Six galleys and twenty-one flat-bottomed boats formed a large and dense Cossack fleet, heading north along the river course, heading straight towards Tomsk.
The leader of this fleet was Centurion Levando of Kuznetsk Fort.
Since receiving the news that Tomsk was under siege nine days ago, Lewando set out to rescue Tomsk, recruiting three expeditions along the way and gathering a fleet of 480 people to relieve the siege of Tomsk.
Despite the alarm news that Tomsk was besieged by thousands of enemy troops, Lewando was confident of relieving the siege.
His crew were all the most common Cossacks and hunters in Siberia. They carried four small field cannons, more than 600 long and short muskets, 133 horses and more than 200 kilograms of gunpowder, enough to deal with any number of Tatars on the water.
Tartar.
The Siberian Expedition of the Principality of Muscovy is unique in the world in terms of equipment for pistols and long muskets, especially flintlock pistols.
Although the flintlock gun first appeared in France, and it was Spain that equipped its troops on a large scale for the war, the country that used it on the largest scale during this period was the Principality of Muscovy.
There are two main reasons for this.
The Muscovite Principality's musket manufacturing capacity is very average. The largest arsenal can only produce two thousand muskets a year, and they are matchlocks, which is about the same as a Ming dynasty's weapons bureau.
Most of their muskets depended on annual imports. In the four years of Chongzhen alone, Moscow imported 19,000 muskets of various types from Europe.
There are many types of imported muskets. Regardless of whether they are old guns used by Spanish colonists a hundred years ago or the latest flintlock guns made by Sweden, Moscow will not refuse anyone who comes to Moscow. As long as you dare to sell, I will definitely buy it back.
.
After buying them, they rarely equipped the troops. The shooting troops of each regular battalion were still equipped with a large number of heavy and durable leather matchlock guns.
Basically all the imported muskets were sold.
The biggest audience is the Siberian Expeditionary Force, who like flintlock pistols the most.
Almost every Cossack and hunter who enters Siberia will be equipped with one, and some cavalrymen will be equipped with two.
On the contrary, regardless of the matchlock or flintlock machine, not many people in the expedition used long guns. Those who used long muskets were the shooting troops sent by the Tsar to support Siberia.
Because the matchlock gun without a medicine tank cover and the spring wheel gun with a complicated mechanism are not suitable for the cold and humid environment of Siberia, only the flintlock gun is suitable.
As for flintlock guns, on the one hand, Cossacks and hunters have no need for long guns, on the other hand, short flintlock guns are of better quality and more accurate.
There is a reason for this.
Generally speaking, long guns are more difficult to make, require more labor hours, have a longer range, and are naturally more accurate.
However, Tsarist Russia imported a large number of muskets. This is not the era after the Industrial Revolution. The supply of military supplies in various countries is already in short supply. Arms is a complete seller's market. It doesn't matter which country, as long as you dare to sell, I dare to buy.
No one can guarantee whether the musket purchased came from the royal armory or from an unknown old blacksmith in a mountain village.
Even for new guns, the quality varies, let alone imported old guns.
So short guns are more reliable than long guns.
As there is a large amount of flintlock structure equipment, which has only happened in the past twenty years, the probability of buying a new gun is greater. Even if it is a refitted matchlock gun, at least it means that the barrel of the gun is relatively good.
Matchlock spears are not necessarily available. They can even buy heavy muskets made in Spain a hundred years ago.
This is the origin of muskets.
The second reason is that Siberia's unique economic foundation created such conditions for the expedition team.
mink.
Mink skins are very valuable around the world. A pair of mink fur made from thirty or forty mink skins in the Ming Dynasty could be sold for a high price of twenty taels of silver in the early years.
Because the progress of the Liaodong War affected the place of production, a pair of mink furs like this has now reached a sky-high price of sixty taels of silver.
Prices are higher in Europe.
The minks west of the Ural Mountains are basically extinct. The raw materials of mink skins sold from Siberia to Europe are priced according to quality in various fortresses, with each piece worth between one and two rubles.
It's about two to four taels of silver.
Just the raw materials, and the scissor difference pricing of the raw materials by the Siberian tax bureau, are already almost the same as the price of finished mink fur after the Ming Dynasty's price increase.
It is not an exaggeration to say it is soft gold.
A Tsarist Russian hunter from the west could obtain 120 top-quality sable pelts in one hunting season in the Yenisey River Basin, worth at least 120 rubles.
They have to take out one of the best furs out of every ten in the fortress to pay the tax, and pay another 10% when buying and selling. In addition, there are also the fortress' residence tax, departure tax and other exorbitant taxes.
But even so, the remaining harvest can still allow them to return to the outskirts of the Principality of Moscow with the twenty years of savings of ordinary European people.
