Before the winter of the fourth year of Xianfeng's reign, the Arctic advance team occupied Yakutsk.
This was the most important city of Tsarist Russia in Eastern Siberia. It was built on the frozen soil and was also called the Winter City.
The winter here is almost entirely shrouded in darkness, and only the beautiful and coquettish aurora can be seen in the sky.
More than a thousand advance teams stayed here all winter, and only went out to continue exploring when the weather was good.
The Tsarist Russians learned from the indigenous people to use dog sleds to travel in winter. Therefore, many sled dogs were raised in Winter City.
It was through these sled dogs that the advance team established contact with the rear.
There are also many indigenous warriors in the Arctic advance team.
These aboriginal warriors are all led by Lushou, the captain of the aboriginal brigade.
Although Lushou is young, he is very prestigious among these aboriginal warriors.
Because at the beginning Lushou subdued a group of aboriginal warriors who were loyal to him, and then he used these people as the backbone to lead the newly joined aborigines.
Those who disobey management will be severely punished, and those who perform well will receive better weapons and more food. In this way, the Aboriginal brigade established its own system.
Zhao Kun, the leader of the advance team, did not directly interfere with the management of the indigenous warriors. He gave all the power to Lushou and several major commanders.
Similarly, Japan's Tachi team is also managed by Japanese backbones such as Sakai Kogoro.
The expedition work in winter is mainly done by Lushou and his people. Sometimes the Taito team will also follow to cooperate.
They can basically gain something every time they go out to Lushou.
As long as you follow the river, you can always find small strongholds established by the Russians. Sometimes they will also conquer some indigenous strongholds.
After a winter like this, the number of the advance team doubled again, reaching 2,000 people.
The entire lower reaches of the Lena River were cleaned up by them.
The number of indigenous warriors was too large, which also made Peng Yue worried.
Fortunately, the advance team has already made contact with the rear.
In winter, it is also very fast to travel on a sled pulled by dogs or reindeer.
The premise is that you don't encounter a blizzard. After a blizzard in the Arctic comes, the whole world will become completely white, and you can't even tell the direction, let alone hurry.
However, in fine weather, messengers can travel nearly a hundred kilometers a day using sleds and along the river.
After receiving the news, Wang Xiao, who was in charge of Temple Street, felt that running Yakutsk was a major event with both pros and cons.
It is too far away from the rear, it is like an isolated city near the pole, and it is too difficult to supply.
Unable to make the final decision, he could only prepare manpower and material resources while asking Dong Shuheng for instructions.
Finally, Dong Shuheng made the decision to run Yakutsk, a very important place.
If it is managed well, then the Far East will be China's rear in the future.
Because Yakutsk is just west of the Verkhovyansk Mountains, it was an important hub for Tsarist Russia's eastward advance.
Blocking Yakutsk is equivalent to controlling the entire Lena River and connecting the city with Yuehu Lake in the south to form a blockade running from north to south.
In this way, Tsarist Russia would never have the chance to enter the Pacific Ocean from the east.
After the beginning of spring, Dong Shuheng ordered Wang Xiao to dispatch a garrison regiment into Yakutsk and mobilized tens of thousands of immigrants.
They will use Yakutsk as their base to carry out commercial activities with the surrounding indigenous people and engage in some agricultural and animal husbandry activities where conditions permit. They will gradually run the city.
At the same time, a large amount of supplies and building materials were brought here. The immigrants also had another job, which was to strengthen the city.
After someone takes over the city defense, the advance team can return to their original work.
Not only was the city strengthened, but the advance team was also strengthened. According to Zhao Kun's advice, Lin Xiao sent another thousand Japanese swordsmen to Zhao Kun. These people were still selected from the Far East.
They basically have their own industry in the Far East, and they have also brought their family members over to help them manage the industry.
They do not consider themselves Japanese, they just regard themselves as Chinese samurai. Because samurai in Japan are loyal to the daimyo. Now that China is raising them, they naturally regard themselves as Chinese.
They are all professional soldiers.
At the same time, on the basis of the special forces, Lin Xiao strengthened the advance team with an army of 500 people, including a machine gun battery. This way, the advance team had supporting firepower, and its combat capabilities would definitely rise to a higher level.
In this way, the advance team has reached 3,500 people. They can usually be divided into several groups to explore, and the efficiency of exploration has been greatly improved.
In the winter, the advance team had cleared the Tsarist Russian strongholds on the lower reaches of the Lena River.
In the spring of this year, the indigenous people on both sides of the river discovered that the people they were trading with had changed.
The indigenous people here are mainly Yakut Mongols, and they look more like Chinese people.
