Lermontov dispersed the Cossack cavalry in his hands in battalions and did not ignore them.
The distance between each battalion is about ten kilometers, which is to ensure timely communication and prevent accidents from happening to a certain Cossack cavalry battalion.
If there is no contact when the time comes, it means there is a problem with the other party.
As Zhao Kun and the others killed five Cossack cavalry battalions in one go, Lermontov finally discovered something was wrong.
In fact, they should have discovered it long ago, but Zhao Kun and the others happened to wipe out these cavalry battalions in order from north to south, so there was a time lag for them to contact each other.
The information that many of his teams had lost contact finally reached Lermontov's ears.
Realizing that something was wrong, Lermontov immediately issued an order for his men to move closer to him.
Lermontov's central army was the largest of all the detachments. The only cavalry and artillery regiment in the team followed him, so he always had about 3,000 soldiers and horses around him.
On the other side, Zhao Kun had long known that the Cossack cavalry would shrink back after being attacked.
Next, the opponent will definitely find ways to target themselves and try to surround and annihilate their team.
If he were the opponent's general, he would not allow a tail to follow him when he went to attack the city.
It is still a tail that can be seen.
In the camp of Tsarist Russia's Northern Route Army, Lermontov was convening his generals to discuss how to destroy this Chinese army.
"Based on what we know so far, this team started attacking from our northern side. They number about three to four thousand people, some of whom are equipped with extremely long-range rifles. Others are equipped with cold weapons.
, and even some indigenous people." Lermontov introduced the current situation.
They can't tell the difference between the Chinese and the Japanese. These Taito teams now wear relatively light armor distributed by the Renaissance Army, and have long abandoned their original Japanese-style heavy infantry.
Therefore, in Lermontov's opinion, this army is composed of Chinese and indigenous people.
"I plan to catch them first. This group of troops has a strong ability to fight in the field. If they keep causing trouble behind us when we attack the city, then the logistics supplies we applied for from the rear will definitely not be delivered.
."
Lermontov was coming to attack the city, so he would not rely on hunting and robbery to solve his logistical problems. Those methods could only meet temporary needs.
So after discovering that all the strongholds on the road had been removed, Lermontov sent people to the rear to request logistical support.
I believe that it won't be long before the supplies from the rear cities will be delivered to us. The prerequisite is that the logistics supplies must be delivered safely.
For the safety of the logistics line, he also had to annihilate this miscellaneous enemy force.
Lermontov didn't know why the other party had to piece together such an army. Could it be that the other party's troops were insufficient and did they really need to recruit these indigenous people to supplement their strength?
Lermontov also spent many years in Siberia, and he knew the character of these natives.
If these natives are armed, their personal combat power is still very good, but these natives cannot be managed in the army at all.
You have no idea what's going on in their heads.
Moreover, the Tsarist Russians were always on guard against these natives. Tsarist Russia had a vast territory and sparsely populated areas, and there was no way to immigrate to Siberia on a large scale. They could only exile some criminals here.
This made Tsarist Russia always feel insecure. They were worried that the indigenous residents would come out to make trouble.
Therefore, they did not dare to arm and use these indigenous peoples.
However, according to the reports of the soldiers who escaped, these Chinese people equipped the indigenous residents with bows, arrows and muskets. This would cause trouble.
These natives were good at hiding and assassinating, causing a lot of damage to the Cossack cavalry.
When Lermontov was preparing to encircle and suppress the advance team led by Zhao Kun, Zhao Kun was already moving to Lermontov's rear.
He just asked Lushou to lead this part of the tribal warriors to stay and create traps to confuse the enemy.
In any case, the advance party slowed down the enemy.
In Temple Street, the center of the Far East Province, Wang Xiao has sent a reinforcement force consisting of an infantry regiment and a cavalry regiment to Winter City.
In order to prevent possible dangers at sea, Wang Xiao could not send out all his troops.
Moreover, around Winter City, China has no other strategic locations that need to be defended, so what the local garrison has to do is to protect Winter City.
The enemy came with cavalry, and attacking cities was not their specialty. Under the defense of Winter City garrison and militia, the city should not be lost.
The purpose of sending reinforcements is to prepare to destroy this group of enemies. After all, this group of enemies is cavalry. If the opponent's general takes the risk and bypasses Winter City.
Then the Far East Province that China has worked so hard to build may be in danger.
The cavalry of the fifth division advanced towards Winter City first, and the infantry followed behind and marched steadily.
This long-distance march in the Far North was also a test for the Fifth Division. After all, they will be stationed here for a long time in the future and must adapt to marching in the Siberian climate environment.
