"Is there no news about Barguzin Castle yet?" In Erkou City, Yeniseisk warlord Bashkov asked Khovansky anxiously.
"Your Majesty the Governor, our sentinels have revealed that the army has set up three fences and dug trenches outside Barguzin City. Currently, not even a bird can fly out of the city. Our connection with Barguzin Fort has been completely cut off."
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Khovansky's answer made Bashkov feel chilled. If Barguzin Fort is lost, Yakutsk will become an isolated city, and its fall will be a matter of time. If this is the case, Oros will lose half of its territory in Siberia.
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He calmed down and said to Khovansky: "You and Golovin stay on the west bank of Lake Baikal, and I will lead two thousand people across the lake to rescue Barguzin Castle."
Khovansky was shocked, "No, Overseer. If you go to the east bank, what will happen if the Ming army comes to attack the west bank? Besides, a mere two thousand soldiers and horses may not be able to break the siege of Barguzin Castle." "You have to save it even if you can't," Bashkov said seriously: "If Barguzin is lost, half of Siberia will be lost."
He refused to listen and insisted on bringing 2,000 people to rescue Barguzin. Perhaps God was moved by his loyalty, and another 2,000 reinforcements came.
This is a motley and patchwork army. The general leading the team is the noble Fed Redishchev, a favorite of Tsar Alexei.
Since he was a favorite of the Tsar, why was he sent to distant Siberia to blow the cold wind? It’s a long story.
A few years ago, the war between Russia and Poland had just ended, and the Russian government owed a huge amount of foreign debt. For these few taels of silver, His Majesty the Tsar was so anxious that he could not eat or sleep.
Redishchev felt that the opportunity to make a great contribution had arrived, so he presented Tsar Alexei with a clever idea: to mint counterfeit silver and copper coins.
At that time, Russia was short of silver, so silver coins were recast from coins imported from the Czech Republic. The Latin characters on the original coins were changed to Russian, and they became Russian silver coins. Redishchev's trick was to reduce the original cost to just
Silver coins worth 50 kopecks are marked with 1 ruble, and cheap copper is used to make 50 kopeck, 25 kopeck, 10 kopeck, 3 kopeck and 1 kopeck coins, but their value is the same as silver.
He calculated an account for Tsar Alexei. In this way, he could make a huge profit of 4 million rubles, which was 10 times higher than the total tax revenue in a year. The young tsar was very satisfied and accepted Redishchev.
He ordered to "work as fast as possible day and night, and go all out to create more wealth" - to step up the conversion of silver coins, and at the same time mint more copper coins to replace silver coins.
However, currency has its own laws, which cannot be violated by relying on force. Counterfeit silver coins flooded into the market in large numbers. Smart businessmen only recognized real silver coins and did not accept recast silver coins and copper coins. A large amount of silver flowed into the tsar's treasury.
However, the silver coins in the hands of ordinary people have greatly devalued. There was a lot of public dissatisfaction, and finally the "Copper Riot" broke out two years ago. Although the riot was brutally suppressed by the Tsar, it greatly damaged the Tsar's prestige.
After causing such a big trouble, Redishchev naturally did not dare to stay in Moscow anymore, and was demoted by the tsar to the Tobolsk Military District to enjoy the cold wind.
After sitting on the bench for two years, he heard that the Ming army had entered Siberia, so he went to the Tsar and volunteered to block the Ming army's front.
After all, he was once his favorite, so Tsar Alexei still gave him great honor and ordered him to lead 600 new regiments, 800 shooting corps and 600 Cossacks drawn from Tobolsk and Tomsk.
Rescue Barguzin Castle.
Redishchev was eager to achieve success and led two thousand of his men to travel day and night and quickly arrived in Tobolsk.
Bashkov was overjoyed. Now he had enough troops to rescue Barguzin Fort. He reviewed Rytishchev's men and found that except for 600 Cossacks who were weak in combat, this army was composed of new regiments and
A regular or semi-regular army like the Shooting Army has pretty good combat capabilities.
Increasingly happy, people secretly built ships; and ordered General Golovin on Olkhon Island to send warships to block the lake.
Because the Rakshasa Army controlled Olkhon Island in the center of the lake, they actually had the right to control the lake. In later generations, the ice-free period of Lake Baikal was from December to April of the lunar calendar. This era was still at the end of the Little Glacier.
The lake begins to freeze in the eleventh month of the lunar calendar. This means that in another month, the Rakshasa Army will no longer be able to defend the lake.
However, during the month before it froze, Lake Baikal was still a natural barrier given to the Rakshasa people by God. Golovin sent out all his warships and successfully drove away the Ming army's patrol boats, making it difficult for the Ming army on the other side to
Be aware of your own actions.
Bashkov and Rytishchev led four thousand soldiers, secretly went north from the city of Elkou, took a prepared boat opposite Olkhon Island, and sailed north. Barguzin Fort is located in the northern part of Lake Baikal.
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Five thousand soldiers and horses from the Ming army Ma Xin and Hu Maozhen were stationed on the other side. The military order they received was to protect the flanks of the army heading north. What the second general was most worried about was that the Rakshasa people would take advantage of the main force's northward movement to cross the lake and attack Gusino Ozer.
The main force was placed on the shore of the southern section of Lake Baikal, but they did not expect that the enemy would land directly from the northern section to Barguzin, so they were not aware of it.
In order to catch him by surprise, Bashkov ordered to cross the lake at night. Although he couldn't see his fingers, the Rakshasa people had occupied this place for decades and they still knew the water conditions very well. Under the cover of darkness, one small boat after another approached.
Shore.
After reorganizing his troops, Bashkov ordered all ships to be scuttled.
Redishchev was shocked and said, "Your Majesty the Warlord, you scuttled the ship. If the battle fails, how can we return to the West Bank?"
He had read few books and did not know the Chinese allusion of "breaking the cauldron and sinking the boat", but Bashkov was a China expert who had read Chinese books. He said calmly: "After winning the battle, are you still worried about not having a boat to cross the lake? If so,
If the battle is defeated, everyone will definitely die in the battle, so why do we need ships?"
After these words came out, everyone in the Rakshasa Army was terrified. It is safe and secure to leave a way out, but it can also easily make people slack off and not strive for progress. On the contrary, when people are forced into a desperate situation, their desire to survive will actually stimulate the deepest emotions in their hearts.
Use all the power hidden everywhere in order to fight to the death.
The four thousand Rakshasa troops were cut off from their retreat, and they were determined to die. They all expressed to Bashkov that they would fight to the end and never retreat.
Bashkov secretly nodded, this Ming people's method worked really well! After forcing the soldiers to a dead end, they had no choice but to fight bravely. In fact, he did not scuttle all the boats, but ordered his confidants to scuttle them in the reeds.
There are more than ten small boats hidden in the bush. If the battle is really unfavorable, he and other senior military generals can still return to the west bank. What? Sacrifice for the country? You can do it for the country, but you don't want to die.
Just as Ji King Zhu Ruodeng was leading his army to attack Barguzin Fort day and night, four thousand Rakshasa soldiers who had no way out were slowly approaching.