Daming: Apocalypse of Longevity

Chapter 202 Battle of Lake Baikal
The Russians were still two or three miles away from the Ming army, so they began to shoot at the Ming army. Seeing that the Ming army did not move or escape, they fired more vigorously.

Mangui sneered and said to himself: "We're so close, we can't even hit him, and the Russians' fire blunderbuss isn't that good either!"

Even though the Ming Army's previous fire cannons were not as good as those of the Russians, after becoming familiar with the Ming Army's new fire cannons over the past year, Man Gui's vision has long since become higher and he looks down on these backward gadgets.

Man Gui did not hesitate, and immediately raised his hand, and the soldiers in the front row immediately raised their fire cannons. With Man Gui's wave of his hand, thousands of fire cannons were fired in unison, and they rushed to Ross, one mile away. The man immediately fell off his horse.

The Russians neither expected that the army in front of them had firecrackers, nor did they expect that the Ming army's firecrackers were more advanced than theirs.

Seeing that all the Russians were shot down and dismounted, dozens of Ming troops immediately rushed forward on horseback to check, and kidnapped the Russians who were lucky enough to survive without being hit in any vital parts.

But Mangui couldn't understand what the Russians said, so he had to take these Russians to the Brigadier Tribe to see Arut. After all, the Russians had negotiated with the Brigadier Tribe many times, and both parties should Still able to communicate.

Arut naturally expressed a warm welcome to the arrival of the Ming army. Perhaps the various atrocities committed by the Russians here left such a bad impression on the Burgati people that the Ming army's "polite "It seems extremely friendly to them.

Especially yesterday, the Ming army returned the bodies of the Buriyat people and gave them gold and silver cloth as compensation, which made the Buriyat people have a good impression of the Ming army.

Of course, the attitude of the Buriyat people towards the Ming army was also determined to a large extent by the strength of the Ming army. The Ming army was so powerful that the Buriyat people did not even dare to think of confronting it. , so the Buriyat people naturally accepted the olive branch offered by the Ming army to the Buriyat people.

When Mangui brought up the newly captured Russians, Arut and all the Bligati leaders stood up in surprise.

Mangui said with a smile: "Don't panic, Khan. These Russians were just caught by me on the south bank of Lake Baikal. This general wanted to go to Lake Baikal early this morning, but he happened to bump into the Russians. These people The Russians are so audacious, they dare not run away when they see our tomorrow's army, but they dare to attack me, they are really overestimating their own capabilities!"

It took Arut a long time to recover from the shock. He forced a smile and saluted Mangui: "The Great Tomorrow Army is mighty. The Russians are naturally vulnerable to the Great Tomorrow Army!"

Arut immediately ordered people to hold a banquet with wine to entertain Mangui, and also ordered people to slaughter cattle and sheep to comfort the Ming army.

After that, Mangui handed over these Russians to Arut for interrogation. At the same time, seeing how the Burgati people hated the Russians, he promised Arut to send these Russians to Arut after hearing the news. Leave it to the Buri Yat Department.

During this period, Arut also casually asked about the details of the Ming army's encounter with the Russians. Arut was even more shocked when he learned that the Ming army defeated nearly a hundred Russians with just one salvo.

Through the conversation with Arut, Mangui also roughly understood why the Russians still dared to attack the Ming army in the face of tens of thousands of Ming troops.

On the one hand, the Russians regard the Ming army as a backward nomad. Another important reason is that these Russians have never seen an army of tens of thousands in battle, and have no idea of ​​the number of troops. After all, they only pass through from a distance. If you look at the front of the team from one angle, you can't tell the difference between thousands of people and tens of thousands of people.

That night, the Ming army was temporarily stationed in the southeast of Lake Baikal, adjacent to the settlement of the Baliyadi tribe.

Man Gui carefully checked the firecrackers of the Ross people, and found that the firecrackers of the Ross people were also flintlock guns, but their barrel materials were not as good as those of the Ming army, and the gunpowder was also of inferior quality than that of the Ming army. The range and power of fire cannons are much worse than those of the Ming army.

But since the Russian fireguns are also flintlock guns, it means that the Russians are not far behind the Ming Dynasty in the technology of making fireguns, and the possibility that they have more advanced firearms cannot be ruled out.

Mangui immediately wrote a memorial about the current situation of the march and the situation of the Russians, and sent someone back to the capital along with a Russian firecracker. At the same time, in the memorial, Mangui also stated his intention to occupy Baikal. The idea of ​​​​consolidating the rule over Lake Baikal and then slowly moving westward into the Ural Mountains was written in.

