Dominate the Country

The sun was shining and the warm wind was blowing.

"Go..."

A long team of heavy carriages drove into the Russian Novokuznetsk Fortress north of Lake Zaisan. This city, which has been built for more than a hundred years, seems to have gone through a complete cycle, from a military fortress to an ordinary city, and then from an ordinary inland city to a military fortress again.

The Russians spared no expense to turn a wooden city into a concrete fortress. They adopted the invention of British engineer J. Smeaton and burned a large amount of hydraulic lime at all costs. It can be regarded as the original version of modern European cement, which is not much different from the cement used on a large scale by Chen Han. After more than three years of construction, the fortification of Novokuznetsk was completed.

Now the Novokuznetsk Fortress has become a barrier for the Russian army on the northwest battlefield to prevent the Chen Han National Defense Army from attacking the West Siberian Plain. It is located in the southern part of the Kuznetsk Basin, where the Tom River and its tributaries, the Aba River and the Kondom River, converge. The general location is between the Ob River and the Yenisei River. It is one of the key defense areas of Russia on the West Siberian Plain. As far as the entire war situation is concerned, the city can play a strategic support role for one day in the hands of the Russians.

The billowing black smoke and white water vapor spread out. There are rich coal and iron resources around Novokuznetsk. In recent years, the Russians have also built a medium-sized iron smelting plant and a small arsenal here. There are not many guns and cannons manufactured here, but the damaged guns and cannons can be repaired here, which is very important.

Therefore, black smoke and white fog have become the symbol of this fortress.

Before the convoy stopped completely, the supervisors holding sticks and whips shouted at the coolies who were lying on the ground in the sun, and while shouting, they also whipped with sticks and whips in their hands.

"Stupid pigs, you bunch of stupid pigs, all get up! Unload the goods!" The leading supervisor was a middle-aged fat man over 1.8 meters tall. He waved the whip in his hand to scare the supervisors, and his red nose was so dazzling.

The scene was in commotion. The coolies all stood up, gathered their sleeves and waited at the parking area. There were few Slavs among these people, all of them were Tatars, Kazakhs, or Poles exiled from Eastern Europe, while the supervisors were almost all Slavs, and the few exceptions were also Russified Poles.

Heavy carriages stopped in the field, and some coolies cooperated with the coachmen to unload the horses. The tall heavy draft horses were sweating all over, and in the sun, their fur seemed to be covered with a layer of bright crystal.

Opening those stuffy carriages, more coolies came in groups to move various goods from them.

Russia has also stepped up transportation construction in Siberia in recent years, especially the flat West Siberian Plain. Although they cannot invest astronomical sums like Chen Han in water and land transportation, they have more or less had a certain transportation foundation in the past hundred years. The reconstruction on this basis has also made their troop deployment and material transportation much faster.

The Russian army's materials are just like the military supplies of Chen Han's National Defense Army. They need countless vehicles and horses to transport them to the front line like ants moving.

Their transportation conditions may not be as good as Chen Han's, but Russia also has an advantage that Chen Han does not have-heavy draft horses.

One by one, the horses that were freed from the ropes were pulled to the horse pen, panting while lowering their heads to drink water, or eating grass and black beans in big mouthfuls. And the long dragon composed of countless heavy carriages was now paralyzed in the field like a dead snake.

The closed carriages were opened one by one, and the carriages were filled with bundles of coats and blankets, strings of shoes and hats, boxes of muskets, grenades, rockets, sabers, breastplates, and barrels of gunpowder. However, in some carriages, Russian-style "national curses" were heard:

"Сука, блядь, чтотытампиздишь?..."

"Хуйсним, япош?л, нихуйянебудуделать...."

"You bastard, what are you talking about?" The right thing to do is to leave here quickly.

"Fuck their genitals, I'm leaving, and I won't do anything else..."

One by one, Russian soldiers wearing dark green and bright red soldier coats jumped out of the carriages impatiently. Each of them wore a new style tall hat with thick and dense feathers. The color of the collar and cuffs was bright red, and the red shoulder straps also indicated their qualifications. Such uniforms were the new uniforms that the Russian Empire began to replace two years ago, but they have not been fully popularized in the army until now.

In the current Russian army, the troops that can all change into new uniforms are either the St. Petersburg Guards or the real elite troops. For example, the team in front of them is the famous old elite Moscow Grenadiers. What they hold in their hands is not the low-quality Tula muskets, but the Brown Bess flintlocks from Britain.

This time, each of them was also equipped with a leather backpack, which was a cylindrical bag. Each soldier was also equipped with a saber, a brass handle saber, and a dark brown leather scabbard. The ammunition bag was inlaid with a Russian double-headed eagle copper metal plate, and grenades were hung on each corner of the leather cover of the Moscow Grenadiers' ammunition bag. Then there was a water bottle in each hand, which was usually fixed on the backpack for easy carrying, and the bottle cap also served as a water cup.

