Dominate the Country

Astrakhan is located in the delta of the Volga River, where rivers crisscross and the scenery is beautiful. Beautiful white cranes live on large wetlands and beautiful sea lotuses grow.

After hundreds of years of reclamation, the fields outside Astrakhan are crisscrossed, and Russian farms dot the green land. As the center city of the Russians in the Caspian Sea, Astrakhan has a population of 70,000, and the total population of the surrounding villages and towns is no less than 200,000. They farm, graze, and fish here. As business gradually develops, agriculture, animal husbandry, and fishery continue to rise, laying a solid foundation for the development of the city of Astrakhan. However, the burning of war forced the Russians living here to leave their hometown.

Thousands of Russians left their homes under the swords and guns of the Chenhan cavalry, and their weeping soaked the land of the entire Volga Delta, but the weeping of men, women, old and young could not move the hard-hearted Chinese. They could only take their own utensils and belongings as much as possible and leave their homes.

Of course, there were also thousands of young Russians who rode on war horses, picked up swords and guns, and organized to resist the invasion of Chen Han's army, hoping to cooperate with the defenders in the fortress to resist the Chinese army. But before the death of Major General Opokrov who was defending the fortress, they had been strangled by the enemy's cavalry.

On the way to Astrakhan, the Russian army could see the bodies of Russians hanged and tied to wooden poles at many intersections. This made the Russian army furious. Later, Alexander I heard the news and specially sent a message to Bagration, asking him to properly place the bodies of the murdered Russian heroes.

This did not add much trouble to the Russian army's journey, because the latter's base was very small. But it brought the fighting spirit and courage of the Russian army to a new level, and Alexander effectively condensed the Russian army's military spirit.

On the entire Astrakhan battlefield, the Russian army used a total of 300 cannons, and they relied on the wide Volga estuary to establish a solid position. Ships shuttled on the river. The dredged Volga River waterway was the best helper for the Russian army's logistics supply.

The civil structure was the main body of the position, with a few concrete fortresses dotted among them. As the tactical support point of the defense line, it was certainly not as good as Astrakhan, but it was better than Turinsk. And the Russian army was transporting more and more reinforced concrete from the rear.

The firepower of Chen Han's side had already exceeded 300 cannons. The two sides launched a violent artillery battle at the outer defense circle of Astrakhan. The Russian army had more than 50,000 soldiers deployed on the battlefield, and the army deployed by Chen Han on the outer position had nearly three brigades [30,000 people]. The two sides fought fiercely, and both sides suffered heavy casualties.

Bagration returned to the rear position with a dusty face, and he was so angry when he saw the Wehrmacht fortress in front of him. If his memory is correct, there was no such fortress in the original Astrakhan defense system. Obviously, this was built quickly by the Chinese after they took Astrakhan. Codenamed Fortress 015, this position is called Position 015. Because the terrain here is measured to be 15 meters in relative height.

The Russian army has launched many attacks on this fortress, but they were all repelled by the defenders.

But Bagration didn't care about this. Didn't the two attacks fail? Then come the third time. Bagration must take down the opposite fortress. If he takes this place, he can split the outermost defense line of the Chinese.

Cut it into two sections from north to south, and cooperate with the frontal attack horizontally. It can be said that this circle is taken.

Pan Chang, who was inspecting the battlefield and boosting the morale of the army under the order of Commander-in-Chief Chen Wei, immediately realized the seriousness of the situation when he passed by the rear of this fortress. He immediately mobilized the nearest regiment of the Khoshut Khanate Guard to urgently reinforce the fortress. Among the 140,000 or 150,000 troops of Astrakhan, 60,000 to 70,000 were infantry and cavalry troops of the Seven Khanates!

The Khoshut Khanate was a khanate with the Mongolian tribes in Qinghai and northern Liangzhou as its main body. Its population was even smaller than that of the Torghuts, because the Qinghai Mongols were severely injured by the Qing Dynasty in the Lobsang Danjin Rebellion, and only about 20,000 people were left after the war. When Chen Han rose, Qinghai went through war again. When the Khoshut Khanate was established, the population of Qinghai Mongols was less than 50,000.

So even though the Khoshut Khanate was a combination of Qinghai and northern Liangzhou Mongols, its population was still behind that of the Torghuts.

The entire Khoshut Khanate had no standing division-brigade military units. A guard army covered everything, of which there were only three guard infantry regiments of a thousand people, and their main force was cavalry.

The Russian offensive was fierce. Although Bagration did not lead the troops again, the Russian offensive troops were full of fighting spirit. Even some of the previously scattered hunters, infantry, and even the lightly wounded were excited and followed the offensive troops into the battle.

When the Khoshut Guards arrived, the defenders fought very resolutely. Pan Chang personally went to the front line with his guards. A bloody fight lasted from four in the morning until dawn.

At dawn, looking down from the sky at the ground, corpses were everywhere and blood was flowing. The corpses on several breastworks were piled up like hills, and the trenches were eager to be filled.

"Brothers! This fortress is the motherland, and we must defend it with our chests!"

Yermolov shouted loudly.

