Chapter Eighty-Six: The Sultan Wants Peace Talks, and the Austrian Army Strikes Back

In fact, Ningde still intends to control the speed of the march, otherwise they will progress faster. Despite this, they made significant progress on a daily basis in order to keep the pressure on the Ottoman Empire.

In Ningde's original march plan, there would be a battle in Tabriz no matter what, but when Ningde's vanguard army reached the city of Tabriz, the defenders ran away. A group of religious people greeted the Yaogang army outside the city, they were some mosque imams, hoping that the Yaogang army would not harm the people in the city, and they would try their best to meet the army if they were needed.

The officers and men of the Yaogang army have received many years of education and know how to deal with such things, and the commander and political commissar of the vanguard cavalry regiment came to them with a general matter, and when they met with them, they assured them that our army would not move the people to a stitch, and if you found any officers and soldiers who had made mistakes, please inform us immediately, and we would give them severe punishment.

Knowing this, Ning De immediately sent someone to inform the Mongol cavalry that they were not allowed to enter the city, and also told them that if they made a mistake, they would not be killed. Ningde was really worried about the Mongol cavalry, so they were looking forward to fighting and gaining something.

The Ningde army was stationed in Tabriz without bloodshed and without a single shot.

This Tabriz has served as the capital of several countries in the past, and its location is right at the junction of East and West, an important stop on the Silk Road. Not only are there many beautiful mosques in the city, but there are also many other monuments. Many of the people here are engaged in business and are very wealthy.

The neat and disciplined Yaogang army did not disturb the people after entering the city, and was welcomed by the Bai surname. After entering the city, Ningde immediately divided a group of men and horses, marched to the shore of Urumiye Lake, and established a camp. The lake is the largest saltwater lake in Western Asia, with large tracts of arable land on its banks. The only pity is that the lake water here is several times saltier than the seawater, and the fish cannot survive. However, this lake has a great impact on the surrounding environment, and one of Ningde's missions this time is to occupy the area around this lake.

After settling in Tabriz, Ningde their second target was Lake Van Lake. Lake Van is also a saltwater lake, with a high population density around it, and alkali (sodium carbonate) is a very rich resource in the lake. Here, Ningde is also welcomed by the people of all ethnic groups. Zhang Zhimu got the news and realized that the people's sense of the country is still very weak, and the country is the master of the country, and it has nothing to do with the people. Therefore, Zhang Zhimu sent a telegram to Ningde and Li Wei, reminding them to take care of the people everywhere. Whoever is good to them among the people, whom they support.

One of the chiefs of Lake Van was a Greek, and he offered to show them the way to Ningde, and he knew that there was a shortcut from Lake Van to Upper Trabçon on the Black Sea.

Trabçon was originally a Greek empire on the Black Sea, which later surrendered to the Ottoman Empire, and quite a few Greeks there left Trabçon. The ancestor of the Greek leader had come from Trabson, so he only knew a shortcut to Trabson. Ningde sent a cavalry regiment and 2,000 Mongol cavalry to follow the man into Trabsun.

The Yaogang Command Center was also very happy to hear the news, and their purpose was to find a foothold on the shore of the Black Sea. This is the main purpose of this march.

The Ningde army stopped near the headwaters of the upper Euphrates River.

When the troops marching on Trabson arrived in Trabson, the Ottoman officers and civilians there were unaware that they were attacking them. The commander of the cavalry led the cavalry to lead a sudden attack and rushed into the city of Trabzon. The dazed defenders did not put up a decent resistance and all surrendered.

At this time, the Ottoman sultan also returned to Istanbul. Although the Sultan's return to Istanbul was secret, the intelligence agents of Li Zhi, who had been waiting, still found out about the Sultan's return.

