Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1690 Albazin ([-])

The eastern sky revealed a white belly, and the golden sunlight gradually filled the earth, blowing away the early morning mist.The big river in the distance and the nearby Albazin Castle are all shining in the morning light.Liu Jianguo stood with his legs crossed under a row of tall poplar trees, holding a decorative command knife in both hands, staring at the blue-colored Albazin Castle with burning eyes. : "Attack!"

The shirtless artillery brothers opened the ammunition boxes one by one, carefully checked the fuze tubes on the explosive bombs, and then rushed forward holding one by one.Over there, the gun barrels had already been brushed and the gunpowder loaded, just waiting for the shells.

In the past few days, the Stepanov Group in the wild has launched several attacks on the main formation of the East Bank army.Under the command of Kurhan, nearly 2000 troops on the east coast fought calmly, repelling the enemy's harassing offensive every time, and even once organized more than [-] people to line up outside, using volleys of guns to kill a Cossack The infantry retreated.

Moreover, as the saying goes, coming and going is not indecent, the infantry of the militiamen of the East Bank may not be as good as the Cossack infantry who once shined in the Khmelnytsky Uprising, but in terms of cavalry, there are a lot of Polish cavalry technical foundations. They are not so bad.Therefore, when Liu Jianguo sent more than 700 cavalry to fight, the Siberian Cossacks from Yakutsk were in a bit of pain. One or two hundred people were lost in the battle before, and more than 200 people were lost back and forth. They couldn't stand it all at once.

Even if Stepanov wanted to fight the people on the east coast again, he had to worry about the feelings of his subordinates.You know, the Cossacks are extremely arrogant, and they turn their faces when they say they turn their faces, and rebellion is commonplace.If you force them to die, these people may take your head and rush away. At worst, they will occupy a native village and live there first, and then find a way later.

Don't think it's impossible!In fact, the Lithuanian-born Cossack Nikifor Chernigovsky, who once angered Tolbuzin in Kiliansk Fort, once beat Shangfeng and fled in the treasury. Brothers, they occupied a Tungus stockade together and ordered them to serve themselves. They set up colonial rule in a grandiose manner, and were finally pardoned of all sins because they dedicated the stockade to His Majesty the Tsar.With this precedent set before them, many Cossacks were naturally extremely active, so Stepanov couldn't force them too much for fear of causing trouble.

Therefore, when these life-saving Cossacks—of course, the Slavs have complicated personalities, and they will never be vague when they should fight for their lives, but they are sometimes more "sensible"—were vaguely opposed to continuing to fight face to face here. Stepanov could only do as he pleases, and took the rest of the people away quietly.

In fact, before he left, he had intentionally sent some people to stay in Albazin Castle to help Tolbzin guard, but he almost made trouble again, so he had to give up in the end.Of course, he also saw that under the attack of the people on the east coast at all costs (the ammunition consumed in a few days is enough for the Russians to squander for a year), the Albazin Castle has a high probability of being unable to defend, no matter how many people are left here It was just to add some records to the military records of the people on the east bank, so they evacuated in the end. Of course, before evacuating, they also asked Tolbuzin that if the situation became unstable, he could immediately lead his troops to retreat to Nerchensk to guard and preserve his strength. important.

In Nerchensk, the Russian Empire has greater influence and can mobilize more manpower and material resources, and it is deep inland, unlike Albazin, which is on the north bank of the Amur River. People on the east bank think that The proud transportation ability will not play a big role, so the Russians are not afraid to fight them there at all, and the armed forces of the Tungusians, such as the chief of Gentemur, will also play a great role at that time, and they will not be as powerful as they were in Albania. Few people from Bajin came to help.

So Stepanov went away lightly.After he left, people in the Albazin Castle were also fluctuating, and the will to persevere was greatly reduced, which was completely different from the stubborn attitude of the Qing army who resisted to the end when the Qing army besieged the city in history.Of course, this may also have something to do with the pressure from the people on the east bank. The Qing army had worked hard to bring in some artillery, and there was not much ammunition. Tens of thousands of Tungusians had been mobilized as auxiliary soldiers. People used steam ships to easily transport ammunition far beyond the limits of the Russians from far away, and then poured them all on the heads of the Russians, and knocked down a section of the city wall. If it didn't do it, it's no wonder that the Russian defenders were frightened.

