Just when the whole of Europe was marching on the west coast of the Caspian Sea for the 300,000 troops of the crazy Chinese Empire to capture the small town of Baku, nearly 3,000 miles to the north, at a castle fortress in the foothills of the South Ural Mountains, the battle clouds were thick, and it was an important fortress located on the border of the Eurasian continent, Orenburg!

Since ancient times, the Orenburg region has been the crossroads of trade routes from Europe to Asia. After Tsarist Russia expanded eastward, across the Ural Mountains and into Siberia, Orenburg has always been the first and most important fortress of Tsarist Russia in the Ural Mountains and eastward expansion into Asia.

Orenburg was once the capital of the Kazakh Khanate, but was later occupied by the gradual annexation of Tsarist Russia, and became a military center of Tsarist Russia in the southeast. The city of Orenburg is strong, because it relies on the foothills of the Ural Mountains, the terrain is suitable for the soldiers to attack, and it is guarded by heavy troops stationed by Tsarist Russia all the year round, and there are hundreds of cannons to guard, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Luo Qiongshu stood at the foot of the mountain, looked at the somewhat whitish fort on the endless Ural Mountains, and said to his staff officer Ren Weiqi: "Brother Ren, this Orenburg is a little difficult to attack!" Did you inquire about the intelligence of the Russian army clearly? ”

Ren Weiqi replied respectfully: "Report to the Governor, after more than half a year of investigation, I have initially learned that Tsarist Russia has stationed 14,000 Russian troops in this Orenburg. In addition, Orenburg is an outpost and springboard for Tsarist Russia to cross the Ural Mountains and enter Siberia from the European steppe, there are many Cossack troops around it, especially the Cossack cavalry who are like the wind, Orenburg's Tsarist general can order the Cossack army around to rescue Orenburg at any time, because Orenburg's jurisdiction is relatively vast, including most of Western Siberia and Kazakhstan, and has jurisdiction over nearly 180,000 Cossack soldiers, mainly Volga Cossacks, Six clusters, including the Zaporozhye Cossacks, the Middle Don Cossacks, the Ural Cossacks, the Ob Cossacks and the West Siberian Cossacks.

However, after two heavy defeats, the Ob Cossacks, Western Siberian Cossacks and Ural Cossacks in the 6 big Ssack clusters of the Russian army have been almost wiped out by our Chinese Imperial Army, leaving only about 80,000 troops of the other 3 major groups, of which 50,000 are cavalry troops. ”

Luo Qiongshu nodded, satisfied with Ren Weiqi's answer.

Ren Weiqi is his chief of staff, not a Taiping sergeant, but when Luo Qiongshu led his troops to capture Guangdong, the captured Manchu Shaozhou prefect, and later took it for his own use as a staff member.

Luo Qiongshu himself, who was appointed as the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu appointed by the Chinese Emperor Feng Yunshan, followed Shi Dakai to open up the western frontier, in addition to defending the city of Kashgar, he also helped capture the vast areas of the Kazakh Khanate such as Kokand and Bukhar, and was appointed as the governor of Anxi.

This governor of Anxi, firstly, borrowed from the meaning of the Anxi Protectorate of the Tang Dynasty, and secondly, it literally meant to pacify Western Siberia. However, in today's West Siberia, there are not many people in the Chinese Empire, they are a group of scattered Mongols and a large number of Cossacks, Russians and Kazakh herdsmen who have wandered here earlier, and there is no need to govern at all, so Luo Qiongshu, the governor of Anxi, mainly led his field army to sweep Western Siberia, clear the Cossack army, and deter the Kazakhs.

In order to allow Luo Qiongshu to play a better role and effectively unify his command, Emperor Feng Yunshan appointed Luo Qiongshu to take charge of the Third Field Corps and gave him the military power to transfer the entire Third Field Corps. Therefore, after receiving the emperor's personal order to attack Tsarist Russia and occupy the entire Western Siberia, Luo Qiongshu immediately asked the chief of staff Ren Weiqi to formulate a battle plan, and after several months of preparation, he finally led the army to Orenburg.

Looking back on the difficult journey along the way, Luo Qiongshu couldn't help but feel a little emotional! This was probably the most difficult battle he had ever led the army in his life, not because the enemy was too strong, nor because his men were not strong, but because the march was difficult.

He led four divisions of the Third Field Corps to attack more than 40,000 people, plus 30,000 Kazakh subordinate troops of the Kokand Khanate, 20,000 original Mongolian and Xibe cavalry who returned to obedience, 20,000 Wuer soldiers and Hui soldiers, and nearly 20,000 logistics troops specially responsible for supply, and nearly 140,000 troops across thousands of kilometers of the Gobi Desert, and even hundreds of miles of uninhabited desert.

In this way, it was still raised in many ways and prepared for a long time to be realized. And from the city of Kokand, he took a boat along the Syr Darya River to the Aral Sea. Otherwise, if you march all the way by land, I am afraid that before you reach the front line, the war horses and people will be unbearable. Although the soldiers can bear hardships and stand hard work, but marching dozens of kilometers every day, there is still a lack of people and horses, not to mention whether it is a field army soldier or other coercive army, although each soldier is equipped with at least one war horse, but these war horses are no longer used for riding, let alone running, but used to carry some slightly lighter war supplies.

"This Orenburg is more dangerous and difficult to attack than we imagined, and it seems that the battle plan of the staff department needs to be adjusted somewhat!" Luo Qiongshu had a little worry on his face.

Ren Weiqi, who is already in his fifties, after experiencing some ups and downs, coupled with his military career in the past few years, is as dry as an old man in his sixties and seventies, and he can't see the appearance of the Manchu literati in the past at all. He said neatly: "Your Excellency the Governor is right, in my opinion, it is better to focus on the heart and combine the policy of strong attack." Speaking of which, I have a bold guess! ”

Of the 14,000 defenders of Orenburg, less than 3,000 came from the Tsar-loyal Guards, who were directly subordinate to St. Petersburg, and the rest were mostly Cossack soldiers from the eastern and western sides of the Ural Mountains. The Guards have a higher status and are well paid, on the other hand, these Cossack soldiers are living very unsatisfactory, relying on expeditions to fight, plundering property everywhere to make a living, and behind these Cossack soldiers, there are still many families and tribal clusters to support, the burden is heavier, and they advocate freedom, and they are very dissatisfied with the suppression of the Guards in Tsarist Russia! Ren Weiqi continued: "Therefore, we can provoke relations between these guards and Cossack soldiers in Orenburg!" Let them have contradictions, rifts, and even internal strife, in this case, their internal cooperation must not be so tight, and it will be much more beneficial for us to conquer Orenburg! ”

Luo Qiongshu was interested: "Then how to stir up their contradictions?" These people are all Tsarist foreigners, and we can't get close to Orenburg, how to provoke? ”

"Your Excellency the Governor, didn't we expel and capture quite a few Cossacks along the way? Some of them can be spared, and some of them will surely flee into Orenburg, and we only have to let out the rumors that the Cossacks, as long as they are loyal to the Chinese Empire, can get a hundred acres of land of their own in distant Siberia, and the Guards can get a thousand acres of the best land directly in the places they designate. In case of stubborn resistance, the Cossacks were killed, and the guards were sent back to the Tsarist mainland in exchange for 50 roubles of gold coins. This made the Cossacks feel that the Russian government did not treat them as its own citizens, but only valued and protected the guards. In this way, as soon as the rumors are opened, they are like a flood and cannot be controlled. Those Cossack soldiers in Orenburg felt that they had been abandoned by the Tsarist authorities, and naturally they had no intention of working for the Tsar! ”