Screaming rockets flew erratically over the city of Tomsk, and explosions rang out one after another in the outer city.
On the bell tower, the head of Ivanovich Ramodanovsky, the warlord of the Tsarist Overseer's District in Tomsk, entered a very strange state.
The fully armored Kalmyk cavalry outside the city did not surprise him. The rebellion of the Kyrgyz cavalry riding fast horses, holding hard bows and galloping and shouting was even more common, and those screaming, rising into the air, and falling explosives trailing fireworks...
...Okay, this is really novel.
But none of those shocked him as much as those red flags among the mighty besieging army.
Some of those huge flags had dragons on them, some had dragons on them, and some had characters that Ivan, the warlord, didn't recognize.
But there were always two flags with the loud names of the country and Khan written in Uighur-style Mongolian characters, which made him feel a shiver from the top of his head to his tailbone.
‘Dunta Ulusi, Daiqing Khitan Khan.’
Khitan.
This word is haunting.
It can even be said that in older times, since Marco Polo, the whole of Europe has been looking for the Khitan, and it all started a long time ago.
The English began to search for the Khitan in the tenth year of Emperor Xiaozong of the Ming Dynasty. They formed a fleet at sea and sailed northwest again and again, trying to find the Khitan in their dreams. Finally, three years ago, they sailed the ship from England into the Arctic Ocean and realized that the northwest sea
There is no road to Khitan.
On the other side, they searched for the Khitan again and again through the Siberian route opened by the Russians. Even when England agreed to be the intermediary between Sweden and Russia in the war, one of the conditions was to allow British merchants to find the road to India and Khitan via the Ob River.
.
In fact, at that time, people in Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands and England had already come into contact with the Ming Dynasty, and the Russians also came into contact with the Chechen Khan Shuolei of Mobei Mongolia and the Tumut Khan of South Mongolia.
But people always believe that there is another Khitan in this world besides the Ming Dynasty.
No matter what, Macau in the south, Zhangjiakou in the north, and Dunhuang in the west are all under the rule of one person. This is outrageous and ridiculous to most people in the world.
Even when Chechen Khan Shuolei told Russian officials seriously a few years ago that there was no Khitan and there was only a Ming Dynasty in the south, they didn't believe it.
Even if Shuolei's title is Emperor Altan in the Russian official documents, no one wants to believe that he doesn't know where the Khitans are.
How do you believe it? The Khitan is the foundation that supports the entire European age of geographical discovery. For hundreds of years, everyone has made all efforts at sea and on land to find the legendary Khitan, which is close to India.
Whoever controls the road to Khitan can take the lead in trade and national power.
This myth has made people so stubborn that even if they actually see the Ming Dynasty, they feel that it is less interesting than the "Khitan".
The Russians also deceived the English in this way. The Tsar wrote to the English: "The envoys of Emperor Altan are still with me. He said that it takes a month to ride a horse from them to Daming, and there is no water on the way.
It's all desert.'
"You will have to walk on a dry road for eighteen weeks from my town of Tomsk. There will be no water on the way, and the journey will be extremely difficult and dangerous."
"When you arrive in Daming, you will find that there is a high wall surrounded by bricks in Daming. It takes ten days to walk around the city. There are no counties outside the city wall."
"The Ming Dynasty is by the river, not by the sea. Don't look for it by the sea. The Mongols don't know what the name of that river is. There is no such thing as Khitan."
'Moreover, the goods produced by the Ming Dynasty are very few, and there is no gold or precious jewelry. Don't bother.'
Although this was completely different from the information the Tsar had about the Ming Dynasty or Khitan, there was actually no sense of guilt in telling such a lie.
Because there is no evidence in the real world that can prove that the mysterious Khitan really exists.
And now, right in front of Ivan, the governor of Tomsk, guns roared on the ground, rockets screamed in the air, and the big flag clearly written in Mongolian characters was outside the city - the Khitan was here!
It really exists!
It wasn't until an iron ball fired from a lion cannon hit the Byzantine-style domed bell tower, destroying the support that the Byzantine cross, which symbolized Orthodox Christianity, broke and fell to the ground, and the delusional warlord was finally awakened.
The siege continues.
The peripheral defense facilities of Tomsk Fort are very complete. There are sharpened wooden stakes and barbs on the periphery. The logs are tied into tall and strong wooden fences. Every few dozen steps, there are pointed lofts higher than the wooden fences for the governors.
The Tatar archers in the area fired.
More Cossacks hid on the inner city shooting platform with higher foundations, set up old large-caliber mortar guns on the wooden fence, and took advantage of the height difference and range to shoot outside the fort.
This defensive method has been very effective in past counterattacks against the Kyrgyz.
This is because the Kyrgyz cavalry are extremely traditional, using Mongolian sinew bows and riding fast horses. During battle, they surround the enemy in a so-called "round dance formation" and throw surging arrows into the enemy formation.
