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Stepanov was stunned: "The castle is not repaired?"

"You don't have enough food, why build a castle? If the Khitan army comes and surrounds the castle, we will all starve to death!" Zinoviev said.

Stepanov looked at Beketov, and the two looked at each other, feeling that the man in front of them was mentally retarded.

But it is also understandable, how many real nobles are not idiots?

Zinoviev said: "I have been appointed as the general manager of Amur (Heilongjiang) by His Majesty the Tsar. Everything here must obey my orders!"

Ever since, the building of the city was temporarily stopped. In order to save food, all the redundant slaves were killed, and only a part was left for farming.

When the Datong army sent troops to attack unexpectedly, the Raksha ghost actually took the initiative to attack.

Stepanov faced a foolish boss. He tried his best to be as active as possible, sending more than a dozen ships to explore the way, and retreated as soon as he found the situation.

The two sides collided more than ten miles away from Hailanpao.

Zinoviev, the aristocratic general, looked at the battleship of the Datong Army stupidly, and then at the Cossack boat he was on, and said no more harsh words, and immediately shouted: "Withdraw to the castle defense!"

These small Cossack boats rowed so fast all the way that the warships of the Anton Navy couldn't catch up at all.

Hou Rusong said depressedly: "Damn it, the surprise attack failed."

On the side of the Datong Army, Khabarov, the leader of the Cossacks, was the guide.

Khabarov is familiar with the tactics of the Cossacks. The Cossacks would flee if they could not win a fight, or even flee without a fight.Therefore, the plan this time was to attack by surprise, marching at night to block the upstream, lest the Cossacks escape by boat.

Now that the plan has failed, the Cossacks may flee directly to Nerchinsk.

Both Stepanov and Beketov would fight, and they both thought of giving up Yaksa. The former said: "My lord, we can't fight head-on. The Khitan army is too strong. I suggest giving up Yaksa and retreating to the Nerchinsk region. , lengthen the enemy's supply line, and then find an opportunity to sneak attack the enemy!"

As a nobleman, Zinoviev did not adapt to the Cossack fighting style. He asked: "What if the enemy doesn't chase after him? What if the enemy takes the opportunity to occupy Yaksa, and station here and improve the castle? By that time, We were blocked in Nerchinsk, and we would never be able to touch Amur (Heilongjiang) again."

This is also reasonable, and it cannot prove who is right and who is wrong.

One is the thinking of the regular army, which must firmly control strategic locations.

One is the Cossack bandit mentality, run away when there is danger, and go again when there is advantage.

The aristocrat had the final say, but the Cossacks really didn't run away, and dared to stick to Yaksa Castle when there was insufficient food.

Wang Fuchen and Hou Rusong led their troops here, and seeing the Raksha ghosts guarding the city, they were all incredulous.

Why doesn't the enemy run away?

Chapter 849 [Uninformed guy]

The west, south, and east sides of Yaksa are all rivers, swamps, and sandbars, so the key defensive area should be in the north.

However, the Datong Army is completely unreasonable.

Land directly on the back of the sandbar in the southwest, use the cover of the woods to move the artillery, and build an artillery position to attack Yaksa across the river.

There are three rivers converging here, and there are many tributaries. The water network is extremely complicated, and the river channel is narrowed by densely packed sandbars.Artillery positions can be arranged to attack the city on many sandbanks.

Khabarov, this guy, was extremely obedient after he surrendered.Facing Chinese civil and military officials, no matter what level they are, he always looks like a grandson, wishing to kneel down and kiss the boots of the old men.

At this moment, he was wearing cotton armor on the outside and a silk coat from the emperor on the inside. He pointed to the castle and said, "I built the castle. This sandbar is the best artillery position. After sealing the upper river channel, in the northeast and northwest, There is a river valley where you can escape, and you must send troops to intercept them to prevent the damned Cossack robbers from escaping at night."

"Very good, if you win this battle, I will credit you." Wang Fuchen praised.