This kind of military uniform, especially the uniform of officers, was very gorgeous. Embroidery, edging and bright color decorations were the three magic weapons that European officers' uniforms of this era could not do without.

The coolies were surprised to find that these stuffy carriages were not all loaded with ordinary goods, but also with tall and strong Russian soldiers.

The sensible coolies immediately became silent, and without being reminded by others, everyone dodged to the side and lowered their heads to do their own work.

Only when the busy work was over and it was time to eat did they talk to each other in their ears with interest.

It turns out that Novokuznetsk is not a supporting role in this war, but the protagonist. So many elite soldiers are coming...

The army that arrived today is about the size of a battalion, so the defenders of Novokuznetsk are almost 3,000. But this is not the final number, there are still trains below...

While the laborers were busy, the soldiers in the carriages had already jumped off the trains and lined up on the platform. They didn't know that all this was seen by a Polish supervisor.

The supervisor's status is much higher than that of the laborers, and he can get a lot of information that the laborers can't get access to. The laborers muttered only superficial things, and when it came to dinner, the news circulated in the mouths of the supervisors was really valuable.

This army that was stuffed in a jar is the old elite of the Russian army-the Moscow Grenadiers Regiment. This is just a little bit of the vanguard, and the main force is still following behind. The entire Russian plan will transport ten full battalions of troops to the Novokuznetsk Fortress, and the total strength of the fortress will reach 10,000 by then. These 10,000 people will be organized into a newly formed Siberian Army. Well, this army has only one Siberian Division. Obviously, the Russian army is not just going to play a defensive war in Novokuznetsk, they also want to attack and counterattack.

Going south from Novokuznetsk, they can threaten Lake Zaysan and take into account the Tannu Uriankhai region.

"So, the maximum Russian force deployment is only 10,000 people?"

"The force is not too many. But those people seem to be the elite of the Russians, and their momentum is very fierce. The military appearance is neat and well-equipped. They all have British guns in their hands."

"The ammunition boxes are quite heavy, but it feels that there are not many of them, but they are very big."

On the battlefield in the northeast, Chen Han has tasted the Russian rockets; and on the battlefield in the northwest, the 30,000 people led by Wei Xiuzhi have fought with the Russian army several times and tasted the Russian rockets. The power is really not small.

…

There were so many people inside and outside the Novokuznetsk Fortress that they didn't notice that in a certain inconspicuous restaurant, several people gathered together unconsciously, and then dispersed unconsciously after muttering for a while.

Chen Ming continued to advance to the northwest. His goal was Yili, where he could directly command the overall situation in the northwest. Along the way, he would also meet with the indigenous representatives along the way and allow officials to meet him. This was a decision he made when he set out from Nanjing.

Finally, when Chen Ming arrived in Yili, it was already July. The war in the northwest had been going on for three or four months.

The war between the enemy and us was not going smoothly, because no matter how many troops we had, we were blocked outside the city when facing the fortress. But under the offensive launched by Chen Han, the situation of the three Kazakhs had already had a final result.

Abben's son Wali Khan was far from his father's cunning and unyielding tenacity. After Abben's death, although he continued to maintain his father's foreign policy, not offending Russia and Chen Han, and continued to walk a tightrope in the middle, he was unable to stop Chen Han's influence from slowly spreading in Zhongyuzi.

There was no way, the days of Ablis Khan in Dayuzi were envied by too many people on the grassland.

Especially after the population of fine-wool sheep expanded little by little, the entire Dayuzi had another source of income that was not worried about sales. The per capita income and living standards of the entire tribe were improving in great strides.

To be honest, wool is not worried about sales at all. Even if it is sold to the Russians in the north, the latter will definitely want as much as they can.

Russia's wool spinning has always been constrained by the limitation of raw materials and insufficient production, but Russians really can't do without wool spinning.

After the outbreak of the Second Sino-Russian War, the Lesser Juz Achuwak Khan, who was forced by Russia to recruit soldiers to join the war, finally chose to side with Chen Han. Achuwak did not dare to be an enemy of Chen Han. The Middle Juz Wali Khan did not last long. Under internal and external pressure, a small-scale coup took place in the Middle Juz royal court. Then the Middle Juz, which had cleared the internal pro-Russian faction, also chose to side with Chen Han.

Chen Han's years of hard work in Kazakhstan finally reaped huge fruits.

