Desert Eagle Suletan Khan

"So you are the surrendered Rakshasa general? Why surrender with such a fortified castle?" Orros asked Dmitri, who was kneeling and begging for surrender, with great interest. This was the first Orros general he had encountered who had surrendered voluntarily since the start of the campaign.

"The castle is fortified, but I only have fifty men. To save the lives of the people in Zashivirsk, I have no choice but to surrender," Dmitry answered truthfully.

Orlos was very pleased with himself. It seemed that his reputation as the "butcher" had spread to Zashivirsk, and even the fierce Russians would be afraid of the sabers of the Mongol warriors.

"How many troops are stationed in Ussbau now? What is the condition of the city's defenses?" he asked with a smile. That fortress was the northern gate of Yakutsk; taking it would allow them to proceed to Yakutsk and join forces with His Highness the King of Chu.

"Reporting to the Governor, Usterburg has about two hundred garrison troops and six cannons..." Dmitri knew that since they had already surrendered, there was no turning back, so he simply gave a detailed account of Usterburg's defenses.

Orros nodded in satisfaction. "You have rendered meritorious service in surrendering the city, so you shall become a centurion under my command." After learning that Usterburg only had two hundred enemies, he left more than two hundred warriors to garrison the newly acquired city and led an army of eight thousand men to march towards Usterburg.

"Clatter, clatter, clatter!" The horses' hooves flew as Shakdor, son of Wei Zheng and Shuoqi, the famous general of the Kingdom of David, led two thousand cavalrymen at the forefront. Eager to make a name for himself, he led his troops to the walls of Usterburg. Just as he was about to dismount and form a battle formation to attack the city, he was surprised to find that the fishing rod and tassel flag of the Kingdom of David was flying on the city wall.
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The Battle of Yakutsk lasted for three months. On January 9th, 1674, after the Yakuts defeated the Russian army in a field battle twenty miles south of Yakutsk, the garrison took advantage of the situation and besieged the castle. Under the command of General Pushkin, the defenders fought desperately. The military nobleman Friesov directed the Russian troops to fire crossfire at the city walls, inflicting heavy casualties on the garrison. Dular, the chief of the Yakut Tuktunaba tribe and a chiliarch, and Guden, the chief of the Evenki Tokongwoer tribe and a centurion, were killed by musket fire during the attack. The garrison stormed the walls several times but were driven back each time.

Seeing the heavy casualties from a direct assault, Bao Yin ordered a concentrated artillery barrage on the south gate. He also selected 1,500 archers to snipe at the defenders below the city walls; any defenders who showed their faces would be attacked with arrows and muskets. A month and a half later, the Russian heavy artillery breached a large section of the south gate wall, and the Russians surged forward, only to be fiercely resisted by the Cossacks under Felsov's command. After half a day of fierce fighting, the Russian army used sandbags to plug the breach and barely managed to hold the city, but Felsov was killed by an arrow in the battle.

However, the real test for the defenders had only just begun. The sudden influx of troops and refugees into the city led to enormous food depletion. By March 1st, food supplies were severely depleted, only enough to provide each soldier with two slices of bread per day, while ordinary civilians received no rations at all. Starvation caused mass deaths, and the corpses then spawned a terrible plague, with people dying every day. Initially, some people buried the bodies, but eventually, the soldiers and civilians in the city became completely numb to death, or rather, they lacked the strength to bury the corpses anymore; the entire city reeked of a nauseating stench. On April 9th, unable to hold out any longer, the defenders, led by Commander Vasily Pushkin, surrendered.

"Do you know? To capture Yakutsk, I lost two thousand five hundred warriors!" Bao Yin glared fiercely at the dejected Pushkin, instantly sending a chill down the spine of the ruthless warlord.

“Sir, we have surrendered. You promised to let us return to Russia after the war,” he murmured, bowing his head.

“We, David, are from a land of propriety, and we will keep our promise,” Bao Yin said, glancing at him with disgust. He then ordered his men to take Pushkin and the two thousand surrendered soldiers to the prisoner-of-war camp. He ordered General Okchotb of Jilin to garrison Yakutsk with 1,500 elite troops, and to lead nine thousand troops north to Usterburg.

