The west, south, and east of Yaksa are all rivers, swamps, and sandbanks, so the key defense 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 narrowed by dense sandbars. Artillery positions can be set up on many sandbars to attack the city.
This guy Khabarov was extremely obedient after surrendering. When facing Chinese civil and military officials, no matter what level they were, he looked like a grandson and wanted 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 sandbank 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 there 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 quickly said: "We are all serving the country and we 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 guy with a really evil heart, 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 word and wait until someone surrenders before killing them."
"Yes, yes, I made a mistake." Khabarov quickly admitted his mistake.
Since the battleships 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 guys. 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 was the Cossacks. Their usual tactic was to run away if they couldn't win, and then look for every opportunity to sneak attack. Now they were blocked
How to retreat if you die?
Damn the 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 belonged to the Daur people, and a small number came from the Sauron, Sakhalian and other tribes. According to their names a few hundred years later, they were the Daur people, the Oroqen people, the Ewenki people, the Hezhe people, etc.
Bringing along the native soldiers 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, showing off the super power of the Datong Army.
The commander of the post, named Peng Chunlin, led his troops to the valley and sent some soldiers to explore the mountains.
He led the troops to continue walking forward, 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."…
"Chief 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 prince, 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 there will certainly not be many.
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 the 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. When they encounter an ambush by the indigenous soldiers, they will definitely turn around and run away."
Zhang Tingxun sincerely admired him and said: "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 jump into the river and escape. On the other side, the natives can also arrange an ambush. During a war, they can 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 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 all ate ordinary dry food, and compressed biscuits were not cheap to make.
Even the Datong Army cannot eat this stuff all the time. They were in a hurry to set up an ambush today, and nothing was prepared. Tomorrow someone will 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 sandbank wildly fired 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 they were all 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: "My lord, the southern city wall has already cracked in one place. It's only been a morning. If the enemy continues shelling 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%."
There may even be 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 in the south of Siberia, Tatars (generally referring to various tribes in Mongolia) lived everywhere. And in the Amur (Heilongjiang) river basin, it seemed that 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 could they receive military pay, but they also had subsidies for three meals a day. They recruited landless nobles, bankrupt gentry, low-level boyars (subordinates of princes), and Cossacks.
The free people formed an army, and their combat effectiveness far exceeded that of the traditional nobility and serf armies.
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 they established artillery batteries, each with 12 artillery pieces.
By the end of the Smolensk campaign, Tsarist Russia had formed 10 new legions.
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, in order to fight the Ottomans, several new legions were also formed. They were also standing border guards. 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, experienced people who had experienced the Thirty Years War. Russian officers followed behind these foreign officers.
Learn how to fight as an apprentice.
The huge Tsarist 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 the same as before. They are led by high-ranking nobles in battles, and nobles at all levels bring their own dry food to participate. If the number of ordinary soldiers is insufficient, serfs are recruited during the war and disbanded on the spot after the battle. There is no need to pay military salaries at all.
Looking at the one to two hundred thousand army, they are all serfs. Their combat effectiveness is similar to that of China's peasant uprising army, and it is also the kind of peasant army that has just rebelled.
However, with the colonization of Siberia, a large amount of furs were obtained in exchange for gold and silver. In more than 20 years, Tsarist Russia's new standing army will reach 59,000 people. This is the basis for Tsarist Russia to continue to expand, and it is 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 warships with a few cannons at most. Even if the Datong Army came with thousands of people, four to five hundred of the main force would be killed, and the rest would be serfs and indigenous servants.
.If this is the case, he is absolutely sure to hold the castle.
What the hell are dozens of artillery pieces firing at once?
He has not yet seen more than a thousand fully armed Datong troops. Otherwise, this guy might 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!"