Ninety percent of those arrows will be blocked by the wooden fortifications, making it difficult to harm the soldiers within the fortifications.
Therefore, in most cases, the Kyrgyz and even some Oirat troops only paraded armed outside the fortress.
In cold Siberia, as long as the fortress is defended for a period of time, any siege army will have to withdraw.
The Russian troops guarding the fortress would never choose to fight in the field, even if the forces were equal, because in their inherent impression, no one could beat Oirat in a field battle.
In field battles, Russian and Polish cavalry often suffered losses at the hands of the Crimean Khanate and even the Nogai. However, the Crimean Khanate's cavalry was at best similar to that of Mongolia, and even had a level of equipment worse than that of Mongolia.
And Oirat? The cavalry of Oirat are freaks. They have absolute dominance in field battles with nomadic cavalry.
In fact, during the hundred years before and after this era, there was a very special term in Eastern European history called the Little Mongol Invasion Era.
Little Mongolia is talking about the Oirat. To some extent, the Eastern European cavalry began to become stronger from this time, which was inspired by the Oirat people.
During this period, the Oirat cavalry fought against their Eastern European relatives in field battles, with a winning rate of over 90%.
There are only two secrets, and they are so simple that they are ridiculous.
First, a large number of people were equipped with cloth-covered iron armor; second, everyone held a spear.
Most of the cavalry in this era had long weapons only in the hands of armored cavalry. In order to preserve combat effectiveness, light cavalry would carry bows, arrows, muskets and sabers or swords, and try to avoid hand-to-hand combat.
In the long-term struggle with the Mongols, Oirat summed up a set of effective blood-saving tactics, facing the same bows, the same horses, and the same tactics.
Since the battle is often determined by mangujie shooting, finding gaps, using hand-to-hand cavalry to concentrate attacks, and tearing apart formations to disperse the enemy troops to determine the outcome, then why not also bring a few spears to the light cavalry?
This formed what Liu Chengzong saw when he was fighting against the Oirat coalition forces in Qinghai.
There are many poorly equipped nomadic cavalry in Oirat. They wear a leather jacket all over their bodies and carry one or several spears. Many of the spearheads are just made of horns and flints. Even the poorest nomadic cavalry just sharpened the wooden poles.
, put it on the fire and roast it before going to the battlefield.
But it was such a simple and efficient tactic that allowed them to crush the cavalry of the Nogai, Cossacks, and Poles in the fierce battles in the North Caucasus; they defeated the Crimean Khanate on the Black Sea Steppe to the point where they could not sue for peace.
A few noble cans hiding behind the soldiers on the battlefield were unable to stop the soldiers in the front row from collapsing after being stabbed to death by a spear.
In fact, facing the simple spears and tin cans of Oirat, they were useless. Whether it was the Pasha of the Ottomans or the Kharachi of the Crimean Khanate, if they dared to stand in front of the Oirat cavalry, they would only be stabbed to death.
So much so that the Russian writings of this period simply and clearly referred to the Oirat cavalry as spears.
The only thing that can deal with spears is wooden ramparts.
But in today's Tomsk, wooden barriers cannot protect anyone.
Standing on the commanding heights of the city, the warlord Ivan quickly noticed that something was wrong on the battlefield.
There were thousands of cavalry outside the city. Those cavalry in hussar formation floated back and forth, causing arrows to rain down on the fortress and sheds, but in fact they did not cause any casualties or losses.
On the contrary, it was the two squads of artillery and muskets in the besieging army. Although their numbers were pitifully small, they used muskets to continuously shoot at the sheds and fence walls. They were the real killers in the battle.
Their firearms are powerful and formidable.
Relying on the cover of the Oirat cavalry, the infantry armed with flying cannons can advance the battle line near the barbs of the outer wooden piles and project the cylindrical shells near the inner fort.
The Cossack gunners had never seen such small grenades, and the soldiers stationed at the fort were almost wiped out by a cannonball in the initial confrontation.
Even after gaining experience, this arc-shaped projectile still demoralized the Cossack gunners behind the wall.
The rockets flying all over the sky scared the Tatar soldiers between the two walls so much that they even wanted to withdraw into the inner city and give up guarding the fort wall.
It was only the shooting troops in the inner city who used long axes and muskets to force them to hold their position.
Fortunately, although the firepower of the siege was rapid and fierce, these strange-looking Khitan soldiers had limited equipment, and the powerful rockets only fired a few volleys before making no sound.
Outside the city, four small field cannons were used to bombard the wall alternately. After half an hour of bombardment, the defenders inside the fort found a gap in firing and used more small cannons to push them out of the effective range of 200 steps outside the fort wall.
The lion cannon can still fire beyond this distance, but it cannot shoot flatly. The lighter shells do not have much power in the falling trajectory. The terrifying siege army soon left a rain of arrows in the sky, dragging away dozens of people who were hit by arrows.
The wounded soldiers gradually retreated southward to a safe distance.
