The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 692: Giants fighting in the quagmire
Facing a veteran like Count Gudovich, Chen Guangyao was actually a little unable to keep up with the pace.

Because Dayu's Northern Expedition was against the Qing Dynasty, a semi-colonial regime whose most elite troops were only 30,000 to 50,000 people.

There are also Han officials who are hesitant or even colluding with them, and oppressed Han people who are inspired by the national justice and respond in unison.

Therefore, in fact, after the Battle of Beihe, the Qing Dynasty could no longer be maintained. The difficulty of conquering the world had changed from defeating the main force of the Qing Dynasty to how Mo Zibu, the emperor who restored the Han Dynasty, could come up with enough benefits to divide the cake in the country.

It just so happened that Mo Zibu had the entire South Seas in his hands that needed to be developed. The two sides hit it off immediately, and the Qing Dynasty was defeated without much struggle.

But the situation of the Russian bear has been different in recent years. Although the Ottoman Empire has weakened, it is still alive and well.

This empire has become the hegemon of Eurasia, with its territory in the north reaching the Ukrainian Plain on the northern shore of the Black Sea. In recent decades, there have been many smart people coming out from within to try to revitalize it and prolong the life of the empire.

When the Janissaries were no longer viable, they established a new army, and spent a lot of money to purchase guns and cannons from all sides. Except that their arsenals and steel mills were not as good as Sharo's, and they seemed a bit terrible due to corruption, their overall apparent strength was actually stronger than Sharo's.

Sharo, which held high the banner of reviving the Roman Empire, had fought six Russo-Turkish wars so far. These were actually the wars of Sharo's founding, which were quite arduous and difficult.

Especially in the fifth and sixth campaigns, the level of strategy and specific battles demonstrated by Sharo from top to bottom was particularly high, and famous generals such as Suvorov and Kutuzov emerged, who have a place in the world military history.

In comparison, although the Qing Dynasty was indeed a powerful enemy, the quality of its army and internal governance were far superior to those of the Ottoman Empire.

However, the Qing Dynasty had too few elite troops, and its own attributes did not allow it to mobilize all its forces. Therefore, on the whole, defeating the Qing Dynasty was less difficult than paralyzing the Ottoman Empire.

As for another valuable land battle, the British troops in India were just the scraps of the English lobster soldiers, and it was Chen Lian who fought instead of Chen Guangyao. The degree of cruelty was not comparable to the Russo-Turkish War in which hundreds of thousands of people fought.

Therefore, as soon as the battle started, Chen Guangyao immediately fell into a passive position. He slowed down the advance of Dong Jinfeng's Yangwu Army, and retreated a little early because he was worried that the cavalry would suffer losses.

So, when Dong Jinfeng led his troops forward, the only advantageous terrain on this plain, which was backed by hills and controlled a ferry, had already been occupied by the Russians.

They were lined up on a high ground, and six field guns had been set up. The Cossack cavalry hid behind the hillock, so Dong Jinfeng could not see their formation, could not guess the location of the troops, and it was difficult to observe the timing of the troops' deployment.

Ross's infantry took advantage of the terrain and formed a layered battle array. If they went up to engage in battle, they would not face three rounds of attack, but at least six rounds of attack. Theoretically, the number of soldiers who could engage in battle was almost twice that of Dayu.

"Hey, this Rakshasa ghost is quite aggressive!"

Although Dong Jinfeng had not fought many tough enemies, she had been through many battles over the years. Therefore, she did not rush forward to engage in battle. Instead, she formed a formation at a distance and then observed.

After observing for a while, Dong Jinfeng called the veteran Zhu Shedou over.

Zhu Shedou was a surrendered general of the Qing Dynasty, promoted by Fuheng. The Qing Dynasty was very kind to him, which made his background a bit tainted in the Dayu Dynasty.

In addition, he is relatively old, almost seventy years old this year, so his official career has been very bumpy, and he has been unable to get promoted no matter how many times he has gone around in circles.

However, this man was very brave in battle, and he was a Han Chinese. So although he was not as fast as Dong Jinfeng who came to welcome the royal army, he was still considered a fierce general of the Dayu Dynasty.

