Starting in Saarhu, it is a bit difficult to make a comeback.

Chapter 266 The Four-Nation Alliance (please subscribe for monthly tickets)

Li Zicheng stood on a high slope outside Turkestan City, using a telescope to observe the situation inside and outside the city.

The smoke in the outer city of Turkestan has not yet cleared, and many city walls have collapsed.

It was obvious that the Chinese army had broken through the outer city, but fortunately, the royal flag of Nur Ali Khan was still planted on the wall of the inner city.

The two sides are engaged in a fierce siege battle, and it seems that they have entered the most critical moment.

The Chinese army outside the city has also noticed the arrival of their own troops.

They dug trenches on the north, south, south and south sides of Turkestan and stood ready.

The reason why the Chinese did not take the initiative to attack themselves was because they were attacking the city and it was not appropriate to disperse their forces.

In addition, they hoped that the Cossack regiment they led would take the initiative to attack, so that they could use the dug trenches and rifles to kill and injure the Cossack cavalry in large numbers.

Li Zicheng experienced the recent Battle of Bukhara and had a clear understanding of the firepower of Chinese rifles and artillery.

It is wishful thinking for the Chinese people to want to fall into the same pit twice.

At this time, the Cossack general Adrian said impatiently: "The Chinese have not yet conquered the city. Our attack at this time just caught them off guard. What are you still hesitating about?"

Li Zicheng explained: "General Adrian did not know that the Chinese muskets can fire quickly. If they charge head-on, even the Cossack cavalry will suffer heavy casualties."

"Our vanguard battalion only has more than 10,000 people. It is too risky to attack rashly. It is better to wait for Governor Potemkin's main force to arrive before we act together. By then I will naturally have a way to break through the Chinese defense line."

Wu Sangui saw that Li Zicheng would not take the bait, so he asked the artillery battalion to adjust the position of the artillery and bombard the area where the Cossacks were gathering.

However, they were cavalry and were very scattered, so the results of the artillery attack were not great.

Although at this time, we can use cavalry to defeat Li Zicheng's more than 10,000 men before the enemy's main force has converged.

However, the Cossack light cavalry has very strong maneuverability. Not only will the cavalry attack cause heavy casualties, it will probably be difficult to annihilate the enemy's main force. The best they can do is repel them.

Anyway, with Nur Ali Khan as the bait, he is not afraid that the Cossacks will not bite the hook.

More than two hours later, the main force of Cossacks led by Potemkin also arrived outside Turkestan.

After discovering that the Chinese had invaded the outer city, Potemkin decided to launch an attack immediately to relieve the Kazakhs.

Li Zicheng knew that his opportunity to perform had come, and he quickly said: "The Chinese have set up positions on the three sides, waiting for us to charge."

"The west of the city is blocked by the Salo River, so their defense is relatively weak. I know there are several places where the water flow is not so fast. Our cavalry can cross the river directly and will definitely catch the Chinese people by surprise."

Although the surface of the Salo River is not particularly wide, its current is very fast. Before long, Li Zicheng actually found a few relatively gentle places.

In order to contain the surrounding Chinese, Potemkin sent thousands of Cossacks to attract the attention of the Chinese army on the north and south sides.

Then Adrian led 1 main cavalry across the Salo River, entered Turkestan City from the west of the city, and cooperated with the Kazakhs in the inner city to defeat the Chinese army.

At this time the soldiers reported that the Cossacks had begun to cross the river.

All the Chinese generals present will smile heartily. After waiting for so long, the fish finally bites the hook.

Although China only deployed a small number of rangers in the west of the city, their artillery had long been aimed at the Salo River.

A large number of cannonballs fell among the cavalry, causing huge damage to them.

But in the end, they arrived at the city after paying the price of nearly a thousand people.

No Chinese troops appeared on the city. Many places in the west city were destroyed by bombing. The Cossacks quickly entered the city through these gaps.

After entering the city, Adrian found that the Chinese had already occupied many commanding heights in the city.

Through these strongholds, they formed a crossfire point from above and continued to shoot the Cossack knights.

Moreover, the location where the Chinese ambush was very concealed, and it was difficult for the Cossacks' muskets to hit them.

At this time, Li Zicheng said: "Don't fight with them here. Let's rush to the inner city to join the Kazakhs."

Li Zicheng, who was familiar with the terrain, quickly led them around the streets where the Chinese firepower was the fiercest, and finally arrived at the gate of the inner city.

When the Kazakhs in the city saw someone coming to meet them, they quickly opened the gate to the inner city.

Adrian took the lead and led the Cossacks into the inner city.

Li Zicheng was about to follow up when he was grabbed by Niu Jinxing.

