stubborn thief

Chapter 633 A Thousand Miles

Screaming rockets flew erratically over the city of Tomsk, and explosions rang out one after another in the outer city.

On the bell tower, the head of Ivanovich Ramodanovsky, the governor of the Tsarist Overseer's District in Tomsk, entered a very strange state.

The fully armored Kalmyk cavalry outside the city did not surprise him. The rebellion of the Kyrgyz cavalry riding fast horses, holding hard bows and galloping and shouting was even more common, and those explosives that screamed, rose into the air, and fell with fireworks... …Okay, this is really novel.

But none of those shocked him as much as those red-bottomed flags among the mighty besieging army.

Some of those huge flags were painted with tuanlong, some with soaring dragons, and some with characters that the warlord Ivan didn't recognize.

But there were always two flags with loud country names and Khan names written in Uighur-style Mongolian characters, which made him feel a tremor from the sky to the tail bone.

'Dunta Ulusi, Daiqing Khitan Khan. '

Khitan.

This word is haunting.

It can even be said that in older times, since Marco Polo, the whole of Europe has been looking for the Khitan, and it all started long ago.

The English began to search for the Khitan in the tenth year of Emperor Xiaozong's reign in the Ming Dynasty. They formed a fleet at sea and sailed northwest again and again, trying to find the Khitan in their dreams. Finally, three years ago, they sailed the ship from England into the Arctic Ocean and realized that the northwest sea There is no road to Khitan.

On the other side, they searched for the Khitan again and again through the Siberian route opened by the Russians. Even when England agreed to be the intermediary between Sweden and Russia in the war, one of the conditions was to allow British merchants to find the road to India and Khitan via the Ob River. .

In fact, at that time, people in Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands and England had already had contact with the Ming Dynasty, and the Russians had also come into contact with the Chechen Khan Shuolei of Mobei Mongolia and the Tumut Khan of Monan Mongolia.

But people always believe that there is another Khitan in this world besides the Ming Dynasty.

No matter what, Macau in the south, Zhangjiakou in the north, and Dunhuang in the west are all under the rule of one person. This is outrageous to the point of absurdity for most people in the world.

Even when Chechen Khan Shuolei told Russian officials seriously a few years ago that there was no Khitan and there was only a Ming Dynasty in the south, they didn't believe it.

Even if Shuolei is titled Emperor Altan in the Russian official documents, no one wants to believe that he doesn't know where the Khitan is.

How to believe it? Khitan is the foundation that supports the entire European Age of Geographic Discovery. For hundreds of years, everyone has made all efforts at sea and on land to find the legendary Khitan, which is close to India.

Whoever controls the road to Khitan can take the lead in trade and national power.

This myth has made people so stubborn that even if they really see the Ming Dynasty, they feel that it is less interesting than the 'Khitan'.

The Russians also deceived the English in this way. The Tsar wrote to the English: "The envoy of Emperor Altan is still with me. He said that it takes a month to ride a horse from them to Daming, and there is no water on the way. It's all desert. '

'You have to walk on a dry road for eighteen weeks from my town of Tomsk. There is no water on the way, and the journey is extremely difficult and dangerous. '

'When you arrive in Daming, you will find that there is a high wall surrounded by bricks in Daming. It takes ten days to walk around the city. There are no counties outside the city wall. '

"The Ming Dynasty is by the river, not by the sea. Don't look for it by the sea. The Mongols don't know what the name of that river is. There is no such thing as Khitan." '

'And the Ming Dynasty produced very few goods, without any gold or precious jewelry, so don't bother. '

Although this was completely different from the information the Tsar had about the Ming Dynasty or Khitan, there was actually no sense of guilt in telling such a lie.

Because there is no evidence in the real world that can prove that the mysterious Khitan really exists.

And now, in front of Ivan, the governor of Tomsk, guns roared on the ground, rockets screamed in the air, and the big flag clearly written in Mongolian characters was outside the city - the Khitan was here!

It really exists!

It wasn't until an iron ball fired from a lion cannon hit the Byzantine-style dome bell tower, destroying the support that the Byzantine cross, symbolizing the Orthodox Church, broke and fell to the ground. The delusional warlord was finally awakened.

The siege continues.

The peripheral defense facilities of Tomsk Fort are very complete. There are sharpened wooden stakes and barbs on the outside. The logs are tied into tall and strong wooden fences. Every few dozen steps, there are spires higher than the wooden fences for the governors. The Tatar archers in the area fired.

More Cossacks hid on the inner city shooting platform with higher foundations, set up old large-caliber mortar guns on the wooden fence, and took advantage of the height difference and range to shoot outside the fort.

This defensive method has been very efficient in past counterattacks against the Kyrgyz.

This is because the Kyrgyz cavalry are extremely traditional, using Mongolian sinew bows and riding fast horses. During battle, they surround the enemy with a so-called "round dance formation" and throw surging arrows into the enemy formation.