The Yaogang command center was very happy to hear the news. Although they reported from Moscow that the offensive of the Ottoman army was suddenly much weaker, they judged that the Ottoman army was about to withdraw. However, after all, it was speculation, and now that the Ottoman Sultan had returned to Istanbul, it was certain that the Ottoman Empire would soon withdraw its troops from the northern front. Therefore, Ouyang He immediately asked Liu Yun to send a report to Li Wei and them, and we must act quickly after crossing the Don River, reach the river as soon as possible, turn around and clean up the remnants of the enemy on the Crimean Peninsula and around the Sea of Azov, and establish our own administrative department as soon as possible. Drove out the Ottoman army, but also the Russian imperial administration.

Ningde and the others were even happier to receive the news. Their judgment was that the Ottoman sultans were likely to return, as they had already found a large number of troops gathering to the west.

Ningde and the others all hope to fight the organized Ottoman army as soon as possible, which is much better than not reaching the enemy at all.

The Sultan has been at odds all the way back, and what to do after returning to Istanbul is whether to release the Ming Dynasty merchants or not let them go. If you let it go, the empire will really lose face, but if you don't let it go, the Ming Dynasty army will not stop attacking. With the current strength of the Ottoman Empire, no army can stop the attack of the Ming Dynasty.

However, the Sultan could see from the information he received that the Ming Dynasty did not really want to fight the Ottoman Empire in a life-and-death battle. If they want to do this, it is estimated that they should hit the Bosphorus by now. With such a judgment, the sultan, who returned to Istanbul, did not immediately call a meeting, but washed up, had dinner, and had a good sleep with his favorite concubine. At dawn, I informed the adults at home to come to Topkapi Palace for a meeting.

In the past, when the Sultan was faced with a major matter, he would first have a meeting with his family members to get their support, and everything would have been easier. This time, in the face of the Ming Dynasty's attack, the Sultan was ready to withdraw his troops from the front line of the battle with the Russian Empire, and faced the danger of being deposed from the position of the Sultan, but the Sultan did not use the power of his family because the Sultan knew the Ottoman Empire too well. The affairs of the Ming Dynasty posed a threat to the entire Ottoman Empire, and at this time, no one would come out to seize their position, because to occupy this position, they need to be responsible, and no one is willing to take this responsibility at this critical moment. All of you want to do your own things and develop your own talents under the protection of the Empire. Now after the Silk Road is opened, it is a wealth of money, as long as you can count the silver you can earn silver, who will bother to take the position of sultan at this time. Can you still beat the Ming Dynasty if you occupy the upper position?

So the Sultan at this time was particularly calm. When all the adults arrived, the Sultan said, "My Excellency, I secretly returned to Istanbul yesterday!" Let me brief you on the situation on the front lines. You've probably read the battle report too. Our great army and the hundreds of thousands of Russian troops entered into a decisive battle, and after a day of fierce fighting, we completely defeated them! ”

"Wow!" There was a round of applause below.

The Sultan waved his hand and said, "We have captured a large number of Russian Imperial soldiers and horses, as well as military supplies such as cars, muskets, and cannons. However, as you know, the Ming army had already crossed the Volga, and when I returned, they had already begun to cross the Don. In their name, the Russian Empire signed an agreement with them to return the lands there to the Ming Dynasty. At the same time, the letters they sent me also said that they asked us to stop the war. Otherwise, action is required to stop us. ”

"It's so unbelievable!"

"It's just too deceitful!"

“”

The Sultan ignored the anger of his subordinates and continued: "But our army cannot stop the Ming Dynasty army at all. They easily occupied all the passes of the Greater Caucasus Mountains. It was easy to advance to the edge of the Don River. Completely cut off our eastern front from the rear through the Greater Caucasus Mountains. I led the army, wanting to speed up the attack on Moscow regardless of the rear, and wanted to turn back to deal with the Ming Dynasty after the Russian Empire was completely defeated. However, all our ships were destroyed by the artillery of the Ming Dynasty army on the river crossing. The 100,000 cavalry we deployed on the west bank of the Don River were covered by the Ming Dynasty artillery, covering all three camps overnight, and more than half of them were killed and wounded. As soon as the day dawned, it was all defeated! There is no point in attacking Moscow again. So, I gave the order to withdraw and come back! ”

"Weng ......"