"Although we have 7,000 people, 3,000 more than the Rakshasa people, they have a very good advantage in the terrain. If these six field guns hit us head-on, the damage will be considerable.

Furthermore, they are arrayed in layers on the mountain, and their muskets can fire at least 70% more fire than ours. If we attack rashly, even if we win, we will suffer heavy casualties."

Zhu Shedou nodded. "General, you are absolutely right, but we have no choice but to attack. Look, the Russians have already started digging up the soil and building a breastwork."

You can't help but admit it, the Russians are really hardworking and can be compared with the Chinese. After they occupied a good position, they didn't sit idle and started civil engineering work immediately.

Dong Jinfeng pondered for a moment. Although the Russians had traveled 1,800 kilometers in a straight line from Yekaterinburg near the Ural Mountains and could not have carried much food, the situation in Dayu was not much better.

Because Dayu was fighting on two fronts, its main opponent was not the Russian Empire, but the conquest of Transoxiana.

Moreover, the unrest in recent years has caused great trouble to the Zunghar tribe north of the Tianshan Mountains and the Hui tribe south of the Tianshan Mountains, and they don’t have much food left.

This meant that most of the army's rations had to be transported thousands of miles from Gansu. The Northwest Rebellion in Gansu had only ended a few years ago, and Gansu itself could be considered the poorest province in China, so the rations it could provide were very limited.

On the Transoxiana steppe, the Kazakhs of the Middle Juz and Great Juz were also busy, with one civil war after another. Unless they were forced to death, there would not be much extra food and cattle and sheep.

Even the Kazakhs of the Left Great Juz were still hoping for some assistance from the imperial court.

It can be said that among the three armies of Dayu, Chen Guangyao's Western Expedition Army was supported by the cattle and sheep driven all the way from Mongolia and the oats and rye planted around Jintang City (Semipalatinsk) last year.

Dong Jinfeng's Dingxi Army relied entirely on Gansu for transportation. Although there was still some surplus food, they still had to fight wars against Bukhara and the Khanate of Khiva, and they could not use any food indiscriminately.

As for Li Xianwen's Northwest Army, it had a large number of people and high consumption, and it also had to manage the Dayuan Basin (Fergana Basin). Part of the food had to be planted in a hurry, and part of it had to be obtained by desperately exploiting the Hui people and starving them to death to feed the army.

In other words, Dayu did not have enough food, and it would take at least three years of reclamation before it could barely achieve self-sufficiency.

Under such circumstances, according to the current estimates of Chen Guangyao's Western Expedition Army Headquarters, Jintang City can accommodate a maximum of 2,000 troops and 10,000 grassland households. The rest must try to move south to the Ili River Valley for food in order to ensure supply.

So Dong Jinfeng quickly made a decision, "We can't fight them. We should save our food and ammunition and head south. Khiva and Bukhara Khanates are wealthy, and we should use our limited food and ammunition to rob them of their food."

Dong Jinfeng pointed to the ferry and said, "Zhu Shedou, I want you to lead the Guizhou soldiers to break into the area between the first floating bridge at the ferry and the Shanbaoluo army.

This is their important retreat route. If we control it, they will definitely retreat. As long as we move it, our chess game will be alive."

The first pontoon bridge that Dong Jinfeng mentioned was probably the only flaw of the Russian army in this battle.

To the west of the hill where they were stationed was a small ferry village with a population of over a hundred. There were originally some small boats in the village for ferrying people across the river. After the Russian army arrived, they built two pontoon bridges.

Due to geographical limitations, this first pontoon bridge was built further south, so it could not be guarded by the Russian army on the hill.

The Russian army naturally knew about this flaw, so they stationed more than a hundred people here, and the artillery on the hill could also extend in this direction.

Zhu Shedou gritted his teeth and didn't agree directly. Instead, he cupped his hands and said, "General, I'm going to go down and mobilize the troops. The men are willing to sacrifice themselves for the country, but they must know why they are sacrificing!"

This was Zhu Shedou's own slight dissatisfaction. He believed that although he had served the Qing Dynasty, it was not his fault.

Moreover, when he served Dayu afterwards, he never feared death and even worked harder because it was the Han people's own dynasty.