Although they have traveled thousands of miles to the capital, it may take a month to wait for the emperor's reply, but it will take a certain amount of time for the Ming army to exterminate the Russians in Lake Baikal and gain a foothold here.

Early the next morning, Mangui began to order people to build a castle on the southeastern shore of Lake Baikal. At the same time, he sent two cavalry teams of [-] people in two groups around Lake Baikal to explore the whereabouts of the Russians.

The team that detoured from the south shore of Lake Baikal soon returned news that there was a Russian stronghold on the southwest shore of Lake Baikal, opposite the current Ming army station. Because the number of Russian troops in the stronghold was not known, it was known that The army did not dare to attack it rashly, but sent people back to report the situation to Mangui and ask Mangui to make a decision.

For the sake of caution, Mangui personally led the troops, carrying two heavy artillery and a hundred tiger squatting artillery, and rushed to the southwest shore of Lake Baikal. After setting up the artillery, he started bombarding the Russian stronghold.

The Russian stronghold was a civil structure, which could not withstand the bombardment of the Ming army's steel cannons. After several rounds of artillery fire, it was blown to pieces, and the hundreds of Russians inside hurriedly fled out of it.

When the Ming army saw someone escaping from the stronghold, they began to bombard them with Crouching Tiger Artillery. The Russians were bombarded and couldn't distinguish between east, west and north. They rode horses around and trampled on themselves, killing many people.

Man Gui looked at these Ross people with military binoculars, and shook his head immediately, "Damn it, I'm blinded by these shells, how can I use these things to deal with such bastards!"

Afterwards, Mangui directly sent a team of cavalry to suppress them, and within a short while, these Ross people were dealt with, and dozens of Ross people were captured.

After this battle, Mangui could finally see that although these Russians showed off their power against the nomads, once they encountered a well-equipped regular army like the Ming army, they were completely vulnerable to a single attack.

Therefore, in the follow-up battle on Lake Baikal, Man Gui never used steel cannons again. He just equipped the cavalry team with dozens of tiger squatting cannons to blast the wooden strongholds of the Ross people. That's enough.This wooden stronghold on the southwestern shore of Lake Baikal is the largest stronghold built by the Ross people around Lake Baikal. Although the Ross people have many strongholds along the shore of Lake Baikal, the other strongholds are only garrisoned by dozens of people. Xiaomuzhai is even more vulnerable.

The Ming army experienced almost no decent battles along the way, and easily wiped out the Russian strongholds along the shores of Lake Baikal and surrounding areas, wiped out nearly a thousand Russians, and captured hundreds of Russian prisoners alive.

After receiving Mangui's memorial, Zhu Tianqi expressed strong agreement with Mangui's idea of ​​consolidating his power in the Lake Baikal area and building a large fortress.

First of all, Zhu Tianqi also believed that the Lake Baikal area was a treasure land. Firstly, the water source problem was solved, and secondly, the food problem was also solved by relying on the lake. Lake Baikal's aquatic products are very rich, enough to solve the army's food problem.

Secondly, the Ming army was already nearly five thousand miles away from the Ming Dynasty. Although it was connected with the strongholds built by the Ming army along the way, the safety of the transportation of the Ming army's armaments, food and wages could be guaranteed, but it was limited by the transportation efficiency. In the Lake Baikal area, it takes at least more than half a month to arrive, and it will take even longer to catch up with the bad weather of wind, sand, rain and snow.

Therefore, if a large stronghold of the Ming Army could be established in the Lake Baikal area, more military supplies, food and wages could be stored here, providing sufficient logistical support for the Ming Army's westward march into the Ural Mountains, and becoming a stable rear area for the Ming Army in Siberia.

As for the situation of the Rus people mentioned by Man Gui in the memorial, Zhu Tianqi had already known it through historical records, so he was not surprised. It was precisely because he knew the true strength of the Rus people that he had the confidence to send the Ming army Go and seize Siberia.

Zhu Tianqi also took a closer look at the Russian firecrackers. It was not surprising that the firecrackers they used were flintlock guns. Westerners had already invented and started to widely manufacture flintlock guns at this time, but they were limited by their smelting technology. And the level of craftsmanship, the range and power of the flintlock gun are still limited.

In the next 200 years or so, it will be the era of flintlock guns, and it is impossible for Westerners to create more advanced firearms in advance.

