Chapter 218: Burning Black Water (Seeking the Moon)
The Qing army did not disappoint Bao Youzhi!
After receiving the report, the defenders of Heihe City upstream decisively ran south.
Bao Youzhi really didn't want to hear about another city being massacred by the Russians.
Of course, the Qing army can't do anything if they don't run away. How can the thousands of defenders defend Heihe City?
The defenders fled, the news spread, and the thousands of residents in the city also took their only belongings and fled south.
When the Russian army entered Blackwater City, they directly took over an empty city. Muravyov planned to take his troops to rest in this city.
If the army is too tired, its combat effectiveness will definitely be affected.
On the pier by the river, Bao Youzhi and the people escorting women and children from various villages watched the fleet leave on the pier.
It is the saddest time to say goodbye.
Those women and children left their homes where they had lived for many years and the men they could rely on, and felt somewhat sad in their hearts. Low sobbing could be heard everywhere on the ship.
No one noticed a petite figure wearing men's clothing, blending in behind the crowd on the pier.
In Khabarovsk, a resettlement camp has been built in the rear far away from the river bank. This camp is very hidden and has the necessary defense facilities. All non-combatants in Khabarovsk will be placed here during the battle.
The women and children who left with the ship would live there for a long time until the Russians were driven away.
After sending away these women and children, Bao Youzhi finally felt relieved.
Xujiatun will also be temporarily abandoned. Bao Youzhi was sure that the Russians would not leave the riverside and go deep into the interior, which would violate their strategic purpose.
Muravyov has been very depressed these two days. The Russian army marched all the way. Except for the initial occupation of some beacon towers and a few small towns, no one was seen behind them.
After capturing Blackwater City, Muravyov decided to renovate his army in this city.
At night in Heishui City by the river, the wind is very strong. The river wind passes through the city walls and the gaps between the buildings, making a whining sound, as if a hundred ghosts are walking at night. It makes people stand upright when they hear it.
This city is very small, not even comparable to a small county town in the pass. But it can barely accommodate tens of thousands of people. Having a house to live in is better than living in a tent.
Muravyov and his generals naturally lived in the government offices with the best conditions.
At ten o'clock in the middle of the night, dozens of black shadows, like mice, sprang out from every corner of the city.
Although the special force only had a squadron of about a hundred people, Bao Youzhi still sent them out.
These people were sharp daggers, and they would not be of their proper value if they were hidden around him. Bao Youzhi would not let them assist in positional warfare.
They did not set specific combat goals, but only had a flexible combat principle - to use every opportunity to destroy, consume and delay the enemy.
Blackwater City was the first city the Russians encountered after entering Heilongjiang. The special forces were sure that they would station here to repair it.
So after all the defenders and residents here evacuated, the Special Forces team members sneaked into the city. Then they disguised themselves in the cellars of some residents' homes and lurked on the spot.
Because most of the buildings were full of Russians, in order to avoid alerting them, these team members did not dare to sneak out of these cellars until late at night. Then they assembled towards the agreed place.
The first step was to determine the retreat route. They chose the south gate of Heishui City, which leads to the lower reaches of Heilongjiang River.
The second step is to determine the target. They don't know the distribution of the Russians in the city, and there are only such a few people. They can't kill many people directly. If they are trapped by the Russians, they will be wiped out in a few seconds.
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Therefore, they must find the most valuable target. So with so many people gathered together, where is the most valuable place?
Naturally, it was granaries and arsenals. Of course, most of the Russian arms and supplies were scattered on ships. But since they were resting in the city, they naturally established temporary arsenals and grain depots in the city.
"Do you smell it?" a special operations team member whispered.
"What's the smell? Could it be that you smell an arsenal?"
"Not really, but I smell the smell of horses."
The special operations team member sniffed, pointed in one direction and said, "It should be in that direction. That must be the stable where the Russians store their war horses."
"You kid, if you can, just go there. War horses are more important to the Russians than arms," the squadron leader said.
Unexpectedly, an important target can be found by relying on the nose. This is really an unexpected surprise for the special operations team.
Each team followed the smell of the war horses to find the location of the stables.
The reason why the smell here is so strong is because the Russian war horses also need to be crowded together like themselves.
The five thousand Cossack cavalry are equipped with at least tens of thousands of horses. Of course, they will not put all the horses into the city, and they will not be able to lock them all in.
The place where the war horses were kept was in a separate courtyard, and seven or eight Russian soldiers stood guard.
These few people are a piece of cake for the special operations team, and they can be done in a short time.
Entering the courtyard, everyone's jaws almost dropped.
The horses in this yard are all standing close together and densely packed. There are piles of fodder piled around the yard, allowing the horses to feed themselves.
At this time, the special operations team members all thought of something in unison.
The wind is high and the sky is on fire!
"Haozi, go and pour kerosene on the haystacks on both sides. The others are preparing to evacuate."
"yes!"
What the special operations team does is a one-shot deal. Once the job is done, they have to run away.
Otherwise, you will have to pay for yourself.
Haozi was the last to leave. Before leaving, he lit the haystack with a lighter.
Strong wind, hay, and kerosene are the perfect combination for setting fire.