Wali Khan's younger brother, Kasim Sultan, commanded 6,000 Middle Juz cavalry, joined with 4,000 Small Juz cavalry led by the Small Juz Jongjula Sultan [son of Achuvak Khan], and 10,000 cavalry led by the Great Juz Sultan Sergri, a total of 20,000 Kazakh cavalry, together with the Mongolian cavalry, which was just as many, and cooperated with the National Defense Army, and had already divided and surrounded Pavlodar, Barnaul and the Omsk Fortress at the confluence of the Om River and the Irtysh River, and surrounded these three important Russian cities.

Pavlodar, like the city of New Khabarovsk, is a city that rose because of the war. It is located in the Irtysh River Basin, on the Sino-Russian dividing line, and can be said to be the first line of defense in the war.

The first city that Wei Xiuzhi encountered after he led his troops from Zaisan Lake was this city. His sudden attack was discovered by the Cossack cavalry when he was more than a hundred miles away from the city, and it was impossible to achieve the effect of a surprise attack. So for this city, Wei Xiuzhi surrounded it but did not attack it.

Barnaul is located on the left bank of the Ob River. It is the mining and smelting center of non-ferrous metals in the area east of the Ural River. For example, copper, lead, zinc, tin and other metals are mostly produced here.

So if you want to weaken the combat effectiveness of the Russian army, you must surround this place and cut off the traffic.

The Russians are very short of lead, and this shortcoming has not been solved even in the Red Empire era. And in this era, bullets are made of lead metal. The consumption and importance are no less than in the Red Empire era, right?

As for Omsk, it is the largest population gathering place in Russia in Siberia and one of the most important cities. It is not only a water and land transportation hub, but also a military and political center.

Of course, Chen Han has to surround this first.

In the staff's scheduled plan, the battlefields in the early stage of the war in the Northwest Military Region are these three places.

If the Russian troops in these three positions are not solved first, don't expect to deal with the West Siberian Plain and then Orenburg.

As for the Novokuznetsk Fortress, to be honest, the General Staff did not take it seriously. Because it is 700 to 800 miles away from Tannu Uriankhai, and at least 1,000 miles away from Zaysan Lake. If there was time, the Northwest Military Region would have reacted long ago.

As long as the Russians dare to send troops and stop hiding in the fortress like turtles, the Northwest Military Region will dare to eat him!

So, now the situation in the northwest has become a bit of a stalemate.

Chen Han took the initiative to attack, but he only surrounded and did not attack in the war; the Russians were passively defensive, but they were just turtles who dared not show their heads.

When Chen Ming arrived in Yili, he saw the situation in the northwest like this. He really hoped that the Russian army in Novokuznetsk could really go south to attack Zaysan Lake.

Intelligence shows that the Russians have gathered tens of thousands of troops there. If they don't plan to counterattack, the Russians will be crazy, and where will they mobilize so many troops and materials?

According to the strength of the Novokuznetsk Fortress, it would be enough to put three or four thousand soldiers inside.

At this time, when Chen Ming arrived in Yili, a high-level Russian military combat meeting was also underway in Tomsk.

The meeting was chaired by Peter Alexandrovich Rumyantsev, the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Russian Army. He was a famous general of the Tsarist Russian Army in Europe and was awarded the rank of Russian Field Marshal in 1770.

In 1748 (the last year of the War of the Austrian Succession), he participated in the Rhine Expedition and left a glorious record.

As a meritorious veteran in the Tsarist Russian Army, Rumyantsev was originally the commander of the army group in the Southern Army. Unfortunately, he disagreed with Potemkin, the commander-in-chief of the Southern Army, and was eventually kicked to the East.

There was no way, Potemkin was a favorite of Catherine II. Even though his tactical command ability was always questioned by the government and the public of St. Peter, Potemkin was promoted to Field Marshal four years ago and then became the first person in the real sense of the Tsarist Russian Army.

Perhaps the Queen's love for Potemkin was no longer as good as before, because Potemkin, who had become the second most important person in Russia, would undoubtedly hurt his relationship with Catherine II because of some power issues, not to mention that Catherine II had a young man named Platon Zubov, but Rumyantsev was still kicked out.

The total number of Russian troops on the Eastern Front was less than 100,000 [excluding the Torghut tribe], which also included the Russian-Qing coalition forces in the Governor-General's District along the Amur River. Rumyantsev's troops may not even be 60,000, because the number of troops given by the Russian Army was all on paper, saying that there were 65,000 people, but they themselves did not know how many vacancies there were in fact.

The total number of troops under Rumyantsev's command could only reach this number, and of these 60,000 people, about 20,000 were tied up in three besieged cities/fortresses such as Barnaul. Then the troops were divided to guard local strategic points, and another 10,000 Russian troops were gathered in Novokuznetsk. Rumyantsev had only a little over 20,000 mobile forces.