Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1992 Azov

Early July 1687, Perekop Fortress.

Lieutenant Colonel Mao Jun, Commander of the Portuguese Garrison of the Republic of China on the East Coast and Captain of the Black Sea Detachment, stood on the roof of a fortification north of the fortress, observing the famous fortress defense known as the "Tatar trench" with great interest system.

As the name suggests, the Tatar trench is a military defense system composed of ditches, castles, forts, city walls and some positions of Tibetan soldiers as the main elements.Since many years ago, the Crimean Tatars have been persuaded by the consultants on the east bank to allocate a part of the money every year—generally speaking, they first borrow money from the east bank and then repay it in batches with slaves—at the same time, they also receive money from the suzerain country. Some materials were collected from the Ottoman Empire, and it was built persistently.

The entire Tatar trench system is supported by two fortresses. One is the Salt Castle (named for the nearby salt field) at the western end of the isthmus (about eight kilometers wide), and the other is Perekop at the eastern end. Fortified.Both of these castles were located north of the Tartar trenches and guarded the trenches and fortifications in the rear, ensuring that if the enemy tried to force the trenches, flanking fire from both sides would break them down.

Therefore, both Salt Fortress and Perekop Fortress are equipped with a large number of long-barreled heavy artillery, which can basically cover the entire isthmus.Of course, in other places, the Tatars also arranged a lot of forts and small castles to block, divide, and bombard the enemy.All in all, the Tatar trench can be regarded as a three-dimensional fortification, with a large number of defenders and heavy weapons arranged. If there is enough gunpowder, food and drinking water, it can definitely kill a large number of enemy troops, and even drain their blood here. In front of this line of defense, and this is the main reason why the Crimean Khanate established this epic line of defense at any cost.

But the Tartar trenches now seem a bit embarrassing.With the growing development of the Crimean Khanate’s plantation industry on the northern shore of the Black Sea, and the overlord Ottoman Turkey handing over Western Ukraine to them—after Khmelnytsky was executed, the Crimea has been in name The Tatars are in charge, but in fact the Cossack chiefs are self-governing-now the economic center of gravity of this semi-nomadic and semi-feudal country has gradually shifted to the northern shore of the Black Sea.

On the large black land full of calcium, the Tatars built hundreds of plantations, large and small, and used more than 30 slaves to cultivate the land for them, producing an astonishing amount of wheat, barley, sunflower, Alfalfa and a wide variety of fruits, in addition to self-use, are also exported to Ottoman, the suzerain country, Italy, Spain and other places in large quantities, and are very profitable.

In addition, with the help of the people on the east coast, the Crimeans have also established some basic processing industries in the local area to keep more profits in the local area, such as sunflower seed oil mills, machine grinding flour factories, fruit canning factories, salt farms, etc.The degree of mechanization in these factories is not very high, and a large number of slaves robbed from Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Hungary and other places are used to work. The products produced are also exported to the entire Mediterranean Sea, and some are even sold to the colonies on the east coast through Egypt. Xinhua Island is also amazing.

The above-mentioned plantations and workshops are basically located on the northern coast of the country's Black Sea, and only a few are located on the Crimean Peninsula.Therefore, under such circumstances, the existence of the Tatar trench defense system becomes more dazzling and embarrassing.Yes, yes, the capital of the Khanate, Bekchisarai, is located in the south of the peninsula, and the political center of the entire country is there, but the problem is that the economic center is no longer there, on the northern shore of the Black Sea, outside the defenses of the Tatar trenches, This is more embarrassing!

Because of this, in the past few years, the Crimean Khanate has greatly reduced its investment in the maintenance of the Tatar trench defense line.Because of the huge scale of the Tatar trenches, the total amount of this fee was actually not small, and Gelai Khan cut one-third of it in one go, which shows that the status of this line of defense in his mind has been greatly reduced.Otherwise, why do you think people would rush to transfer the troops stationed near Perekop Fortress, and ask you from the east coast to help defend it?Isn't it because the importance here has been greatly reduced!