Fearing that they would scare the snake away, the spies sent by the Datong Army could only use binoculars to observe from a distance across the river. They really didn't know that there were two river valleys to the north.

Khabarov quickly said: "They are all serving the country, and I dare not take credit. General, after our army bombards me, I can go over and shout out, and I will definitely be able to instigate some Cossack robbers."

Wang Fuchen said coldly: "You still want to save your former subordinates?"

"It's not to save them," Khabarov was really black-hearted, and he even explained, "The Cossack robbers don't have much food. They must be bombarded first and then besieged. People must be in panic. At this time, I went to shout, and some people thought they could survive , there will definitely be internal strife. If you can induce surrender, the best thing is to disarm them and kill them all. Even if you cannot induce surrender, you can take advantage of the chaos to attack the city."

Wang Fuchen said: "Here in the Datong Army, there is no such thing as inducing surrender. Surrender is surrender, and meritorious service will be judged according to the situation. They will not go back on their promises. They will kill people after they surrender."

"Yes, yes, I was wrong." Khabarov quickly admitted his mistake.

Since the warships of the Anton Navy are not large, and the caliber of the shipboard guns is also small, they are not very powerful when attacking the city walls.

However, there are still a few city defense guns!

This thing belongs to the big guy, and after the capture of Yaksa, it will be installed on the city wall. At this moment, it is directly deployed on the sandbar to attack the city.

One after another, the troop carriers followed the naval warships, bypassed large and small sandbars, and went directly upstream to block the enemy's retreat.

Standing on the city wall, Stepanov fell into despair when he saw that the upstream river was blocked.Their main force is the Cossacks. Their usual tactic is to run away if they can't win, and then look for various opportunities to sneak attack. Now that they are blocked, what can they do?

Damn aristocratic generals, all fucking blind orders!

At this time, Zhang Tingxun followed a sentry chief and went to land a few miles upstream, with the goal of intercepting the valley that Khabarov had told him about.

In addition to this sentry Datong army, there are more than 200 aborigines.

Most of these native soldiers belonged to the Daur people, and a small part came from Sauron, Sakhalian and other tribes.According to the names hundreds of years later, they are Daur, Oroqen, Ewenki, Hezhen and so on.

Bringing the native soldiers is not to support the scene.

One is to help with physical labor as an auxiliary soldier, and the other is to let them see with their own eyes how the Datong Army killed the Raksha ghost, showing off the super strength of the Datong Army.

The whistle chief was named Peng Chunlin. After he led his troops to the valley, he sent some soldiers to investigate the mountains.

He continued to walk forward with the troops, and explained to Zhang Tingxun as he walked: "This terrain is most suitable for ambushes. We must send a mountain search team to ensure that we will not be ambushed."

"Chief Peng is right." Zhang Tingxun studied humbly, he knew why the other party was like this.

It's nothing more than that he is a little father-in-law, and Peng Chunlin has an extra task, which is to teach him how to fight in actual combat.

Peng Chunlin continued: "Our main force is besieging the city. If any enemy troops come here, they will either flee or break out. At that time, the number of enemies we will face will not be too many, and certainly not Formation. Choose a relatively narrow place as our ambush point, and win as quickly as possible. The next step is to chase and capture scattered enemies, so when choosing an ambush point, we must predict the rout Where will you flee?"

After spending most of the day, the ambush point was finally selected.

Peng Chunlin explained again: "Look here, the river valley is very narrow, and the mountains on both sides are relatively steep. Our army is hiding in the forest. Even if we encounter hundreds of enemies, we may defeat them. If the enemy wants to escape, there is a gentler hill ahead. , which is the best place to climb mountains. Do you know how to do it?"

Zhang Tingxun said: "Arrange soldiers to ambush and intercept."

Peng Chunlin pointed to the native soldiers: "We only have one sentry Datong army, with hundreds of people, try not to divide the troops. These native soldiers are very suitable. They have a blood feud with the Raksha ghost, and they will definitely fight bravely. And, flee to that place The Raksha ghosts on the hillside were already frightened, and when they encountered the ambush by the native soldiers, they would turn around and run away in fright."

