I'm sure of the prosperous age of Kangxi and Qianlong!

Chapter 657 Fighting stupidly

However, in the past few days, the Ming army has always built high walls on the outside.

Many buildings in the castle were dismantled by civilians for building materials, and the high platform outside the castle became higher and higher, almost forming a new castle.

In this way, the fort was built all the way to the main fort of Nerchinsk on the other side of the river, which was almost twice as high. Yu Kecheng finally ordered not to continue the construction, but to directly push the artillery up and build additional reinforced forts.

A few days later, the gunners adjusted the gun positions and directed the civilians to build additional forts.

"Boom boom boom!"

Ten heavy cannons stood high and aimed at the Cossacks' bastion.

Although the distance is very far, the range of the Ming army's heavy artillery is much longer than that of European heavy artillery, and the power is also greater.

The shells of heavy artillery are all solid shells, and they are all round. The conical shells are not suitable for solid shells and cannot bring effective maximum damage.

Ten round cannonballs drew a parabola and hit the Nerchinsk Bastion on the other side.

The first round was just a test of the artillery. The hit rate was not too high, only a pitiful one-tenth, and not many Cossacks were killed.

"fire!"

Shcherbabov huddled in the tower and gave orders to the artillery officer.

However, it didn't work at all.

The walls of Nerchinsk Castle are too short, the highest part is only more than five meters, while the high platform built by the Ming army is close to ten meters.

When the Cossack fort fired, it had to cross the Heilongjiang River in the middle. If it could touch the wall of Zibao, it would be like the sky, and it would never be able to hit the soldiers on the wall.

After only firing a few shots, Shcherbabov gave up. He was completely unable to hit and was beaten passively.

The Cossacks in the main castle were beaten to the point of losing their temper, so they all had to evacuate the city walls and retreat into the city.

The hot air balloon lookout quickly discovered the Cossack's situation, but there was nothing he could do.

Fighting stupidly is so boring. There is nothing you can do about the enemy, and the enemy has no temper towards you. The two sides are simply trying to see who can lose his composure first.

The Ming army gunners had nothing to do and began to bombard the buildings in the city.

As the shells hit, large holes were blown out of houses from time to time. Cossacks and indigenous servants were hit by the shells because they were unable to dodge. The casualties were not too serious, but they greatly affected the rustic atmosphere.

After shelling on and off for a long time, the Cossacks learned their lesson and began to hide around the edge of the city wall, no longer exposed to the Ming army's range.

On the second day, the Ming army continued to fire artillery.

This time, some conical artillery shells with explosive shells were also pulled out along the river bank at the closest distance, aiming at the rammed earth and wooden fences outside the main fort and bombing them, giving priority to clearing these peripheral defensive fortifications.

The shelling continued for several days, and the Cossacks in the city did not dare to go to the city to fight back.

Most of the fortifications outside the main fort have been destroyed. The Ming army spared no effort in ammunition. If it was not enough, they would bring ships from behind. However, the war must be completed before winter comes.

The Ming Dynasty was not that fool like Kang Mazi. He simply mobilized troops from the south to fight in a bitterly cold land. Not to mention the acclimatization, the army was still in Heilongjiang until winter. The supplies could not keep up, and a large number of people froze to death.

Is this an operation that a normal emperor can perform?
Shcherbabov has been hiding in the city these days, watching the movements of the Ming army with a telescope. Just watching helplessly, the Ming army used a two-pronged approach, bombarding the buildings in the city with heavy artillery, and bombing the outer defenses with explosive shells.

However, there was nothing he could do about it. Even if Zibao was captured, there was nothing he could do. What's more, the current main castle was even facing a more serious situation than Zibao.

At least Zibao was not completely surrounded. At worst, he could still leave, but he couldn't leave!

The Ming army had already surrounded his retreat, and they could only defend like this until reinforcements arrived from Chita.

In the following time, the Ming army's artillery continued to fire.

In less than half a month, the fortifications outside the castle had been cleared by artillery shells. Even the forts of the inner bastion were damaged several times, but the artillery was difficult to destroy.

The Cossacks' battle losses were very low. Since they couldn't retreat, it was difficult for the Ming army's artillery to cause effective damage.

It's really such a hard work. Often, to deal with this kind of city that is defended, the city is besieged from the outside without attacking, causing huge psychological pressure, causing the morale of the defenders to collapse, and then focusing on destroying the city.

But these Cossacks didn't know what was going on. The Ming army had been shelling continuously for more than a month, and they were stunned to guard the castle and refused to leave or surrender.

