I want to be emperor

Chapter 683 The northern strategy is complete
There are also a lot of metal resources such as copper and silver in the vicinity of Hetong City. Before that, the Zhungeer people themselves mined a small amount of these precious metals in this area, but it was not on a large scale, just very sporadic small workshops.

After Chu Jun arrived here, he took a preliminary look around and found that there were still some precious metal resources, but Chu Jun didn't value these precious metal resources.

What Chu Jun values ​​most is coal and iron ore!

Because these two minerals are the foundation of industry!

With coal and iron ore, the Great Chu Empire was able to build a steel factory to make steel.

After having a steel factory, even if the scale is small, the Ministry of Industry of the Great Chu Empire dares to directly build a small front-line arsenal that is small and complete.

Just like the previous Churcheng Arsenal and Yining Arsenal.

Now the Great Chu Empire is conducting simple surveys on the upper reaches of the Irtysh River and surrounding areas, trying to find coal and iron mines. As long as they can be found, the Great Chu Empire will build a small-scale arsenal in Hetong City in minutes!

After all, Hetong is located in the area along the Irtysh River, and there is such a big river as the Irtysh River, and this river will flow into the main stream of the Ob River after going all the way north.

The navigation conditions are very good, and it can be used as an important channel for mobilizing troops and transporting logistics materials. If an arsenal is built here, a large amount of weapons and ammunition can be smoothly flowed all the way down the river, and finally enter the main stream of the Ob River, and finally even go all the way to the Arctic Ocean.

This is also the reason why the Great Chu Empire built cities and stationed troops in Hetong, because it took a fancy to the convenient transportation brought by the navigation ability of the Irtysh River to the military.

In order to make better use of the river transportation capacity of the Irtysh River, the military has purchased a batch of important parts and components of steam ships, and then transported them thousands of miles to Tongcheng.

Just thinking about transporting parts, and then building a ship hull on the spot, building a steam ship, and building a steam ship on the northwest front line is not only for the convenience of combat, but more for the convenience of transporting logistics materials.

After all, the huge role of steam ships in inland river transportation is obvious to all. Private shipping companies may have to consider cost and other economic conditions, but the military doesn't care so much!
The cost of a mere steam ship is nothing compared to the cost of long-distance transportation of supplies.

The military not only intends to build steamships in Hetongcheng, but also plans to build a simple high-pressure steam engine production line in Churcheng and Zhenbeicheng (Yakutsk) so as to produce small steamships locally. For military and civilian use.

If it is not required to limit the cost, nor require the performance to be too good, but simply to produce high-pressure steam engines, in fact, many arsenals can directly produce high-pressure steam engines...

After all, the main technical difficulty of the steam engine lies in the processing of the cylinder, and the processing of the cylinder is actually very similar to the processing of the barrel. An arsenal that can process wrought iron barrels can process a cylinder of a high-pressure steam engine.

Of course, the premise is that performance and patentability are not considered!
Most of the patents for high-pressure steam engines are in the hands of Guangzhou Machinery Company. Even if you are an arsenal, you can't use other people's patents indiscriminately!
In order to solve the patent problem, before the Ministry of Industry took action, the military directly approached Guangzhou Machinery Company and asked them to deal with the Kuercheng Arsenal, Yining Armory, Zhenbei Armory, and the ones that have not yet appeared, but will definitely appear in the future. You don't need any permanent authorization for the patent authorization of the high-pressure steam engine in Tongbing Factory, just give it a limited time and limited patent authorization.

You can just ask for money, our military spends tens of millions of dollars a year, and I'm not afraid of you talking too much.

Through time-limited and limited authorization, let these arsenals obtain the patent authorization of high-pressure steam engines, and then manufacture high-pressure steam engines by themselves.

The patent licensing fee given by the military is very generous. As a government-run enterprise, Guangzhou Machinery Company feels a little embarrassed...

