I

The west, south, and east of Yaksa are all rivers, swamps, and sandbanks, so the key defensive area should be in the north.

However, the Datong Army was completely unreasonable.

Land directly on the back of the sandbar in its southwest, use the cover of the woods to transport artillery, and build an artillery position across the river to attack Yaksa.

Three rivers converge here, and there are many tributaries. The water network is extremely complex, and the river channel is also narrowed by dense sandbanks. Artillery positions can be deployed on many sandbanks to attack the city.

This guy Khabarov was extremely obedient after surrendering. When facing Chinese civil and military officials, no matter what level they are, he looks like a grandson and wants to kneel down and kiss their boots.

At this moment, he was wearing cotton armor on the outside and silk clothes rewarded by the emperor on the inside. He pointed at the castle and said: "I built the castle. This sandbar is the best artillery position. After sealing the upper reaches of the river, in the northeast and northwest, Each has a river valley where one can escape, and troops must be sent to intercept them to prevent the damn Cossack bandits from escaping at night."

"Very good. If you win this battle, I will take credit for you." Wang Fuchen praised.

For fear of alerting the enemy, the spies sent by the Datong Army could only use telescopes to observe from a distance across the river. They really didn't know that there were two river valleys to the north.

Khabarov said quickly: "They are all serving the country, and I dare not take credit. General, after our army's bombardment, I can go over and shout, and I will definitely be able to instigate some Cossack bandits."

Wang Fuchen said coldly: "Do you still want to save your former subordinates?"

"It's not about saving them," Khabarov, a really evil guy, actually explained, "The Cossack bandits don't have much food, so they shelled first and then besieged the city, which must have made people panic. At this time, I went to shout, and some people thought they could survive. , internal strife will definitely occur. If we can induce them to surrender, it would be best to disarm them and kill them all. Even if we cannot induce them to surrender, we can still take advantage of the chaos to attack the city."

Wang Fuchen said: "Here in the Datong Army, there is no such thing as inducement to surrender. If you surrender, you will surrender. The merit will be judged according to the situation. You will not go back on your words. You will kill them after they surrender."

"Yes, yes, I made a mistake." Khabarov quickly admitted his mistake.

Since the warships of the Anton Navy were not large and the caliber of the ship-borne guns was also small, they were not very powerful when attacking the city wall.

However, there are still a few city defense guns!

This thing belongs to the big guy. After Yaksa is captured, it will be placed on the city wall. At this moment, it is directly deployed on the sandbank to attack the city.

One troop transport ship followed the navy warships, bypassing large and small sandbars, and went directly upstream to block the enemy's retreat.

Stepanov stood on the city wall and saw that the river upstream was blocked, and he instantly fell into despair. Their main force is the Cossacks. Their usual tactic is to run away if they can't win, and then look for every opportunity to make a sneak attack. Now that their retreat is blocked, what can they do?

Damn noble generals, all their fucking blind orders!

At this time, Zhang Tingxun followed a sentry commander and went to land a few miles upstream, with the goal of intercepting the river valley Khabarov told him.

In addition to this outpost of the Datong Army, there were more than two hundred natives.

Most of these indigenous soldiers belong to the Daur people, and a small number come from the Sauron, Saharian and other tribes. According to their names a few hundred years later, they were the Daur, Oroqen, Ewenki, Hezhe, etc.

Bringing the indigenous soldiers along was not just to show off.

One is to help with physical work as auxiliary soldiers, and the other is to let them see with their own eyes how the Datong Army kills Rakshasa ghosts and show off the super power of the Datong Army.

The sentry commander's name was Peng Chunlin. After leading his troops to the valley, he sent some soldiers to explore the mountains.

He continued to move forward with his troops, explaining to Zhang Tingxun as he walked: "This kind of terrain is most suitable for an ambush. You must send out a mountain search team to ensure that you will not be ambushed."

"Sergeant Peng is right." Zhang Tingxun learned with an open mind. He knew why the other party acted like this.

It's just that he is a young father-in-law, and Peng Chunlin has an extra task, which is to teach him how to fight in actual combat.

Peng Chunlin continued: "Our main force is besieging the city. If any enemy troops come here, they will either flee or break out. By then, the number of enemies we will face will not be too many, and they will definitely not be Form an formation. Choose a relatively narrow place as our ambush point, and try to win in an instant. The next step is to chase and capture scattered enemies, so when choosing an ambush point, we must predict the rout. Where will you run away?"

It took most of a day to finally select the ambush point.

Peng Chunlin further explained: "Look here, the river valley is very narrow, and the mountains on both sides are relatively steep. Our army is hiding in the woods, and even if it encounters hundreds of enemies, it is possible to defeat them. If the enemy wants to escape, there is a gentle slope ahead. , which is the best place for mountain climbing. Do you know how to do it?”

Zhang Tingxun said: "Arrange soldiers to ambush and intercept."

Peng Chunlin pointed at the indigenous soldiers: "We only have one outpost of the Datong Army, with hundreds of people. Try not to divide the troops. These indigenous soldiers are very suitable. They have a blood feud with the Rakshasa ghosts, and they will definitely fight bravely. Moreover, flee to that place. The Rakshasa ghosts on the hillside have already been frightened, and when they encounter an ambush by the indigenous soldiers, they will definitely turn around and run away."

Zhang Tingxun sincerely admired him: "Chief Peng is a good strategist!"

Peng Chunlin pointed to the other side of the river: "The Rakshasa ghosts are proficient in water. Someone must have jumped into the river and escaped. On the other side, the natives can also arrange an ambush. During the war, they will emerge from the woods and stay on the bank to kill the Rakshasa ghosts in the water." "

That night, everyone spent the night at their respective ambush points.

