"It's all yours. Take me as much as you can, and put the rest on me and put the sled on me." Outside a village on the east bank where the Niuman River (i.e., the Brieya River) and Heilongjiang River, an officer wearing a cotton coat and a face covered with grease and anti-freeze rushed over, waving a 1633 flintlock pistol, shouting at the men, women, and young people gathered outside the village to load and unload supplies.

There were several ammunition boxes under his feet, as well as molds for making lead ammunitions, and behind him there were several heavy gunpowder barrels, which were filled with black gunpowder if nothing unexpected happened. Obviously, the officer was ordered to send some ammunition to the reclaimers in the village.

Hearing this military man say, the village chief who was carrying grain and beans immediately straightened up and ordered seven or eight young men to carry these precious weapons and ammunition into the village for storage in case of emergencies. In the past five months, they had encountered several attacks by the Russians, which consumed a lot of ammunition. Everyone was worried that if the reinforcements from the rear could not come, they would be in the dilemma of insufficient ammunition. How could they face the vicious Russians?

Fortunately, the Tianzun finally did not forget them! On February 16, 1673, Liu Jianguo, the captain of the Hei Shui Development Team and the commander of the Hei Shui Security, personally led a 2,000 army to this village that had been struggling to survive and had not yet fallen. While saving the local people, he also brought them a large amount of military resources. In return, the village also provided a considerable amount of food, horse feed, cured meat, dried fish and other foods to the army. Although it seemed like a drop in the bucket, it was somewhat of a supplement.

After seeing a few young and strong men moving gunpowder barrels, bullets and other military funds into the village, the village chief had no intention of working. He walked slowly to the officer and asked carefully: "Sir, what's going on outside now? I think our people have already fought with the Cossacks..."

The young lieutenant looked at the village chief, then nodded, and said, "We have already won a great victory. We beheaded more than 40 levels, and destroyed an enemy's military station. We seized a large amount of fur and gold. Unfortunately, the food is relatively small, which is not enough for our army to spend a week. If we want to recover counties such as Jieya, Wudi, Hailanpao, etc., the food must be transported from the rear."

At the end, the second lieutenant patted a heavy sled beside him, meaning that it was all based on this means of transportation. And when it came to this, it must be mentioned that even in the later Republic of China, when Japan colonized Manchuria, due to poor transportation conditions, winter and spring were always the main transportation season. A large amount of supplies were transported to various places through mules and horses, sleds, which greatly promoted the circulation of materials. On the contrary, in summer and autumn, due to the high rainfall, ground traffic was always rotten to no limit, and effective material exchange was impossible.

This is true in Manchuria, and the northeast is very similar. In summer and autumn, transporting materials is really hard work in areas far away from the main channel such as Heilongjiang and Songhua River, and the transportation of materials is extremely expensive, but it is much simpler in winter. The sled transportation volume is not small, and it is convenient and fast. It is indeed the most important means of transportation.

"Sir, I hope you can win the championship. These Russians will cause us a disaster." The village chief took out a bag of tobacco from his pocket and stuffed it into the hands of the young officer, and said, "Greeting them well for me."

The second lieutenant was stunned for a moment, and said nothing, then turned around and left.

At this time, in a wilderness about ten kilometers west of Niuman River, a large group of cavalry on the east coast had just finished their battle and began to clean the battlefield. In the past week, they have obviously put away their relatively leisurely attitude when they marched before, because they encountered enemies significantly more and more frequent battles, which seemed to indicate that they were extremely close to the area where the Russian invading army was routinely active.

But I don’t know if it’s natural to be slow or what happened. Their military commander Liu Jianguo was still the same as the old peasant. Since the army was in charge of the army, he has been asking about the enemy situation for no more than an hour along the way. The rest are discussing rural construction and economic development with local officials. Moreover, he asked very carefully, so he even had to ask about livestock breeding after the beginning of spring, which made the generals of all sizes speechless. We are going to fight wars, so why did it look like an agricultural inspection?

