Dominate the Country

Rumyantsev organized the 20,000-odd Russian troops into an army, and the commander was the 50-year-old veteran Mikhail Fyodorovich Kamensky. This was a very capable general who participated in the Seven Years' War from 1756 to 1763 and the Russo-Turkish War from 1768 to 1774, and made outstanding contributions. He served as brigade commander and independent army commander.

In the famous Battle of Kozludzha, he led the Russian army, which was far less than the opponent, to fight against the 40,000 main forces of the Ottoman Empire head-on and turned defeat into victory. Suvorov only attacked the enemy's barracks after his victory, and the lawsuit over who was the winner went all the way to the commander-in-chief. The final result was that Suvorov parted ways with him from then on.

In the last year of the Fifth Russo-Turkish War, he defeated the Ottoman army, which was five times larger, with 7,000 people, and trapped the enemy with superior forces in the castle until the armistice agreement was signed.

Therefore, this is a general with outstanding merits, but his character is not liked by Catherine II.

Kamensky's glory was obtained in the war. Without the war, he would be a sign hanging high, and he himself has always been a man of the hour. From time to time, his brain is deprived of oxygen, and he will do some things that make people laugh. For example, when he was the governor of Ryazan and Tambov, the bored Kamensky launched a series of activities to send all the idle nobles to the army for re-education, asking them to learn to read and learn arithmetic. This undoubtedly stirred up a hornet's nest, causing his popularity among the nobles to plummet. Before the start of the Sixth Russo-Turkish War, he took the initiative to go to St. Petersburg to ask Empress Catherine II for a fight, but he only got a bounty of 5,000 rubles, but no combat mission. He was so angry that he treated everyone he met to dinner until the money was spent.

Since his friendship with Rumyantsev was damaged in the last war [he was once a lieutenant colonel quartermaster in Rumyantsev's army], he tried every means to get into the camp of Marshal Grigory Alexandrovich Potemkin, a favorite of Catherine II, but Potemkin did not trust him, so he still had no chance to lead troops in battle. Finally, the Ottomans were not willing to be lonely, and before the official war started, they came to attack him, making him concentrate artillery and rockets to defeat him, so he won a first-class medal of St. Vladimir, but then he became idle again.

It was his old friend Rumyantsev who pulled him up at the critical moment, promoted him from the Caucasus to Western Siberia, and appointed him as the commander of the First Army of the East Route. It can be said that all the mobile forces in his hands were handed over to him.

In addition to Kamensky, Rumyantsev also had a general whom he valued very much. That was Ivan Ivanovich Saltykov, the only son of Field Marshal Peter She Saltykov during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. He was an excellent cavalry general.

The latter commanded all the cavalry in Rumyantsev's hands - 2,000 Cossack cavalry and 2,000 Tatar cavalry. It was organized into a cavalry division and was in the first army sequence. But Saltykov fought more independently. You must know that Russia also has allies. Facing the powerful Chinese affiliated cavalry corps, they can also count on the Torghut people.

In the previous foreign wars, St. Petersburg never forgot the Torghut tribe, and kept drawing cavalry, horses and sheep from the Torghut tribe. But now it is different. Since the rise of China and since China began to threaten Russia's east, St. Petersburg seems to have changed a person, trying every means to win over the Torghut tribe, just to make them work for Tsarist Russia at a critical moment.

This time, the Tuerhut tribe will work hard and die.

The Tuerhut tribe, with a total population of just over 200,000, dispatched a full 20,000 cavalry, led by Khan Wabashi himself. Important generals and nobles such as Tsebokdorji, Sheleng, and Bamubar (Wabashi's cousin) all appeared in the army. In the Tuerhut tribe, there are two insiders, Dashdunduk and the great lama Lobsang Danzeng.

They will do their best to "cooperate" with Saltykov's actions and Kamensky's operations.

This is also Chen Han's biggest hidden trump card.

- One Wabashi is comparable to a hundred thousand troops!

Sitting in the conference room, Wabashi had a full smile on his face. This was not a fake look he deliberately made. He was really happy.

Twenty years have passed since the 45-year-old Wabashi had the idea of ​​"going home" in his heart.

If it weren't for the sudden change in the Central Plains, he believed that he would have returned to his hometown by now. But although the Han emperor stopped them from returning home, he also pointed out a brighter road for them.