Lermontov was currently playing a cat-and-mouse game with Zhao Kun and others on the Central Siberian Plateau.
In the jungle, they were dragged around by tribal warriors led by the deer leader.
They attacked, and Lushou and the others fled. The tribal warriors were good at shuttling in the forest, and their speed was only slightly faster than these Cossack cavalry. Although these Cossacks had horses, they couldn't ride fast in the forest.
They stopped, and the deer head also stopped, and sometimes there would be a night attack. When Lermontov sent people to pursue them, they would fall into the trap set by the deer head again.
Lushou and the others will not only set the most primitive traps of the tribesmen, but they also have grenades and landmines in their hands.
Hand grenades tied with horsehair can easily be used as booby traps in the woods. Mines are buried along the path they must take to escape.
Lushou and the others could accurately avoid the mines they set, but those who pursued them would suffer.
Lermontov was so determined to catch Zhao Kun and his group that he was completely unaware that he seemed to be being led by others.
At this time, Zhao Kun's main force had already reached Lermontov's rear.
On the only road from Tomsk to Winter City, a huge baggage team was moving forward at the fastest speed.
After Khristenko left with his troops, he handed over the logistics supply task to his deputy Boris.
To be honest, it is very difficult to provide logistical supplies for an army of 50,000 people in Siberia.
Khristenko divided the army into three marches, further exacerbating the difficulties of logistical supply.
Fortunately, according to the original plan, the supply of the partial divisions on the South Road and North Road does not require rear supply. The North Road should be logistically supplied from the strongholds along the way.
Naturally, the Cossack cavalry on the southern route will feed on the Kazakhs, drink on the Kazakhs, and finally recruit Kazakh herdsmen as forwards.
But now people from the north route are sent back to ask for supplies. But Boris's troops have been sent to the middle route to deliver supplies to Khristenko, and so far no logistics supply team has returned.
Who will deliver the supplies to the North Road?
Finally, Boris thought of the Tsarist Russian businessmen who gathered in Tomsk after the spring. They gathered from all over Siberia to Tomsk for their annual trading activities.
Just like the merchants who gathered in Almuhabai.
The merchants gathered in Tomsk were mainly merchants from the upper reaches of the Ob River.
In Siberia, following the river is the most convenient way after spring.
Because when the weather warms up, the permafrost in southern Siberia will melt, and the snow will melt, making the roads extremely muddy. However, Tsarist Russia did not invest too many resources in building roads in Siberia.
After the merchants completed the transaction in Tomsk, they had nothing to do for the time being. So Boris outsourced the transportation of materials to Lermontov to these merchants.
The huge baggage convoy that Zhao Kun intercepted in Lermontov's rear was composed of Tsarist Russian merchants.
This team was not small, and there were thousands of guards. They felt that with more than 10,000 Cossack cavalry ahead of them clearing the way, there would be no danger at all.
So along the way, this baggage team moved with great swagger.
There were nearly a thousand caravan guards armed with flintlock guns in their ranks, so there was no need to worry about the aborigines.
They never expected that the enemy, who was supposed to be on defense, would actually touch the rear of the Cossack cavalry.
This attack on the Tsarist Russian logistics convoy went extremely smoothly. Faced with the long-range firepower attack of the advance team, the flintlock guns in the hands of these caravan guards were of no use at all.
When their number was reduced to a certain number and they were ready to escape, the Tachi team who had already circled to the rear rushed out in time and broke into their camp.
These supplies did not reach Lermontov's hands, but they solved Zhao Kun's immediate needs first.
Like Tsarist Russia's Northern Route Army, Zhao Kun also lacked logistical supplies.
Desolate Siberia is fair to everyone.
Only the advance team had established secret logistics supply points in many places before, and could barely survive the entanglement with the Russian Northern Route Army in the wild.
This batch of Tsarist supplies for 10,000 people included flour, horse feed, gunpowder, and even liquor, which made Zhao Kun grin from ear to ear.
My own supplies are not as good as those of the enemy.
Zhao Kun ordered people to move all these supplies and hide them in a secret supply point. Then he disappeared again with the entire team.
After learning that his logistics supplies had been robbed by the Chinese.
Lermontov was furious and led his team to fight back. But they missed again.
The supplies were gone. I thought that these Chinese people would not be able to move quickly with the supplies, but these people disappeared without a trace.
He didn't know that all the supplies had been hidden by Zhao Kun.
Unknowingly, Lermontov had been supported by Zhao Kun and others on the road for half a month.