Liu Jianguo was living in the village at this time, and he talked with the people in the village about the harvest of rye, the harvest of oats, and the geometry of sand and gold production in nearby rivers, etc. Until his officers kept reporting the enemy's feelings, he gave up and made the decision to raise troops to advance westward.

The wind in the wild was still full of biting chill. Liu Jianguo was riding a heavy sled and soon arrived at the place where the battle had just ended. He stepped on the creaking snow and listened to the faint moans around him. It was the sound of the injured Russian cavalry falling to the ground. Liu Jianguo sighed heavily and waved his hand and said, "According to the plan, continue to move northward and recover the Birch Linzi Township. In addition, send a team of cavalry to Yongsheng Township to investigate the situation."

The order was quickly executed, while the troops continued to advance. On February 20, the army arrived at Huashulinzi Township, which had been captured by the Russian army. Two thousand east coast militias with knives and guns were arranged outside, and they acted like a strong attack.

The enemy troops were nestled in the village with a population of about 300, of which there were only about 70 Cossacks. The rest were either Russian serfs acting as infantry or tribal armed forces incorporated on the east coast, and their combat effectiveness was actually relatively limited.

The battle process indeed confirmed this. When the East Coast people moved out eight light artillery and finished adjusting, the Russians in the village were already in a state of great turmoil. They rushed out twice, and were all shot back by the East Coast Infantry and Cavalry Brigade, which was waiting for the battle, and then they stopped and didn't know what to do.

Next is the siege battle that the people on the East Coast are familiar with. The artillery is bombarded and the gap is cracked down, and the infantry follows in and breaks in, expanding the gap. To be honest, this kind of fighting style is not very clever, but the East Coast has many cannons, guns, and firepower. It is obvious that it is to pile up supplies for you. What can you do?

Liu Jianguo was interested in the entire battle process. Maybe he had never seen such a large-scale war before. However, the old officers under his command shook his head. The combat quality of these militias was indeed a bit low, and they were very different from standing troops such as the Third Infantry Regiment of the New Army, not to mention elite troops such as the Seventh Mixed Battalion, which had stronger combat power. The troops like them, who could only rank third-rate in the East Coast military system, could only fight with those natives. They had no advantage when they encountered a large team of Cossacks, and they might even be severely damaged by the opponent with their maneuverability. This is not impossible.

The people of the East Coast did not delay the battle until nightfall. Under the supervision of officers and veterans, the militia drawn from various counties used sharp platoons to squeeze the enemy's space step by step, and then transferred cannons to bombard it. Such unreasonable fighting naturally made the Russians extremely frightened. They had no cannon, only a few dozen muskets, and the others were cold weapons. There may be some ways to imagine in the wild, and there are still opportunities to move around and turn defeat into victory, but it is really difficult to stay in a small village like Huashu Linzi Township. No strategy or tactics can be used, and they can only fight with hard strength!

So, after the evening, the Cossacks stopped doing it first. They turned over and kept on their horses, and ignored the fact that there were still many stolen things in the village, and rushed out from the other side. More than 300 East Coast cavalry who had been waiting for a long time rushed over to intercept. The Cossacks did not stop a few of them, and the Russian serf soldiers or tribes who were fleeing immediately were stopped. These people had completely lost confidence. After being rushed by the cavalry, they turned around and hid back in the village. Then they were attacked by guns and cannons from the East Coast militia that were pressing over step by step. In the end, the entire army collapsed and most of them were annihilated.

After winning the first battle, Liu Jianguozhi lived in the village proudly and summoned the officers to discuss the next step. However, when the logistics staff hurried over and told him that Liu's ammunition consumption broke through the sky, he could no longer laugh! Grandma, he could use 20% of his ammunition reserves in a small birch forest. What's the point? No wonder he heard the sound of gunfire so fiercely, and they were squandering ammunition! Thinking of this, those Russians were really frustrated. Those who had a lot of cold weapons in the organization had never had enough ammunition. As a result, when they met a rich man like the East Coast, they suddenly collapsed, which was also tragic.