This money is enough to buy fifty dessiatines (that is, eight hundred acres) of land plus five horses, twenty cows, twenty sheep, dozens of chickens and ducks, marry a wife, hire a group of serfs, and become a landlord.
Huge profits require not only huge risks, but also huge investments.
The harsh natural environment here determines that the real poor can only work as serfs in the Principality of Moscow and fill trenches. There is no shortage of ice sculptures in Siberia, and the ruthless cold air never welcomes naked poor.
The threshold for expedition teams is very high, and it is difficult for ordinary people to afford the cost of entering Siberia. The cost of expedition equipment for each hundred-man expedition team is as high as more than 600 rubles.
The equipment is no less valuable than that of Liu Chengzong's three battalions, or even a little more expensive.
This is normal. Expeditionary armies have higher requirements for supplies than regular armies.
In the Marshal's Mansion, the most expensive troops are also the Tianshan Army who wear various fur coats, velvet armor, and fur robes.
This economic and environmental basis determined that the Cossacks and hunters each had a flintlock pistol. In addition, the large force of nearly 500 people also had more than 100 matchlock spears.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! This kind of equipment organization that pays special attention to the firepower of individual soldiers is unique in the entire world.
After all, on the plains of Eastern Europe, no army dared to carry all muskets.
This is not the way to fight a war.
It's easier to defeat them than fart.
But this is Siberia, a land of rivers.
Tsarist Russia has been marching eastward into Siberia for fifty years, and his rich experience has brought courage to Levando. On this frozen soil and ice sheet, as long as he does not leave the river, the Cossacks will be invincible!
To be precise, Lewando did not plan to stay on the shore for a long time. Tomsk was a river-side city, and his plan was to rely on ships and muskets to launch raids on the Tatars on the shore.
Just like Yermak, the first Cossack leader to enter Siberia, he even slept in the shallows of the river. This was the basis for their invincibility against the Tatars.
Kuznetsk Fort is seven hundred miles away from Tomsk.
It took nine days for Lewando's fleet of twenty-seven boats to sail into the Tomu River. Half a day later, Tomsk, which was under siege on the right bank, could be seen from a distance.
He hid the fleet among the sandbars in the river, took two flat-bottomed boats to explore, and obtained mixed information.
Between the dense forests and swamps outside Tomsk, there are small camps where hundreds and eighty Tatars gather. There are dozens of camps like this.
The enemy's huge force is intimidating.
The good news is that although the Tatars have a strong military force, they seem to have no good solution to the city of Tomsk. They can only cut down wood in the dense forest to collect materials and rush to make siege equipment.
Although the appearance of Tomsk does not look good, and the outer fence is blackened everywhere, in fact the defense capability is still tenacious.
What puzzled Lewando was that the defenders actually installed wooden boards outside the shed tower... It stands to reason that the Tatar bows and arrows cannot break through the shed tower.
He felt that Ivan, the governor of Tomsk, should retire. He was a coward and it was completely unnecessary.
When night fell, Lewando left the shore and asked a few soldiers to lurk on the hillside outside the siege camp. He spent a day figuring out the composition of the enemy's forces.
He himself drove a small boat up and down the Tuomu River, looking for fallen wooden thorns that the Tatars might have buried in the river.
Two days after arriving at the outskirts of Tomsk, Lewando summarized the enemy's situation: This was just a rabble gathered in a hurry to plunder.
Although there are more than 2,000 of them, they are all Oirat's iconic armored cavalry, and they are all deployed in the farmland southeast of Tomsk.
The Russians are not fools. If this was a plain conducive to cavalry conflict, they would not be able to build a fortress here.
Most of the two hundred miles around Tomsk are hills and swamps, and the flat areas are dense forests.
And the Oirat people are not fools. Their armored cavalry can only be deployed in the fields in the southeast to avoid the dilemma of hanging on trees as soon as the battle begins.
As for the swamps in the north and the woodlands in the south and woodland of the siege camp, they are in charge of the Kyrgyz people who are poorly equipped and organized. They are mostly hunters and have fewer horses, so they can adapt to foot combat.
But this information is not the most important news to Lewando.
The most important thing is that he did not find any fallen wooden thorns buried by the Mongols on the Tuomu River, nor did he see any river-blocking ropes.
This is undoubtedly the most exciting good news.
The biggest advantage of the Tsarist Russian expedition was to use the river to maneuver quickly, and use one-gun muskets to fire intensively on the shore. They hit and run quickly, making it difficult for the enemy to defend the city, and they had no choice but to withdraw from the siege.
What they feared most was naturally the Tatars setting up ambushes on both sides of the river.
When Yermak attacked the Siberian Khanate, he relied on fighting on the river and defeated a huge khanate until it moved away. However, it also suffered heavy losses because it was ambushed by Kuchu Khan on both sides of the river and buried river ropes to block the river.
