After capturing Surgut, Gaojia's army began to sweep the small Russian military strongholds in the Ob River valley according to the pre-war plan, making final preparations for the attack on the city of Tyumen.

Half a month later, small military strongholds such as Tara under the control of the Russian army fell into the hands of the Ming army, and only Tobolsk remained in the hands of the Russian army in the entire east of the Ob River valley.

The tenacity of the Russian army in Tobolsk surprised Zu Dashou, who was like a nail nailed to the Ob River valley, and Zu Dashou had been besieging Tobolsk for nearly 20 days without making any progress.

On June 17, the 20,000 Ming army led by Gao Jia joined Zu Dashou, who was still fighting in Tobolsk. At this time, the Ming army gathered in Tobolsk was close to 70,000 men.

"My lord, Tobolsk is one of the most important cities of the Russian army in West Pol, it has been the center of the Russian army in West Poir since the day it was established, and its status even exceeds that of Tyumen, and its solidity is even greater than that of Tyumen, so I think our army should adopt a strategy of besieging but not attacking Tobolsk." Gao Jia proposed.

"Go on......" Zu Dashou thought for a while and nodded.

"My lord, our army has cleared the stronghold of the Russian army on the Ob River and completely dredged the logistical supply line to Tyumen City, I suggest that our army can use a small number of troops to contain the defenders of Tobolsk, and the army will turn to attack Tyumen City. First of all, Tyumen is much less fortified than Tobolsk, and if Tyumen can be taken, the battle will be decided. The Russian Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich is in Kazan at this moment, and by seizing Tyumen, our army can not only cut off the retreat of Tobolsk, but also threaten the Russian Tsar in Kazan in the distance. Gao Jia continued.

"Kazan is more than 2,000 miles from Tyumen." Zu Dashou said softly.

"But in the journey of more than 2,000 miles, the Russian army does not have any strong military strongholds, for our army, it can be said that it is a flat river, our army is fully capable of reaching Kazan within a month and a half, and if you use cavalry raids, the speed will be faster."

Zu Dashou walked to the side of the map and looked at it carefully for a while before saying, "Order, suspend the siege today and repair it for one day." ”

"No."

"Gao Jia, I will leave 20,000 people for you to contain the defenders of Tobolsk, and on the fourth watch day after tomorrow, I will lead an army of 50,000 to Tyumen." Zu Dashou said.

"No. The last general will definitely drag the Russian army in Tobolsk here. ”

……

Founded in 1586, the city of Tyumen derives its name from the Mongolian word meaning "city of ten thousand", and its status is far inferior to that of later generations, when Tyumen was the largest city east of the Ural River in Russia and was also known as the "oil capital".

For the Ming army to take the initiative to attack Tyumen, the Russian army in Tyumen also responded. Tyumen now has more than thirty thousand Russian troops, half of which are Cossack cavalry. This made the Russian army in Tyumen decide to take the initiative to meet the Ming army of Zu Dashou.

July 3, on the banks of the Tula River.

The Ming army led by Zu Dashou and the Russian army of Tyumen set up a formation here early in the morning, and this was a decisive battle that decided the outcome of this battle. If the Ming army wins, the Ming army will be able to drive straight into the battle line all the way to the vicinity of Kazan, and if the Russian army wins, the Ming army will have to retreat to the area specified in the armistice agreement, which means that the Ming army will not be able to attack the Russian army in West Pol for several years or even the last decade.

The Cossack cavalry of the Russian army has always been the most fashionable on the battlefield, and the only one that can be compared with it may be the hussars, but now the Ming army only retains a 5,000-person hussar in the Beijing Governor's Mansion, but the ornamental significance of this hussar is far greater than the actual combat significance. The cost of hussars was too great, which was the fundamental reason why Zhu Youxiao canceled the hussars.

Once the Poles relied on hussars to defeat the Cossack cavalry, but in the end the Poles still did not consume the Cossack cavalry, the reason for this situation is that the Poles need not only money but also time to train hussars, and the Cossack cavalry grew up on horseback from an early age, and when they grow up, they are a qualified cavalryman, and the consumption of light cavalry is much less than that of heavy cavalry.

The advent of firearms has greatly shortened the time it takes to train a qualified soldier, and the time it takes to train a qualified archer is several times longer than the time to train a qualified musketeer. This is also the reason why after the advent of firearms, although the range and power were very close to the bow and arrow, they quickly replaced the bow and arrow.

This is also the reason why Zhu Youxiao knew the power of the Cossack cavalry, but did not reorganize the hussars.

On the battlefield, the Cossack cavalry came and went like the wind, and with the cooperation of the Russian infantry, they kept harassing the infantry phalanx of the Ming army, trying to disturb the infantry phalanx of the Ming army. And Zu Dashou was completely tentative on the first day, he focused on defense. Before he went to war, he was told by Zhu Youxiao to pay attention to the Cossack cavalry of the Russian army. Although Gao Jia encountered Cossack cavalry, the number of Cossacks at that time was only two or three thousand, unlike the more than 15,000 Cossack cavalry now.

The first day of the Russian army's attack was also tentative, they were very afraid of the Ming army in the case of successive defeats, they did not dare to make a desperate bet at the beginning, they also wanted to find out the weaknesses of the Ming army.

On the first day, the fighting lasted until the evening, and both sides tacitly withdrew their troops, and after a day's fighting, only one or two thousand men were killed or wounded.

By the next day, the Russian army had significantly intensified its offensive and committed more troops. And Zu Dashou also consciously arranged dragoons on both sides of the infantry phalanx to reduce the pressure on the infantry phalanx.

Zu Dashou had more experience in the use of dragoons than Gao Jia, he learned from Gao Jia's experience in fighting against Cossack cavalry, equipped the dragoons with an extra grenade, and asked the dragoons to make full use of the advantages of the horse pistol in the confrontation before the war, which made the dragoons and Cossack cavalry in the confrontation, although the dragoons were less mobile than the Cossack cavalry, but they did not fall behind by relying on the advantage of firearms.

The next day of the battle, the Ming army and the Russian army were still inseparable, but the casualties on both sides had been twice as many as the previous day, and the Ming army had invested nearly seventy percent of the artillery, while the Russian army had invested all the artillery, and the artillery of both sides blew up the entire Tula River into potholes.

On the third day, Zu Dashou invested 35,000 soldiers and all the artillery at one time, and he decided to use the dragoons to pin down the Russian cavalry, and the Chinese army needed to break through and defeat the Russian infantry first.

The Russian army also made corresponding adjustments, committing 23,000 soldiers. The heavy investment of troops from both sides made the banks of the Tula River appear to be full of people.

The first thing the two sides fought was artillery, because the heavy artillery was not easy to carry, which made the Ming army not have an advantage in the number of heavy artillery, and the Ming army's dominant artillery was only light artillery.

(End of chapter)