The number of casualties was also being counted inside Tomsk Fort. The situation was similar to that outside the city. The difference was that there were more casualties inside the city and it was more tragic.
Outside the city, except for a few unlucky ones who were directly hit by cannonballs, more people were just wounded by bows and arrows. What was more distressing was that more than a dozen war horses were killed.
There were not many soldiers injured by arrows in the city. Basically, they were killed by cannons, and their death was quite ugly.
The firearms of the Marshal's Army are very specific in dealing with enemies behind wooden walls.
In fact, the lion cannon has very limited deterrent effect, but the gun fires lead bullets. If it penetrates a wooden wall, it will be cut into several or even a dozen lead pins by the log fiber. It will not matter if it collapses on a few people, but it will only add a few more.
A wounded person, but if he hits a person, he will be pierced by arrows on the spot, and there is no way to save him.
Flying cannons and rockets are even more abominable. If they don't explode, they will startle you. If they explode, they will be like pieces of lead. Key people will be beaten into pieces and it will be difficult to die cleanly.
Until Chuhu'er withdrew the siege, people were under construction here, and the cries from the fortress over there could still be heard far above Siberia.
Although both sides paid a price, when counting the casualties, looking at the miserable condition of their own soldiers, the commanders of both sides unconsciously showed inappropriate smiles.
Ivan, the governor in the city, was naturally relieved to see thousands of enemy troops receding like a tide.
When the Chuhu'er camp's offensive was at its most ferocious, he once thought he was going to die in this fortress today.
For the rest of his life, Ivan couldn't help but laugh at his own timidity. He was indeed frightened by the gunpowder at Chuhu'er camp.
Yes, it's not weapons. Those weapons are indeed weird and powerful, but they are not enough to scare one of Tsarist Russia's military commanders in Siberia.
He was frightened by the amount of gunpowder.
When the Chuhuer camp withdrew from the siege, the first order Ivan gave was not to look after the wounded soldiers, but to ask the armed attendants to quickly pick up an unexploded rocket for him.
He didn't know the principle of this thing, but he could probably guess that when he filled the tube with soil, he could fill it with seven kilograms, and if he added explosives, it would be at least eight kilograms.
Just for this thing alone, the besieging army outside the city shot thirty or forty of them, including guns and flying cannons, plus four small cannons that continued to bombard for half an hour. In a short siege, a thousand kilograms of weapons were lost.
gunpowder.
What is this concept?
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Tsarist Russia treated officials who went on an expedition to Siberia very generously as soldiers. The infantry commander of a fortress could receive an annual salary of twenty rubles.
These days the ruble is a kind of silver bar, weighing about 1,000,000 taels, which is about two and a half German thalers. It can buy not only a sable skin, but also an old musket in Würzburg, Prussia.
In other words, the annual salary of an infantry commander can buy eight old muskets.
However, for the same twenty rubles, you can only buy fifty kilograms of gunpowder, and there are additional charges for guns and shells.
This thing is almost the most expensive of all ordnance in Europe.
Generally speaking, in Siberia, everyone in the expedition team is equipped with a gun, and one hundred kilograms of gunpowder is the entire gun, gunpowder and baggage of a hundred-man expedition team equipped with a single iron cannon.
Before the war began, the gunpowder stock in the entire Tomsk Fort was less than 1,000 kilograms.
Ivan could brag about this battle for half his life when he returned to Moscow. He survived an offensive with a thousand kilograms of gunpowder.
Outside the city, Sunday Qiang and Chu Huer also laughed happily.
Because the Hundred Corps Brigade commanded by Wang Jinzhong had a very successful exploratory attack on Tomsk. Although the defenders had strong forts and many men and guns, their firepower was basically the same as theirs.
Even because of the existence of small individual artillery such as lifting guns and flying guns, the defenders can be suppressed in a subtle way.
Zhou Qiang looked at Chu Hu'er and said, "The Heavenly Army has withdrawn the siege. The Orus soldiers in the city must suspect that our division has run out of ammunition, and they will probably come to kick the camp tonight!"
Chu Hu'er was not optimistic about this speculation. He shook his head slowly and said in a stiff voice: "They don't dare to fight with me."
Sunday was stunned for a moment, then waved his hands and said: "It's okay if they don't dare. If someone dares, the heavenly army will besiege the castle, and reinforcements will be sent from the surrounding villages and water forts. In the past few days, the general has led the horse army to encircle the point for reinforcements and wipe out all the reinforcements."
"
Having said that, Sunday Qiang's nose was breathing heavily, and he looked at the fortress with burning eyes. He raised his hands to stretch out his sleeves, inserted his hands into the leather belt around his waist, and said: "When the general personally leads the fleet with guns, cannons, and arrows, we will respond."
Firearms comes here to decide the overall situation, and the northern border of our Generalissimo's Mansion can be further advanced for another 1,500 miles!"
"Tomsk? Hum, Tai Mengwei, which means the place where auspiciousness sprouts and life continues!"