Niu Jinxing said: "Your Majesty, something is wrong."

"It stands to reason that when we came to meet us, Nur Ali Khan should have taken the initiative to come out to meet us, but they only opened the city gate. I'm afraid there is some fraud!"

After all, Li Zicheng had been fighting for many years and had a keen sense of danger.

Niu Jinxing is right, there may indeed be problems in the inner city.

Are the Chinese really so cunning that instead of ambushing us in the outer city, they choose to ambush us in the inner city? However, it is better to believe that this kind of thing exists than to believe that it does not exist.

So Li Zicheng quickly summoned his close men and rushed out of the city.

Adrian, who entered the inner city, was not so lucky.

Where are the Kazakhs?

The city walls were full of Chinese soldiers with guns and ammunition.

"Bang, bang, bang"

With the gunfire one after another, a large number of Cossacks fell in a pool of blood.

Adrian himself was shot several times.

As the Tiger Crouching Cannon sounded, the Kazakhs in the city were knocked upside down by the bombing.

The Chinese soldiers threw a large number of thunderbolts under the city, cutting off the Cossacks' escape routes. The gates of the inner city were full of Cossack corpses.

The sound of cannon fire in the city was a signal to the Chinese army in the city to completely encircle and suppress the Cossacks in the city.

The Chinese troops on the north and south walls immediately marched towards the West City.

After hearing the sound of artillery in the city, Potemkin outside the city quickly discovered that something was wrong.

When he was just about to gather his troops and go into the city to meet them, he found that the Chinese cavalry outside the city had already blocked the west side of the city.

An even more unfortunate news is that a large number of Mongolian cavalry were found behind them, as many as sixty or seventy thousand.

He knew that he had been fooled. It was obvious that this was a trap set by the Chinese.

Now the life and death of these 2 Cossack cavalry can depend on his own thoughts.

If they don't go to pick up Adli Yang who is entering the city, then there is only a dead end in front of them.

But if he sends troops to respond, the Mongolian cavalry behind him will quickly complete the siege of him, and it is very likely that even his own ten thousand horses will have to join in.

While Potemkin was hesitating, a Cossack soldier pointed to the west of the city and said, "Look, your Excellency, Governor, our people are rushing out." Fortunately, Niu Jinxing had an extra thought and allowed his hundreds of people to control a section of the west city. The city wall allowed them to fight their way out of the city.

However, the outside of the West City has been blocked by the Chinese cavalry. Even if they rushed out of the West City, they still could not break through the Chinese blockade.

Just when Li Zicheng fell into despair, Potemkin outside the city actually sent someone to help them.

At this time, the Chinese cavalry in the west of the city had just arrived, and their formation was still somewhat loose under the front and rear attacks from Li Zicheng and Bo Jiangjin.

Li Zicheng seized the opportunity and rushed out of the city with some Cossack cavalry.

Driven by the desire to escape, these Cossacks also burst out with amazing fighting power, and they actually rushed out.

When he saw Li Zicheng, Potemkin's heart dropped.

He originally came to meet Adrian, but he didn't expect that it was Li Zicheng who ran out.

After questioning, it was almost as expected, and they were indeed ambushed by the Chinese.

Although Li Zicheng did not enter the inner city, according to his description, the Cossack cavalry who entered the inner city should be in danger.

Potemkin regretted that he should have broken through decisively if he had known that Adrian could not get out.

Now that he had rescued a Li Zicheng, he was trapped in the siege of the Chinese. It was really not worth the loss.

At this time, even the way he looked at Li Zicheng was a little disgusting. He really couldn't believe these Orientals.

But now Li Zicheng is the only one who is familiar with the terrain here in Turkestan, and it's hard for him to fall out.

Potemkin said: "The Mongols have completely blocked the retreat to the west. Where should we break out now?"

Li Zicheng said: "It is already dusk now. We must cross the Salo River first. If we are trapped on the east bank of the river, we will only die."

"The fighting ability of the Mongols is not as good as that of the Chinese cavalry. After crossing the Salo River, we will tear a hole from the Mongols."

At this time, Potemkin had no choice but to leave his life and death to Li Zicheng.

So he left 3000 men to hold back the Chinese cavalry outside the city, and led the remaining troops to cross the river quickly.

At this time, Wu Sangui, who was watching the battle from a distance, said: "No, the Cossacks want to rush into the woods in the northwest and order the artillery battalion to block the Salo River; in addition, they sent an order to Tushetu Khan to ask the Mongols to stop the Cossacks. .”

After issuing the order, he personally led the remaining Chinese cavalry to join the battlefield.

Although the Cossack cavalry could cross the Salo River directly, there were only a few narrow places suitable for crossing.