However, he was always there in tough battles, and His Majesty gave him many rewards, but his military rank and official position could not be promoted.

Dong Jinfeng could actually understand Zhu Shedou, but he understood even more why Zhu Shedou could not be promoted.

That is, in the military of Dayu, at the beginning, the military generals from Fujian and Guangdong provinces, including Fujian, Guangnan, Jiading, Taiping (Siam), and Andai (Malay Peninsula), had a deep control over the army.

In particular, there were quite a lot of Hakka generals, so if the crown prince wanted to ascend to the throne, he had to worship Concubine De Ye Yizhen (Ye Xiaomei) as his godmother and gain the support of Hakka military generals.

After the establishment of Dayu, the emperor began to take a two-pronged approach to limit these people's control over the army.

One is to open military academies in various places, so that the bonds between generals will be changed from blood ties and clan ties to the teacher-student relationship in the school.

It is just like the imperial examination system that replaced the aristocratic family system in the past. This simple teacher-student relationship and alumni relationship poses much less threat to the country than blood clans.

The second is to continuously promote military personnel from the north, especially those around the two capitals of the north and the south, that is, northern Shanxi, Hebei and Huai River, so that these new confidants of the emperor can enter the army and seize power.

For example, among the ten commanders of the current Imperial Guards, there are only three who are Fujian and Guangdong nobles in a broad sense, while four of them are from Huaishang and northern Shanxi.

However, this strategy is not very friendly to people like Zhu Shedou.

He was born in the Green Camp of the Qing Dynasty, was old, and was not from the north. Guizhou was remote and poor, and there were not many high-ranking officials from Guizhou in the court. No one recommended him, so he naturally had a share of rewards, but there was no hope of promotion.

"Old General, this is exactly why I sent you. Guizhou is teeming with warriors. To truly enter the realm of your majesty, a bloody battle like this is exactly what is needed. A man's reputation is earned through fighting!"

This is the truth and a very smart motivation!
"This victory has relieved the Luosha people of their worries. I, Dong Jinfeng, will also drag the former general along to submit a petition to request credit for the old general."

Having said that, Zhu Shedou was no longer vague. "Thank you, General Dingxi. I will go down and mobilize the troops right away. We can set off in two quarters of an hour."

"There's no rush." Dong Jinfeng waved her hand. "If I cut off their retreat now, the Luosha people will see that we don't have much food.

So don't rush it yet, let them waste some energy on the mountain for a while, and wait a few days before making any decisions."

On the other hand, Chen Guangyao, the former general with the highest title among the generals of Dayu and the commander-in-chief of the two armies, also saw the problem and immediately agreed with Dong Jinfeng's opinion.

This is a standard quagmire battle. The true strength of both sides cannot be brought into play in the quagmire. Therefore, even though the cavalry has been engaged in a fierce battle that lasted for five days, the main decisive battle will not come.

This time, Admiral Ross and Count Ivan Vasilyevich Gudovich were having a headache. They really had no idea how much food Dayu had. What if it was enough for tens of thousands of people to survive the winter on this ice sheet?

If that were the case, the Khitans would have frozen him to death here.

"Major General, pass the order down. If the enemy doesn't attack, we won't take the initiative to fight. Let's just stand still for a few days." Count Gudovich ordered in a low voice.

There are still four months before the arrival of ice and snow, and the Ross army has enough food to last for more than three months, so there is no need to rush to retreat now.

"Count, we shouldn't delay this for too long, because the empire's bravest Cossacks are all resting, and many of these Cossacks from Omsk are young men drawn from other Tatars.

They may not be able to effectively cover the infantry, so if the situation drags on for too long, and if the cavalry suffers heavy losses, it will be difficult for us to retreat calmly," Major General Alexander whispered.

In fact, it can be seen from here that the Russian army's will to fight is not strong, because from Count Gudovich to Major General Alexander, and even the lower officers, no one intends to have a bloody battle with the Guards of the Seris Empire here.

After Major General Vasily left, Count Gudovich's confidant came over and asked, "Count, if we retreat like this, how will we explain this to His Majesty Caesar?

When we set out, you said you would definitely return with a victory."