The Ming Dynasty's flintlock guns relied on the technical support provided by Zhu Tianqi and were manufactured using modern industrial technology. They were close to the pinnacle of firearm performance in the era of flintlock guns.

Therefore, in terms of weapons and equipment, Zhu Tianqi is not worried that the Ming army will be at a disadvantage, and even if Westerners can create firecrackers that are comparable to those used by the Ming army, Zhu Tianqi still has enough confidence in the combat effectiveness of the Ming army. .

After all, looking around the world, I am afraid that no country can yet form an army that can rival the Ming army in terms of quantity and individual quality.

Zhu Tianqi wrote back to Man Gui, asking him to follow his own plan and go ahead with it. He also told Man Gui that there was no need to worry about military supplies, food, and wages. The imperial court would continuously send him military supplies, food, and wages. Go to Lake Baikal.

It was already the end of May when Mangui received Zhu Tianqi's reply. At this time, Mangui had already wiped out the Russian strongholds around Lake Baikal, and at the same time rebuilt the Ming army's strongholds based on the Russian strongholds. Compared with the Russian strongholds, the Ming army's strongholds and fortresses were larger and stronger, and each stronghold was equipped with a fort, equipped with steel giant cannons and tiger crouching cannons.

After witnessing the invincibility and invincibility of the Ming army for more than a month, the people of Arut and Brigadi finally made the decision to surrender to the Ming Dynasty. In the face of absolute strength, they had no other choice.

After accepting the surrender of the Brigadier Tribe, Mangui's movement in this area became more convenient. Not only could he get help from the Buriyati people in building fortifications, but he could also get some livestock from the Buriyati Tribe as meat. Class supplies.

Although Mangui, as the commander-in-chief of the Ming army, could accept the surrender of the Brigadier Tribe on behalf of the Ming Dynasty, he had no right to canonize Arut, so he still had to report the matter to the court and wait for the court to issue orders to Arut. of canonization.

At the same time, after receiving Zhu Tianqi's permission, Mangui vigorously expanded the Ming army's stronghold on the southeastern shore of Lake Baikal, and on the other hand began to send troops to march towards the West Siberian Plain.

Because Mangui had learned that the West Siberian Plain was dominated by forests and was not suitable for large-scale combat. In addition, the combat effectiveness and number of the Russians were not a concern, and there was really no need to mobilize troops.

Therefore, Mangui ordered his thousands of households to be divided into more than a dozen troops of thousands of people and entered the forests of Western Siberia to explore. While searching for and expelling the Russians, they also needed to find suitable locations to mark for later analysis. The army went to build strongholds and fortresses.

Ten days later, they discovered a newly built Russian fortress, Bratsk.

The Ming Army Qianhu who discovered this place immediately contacted three other Ming Army teams nearby. Then the four Ming Army teams converged and raided Bratsk under the cover of night. The five hundred Rus in Bratsk The people were awakened by the sound of the Ming army's artillery. They never thought that there were enemies here who dared to attack them, let alone that the enemies even had artillery.

But now they couldn't think too much and stood up one after another to prepare for the fight. Then the whole Bratsk had long been turned into a sea of ​​fire, and enemies seemed to be everywhere outside. The sound of gunshots was endless, and the Russians instantly had no chance to fight. Will, turned around and fled deep into the forest.

In fact, before this, the Russians who had escaped from Lake Baikal had brought the news back to the west, but the Russians in the west did not take it seriously. After all, they did not believe that there could be anyone more powerful than the Russians. military presence.

It was only today that Ross realized that the news brought back by those people before was not an exaggeration. This unidentified enemy army was indeed very powerful, so powerful that they had no power to fight back.

The deserters in Bratsk quickly brought the news back to Yeniseisk in the northwest. This was a Russian stronghold founded in 1619 and had been built on a large scale in more than ten years.

But even after experiencing the lesson of the destruction of Bratsk, the Russians still did not change their arrogant attitude. They firmly believed that the enemy army that attacked Bratsk was Tatars, or perhaps the Burgati. They might pass Some artillery or muskets were obtained through certain channels.

Therefore, the Russians still did not pay high attention or vigilance to this. They just called all the surrounding Russians over and added some more cannons to the city defense of Yeniseisk.

After the Ming army captured Bratsk, they were not eager to continue their march. Instead, they cleaned the battlefield, began to count the spoils in Bratsk, and rebuilt the Ming army's fortress on the bombed Bratsk stronghold.

(End of this chapter)