At this moment, the Chinese artillery blocked the river, causing the Cossack cavalry on the river to become confused. Many people could not wait to cross the river from the ferry.

In a panic, they entered the Salo River and were swept downstream by the fast current.

At this time, Niu Jinxing was closely following Li Zicheng. His many years of escape allowed him to develop good riding skills.

Although people around him were constantly killed by Chinese artillery and washed away by the current, Niu Jinxing miraculously crossed the river.

Although there were less than 3,000 cavalry left by Potemkin and others at this time, they still launched a charge towards the Mongols.

Thousands of Mongolian cavalry in front did not block the three thousand Cossack cavalry.

Driven by the desire to survive, the Cossack cavalry burst out with amazing combat power and just broke out.

In the end, almost all the 25000 invading Cossacks were wiped out in this battle, but they did not find the bodies of Li Zicheng and Potemkin.

When news of the great victory in Turkestan came, Li Shizu was preparing to leave for Istanbul.

After getting the battle report, he was also very emotional. This Li Zicheng was really lucky.

There are 5 Chinese troops and nearly 8 Mongolian cavalry under the city of Turkestan, but 13 people still cannot keep them.

It seems that he really looks like a tenacious "little strong".

But this was fine. Without Li Zicheng's "help", they would not have been able to eliminate nearly 3 Cossack cavalry twice.

Although these losses cannot be called "disruptive", Tsarist Russia will definitely be unable to expand eastward in a short period of time.

But he did not intend to let this Tsarist Russia go. In the words of his father, this was called "taking advantage of his illness to kill him"!
I have to say that the Ottoman Empire is really a good ally. Not only did it carve up Persia with itself and lease the Port of Suez, but now it can also attack Tsarist Russia together with itself.

Not only that, the Ottomans were also an "evil force" in the eyes of Western European countries, and they did a good job of sharing their attention with the Chinese Empire.

Judging from the current situation, the Ottoman Empire is slightly stronger and is advantageous in competing with China for hegemony.

His purpose of going to Istanbul this time was to persuade the Ottoman Sultan Murad IV to join him in attacking Tsarist Russia.

Of course, the Ottoman Empire had just experienced the "Battle of Baghdad" and suffered a lot of casualties, especially their proud Star and Moon Corps, which had lost almost 2/3.

After all, the Ottomans did not have the economic strength of the Chinese Empire. It was indeed difficult for them to launch two wars to destroy the country within a year, and their opponents were all powerful empires.

But this time Li Shizu brought him a large number of Rumi guns.

Now the Chinese Empire has basically completed the replacement of rifles, and front-line troops no longer use Rumi guns.

It's a pity that so many arms are wasted. Of course, we must find a way to find a next owner to take over.

Speaking of which, this Rumi gun was first imitated by the Ming Dynasty 40 years ago from the Ottoman Empire.

However, after many improvements by the Liaodong Arsenal, the performance of these Lumi guns now far exceeds the original version.

Sure enough, after Murad IV saw this batch of arms, he immediately decided to take them all.

Europeans don't have such advanced firearms, and even if they do, they wouldn't be able to sell them to the Ottoman Empire.

The Chinese people are willing to sell these firearms to themselves, which shows that they really regard themselves as allies.

At this time, King Wladyslaw IV of the Grand Duchy of Poland and Lithuania happened to be in Istanbul.

In the early years, the Poles also fought against the Russian states. Polish cavalry often went to Moscow to rob.

However, with the rise of Tsarist Russia, these have become a thing of the past.

Nowadays, the Cossack cavalry turned against them and in turn helped Tsarist Russia to fight against itself, causing Poland's territory to be continuously invaded by Tsarist Russia.

Wladyslaw IV came to Istanbul this time to seek peace. He hoped to stop the conflict with the Ottoman Empire so that he could deal with Tsarist Russia with all his strength.

Hearing that Li Shizu was planning to invite the Ottoman Empire to attack Tsarist Russia, Wladyslaw IV immediately stated that the Grand Duchy of Poland and Lithuania would also join.

The Poles not only joined themselves, but even attracted Sweden, a powerful country in Northern Europe, to join.

Under the leadership of Gustavus II, Sweden successively won the war with Tsarist Russia, Poland and the Prussians, and became one of the first-class powers in Europe.

The Chinese Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Grand Duchy of Poland and Lithuania, and the Swedish Empire were located exactly in the four directions of the southeast, northwest and northwest of Tsarist Russia.

They all had conflicts with Tsarist Russia, so these countries with completely different religious beliefs actually held an alliance in Vilnius, the capital of Poland (now Lithuania), and prepared to jointly use troops against Tsarist Russia.

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(End of this chapter)