Ninety percent of those arrows will be blocked by the wooden fortifications, making it difficult to harm the soldiers within the fortifications.

Therefore, in most cases, the Kyrgyz and even some Oirat troops only paraded armed outside the fortress.

In cold Siberia, any siege army will have to withdraw as long as they hold on to the fortress for a period of time.

The Russian troops guarding the fortress would never choose to fight in the field, even if the forces were equal, because in their inherent impression, no one could beat Oirat in a field battle.

In field battles, the cavalry of Russia and Poland often suffered at the hands of the Crimean Khanate and even the Nogai people. The cavalry of the Crimean Khanate was at best similar to that of Mongolia, and even the equipment level was even worse.

And Oirat? The cavalry of Oirat are freaks. They have absolute dominance in field battles with nomadic cavalry.

In fact, during the hundred years before and after this era, there was a very special term in Eastern European history called the Little Mongol Invasion Era.

Little Mongolia is talking about the Oirat. To a certain extent, the Eastern European cavalry began to become stronger from this time, which was inspired by the Oirat people.

During this period, the Oirat cavalry fought against their Eastern European relatives in field battles, with a winning rate of over 90%.

There are only two secrets, and they are so simple that they are ridiculous.

First, a large number of people are equipped with cloth-covered iron armor; second, everyone holds a spear.

Most of the cavalry in this era only had long weapons in the hands of armored cavalry. In order to preserve combat effectiveness, light cavalry would carry bows, muskets, sabers or swords, and try to avoid hand-to-hand combat.

In the long-term struggle with Mongolia, Oirat summed up an effective set of cost-effective tactics in the face of the same bows, the same horses, and the same tactics.

Since the battle is often determined by mangu's shooting, finding gaps, using hand-to-hand cavalry to attack in a concentrated manner, and tearing apart the formation to disperse the enemy troops, then why not also bring a few spears to the light cavalry?

It formed what Liu Chengzong saw when he fought with the Oirat coalition forces in Qinghai.

There are many poorly equipped nomadic cavalry in Oirat, wearing a leather jacket and one or more spears. Many of the spearheads are just made of horns and flints. Even the poorest nomadic cavalry just sharpened the wooden poles. , put it on the fire and roast it before going to the battlefield.

But it was such a simple and efficient tactic that allowed them to crush the cavalry of the Nogai, Cossacks, and Poles in the fierce battles in the North Caucasus; they defeated the Crimean Khanate on the Black Sea grassland and failed to sue for peace.

A few noble cans hiding behind the soldiers on the battlefield were unable to stop the disintegration of the soldiers in the front row who were all stabbed to death by a spear. In fact, facing the simple spears of Oirat, tin cans are useless. Whether it is the Ottoman Pasha or the Kharak of the Crimean Khanate, if they dare to stand in front of the Oirat cavalry, they will only die by being stabbed.

So much so that the Russian writings of this period once simply and clearly referred to the Oirat cavalry as spears.

The only thing that can deal with spears is wooden barriers.

But in Tomsk today, wooden barriers cannot protect anyone.

Standing on the commanding heights of the city, Ivan, the warlord, quickly noticed that something was wrong on the battlefield.

There were thousands of cavalry outside the city. Those cavalry in hussar formation floated back and forth, causing arrows to rain down on the fortress and sheds, but in fact they did not cause any casualties or losses.

On the contrary, it was the two squads of artillery and muskets in the besieging army. Although their number was pitifully small, they used muskets to continuously shoot at the sheds and fence walls. They were the real killers in the battle.

Their firearms are powerful and formidable.

Relying on the cover of the Oirat cavalry, the infantry armed with flying cannons can advance the battle line to the barbs of the outer wooden piles and project the cylindrical shells to the inner fort.

The Cossack gunners had never seen such small grenades, and the soldiers stationed at the fort were almost wiped out by a shell in the initial confrontation.

Even with later experience, this arc-shaped projectile still demoralized the Cossack gunners behind the wall.

The rockets flying all over the sky scared the Tatar soldiers between the two walls so much that they cried for their fathers and mothers. They even wanted to withdraw into the inner city and give up guarding the fort wall.

It was only the shooting troops in the inner city who used long axes and muskets to force them to hold their position.

Fortunately, although the firepower of the siege was rapid and fierce, these strange-looking Khitan soldiers had limited equipment, and the powerful rockets only fired a few volleys before making no sound.

Outside the city, four small field guns were used to bombard the wall alternately. After half an hour of bombardment, the defenders inside the fort found a shooting gap and used more small cannons to push them out of the effective range of 200 steps outside the fort wall.

The lion cannon can still fire beyond this distance, but it cannot shoot flatly. The lighter shells do not have much power in the falling trajectory. The terrifying siege army soon left a rain of arrows in the sky, dragging away dozens of people who were hit by arrows. The wounded soldiers gradually retreated south to a safe distance.

