A heavy snowstorm hit St. Petersburg. In the blink of an eye, the whole city becomes a snow-white world.

This snowstorm gave St. Petersburg a touch of tranquility that it did not have before, but at the same time, Catherine II's palace was not at all calm.

Along with this heavy snowstorm came a series of battle reports to St. Petersburg. Catherine II's Russian ministers and her close ministers had a chaotic and gloomy atmosphere. The dignitaries and officers who, a few days ago, had been in high spirits because of the 'bad luck' of the Swedish army, were now arguing with a straight face, or around a map.

The Russo-Swedish war initiated by Gustav III may be said to be the seventh Russo-Swedish war. Since 1561~1583, during the Livonian War, Sweden stood on the side of the anti-Russia, until now, until 1788 in the Western calendar, six major wars have broken out between Russia and Sweden in more than 200 years. Now it's the seventh Russian-Swedish war!

Although the final outcome is still unexpected, the initial confrontation between Russia and Sweden has already won on both land and sea.

This war was the opportunity of the Sixth Russo-Turkish War for Gustav III to send troops to attack Russian Finland. More than forty years ago, during the Sixth Russo-Swedish War, Sweden, with the support of France, provoked a war with Russia to regain lost territory. However, they suffered many defeats on the battlefield, and finally the two sides signed the "Peace of Austria", and Sweden further lost its territory in Finland.

Now Gustav III is ready to attack Russia again and regain the lost territory of Finland. As a result, Sweden was defeated at the beginning of the war, the army's advance to the fortress of Svataipol was blocked, the navy was defeated in the Battle of Gogland, and then the Russian navy inflicted heavy losses on the Swedish fleet in the First Battle of Svensksund.

When the news reached St. Petersburg, the whole of Russia was in celebration.

After listening to the continuous bad news from the east for a long time, and the war with the Ottoman Empire was not going well, at this time, Russia's victory over Sweden made the whole of St. Petersburg breathe a sigh of relief, and the entire government and the opposition were greatly encouraged.

But the good times did not last long, and while the joyful mood of St. Petersburg had not stopped, bad news came from the east again.

Barnaul and Pavlodar fell one after another, and the three cities that blocked the footsteps of the Chinese are now only Omsk.

The map in the palace is a detailed map of Siberia, all the cities established by Russia in Siberia in the past 200 years are marked on it, as well as water and land passages and hubs, and this map alone can sell for 100,000 Chinese dollars in China.

As for the situation in Eastern Siberia, the people in the palace no longer cared about it at all. Although Lepnin is a very capable general, the cards in his hand are too stinky and smelly.

What really caught the people of St. Petersburg by surprise was Marshal Rumyantsev in Western Siberia. This veteran general of the Russian army, with 60,000 heavy troops in his hands, and the cooperation of the Turk Division, the St. Petersburg monarchs before the war had high hopes for Rumyantsev.

I can't guarantee that this old general can reproduce the miracle and beat the Chinese all over the head.

However, the sudden rebellion of the Turks turned the situation in Western Siberia into a mess and became uncontrollable.

When St. Petersburg learned of the rebellion of the Turks, the whole city fell silent, and no one believed that the Empress's loyal warrior, Worbasil, would suddenly betray. But the facts cannot be changed, the Turks not only betrayed themselves, but also deceived the main force of the 20,000 Russian army, plus the 10,000 Siberian troops who were thrown out by Rumyantsev as bait at the beginning, and the main force of the Russian army in Rumyantsev's hands was finished.

Catherine II was so hated that she crushed all the gifts that Vaubasi had given in the palace over the years. However, this did not reverse the defeat in Western Siberia, and even because of the Ottomans, St. Petersburg could not draw Cossack cavalry from the Caucasus battlefield at that time.

In front of me is a schematic map of the war in Western Siberia, on which a huge red arrow symbolizing the Chinese National Defense Force has penetrated the thin defensive line of the Russian army on the line of the Ob River.

Marshal Rumyantsev led the remnants of the army to retreat along the Ob River, by boat, on a wooden raft, all the way to the west. At the same time, he ordered the Russian army and government in Tobolsk, Yekaterina Fort, Chelyabinsk and other places to gather male citizens of appropriate age and organize militias, which he intends to use the urban agglomeration on the west bank of the Ob River as a new starting point to reorganize a "resilient" defensive line.

And what is a 'resilient' line of defense?

That is, to always maintain close contact with the Chinese, but not to fight a decisive battle. To put it more bluntly, it is to retreat and fight, and the space is exchanged for time.

The news reached St. Petersburg in the early morning of a heavy snowstorm. Thanks to the Chinese, the vast Russians have also learned this hand, although the number of pigeons controlled by their government is far from comparable to that of China. Moreover, the proportion of missing pigeons is much higher than that of China, but some urgent information can always be guaranteed. The speed is to be fast. The entire Tsarist court was in mourning.