There was another round of discussion.

After a pause, the Sultan said: "This time, although we did not take advantage of the victory to completely defeat the Russian Empire, it can be concluded that for a long time, the Russian Empire will not dare to confront us head-on!" ”

"Oh!"

Then there was another round of discussion, all affirming the Sultan's words. The Russian Empire was the old enemy of the Ottoman Empire, and defeating them this time was also a great gain. You are very sure of the Sudan.

The Sultan added: "I must confess to you that I have made a very great mistake, which is to listen to the opinions of others, and to detain the merchants of the Ming Dynasty and seal their shops. This gave the Ming Dynasty a reason to attack us! ”

"Isn't it! They have already crossed the Volga to march to the places we occupied, and this is what they did first! "Someone doesn't understand anymore.

"That's right, it's not all right!" The Sultan said, "The reason why the Ming Dynasty came from the direction of the Volga was that they wanted to recover the lands returned to them by the Russian Empire." In every way, they all find a reason! But the reason why they are attacking us from the south of the Caspian Sea is what we gave them. So it was my mistake! ”

Silence below!

After a while, an adult said: "Your Majesty, you don't have to blame yourself, I don't think there is such a reason, and the Ming Dynasty will find other reasons to attack me!" I'll see what we should do if we look into it, shall we? ”

The Sultan glanced at everyone and said, "I rushed back secretly, just because I didn't want my withdrawal to turn into a defeat, in order to deal with the Ming Dynasty's attack!" Everyone knows the situation, let's talk about what to do, right? ”

One general said: "Your Majesty, in my opinion, the Ming Dynasty's army is attacking like it really wants to exterminate us. If that were the case, the speed at which they would advance would definitely not be. I think that we have just fought a bloody war with the Russian Empire, and our vitality has not yet recovered, so we should not fight head-on with the Ming Dynasty. If they're going to release people, we'll release them! ”

Another said, "I agree with that!" We can say that it was because His Majesty did not come back, the family did not understand the situation, and there was a misunderstanding! We can't take care of face now! ”

"We're just going to release them right away, and they're going to ask for more. If they offered to compensate for the damages, it would be a lot! Someone said, "I see, do you use their telegram to ask what they mean?" ”

"Yes, yes, what do you mean by asking in the name of Your Majesty?"

The Sultan understood that no one wanted to go to war with the Ming Dynasty, and this would be easy to do, and they would not be able to say anything against how he would deal with the Ming Dynasty in the future.

The Sultan said, "Then I will immediately send a telegram to the kiln men of the Ming Dynasty and ask them what they really want." "Having unified the opinions of the upper echelons of the Ottoman Empire, the Sultan knew what to do.

Kiln Gang Command Center.

Ouyang He took the telegram and said, "Hehe! The Sultan has finally telegraphed! Is the response quick? ”

Chen Yufeng said: "Give them a telegram back, release our people first, and open our shops." If you want, you can send someone to negotiate! ”

Ouyang He said to Liu Yun: "This telegram is also sent to General Ningde!" However, their military operations cannot be stopped! ”

When the Sultan got the call back from the kiln people, he was relieved, but he knew in his heart that the asking price of the kiln people would not be low in the future.

The Sultan thought for a long time before he chose someone to send him as an envoy to negotiate with the Yaogang people. However, before the envoy could leave, a tricky piece of news came. On the east bank of the Dnieper River, the 300,000 Ottoman troops, mainly the heavy cavalry of the 20,000 Yenichian Guards, surrounded more than 20,000 people of the Ming Dynasty.

The Ottoman Sultan knew that this was bad, and the army in the north wanted to take advantage of the Ming Dynasty army by virtue of its numerical superiority, which was looking for death. This incident not only had to suffer a big loss, but also affected the negotiations with the Ming Dynasty, but the Sultan had not yet had time to pass on the armistice order, and the news of the defeat in the front came again.

It turned out that after crossing the Don River, Li Wei did not follow the Ottoman army in the direction of Moscow, but advanced quickly in the direction of the Dnieper.

