

More and more Datong troops and indigenous auxiliary soldiers boarded the bastion, and the ensuing battles were almost all cold-armed confrontations.

战后统计，一百个大同军，阵亡24人、轻伤26人、重伤7人。两百个土著辅兵，阵亡35人、轻伤19人、重伤13人。

The casualty rate was extremely high.

And their enemies are pitifully small in number.

Counting the gunners, there were only 45 Cossacks in the castle, more than half of them did not have muskets, and there were only 18 real Cossack musketeers.There are 52 indigenous servants, all of whom use earth bows.

The rest of the Cossacks and native servants never returned to the city.

Zhang Tingxun was so angry that his lungs exploded. With only 18 Cossack musketeers and a few artillery pieces, he actually caused more than half of his casualties.I am a sudden attack!

This kind of bastion is really disgusting!

It has to be said that the Saha native soldiers who fought with Zhang Tingxun performed extremely bravely today.They were either from Zhang Tingxun's rule, or from the tribe with the best relationship, and they had a deep hatred with the Cossacks, and they were all fearless in battle.

Looking at the corpses of the soldiers under his command, Zhang Tingxun did not feel the joy of victory. In the first battle of his life he personally commanded, the casualty rate exceeded 50%.

As for the Saha indigenous soldiers who died in battle, Zhang Tingxun decided to reward his family generously.

"Boss, do you still want to hunt him down?" the adjutant asked.

Zhang Tingxun shook his head: "No need. The battleship guards the mouth of the river, prohibits any ships from coming and going, and blocks all the Cossacks in the east. I will starve to death if I am hungry!"

As for the Cossacks outside the city, they all fled westward the moment the Datong army attacked the bastion.Hundreds of miles to the west, there is another Cossack stronghold, and if you go after it now, you will definitely not be able to catch up.

Zhang Tingxun, who is not well-educated, stood on the top of the blood-stained city, looked at the vast forest, and sighed: "One will succeed... Ten thousand bones are withered."

Chapter 989 [Nerchinsk]

The fort captured by Zhang Tingxun began to be built intermittently after the Datong Army captured Luzhou (Yakutsk).

Zhang Tingxun and his former boss spent more than a year building a good relationship with the surrounding tribes.At the same time, they are still familiar with the terrain, climate and language, and they have to cut down trees to build ships, and the next step is to sweep the Cossack strongholds in the rear.

According to his original intention, he will send dozens of people this year to first go 1300 miles away to inquire about the news, and then choose a suitable time for the expedition next year.

But the headquarters issued an order that he could only send troops this year.

This is to cooperate with the battle in Mobei, a battle of tens of thousands of people, Zhang Tingxun has nothing to say at all-Li Zheng is attacking Nerchinsk along the Heilongjiang River, fearing that the battle will take too long, and the Cossack reinforcements in the north can go along the river and over the mountains to attack Yaksa. What Zhang Tingxun fought was the lair of reinforcements that might appear.

If you want to fight, you can do it by surprise, so you choose to do it after the snow melts.According to Khabarov, at this time, the Cossacks will allocate manpower to the various tribes to ask for furs, and will also allocate manpower to grab time for farming and fishing.

As long as they are killed suddenly, there will not be many Cossacks in the castle.

Adhering to this combat idea, he encountered Cossack robbers on the way, grabbed the ship and immediately marched at high speed.For the remaining hundreds of miles, they may be exposed at any time.Therefore, it is impossible to send scouts to investigate first. They can only go by boat, and it is even more difficult to reveal their whereabouts.

Night raids are also more risky. It is very likely that they hid more than ten miles away during the day, and the fleet was spotted by enemy fishing boats.

In general, the plan went very well, there were not many Cossacks in the castle.

It's just that the battle damage data is a bit ugly, and this is really the only way to storm the bastion, even if it is just the simplest bastion.

In comparison, the castle of Nerchinsk is really hard to beat!

After the Datong Army captured Yaksa, Nerchinsk was the first to bear the brunt. The Russians put all the manpower and materials around Lake Baikal into Nerchinsk to build the city wall.

Nerchinsk Castle built a mother castle and a daughter castle.

The mother castle is surrounded by water, and there are only narrow passages by land.The city wall is 5 meters high and 8 meters thick. There are four bastion buildings, and there are three wooden fences and moats on the outside. Every obstacle has to be broken through.

The child castle is on the other side of the river from the mother castle. It is a Jiangxinzhou, also surrounded by water.

If the warships of the Datong Army wanted to pass through, they would inevitably be attacked from both sides by the mother castle and the son castle.

If you want to go around, you have to land a few miles in advance, and then go around the mountains along the river from the north. It takes more than 20 miles of winding mountain roads.After the mountainous area is a swampy area, you have to cross a tributary first, and launch an attack on the other side of the river from the mother castle.This is too dangerous, and you can continue to circle around, cross a tributary, pass through a swamp, and then attack from a narrow land passage.

Historically, the battle between the Qing Dynasty and Tsarist Russia was not fought in Nerchinsk, but in Yaksa, which was more conducive to attack.

If the battle location is changed to Nerchinsk, the Qing army will inevitably lose even worse.Because it is more difficult to supply here, and the terrain here is more complicated, the generals of the army don't even know which side to attack from.

Before leaving, Wang Fuchen, who was stationed at Yaksa, said: "We have been inquiring about news from each other for the past two years. The Yaksa castle is strong, and the Raksha ghost dare not attack. The Nerchinsk castle is getting thicker and thicker. I can't fight through it either. This is not a coincidence, we have to attack hard. This map of Nerchinsk city defense was drawn by scouts who ventured up the mountain. It was discovered when we were leaving. For this map, we lost two people Afterwards, the Rakshasa ghost built a beacon tower downstream, and any ship within twenty miles would be spotted."

After glancing at the map, Li Zheng had a headache and said, "What the hell kind of terrain is this? I have fought half my life, but I have never encountered it before."

Wang Fuchen said: "There are only two options. One is to abandon the boat and go around the mountains in the north, pass through two swamps, and then cross two rivers, and attack from the narrow land. The terrain is very narrow there. We don’t know how many lives will be filled with guns and cannons. Another solution is to forcibly pull out the sub-fort, and then attack the mother fort through the sub-fort.”

Li Zheng is still so stable in battle. He said: "The first plan has too many variables, and it is to go around the enemy's rear. Not only will we have to abandon the ship, but the food road back may be cut off, and it is easy to be surrounded by enemy reinforcements. .Choose the second one, and fight against Rakshasa ghosts!"

The Datong Army sent [-] troops, and nearly [-] native and Han people.

From the Songhua River to the Heilongjiang River Basin, young men and ships from various tribes were transferred to accompany the army, and the ships and manpower of the post stations and trading companies along the way were also transferred.

There are more than 3000 ships of all sizes.

There are warships of the Anton Navy, posting express boats, merchant cargo ships, and even indigenous canoes and birch bark boats.

The fleet approached the enemy beacon tower mightily, and the Cossacks on the watchtower were dumbfounded.I lit the beacon in a panic, then abandoned the beacon tower, rowed a boat and fled.

Beacon towers lit up one after another, and Nerchinsk Castle quickly got the news, ringing the bell to summon all the Cossacks outside the city to come back.At the same time, they sent people to the west, summoned all the troops around Lake Baikal, and rushed to rescue Nerchinsk.

Li Zhengxuan landed on Jiangxin Island downstream of Zibao. This Jiangxin Island is three times the area of ​​Zibao Jiangxin Island.Between the two Jiangxin Islands, there is only a river surface of more than ten meters wide.