Therefore, these aborigines felt closer to these new rulers. In addition, Chinese merchants had more abundant products and fairer transactions.
What's even more strange is that there are many aborigines helping them work. There are usually some aborigines in Chinese caravans to help transport and carry goods, and some aborigines who can speak Chinese will also act as translators.
They naturally surrendered to these new rulers again.
After the arrival of spring, the advance team began to explore the west of the Central Siberian Plateau.
They constantly improved the maps in their hands, marked the settlements of the indigenous people, and eliminated all Tsarist Russian strongholds they saw along the way.
Just when Zhao Kun was leading his people to explore the far north in an orderly manner.
A Cossack cavalry force of 10,000 people crossed the Iniese River and was coming northeast.
Their target was Yakutsk, the center of Tsarist Russia in Eastern Siberia.
Because the two sides were heading towards each other, the Cossack cavalry and the advance team met unexpectedly in the middle reaches of the Velyui River. Zhao Kun and the others did not receive news of the arrival of the Tsarist Russian army in advance. After all, in this place, news was delivered by people.
The speed of delivery is not faster than that of the enemy.
The news of Tsarist Russia's attack spread from Tangnuulianghai to Yakutsk, and then to the hands of the exploration advance team outside, which still had to make a big circle.
However, because the number of the advance team was much smaller, it was the Cossack cavalry who were discovered first by the advance team.
What was initially discovered was not a large group of Cossack cavalry, but scouts sent by the Russian army on the northern route.
Zhao Kun and the others set up an ambush point in the woods, and then asked aboriginal soldiers to pretend to be hunters and lead a group of dozens of scouts to the ambush point.
After successfully capturing the prisoners alive, Zhao Kun learned from the prisoners that Tsarist Russia had sent a large army.
He quickly gathered back the dispersed troops.
Then the situation was reported to Yakutsk, which was now renamed Winter City. This name was chosen by Dong Shuheng himself. Everyone thought it was very vivid. The frozen soil here has not changed for many years, and it is indeed like winter all the time.
After receiving the news, the defenders of Winterfell began to strengthen the city's defenses, set up a defense line outside the city, and collected all the caravans scattered downstream to prevent the Cossack cavalry from taking advantage of it.
At this time, the main garrison force in Winter City is a regiment, about 2,000 garrison troops. However, nearly 5,000 militiamen can be deployed in the city. The city can still be defended if the warning is obtained in advance.
This time, we have to thank the Arctic Advance Team. If not for their early warning, Winter City might not have been able to defend itself under the surprise attack of 10,000 Cossack cavalry.
However, life was not easy for the Cossack cavalry on the northern route. They thought they could get supplies from their original stronghold midway before arriving in Yakutsk.
But in fact, all these strongholds have been removed by the advance team. These are small strongholds, which can be defended against the indigenous residents, but they are still far from being able to defend against the well-equipped advance teams.
In this way, there are no Tsarist Russian strongholds within a thousand miles of Yakutsk.
Major General Lermontov, the Cossack cavalry general in charge of the northern route army, decided to spread out the troops and advance.
When the Cossacks conquered the Far East, they used this method.
After being dispersed, the Cossack cavalry could replenish part of their supplies by hunting.
At the same time, after spreading out, their probability of encountering indigenous tribes will be much higher, and the indigenous tribes will usually have a certain amount of food in their hands.
Because it is difficult to obtain food during the long winter in the Arctic, all animals living here must learn to store food.
The way animals store food is to eat desperately and store the food in the form of fat in their bodies, except for squirrels.
Humans can only process food and store it in a form that is easier to preserve.
Robbery of an indigenous tribe is enough for a team to reach Yakutsk.
Zhao Kun was initially planning to return to Yakutsk to help defend the city.
But later, the scouts monitoring the Cossack cavalry reported that the Cossack cavalry actually split up and moved forward.
Zhao Kun seemed to have discovered an opportunity. Facing the tens of thousands of Cossack cavalry, Zhao Kun's three or four thousand men did not dare to stroke their beards, but they actually dispersed on their own.
Isn’t this self-defeating martial arts?
He currently has nearly 4,000 men in his hands, including aboriginal warriors who are familiar with the terrain of the Far North forest, a Tai Sword team who are fearless in death and good at hand-to-hand combat, and special operations elites in the Renaissance Army.
Yakutsk now knows the news and can defend the city even without the presence of their advance team.
And their advance team is an army born for field battles.
If they retreated to the city, they would lose the opportunity to fight these Cossacks in the field.
Therefore, Zhao Kun immediately made a very important decision. He would stay in the wild with the advance team.
They were all familiar with the terrain here. There were even aboriginal warriors in his team who came from these places.
