After Gao Yun destroyed the less than two thousand Cossack cavalry, he continued to advance north.
He asked Gesr to lead his tribal warriors to collect the cattle and sheep robbed by the Tsarist Russians and move them with the army. These cattle and sheep would become military rations that could be made by themselves.
Just like the Mongolian army during Genghis Khan's time, they started an expedition with cattle and sheep. These cattle, sheep and the towns they encountered along the way were their source of military rations.
Gao Yun chose to move along the Ob River instead of the Iniesei River.
The reason is that Tsarist Russia developed earlier in the Ob River Basin, and Tomsk, Tsarist Russia's largest city in Siberia, was a few hundred kilometers away from the Tannu Ulyang Sea.
The Iniesei River Basin is relatively desolate, and its strategic value is far less than that of the Ob River Basin.
Tomsk is located on the right bank of the Tomi River, 50 kilometers away from where the Tomi River flows into the Ob River, and is located in the southeast of the Siberian Plain.
It was one of the earliest strongholds established by Tsarist Russia in Siberia.
There are abundant water resources and abundant forest resources here. Immigrants from Tsarist Russia opened up a large number of fields here. Therefore, it developed into a regional central city.
In the 17th century, this was a major fortress for Tsarist Russia to defend against the nomads in the south.
However, with the conquest of the nomadic peoples in the south by Tsarist Russia, it gradually became an inland city and gradually developed into the political, economic, cultural and educational center of Tsarist Russia in Siberia.
The Tsarist Russian government established many schools here, including some institutions of higher learning.
Gao Yun looked at the map for a long time and felt that this was the most valuable target.
Although there are many small strongholds of the Tsarist Russians along the river, those small strongholds are of little value, and even if they are taken down, they will not cause any damage to the Tsarist Russians.
There is only Tomsk, where hundreds of years of hard work of Tsarist Russia have been gathered. If Gao Yun can attack or destroy this city, Tsarist Russia will definitely pay a heavy price.
Many of Dashengkui's guys had been to Tomsk. Gao Yun brought them in and learned in detail about the situation along the Ob River and Tomsk's defense facilities.
The next step is to formulate a detailed battle plan during the march.
Gao Yun and his team's logistics situation, especially their ammunition situation, could not support them in a long-term battle.
So Gao Yun planned to go directly to Tomsk, destroy the city, and then return the same way.
He had to kill it as quickly as possible without giving the remaining troops of Tsarist Russia too much time to prepare. Otherwise, he would not be sure to capture the city.
In Ulan-Ude, Lu Guoyi and his soldiers were still organizing their positions.
He had no objection to the military department transferring him from the Cavalry Brigade to the Fourth Division as deputy division commander.
Dong Shuheng personally wrote him a letter, allowing him to bring the spirit of crossing the grassland to the Fourth Division. Lin Wei was under great pressure to be responsible for the Fourth Division alone. He also had to take care of the entire Black Dragon Military Region, and the area under the jurisdiction of the Black Dragon Military Region
Too broad.
The Black Dragon Military Region also has garrison troops and cavalry troops, so there must be a capable general to help Lin Wei share the burden.
Teng Ziquan was a very smart man and a good general. Lu Guoyi was very relieved to have him command the Second Cavalry Brigade.
Teng Ziquan's only problem was that he took a Tsarist Russian woman as his wife, but his wife's natal family were all pro-Chinese Tsarist Russians.
Teng Ziquan's father-in-law has been helping the Fuxing Army to take care of the prisoners.
In this battle, Lin Wei handed over the final Ulan-Ude to Lu Guoyi. The battle to defend Ulan-Ude was not easy. They had to rely on five or six thousand regular troops plus a similar number of militiamen to block it in the early stage.
The attack of 30,000 Tsarist Russian troops.
Ulan-Ude did not have a very thick city wall, and the whole city was very small. The original wooden structure of the city wall could not stop the enemy's artillery fire.
Therefore, Lu Guoyi was never prepared to just guard the city wall. The city wall was only an artillery position and the last line of defense in the city.
On the outskirts of a small city, Lu Guoyi dug a huge trench three to four meters wide. All the excavated soil was piled behind to form a gentle slope. In order not to block the artillery's firing range, the gentle slope was not built very high.
But such trenches are enough to prevent the enemy from charging into the city in groups.
Behind the gentle slope is a wooden fence, and the logs are buried deeply in the soil. The enemy can climb over, but when they climb over the wooden fence, they will become the target of the Renaissance army.
Two hundred yards behind the wooden fence is another trench. This is a shooting trench used by the infantry. The soldiers of the Renaissance Army will stop the enemy here.
This defense system fully takes into account the advantages of the Baath Army rifles.
