Being able to bring back four artillery pieces from Nerchinsk means that these four pieces of artillery cannot be the Hongyi cannons weighing more than 3,000 kilograms. They should be small-caliber field artillery. Otherwise, it would be impossible for Cooper to defeat him in a short time.
It can pull the artillery back from Nerchinsk. [] But even if it is a small field artillery, four guns firing at Shouyi City at the same time is too much for Zhao Qiang. The second reason is that Shouyi City is a fortress, not a real city.
The city is only about the size of a palm, and the area is too small. But now the fort has more than two thousand people. It is no exaggeration to say that if the Russians closed their eyes and fired a cannon at the fort, they would kill everyone.
Moreover, most of the combatable soldiers in the city are people of various ethnic groups who were recently captured by Qi Zhuang. Once the cannons are fired, I am afraid that before the Russians attack, our own side will be in chaos. At that time, it is not possible to counterattack the Russian musketry attack.
Instead, the limited number of soldiers must be brought out to suppress the panicked people of all ethnic groups, lest they open the fort door and flee for their lives, and the Russian army took the opportunity to rush into the fort effortlessly.
When Zhao Qiang followed Wang Ping to the north to confront the Qing army, the shocking scene of the Qing camp's dozens of cannon salvos still remained firmly in his memory. He clearly remembered that when the cannons sounded, some of the attached
The Green Camp troops immediately retreated crying, causing chaos among the Old Camp troops, and were then broken through by the Qing cavalry from the front. After that battle, Wang Ping Fan's troops switched from offensive to defensive, and after Wu Sangui's death
, even retreated thousands of miles until they were surrounded by the Qing army in Sichuan and the entire army was annihilated. This shows how lethal and intimidating artillery was on the battlefields of this era.
At that time, the Qing army used Hongyi cannons and a large number of small cannons, most of which were newly purchased from Macau during the Shunzhi period and the early Kangxi period. The people who controlled these artillery were the Shenji Battalion of Kangxi's own army. However, the Wu army was defeated by the Qing Dynasty because of the Qing Dynasty.
The imperial court blockaded the country, and there was a serious shortage of artillery. The only dozen or so cannons were actually red cannons purchased during the Wanli and Tianqi years of the Ming Dynasty. They were all rusty, and some were completely scrapped after just one shot. The rest
Several of them were as old as age and were of no use at all. Therefore, during the entire San Francisco Rebellion, except for the large-scale use of artillery by the Qing army, basically no one in San Francisco used artillery on the battlefield, not even small cannons.
He had heard in his previous life that cannon was the king of war, and the owner of his body in this life had seen the scene of artillery bombardment with his own eyes, so Zhao Qiang had to pay attention to these four cannons. He had to change his purely defensive tactics, otherwise Cooper would only rely on these four cannons.
It can make the fighting spirit in the fort full. Moreover, sitting in the fort like a turtle and being beaten is not Zhao Qiang's fighting style. Although he has poor military command ability, his willingness to fight is no less than anyone else.
It was definitely impossible to defend, let alone give in. The only way was to leave the fort and look for opportunities to fight in the field. Cooper came well prepared. Although he didn't understand what he wanted to do with so many soldiers and horses from Nerchinsk, there was no doubt that Shouyi City
It will be his first target for testing the knife.
Perhaps, this battle can truly appreciate the fighting power of the Russians, Zhao Qiang thought, thought for a moment, and told Duncan to write a reply to Cooper immediately, without saying anything more, just six words: "If you have the ability, feel free to do so."
Come".
After hearing these six words, Duncan frowned, as if he had no hope that Zhao Qiang could defeat the Russian army with artillery. He wanted to persuade this heroic Tatar general not to suffer the immediate loss. He might as well lead his people to leave Shouyi City first, and wait for the strength.
It's not too late to take revenge when you're strong enough. But seeing Zhao Qiang's resolute look on his face, Duncan didn't dare to say these words.
After sending the reply to the three Russian troops who sent the message, Zhao Qiang immediately summoned Wu Si and Guo Fei to discuss the war. In terms of military strength, Zhao Qiang had hundreds more troops than the Russian army, but the problem was that most of them were captured by Qi Zhuang.
The people of all ethnic groups who came back and the experienced soldiers were taken out by him and Hu Wang as captives. In addition to the 40 soldiers who stayed in the fort, there were 60 Qi Zhuang's subordinates who escorted the people back.
, plus the more than fifty people who were able to fight with minor injuries, there were more than one hundred and fifty experienced soldiers in total. If Cooper came back with only his one hundred musketeers, it would be more than enough to deal with him, but now he has brought a thousand
The men and horses and four artillery pieces came back. It would be a fool's errand to rely on these men and horses to defeat Cooper.
I thought that when Qi Zhuang sent people back two days ago, he said that he would bring people back to prevent the Russian army from attacking the city. However, when Zhao Qiang arrived, he had harvested nearly a thousand people.
There were only a hundred musketeers who came back and could not threaten Shouyi City, so he asked the messenger to tell Qi Zhuang to take his 600 men and horses to go further and try to capture more people. In addition, he also
Two sergeants sent back by Hu Wang knew that Hu Wang was taking people south to Morgan. If everything goes well, he would bring back 4,000 people at once. This news made Zhao Qiang even more excited. He once calculated on his fingers, if Hu Wang
Wang successfully brought back 4,000 people, and Qi Zhuang could bring back another 2,000 or 3,000 people. The population of Shouyi City would increase by nearly 10,000 at once, and the inner men could recruit another 3,000 or 4,000 people at a time. By then, it would be possible to form several groups.
A team of a thousand men looted and captured people in the rear of the Russian army, allowing their own population and military strength to grow in a snowballing manner. After surviving this winter, they will surely have an army of 10,000 men in hand next year, and then the sea and the sky will be truly bright.
But who would have expected that things changed so fast. What was expected took a 180-degree turn. The Russian commander from a small stronghold was actually able to bring a thousand troops back. Thinking of this, Zhao Qiang felt very regretful.
Qi Zhuang should be allowed to return. With his 600 fresh troops joining him, the chances of victory outside the city are very high.
It's too late to regret, now we have to face it.
There are more than 150 experienced soldiers. In addition, there are the captured Zhenghongqi Sauron soldiers and the strong men of various ethnic groups who escaped from the battle in Tu'erling. The total number of the two parties is more than 140.
People, but their combat effectiveness is unreliable, but their loyalty can pass the test, because they are the Rakshasa people who can eat people's hearts, not the army of the Qing Dynasty. If they don't contribute, or if they want to bite back, they have to think about the Rakshasa people in advance.
How people deal with them.
Among the people Qi Zhuang sent back, in addition to the elderly and children, there were more than 900 men who could kill enemies with weapons. In addition to the Feiyala people, there were also some Daur and Hezhe people.
Wu Si and Guo Fei were both sensible people. They knew that the chances of holding such a small fort were slim when the enemy had artillery. They both agreed with Zhao Qiang's decision to go out to fight. After unifying their opinions, Zhao Qiang immediately asked Guo Fei to take out the weapons captured by the Qing army.
, armed all the men. One hundred experienced soldiers were left as the main force, and the rest were assigned to serve as small banner officers. After ordering Wei Ji to kill cattle and sheep for the soldiers to feast on, Zhao Qiang
Wearing the iron armor stripped off from the Qing army leader, he straddled his horse with difficulty and ordered everyone to leave the fort.