New Shun 1730

After confirming indirectly that Bering was not returning but just coming from Siberia, Liu Yu was completely delighted.

This was an unexpected surprise.

Bering must have a map of the Siberian region, and Bering's drawing skills were definitely better than those of his subordinates. I don't even know how much better.

Since someone else has it, wouldn't it be mine after snatching it?

After thinking this through, the topic at the dinner table became much easier.

Liu Yu no longer asked questions that might arouse suspicion, but instead complained about Dashun. He said that Dashun was too narrow-minded, the emperor was a Confucianist, and neither Protestants nor Catholics like him could be officials...

Hannibal was also very happy to hear these words. He felt that since he came here, this was the first time he heard about the religious conflict within Dashun, which would be very beneficial for the future conquest in the south.

The meal was almost over, and both sides thought they had got what they wanted, and they were in a very good mood.

After sending Liu Yu out of the castle, Hannibal came to two conclusions.

1: There are serious religious conflicts within Dashun. When they go south in the future, those believers in Dashun can be used, at least their dissatisfaction can be used.

2: Dashun's smugglers hope that the Russian fortress can be further south, so that smuggling will be very convenient. Once the war starts, these smugglers can help pass intelligence and news.

Liu Yu, who left the castle, also came to several conclusions.

1: The castle is well built. Hannibal does have the intention to expand the castle after the spring of next year. There are more than 500 soldiers stationed in the castle. He wants to make merit and catch this guy. It is a dream to attack by force. He must think of other ways.

2: Since Bering came here and brought a Japanese with him, he is likely to take a boat to the sea after the Heilongjiang River melts.

3: The Cossacks have poor discipline and are too bandit-like. This is a feature that can be used. Sun Tzu said: Lure them with benefits and take them in chaos. It is just like preparing for this kind of enemy army with too much banditry.

Four: The Russians' supply was a problem. The highest commander and brigadier general of the garrison were very happy when they ate rye bread. When the maid cleaned the table, she secretly hid the remaining bread in her skirt.

With these conclusions, they returned to the trade area where the transaction was completed.

Jiaolaobutu, Du Feng and others all breathed a sigh of relief. Jiaolaobutu followed Liu Yu out. If something happened to Liu Yu, he could not bear the responsibility; Du Feng was still looking forward to following Liu Yu to make up for his mistakes. If he was really detained by the Russians, his life would be over.

"You can't get a tiger cub without entering the tiger's den? Your Excellency will gain a lot from bravely entering the tiger's den this time. His Majesty will definitely appreciate it."

Jiaolaobutu patted his head, and Liu Yu smiled and said, "Since there is a job, it is my job. Even if it is a job, how much do you think it is useful? It's a pity."

It seems that he said it unintentionally, but in fact he was testing Jiaolaobutu to see if he wanted to do something big.

Jiao Laobutu tasted it a little and tasted the taste. Then he looked at Liu Yu and found that he was staring at the chaotic Cossacks in the distance and the boats behind the dock.

Following Liu Yu's eyes, Jiao Laobutu didn't understand, but he believed that Liu Yu must be preparing to do something big.

If it were someone else, he might not dare to do it. But thinking about Liu Yu's family background, Jiao Laobutu thought, I like things that can make merit. If the sky falls, there is someone taller to support it, and it will fall on you first. If you dare to do it, I will dare to follow.

"What the adults said is very true. Things within the responsibility, even if they are meritorious, are just things within the responsibility. The adults said that day that things within the responsibility should be the first. If things within the responsibility are done, naturally, some things outside the responsibility can be done. What is within the responsibility and what is outside the responsibility is not something I know. Everything is at the adults' disposal."

Liu Yu retracted his gaze, smiled at Jiao Laobutu, and said no more.

Jiao Laobutu thought, you are the leader and I am the deputy leader in the team, I don't have such a strong relationship, and I don't know the extent of this matter.

If it is done, the main credit is yours, and I will share some of the soup; then the responsibility will naturally be that you bear the greater responsibility and I bear the smaller responsibility.

I am willing to make extra contributions, but I will not give orders, and you have to bear the responsibility. But if you are willing to take the responsibility, I will definitely dare to do it.