Everyone knows what that means!

If Russia loses the Ob River valley, it will be difficult to hold on to the vast West Siberian Plain. And with the loss of Western Siberia, will the foundation of the steel industry laid by Peter the Great still hold?

The smelters, which had been in the past half a century, were still one of the most important cornerstones of the Russian Empire, although the technology used was outdated.

If Russia lost this place, it would be unimaginable how great their losses would be.

Catherine II did not want to be a sinner in the history of Russia, and was accused of losing the fruits of a century of Russian development. Just thinking about this crime made her whole person sensitive and irritable.

Therefore, this war with the Chinese will continue.

Russia cannot admit defeat now. The Chinese and the Ottomans are close allies, and if Russia chooses to admit defeat at this time, it will not only lose the second Sino-Russian war, but also the sixth Russian-Turkish war, and even Sweden can take the opportunity to cut a piece of Russian meat.

It's just that the war has been going on so far, and the Russian army in Western Siberia has been completely defeated. The consequences of such a defeat were catastrophic. St. Petersburg had to think about how it could raise enough troops on the Eastern Front in the next period of time – in the cold winter of snowfall – for Rumyantsev to reorganize its defenses.

Although Catherine II was eager to remove Rumyantsev from the post of commander as soon as she received the report of the battle on the Eastern Front, her mind was not completely confused. Withdraw Rumyantsev, who will be able to make up for him?

No matter what opinions and opinions Catherine II had about Rumyantsev, she could not deny that the veteran Rumyantsev was one of the few people in Russia who were most capable of fighting wars, and it could even be said that they were the first to fight the most wars.

Removing him and replacing him with someone will only make the war worse.

So these days, the generals of the Russian court are all silent in front of Catherine II, and only when Catherine II is not there, their mouths will be high-pitched.

Rumyantsev's location is anything but enviable, an erupting crater that can burn people to ashes along the river if not careful.

Even a great god like Rumyantsev was on the verge of an end, and an iron man like Kamensky was turned into molten iron. They don't dare to kill themselves.

Well, then they need to give some satisfaction to Rumyantsev's request.

In the coming winter, they had to send troops, supplies, and everything Rumyantsev needed to Western Siberia. But here's the trouble,

Russia's main battlefield was the war with the Ottoman Empire in the Caucasus, where the fighting is now in a stalemate, with rockets and artillery bombards on both sides, and the daily cost is astronomical.

If it were possible, St. Petersburg would be willing to use all its material resources on the battlefield in the Caucasus, and nothing else.

The Russian Empire made a big mistake in anticipating the cost of the war. They prepared 30,000 or 40,000 rockets in Eastern Siberia and as many as 100,000 rockets in Western Siberia.

In the Caucasus, an incredible 200,000 rockets have been prepared.

In the eyes of many senior Russian military and political officials, this is a figure that may not be used up until the end of the war. After all, they can still produce rockets in the middle of the war.

Hundreds of thousands of rockets, what a concept. Even if a rocket kills only one person, that is a price that no country in the world today is willing to pay.

Including China, with its large population.

But to the surprise of the St. Petersburg monarchs, the rockets were being consumed much faster than they expected.

Not to mention the Eastern Battlefield, the exchange of information is not too convenient. But the battle between them and Sweden, the battle of the fortress of Swataipol, stunned all those who followed. And if there is any special case of this battle, then the battle of Kimburn and the subsequent battle of Ochakov fully prove that the battle for the fortress of Svataipol was not a special case, but a 'normal' phenomenon of war.

In order to ensure an adequate supply of military supplies on the battlefield in the Caucasus, the current St. Petersburg monarchs are really reluctant to send an extra rocket to the East.

But now they have to.

Rumyantsev put forward his own conditions to St. Petersburg, which would send him at least 100,000 rockets and 30,000 regular troops, and Rumyantsev would need to acquire sufficient military strength, and he would recruit at least 50,000 young men to form a militia in Western Siberia and the Volga River valley. Otherwise, he really can't guarantee that he can keep the Chinese in the Ural River valley.

You must know that the original nomadic territory of the Turkut tribe, which betrayed the Russian Empire, was in the lower reaches of the Volga River and on the shores of the Caspian Sea. At that time, they were bullied by the Dzungar Mongols, left their homeland of Tarbagatai, crossed the Kazakh steppe, crossed the Ural River, and came to the lower reaches of the Volga River and the shores of the Caspian Sea, which had not yet been occupied by Tsarist Russia.

In recent years, with the easing of relations between St. Petersburg and the Turks, some Turkut herders have driven their cattle and sheep to the Ural Valley.