When the Ottoman army arranged to retreat, they could only take the western front, and they had to cross the Dnieper River to the west. But the retreat of a million-strong army does not mean that it will be withdrawn. Although the Ottoman army made very detailed arrangements, when the whole army knew that it was going to retreat, there was still confusion in crossing the river, and even fighting for pontoon bridges, causing a lot of confusion.

At this time, a Yaogang cavalry division came to the east bank of the Dnieper with more than 10,000 Mongol cavalry. These Yaogang cavalry did not expect to encounter so many Ottoman troops who were about to cross the river, and after they reported the situation to Li Wei, Li Wei ordered them to keep a distance from the Ottoman army, and at the same time sent planes to reconnoiter the situation over there.

These proud kiln cavalry and the equally awesome Mongol cavalry did not take the Ottoman army seriously at all, and the whole army stood on a hill and looked out at the Ottoman army crossing the river.

All the soldiers knew that the most dangerous time was when the army crossed the river, and the Ottoman army could not ignore it when they found someone watching them cross the river. When the Sultan left the commander behind, the scouts sent reported that only one or two thousand Ming troops were there to spy on them as they crossed the river. The officer's liver exploded. There is no such bullying, we still have an army of millions here, and one or two of you are watching our jokes as if no one is around, it is really too deceitful.

The soldiers of these two sides have different ideas, and the cavalry division commander of Yaogang thinks that when we see that you are retreating, we will not start beating you, and when you leave, the place left is what we want, and we will wait by the side.

The Ottoman army was supposed to win the battle after a bloody battle, and should have taken Moscow immediately to end the battle, but the kiln gang suddenly intervened, making it seem like a defeat. Many of the officers and men were not convinced.

When they heard that they were going to wipe out the 20,000 provocative Ming Dynasty troops before leaving, the whole army had the courage to do so. In the end, they decided to take 20,000 Janichaean Guards heavy cavalry as the main body, and send another 300,000 people to besiege and destroy this Ming Dynasty army, and the other armies crossed the river as usual.

Watching the Ottoman troops crossing the river with binoculars crossed the river, for a while, the eyes were dazzled. They all thought that there was nothing to look forward to, but someone suddenly found that there were quite a few cavalry galloping along the Dnieper River to the north and south. At first, the Yaogang cavalry didn't think what was going on, but the plane in the sky suddenly found that two armies surrounded these Yaogang troops from south to north, and when they informed them by radio, the commander of the Yaogang cavalry division felt that the situation was not good.

Fortunately, their location is a high post. The commander of the cavalry division immediately ordered the cavalry to build fortifications. The strength of the cavalry is to charge and fight on the plains, but they have 20,000 people, and no matter how good their weapons are, they can't take advantage of hundreds of thousands of cavalry. If you want to give full play to the advantages of automatic weapons, it is better to fight in positional battles. In this way, the superiority of the Mongol cavalry could not be brought into play.

The cavalry division commander here finished the task and reported to Li Wei. Li Wei affirmed their approach.

Li Jing said to Li Wei: "Let's send the four-wheel drive automobile soldiers and the wheeled infantry fighting vehicle regiment over!" They're wheeled and fast! Our cavalry was passing from both flanks. ”

Li Wei said: "Okay! There's no rush, I really don't want to use them yet! ”

The commander of the cavalry division who arranged the position in front heard that Li Wei had used the treasure in his hand, and his heart was more steady, and he told the officers and soldiers: "We will stay here and attract the Ottoman Empire here, and our deputy commander Li Wei has already sent reinforcements to rush over!" ”

When the cavalry division commander saw his officers and soldiers, he didn't feel anything about being surrounded, what should he do, and he was also talking and laughing about the position. He knew that this was a sign that the officers and soldiers had great confidence in themselves. The only thing they lacked was that they were not heavily armed and had no heavy weapons, but the cavalry had some air-cooled heavy machine guns and 60 mortars. And then there are some spotted light machine guns.