Gudovich twitched his cheek muscles with a forced smile and then asked, "How many Kazakhs have joined us?"

"Two tribes, three thousand people." A hint of joy flashed across his face, and then he said, "That's including men, women, young and old. The number is really too small."

"Then give some benefits, choose one of them, and let him lead us to raid other Kazakh tribes.

Use these heads of the Steppe Tatars to tell the people of the Third Rome that the Tatars' westward advance has suffered a major setback and we have stopped them."

Gudovich's understanding of politics is quite accurate.

He knew very well that at a time when Sweden, Poland and the Ottoman Empire were undergoing major changes, all of which required the Third Rome to expend a lot of energy to deal with, the East was not worth paying too much attention to.

It just so happened that the Khitans were unable to solve such a long supply problem, and both sides had no desire to fight for blood in this bitter cold land, so they could borrow some heads from the Kazakhs and let Her Majesty the Queen stabilize the domestic mood first.

In this way, the two sides confronted each other for another four days. Just when the Russian Count Gudovich was about to give up, Dong Jinfeng gave up first.

He ordered Zhu Shedou, who had been prepared, to lead 1,500 Guizhou soldiers to attack the Russian defenders on the first pontoon bridge.

This may be the strongest form of Guizhou compatriots in history. In the late Qianlong period, the entire province of Guizhou was in an era of rapid deterioration of the living environment.

Because during this period, the tide of land reform swept across Guizhou.

Under this wave, the Miao, Tujia, Buyi and other ethnic groups in Guizhou suffered unprecedented persecution from the Qing government, and many people lost their fortunes overnight.

Because the policy of "reform of the land system" was to break down the original system and use violence to promote change.

This kind of thing will cause violent turmoil, and the people at the bottom of society are the biggest victims of this violent turmoil, because poverty makes them unable to deal with any risks.

Another reason is that the remnants of the Dashi Army and Dashun Army that rebelled against the Qing Dynasty, as well as Qin Liangyu's Shizhu and Youyang chieftain soldiers, have been active here for a long time, bringing a large number of advanced combat methods to the people of all ethnic groups in Guizhou and leaving behind a lot of weapons.

So in history, the Guibei Miao uprising led by Shi Liudeng was about to happen, and four years later the Qiannan Buyi Wang Nangxian uprising took place.

But in this time and space, the problem does not exist at all, because the benefits gained from the land reform in a poor place like Guizhou are not as great as those gained from going to Southeast Asia.

Therefore, in Dayu, there was no such thing as the policy of converting chieftains into officials. Instead, a large number of chieftains of various ethnic groups were mobilized and immigrated to Southeast Asia.

For example, Mo Zibu placed a large number of Miao chiefs from Guizhou and Yunnan in the Indochina Peninsula, allowing them to rule the Miao, Dai and other ethnic groups in the Indochina Peninsula.

The effect was the same as that of the policy of converting chieftains into officials, because in order to keep the benefits given by the court, these chieftains had no choice but to try their best to get closer to the court and the Han people.

As a result, most of the brave warriors from various ethnic groups who had launched major uprisings in history were recruited, and together with the large number of Guizhou Han Green Camp soldiers who had participated in the Qing-Myanmar War, they formed the Guizhou Regiment of the Yangwu Army, which had quite good combat effectiveness.

At this time, standing next to Zhu Shedou were Shi Liudeng, Sang Hongsheng, Wei Chaoyuan, Wu Bayue and other famous leaders of the uprising in history.

Well, the Miao and Buyi people are actually Huang Han. This sounds difficult to understand, but it is actually not difficult to understand at all, because the current Dayu Huang Han ideology is beneficial to them.

At least they could serve as soldiers and eat food, follow the Han people to conquer the world, and then transform from poor Miao people into noble masters outside the territory, instead of becoming small ants forgotten by history in the turmoil of the land reform.

"I won't say more, but this is the only chance we Guizhou people will eat shit or meat.

Those who have made great contributions will be the most powerful people in the future, while those who have not made any contributions can go home and eat wild vegetable porridge."

"Then let us Miao people take the lead. We have more hunters, so we should go and deal with the Rakshasa soldiers on the pontoon bridge first. If we go with fewer people, we can also avoid the artillery." Shi Liudeng stood up and said after hearing this.