When the news of Wobasi's 'betrayal' reached the Turks, the latter soon gathered a cavalry force of 10,000 men and began to harass the empty Orenburg and other regions, burning and destroying a large number of Cossack villages and Russian farms, and plundering a large amount of goods. At the same time, a large number of Turgots women and children also drove their flocks of sheep and horses towards the Ural River valley. The Chinese cavalry also entered the valley of your valley, and now the two sides have been connected.

Although located in the Ural River basin, Orenburg in the middle of the country and the Guriev fortress in the Ural Delta are still under the control of the Russian army, and the main forces of the Chinese are still far, far from the Ural River valley. But the prospects for the Russian army there are really not so good.

Perhaps after the Ural River freezes, a large number of Turkuts will cross the Ural River and enter the Kazakh steppe in the eastern part of the Caspian Sea. By next year's spring season, they are completely safe.

One winter, while the big war is blocked, a small detail can be appropriately adjusted.

And even the Turks can 'return east' in winter, and the Russians can naturally 'travel east' in winter.

Catherine II was naturally unwilling to throw away the fruits of Russia's 200-year eastward expansion.

Before China started the war, she also considered the evolution of this tragic war situation to the extreme, so how to turn the tables around?

The only choice is to delay on the Eastern Front. Then get rid of the Ottoman Empire and Sweden as soon as possible, and then move the army to the east......

So, Catherine II could only meet Rumyantsev's conditions. In addition, she still has to transfer some Cossacks from the main battlefield of the Caucasus, and make the Ural Cossacks the main force, let them kill back to their hometown, and teach the shameful Turks a good lesson.

Because of Turgot, the Eastern Front set up by Catherine II was in shambles. If it were possible, she really wanted to exterminate all the men of the Turghut tribe, and give all their women to the lowly serfs to be wives, and she was not willing to let this shameful tribe exist on the earth for another day.

Unfortunately, all she could do now was to send a limited number of Cossacks to expel the Turks instead of exterminate them.

There were many cavalry duels on the battlefields of the Caucasus.

Because of the change in the mode of war between the two sides, cutting off each other's logistical routes has become a very urgent need for both sides of the war. Of course, the battle at sea can only be solved by warships, but the task on land, in this era, can only fall to the cavalry. The regular cavalry of Russia, which had strong combat effectiveness, was less suitable than the Cossacks in such a battle.

As for the Ottoman Empire, their cavalry units did have a certain Europeanization under the intervention of the Chinese side.

The Ottoman cavalry, which had strong individual combat effectiveness, also began to play wall charges.

But this is only part of the story, the Ottoman Empire still maintained a fairly strong traditional cavalry. Although the combat effectiveness of the latter was much, much worse than that of the Ottoman cavalry at its peak, it still caused a lot of trouble for Russia. And this is still a requirement of Chen Han for them.

Before the war, Chen Ming considered the safety of the Turks.

The fragrance is blowing and refreshing. Before Chen Ming opened his eyes, the warm touch of soft as slippery fat between his arms told him how he got his refreshment early this morning.

Last night was a night to remember. For the first time, he accepted a woman of Kazakh descent into the harem, and he received three, and the three Kazakhs contributed one to Chen Ming.

This is the only woman Chen Ming has been included in the harem in recent years, how long has it been, the court and even the entire country have thought that Chen Ming is no longer a concubine. Now Chen Ming has to break this 'rumor' with his own hands in order to raise the centripetal force of the Kazakhs towards Nanjing.

And whether this move also represents that the Chen Han Dynasty is going to slow down the high pressure on the Tianfang Sect in the territory is also a news that many people in the entire northwest are looking forward to.

Chen Ming wakes up very early in the morning, the sky outside is still gray, and it is his habit to get up in the morning to exercise. It doesn't matter if it's Lake Balkhash or it's in Nanjing.

There were candles in the room, and Chen Ming could see the sleeping beauty in the tent. As soon as this person gets older, his mentality really seems to change a little. Young men are generally very interested in mature women, at least as a traverser, Chen Ming also has such a turbulent period, but older men begin to be interested in little girls.

He didn't have any lust, and accepting these three people was more of an attitude of his own, and he didn't think that after going to bed, the woman's young and energetic delicate body really made him very interested.

He wanted to pull his arm out, look down at the woman next to him, look at the beauty under the lamp, and win, this is really a stunning beauty.

But Chen Ming still controlled himself to get up on time.

……

Half an hour later, the sun had risen, and Chen Ming ran four or five miles in the morning light, and a slightly tired feeling came up.

At this time, he received two urgent reports of military intelligence, one was that the Mongolian cavalry pursuing Rumyantsev was ambushed by the Russian army in Tobolsk and suffered a small loss; Second, Xiao Yuz's men and horses were connected with the Turkut cavalry on the west bank of the Ural River, and as long as the Ural River froze, they could escort the women, children, the elderly, the weak, cattle, sheep and horses of the Turkut tribe to the Kazakh steppe.