This is Zhao Kun's advantage. Moreover, their weapons and equipment are not at all inferior to those of the Cossacks.
After the Cossacks dispersed, they must have pushed forward in a horizontal line.
What Zhao Kun has to do now is to find the edge of this plane.
They cannot attack from the middle of the Cossacks, otherwise they will be easily beaten by the Cossacks.
Zhao Kun asked all his scouts to dress up as aborigines to conduct reconnaissance activities, so that even if they were discovered by the Cossacks, they would not alert them.
On the Central Siberian Plateau, various terrains such as grasslands, tundra, and forests are intertwined.
Zhao Kun and the others mostly hid in the forest in order to stay hidden.
There are the most prey in the forest, so the Cossack cavalry teams also walk through the forest.
Valery was walking in the forest with his battalion. Due to the terrain, they had to slow down their horses in the forest, and sometimes they even had to lead the horses on foot.
A Cossack cavalry battalion consists of about five hundred people. When they are fully armed, in the past in Siberia, these five hundred people alone could walk sideways.
No native tribe had the ability to deal with five hundred Cossack cavalry.
Valery was not worried about the aborigines. Their only worry was encountering the Chinese army.
Those people's equipment is equally advanced and they are equally brutal.
Along the way, the Cossack cavalry saw many original Tsarist strongholds that had been turned into ruins. This was the work of those people.
While walking, there was a scream in front of him, and Valery rushed over to check.
"Battal Commander, it's an Aboriginal trap." An officer walking in front reported.
Valery saw that it was indeed a primitive trap built by local indigenous people. It was actually a large pit with a camouflage cover and many sharp wooden thorns inside.
This unlucky soldier fell down with his horse and man, and was stabbed to the core.
The inner wall of this kind of trap is not very smooth, that's because the natives don't have the tools at hand.
Valery paid no attention to the unfortunate soldier.
What he thought was that since there was an indigenous trap here, it must be close to an indigenous settlement.
Valery knew that their military rations were in place.
"Everyone, please pay attention. There may be an indigenous settlement nearby." Valery loudly announced to the surrounding soldiers.
The surrounding soldiers were also very excited after hearing this. Maybe it was because they hadn't met anyone for a long time, maybe they were thinking of the upcoming killing experience. Marching in such a deserted place was a kind of torture.
It is also a happy thing to meet the indigenous people, not to mention that discovering the indigenous people means that they can find supplies and vent their anger at the same time.
Valery continued to advance with his soldiers, but more carefully than before.
After walking for a while, someone suddenly screamed again in front of him. This time it was not an accident, but someone shot a soldier with an arrow.
Valery saw that the feather arrows were those commonly used by the natives. He ordered his men to follow the traces and rush forward to pursue them.
The native hunter shot an arrow and ran away very fast.
Valery and the others couldn't go too fast while riding horses in the woods.
But fortunately, I was still able to chase the native.
They chased for more than ten minutes, and just when Valery thought they were about to catch up with the man.
The horses in front fell to the ground one after another.
Valery took a closer look and discovered that there were wires wrapped between the big trees in front of him.
It's impossible to see clearly from a distance.
When they got closer, they saw wires crisscrossing each other, not just in front of them, but also on both sides of them.
Valery just wanted to order his men to retreat.
There were shouts of killing all around, and gunshots were heard constantly.
There were many enemies and they surrounded us from all directions.
The war horse was affected by those wires and could no longer function.
"Dismount and fight!" Valery shouted to the surroundings.
Soldiers kept falling from their horses around them.
Riding on a horse at this time is like being a target for others.
"Quick formation to counterattack." Valery could only temporarily use his men as infantry. They still had flintlocks in their hands to use.
The remaining cavalry quickly lined up under Valery's command and fired at the oncoming crowd.
"Bang bang bang..." Several grenades fell on Valery and his group.
Suddenly a group of people jumped on their backs.
Zhao Kun led the special forces and infantry battalion to shoot from a distance. Lushou and Sakai Kogoro led people to kill from behind the two wings.
Under the suppression of the Baath Army rifles, Valery simply had no way to organize an effective formation.
By the time they were beaten to pieces by rifles, the Tachi team had already rushed into their formation. The natives on the side used bows and arrows to cover them.
The Tachi team and these Cossacks came together to kill. For a moment, blood and flesh were flying, and the scene was extremely tragic.
After all, the number of people on Zhao Kun's side was eight times that of the Cossack cavalry battalion, and the battle ended quickly. All five hundred Cossacks were wiped out.
Next, Zhao Kun used similar methods to eliminate many Cossack cavalry teams.
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