4342 (AD 1645), April 25th, Tangnu Wulianghai 19th Army Camp.
Ma Xianglin, commander of the 19th Army of the Royal Chinese Army, is inspecting mountains of military supplies.
A cold wind blew by, and Ma Xianglin, who was wearing a heavy down jacket, was shivering in the cold wind.
Seeing this situation, Chief of Staff Su Cheng joked: "Old Ma, you, a Sichuan native, have lived in the north for so long, and you still can't adapt to the northern environment."
Ma Xianglin said stubbornly: "Little scholar, you are still making fun of me here. I don't know who dares to leave the camp in winter and hides by the stove to warm up."
Chief of Staff Su Cheng also put away his smile and said with emotion: "This is a place farther than the Great Wall in ancient books. The winter here in Tangnu Ulianghai is as cold as the Beihai where Su Wu shepherds sheep.
There is ample coal for heating in our camp, and the soldiers have thick cotton-padded clothes.
Even though they are so heavily armed, soldiers often suffer from frostbite when patrolling in winter.
On February 17, the Third Company on patrol encountered Baimaofeng and failed to return to the camp in time, resulting in the death of eight people."
Ma Xianglin also felt very sad for the sacrificed soldiers, but at the end of the winter walk, he also ordered to commend the entire army.
The 19th Army only sacrificed eight men in one winter, which far exceeded everyone's expectations.
A spy sent by the empire, disguised as a native Mongolian, approached the Russians in Kuznetsk.
I learned carefully that at least 800 Russians died in Kuznetsk this winter.
The main reason was lack of cotton-padded clothes, frostbite while patrolling outside, and death due to wound infection and other reasons.
The direct movement resulted in very few Russians. There were trees and abundant coal mines around Kuznetsk, so the Russians had no shortage of heating fuel.
This is why Ma Xianglin is not worried about the Russians attacking them in winter.
Even if the Russians are adapted to the severe cold climate, in the extremely cold weather of Siberian winter, if the Russian army, which lacks cotton-padded clothes, launches a war, the number of non-combat deaths will definitely be several times that of combat deaths.
Ma Xianglin said with emotion: "We can only see good news coming from Tumu Mansion through telegrams.
How long will it take for our 19th Army to officially send out troops?
When I looked at the hundreds of thousands of Russian troops in Kuznetsk, their eyes were red. They were all walking military medals.
Cai Gong and Wu Jie asked us to judge the timing of the attack. The climate in Siberia is now changeable.
Yesterday, the frozen soil had thawed and there was mud and water everywhere on the ground.
A cold wind began to blow last night, the temperature dropped by more than ten degrees, and the ground began to freeze again.
The weather was so unpredictable that the army's artillery and baggage could not be transported at all.
This is not good news for those of us who rely on firearms."
Chief of Staff Su Cheng stamped his feet vigorously. The ground was very solid.
There is no problem with transporting the cannon on the ground, but he has seen the frozen soil melt.
There was mud everywhere, making it even harder to walk on the dirt road than after a heavy rain.
The 19th Army did not have the assistance of artillery to attack Kuznetsk, a strong Russian city, resulting in heavy casualties among its soldiers.
Not to mention that they want to make meritorious deeds and not be punished by the court, that is because His Majesty is merciful.
Chief of Staff Su Cheng said: "Our task is to attack fortresses, whether it is the city of Kuznetsk or the fortresses built by the Russian army in the Ural Mountains.
These are the targets of our army's attack, and we must rely on heavy artillery to solve the Russian army's defenses.
These heavy beasts must at least have a usable road to prevent them from sinking into the mud.
The commander of the 9th Cavalry Division, Gao Dasheng, came to the camp a few days ago to show off to us.
Their cavalry division went into battle lightly and did not rely heavily on logistics.
But the Russian army on the opposite side was mainly infantry and defended the fortified city.
On the Siberian battlefield, the role of the cavalry division in attacking fortresses was almost zero.
Their mission is not only to serve as the eyes of the army and observe the situation on the battlefield.
The biggest role is to hunt down the fleeing Russian troops when the Russian troops are defeated."
When Commander Ma Xianglin heard what Chief of Staff Su Cheng said, he thought of Gao Dasheng's arrogance a few days ago and felt a little dumbfounded.
"Isn't it the case over at Tumu Mansion that the cavalry division got off to a good start? Commander Gao Dasheng is jealous and wants to copy Zhang Wansi's record.
He also didn't think about it. The situations in our two places are different, and the tasks undertaken by the cavalry are even more different.
