In the southern part of the Siberian Plain, on the wasteland where Tsarist Russia meets the Khalkha and the old land of the former Vaspur, hundreds of thousands of troops are marching slowly in a neat array.

This army is lined up in a long phalanx of horizontal width and vertical narrowness, the width is about more than ten miles, and the longitudinal length is also several miles, the whole army does not have a trace of chaos in the process of marching, the sound of footsteps is bursting, the sound of hooves is rumbling, the majestic air is terrifying.

With such a neat formation, it is a rare elite division at a glance, and the several sun and moon dragon flags flying high in the air tell the enemy that this is the regular army of the Ming Empire!

The Ming army on the southern road, which had been lurking for nearly a month, attacked, and in the distance, the Russian scouts who were lucky not to be cleared up by the Ming army's scouts all galloped wildly, fleeing frantically, too terrible, too terrible, such a huge team, can the fortress stop it?

At this moment, all the Russian scouts who had escaped by chance were frightened, and they just wanted to flee back as soon as possible and tell their commanders the terrible news.

In the middle of the big array, under the dragon flag of the sun and the moon, Sun Chuanting, the commander of the Southern Route Army of the Ming Empire, was holding a telescope and looking ahead, according to the marks on the map, the eighteenth fortress of Tsarist Russia should be not far ahead.

About a quarter of an hour later, a mound that stretched for hundreds of miles appeared in Sun Chuanting's telescope, and a fortress loomed in the gap in the middle of the mound.

When he finally arrived, he turned his telescope to the left, and there was indeed a small river not far in front of him, not far from the river, and a dense wood, and between the woods and the creek there was a flat meadow, which was a good place to camp.

At this time, there were already dozens of scouts shuttling through the woods, and no one was signaling the alarm, that is, there were no enemy ambushes in the woods.

Seeing this scene, Sun Chuanting immediately put down the binoculars and ordered loudly: "Order, the whole army will turn to the left, camp next to the river in front of the left, facing the direction of the enemy's fortress, the Qin army is in the center, the first army of the border guard army is on the left, and the second army of the border army is on the right. “

This time, Sun Chuanting only brought 300,000 troops, and the Fourth Army of the Frontier Army was left by him to garrison the newly built city on the north bank of the Rem River, while the Third Army of the Frontier Army was protecting the army of the vassal state building the railway.

However, the scale of the fortress in front is not very large, according to the reconnaissance report, the eighteenth fortress of Tsarist Russia is a medium-sized fortress, and at most 5,000 defenders are stationed.

Isn't it too exaggerated to say that 300,000 troops are besieging a fortress with only 5,000 defenders?

If it is purely to take this fortress, the 300,000 army is indeed a bit exaggerated, and it is more than enough to send a legion over, but the garrison of Tsarist Russia in the Siberian Plain is not only 5,000 people, but 500,000, if you send a single legion over, it is very likely to be attacked by the enemy.

Golovin could think of using sneak attack tactics to break the Ming army, and Lu Xiangsheng and Sun Chuanting were not fools, so they naturally thought about it, how could they not take precautions.

The fortress is no ordinary city, and its terrifying defenses are no joke, and there are only two ways to conquer it, either by grinding it with time or by filling it with human lives.

If a medium-sized fortress with a scale of 5,000 people is filled with human lives, it will cause at least tens of thousands of casualties, ten is hundreds of thousands, and one hundred is millions, that is to say, if you fill with human lives, two million Ming troops will not be able to take Siberia with all the casualties, and a fool will do this.

If you use time to grind, you have to be careful of enemy reinforcements, when you are attacking the city, the enemy pounces from behind, it is quite dangerous, if there is not enough army to resist, it is likely to cause the whole army to collapse.

Sun Chuanting is a famous general in the history of the late Ming Dynasty, even if the emperor asks him to attack in an all-round way, he will find a way to leave a reserve force to prevent the enemy from sneaking attack, not to mention that the emperor did not urge at all, and the time given to him is quite generous, he is naturally more steady, and strives not to give the enemy any chance.

The 300,000 army is already the limit of what he can draw, not only the siege troops must prevent the enemy from sneaking attacks, but also the base camp behind and the vassal army that is building the railroad must also prevent the enemy from sneaking attacks, if the front is fine, but the backyard is on fire, it will be more serious than the consequences of the collapse of the siege troops, so two legions must be left behind to garrison, and they must always keep in touch, pay attention to the enemy's movements at any time, and once the enemy sneaks into the rear, they must go back to support with all their might.

If Tsarist Russia does not gather a large army to attack with all its might, it will not be able to shake the 300,000 horses, and if Tsarist Russia gathers a large army to attack with all its might, it is not afraid, although the 300,000 army may not have done it, it is still no problem to stabilize the position, and when the time comes, whether it is to let the remaining troops in the back come to support, or send a telegram to let Lu Xiangsheng's East Road army outflank from the northeast, it can make the Tsarist Russian army unable to eat and go around.

In short, in terms of preventing the enemy's sneak attack, Sun Chuanting was cautious and careful, he didn't want to capsize in the gutter, because of a moment of negligence and ruined the good situation.

He was equally cautious in the face of the fortress's terrifying defenses, and the emperor demanded that the attack be launched on time in ten days, and he set out on the fifth day after receiving the telegram.

In fact, the eighteenth fortress of Tsarist Russia is not far from the camp of the Ming army on the south road, and it is only a distance of more than an hour to speed up the horses, and the day is almost up if the infantry and cavalry march are mixed, and the reason why he set off five days in advance is not to launch an attack in advance, but to build more siege equipment and try to avoid casualties among his soldiers.

After the 300,000 troops set up camp by the small river about ten miles away from the No. 18 fortress of Tsarist Russia, they began to make siege equipment in an orderly manner.

In order to prevent the enemy from sneaking attack, Sun Chuanting also made careful and meticulous arrangements for the soldiers who made siege equipment, the Qin army, the first army of the border guards and the second army of the border guards were all 50,000 cavalry and 50,000 infantry, and he did not send all of them to make siege equipment, but took turns to fight in batches.

Each round is 50,000 cavalry felling, 50,000 infantry to make siege equipment, other cavalry and infantry take turns to rest and guard, two hours in a rotation, so as to maintain the physical strength of men and horses, but also to ensure the efficiency of logging and manufacturing siege equipment, but also to ensure that there are 100,000 troops in a state of readiness at all times, not to give the enemy a chance to sneak attack.

Golovin wanted to sneak attack, as soon as he received the news of the departure of the Ming army, he sent scouts to look out from afar at all times, always looking for an opportunity to give the Ming army a ruthless attack, but unfortunately, Sun Chuanting arranged it too carefully, whether it was the base camp in the rear or the road repair team in the middle, whether it was the march of the army or the camping to make siege equipment, the Ming army always maintained a high degree of vigilance, and there was no way to sneak attack at all!