The commander of Usterburg was Petroshka Karpov, the Russian governor-general. He had only two hundred men under his command. Seeing that even Yakutsk, which was defended by several thousand elite troops, had fallen, how could he dare to fight? He led his army to flee to Zhigansk and joined forces with the governor-general Fedot Popov.
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On April 21st, King Baoyin of Chu and Governor Orros of Nuningi successfully joined forces at Usterburg, bringing the total strength of the garrison to 17,000. This greatly boosted Baoyin's confidence, and he decided to strike while the iron was hot, continuing westward from the Lena River basin into the Yenizhai River basin. At this time, two fortresses on the banks of the Lena River, Zhigansk and Vilyuysk, still stood in his way. Since the start of the northern expedition, Baoyin's army had captured one or two fortified cities; how could two mere small towns be of any concern to him?

"Warriors, I know you have worked hard, but it is far from time to rest. Forward, towards Zhigansk, and let the enemy's corpses be your glory!" he shouted to his men.

Upon hearing the words "military merit," the morale of the guards soared. Ignoring their fatigue from the battle, everyone fought bravely and advanced toward Gansk Castle. In just ten days, they arrived at the castle.

"Karpov, take two hundred Cossacks and hide outside the city. Launch a night raid after the garrison is exhausted from the siege," came the order from Fedot Popov, the governor of Zhigansk. Without hesitation, Karpov, the governor of Usterburg, accepted the command. Popov was a veteran of Tsarist Russia, having participated in numerous expeditions to the Kolyma River, Anadyr, and Chukotka regions, and held immense prestige within the army. After Karpov left, Popov divided the remaining three hundred Cossacks into two groups, taking turns defending the city. Zhigansk was a small stone fortress; one hundred and fifty men could fill its walls.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!" The Wei army's shells blew the small town apart, but the sturdy stone fortress still withstood the rain of shells.

King Baoyin of Chu sat astride a magnificent yellow horse, gently waving his arm. The flag bearer beside him immediately raised the command flag, and the second-class Daur Boken Zhe Wule led a thousand Daur warriors toward the castle.

The battle was fierce, but it was merely a probing attack. After an hour, the rearguard retreated, leaving behind over fifty corpses. Bao Yin frowned. This city was so fortified; a direct assault would likely result in significant losses. He disliked brute force and ordered the troops to return to camp, intending to devise a more strategic approach.

That night, Karpov led two hundred Russian soldiers in a surprise attack on the garrison camp. Unfortunately, he encountered the cautious King Baoyin of Chu. They were spotted by sentries as soon as they reached the vicinity of the camp, and the long trenches became an insurmountable barrier for the Russians. They were felled in droves by the garrison's musketeers and archers. Hearing the battle cries outside the city, Popov led his troops out of the city, only to be surrounded by the well-formed garrison. By dawn the next day, the Russian army had been completely annihilated, and both Popov and Karpov had perished in battle.

After capturing Zhigansk Fortress, Bao Yin did not stop his offensive and continued to lead his army to Vilyuysk Fortress.

"What! How could the Guards have arrived so quickly?" Upon hearing the news of the Guards' approach, Alexei Usov, the Cossack captain of Vilyusk Fortress, was stunned.

He was originally a wealthy merchant in Nizhny Kolymsk. After making enough money, he wanted to buy a new identity, so he bribed Pushkin, the military governor of Yakutsk, and obtained the position of centurion of Vilyuysk Fortress. Unexpectedly, he found himself in this predicament! He wanted to escape this dangerous place, but he had too much wealth. Gold and jewels were easy to carry, but his houses, shops, and heavy goods couldn't be liquidated in time. He finally managed to sell some, but the guards were already upon him.

Usov wanted to leave, but looking at the dozens of carts laden with his belongings, he hesitated. He couldn't run fast with all that, but he couldn't bear to abandon it!

Just as he was hesitating, the steward stumbled over and said, "Master, the Imperial Guard cavalry has appeared outside the city and surrounded Vilyuysk."

"What!" Usov was so shocked that he sat down on the ground. After a long while, he finally reacted, looked at the wealth filling the courtyard, gritted his teeth, and said, "Immediately send someone out of the city to see the prince of Wei, and tell him that as long as he agrees to protect the Cossacks' property in the city, we will surrender."

Upon hearing the envoy's request, Bao Yin laughed heartily and agreed without hesitation, even rewarding Usov with the official position of centurion.

Upon entering Vilyusk Fortress, the ambitious prince rested for only one day, leaving a few hundred men to guard the newly acquired city, before personally leading an army of 16,000 towards Mangazea in the Yenisei River basin. According to his later account in *The Conquest of the Rakshasa*, he "traveled swiftly westward, rarely finding a moment's rest."

(End of this chapter)