After the patent problem is solved, the next step will be easy. Relying on the capabilities of these arsenals can't make a good high-pressure steam engine, but it's not a big problem to build a usable one. As for the high cost, it's not a problem, people The military doesn't care about the cost... As long as it is not exaggerated by dozens of times, it is trivial to double it casually.

The most important thing for the military now is to solve the problem of availability, and what they value most is the powerful inland water transport capability brought by steam ships. This is of very important strategic significance for the military's subsequent activities in Siberia and even the vast Central Asia.

The water network in Siberia is very developed... Why the Russians were able to reach the Pacific coast of the Far East in just a few decades was because of the rich Siberia water network... They are not all the way Instead of walking on horseback, they went all the way by boat.

Similarly, the current series of military operations and even immigration of the Great Chu Empire in Siberia also rely on the well-developed Siberian water network, which is why the three major strategic goals in the Northern Strategy are all centered on the large river basin.

Because taking the three major rivers in Siberia, the Lena River, the Yenisei River, and the Ob River, and their tributaries is basically equivalent to taking Siberia.

This was the case in the age of sailing ships, so after the age of steam ships, the role that these Siberian water networks can play will be even greater.

This is why the military is in a hurry to deploy steam ships in Siberia!
However, it does not mean that the front line will stop fighting if the steam ship is not in place. After the destruction of Zhungeer in the south, the Chu army began to launch an offensive in the Ob River Basin.

In the east, more than 1 Chu troops went straight to the upper reaches of the Ob River. The core goal was to capture Tomsk and control the mouth of the Tom River, a tributary of the upper reaches of the Ob River.

Tomsk is about fifty kilometers from the mouth of the Ob River.

This place is very important!
Because of the support of the city of Tomsk, along the Keti River on the right bank of the Ob River to the east, you can reach the vicinity of the left bank of the Yenisei River. Although there is still a section of land in the middle, it is still very convenient. Fast track.

And the Chu army was in the middle reaches of the Yenisei River, that is, when Yenisesk marched westward as the advance base, it followed the Keti River channel that the Russians had taken before.

In addition to the more than 1 troops heading straight for the city of Tomsk, in the upper reaches of the Ob River, another force of more than 5000 troops sent by the Second Army of the Chu Army also marched northward along the upper reaches of the Ob River. .

Their strategic goal was 'Kuznetsk' along the upper reaches of the Tom River, a tributary of the upper right bank of the Ob River.

Speaking of it, the two important early strategic goals of the Second Army of the Chu Army are actually related to the Tuomu River.

Tomsk is on the lower reaches of the Tom River, and Kuznetsk is on the upper reaches of the Tom River. Although neither of these two cities was directly built along the banks of the Ob River, they are still the most important cities in the middle and upper reaches of the Ob River. An important strategic support base.

For example, Kuznetsk, this fortress is a very typical military fortress. The Russians built the city here purely to resist the invasion of Tomsk by the local indigenous people, and use it as a base to continuously invade south.

This fortress was inserted into the hinterland of the local aborigines like a sharp knife, not only protecting the northern territories such as Tomsk, but also continuously weakening the local aborigines, eventually forcing the local aborigines to flee continuously, and finally allowing the Russians to complete the control of this area. actual control of the region.

So it is very interesting. The strategic goal of the Chu army is to control the Ob River, but the combat goal of the first phase is not on the main stream of the Ob River, but on its tributary, the Tom River.

After all, it was this river that supported the Russians' control in the middle and upper reaches of the Ob River, and relied on it to fight against the local indigenous people.

It is precisely because of the importance of these two fortress cities and the Tom River that the Russians' defense here has always been strong.

Two Chu armies, one from the south and the other from the north, headed towards the two cities along the Tom River at the same time.

Along the way, fighting with some small and medium-sized Russian colonial strongholds was inevitable. For example, in the city of Makovsk, a transportation hub linking the Ob River and the Yenisei River, the Chu army encountered strong resistance from Russia.

However, this kind of resistance is futile. There are only a few hundred Russian troops stationed there, but there are tens of thousands of Chu troops who killed them.

