stubborn thief

Chapter 635: Those who are close to Zhu are red

Southeast of the siege camp, pitched in a felt tent in the wilderness.

Zhou Qiang felt a little sorry for the leader of the Kyrgyz tribe in front of him named Tapen.

During this period, the Kyrgyz people lived in the forest for generations, making a living by hunting animals. When they met strong people, they paid tribute and taxes. This has always been the case.

And they themselves are very weak, which makes their living environment extremely difficult.

In the east, tribute must be paid to the Khalkhas and the Tohuite tribe, which have a large number of people; in the southwest, tribute must be paid to the notorious Junggar; in the northwest, furs must be paid to the Russians.

And none of these three parties want them to pay tribute to themselves and others at the same time.

They live in such a gravitational vortex. They are either being beaten and asked to pay tribute, or after paying tribute, they are forced to use them as pawns to charge towards others.

The same goes for this troop dispatch. The Kyrgyz people are actually no longer willing to fight with the Russians. This group of people has no martial ethics. The Kyrgyz tribes have made several huge comebacks, resulting in most of the tribesmen being killed, and little control. The elders of knowledge were also killed.

In the inaccessible Siberian forests, old men are the tribe's future.

But there was no way. Chuhu'er's evil reputation was known to everyone from Lake Balkhash to the Sayan Mountains. This guy asked the Kyrgyz people to conscript, and no one dared not send troops.

Otherwise, this bastard could really massacre the tribes that refused to join the conquest and then fight his own war.

Tapen resented Zhou Qiang very much. As early as the first day of the siege, he proposed to Chu Huer that he should bury fallen piles in the Tuomu River and prepare a rope to block the river.

As a tribe that had fought against the Russians for many years, Tabi brought two ancestral iron locks and a large winch with him when he sent out troops, which was very useful against the flat-bottomed boats of the Tsarist Russian expedition.

It was this captain who didn't know where he came from. He didn't let Chu Hu'er bury piles or block the river ropes. He only told Ta Bi to be careful around the river.

This thing is not something to be careful about.

Eight hundred Kyrgyz people were deployed in the north and south suburbs, flanked by the river. We were in the open and the enemy was in the dark, so there was no reason to guard against thieves every day.

Taben's tribe had more than 400 households, and he sent 300 men this time. During the siege, only four people were injured. At that time, he was still complacent.

Who would have thought that hundreds of people were killed and injured in a night attack? This cannot be said to be a heavy loss, but it directly shakes the lifeblood of the tribe.

But at this time, he never dared to blame Zhou Qiang. Instead, he came to boost Zhou Qiang's morale and begged him not to let Chu Hu'er withdraw his troops.

After besieging the city for more than ten days, he had already seen that although Chu Hu'er was powerful, Sunday Qiang was the one who made the decision.

If they were as afraid of the Cossack attacks as they were, and just stopped and withdrew, then the revenge that Tapen's tribe would suffer next would be a real disaster.

He also tried to find Chu Hu'er, but Chu Hu'er was very selfish and didn't bother to talk to Ta Bi who had lost the battle.

What's more, Taiji of the Junggar tribe has always had this attitude towards the Kyrgyz people.

They only care about the people in the forest paying tribute to them as tributes, and don't care about other things.

Several Taijilian tribesmen in Junggar have not yet understood how they have the extra energy to take care of others.

But Sunday was different.

He played with the flintlock pistol seized in the night attack in the felt tent, and said to the Mongolian interpreter beside him: "Tell him and reassure him that fighting for the generalissimo, his troops will not die in vain. Soon the heavenly army will We will avenge them, and the commander's office will also provide compensation to the fallen soldiers after the war."

Flintlock guns are nothing new to Sunday Qiang.

As early as when the Marshal's Mansion arrived in Qinghai, I, a division commander of the Ordnance Bureau, made a detailed comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of flintlock muskets and matchlock muskets, and also made a batch of flintlock short guns for Liu Chengzong's guards.

Taking all factors into consideration at that time, their final choice was to manufacture a simple matchlock gun machine and equip it with a heavy musket, in order to achieve the purpose of reducing working hours and mass production.

The relatively complicated flintlock muskets are only equipped with guns that are heavier and require less to reduce the impact of sandstorms.

In the first confrontation, the Kyrgyz suffered many injuries, but all the wounded soldiers who fled eastward were treated. However, one hundred soldiers from Orusi were surrounded and stabbed to death by Chu Huer. The number of casualties on both sides was basically equal.

But Zhou Qiang still felt in his heart that he suffered a loss and lost for a while.

Because he had never fought in Siberia, he did not think carefully. He overestimated the speed of the enemy's support at first, thinking that it would arrive in two or three days, and later relaxed his vigilance.

Secondly, he is not used to the climate here, and has limited understanding of the weapons, equipment, and fighting methods used by Orusi.

He really didn't expect that the Orus expeditionary team would have such a high equipment rate in flintlock pistols.

This made Sunday Qiang unable to help but think that the equipment of the Tianshan Army might also be adapted to local conditions.