It can only be said that they are worthy of being a "fighting nation", and their character is indeed quite stubborn.

The strength of the Ming army continued to increase. It was not that Yu Kecheng was gathering troops, but when he heard that the Ming army was attacking Nerchinsk, many local Sauron, Mongolian and other tribes sent people to help. These tribes around Nerchinsk have been exploited by the Cossacks for a long time and were forced to pay fur taxes. From time to time, they also faced Cossacks plundering their people as slaves to help them dig silver mines and build castles.

The tribes had long hated the Cossacks, and they were willing to help anyone fight against the Cossacks.

Especially the Buryat Mongols in the north. Although the main resistance force has been defeated by the Cossacks, there are still sporadic tribes fighting guerrillas with the Cossacks, and the big tribes have to rebel every few years.

Seeing that the Ming army was surrounded but not attacking, and only bombarded the city wall buildings with artillery, Shcherbabov became increasingly uneasy.

This is going to be a protracted war, and what the Cossacks are least good at is protracted war.

For no other reason, even if Nerchinsk is far enough to the south, it is far north of Mobei. You can imagine how cold it is here.

The bitter cold climate was secondary, and food supplies had long been a problem for the Cossacks of Nerchinsk. They often had to take advantage of the warmth to go to the indigenous tribes to catch the autumn wind and rob food and people.

In this way, the food was often not enough to eat, and every year some Cossacks froze to death and starved to death, and their bodies became winter food for other Cossacks.

Shcherbabov has processed all the Cossacks and indigenous servants who were injured and killed by the Ming army's artillery shells these days, and made a lot of cured meat and dried meat, which are all used as food reserves.

At the main fortress of Nerchinsk, we began to prepare "food", intending to wait for reinforcements to arrive.

An encounter had just ended thirty miles upstream of the main castle.

"We surrender, we are willing to surrender!"

More than a thousand Cossacks and native servants all knelt on the ground, begging for their lives.

They were all reinforcements sent by Chita City. There were more than 600 Cossacks and more than 800 indigenous servants, totaling about 1,500 people.

There can't be any more. If there are more, Nerchinsk Castle will not be able to support such a large population.

The reinforcements landed thirty miles upstream in advance, and happened to run into the two thousand Ming troops waiting in ambush here.

The encounter was imminent, one thousand and five against two thousand.

Then, the Ming army won.

All two thousand Ming troops were equipped with flintlock rifles and grenades.

The battle started with a volley of flintlock musket fire, and then the grenade bombs were thrown, and then the shooting continued.

Such repeated tactics immediately stunned the Cossacks and the indigenous servants they brought. The Cossacks' army collapsed before even a close encounter.

The Cossacks were just cruel, but not unafraid of death.

Without even touching the enemy, almost a third of them were dead, so how many more blows were there?
"Everyone put down their weapons, kneel on the ground and don't move." An officer who barely understood Russian shouted and scolded.

The Cossacks and indigenous servants surrendered their weapons one after another, then clasped their hands behind their backs, waiting for someone to tie them up.

No one dared to resist, and no one dared to escape.

It was so terrible. They didn't even have time to shoot, and a third of the people were killed and maimed. There were even wailing corpses on the ground. Cossack swords captured by the Ming army were shot one by one.

These Cossacks were defeated too quickly. They had just landed thirty miles away and were captured in less than half a day. They were shipped to Nerchinsk.

After the emperor declared war on Tsarist Russia a few years ago, he had an imperial decree. From now on, all Cossacks encountered in the Far East would be killed without regard to the issue of taking prisoners.

Yu Kecheng ordered the more than 1,000 Cossack reinforcements to be captured and escorted all to the wall of Zibao. He also deliberately chose a conspicuous location and set up artillery here to fire a shot at the Nerchinsk Cossacks as a reminder.

"boom!"

With the sound of a cannon, Shcherbabov was alerted and quickly picked up a telescope to observe the situation.

Then, he saw groups of Cossacks beheading one after another on the prominent wall of Zibao.

And at the edge of the city wall, many heads have been hung, and there are hundreds at a rough count. These were the heads of the Cossacks and indigenous servants that had been cut off from the battlefield upstream. It took the Ming army a lot of time just to cut the heads and cut off the heads.

There were so many heads hanging there, and even though he couldn't see their faces clearly, Shcherbabov could not stop trembling all over.

My reinforcements are finished!

With so many heads, Chita City's reinforcements would probably be eaten in one fell swoop.

With insufficient food and grass, insufficient troops, and being trapped in an isolated city, how can we fight this battle?
(End of this chapter)