As a last resort, Liu Jianguo ordered the logistics officers to re-check the inventory of ammunition, and then asked officers at all levels to strictly restrain their soldiers, save extremely ammunition during combat, and no orders are allowed to fire guns, fire artillery, etc. On this northeastern land, all the weapons and gunpowder have to be transported from the rear for a long distance. It is really impossible not to save any money.

After conquering Huashulinzi Township, the army on the east coast stayed here for a few days. Some people came to report the situation in Yongsheng Township. Liu Jianguo ordered some guns to be transferred to them, but he did not give them much ammunition and then turned to the southwest and headed towards Beigou Township. On March 5, the army arrived in the Beigou Township area. The Russian troops who had originally used this garrison to plunder the fourth field had retreated. They were missing. The people on the east coast captured the town without bloodshed.

On March 22, the East Coast army, which had avoided a sudden blizzard, finally appeared in the sight of the military and civilians in Hailanpao Town. At this time, the Russian Stepanov army, which had been moving nearby, had quietly retreated, as if they were unwilling to fight head-on with the main force of the East Coast.

Lu Xiaofeng, the county magistrate of Hailanpao County, reported to Liu Jianguo about the situation of staying after being surrounded and the chaos in the wild rural areas he knew. As he spoke, he almost shed tears because many Han people who immigrated here in recent years were slaughtered. Among them, there were both Russian and local rebellious tribal armed forces and almost no rural grassroots order existed. If you want to rebuild it, you will probably have a lot of energy.

After hearing this, Liu Jianguo comforted Lu Xiaofeng and told him that the army had arrived and the Russians had retreated farther west. The local problems in Hailanpao County were not difficult to solve, because he would leave a small number of troops for him to help him rebuild local order and restore agricultural production.

Of course, he also emphasized that heavy sanctions should be used in troubled times. When the Russian army attacked, many village chiefs and tribal chiefs appointed by the East Coast people turned against each other and participated in the robbery of some East Coast villages; and when the East Coast army came here, these people quietly withdrew their troops and went back to their villages to pretend to be good people. For these "double-faced people", Liu Jianguo felt that it was necessary to clean up these "two-faced people", arrest them and kill them, and kill them, and do not have any scruples. Even Liu Jianguo implicitly suggested that if these Tungus people were not very "concerned", then they might as well get rid of them all. Anyway, they had blood on their hands and could never go back to the past. As for the possible manpower gap, there is no way to do it. Let's find a way later. At worst, immigrate from mainland China.

Mr. Liu did not stay in Hailanpao County. On April 9, 1673, more than 1,500 East Coast troops arrived at Huma Fort, which was located upstream of Hailanpao Port, a castle that had been stolen from the Russians.

To be honest, Huma Fort is quite strong. The stone castle has several artillery pieces as protective powers, and the city is also sufficient, so it is not surprising that they can persist until now under the semi-blockade by the Russians. When the east coast army arrived here, all the Russian cavalry who were originally wandering in the wild retreated, but according to the scouts, they did not go far, but occupied the territory of Jieya County to the west. It seemed that they did not plan to retreat again.

Liu Jianguo ignored the Russians' movements, but sent people to check nearby gold mines first. The result was a bit disappointing: most of the miners were unknown, the machinery and equipment disappeared, and some mining areas were also destroyed. Needless to say, the gold that had not been transported here was in stock, and it had already entered the Russians' pockets. In short, if production was to resume here, there was still a long way to go.

There were more than 100 soldiers to fight in Huma Fort, and there were also some strong gunmen, but Liu Jianguo did not intend to recruit them. After instructing these people to defend the fortress and to calm down the nearby rural situation, he led the army that had been resting for several days and continued to set off westward, following Heilongjiang all the way, and finally entered Jieya County on April 30, 1673, which was only a few dozen kilometers away from Jieya County.
Chapter completed!