At this time, after Liu Jianguo gave the order for the general attack, the artillery brothers immediately launched the first wave of attack. A large number of artillery shells washed the gap again, creating some stumps and arms, and at the same time, they also wiped out the few remaining Russians. His courage was knocked down again.After the shells were cleaned, more than 1000 carefully selected militiamen armed with well-loaded muskets and 41-year-style steel bayonets around their waists, under the command of officers and under the cover of light army artillery, quickly fought He broke through the gap briskly and entered the city of Albazin—before that, the surrounding piles and trenches had almost been cleaned up and could not constitute an obstacle.

After the army broke through into the city, the Russians fought fierce street battles with them.Perhaps because they knew that the castle was about to fall, the Russians didn't have much ammunition so far. The remaining seven or eight small cannons were dragged out, and then they kept shooting shells at the densely packed army formation on the east bank, and It did cause a lot of casualties, and Kurhan, who was the former commander-in-chief of the enemy, was also very angry-in history, the Russians only had three artillery pieces, and the ammunition was exhausted on the first day of the siege of the Qing army. There will be seven or eight doors, and the ammunition has been replenished a lot before the battle. In addition, it was a close-range raid in the street fighting, killing and wounding sixty or seventy East Coast militiamen at once, and the results were quite good.

However, this was also the last brutal counterattack of the Russians. The people on the east coast dispatched artillery to suppress them. With their ammunition gradually running low, these Russian artillery were finally destroyed one by one, and could no longer be used to stop the advance of the army on the east coast. obstacle.After that, the militiamen on the east bank used dense platoons of guns to start shooting against the Russians. The serf soldiers collapsed first. They were poorly trained and had matchlock guns in their hands, so they were quickly defeated and rushed towards the city. flee outside.

And the performance of the Russian professional soldiers was not very good. They were obviously not fighting with flintlock guns, and after the artillery was suppressed by the people on the east coast, they were even more unwilling to fight. After a while, some casualties were exchanged with each other, and then they gradually began to retreat. Before the serf soldiers could react, they escaped from other places. Among them, the name of the fastest escaped man was Tolbuzin.

The escape of the Cossacks obviously turned the tide of battle in favor of the people on the east bank.Although thousands of militiamen on the east bank were also very scared and nervous, they still stood firm amidst the scolding of officers and veterans, and then advanced slowly, using dense volleys of guns to clean up every enemy they encountered.

The methodical battle continued until five or six o'clock in the afternoon. Except for the two towers and the official office, all the other important facilities of the entire Albazin Castle had been taken over by the people on the east coast.Kurhan decisively sent another thousand infantry soldiers into the city. While controlling the situation in the city, he also sent out some soldiers and horses to join the first batch of people entering the city, and grouped the last strongholds held by the Russian army. surrounded.Of course, he did not forget to send hundreds of cavalry to detour to the north of Albazin City to intercept the Siberian Cossacks who went out of the city to pick them up. However, considering that it was getting late and the Russians were relatively familiar with the terrain, Kurhan was not very optimistic about his men. The cavalry intercepted them, and it was enough to hope that they could leave some Cossack heads.

The Russian army in the remaining strongholds persisted in the middle of the night and was finally taken care of one by one.Among them, dozens of people guarding the government office surrendered voluntarily, and of the dozens of people on the towers on both sides, one surrendered and one was conquered.It is worth mentioning that the Russian soldiers guarding the tower still had a cannon, and because of their geographical advantage, the people on the east coast suffered huge casualties. In the end, they succeeded in breaking through under the cover of night and the exhaustion of ammunition by the Russian army. up.Naturally, the last few Russian soldiers who were still alive were executed on the spot, and no prisoners were taken.