But it also has an important loophole, that is, the Renaissance Army does not know that most of the Russian army has replaced rifled guns.
This caused the Renaissance Army to suffer a lot at the beginning of the defensive battle.
Ulan-Ude was built along the river. The area near the river bank was the easiest place to defend. There was no open space between the city wall and the river bank.
The Selenge River flows south of Ulan-Ude and merges into Moon Lake.
Tsarist Russia's army will inevitably cross the river upstream or downstream.
According to the Baath Army's plan, they would not prevent the Russians from crossing the river.
The battlefield for the final decisive battle was just outside Ulan-Ude.
Khristenko brought nearly 30,000 troops along the way, and except for seeing many original Tsarist Russian strongholds reduced to ruins, he encountered no resistance.
As for the scouts who dispersed, they would occasionally meet the scouts of the Second Cavalry Brigade of the Renaissance Army on the way, and then a small-scale encounter would break out.
Often when this happens, the scouts of the Second Cavalry Brigade are driven away far away.
It seems that the other party does not want to fight with them, or it may be that these Chinese troops are not capable of fighting with them in the field.
Khristenko was not in a good mood. Tsarist Russia had been operating around Lake Baikal for hundreds of years, and now it can be said to have been destroyed.
His heart was filled with revengeful rage, but he was still very rational. He knew that Governor Muraviev fell into the hands of these people.
Khristenko could confirm that these people were not Qing troops. Their equipment and dress were more like Western troops.
The news of the establishment of China had not yet reached Khristenko's ears, so he still classified these people as a Chinese armed force supported by Britain and France.
He also knew that this army was equipped with rifled guns and had a very unique fighting method. They did not use line formation tactics.
In addition, the artillery of this armed force is also very powerful.
The advantage Khristenko has now is that he seems to have more troops than his opponent. This cannot be confirmed, it is just a conjecture.
On the other hand, all the soldiers he brought this time were the most elite Tsarist Russian soldiers. The Tsarist Russians were always full of confidence in their soldiers.
Another point is that they have switched to rifled guns, and the other party may not know this yet. This is also a condition that Khristenko can take advantage of.
Khristenko is not a general, he is actually a politician and an excellent conspirator.
He would leave matters of war to the generals.
When they arrived at the southern shore of Lake Baikal, Khristenko sent a team of envoys to the Mobei Grassland.
This is politics.
On the one hand, this team of envoys can explore the situation there, and on the other hand, if it is still under the rule of the Qing court.
He wanted to try to unite the careerists there. The nomads on the grassland were not a whole.
They work independently, and the leaders of each tribe have their own ideas. As long as they operate well, they can easily be used for their own purposes.
This is Khristenko's experience on the Kazakh steppe.
At the beginning, Khristenko bought the large and small underground tents of the Kazakh Khanate, and first let the northern tents surrender to Tsarist Russia.
Then they pressed forward step by step, and finally merged the entire Kazakh steppe under the command of Tsarist Russia.
Of course, this is also inseparable from the threat of the large number of military fortresses built by Tsarist Russia in northern Kazakhstan.
Khristenko didn't know much about the Mobei Grasslands. Tsarist Russia didn't have much influence there. Most of the original spies were lost in Kyaktu, so he could only send people to try first.
The envoy did not go to Kyakhta. Kyakhta used to be an important stronghold of Tsarist Russia in the north of the steppe. Everything west of Lake Baikal fell, and Kyakhta was bound to be occupied by this armed force.
Because Khristenko asked the envoy to bypass Kyaktu and directly enter the grassland to contact those tribes.
Tsarist Russia's army did not stop, and the war must end before winter comes.
The calm and steady Khristenko also established a series of military stations along the way to prevent his retreat from being cut off, although he knew that this possibility was slim.
Following the path once taken by the pioneers of Tsarist Russia, Khristenko led the army to finally reach Ulan-Ude.
Khristenko chose to take a detour to the east and cross the Selenga River from the upper reaches.
When crossing the river, the Tsarist Russian army was also very cautious. The commander of the army deployed artillery positions on the river bank in advance to prevent sudden attacks halfway across the river.
However, they thought too much again, and the enemy did not take advantage of the Russian army to cross the river to launch an attack.
This is very unreasonable. Even non-military personnel like Khristenko find it unreasonable.
No matter what, the Tsarist Russian army is closer to the goal of this battle.
When they approached Ulan-Ude, all the doubts in everyone's minds were explained.
You can see that perfect defenses have been built outside the city. How much soil has to be dug!
No wonder these armies didn't attack us. It turned out that they were all hiding in this turtle shell.
By the time winter comes, if the Tsarist Russian army cannot break open this turtle shell, then the Tsarist Russian army will be considered defeated.