In the past, the Kyrgyz people would also use river blocking ropes to block Tsarist Russian reinforcements when they besieged the fortress in Oirat.
If you have the financial resources, you can use winches, iron ropes or even drop rocks to keep them from navigation throughout the summer.
If you don't have the financial resources, you can use winch ropes and wooden spikes buried in the river bed as a one-time ambush to block the boats, or even pull up both sides of the river at the same time, causing the flat-bottomed boats to capsize and collide.
However, this time the Tatars were obviously in a hurry to besiege the city and failed to make so many preparations.
This is great news for Lewando.
Of course, even if there are underwater piles and river ropes, it does not mean that Lewando is helpless.
Tsarist Russia has been invading Siberia for so many years and has rich experience. To deal with underwater fallen piles, you can cut trees on the shore and use logs to break ropes and fallen piles; to deal with river iron locks, you can move the stove to the boat and remove the iron locks.
Red-hot and cut.
It just takes more risks.
Lewando, who was extremely happy, immediately decided to go ashore at night and use muskets to catch the besieging army by surprise.
He made a careful plan and divided his 480 men into five detachments. The target of the attack was three Kyrgyz camps in the south of the siege city, where there were about 3 to 500 enemies.
When night fell, the five Cossack detachments disembarked from the boat and walked into the forest. Three detachments went straight to the three camps.
The other two detachments lurked, one focused on the periphery, preparing to block the enemy troops who came for reinforcements after hearing the news; the other, led by Lewando, followed the three main attack detachments, waiting for an opportunity to join the battle.
Each of the three detachments was led by a centurion from the expedition team. At first, they marched in formation towards the camp. When the distance was shortened to 100 to 200 steps under the cover of darkness, they alerted the Kyrgyz night sentry, and they simply started shouting everywhere.
Rushed up.
The first to approach the camp is always the shooting squad of the detachment, ten to twenty people. They are from the regular army of Tsarist Russia. The burning matches on their arms are as dazzling as fireflies in the night. They hold long axes and mount muskets in a very steady manner.
Shoot at the Tatars in the camp who are illuminated by the bonfire.
More Cossack warriors and hunters joined the battle as stragglers after the shooting army completed their attack.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! The Cossacks in the night were like a group of mad dogs, rushing into the camp with pistols. At a distance of twenty or thirty steps, they killed the nearest enemy with their pistols, and then pulled out their knives and axes and began to chop.
Kill them without giving the Kyrgyz people a chance to form an army.
In a very short period of time, the three camps that were hurriedly attacked were defeated in one encounter because the Cossacks were equipped with a large number of pistols. The herdsmen grabbed their horses and fled eastward.
The Kyrgyz reinforcements who heard the noise nearby and came to support were also intercepted by the Cossack detachment waiting for help. They were beaten and fled on the spot.
For Lewando, if the night attack stopped here, then with his full preparation, careful planning, and heroic command, it would be a complete victory.
Unfortunately, because the Kyrgyz were defeated so quickly, a centurion under his command believed that the Tatars were vulnerable, so he ate and looted the captured camp and carried large and small bags. Still not satisfied, he reloaded and organized the army.
Then he led his troops and continued eastward.
Then this man disappeared.
Levando, who stayed on the shore waiting for his return, only heard thunderous shouts and the sound of horse hooves in the east.
When the night returned to calm, neither that detachment nor the imaginary Tatar army appeared on the shore.
The Cossacks parked their boat on the shore and waited in shock for two hours before finally seeing a stumbling figure when the first ray of dawn shone through the birch forest and the reed swamps by the river.
There were ninety-eight people in a detachment, but only one came back. During the torture, his hair, ears, and nose were cut off, and then he was bandaged with medicine and was given good care and released.
He said that he was alive because he was from the Torgut tribe. The other members of the detachment were either trampled to death by war horses or stabbed to death in the fields by Chu Huer's soldiers with spears. They all died.
He told Lewando that Chu Huer asked him to come back as a message.
"He said that he is the general of the Grand Master. Soon you will know how the Grand Master's army will retaliate, and you will spread the reputation of the Grand Master throughout Orus."
Lewando was frightened by Chu Huer's ferocity, but it was difficult to understand the words of the unlucky man in front of him: "Grand Master? Isn't that the noble of Oirat?"
"No, it's not Oirat. Chuhu'er said it's the Khan of the Khitan Khanate, also known as the Grand Master. He said we'd better escape now."
Lewando did not take this seriously. Although he suffered losses, the victory of the night attack at least showed that his tactics were correct.
Just don't go into the fields.
"We control the rivers, we control the ships, we control the muskets, no matter he is the Grand Master of Oirat or the Grand Master of Khitan, if he wants revenge..."
Lewando smiled and shook his head: "If you have the ability, ride a horse into the river and try it!"