Zhang Tingxun admired him from the bottom of his heart: "Chief Peng is a good planner!"

Peng Chunlin pointed to the other bank of the river: "The Rakshasa ghosts are proficient in water, so some people must jump into the river and escape. On the other side, the natives can also set up ambushes. When fighting, they will come out of the forest and guard the bank to kill the Rakshasa ghosts in the water. "

That night, everyone spent the night at their respective ambush points.

Instead of lighting a fire to cook, he took out mibing (compressed biscuits) and swallowed it with the cold water he carried with him.

The glutinous rice cake has been improved, adding dehydrated vegetable leaves can supplement some vitamins.

Of course, due to the inability to master the scientific temperature, when vegetables are cooked, a large amount of vitamins will be lost, and how much can be left depends on God's will.

As for those native soldiers, they were all chewing ordinary dry food, and compressed biscuits were not cheap to make.

Even if it is the Datong Army, it is impossible to eat this stuff all the time.I am eager to set up an ambush today, and everything is not ready, and someone will row a boat to deliver enough dry food tomorrow.

"Boom boom boom!"

The Datong army camped on the sandbar yesterday, and started shelling early the next morning.

Dozens of small ship-mounted cannons and a few city defense guns erected on the sandbar were aiming at the city wall of Yaksa and pouring shells crazily.

Zinoviev, a nobleman, participated in the Smolensk War when he was young.It was also a battle of tens of thousands of people, but the Tsarist Russian army only had 160 guns in total, and all of them were small-caliber light guns.

Zinoviev swallowed his saliva and said, "The firepower of these Khitan shipboard guns is at least equivalent to five of our regular legions!"

This guy finally knew how to be afraid, and hid in the castle, not daring to show his face, and the sound of cannons was heard everywhere.

And the small Cossack cannons in the city couldn't fight back at all, because the range was not enough.

After an unknown amount of time, Stepanov rolled over and crawled over: "My lord, there is already a crack in the southern city wall. It's only been one morning. If the enemy bombards for a few more days, the city wall will definitely collapse in many places."

Zinoviev asked: "Why do the Khitan warships have dozens of cannons?"

Beketov came over at some point and spoke as an expert on the fortress: "At most one day, the city wall will collapse. The city wall here is too weak. In two days, the gap in the city wall collapse will reach four or five. places, and possibly more. We must break out tonight!"

Zinoviev was still asking: "How big is the territory of Khitan and how many people are there?"

"I don't know!" Stepanov was annoyed by the question.

Zinoviev said, "How come you don't know? You were sent here to raise rations for the army, and to find out about Khitan's military situation."

"I'm blocked here by the Khitan army, and I can't get through." Stepanov was extremely depressed, and wanted to hack the nobleman to death.

In fact, Zinoviev has also done his homework. He knows that the southern part of Siberia is full of Tatars (generally referring to various tribes of Mongolia).In the Amur River (Heilongjiang) basin, it seems to be the territory of the Khitan people.

As for the size of Khitan and the population, Zinoviev has no concept at all.

Over the past 100 years, Tsarist Russia has fought wars with more than a dozen countries. Regardless of the quality of the soldiers, the number of troops must be sufficient.

Moreover, the Tsarist Russian army is still learning from Swedish reforms.

For example, during the Smolensk War, two new legions were formed.Not to mention being able to get military pay, there are three meals a day and subsidies. Landless nobles, bankrupt gentry, low-level boyars (vassals of princes), Cossacks, and free people are recruited to form an army, and their combat effectiveness far exceeds that of traditional nobles and serfs.

According to this new type of legion, Tsarist Russia formed four more legions.

It also imitated Sweden to form a new cavalry, and formed two new cavalry regiments.Then an artillery company was formed, each with 12 artillery pieces.

By the end of the Battle of Smolensk, Tsarist Russia had formed 10 new legions.

Well, as soon as the war was over, the 10 new-style legions were disbanded in place, because they couldn't afford such high military expenses.