Khristenko felt as if he had captured the other party's thoughts. The other party wanted to trap him here, just like Tsarist Russia dealt with Napoleon.
When winter arrived, Khristenko and his troops had nowhere to stay and had to retreat.
When the time comes, these enemies will definitely not let Khristenko and his soldiers retreat.
When they arrived outside Ulan-Ude, the first thing the Russian army did was to build a camp outside the city.
No matter what, the city must be surrounded first.
In the temporary camp, Khristenko and several of his generals were holding a pre-war meeting.
"Generals, you have all seen that the enemy is hiding in the city of Ulan-Ude. This may explain why we were not attacked on the road. It seems that the enemy's strength is not as rich as we imagined."
Khristenko expressed his judgment, and the army generals present nodded in agreement.
"I have said before that the Chinese do not have the guts to fight with us in the wild. They like to hide in the city and shoot guns and arrows. This has been their tactic for hundreds of years." said a somewhat arrogant general.
"However, it is undeniable that they should have a strong fighting capacity." Khristenko added. He was worried that these people were too complacent.
"Don't forget that Governor Muravyov once organized a large army to go down the Amur River, but the result was that the whole army was annihilated." Khristenko reminded.
Some generals said in their hearts that Muravyov's 50,000-strong army was just a name, and most of them were armed peasants recruited temporarily.
"Everyone remember that the rifles used by these enemies are said to be breech-loaded rifled guns. They have a long range and a fast rate of fire. However, the stability of the guns is somewhat poor and cannot be used for a long time."
"So, I think that when we attack, we should use a new type of skirmisher line to attack. The attack should be sustained and use the gaps between them to maintain their guns to break the enemy's position." Khristenko put forward his own suggestion.
The command of the army will be under the responsibility of Lieutenant General Vladimir Vysotsky, commander of the Army's Second Siberian Division. The lieutenant general has the final say on how to attack in the end.
Vladimir Vysotsky nodded after listening to Khristenko's words. What the Governor-General said was very reasonable.
But Lieutenant General Vladimir had seen the enemy's defensive positions.
This city has been transformed into a fortress by them. It is extremely difficult to attack it in a short time.
"Beyond the Governor, this city is not easy to attack. Tomorrow we will send two regiments to launch a tentative attack on the east side of the city to explore the opponent's strength and firepower."
"The cavalry unit led by Major General Klinsky is responsible for security work around the encirclement." Lieutenant General Vladimir continued.
The three infantry divisions will each be responsible for the siege work of one city wall. As for the city wall facing the river, because the Russian army does not have decent ships, they can only give up.
Lieutenant General Vladimir also deployed artillery positions.
Because intelligence shows that the other side has artillery with better performance, in order to prevent being bombarded by the other side when deploying artillery positions.
The lieutenant general scheduled the deployment of artillery in the evening of that day.
Soldiers will use sandbags packed in advance to build a strong shield for the artillery. When attacking during the day, their artillery positions will not be passively attacked.
On the first day, neither side fired a single shot, and both sides made their preparations tacitly.
In an underground command room in Ulan-Ude City, Lu Guoyi was also making final arrangements before the war.
"Everyone has seen that the strength of the Russian army is about 30,000. And this time, they seem to be regular troops, not militiamen. This can be easily seen from their uniforms."
"We have already planned this strategy when we set up the position, which is to use our fortifications to consume the enemy. We tell the soldiers not to rush to shoot, but to move the enemy closer before attacking, so that we can kill a large number of people.
The enemy's flintlock muskets are not effective until within a hundred yards."
"This time we are defending the isolated city alone without any reinforcements or supplies." The command given to us by the headquarters is to hold on for half a month."
"Everyone, the combat goal of our theater is not to defeat these Russians who have come from afar, but to completely eliminate them."
"Ever since we started the war with the Tsarist Russians in the Far East, every battle has been a war of annihilation, so I hope everyone will not disgrace the prestigious name of our Black Dragon Military Region this time."
Lu Guoyi began to assign tasks. He divided the infantry regiment and garrison regiment into three.
A battalion of the army, a garrison battalion, and two thousand militiamen were mixed together to guard one city wall. The engineer battalion contributed the most to the civil engineering work, and was now responsible for the security work on the southern city wall, so they should be given a rest.
The artillery regiment will be the first to take action tomorrow, so we need to recharge our batteries today.
Lu Guoyi felt that tomorrow's battle must start with the artillery battle. If he wanted to gain an advantage in the subsequent city defense battle, he must take the lead in destroying the enemy's artillery, or at least inflict heavy damage to the enemy's artillery.
ps: It’s a pimple on my butt, not hemorrhoids, no! Please don’t get in trouble with my anus.