It can be regarded as the well-known Albazin Castle, which was captured by the people on the east coast.From July 7th to today's July 8st, it took only 7 days for the people on the east bank to take down this geographically critical fortress. In the last few years, due to the epidemic in the fort, the Russians surrendered only after dozens of people were unable to hold on. This really reflected the huge gap in combat power.

This gap does not mean how much difference there is in the combat skills and fighting will of the soldiers on both sides, but the huge gap in weapon equipment and logistics transportation.In history, thousands of Qing soldiers besieged the city, and almost 72 to [-] auxiliary soldiers were transporting food, grass, ammunition, and blocking enemy reinforcements. However, due to logistical difficulties, a war that should have had an absolute advantage was turned into a half-baked meal.Now people from the east coast don’t have this kind of trouble. The shallow water gunboats in the inland river helped them gain an absolute advantage on the Heilongjiang River, and then the efficient [-]-ton small steamer can easily transport various materials to On the front line, I don't know how much better and easier it is compared to the Qing army's ten-thousand-mile transfer.

Therefore, in this battle, they could easily squander the ammunition reserves that the Russians could not use up for a year in half a month. Admit cowardly.It can also be seen from this that science and technology are really the primary productive forces. In a place like the Outer Northeast, whoever can allocate resources more efficiently will definitely have an advantage. The situation was reversed.

Liu Jianguo was very happy when he heard that Albazin Castle had been conquered. He ordered his secretary to write a victory report on the spot, and then sent it to the counties in the rear to boost local morale.Moreover, that night, he also lived happily in the castle official office, and took the bedroom of Alexey Tolbuzin, the military and political chief of Nerchensk of the Russian Empire, as his own, just like the army on the east bank did to Albazin Castle. The same as the declaration of the latest sovereignty.

On the morning of July 7, officers from various ministries, who had already rested for a day, came to the government office to inquire about the next move.Liu Jianguo faltered about this, saying that he had to think about it before making a decision on his next move. In fact, he saw that his troops were not very strong (nearly 23 people were killed and injured in the siege of Albazin, while the Russian side In addition, the serfs only lost 300 people), and they have no confidence in attacking Nerchensk in the inland areas.

You know, when you get to that place, the logistics supply of the people on the east coast will not be as smooth as it is now, and don’t imagine being as "rich" as you are now in a war. Maybe it will be the Russians who will have the advantage in logistics by then.Moreover, compared with Albazin’s side which has been plowed by the cavalry on the east coast for almost a year, Russia’s influence in the Nerchensk area is deeply rooted, and there are quite a lot of Tungusians who believe in the Orthodox Church, and they can pull out a large number of teams in minutes They came to besiege the people on the east bank, so Liu Jianguo was still afraid of going deep into this place, fearing that if he accidentally wiped out the whole army, the situation in the entire outer northeast would be out of control.

On July 7, Liu Jianguo finally made a decision to suspend the attack on Nerchensk, and this decision also won the support of the experienced veteran Kurhan.Therefore, the army on the east bank can only stop at the Albazin Castle this time, and it is almost only when it is operated as a relatively stable base that it may make further progress.

And through such a local tyrant-level battle, the people on the east bank also let the Cossacks understand that in the Heilongjiang area, the people on the east bank, who have the advantage of water transportation, can attack your strongholds or castles along the river at any time.In the future, if you want to cross the border and cause trouble for the people on the east coast, you have to reconsider whether your own fence is tight, and don't let the east coast army that counterattacks come over.

On July 7, Liu Jianguo disbanded the first batch of militiamen who went out with him.These militiamen from Temple Street, Jiangdong and other counties have generally been fighting abroad for more than a year and a half. They are indeed too long for non-professional soldiers, so they had to be disbanded and returned home, which made it difficult for them to stay in Alba. The number of troops on the east coast of Jincheng has dropped to about 28, but it is more than enough to defend the city.

Liu Jianguo stayed in Albazin area for a while longer.During this period, he went out many times to survey the nearby terrain, soil and mountains and rivers. He was full of praise for the local farming and animal husbandry conditions. People on the East Coast signed a peace armistice treaty with Russia.

(End of this chapter)