After all, during the siege of the city, the troops led by Baizong Wang Jinzhong did not bring heavy muskets using matchlock muskets, because the primer in the medicine pool was easily blown away by the wind.

They were armed with large-scale weapons such as flying cannons and rockets, specially prepared for attacking wooden fortresses.

However, Zhou Zhouqiang had no intention of asking Hehuang's Arms Bureau to add a production line and equip the Tianshan Army with obviously more 'advanced' weapons such as flintlock pistols.

It’s not that flintlock pistols are inappropriate, nor that there are any technical difficulties, nor is it a cost issue.

He just felt that it was not as good as...

As soon as Zhou Qiang thought of the fourth word, he was already reflecting. As a high-quality talent from the Ming Empire, how could he, with thick eyebrows and big eyes, naturally think of such a solution?

It must be because there haven't been many good people around me these past few years.

It's like there are very clear career trees.

After being upgraded, the old bandit will be called Gansu Governor Cao Yao, the Gobi bandit will be called Mongolian Brigade Commander Xie Erhu after being upgraded, and the Central Plains horse bandit will be called Camp Commander Zhang Tianlin after being upgraded.

Of course, there are also things like Tubo slaves, mutiny veterans, and polished generals.

Surrounded by such characters, Zhou Zhouqiang feels that he is red when he is close to red and black when he is close to ink, and it is normal for his thinking to gradually become Liu Chengzong.

Liu Chengzong never asked the Ordnance Bureau to make military accounts for him, because the Ming army would send them and they would never be used up.

Sunday Qiang also felt that flintlock pistols were great, but there was no need to make them himself.

It is better to rob than to build.

Since Orusi's expedition team has so much equipment, just get their pistols.

In military thinking, the first condition is to adapt measures to local conditions and fight whatever weapons are available.

The use of this weapon by the Cossacks determined their fighting style and made it impossible for them to fight in a dignified formation with the Tianshan Army.

The heavy guns used by the Marshal's Army in dense formations were too heavy, relied on formations, took a long time to prepare, and were obviously inappropriate.

And it is impossible to suppress the flintlock pistol if it is also equipped with a flintlock pistol. That is Dui Zi'er.

What Sunday wanted was suppression. He not only wanted to get a flintlock pistol from the enemy, but also an individual firearm that could suppress the flintlock pistol.

At this time, in the mind of a standard Ming Dynasty civil servant, a famous and prestigious firearm is about to emerge: the three-eyed gun.

This idea is 100% reversing the direction of history in the Marshal's Mansion, which is pursuing advanced organizations and weapons.

Because the three-eyed gun has no machine and no medicine tank, it is two generations behind the flintlock gun in terms of structure. It is a fire door gun that can be fired with a medicine thread.

And it's also difficult to upgrade. Its shooting posture is to hold the gun rod between its right arm and under its ribs, and hold a match rope in its left hand to ignite the fire door for shooting.

For waist-firing posture, it is enough to roughly align the direction. If you want to aim more accurately, the posture will be uncomfortable.

This in turn determines its shape. The gun tube should not be too long, otherwise it will be too heavy. On the other hand, it probably does not need to be too long for aiming.

It’s not like Ming Dynasty never thought of upgrading the firing mechanism of the three-eyed gun. It made a match-rope gun version called the Sanjie Shenji, and also made a rotary-winged tiger gun in which the body and tail of the gun were connected by an axis and rotated to shoot.

But these exquisite designs are of no use to the Three-Eyed Gun.

The Ming army in the north likes the three-eyed gun, not because it is so good that it cannot be replaced, but because it is convenient.

In addition to the Fran cannon, when the Dun army in the pier outside faced the Mongolian cavalry that was several times their own, there was no weapon that made them feel more secure than the three-eyed gun.

Dun Jun was not afraid of the arrows that were thrown from a hundred steps away and even wanted to laugh a little when he fired the cannon.

After entering twenty or thirty steps, Dunjun turned and fired while holding the gun rod. He could hit three lead pieces in three seconds. This is something that no weapon can replace.

Simple and reliable, it has an integrated three-link blunderbuss tube that can hold the match rope with your hand, and it will fire 100% when it is inserted into the fire door. It will never go wrong.

To change it to a matchlock gun, you still have to rotate the pole to point the medicine tank, but to change it to a rotary winged tiger gun, it is more compact and convenient, with five or six more parts, and the cost triples.

Accuracy has definitely improved.

But Dunjun's choice was to stuff three lead pieces into a gun tube.

This thing is not a military formation weapon that requires spending money to upgrade, but a portable weapon for close range, one-to-one or one-to-many use in specific scenarios.

Isn't it good to use cannons in battle?

Therefore, its advantages were so great that the Ming army was reluctant to throw them away; its disadvantages were also so great that the Ming army frequently lost battles with it.

Sunday Qiang’s idea was actually because of the Cossacks’ fighting style.

Any officer in the Marshal's Office will be familiar with the way the Cossacks stormed the Kyrgyz camp and killed everyone.