The Torghut tribe had a brighter future. I believe that those tribesmen who have lived in the Han territory for more than ten years will not have too many complaints in their hearts.

In order to win the trust of the Russians, the Torghut and the Han people staged a fake show outside the city of Irkutsk. Because only real blood debts, only blood debts that cannot be resolved, can make the Russians believe that the Torghut people really want to be irreconcilable with the Han people.

To be honest, these people who knew about it have been holding such a big secret in their hearts for many years, and the pressure is also very great. In addition, in order to pretend that they are irreconcilable with the Han people, Wubashi asked people to spread hatred against the Han people in the tribe. Because in the original battle, the Torghut tribe lost two to three thousand people, and the army sent to the east was almost "annihilated". The entire Torghut tribe has only 200,000 people. The blood relationship of two to three thousand people can cover every family in the entire tribe. This is an irreconcilable blood feud!

Many of the Torghut people who are unaware of the situation really regard the Han people as their enemies. I don't know what the mentality of the old and young in the tribe will be after the incident is exposed. Wubashi felt that there must be many people who cursed him...

"Wubashi, Wubashi..." Rumyantsev called Wubashi's name. The latter was awarded the rank of cavalry general by Catherine II herself, but Rumyantsev was very familiar with Wubashi. The Torghut cavalrymen who were originally transferred to the Ottoman and Polish battlefields were under Rumyantsev's command several times. This is a very tough old man. His hair is already gray, not darker than the wig on his head, his cheeks are thick, and his forehead is covered with deep wrinkles, but his gray-blue eyes are still very energetic, and his tall body sits on the chair like a stake.

But Wabashi can be full of smiles and fly away. Anyway, there will be meeting minutes after this military meeting, and he can get a detailed copy. Rumyantsev can't really ignore this Torghut Khan.

20,000 cavalrymen. This man represents 20,000 cavalrymen!

If you tighten it up, you can pull out another 10,000.

Rumyantsev is very clear about the manpower of the Torghuts, and such a force is enough to prove Wabashi's loyalty to Russia.

Therefore, in Rumyantsev's eyes, Wabashi's status is no less than Kamensky and Saltykov.

When Wubashi came back to his senses, he saw Rumyantsev looking at him with dissatisfaction in his eyes.

The smile on Wubashi's face was about to collapse, and the previous full smile immediately dried up.

Looking at the long conference table, a field of generals shone. There may not be many people who really command troops in battle, but what about the staff and logistics? Whether it is a major general or a lieutenant general, they are all generals.

The finely crafted sand table and the huge one-hundred-thousandth scale map were all placed where they should be. The whole conference room was silent. Even the attendants who shuttled back and forth to pour coffee and hot tea for the generals held their breath and stopped.

This meeting was of a very high standard, and its importance was self-evident. Wubashi was distracted...

Several attendants looked at Wubashi out of the corner of their eyes. Was this Tatar here to make people laugh? It was really funny.

In his heart, Wubashi just wanted to slap himself hard. The "day of victory" was getting closer and closer, and the bright future was right in front of him. These had already thrown him into a trance.

He was really too careless today.

Sitting in this military meeting, he didn't even have the heart to look at Rumyantsev, Kamensky and others. All he could think about was the annihilation of the Russian Eastern Army. The cavalry of his own tribe, plus the subordinate cavalry under the Han people, a total of 60,000 to 70,000 people. What a great force this is. What will it be like after sweeping across thousands of miles and killing all the way across the Ural River?

As long as he imagined this, he was so excited that he couldn't control himself, and his brain's attention spread unconsciously...

"Our most powerful opponent has arrived. Perhaps this month, or perhaps next month, His Majesty the Emperor of China, the victor in the East, the creator of miracles, will arrive in Yili."

After the Sino-Russian War ended, many things about Chen Ming spread in Russia. After China defeated Spain and the Netherlands in succession, especially after the end of the Central, Western and North American War, Chen Ming's reputation in Europe spread completely.

Even those pseudo-Qing Dynasty old men and young men who went to London and Paris to play games, while they were slandering Chen Ming, they were also advertising for Chen Ming.

Nowadays, many Europeans, especially the middle class and small capitalists with higher social status, almost no one does not know where Chen Ming came from. That is the background of a small civil servant family. His ancestors were able to run a business and had a relatively rich asset - 10,000 pounds.