Liu Yu naturally understood Jiao Laobutu's meaning and did not think there was any problem. All he wanted was an attitude of "dare to follow".

He led the caravan out of the castle control area of ​​the Rakshasa people, circled a few times and returned to the place where the other half of the people camped.

After a day of rest, Liu Yu called all the "cultured people" in the team who were literate, responsible for drawing, and knew reconnaissance skills. He asked Jiao Laobutu and other officers to come and watch.

He made a sand table on the ground with snow, roughly making the appearance of the Rakshasa castle, and used wooden sticks to simulate cannons, soldiers, etc.

After a while, they will separate and act separately, which requires those who are responsible for mapping and reconnaissance to understand what they are investigating? What is useful information and what is important.

In addition, a smart person should be selected to report back and submit a memorial.

These people looked at the castle model on the snow, and they were all in trouble.

Some of them have learned Western learning and even been baptized, but they have never learned how to lead troops to fight, and they know nothing about it.

Many people's understanding of leading troops to fight is still at the level of "opening the brocade bag, shouting, and a cannon shot to ambush all around."

How to capture is the secret of all generals and nobles. Even if you want to make a contribution, you are powerless. It is better not to write nonsense.

How to attack the castle? Surround it, and the first person to climb up will be rewarded with 100 taels of silver. There must be brave men under the heavy reward?

Liu Yu also knew the level of everyone, so he did not talk about how to attack the city first, but talked about how to defend the city first. In other words, he talked about the defense system of the bastion and why the bastion replaced the high city wall.

These people are capable of being officials, and they are actually smart people. They have fought their way out of the single-plank bridge among millions of people. Duke Qi is qualified to say that Bai Yunhang, the county magistrate of Fuqing County, is a small official, and Qi Jiguang, a hereditary fourth-rank official, is not a noble, etc., but ordinary people cannot say that.

Liu Yu's talk is also somewhat logical. After he roughly explained it, including Jiao Laobutu and others, all of them were sweating.

This bastion... is so difficult to attack?

Jiao Laobutu, Du Feng and other people who came from military families can understand the meaning of how many troops can be deployed on the front from the beginning, and those people don’t even understand this.

But even if Jiao Laobutu and others understood, they didn't understand what the defense system of the bastion was all about.

After listening to Liu Yu's explanation, they were all secretly shocked. They thought that such a bastion, with 500 or 600 soldiers stationed, could only be surrounded by several times the number of soldiers? Otherwise, even if they had the courage to attack recklessly, they would be killed in a day or two, and their courage would all turn into urination.

At the end of the Hundred Years' War in 1449, the siege of Evreux took 17 days to break the city under artillery bombardment; in 1645, Jiangyin fell under heavy artillery bombardment. The defenders had the will to die, but it was difficult for Zhang Suiyang to last for a year; it meant that the classical city defense system in the cold weapon era of the East and the West came to an end.

What Liu Yu said scared everyone into a cold sweat, but there was no exaggeration at all.

With the popularization of muskets, the projectile firepower increased, and there was geometric support, being shot from three sides, and the strong attack could not deploy enough people, and 10,000 people could only line up in hundreds to send heads.

If you bombard the thick base wall for three to five days, it will not have any effect.

Digging a tunnel to bombard it, it will collapse and it will only be a thick slope, which is still useless.

Even if Vauban's siege method is at its peak at this time, the zigzag trench can be dug close to the moat, and the defenders can continue to kill at the breastwork next to the trench. With the cover of the main fort behind, it is still difficult to break through.

So close, the attackers' cannons cannot provide cover because they will hurt their own people; the attackers' muskets cannot provide cover because the defenders are squatting behind the breastwork; the attackers' melee soldiers have to face both the enemies behind the breastwork and the shooting on the main fort.

Generally speaking, if you can reach the moat, you have to send grenadiers.

Throwing grenades can bypass the breastwork, but the problem is that Dashun does not have special grenadiers, and I have never heard of such a type of soldiers.

Even if Dashun has cannons, and there are many of them, it is a technical job to blow open the bastion.