"The majestic line of defense that wasted huge sums of money, exhausted the national treasury, and built on piles of corpses is now outdated, and has even become a ridiculous obstacle blocking the communication between the north and the south. The changes in this world are so bizarre, right? Lieutenant Colonel Mao Jun bent down and picked a wild flower from the turf on the roof, shook his head and smiled, "If this kind of defense line is built in our country, I am afraid that people will be scolded to death, right? Because it seems that it has not been used for a day."

"It really hasn't played." A staff officer who followed Mr. Mao replied: "When it was first established, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was relatively strong in Ukraine. After suppressing the Cossack Uprising, they once wanted to attack. They plundered their Crimean Khanate until they were defeated by the three-way offensive of the Russian Tsar Alexei. At that time, the influence of the Russian Empire was deeply wedged into the Great Plains of Ukraine and had the potential to sweep, The Crimean Khanate is on the weak side, so it is natural to think about the future of the country, so it was not an exaggeration to build a Tatar trench fortress in that era."

"The problem is that the line of defense did not shut down in time. After the alarm was lifted, the Tatars continued to invest in improving this line of defense. It seems that the large amount of money brought in by foreign trade gave them extraordinary confidence. Otherwise, these miserable grassland men I'm afraid I don't have the strength to build the iconic defense line of the farming nation." Lieutenant Colonel Mao Jun said.

"The plan will not be stopped easily, even if the threat has been lifted. What's more, the Poles and Russians may make a comeback at any time. This line of defense has already been repaired halfway, so why not work harder to complete it?" The staff officer said: "At that time, people from the commercial department also made great efforts. Li Qing, the special envoy to Europe, also sent people to lobby Glei Dahan to carry out the contract, and emphasized some of its importance. This made the Crimea People made up their minds to complete this epic line of defense, and it became the most important barrier on the peninsula."

"Oh, it turns out that the special envoy I hate the most is messing with it." Mao Jun couldn't help complaining when he heard it.Although it was Li Qing, the former special envoy, and not Gao Wengang, who had been having some unpleasant troubles with him recently, he still couldn't help complaining about these diplomats who seemed similar to him.

In his opinion, the power given to diplomats by the East Coast government is simply too great!In particular, the establishment of the post of Plenipotentiary Envoy to Europe is very unreasonable and has too much authority.Think about it, he is in charge of the ambassadors of several major countries, the operation of so many business stations is also in his charge, and the development of intelligence work is in his charge. Such foreign affairs, formulating foreign policy, deciding whether to grant loans and to whom, this power is really not ordinary.

And when the Portuguese garrison was formally established, the executive committee stipulated that military mobilization and combat operations must be reported to the plenipotentiary special envoy in principle.This basically entrusts the veto power to the special envoy himself. If you consider that the daily expenses and war funds of these troops are also raised by the special envoy, then he undoubtedly has a certain influence in the military. It is no wonder that Mao Junzhong The school is very upset.

For example, this time the Russian army marched south to Crimea. As the highest military officer of the East Coast Republic of China in the European region, Lieutenant Colonel Mao Jun was very excited. The main force was compiled in, and then according to the agreement, they spent money to recruit mercenaries in the Kingdom of Portugal. Because they did not make up 3000 people, they went to Sicily to recruit people later, and finally reduced the number of mercenaries to about 5500. The formation of the Black Sea Detachment has been completed.

After the formation was completed, Lieutenant Colonel Mao Jun took people to the Crimea Peninsula by boat in batches within a year, and then stationed in Haji County, the leased land on the east bank, waiting for the outbreak of war.During this process, although Special Envoy Gao Wengang disagreed somewhat, you finally felt relieved and paid them a huge amount of money for their departure.

However, after the army arrived in Haji County, Gao Wengang sent someone to send a letter to Lieutenant Colonel Mao Jun, asking him to strictly restrain the troops and proceed with caution, not to join the battle at will and cause unnecessary losses to the troops.Most importantly, he asked the East Bank troops not to appear on the front line of fighting the Russian Empire, because he felt that the Russians had not yet closed the last window to improve relations with the East Bank, and things could still be discussed.

