stubborn thief

Chapter 407 Irtysh River

Batuer Huntaiji had already started to reflect before entering Liu Chengzong's handsome tent.

Reflect on whether he was too happy at the funeral and offended the generalissimo.

Because through the opened curtain of the handsome tent, he saw Liu Chengzong sitting on the top chair holding a Junggar musket.

He said to Dai Daozi who was traveling with him: "Anda, go and persuade the commander-in-chief. If you have something to say, why did you use the knife and the gun... Next time, next time, I will stop laughing profusely, can't I?"

Liu Chengzong actually didn't mean that at all. He just wanted to talk to Batur about the situation in Russia, so he asked someone to fetch a Junggar musket from the spoils to see their equipment.

In all fairness, Junggar's muskets are good, and it can even be said that they are very good in manufacturing technology.

Liu Chengzong had previously received a report from Wang Wenxiu, who said that the caliber of the Wala musket was slightly larger than that of the bird's gun, so its power and range were better than that of the bird's gun, but the disadvantages were different calibers, different lengths, and different shapes.

It can only be said that they have roughly the same appearance.

The musket in Liu Chengzong's hand is no exception. Its caliber is slightly larger than that of the bird's musket and slightly smaller than that of the heavy musket.

Liu Chengzong was convinced that this musket was made by Junggar, and it was definitely not bought from Russia, Ottoman and other countries.

Because this long matchlock gun is made very carefully and is very solid.

Needless to say, the gun barrel, the screw and the reed of the gun tail to seal the door are all forged.

However, the trigger for firing the blunderbuss, the faucet lever for clamping the matchlock, and even the round iron pillar that fixes the blunderbuss machine on the wooden blunderbuss bed all have hammer marks and wear marks on them, all of which are hand-crafted and polished.

Also because it is hand-made, Liu Chengzong believes that the workmanship of these parts is better than that of the Marshal's Mansion musket, after all, the casting is not so strong.

In the gun factory in the Marshal's Mansion, these small parts that are not stressed are all cast.

Because of this, Liu Chengzong dared to be sure that this musket was made by Junggar independently. After all, Jungar could not cast iron.

His conclusion was correct, but the reasoning process was wrong. In fact, neither did the Russians. The Russians only burned the first furnace of pig iron in the first year of the eighteenth century.

Before that, all their farm implements were made of wood.

Metallurgy is a precious science and technology in the world, and there are extremely strong technical barriers. Only East Asians in this era think that it is not the case. This is also the secret that even small countries in East Asia can imitate guns and artillery immediately.

Because for them, all the advanced weapons of this era are just design issues, not technical issues.

When Dai Daozi entered the account and relayed to Liu Chengzong Batur Huntaiji's apology for the funeral gaffe, Liu Shizi couldn't laugh or cry, and said: "You let him in, what's the blame for this, I'm looking for him to ask the Raksha Kingdom thing."

After hearing Dai Daozi's remarks, Batuer Huntaiji entered the account with a smirk on his face, and said with a smile: "The commander wants to know what's going on with them, so I'll tell you everything I know."

As he said that, he remembered something, turned around and said a few words to the attendants waiting outside the tent, then turned around and said, "I'll ask someone to present the map of Oirat that I drew."

Liu Chengzong nodded, raised his hand to signal Batur Huntaiji to sit down, and asked the guards to pour two bowls of milk tea, and then said: "I heard that you are fighting, have you been in contact for a long time?"

"Contact, in the north of Kazakhstan, there used to be a khanate named Shibier. Their khan surrendered to the Raksha people, and was later overthrown by Kuchu Khan. After being defeated, Kuchu Khan ran into Zaisang Lake in Junggar and stole our Junggar kept chasing the horse until he saw the Rakshasa man."

Batur Huntaiji pulled out from racking his brains to recall historical stories: "If we count from then on, we have been in contact with them for more than 40 years."

As he said that, he laughed and said, "That's my grandfather's business. Junggar is still a small army, and it can only dispatch 6000 people at most."

Liu Chengzong took a sip of milk tea, raised his hand as a signal, and said to Daozi Dai: "Ask him, how he thinks of Raksha people after all these years."

"What do you think of Rakshasa people?"

Batur Huntaiji was a little confused about Liu Chengzong's question. To be honest, he had never thought about this question, and he didn't know what words were suitable to describe them.

He thought for a long time, and finally found a suitable word: "mosquito."

"Mosquito?"

