Stepanov stood quietly on a hill on the banks of the Amur River, a Russian artillery position. Not far ahead is the town of Jieya, a person who was closely monitored by the Cossacks.

Jieya Town is a wooden castle. Like Albazin, it is covered with a thick layer of soil. It is used for fire prevention and can absorb the kinetic energy of some siege equipment or shells. To be honest, such a castle should not be too optimistic. Unless you can transfer heavy artillery to bombard it, you can only rely on siege or people to build it. But in the northeast, except for the people on the east coast who have enough heavy artillery on hand, neither Russia nor Bogde Khan. Even if there are, it is far away, and it is extremely difficult to transport and basically cannot be counted on.

Therefore, in a short period of time, core strongholds like Jieya Town will not be in danger of falling, not to mention that they are close to rivers and convenient transportation. As long as they withstand the first wave of enemy attacks, they can continuously get support from the rear and even personnel, which will be even less dangerous.

It is said that this time the Russian Empire and the Qing Dynasty jointly attacked the east coast. The time was originally scheduled for the beginning of spring. Later, due to material raising and other factors, it was scheduled for the autumn harvest. It was agreed to launch in the northeast and Liaodong at the same time, so that the people on the east coast could not take care of each other. In this operation, Russia dispatched more than 3,000 troops, which can be said to be the largest number of troops in the lower reaches of the Amur River in recent years. In the past, there were often hundreds and thousands of soldiers.

A Cossack could run rampant for hundreds of miles without encountering an opponent. However, since the East Coast people went up the Amur River and now the Russians speculated that it was very likely that the Amur River would lead to the sea, the rule of the Russian Empire here seemed to be in danger, and several wars ended with the defeat of the Russian Empire, not because the Cossacks were not good at fighting, but because they were at a huge disadvantage in terms of their numbers and were also quite insufficient in the supply of logistics supplies.

As an old officer who has served in the Far East for many years, Stepanov, like his old superior, who has returned to Moscow to serve as a former Yakutsk governor, insisted that the so-called "inland shallow water gunboats" that were equipped with eight small cannons and could freely move on the Amur River were the main factor for them to gain a foothold in this land and gain an advantage, not others.

The Russian Empire really needs such a small gunship!

Stepanov vaguely heard Peter Yugovic, the new Yakutsk governor, say that the Moscow official also noticed the inland shallow water ships of the East Coast people and tried to obtain some so that they could gain an advantage over the Poles in the Dnieper River area. However, the production and operation activities of the Xiaoxing Shipyard in North Devinsk, which had previously cooperated with the East Coast people, had basically stagnated due to the stalemate between the two countries' relations. Although the East Coast people did not withdraw funds, they could not do this, because some of the key technicians from the East Coast of the East Coast were forced to "naturalize" Russia by the Tsar. The equipment, drawings and working capital were also frozen, but the factory was indeed scrapped. The Russians could only make it possible for them to make some fishing boats and small offshore cargo ships. Such new ship types that require a lot of calculation, certification, and design are really unsuccessful.

In no way, the Tsar also sent people to United Provinces and England to ask whether these two shipbuilding powers could build such inland gunboats from the East Coast people. After receiving consultation fees from the Russians, the famous Saldan Shipyard in United Province spent some resources to study this problem. The conclusion was that it could create a kind of inland or offshore ship with shallow draft and faster speed, but the power could not be solved. The implication was that even if they built such ships, they would install sails for them instead of using steam engines as power like the East Coast people.

In this way, it actually doesn't make much sense, because inland boats sail in rivers with complex waterways, the maneuverability of the ship is a very important indicator, which is also the main reason why the East Coast man installed a small horsepower steam engine for this type of ship. After the improvement in materials, processing accuracy and design in recent years, the horsepower of the steam engine of the inland gunboat has gradually increased a lot. Although the Russians have low technical level, it does not mean that they cannot understand this, so they can only return in a bad mood and report to the Tsar.

Speaking of this, I have to sigh that although the steam engine level of European countries has been improving over the years, there is still a certain gap from the east coast. This can be seen from their efforts to miniaturize steam engines. Therefore, they are destined to be unable to build small marine steam engines as small as the east coast. In fact, it would be amazing if they could use the steam engines in other places other than docks, mines, and reservoirs.

Well, let's get back to the point. Since the Russian Empire cannot get such a brisk, flexible but full of firepower, in fact, even if it is obtained, it will not be possible to deploy to Amur and the river basin, then they will have to choose the opportunity to attack, such as launching an attack after the autumn harvest.

The reason for this is mainly to prevent the East Coast people from transferring a large amount of supplies and personnel from the rear after receiving the news, and increase the difficulty of their troops' attacks. After the autumn harvest, the Amur River will almost enter the freezing season. Even if the upstream does not freeze, the downstream estuary will definitely be frozen thoroughly, which basically prevents the East Coast people from using this river to support the supply points along the line, which is conducive to the Cossacks' actions.

As for the colder battles in winter and spring, this is actually not a problem for the Russians. You should know that in Russia and Siberia, residents have to go out to work and earn cash in winter to pay taxes in spring. Moreover, many people do not have enough clothes to protect the cold, so they work in forest farms, mines, and farms all winter, so cold is really nothing to the Russians. Don’t you see, in history, the Russian Cossacks often exchanged fire with the Qing army in winter and spring, because only in the free winter can enough serfs be recruited to serve as troops.