After a bloody battle, the Russian soldiers finally took the fortress. Their offensive was so fierce, their attitude was so firm, and they were completely at all costs.

How could they dare to make such a big sacrifice with the strength of the Russian army?

Chen Wei held his chin and looked at the map, thinking at the same time.

In addition, he was still waiting for good news from Pan Chang. He believed that Pan Chang's counterattack would definitely win. After the bloody fight last night, the nerves of the Russians would tremble even if they were made of steel.

And this time Pan Chang's attack was not to be launched after sunset, but had already been launched. At ten o'clock in the morning!

Chen Han retreated from the 015 position, but this did not mean that the outer position of Astrakhan defended by Chen Han was lost. Whether it was the current Chen Han or the previous Russians, the defense of Astrakhan was a wide and deep space, and the position on the west was more than enough to accommodate two Turinsk battlefields.

This was where the two or three hundred thousand troops on both sides wrestled, not a small battlefield of 50,000 people like Turinsk.

Chen Wei didn't know that when the Russian soldiers attacked Astrakhan, thousands of Russians had dredged the Volga River bit by bit, and the warships of the Russian Caspian Fleet had already reached Turinsk. The power of the warships was rapidly improving the safety of the Volga water transport. The cavalry and scouts sent by China could continue to sabotage, such as firing cold guns, laying mines, and burying mines, but this could not cover up the fact that the Russian army's use of the Volga River was on track.

The Russian Caspian Navy warships may appear at the mouth of the Volga River one day in the near future, and Chen Han's transportation and supplies can also be transported by sea from the east coast of the Caspian Sea to Astrakhan, saving a lot of energy. But the transportation of Chinese military supplies to the west coast of the Caspian Sea is itself a huge expense.

The situation of the two armies has changed a lot compared to the Battle of Turinsk.

A daytime battle broke out on the Astrakhan battlefield because of Pan Chang's counterattack.

It was almost noon, and from afar, the battlefield was covered with smoke and dust. A large number of soldiers were crawling on the battlefield. Sometimes you could see a thin line of columns, and soon they turned into scattered soldiers like stars in the sky; then, the formation became chaotic, people fled back like a swarm of bees, the dead and wounded fell to the ground one by one, and the horses without their masters were running wildly; after a while, new columns and squares moved forward, and the flow of people was like a tide, rising and falling, back and forth. The defeated team was retreating, and the new team was replenished, engaged in hand-to-hand combat, and then was defeated again, followed by another fierce artillery battle.

This battle seemed to be going on endlessly and repeatedly, and no one knew when it would end.

Because both sides had a solid rear area to rely on, such a fight, which did not hesitate to expose a large number of troops to the coverage range of shotguns and rockets, would be difficult to completely defeat one side. Because when their army was declining, they still had a solid "fortress" to rely on. And the commanders on both sides have a large number of reserve troops in their hands!

This is very different from the field battles like Napoleon's.

The roar of the cannons spread to dozens of miles away, and even the air was trembling in the sound of the cannons. The huge echo ripples on the 20-kilometer-wide Volga estuary. Countless homeless Russian civilians listened restlessly to the cannons coming from afar. They knew that this battle would determine the fate of Russia and their fate.

If the Chinese won this battle, the lower reaches of the mother river Volga would not be inferior to Russia. Their homes and their fields would never be taken back.

Alexander I was sitting in a command post 20 or 30 miles away from Astrakhan at this time, silent and unhappy. He rarely asked about the progress of the battle, and his entourage didn't know what was wrong with the emperor.

To the east of the command post, Bagration was also sitting in his command post at this time. If he hadn't been shaking the whip in his hand, and if he hadn't been using the whip to draw something on the map from time to time, the people around him would have thought he was asleep.

Bagration was very thin, completely different from the obese Kutuzov. The latter's clothes could probably fit two Bagrations.

Bagration, who was famous in Europe as a representative of the young Russian army, was actually no longer young. He was already 48 years old. The only thing about Bagration that was still as "young" as a young man was his fighting spirit.

So his temples had white hair and he wore a flat military cap. He sat steadily on the big square stool, calm and silent, but still looked very imposing.

At this moment, the two armies' commanders were competing, a fierce competition.

Just look at the situation on the battlefield, and think about the significance of this battle and the history of the entire war, and you will understand that Chen Wei and Bagration's apparent indifference was just to cover up their inner tension.

The two armies on the battlefield were evenly matched, and their commanders were not genius commanders or wise decision-makers. The only thing they wanted was to make sure they made the fewest mistakes.

Whoever made the fewest mistakes would gain the upper hand. Seizing the opponent's mistakes and giving them an unexpected blow would make them appear more powerful and more likely to win.

They all knew that even if they put more troops on the 015 position, they would not win immediately.

Once a little more force is pulled out to carry out maneuvers in some key places, it is possible that one will be weakened, and the result will be either being defeated before the maneuver is successful, or causing irreparable disaster due to the failure of the maneuver.

So this battle is very critical. It is like a node. Whoever wins the victory will control the node; whoever controls the node of the war will have a greater chance of winning the final victory.