You don't even need to beat them, just scare them to death.

After a number of small-scale obstructions by the Russian army along the way, and incidentally conquering a series of Russian fortresses and colonial strongholds along the way, the Chu army officially reached the Ob River and soon outside the city of Tomsk.

In August, the Russians in Tomsk were dumbfounded when they saw the Chu army outside the city...

Nima, the speed of the Chu army's westward expansion is faster than their eastward expansion back then.

It took the Russians decades to kill all the way from Europe to the Pacific coast, which is already super fast.

But for these Chu people, it is only the second year since they launched a large-scale offensive to move westward.

However, in the past two years, the people of Chu State directly killed the city of Tomsk across thousands of miles.

In the first year, the Chu army captured the Lena River and the middle and upper reaches of the Yenisei River, and controlled the strategically important Yeniseysk.

In the second year, that is, this year, it has completely controlled the Yenisei River Basin, and continued to advance westward to the city of Tomsk.

Nima, this is faster than the expansion of their Russians, and it is much faster.

The Russians naturally don't know that the seemingly rapid progress of the Chu army in the past two years is actually based on the continuous operation of the northern region in the past ten years.

When the northern strategy was officially launched, the Great Chu Empire invested heavily in the small Beihaifu area in the north. It forcibly built an arsenal in the city of Kuer, far away from the hinterland of the Central Plains, and perfected the grassland supply line.

Before that, there is actually a longer and more complicated early stage of development.

The most important of these was the establishment of the city of Chur.

At that time, in order to establish the city of Chur, and the logistics support was not smooth, in fact, the Chu army was not easy to fight. It could only rely on hundreds of thousands of troops to fight. It took seven or eight years to fight for this place. The occupiers finally established a city in the city of Chur, carried out reclamation, and established an arsenal.

With the city of Chur, there is actually a series of northern strategies behind.

Without the support of the city of Chur, it would be impossible for the Chu army to maintain so many troops in Siberia, let alone gather thousands of troops or even [-] to [-] troops to fight against Russia at every turn.

Every grain and every round of ammunition used here was transported from the city of Chur.

With the city of Chur, the Chu army can gather enough troops and enough artillery in the northern region, and then use their best tactics to defeat the enemy: use more troops and more artillery to push them all the way. !
There is no such thing as running raids, surprise attacks, ambushes and other messy things at all. The battle that the Chu army is best at fighting is such a flat push all the way.

Relying on the strong national power and large population in the country, this mediocre tactic of the Great Chu Empire has not failed so far!
The same is true in the northern region. The Chu army used to attack Tomsk with more than [-] troops and more than [-] large and small artillery pieces. The Russians in Tomsk were dumbfounded.

Nima, how do you fight this?
And the moment they saw the Chu army, they finally understood why the defenders in Yenisesk were defeated, and the defeat was so swift that they couldn't last for a month... Winter is about to begin , but before the winter, the tortoise shell was smashed open by the Chu army with artillery, and the whole army was wiped out.

With so many troops and so many artillery, it is impossible to sustain it!
In fact, this is indeed the case. From the moment the Chu army arrived outside the city of the Battle of Tomsk, the outcome was already doomed.

If I really want to say, in fact, the Russians' chance of winning is not to defend the city, but to take the initiative to attack, especially to intercept or sneak attack when the Chu army passes through the Keti River, so that it is possible to stop the Chu army's advance.

But Russia has no such courage.

The Chu army did not come with three to five hundred people empty-handed, but more than 500 people came with artillery, and there were also a large number of cavalry troops inside.

When the Chu army fought in the northern region, the number of cavalry has always been very large.

And when they marched along the river, it didn't mean that all the troops were advancing by boat, but that the auxiliary troops such as infantry and artillery carried a large number of baggage on boats, and there were also some cavalry, but they would still send cavalry to both sides of the river in turn. Conduct reconnaissance and learn about the future ahead of time.