Batur Huntaiji was very sure, and even rejoiced that he had found such a suitable word: "Yes, they are mosquitoes, which live in places with lush aquatic plants. If they are killed this year, they will reappear next year, unlike wild animals that will Kills, but gets bitten upsetting."

Liu Chengzong narrowed his eyes, what kind of evaluation is this?
He never dreamed that after decades of fighting, Junggar Taiji would comment on the Russians in this way.

Seeing that Liu Chengzong was dissatisfied with his evaluation, Batur Huntaiji began to imagine again, thinking that Liu Chengzong asked the Raksha people for the safety of the garrison, and worried that he would deceive him.

But Hun Taiji didn't know how to explain it, and when he was scratching his head in anxiety, his attendants handed over the map to Liu Chengzong's guards outside the tent.

This made Junggar Taiji very happy, and hurried forward to take the map, and pointed to Liu Chengzong: "Look, Marshal, this is the territory of Oirat, the Yili River, Chu River, Talas River, north to Omu The river is the pasture land of Junggar."

This map is not drawn precisely, and it doesn't even match the location of the map in Liu Chengzong's impression, but it can probably be seen that Junggar has a large territory.

Then Junggar Taiji pointed to the northwest and north of the grazing land on the map, and gestured with his hands while talking, saying: "This north-south river is called the Irtysh River, and the east-west flow in the middle is the Omu River. The city of Tara was built far to the north of the Qis River."

Liu Chengzong nodded, got a general impression of Junggar Taiji's description in his mind, and asked: "Your pasture is south of the Omu River. Why don't you continue to the north? Is it because of the cold?"

continue north?

Batur Huntaiji leaned back, as if he was thinking about this problem for the first time, in fact, it was indeed the first time he was thinking about why the pasture didn't continue to go north.

Considering nature is fruitless.

"It's cold everywhere."

Batur Huntaiji shook his head, and muttered something again, which made Dai Daozi burst into laughter.

After a while, when Dai Daozi recovered, he translated seriously to Liu Chengzong: "The further north of the Omu River is a swamp, so it's really not easy to herd sheep."

Liu Chengzong was also amused by this answer. It seems that he took it for granted. What motivation would the Junggar people have to go to the place that the little lamb refused to go?

He probably understood the situation between Junggar and the Russians. It was similar to Ming and Mongolia, but the roles were reversed. This time Junggar had a taste of facing the northern captives.

"There is a swamp that is difficult to move between you and the Raksha people. It is difficult for infantry and cavalry to pass, but the Raksha people attack you through water?"

Liu Chengzong felt that his conjecture should be right this time, but he did not expect Batur Huntaiji to shake his head again, saying: "They are few and dare not attack us, but they always rob the Tatar and Kyrgyz tribes that pay us tribute. , so we always have to fight them."

"There are four months a year when the ground is covered with heavy snow and you can't walk there, and you can't walk in the swamps and mud for four months. It takes a month to walk there, so prepare for a year, and you can only beat them for a few days."

Batur Huntaiji was very upset when he talked about this matter, and spread his hands: "Even if we win the battle and burn the fort, we can't take it. They can't raise sheep in those places. When we go there next year, hundreds of people will come by boat again." Build a wooden castle."

He shook his head and said: "So we don't fight with them now. There are many salt ponds on the east and west banks of the middle reaches of the Irtysh River. If they want to eat salt, they can no longer attack my tribute people and sell me things, but This is a temporary solution, and this problem will never be resolved."

"I thought Tara was their important town, but it wasn't; I also thought that Tyumen was their important town, but it wasn't either...Let's do this first, it's better than letting people freeze to death all the time."

Batur Hun Taiji sighed heavily, very frustrated.

In fact, he didn't say some things, but he and Liu Chengzong had a tacit understanding.

Just as Liu Chengzong knew, until the Marshal's Mansion fought a big victory within a thousand miles of Oirat, Oirat would never truly surrender.

The reverse is also true, before Oirat can threaten Moscow's important town thousands of miles away, it is impossible for the Russians to stop moving eastward.

But at this time Liu Chengzong was in a good mood.

Batur Huntaiji has much more knowledge about the geography of Siberia and the intelligence of the Russians than he imagined.

He asked with interest: "What is their marching method, and how big is the army?"

"They went to some places to build castles along rivers. The wooden castles had towers, which were easy to defend and difficult to attack; in winter they used birch sleds to march quickly, and when the snow melted, they used boats, some small boats, and some six or seven feet long. It’s a big boat with five or six cannons of five or six hundred catties, called Zika.”