The number of casualties was also being counted inside Tomsk Fort. The situation was similar to that outside the city. The difference was that there were more casualties inside the city and it was more tragic.

Outside the city, except for a few unlucky ones who were directly hit by cannonballs, more people were just wounded by bows and arrows. What was more distressing was that more than a dozen war horses were killed.

There were not many soldiers injured by arrows in the city. Basically, they were killed by cannons, and their deaths were quite ugly.

The firearms of the Marshal's Army are very specific in dealing with enemies behind wooden walls.

In fact, the lion cannon has very limited deterrent effect, but the gun fires lead bullets. If it penetrates a wooden wall, it will be cut into several or even a dozen lead needles by the log fiber. It will not matter if it collapses on a few people, but it will only add a few more. A wounded person, but if he hits a person, he will be pierced by arrows on the spot, and there is no way to save him.

Flying cannons and rockets are even more abominable. If they don't explode, they'll be startled. If they explode, they'll be like pieces of lead. It's hard for key people to die cleanly even if the key people are beaten into sieves.

Until Chuhu'er withdrew the siege, everyone here was under construction, and the crying in the fort over there could still be heard far over Siberia.

Although both sides paid a price, when counting the casualties and looking at the miserable condition of their own soldiers, the commanders of both sides unconsciously smiled inappropriately.

Ivan, the governor in the city, was naturally relieved to see thousands of enemy troops receding like a tide.

When the Chuhu'er camp's offensive was at its most ferocious, he thought he was going to die in this fortress today.

After the disaster, Ivan couldn't help but feel funny about his timidity. He was indeed frightened by the gunpowder in Chuhuer camp.

Yes, it's not weapons. Those weapons are indeed weird and powerful, but they are not enough to scare one of Tsarist Russia's military commanders in Siberia.

He was frightened by the amount of gunpowder.

When the Chuhuer camp withdrew from the siege, the first order Ivan gave was not to look after the wounded soldiers, but to ask the armed attendants to quickly pick up an unexploded rocket for him.

He didn't know the principle of this thing, but he could probably guess that after filling the tube with soil, it would be able to fill seven kilograms, and with the explosives, it would be at least eight kilograms.

For this thing alone, the besieging army outside the city shot thirty or forty, with guns and flying cannons, plus four small cannons that continued to bombard for half an hour. In a short siege, a thousand kilograms of weapons were lost. gunpowder.

What is this concept?

Tsarist Russia treated officials and soldiers who went on an expedition to Siberia very generously. The infantry chief of a fortress could receive an annual salary of twenty rubles.

These days the ruble is a kind of silver bar, weighing about one tael and eight cents, which is about two and a half German thalers. It can buy a sable skin or an old musket in Würzburg, Prussia.

In other words, the annual salary of an infantry commander can buy eight old muskets.

However, for the same twenty rubles, you can only buy fifty kilograms of gunpowder, and there are additional charges for guns and shells.

This thing is almost the most expensive of all ordnance in Europe.

Generally speaking, in Siberia, everyone in the expedition team is equipped with a gun, and one hundred kilograms of gunpowder is the entire gun, gunpowder and baggage of a hundred-man expedition team equipped with a single iron cannon.

Before the war began, there was less than a thousand kilograms of gunpowder in the entire Tomsk Fort.

Ivan could brag about this battle for half his life when he returned to Moscow. He survived an offensive with a thousand kilograms of gunpowder.

Outside the city, Sunday Qiang and Chu Huer also laughed happily.

Because the Hundred Corps Brigade commanded by Wang Jinzhong was very successful in their exploratory attack on Tomsk. Although the defenders had strong forts and many people and guns, their firepower was basically the same as theirs.

Even because of the existence of small individual artillery such as lifting guns and flying guns, the defenders can be suppressed in a subtle way.

Zhou Zhouqiang looked at Chu Hu'er and said, "The Heavenly Army has withdrawn the siege. The Orusi soldiers in the city must suspect that our division has run out of ammunition. They will probably come to kick the camp tonight!"

Chu Hu'er was not optimistic about this speculation. He shook his head slowly and said in a stiff voice: "They don't dare to fight with me."

Sunday hesitated for a moment, then waved his hands and said: "It's okay if they don't dare. If someone dares, the heavenly army will besiege the castle, and reinforcements will be sent from the surrounding villages and water fortresses. In the past few days, the general has led the horse army to encircle the point for reinforcements and wipe out all the reinforcements." "

Having said that, Sunday Qiang's nose was breathing heavily, and he looked at the fortress with burning eyes. He raised his hands to stretch out his sleeves, inserted his hands into the leather belt around his waist, and said: "When the general personally leads the fleet with guns, cannons, and arrows, we will respond." The firearms come and the overall situation is determined, and the northern border of my Generalissimo's Mansion can be further advanced by 1,500 miles!"

"Tomsk? Hum, Tai Mengwei, which means the place where auspiciousness sprouts and life continues!"

good evening!