To them, Zhu Shedou's words made a lot of sense. If they wanted to get promoted and make money, people like them who had no background at all would have to risk their lives.

With the sound of light drums, Shi Liudeng led two hundred Miao soldiers of the Yangwu Army, equipped with rifles and Minié bullets, and took the initiative to launch an attack.

On the hill, Count Gudovich breathed a sigh of relief. This at least proved that the Khitans did not have much food, and the situation he feared most did not happen.

“This small floating bridge will determine the direction of this battle.

Pay attention to the artillery support, send the chasseurs out to engage the Khitans, and don't let them shoot at the defenders of the pontoon bridge. Tell the Cossacks to be ready to attack at any time when I give the order! "

Count Gudovich gave the order loudly. At the same time, he knew in his heart that the lack of a direct decisive battle on the other side also proved that the Khitans were also sober and they did not want to suffer too much loss in this snowy and icy place.

However, what surprised the battle-hardened earl was that these Khitan soldiers were also very cunning.

When they saw that they had sent out hunters from the hill, they actually risked sending a large group of them to come over, and a hunt between the hunters began.

The Miao soldiers under Shi Liudeng were all selected from the old Miao hunters in the mountains. Needless to say, their marksmanship was excellent, and their weapons were better than the Austrian-made rifles used by the Russian hunters.

What's worse is that due to the manufacturing process and cost of Minié bullets, the Russians did not widely distribute Minié bullets to their army. They still used lead bullets wrapped in deerskin.

Therefore, as soon as the battle started, the Ross hunters suffered a great loss. Their shooting rate was only one-third of that of the Dayu hunters, and their accuracy was also much worse.

Therefore, two hundred and fifty people fought against one hundred and fifty people, and were beaten with an exchange ratio of at least one to four. They soon could not fight any longer and began to retreat.

Count Gudovich was shocked and could only continue to send more troops and let the Cossack cavalry be prepared to mobilize hundreds of people to drive them away if necessary.

At this time, Wei Chaoyuan's Zhongren (Buyi) soldiers also entered the battlefield. There were one hundred of them, and they were also hunters.

Seeing Wei Chaoyuan coming, Shi Liudeng decisively abandoned the reinforcements of the Rakshasa Hunters and began to move forward to carry out the task of seizing the pontoon bridge.

Wei Chaoyuan's army was half as many men as before, so it would be more difficult for him to fight. The Russian army had more than 200 men, so they were able to stabilize their position.

The hunters on both sides fought further and further apart, because those who were close were quickly killed, and screams were heard one after another.

On the Shiliudeng side, the battle became extremely fierce from the start. The Rakshasa people guarding the floating bridge used a simple stone building as cover and fought desperately.

Shi Liudeng ordered his soldiers to set up Grandpa Qi's mortar, which was the smallest type improved from the tiger squat cannon, and bombarded the stone building fiercely, making it look shaky for a while.

Seeing this, Count Gudovich had no choice but to order the Cossacks to expel them.

However, as soon as the Cossacks moved, Chen Guangyao discovered their hiding place. The Mo Nan cavalry immediately set out and surrounded the shrubs on the foothills behind the sandbags, trying to launch an attack.

On the front, Zhu Shedou responded quickly and prevented the infantry from being attacked by the Cossacks, which would have caused heavy casualties.

Soon, the battlefield, which had just been filled with fierce fighting, suddenly became quiet again.

Both sides dealt a few cards and roughly figured out each other's tactics.

Afterwards, Zhu Shedou personally led the troops and launched the second attack. This time, 1,500 Guizhou soldiers were dispatched together, and Grandpa Qi alone carried three mortars.

Count Gudovich underestimated the fighting power of the Dayu army, and was afraid to send his army out of the hills for large-scale support. Otherwise, the main force of the Dayu army, which had 3,000 more men than him, would attack.

Therefore, he could only continue to send out the Cossacks to drive them away, and tilt the muzzles of the artillery on the hill to start bombarding the Guizhou soldiers.

This guy's words came true, and the gain or loss of the first floating bridge became the key to the war.

(End of this chapter)