Instead of lighting a fire to cook, I took out the rice cakes (compressed biscuits) and swallowed them with the cold water I brought with me.

The rice cake has been improved by adding dehydrated vegetable leaf powder to supplement some vitamins.

Of course, due to the inability to control the scientific temperature, a large amount of vitamins will be lost when vegetables are cooked, and how much is left depends on God's will.

As for those indigenous soldiers, they were all chewing ordinary dry food, and compressed biscuits were not cheap to make.

Even the Datong Army cannot eat this stuff forever. We were in a hurry to set up an ambush today, but nothing was prepared. Tomorrow someone would row a boat and deliver enough dry food.

"Boom boom boom!"

The Datong Army, which camped on the sandbank yesterday, began shelling early the next morning.

Dozens of ship-borne small guns and several city defense guns mounted on the sandbar were wildly firing shells at the city wall of Yaksa.

Zinoviev, an aristocratic gentleman, participated in the Smolensk War when he was a boy. It was a battle involving tens of thousands of people, but the Tsarist Russian army only had 160 cannons in total, and all of them were small-caliber light cannons.

Zinoviev swallowed and said: "The firepower of these Khitan ship-borne guns is at least equivalent to five of our regular legions!"

This guy finally realized that he was afraid and hid in the castle without showing his head. The sound of cannons was heard from all directions.

The small Cossack artillery in the city was unable to fire back because the range was insufficient.

I don’t know how long it took, but Stepanov crawled over and said: "Master Steward, there is already a crack in the southern city wall. It has only been a morning. If the enemy continues to shell the city for a few more days, the city wall will definitely collapse in many places."

Zinoviev asked: "How come the Khitan warships have dozens of cannons?"

Beketov came over at some point and spoke as a fortress expert: "At most, the city wall will collapse in one day. The city wall here is too weak. In two days, the gap in the city wall collapse will surely reach 45%. places, maybe even more. We must break out tonight!”

Zinoviev was still asking: "How big is the territory of Khitan and what is its population?"

"I don't know!" Stepanov was annoyed by the question.

But Zinoviev said: "How could you not know? You were sent here, firstly, to raise rations for the army, and secondly, to inquire about the Khitan military situation."

"I am blocked here by the Khitan army and I can't get through at all." Stepanov was extremely depressed and wanted to kill the noble man with a knife.

In fact, Zinoviev also did his homework. He knew that Tatars (generally referring to various Mongolian tribes) lived everywhere in the south of Siberia. In the Amur River (Heilongjiang) basin, it seems to be the territory of the Khitan people.

As for how big Khitan was and what its population was, Zinoviev had no idea at all.

Over the past 100 years, Tsarist Russia has fought wars with more than ten countries. Regardless of the quality of the soldiers, the number of troops is definitely sufficient.

Moreover, the Tsarist Russian army is still learning from Swedish reforms.

For example, during the Smolensk War, two new legions were formed. Not only can they get military pay, but they also have subsidies for three meals a day. They recruit landless nobles, bankrupt gentry, low-level boyars (subordinates of princes), Cossacks, and free people to form an army. Their combat effectiveness far exceeds that of traditional nobles and serfs.

According to this new type of army, Tsarist Russia formed four more armies.

They also imitated Sweden in forming new cavalry and formed two new cavalry regiments. Then artillery batteries were formed, each with 12 artillery pieces.

By the end of the Smolensk campaign, Tsarist Russia had formed 10 new regiments.

Well, as soon as the war ended, the 10 new-style legions were disbanded because they could not afford such high military expenses.

On the southern battlefield, several new regiments were also formed in order to fight the Ottomans. It also belonged to the standing border guard force. The original plan was maintained, but it only lasted a few years and was gradually disbanded.

Those new-style legions were indeed powerful in combat, but they were not suitable for a serf society.

However, as the situation became tense, the Standing Border Guard Force was reorganized about five years ago. Most of the officers were foreigners who had experienced the Thirty Years War. Russian officers followed these foreign officers and learned how to fight as apprentices.

The huge Tsarist Russian Empire currently has a new standing army of about 30,000 people, and it simply cannot afford to continue to expand its army.

The rest of the Tsarist Russian army is still doing the same thing. Senior nobles led the troops in battle, and nobles at all levels brought their own dry food to participate. If the number of ordinary soldiers is insufficient, then serfs can be recruited during war and disbanded on the spot after the war, without paying military salaries at all. At first glance, the one to two hundred thousand troops looked like they were all serfs. Their combat effectiveness was similar to that of China’s peasant uprising army, and they were still the kind of peasant army that had just rebelled.

However, with the colonization of Siberia and the acquisition of large amounts of furs in exchange for gold and silver, Tsarist Russia's new standing army will reach 59,000 in more than 20 years. This is the basis for Tsarist Russia to continue to expand, stained with the blood of Siberian natives.

In this time and space, Tsarist Russia may not be so smooth.

Zinoviev's war thinking was still in the era of aristocrats and serfs, and at most it was on the sidelines of the Thirty Years' War.

He didn't take the Datong Army seriously at first. It was just a few dozen battleships and at most a few artillery pieces. Even if thousands of Datong troops came to kill, the main force would kill four to five hundred, and the rest would be all serfs and indigenous servants. If this was the case, he was absolutely sure to hold the castle.

What the hell are dozens of artillery pieces blasting together?

He has not seen more than a thousand fully armed Datong troops, otherwise, this guy may have his worldview shattered.

After repeated thinking, Zinoviev felt that it was difficult to hold on, and finally said: "Let's break out tonight. If the breakout goes well, we will lure the Khitans into the mountains and forests and look for opportunities to ambush and attack!"