The Russians wanted to intercept the Chu army on the Keti River, either to resist somewhere in the middle of the river, or to send troops to ambush.

But don’t count on the strength of this ambush if it’s not as large as several thousand… The Chu army is not a vegetarian. How can you watch your Russian troops attack without responding? There is a high probability that the ambush will become an encounter in the wild!

Fighting against the Chu army in the wilderness, the Russians would not do such a thing as long as their brains are not bad.

And it is impossible to resist and intercept. It is better to retreat to the city of Tomsk to resist in these places with imperfect defense facilities.

So it's not that the Russians don't want to stop the Chu army in advance, but that they don't have the ability.

If they could pull out so many mobile troops, they would have killed some of the natives in the south long ago, so why did they drag on until now.

The lack of strength also caused them to retreat in the city of Tomsk.

Then he looked at the Chu army outside the city with fear.

After arriving outside the city of Tomsk, the Chu army was not in a hurry to attack the city. After all, there were still about two months before winter, so there was still plenty of time.

They can rest for a few days, and at the same time build a complete artillery position and infantry advance out of the position, and finally watch the Russians flying into fragments under the artillery fire with a cup of tea...

After resting and preparing for three days, the Chu army launched a real attack...

After the offensive began, there were no accidents or miracles. Although the two or three thousand Russian defenders in Tomsk had the courage to resist, they did not have a steel body that could block the shells.

Under the fierce shelling of the Chu army, Russia couldn't hold it at all. When the infantry of the Chu army rushed up, the front line completely collapsed.

The city of Tomsk only lasted for three and a half days in the fierce attack of the Chu army!

During these three and a half days, the Chu army was shelling for the first three days. On the fourth day, the first wave of attack had entered the city, and it was fully captured at noon.

If the infantry battle between the two sides is used as the time node, in fact, the Russians only guarded for half a day.

This mere half day was also spent in a series of consecutive defeats.

On August 22, the 26nd year of Chengshun, the Ob River Dispatch Army under the Second Army of the Chu Army captured Tomsk.

A few days later, a large number of Chu troops began to go down along the Tom River, preparing to cooperate with the Second Dispatch Army of the Second Army Ob River from the upper reaches of the Ob River to capture Kuznetsk.

As a result, the Russian army in Kuznetsk City saw that the situation was not good, so they directly chose to run away... Or the kind of fleeing westward across the mountains.

It is impossible for them to run away by boat, because the lower reaches of the Tom River enters the mouth of the Ob River, that is, Tomsk, has been captured by the Chu army, and their escape by boat is tantamount to throwing themselves into a trap.

In order to escape for their lives, they could only hurry overland and head west to the Ob River.

The Russian army in Kuznetsk fled without occupying it, which also allowed the Second Army of the Great Chu Empire to completely capture the Tom River, the most important tributary on the right bank of the upper reaches of the Ob River, at a slight cost.

It established the control of the Great Chu Empire in the middle and upper reaches of the Ob River.

Taking advantage of the Second Army's victory in the Ob River Basin, the First Army also dispatched the Irtysh Dispatch Army to swim down the Irtysh River from Hetong City all the way, taking advantage of the winter as much as possible before the arrival of winter. It is possible to control more areas, and extend the territory of the Great Chu Empire as far north as possible in this area. It is most hoped that it can completely pass through the Irtysh River and finally enter the Ob River, so as to connect with the main stream of the Ob River. The Chu army joined forces smoothly.

It's just that it's not easy, because the place where the Irtysh River and the Ob River meet is still far north.

In addition, this area already belongs to the West Siberia region. The Russians have been operating in this area for decades. There are many settlements and cities along the river.

It is also necessary to fight all the way to the north.

Even if the enemies along the way are not very good, it will take time.It is unlikely to reach the mouth of the Irtysh River in just two or three months, that is, before the arrival of winter.

But it doesn't matter, anyway, this year's Chu army's strategic mission in the north has basically been completed... As for the complete control of the Ob River, there is no need to rush for a while, and it is the same to continue until next year's spring.