Lieutenant Colonel Mao Jun scoffed at this.He firmly believes that Russia's grand strategy is to obtain access to the sea beyond the White Sea, which can only be realized in the two directions of the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea.In the direction of the Baltic Sea, the Russians need to fight to the death with Sweden, which controls the Livonian region, which is relatively difficult.On the contrary, in the direction of the Black Sea, there is currently only one Ottoman Turkish Empire that has been mired in war and has been severely damaged, and its ally Poland has also promised to send troops from the flanks to assist the Russians in combat, so all fools know that it is impossible for Russia to go west now. Will go south to drink horses in the Black Sea, and get the coveted seaport.

And what about the strategy of the East Coast Republic?Of course, it is to curb the southward movement of a land power like Russia!So what is there to talk about, and what is there to get away with?One side wants to go south, and the other side wants to prevent it from going south. This is a fundamental contradiction, okay?Although the east bank does not directly come forward to fight the Russian army, it seems that there is room for maneuver, and it is a step down when it wants to talk about peace in the future, but it is not very useful!The Russians are not fools. They already know how deeply the people on the east coast are involved in the affairs of the Crimean Khanate. No one can guarantee how they will treat the people on the east coast because of these things!And Mr. Mao faintly felt that if Russia was defeated in this battle, then when they shirked their responsibilities, they would probably put the East Bank's aid to Crimea on the table, so this is still a cover-up. , go straight to it!

"Detachment Captain, I heard that the Russians have begun to besiege the Azov Fortress. The Turks did not engage in field battles with them outside the city, but relied on the strong city for defense. Of course, there are still a considerable number of Mamluk cavalry outside. They It has caused great harassment to the Russians, preventing them from attacking the city with all their strength." Seeing that his superior began to accuse Gao Wengang, the special envoy to Europe, the staff officer looked a little ugly, and immediately changed the subject: "From all indications, Golitsyn is not experienced enough, and there is nothing outstanding in command. The more than [-] Russian troops cannot exert their maximum strength. This is good news for the Crimeans, because this may partially offset their strength. Disadvantage."

"The Russians are already in trouble to get access to the sea. What's so good about Azov? The port is seriously silted up, the efficiency of loading and unloading cargo is extremely low, and the nearby seabed is still full of sandy coasts. It will cost a lot of money every year to carry out Maintenance. This kind of bad port, even if it is given to us, we don’t want it, and the Russians still take it as a treasure.” Lieutenant Colonel Mao Jun said with a smile, his words were quite sarcastic, and he continued: “But for the sake of the Don River. Tonghai, they have no choice, haha. This Azov is a nail that has to be hit. Golitsyn is a fool who has a large army but can't command. I just want to see if the Russians can get under the city of Azov It’s time to be happy, I remember that their food is a bit short, right?”

"Not only is there a shortage of food, but also fodder, and the ammunition is probably not very abundant." The staff echoed: "There was news from the front yesterday that Gelai Khan has implemented a firm policy of fortifying the walls and clearing the fields on the grasslands in the east of the Khanate, and ordered all herdsmen to leave. Going to the west at the same place, you must not leave a bag of grain or a sheep to the Russians. It is obvious that the Russian army must be exhausted first, and then the enemy will be defeated in one fell swoop. I don’t know how Golitsyn will deal with it.”

"Whatever, that idiot will ruin this army sooner or later." Lieutenant Colonel Mao Jun looked at the distant skyline and said, "After I go back, I will call the heads of all ministries to my office for a meeting. Grandma, this day is too difficult, I have to Go to the east and see what's going on."

"East? You mean Azov?" The staff officer asked in surprise, and then persuaded in disbelief: "Detachment Captain, Azov is fighting a series of battles. It's no fun for us to join in the fun now, Grae The main force of the Great Khan has not arrived yet. Moreover, if this is the case, Special Envoy Gao will be in some trouble."

"It's really fucked up." Mao Jun cursed bitterly after hearing this, then looked at his intelligence staff, and ordered: "Forget it for now. But you have to keep an eye on the situation over there, don't we have three Has the boat been rented to the Crimeans to help transport things in the Sea of ​​Azov? You’d better send someone to follow the boat for a long time and get first-hand information in real time. Once the situation in Azov changes, then we will find a way to join Go in and land locally to see if there are any bargains to be made. By the way, the gang from the General Intelligence Bureau will also bring them along. We will push upstream along the Don River to see if we can contact the Kalmyks. It should be their nomadic area, and there are quite a few of them.”

(End of this chapter)