Hao Zi is such a rotten boy that he even poured oil on his horse.
Hey! You don’t care for animals so much. War horses are friends of mankind.
It's a pity that it's someone else's war horse.
The fire took advantage of the wind and the help of kerosene to explode instantly.
The painful neighing of the war horses woke up the sleeping Russians.
The town is not big, the streets are short, and the special forces have withdrawn to the city gate.
Looking back, I saw a huge pillar of fire rising into the sky from the city.
Most houses in the Northeast are made of wood. Wood is the cheapest here, and wooden houses have a very good thermal insulation effect.
Watching the fire spread rapidly in the direction of the downwind.
The ignited war horses were still running around, setting more buildings on fire.
A large number of people who came to put out the fire were trampled to the ground by the frightened horses, and they did not know whether they were alive or dead.
"Evacuate this city quickly!"
Muravyov wanted to have a peaceful sleep on the shore. For this reason, tonight, he also ordered two female slaves who looked the cleanest.
Who would have thought that after exercising for half a night, I was woken up by the noise outside just after I fell asleep due to exhaustion.
Muravyov thought that one of the soldiers looking after the horses had drunk too much vodka and set the stables on fire.
It wasn't until he smelled the smell of kerosene in the air that he realized that this was a good thing done by the damn Qing people.
These Qing people like to do such sneaky things!
The fire burned all night and before it ended, the Russians had all withdrawn from the city.
There is no need to put out such a fire. Since it is not their own city, there is no need for the Russians to put it out.
Fortunately, the noise made by the war horses was relatively loud, and most of the people woke up. In the end, only a few hundred people were lost.
Most of these people were trampled to death by war horses, and only a few were burned to death.
Standing on the pier near the river outside the city, Muravyov sniffed, the smell of burnt protein still lingering in the air.
This time Muravyov's men lost nearly 2,000 horses, a large part of which were injured after they jostled and trampled each other in a frantic state.
Although some war horses are still alive and can still move with a limp, they can no longer be used as war horses and can only be kept for killing and eating meat.
A Cossack cavalry force of 500 men had been sent out. They chased the "rats" in the direction in which they fled.
War horses are the most loyal partners of the Cossacks. Muravyov does not need any mobilization. These Cossacks themselves want to take revenge on these people.
"Order the fleet to continue setting off!"
A group of armed farmers tiredly loaded the supplies cleared from the city onto the ship.
I originally wanted the team to take a rest, but unexpectedly it made the fleet even more tired.
Don't underestimate this little bit of fatigue. Sometimes if you don't get a good rest, it will have a huge impact on the combat effectiveness of the army.
When people don’t get enough rest, their immunity often declines.
During such long-distance marches, especially long-distance marches in unfamiliar environments, soldiers with weakened immunity are prone to contracting diseases.
Just like what we often say, we are not accustomed to the climate.
In this era, maybe just a cold or fever can take away a person's life.
If it were a contagious disease, it would probably cause a plague among the army.
If a plague breaks out among armies marching in the wild in this era, there is no other way but to hope for early herd immunity.
The fleet continued down the river, and this time Muravyov decided to stay on the boat and not go anywhere.
The fleet was moving forward when suddenly there was a loud noise at the front of the fleet.
Standing at the rear of the fleet, you can see a huge wave of water rushing into the sky.
Splinters of wood and struggling figures can still be vaguely seen in the water waves.
"What's going on?" Muravyov asked the lookout man standing at the top of the gunboat's mast.
"Reporting to Your Excellency the Governor, it seems to be a mine. The gunboat in front of us triggered the mine."
"Minutes? The damn British must have given them to them. How could these Qing people use mines?" Muravyov cursed the British again in his heart.
The Russians fought fiercely but not stupidly. Now that they have discovered the mines, they cannot continue to advance like this.
Some small boats were sent to the front to use such small wooden boats to clear mines, just because the cost of small boats was lower. In fact, it was no different from human mines.
However, the entire fleet had to slow down and follow carefully behind the small boats.
In the half day after arriving home, there were several more explosions, and the mine-clearing boat was blown to pieces.
However, Muravyov felt that it was a very good deal to eliminate a mine by sacrificing a few lives.
In his mind, these Russian peasants and soldiers were like cattle, not worth as much as mines.
Muravyov's fleet moved forward while clearing mines, and the speed did slow down.
On the other side, all the remaining people in Jiangdong have taken refuge in the Daur villages.
With more people, the construction of fortifications went much faster.
The Daur people's village is in a valley with two mouths. It is like a natural city.
At the mouth of the valley facing the river, Bao Youzhi led people to build a civil wall.
There is also a defensive fortification consisting of a trench and a low wall on the outside of the wall. This is the first line of defense, and the wall is only the second line of defense.
After the various villages were transferred, Bao Youzhi sent people to conduct an inventory. Among them, there were more than 12,000 young and strong men.
Bao Youzhi divided them into camps according to the villages they originally belonged to. People like those in Xujiatun were divided into camps with the word "Xu".
This method of dividing camps is very "Qing army". However, these people come from various clan settlements, which is easier to manage. Naturally, the war affairs cannot be left to those who talk about the affairs of the clan. For each camp, Bao Youzhi sent some