The Russians planned this way, and they did it too! In mid-to-late September 1672, the Yakutsk Governor's Office dispatched 1,000 Cossacks, and gathered more than 500 Siberian Cossacks from Jenisesk and other places in Albazin Castle, and then recruited 500 serfs nearby (all of whom had many combat experience), distributed weapons to them, and marched east together. The above is the main force.

In addition, Duke Peter (i.e. Chief Gentemur) who surrendered to Russia also dispatched a thousand Tungus soldiers, led by Katannai (the most brave of his thirteen sons), and attacked the Jieya County and Udi County through the northern line, and found ways to mobilize the local residents to oppose the East Coast people.

The two armies, totaling more than 3,000 troops, were indeed a great deal for the Russian colonial forces in the Far East. Moreover, in order to prepare for this battle, they hoarded all kinds of combat supplies, food, horses, livestock, ammunition, etc. for at least one year. In addition, with the large amount of silver sent by Bogde Khan of the Qing Dynasty, they were able to mobilize such a large number of troops to fight.

Stepanov commanded one of the main forces, namely surveillance and attacking the east coast settlement near Albazin Castle. To put it bluntly, it was actually the area of ​​Jieya Town. As for the main troops, 1,500 Cossacks were commanded by Peter Yugovic, the trusted governor of Yakutsk, and went east along the Amur River to attack the more prosperous counties such as Hailanpao, Boli and others.

Stepanov was of course very dissatisfied with this, but as the saying goes, the senior official level crushed people to death. Yugovic is now the governor of Yakutsk, commanding the entire Far East. He is the tsarist subject, military, political and financial power, which is equivalent to the governor of the vassal states during the Tang Dynasty in China. This majesty is naturally not comparable to Stepanov, the Cossack leader, so he could only bring five hundred serf soldiers to spy on Jieya Town in shame.

Of course, don't underestimate these more than 500 serf soldiers. Their combat effectiveness should not be underestimated. After all, in such a bitter and cold place in the Far East Amur River Basin, 800 people who have no ability had died long ago. Khabarov led his troops to the local people in the lower reaches of the Amur River to collect taxes. When he encountered obstruction by the Qing court, he clashed with Ningguta Zhangjing Haise's troops and won a great victory. The ones who acted as the main body were armed Russian serfs. The real Cossacks were only more than 100 cavalry. This shows that these people were all soldiers of the "gray animal" level and not everyone could insult them.

Since sending troops in mid-September, Stepanov's more than 500 people first sneaked into an East Coast militia team that had not reacted at all, and then directly inserted into Yazhen as quickly as possible, trying to conquer this important stronghold in one fell swoop. At the critical moment, the professional soldier system established in Hailanpao County played a role. The only 50 professional soldiers in the county stood up, closed the only city gate in a panic, and used artillery to repel the Russians' tentative attacks. It can be said that it was the rapid reaction of these capable professional soldiers that prevented the important city of Jieya Town from being attacked by the enemy.

Now, a group of male men went to the city to assist in the defense, and the firepower was quite strong. Stepanov guessed that if he did not increase his troops, it would be impossible for him to capture this prepared city with just about 500 people. In fact, his superior General Yugovic was also very clear, so the order he gave him was to monitor and attack Jieya Town, and there was no forced requirement to seize it, which gave Stepanov enough freedom.

So he divided the hundreds of people into several teams, leaving only the most elite part to monitor outside Jieya Town, while other teams rushed into the surrounding villages and robbed them. Poor that those reclaimed villages often had only thirty or forty households in one village. Although they had some superficial military training, their level was very limited and their combat effectiveness was very low. Therefore, when they encountered one or two hundred Russian soldiers with guns and knives, they were shorter in momentum, and then defeated by them, and the killing was natural.

Moreover, the most vicious move of the Russians was not actually to attack many of your villages, but to deceive the native tribes living in Jieya County and Wudi County, and to attack and rob the villages on the east coast. Many of these tribes were previously cleaned up by the East Coast army. There were already grudges between the two sides. The reason why they did not make trouble before was not that they were really convinced, but were just frightened by the military pressure of the East Coast people. But now the Russians have attacked and are constantly clamoring to drive out the yellow-clad thieves on the east coast and make money together. Therefore, many tribes took the opportunity to turn against each other, join the Russian army, and fight against the East Coast people. And as time goes by, and the longer the Russians have gained the upper hand on the battlefield, the more tribes they deceived on the Russian side, the greater the troubles they face.

It has been almost two months since the war officially broke out, and Stepanov didn't know how many Tungus tribes were fighting for him now, maybe one thousand or three thousand, who knew. He only knew that as the tribes who had been suppressed by the East Coast in various places "uprising" one after another, the second county of Wuya they established was basically abolished. Even if the main strongholds such as the county town could be preserved, the villages in the Fourth Field were destroyed and the residents of the land reclamation were killed. This also indicates that the East Coast people's colonization efforts in this area were wasted. Not long after the new official Liu Jianguo Liu was taken office, he was hit like this, and I don't know what he felt like at this moment.

"I will clear the territory of Jieya County for two weeks and then gather the troops. I will try to attack this castle. Anyway, at that time, there should be quite a lot of people under my command to support us, as long as we have to prepare enough food." After looking at Jieya County quietly for a while, Stepanov exhaled a mouthful of white steam and said to a Cossack officer standing beside him: "The snatched food is transported to the designated location. As our military rations for the next period of time, we must know that Yakutsk and Albazin are not planning to distribute food, meat and other supplies to us. The gold, silver and fur are also collected, and don't leave it to the lowly Tungus people, especially those minks and fox skins, whether they are transported back to Moscow or sold to Bogde Khan, they can make a big profit."
Chapter completed!