Over in Tumufu, cavalry and infantry competed to become the main combat arms.
On our side, Gao Dasheng has never fought before. Does he not want to fight? He doesn't have the conditions."
While Commander Ma Xianglin and Chief of Staff Su Cheng were chatting, they kept tapping the material reserves in the military warehouse.
They walked out of the military warehouse with smiles on their faces.
After a winter of emergency transportation, the ammunition stored in the military warehouse was enough for them to fight several high-intensity wars.
The 19th Army can fight without worrying about running out of artillery shells in the middle of the war.
The sky of the 19th Army is relatively open, and there is a chicken farm among the people. From time to time, there are a few birds of prey in the sky, staring at the chickens in the chicken farm.
Chief of Staff Su Cheng suddenly saw a white pigeon, which flew to the vicinity of the pigeon cage with difficulty.
"It's time to use the pigeons carefully. Let's go and take a look. This should be a big deal.
We have only cultivated less than a hundred pigeons here, and each one is extremely precious.
Unless there is a major situation, careful work will never disturb the pigeons."
The secret message carried in the pigeon-leg shoes was quickly handed to the two of them.
They looked at each other, breathing heavily.
They did not expect that the Russian army would launch a surprise attack on them.
Commander Ma Xianglin blurted out: "How dare the Russian army dare? Who gave them the courage to take the initiative to attack?"
…………………………
Thick smoke billows from the Russian army camp in Kuznetsk.
Most of the Russian soldiers were huddled in the tents. The soldiers with higher status were close to the fireplace and were responsible for adding coal or firewood to the fireplace.
The Russian troops living in tents were all low-level serf soldiers.
The noble officers of the Russian army all lived in more comfortable brick houses in the city.
In a beautiful red brick house in Kuznetsk, the Russian army commander Margrave Oleg Ivanov lived here.
This house, which used to be somewhat deserted, is now crowded with people.
Beside the burning fireplace in the room, Marquis Oleg Ivanov stood in front of the map, his right hand constantly pointing on the map.
"Tangnu Wulianghai, the camp of the Great China Empire is here.
After a winter of preparations, our army is ready, and it is time to show the power of our army."
Marquis Oleg Ivanov received a letter from Moscow the day before yesterday, which prompted him to wait no longer.
This is a letter written by his son Olga.
The Tsar's condition is very bad and he faints from time to time. Prince Alexei is now in charge of the overall affairs of the government.
A message came from the palace that the Tsar was in very poor health and might not survive this winter.
He relied solely on the support of the Tsar to become the commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force.
Once the tsar goes to meet God and a new tsar takes office, his position may not be stable.
When the time comes, his political opponents will impeach him for failing to make any contribution on the front line and wasting the country's money and food, and transfer him back to Moscow to plead guilty.
Marquis Oleg Ivanov didn't even have a chance to refute.
He believed that at this time, the time was ripe for him to lead a large army and take the initiative to attack the Dahua Empire military camp in Tangnu Ulianghai.
Count Alexander Onukovych, the second-ranking figure in the Russian army in the Siberian battlefield and the commander of nearly 100,000 Russian infantry, had already discussed this with Marquis Oleg Ivanov.
Seeing that there were still generals who had doubts, he said angrily: "We have never been idle. During this period, we have had many conflicts with the Great China Empire.
It all ended with us suffering heavy losses. I know that everyone is very cautious when dealing with the Dahua Empire.
But think about the advantages of the Great China Empire, which are firearms, especially artillery with long range and high power.
Our army takes the initiative to launch a surprise attack. Once we break into the Dahua Empire military camp, these powerful artillery pieces will belong to us.
If the war is too intense and the military camps of the Great China Empire cannot be captured, our army will never brave the enemy's artillery fire to attack them.
We will choose to take the opportunity to retreat, now is the time when the permafrost is officially thawing.
On the muddy road, the artillery of the Dahua Empire cannot be transported.
We can take advantage of the geographical advantage to continuously eliminate the armies of the Great China Empire."
The Russian generals finally understood the commander's idea of choosing an attack during this period.
They heard what Count Alexander Onukovych said.
Everyone has a smile on their face, and they can retreat at any time if the war goes wrong, which ensures that their lives and the troops under their command will not suffer heavy losses.
As for the few dead serf soldiers, every general will not care about them.
Marquis Oleg Ivanov quickly arranged a battle plan.
He will be responsible for the town of Kuznetsk and allocate various materials to support the front line.
Count Alexander Onukovych led 80,000 troops and launched a surprise attack twice the size of the enemy's army.
Marquis Oleg Ivanov was very satisfied with this arrangement.