Dai Daozi said and shook his head: "Marshal, I don't know what Zika means... Hui Taiji said that the army size is about 600 guarding the fort, and the brigade marches out in full force, [-] people, equipped with guns , well-equipped and messy in color.”

Liu Shizi nodded slowly as he listened, portraying in his heart an image belonging to the Tsarist Russian Expeditionary Team, a strong soldier and a shrewd commander.

He had just finished the war with the Oirats, and he fought face-to-face with the Oirats led by He Shuote for a whole day to understand the quality of the Oirats.

Not to mention how strong it is, at least all the ministries have cohesion, can fight against the wind and can carry it against the wind, have a commander who commands properly, soldiers who fight bravely, have all the weapons and armor they should have, and it is a regular army.

As long as the army can meet the most basic conditions, it is possible to win against any army at the same time.

'Maybe' is very important, for example, if the enemy's general is not smart, if he fights without water and food, he can win.

Like the army that boasted of Taiji in the past, thousands of people were pulled out in a mighty manner, with less than a hundred collars of armor, a few hundred iron knives, and arrow clusters that were either stones or bones... It would be difficult for any regular army of any big country. Gotta get spanked.

Even the Ming army without water and food can still beat them all over the ground, because before knowing Liu Chengzong's ostentation, the army can actually match the peasant army of Li Wanqing and Luo Rucai, not the regular army.

If an expedition team of more than 1000 people like this dared to confront Junggar head-on at the northern foot of the Tianshan Mountains, even if it came ten times a year, Junggar would eat it to the bone.

However, with the advantage of swamps and rivers, only more than 1000 people can compete with a large tribe like Junggar that can mobilize tens of thousands of herders, and even eat away at the land bit by bit.

In fact, before that, the image of the Tsarist Russian Expeditionary Army in Liu Chengzong's mind was a group of brave, fearless and brutal Cossack cavalry.

But after talking with Junggar Taiji today, Liu Shizi overturned this impression.

They are very smart and pay attention to strategy and tactics.

Grasslands and plains are the cavalry's paradise. The most important thing on the grasslands is the river, because horses need to drink water, and drink a lot of water, so whoever controls the river can control the grassland.

"How is it?" Liu Chengzong took a sip of milk tea, clapped his hands with a bright smile and asked, "Do you have any idea of ​​going back into the swamp and burning down their fortress?"

Hearing his words, Batur Huntaiji smiled very tiredly, and slowly shook his head: "After so many years, they can't do anything. Anyway, it is difficult for them to win a frontal battle. Before we are ready, we will I don't intend to fight them again."

After all, he seemed to rekindle his fighting spirit: "If necessary, I will attack Tyumen again to frighten them, and then I will deal with Yang Jier in Kazakhs with all my strength. After taking Yang Jier, I will be able to go all the way west and threaten the people in the southwest of the Ural Mountains. Ufa, that's their main town."

"Ambitious!"

Liu Chengzong praised him, but he didn't quite agree with Batur Huntaiji's plan in his heart.

Not to mention whether Junggar can make Kazakhs surrender, even if the Marshal's Office provides support to Junggar and allows Huntaiji to win the war, will Kazakhs turn around and surrender to Tsarist Russia in the face of Junggar's feud?
Furthermore, if this war is protracted and has no results, and Tsarist Russia still avoids all powerful enemies in northern Siberia and invades eastward as it is, then what good will it do me to support you so much?
Liu Chengzong felt that Batuer Huntaiji had to change his mind. If he couldn't be persuaded, he had to work with the Tsarist Russian expedition team in the north.

"He built a wooden fort by the river, and you are also building a fort by the river. You burn bricks and rammed earth. You are not afraid of fire or guns. The build is stronger than theirs. You are not bad, but you lack some skills."

Liu Chengzong raised his hand and patted the table lightly: "I'll sell your cannon again, just the cannon they put on that ship, the Zika ship, five or six hundred catties, and I'll build it for you."

Batuer Huntaiji's face turned bitter: "Commander, I am very grateful for your help, but you don't understand. After building a fort, you can't keep it. They come and go quickly on the boat, which is meaningless."

"There is one thing you may not know, Hui Taiji, defecting to the Marshal's Mansion is the most correct decision you have ever made in your life."

Liu Chengzong shook his head with some emotion, and turned to look at Dai Daozi: "Dai Daozi told him that our Marshal's Mansion...has a navy!"

　good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)