On the southern front, in order to fight Ottomans, several new legions were formed.And it belongs to the standing border defense force. The original plan has been maintained, but it only lasted for a few years before disbanding one after another.

Those new-style legions are indeed strong in combat effectiveness, but they are not suitable for serf society.

However, as the situation became tense, the standing border guards were reorganized about five years ago.Most of the officers are foreigners, and they are all experienced people who have experienced 30 years of war. Russian officers followed these foreign officers and learned how to fight as apprentices.

The huge Tsarist Russian Empire currently has a new standing army of about [-], and it cannot afford to continue to expand the army.

The rest of the Tsarist Russian army is still the same.The high-ranking nobles led the troops to fight, and the nobles at all levels brought their own dry food to participate.If the number of ordinary soldiers is insufficient, the serfs will be recruited during the war and disbanded on the spot after the battle, without paying the military salary at all.At first glance, the army of 20 million is full of serfs, and its combat effectiveness is similar to that of the peasant uprising army in China, and it is still the kind of peasant army that has just rebelled.

However, with the colonization of Siberia and the acquisition of a large amount of fur in exchange for gold and silver, in more than 20 years, Tsarist Russia's new standing army will reach 59000.This is the basis for Tsarist Russia to continue to expand, and it is stained with the blood of Siberian natives.

But in this time and space, Tsarist Russia may not be so smooth.

Zinoviev's thinking on war is still in the era of aristocrats and serfs, at most close to the edge of the Thirty Years War.

He didn't take the Datong Army seriously at first. There were only dozens of warships, and at most they could have a few artillery pieces.Even if the Datong army killed thousands of people, the main force would be four or five hundred dead, and the rest would be serfs and indigenous servants.If this is the case, he is absolutely sure to hold the castle.

What the hell are dozens of cannons blasting together?

He hadn't seen more than 1000 fully armed Datong Army, otherwise, this guy's three views might be shattered.

After thinking over and over, Zinoviev found it difficult to hold on, and finally said: "Let's break through tonight. If the breakout goes well, lead the Khitans into the forest and look for opportunities to ambush and sneak attack!"

Chapter 850 [Spicy Meat]

"You can't break out upstream!" Stepanov said.

Beketov added: "You can't go directly to the mountains and river valleys in the north either!"

Escape was the most important thing, Zinoviev didn't care about the aristocratic airs, and humbly asked the two Cossack chiefs for advice: "Then where should we go?"

"East!"

Stepanov and Beketov said the answer in unison.

And the east was the direction the Datong Army had come from.

On the east and west sides of Yaksa, the riverside is full of tidal flats covered with reeds.Since it is not yet autumn, it is difficult to burn out a fire, which is very conducive to the sneaking of the defenders in the city.

On the east side, the terrain is particularly complex.

Heilongjiang encountered a sharp bend here, the speed of the water flow was greatly slowed down, and large sandbars and tidal flats were alluvial.There is also a small river flowing in from the northeast, forming large and small ponds and rivers between the tidal flats and sandbars, and some places even belong to swampy areas.

If the water rises and then recedes, there will be no shortage of food at all, and a large number of fish will be stranded in the tidal flats, and the second half of the sentence "beat the roe deer with a ladle and scoop the fish" will appear.

The Datong Army only has more than 1000 people, and it is impossible to surround the castle to death.

After dark, you must return to the camp to guard against the enemy's sneak attack, so that there is a huge gap for breaking out.

Midnight.

The west gate of the castle opened, and a group of Daur slaves, all gagged, were driven out by the Cossacks.

Surprised and delighted, the slaves rushed westward in the dark.After running for a full mile and getting into the reeds, someone tore the rag out of his mouth and shouted excitedly: "The Raksha ghost is gone, the Raksha ghost is gone!"

In fact, as soon as there was movement in the castle, the sentinel hiding in the reeds on the tidal flat had already rowed to Jiangxinzhou to report the news.

At this time, he heard the shouts of Daur slaves again, Wang Fuchen said with a smile: "The sound is east and west, and I really want to flee east."