He immediately sent troops and horses to attack, blocking possible attacks from political opponents due to changes in the political situation.
As the commander-in-chief of the entire army, Count Alexander Onukovych won the victory, and his contribution will never be less.
Count Alexander Onukovych returned in defeat, and this man was the best scapegoat.
All problems were the consequences of Count Alexander Onukovych's underestimation of the enemy and his rash command.
Count Alexander Onukovych was also very satisfied with this arrangement.
Without Margrave Oleg Ivanov by his side, he could command the army as he pleased without being constrained by others.
The top brass of the Russian army reached an agreement and the generals left quickly.
The generals who received the mission gathered their troops, packed their baggage and prepared to set off.
Generals without tasks continue to wait for the results in Kuznetsk.
The Russian army assembled very quickly, but the slightly panicked Russian army immediately caused chaos in Kuznetsk.
Many officers were captured from brothels and brought back to the military camp by the officers from the previous episode.
There were also some Russian troops who chose to directly capture young men near Kuznetsk because of deserters in the military camps and insufficient strength.
Two white pigeons take off from the roof of a thatched house in a coal mine outside Kuznetsk.
A servant who was responsible for delivering coal to the Russian military camp saw the situation in the Russian military camp.
Immediately return to his residence and release the homing pigeons specially trained by the Dahua Empire.
Because of the severe cold weather, the living environment is harsh.
Out of more than ten pigeons, only two pigeons survived.
But the entire intelligence team is not just him.
Even if all the pigeons died, he believed that his companions would be able to deliver the information to the 19th Army camp before the Russian army arrived.
The Russian military's counterintelligence capability is almost non-existent. It is just a big sieve.
They were completely unaware that a handful of people disappeared into the Kuznetsk wilderness.
After several days of preparation, a massive 80,000-strong Russian army set out from Kuznetsk to attack the Tangnu-Uryanghai area where the 19th Army was located.
Curry was wearing clothes and pants that were stained with mud. He walked towards the thin man in front of him with a painful look on his face.
He took out a piece of black bread, reluctant to part with it, gritted his teeth and said, "Scott, I want to thank you for your help.
If you hadn't collected horse manure with me yesterday and dried my shoes, today I would be like those miserable people, with my toes frozen off and still walking in pain."
Curry stayed up all night last night. He and Scott collected horse manure and made a fire outside the tent to dry their clothes and pants, especially the water-logged shoes.
The weather was relatively warm yesterday and the ground was covered with mud.
Officers riding in carriages or wearing high leather boots will not feel much discomfort when stepping on the muddy water.
Most ordinary soldiers have water in their shoes.
Because Curry was tired and sleepy, and wanted to go to the battlefield in better condition, he had not planned to dry his shoes before and wanted to rest early.
Scott told him that if he didn't want his feet to freeze off, he had to dry the shoes.
His words were indeed verified today. Many people who wore wet shoes had their toes frozen off.
Scott accepted the gift, lowered his voice, and said earnestly: "When I was serving the officers in the camp, I heard that these officers were somewhat pessimistic about the subsequent war.
We don’t have to be in the best condition. We just have to surrender if the war goes against us. Life is the most important thing.”
As a veteran, Scott can judge the outcome of a war from the faces of officers.
Even the grassroots officers do not believe in victory and are ready to escape at any time. There is almost no hope of victory.
The march of the army slowed down, but Count Alexander Onukovych was a little angry.
"Supervise the battle team and teach those serf soldiers a lesson immediately. They still want to be lazy when they are soldiers. How can such a good thing happen?"
The Russian soldiers lacked cotton-padded clothes and suffered injuries to their toes due to the severe cold weather.
After they fell behind, they were immediately whipped severely by the supervising team.
"Idiot, speed up the march. If you dare to delay again, I will not use the whip next time, but chop with the knife."
Count Alexander Onukovych saw that the troops were marching faster.
He smiled and said: "These stupid pig-like people need to be whipped with a whip.
The march speed still needs to be accelerated, and we must raid the Dahua Empire camp before the Dahua Empire discovers it, otherwise this war will be difficult to fight."
Count Alexander Onukovych was thinking about how to break into the army camp of the Great China Empire in Tangnuulianghai.
What he didn't realize was that there seemed to be a ghost following the Russian army in the sky above the army.
Ma Xianglin and Su Cheng discovered that the Russian army was preparing to launch a surprise attack.
They arranged a defensive plan in the camp and sent out airships to detect the movements of the Russian army.
The Russian army failed before they even got close to the 19th Army's barracks.