First, blast out a "一" along the bottom of the wall, and then blast two vertical lines, so that the crater will appear in the shape of a "卵" character.

Then a special artillery officer or engineer will determine where the "凵" character is weak, and blast that point until the bastion wall collapses... Dashun should not have special artillery officers and engineers who understand this.

Surrounding the attack and defense of the bastion, attacking and defending the city has become a science. Just like the Mohists who were the best at defending the city in the Warring States Period, they relied not on military tactics but on technology and mathematics.

Although the castle in front of us is simple, the Russians have been stationed here for decades and have been repairing it continuously. It looks simple, but with the defense system of the bastion, it is difficult to capture.

If you want to capture it, in addition to a long siege, you can only follow Vauban's earthwork excavation tactics.

After talking all day, most people still didn't understand it.

But there were also a few people who roughly understood it. After asking those who understood what he heard the most, Liu Yu asked everyone to disperse.

Back in the tent, Liu Yu took out a pen and paper and wrote his first memorial carefully.

In addition to introducing what he saw along the way, he also used this Luosha Castle as a template to introduce in detail Vauban's siege method, the principle of zigzag trench digging, the use of artillery, the formation of grenadiers necessary for siege, and other issues.

Without Tian Ping, his partner, his writing was very poor. The whole article was written in plain language. He also drew six or seven pictures and wrote about several thousand words.

After sealing this memorial, he found the person who understood the most and asked him to return to the capital with three riders and take this memorial back. If His Majesty asks, let the person who understood the most set up a sand table.

Watching these people leave, Liu Yu was relieved.

He completed the first step of being a "Tian Feng" in a certain sense, and the lord did not accept the loyal advice and finally got a bloody head. As for whether the lord is Yuan Shao, it seems that he is not.

Those things I wrote are all useful nonsense.

Very useful, the emperor must have praised him after reading it, and recognized that he is not Zhao Kuo or Ma Su but has real talent.

But it is all nonsense, because Liu Yu knew that the court would not use this method.

The time for earthwork in the Heilongjiang River Basin is very short. The ice melts in May and snow falls in August. There are only three or four months for earthwork.

In order to contain the Russian Empire, suppress the rebellion in the northwest, and let the Khalkha Mongols stand on the right side, the court will definitely seek speed and force.

The logistical pressure in this ghost place is huge, and the chaos in the northwest is unclear. It is impossible to waste a few years here with the Russians.

The Vauban siege method requires a large number of artillery, specialized engineers, and the most ferocious grenadiers in hand-to-hand combat to break through the last breastwork. If Dashun does not have these, the efficiency will be greatly reduced.

To besiege a city, several times the number of troops, according to Liu Yu's "tactically correct, strategic nonsense" method, it will take at least a month.

There are still many castles along the Heilongjiang River. If we do this, how many can we capture when the snow falls in August?

When winter comes, supply becomes more difficult and it is more difficult to maintain the army. The longer it drags on, the greater the possibility that Luosha will increase its troops, the more suspicious the loyalty of the Khalkha tribes to Dashun will be, and the higher the probability that the northwest will take advantage of the situation to make peace with Luosha.

Tactically, civil engineering should be carried out slowly to reduce casualties. This is the right way, and the army can continue to fight without too much damage to morale.

Strategically, it must be fast, extremely fast, and attack at all costs. As many castles as possible should be captured within a year, so as to quickly negotiate, at all costs.

This is what Liu Yu called "useful nonsense". It is effective, but it cannot be used, at least not in this battle.

Many people died in this battle, and the court may choose to try reforms. Those who died in the assault on the castle are the so-called price of reform.

If there are too many deaths, there may not be reform.

But if there are too many deaths, and someone proposed a way to reduce the number of deaths before the deaths, then there may be reform.

At the end of the memorial, Liu Yu deliberately added a sentence "asking for a fight": Given the current situation, it is better not to talk about it. Time is on my side. Continue to immigrate to enrich Liaodong. First, follow Western military law to train artillery and organize grenadiers. After the army is formed in three to five years, we will fight. If we don't do it as he said, the casualties will be heavy.