This is already a lot in the eyes of many middle-class people in Europe.

Then, relying on one or two hundred clansmen and tenants of his family, he rose up and fought again and again in ten years, and finally overthrew the prosperous Qing Empire. This is really amazing.

It's like a weak version of Hannibal who successfully destroyed Rome.

Europeans quickly gave him the word "miracle", and then the higher societies of European countries created a very high-profile honorary title of "Victor of the East".

So, even though Chen Ming has never been to Europe, his popularity in Europe is really not low.

In the eyes of Rumyantsev, Suvorov, and many famous European generals, Chen Ming was really a great man. Although he did not fight many major battles, he fought more defensive battles during his rise.

In order to "study" Chen Ming, many Europeans did not hesitate to dig up a lot of Chinese geographical data and ancient Chinese wars. Many of these were contributed by the old and young people in London and Paris, and many were contributed by missionaries.

Anyway, before we know it, Europe has once again been swept by a wave of China fever, and it is also very well connected to the China fever that has been blowing in Europe since the 17th century.

Originally, when time came to this time, in the late 18th century, this wave of China fever had completely extinguished in Europe with the decline of the Gallic Bourbon Dynasty.

After the Europeans finished the Napoleonic Wars and took a good rest, when they looked up at the world again, China's image had changed. Not long after that, the Opium War broke out.

But now everything has changed in this time and space. Although the Bourbon Dynasty is still a pill, Europeans have spontaneously risen a wave of China fever. This is a real craze. From Italy to Sweden, to Russia, Britain, France, Prussia, Austria...

All countries have people studying China to some extent.

And with the re-emergence of the Russo-Turkish War, China's influence on Europe has become stronger than ever before.

Rumyantsev's face became more serious. "Everyone, the real war has come. When the Chinese emperor arrives in Yili, the Chinese will definitely launch a fierce counterattack. Perhaps they are gathering troops behind the front line." Peter Alexandrovich Rumyantsev's words won the unanimous agreement of the attendees. The emperor came to the front line, and the morale of the Chinese army must be boiling. It's like the empress suddenly came to Tomsk. His arrival will make all the soldiers brave and strong, not afraid of death. The army will definitely launch a large-scale attack!

"Although the Chinese army is larger in number, that advantage cannot be compared with the solid fortress. If they take advantage of the high morale of the soldiers and launch an attack, this will be a great opportunity for us to severely damage the Chinese army in front of us."

Rumyantsev's eyes looked at Kamensky and at Wabashi.

If the Chinese army that surrounded the three cities of Omsk, Barnaul and Pavlodar suffered heavy losses, then they, 20,000 Russian troops and 20,000 Torghut cavalry, can take advantage of this opportunity to eat up one or more of the Chinese armies. It is not a luxury.

"For this goal, I will order the Siberian Army in Novokuznetsk to march towards Zaisan Lake." There is only one division in this Siberian Army, which is composed of three brigades and fifteen battalions. However, the mobilized troops failed to arrive in full. Including the garrison of the Novokuznetsk Fortress, there are only fourteen battalions and ten thousand troops.

Yes, yes, the Siberian Army is a temporary organization.

"Now the Chinese have the advantage on the battlefield. They have a lot more troops than us, especially in cavalry. They have at least 40,000 vassal cavalry. It is very risky for the Siberian Army to set out from Novokuznetsk alone. But now we need them to attract the attention of the Chinese." To put it bluntly, the Siberian Army is a bait. As long as the attention of the Chinese army is attracted by the Siberian Army, it will be much easier for them to attack the Chinese army that is divided and surrounded by three Russian strongholds.

"Even if they do not suffer heavy losses when attacking the fortress, we can still win." There are 40,000 infantry and cavalry, and there are 24,000 to 25,000 cavalry alone.

How many Chinese are there in total? They have a large number of troops, but they are divided into three cities to surround them, and the number of troops in each place is quite limited. Although there are more troops than the defenders, they will not be a large army of 30,000 or 50,000 people.

Even if Chen Ming did not enter the battlefield, Rumyantsev was ready to use the "bait" - the Siberian Army to divert China's mobile forces, and then launch a large-scale counterattack against the siege troops.