They are lurking in the water, waiting for opportunities, and cannot retreat at any time. Compared with the majestic formation of fighting, they are better at melee combat. When they find an opportunity, they use their individual firepower to rush forward, and they can fight and leave quickly.

Isn't this Tangqi who has reduced his firepower, taken longer to prepare for battle, and replaced his horse with a boat?

Tang Qi used a 2-foot-long three-eye bludgeoning gun with nine lead darts in three tubes. He was invincible in a one-on-one fight and would not be defeated against a two-on-one.

The shape of the blunderbuss machine can only determine the accuracy brought by convenient aiming, while the power is determined by the blunderbuss tube and gunpowder.

If a portal gun has the same barrel as a flintlock gun and fires the same ammunition, then they are equally powerful.

The two-foot-long barrel of the Marshal's Futang riding style three-eye blunderbuss is much longer than that of a flintlock pistol, and it is more powerful and has a faster rate of fire.

The most important thing is that it is cheap and easy to use.

Zhou Qiang looked at the leader of the Kyrgyz tribe, Tabi, in front of him. If the three camps under attack were equipped with three-eyed muskets and each fired three consecutive rounds, there would be no need to cry in despair.

At this moment, everyone in Taben was dumbfounded.

He was asking the interpreter next to Sunday Qiang who was as strong as a calf and was a sailor: What is a pension for this strong man? What is a pension?

The first time I ask, I want to ask about the concept of the word 'pension'.

After receiving the answer, he asked a second time, wanting to ask about the specific amount of the 'pension'.

Taben's world view was hit hard - my Japanese grandmother died in the war, is there any pension?

Compassion... this word is so beautiful.

It was so wonderful that the resentment towards Sunday Qiang disappeared in his heart.

The most important thing is that Tabi knows that Sunday Qiang and Chu Huer will still fight this battle, which is enough for him.

He was the person in all of Siberia who most hoped that the Marshal's Office would win in Tomsk.

On Sunday, he used his pension to appease the panicked Tabi and rearranged the defenses of the camps along the coast.

He did not ask the Kyrgyz tribes to withdraw. The mountains and forests were their best terrain, not to mention that the besieging army could not leave the river bank alone.

All they could do was to mobilize some veterans from the Chuhuer camp and set up traps on the riverside and in the woods to prepare for the next Cossack attack.

For seven days in a row, the Oirat cavalry patrolling the shore could see reinforcements arriving from Orus on the river, but there was no one as ruthless as Lewando who dared to attack again.

The reinforcements only parked their ships on the left bank of the Tuomu River and built wooden camps.

It seems that both sides have a tacit understanding that this battle will either end with the Chuhuer camp withdrawing from the siege, or the decisive battle will begin when the siege camp launches an siege.

Sunday Qiang was quite nervous at first, because according to time calculation, Liu Chengzu's fleet should have sailed into the Tuomu River by now.

However, Chu Huer, who had experienced hundreds of battles, had a better psychological quality. He was used to fighting alone, and he neither took Liu Chengzu's fleet's delay seriously nor the Cossacks on the other side who continued to increase to two or three thousand men.

He just smiled and patted the shoulder of Siberia's first dog-headed military advisor and said: "Don't panic, they have increased their troops by more than 5,000, we will come back next year."

"That's how war works in the swamp. Fight if you can, and retreat if you can't. No one can catch up with anyone anyway."

In fact, Chu Hu'er was the only one who could be so calm. The Kyrgyz soldiers deserted after encountering a night attack, and they fled for more than 40 people in just three days.

But when Orusi's reinforcements appeared on the left bank of the Tuomu River, the four tribal leaders were frightened and ordered their troops to hurry back to the tribe, bringing in more than 600 people.

Obviously they understand Chu Hu'er's irresponsible style very well. Chu Hu'er can run back to Altai. Their tribe is between the two rivers. The Orusi reinforcements have come. They may not necessarily kill them all for the fur. , but most of the things in the tribe will be eaten up and robbed.

Might as well be killed.

Fortunately, news from the rear came quickly, and Liu Chengzu personally verified a truth: There are wide rivers here, but why don't the Orusi people build big ships on the rivers?

Because there were too many sandbars dotted in the upper reaches of the Ob River, they set off just as the spring floods were ending. The river water raised by the snowy mountain floods in summer slowly receded, and the fleet was stranded three times on the thousand-mile river.

However, when the cavalry delivered the letter, Liu Chengzu had almost pulled out the boat.

This is a reassurance for Sunday.

What he fears most is that Liu Chengzu won't be able to survive, but it's not that he can't fight without Liu Chengzu.

It’s just that Sunday Qiang felt that if this battle was fought entirely by Chu Huer, this guard should not be called Taimeng Guard in the future.

Instead, he should be called Chu Huerwei.

But the name Tai Mengwei is very important.

It has nothing to do with the place where auspiciousness sprouts and life continues.

It's just that the person from Li County, Baoding Prefecture, was Zhou Qiang, whose courtesy name was Taimeng.

　Good morning!

　　

　

(End of this chapter)