This basically declared that the large-scale military operations of the Great Chu Empire in the northwest direction had come to an end for the time being.

Through a series of military operations this year, the Chu army wiped out the remnants of the Zhungeer tribe and captured two strategically important cities, Tomsk and Kuznetsk.

Relying on this, the Chu army acquired a large area of ​​the middle and upper reaches of the Ob River.

Wait until the spring of next year to fight another wave to the north and take down several strongholds of the Russians in the middle and lower reaches of the Ob River, then it will be possible to declare complete control of the Ob River Basin.

If you continue to the west, you can think about playing a dozen of the earliest colonial cities established by the Russians in Siberia, such as Tyumen and Tobolsk.

If these cities can still be defeated, then it can be declared that the empire has taken full control of Siberia, and the follow-up battle with Russia is estimated to start on the Ural Mountains.

In this way, it even belongs to the overfulfillment of the entire northern strategy!
The Great Chu Empire has been implementing the northern strategy for many years. What is its ultimate strategic goal?
It is to control the three major river basins in Siberia, namely the Lena River, the Yenisei River and the Ob River.

Relying on these three rivers, and then completely, fully control the area east of the main stream of Erqishe-Obi River, and bring the above-mentioned areas into the empire's local rule.

In order to completely solve the northern border problem that has plagued the Chinese nation for thousands of years!

As long as the imperial army can firmly control the Irtysh River-Obi River, the enemies from the west cannot come over and threaten the hinterland of the Central Plains of the Empire...

Of course, people can also bypass Central Asia and take the route of the Western Regions, Monan or Hexi Corridor, but this is another problem.

With the northern war temporarily coming to an end, news of the battle reports from the frontlines has been transmitted back to the hinterland of the Central Plains one after another, but ordinary officials and people are not interested in the expansion of the empire's territory in the remote Siberia region...

It was too far away from them.

From Jinling City to Tomsk, even if you draw a straight line on the globe, it will take more than 3000 kilometers.

If you consider the actual conditions, from Jinling City, take the Youhang Canal to Tianjin, then leave Zhangjiakou, and then take the grassland supply line-Siberia Water Network to Tomsk... This road will take nearly [-] kilometers!

The [-] kilometers is also the distance measured directly on the map... and the actual roads and rivers are all tortuous, so the total distance is not as exaggerated as doubling, but [-] to [-] kilometers are less.

Such a long distance makes people gasp at a glance...

The distance is too far, plus the so-called Russians and those natives, in the eyes of a group of ordinary officials and the people of the empire, the Geers are not quite a threat...

The empire only dispatched tens of thousands of troops to lay them down, but the Great Zhungeer Empire fought three times in a row. The first time it had nearly 20 troops, the second time it went straight to [-] troops, and it was the third time Also dispatched [-] to [-] troops.

In such a comparison, Zhungeer is stronger, and Russia is just a small barbarian in Europe.

Therefore, after a series of battle reports from the northwest were sent back to the hinterland of the empire, the people were less concerned about the war and expansion in Siberia, but more concerned about the war in Jungar and its post-war handling.

However, the thoughts and opinions of ordinary officials and the people did not affect the thoughts of the high-level empire. When they received the front-line battle report and captured the cities of Tomsk and Kuznetsk, the high-level votes of the empire finally breathed a sigh of relief.

With the acquisition of these two strategic locations, the next control of the Ob River Basin will be a matter of course, and it is estimated that it will not need to spend too much military expenditure.

In this way, the northern strategy, which has lasted for many years and cost a lot of military expenditures, can finally come to a successful conclusion.

And after the military has dropped the big burden of the northern strategy, it will be able to invest a certain amount of military expenditure in other directions, and then expand.

Especially the navy side, but they are waiting impatiently for the end of the northern strategy, and then they can start the Nanyang strategy and the American strategy led by their navy.

That's right, the navy wants to expand its territory in Southeast Asia and the Americas on a large scale.

(End of this chapter)