The people eating horse chews in the past half month have already exhausted all the supplies stored in Lermontov's team.
Originally, this batch of supplies arrived as life-saving supplies for them, but unexpectedly they were robbed by these Chinese people.
Now the remaining more than 7,000 Cossack cavalry are completely in a dilemma. Either they go to Yakutsk now and search for supplies around Yakutsk, or they can capture Yakutsk.
Now Lermontov has no idea how many defenders there are in Yakutsk.
These thousands of Chinese troops also need logistical supplies abroad. Where do their supplies come from?
There are still these people who insist on dragging themselves out in the wild. Is it because the troops in Yakutsk are empty?
Various questions kept popping up, making Lermontov's thinking a bit confusing.
Without supplies, he had no choice but to reorganize his troops into parts, and he could not let the soldiers starve beside him.
In the end, Lermontov chose to continue advancing towards Yakutsk. The Cossack cavalry never retreated without even seeing the target.
Lermontov can't lose this man.
So after a lot of trouble, the Cossack cavalry on the northern route lost 3,000 troops. All logistical supplies were cut off, and they returned to the starting point again.
This time Lermontov sped up. He thought that as long as he reached the gates of Yakutsk, all the enemies would appear.
Ergoo Kalun, Qiqiqi Kalun, Kuitun Kalun, Boluohuzir Kalun, Hengol Elong Kalun, Huifan Kalun, the above six Kaluns are in the western border of Ili and Talbahatai
Together with Karen, they guarded the original border between the Qing court and the Kazakh Khanate.
Chichikkaron is located between Lake Balkhash and Mount Irgaitu in the south.
Here is another long and narrow passage between Mount Ilkatu and Lake Balkhash.
Every year, some Kazakh nomadic tribes sneak from here to the Ili Valley for summer grazing. Every year, soldiers stationed in Karen intercept a large number of people.
The soldiers stationed in Karen here are not only soldiers from the Eight Banners, but also Han soldiers, many of whom are from the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty.
After Qianlong, the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty began to be abolished in various places. In order to resettle these people, the Qing government moved a large number of them to border areas to garrison.
The families of these soldiers in Kalunli also live here. They take turns stationed in Kalunli and return home to take care of them after taking a break.
Luo Dalin is over forty years old and can be considered a veteran in Karen, but he still guards Karen.
Because if he is not stationed here, he will have to let his son take his place. Therefore, although this veteran's face is full of traces of time, he still sticks to his job of guarding the border.
The wind by the lake is very strong. Everyone stationed on the shore of Balkashhu is dark-skinned, not from the sun, but from the wind here.
It's already July, the middle of summer, but the nights here are still very cold. It's okay to be close to the river. If you go further east to the desert beside the Ili River, the nights there will be even colder.
Sometimes when encountering some familiar Kazakh tribes, Luo Dalin would also let them pass through.
However, they will charge a certain number of livestock as tolls.
This thing can be regarded as a little extra income for the soldiers guarding Karen.
The wages of the garrison guards guarding Karen were pitifully low, and their main reward was the farmland allocated to them on the banks of the Ili River.
The Ili River originates from the Tianshan Mountains and flows into Lake Balkash. It is a major river in the Western Region.
The valley area in its upper reaches is fertile and suitable for farming, and the high mountain slopes far away from the river have very good alpine pastures, suitable for grazing.
The downstream area has a lower altitude, but is arid and rainless. Only both sides of the river are nourished by the Ili River and can be developed into farmland.
The area far away from the river is a large area of the Gobi desert, which is later known as the Sareyeshik Atre Desert in Kazakhstan.
If the Kazakhs want to enter the Western Region, they can only advance along the Ili River. The rest of the country is desert and is not suitable for marching at all.
Along the Ili River, the Manchu Qing Dynasty built a total of eight cities, the most famous of which was Huiyuan City, where General Yili was stationed.
At this time, there was a huge crowd outside Huiyuan City, and all the original officials lined up outside the city gate.
Because Zuo Jigao's army arrived in Huiyuan City today. He officially accepted control of the Western Region from the hands of General Zarafentai of Ili.
And Zarafentai can continue to hold an official position in the Chinese government because of this merit.
When he personally handed the general print in his hand into Zuo Jigao's hands, Zarafentai felt relieved.
The Western Region is not that easy to manage, and the internal and external problems are very serious. Zuo Jigao took over a critical task.
How many problems are coming one after another, and how many challenges are waiting for Zuo Jigao to overcome?
ps: I have to go back to work to change my shift tomorrow. I am busy during the day, so there may not be two updates, only one update tomorrow night.