"Fire!" With a roaring roar, twenty-five heavy mortars slammed backwards, and their wide muzzles immediately spewed out a puff of white smoke, and then a sharp and piercing roar rang out in the air, and flew towards the fortress of Udinsk, already immersed in the hell of blood and fire. 【】

The brick and stone fortress of Nauginsk shattered into horrific and deadly flames, tearing apart the lives around it, tearing apart the Russian soldiers who were defending the city walls, along with their weapons.

Uginsk, a fortress that had existed in the Siberian wasteland for nearly a hundred years, had already rusted its gray figure mottled and old by the moss and wind and frost, but now, under the wrath of the artillery, it seemed to be uncovering its muddy coat and revealing the truth inside, but the process seemed so rough and brutal.

The fortress of Udinsk, which was no more than a mile long and wide, was already in chaos, and the Russians were screaming and crying and scurrying wildly around the city, and from time to time, shells that had missed the direction fell into the city, raising columns of smoke and the dull sound of explosions.

The Russians with weapons on their backs shouted loudly and concentrated towards the city walls, most of the inhabitants of the fortress were Russian pioneers from Europe, and almost every resident could become a qualified warrior after taking up arms, but now, the other side did not give them the opportunity to fight back, did not give them the opportunity to kill and shoot face-to-face with rifles and scimitars, as if they wanted to bury the strong fortress of Udinsk with that dense and crazy artillery fire.

The bells of the Russian Orthodox Church were striking incessantly, like the frightened heartbeats of the Russians, and a priest stood at the gate of the church, helping the frightened women and children to enter the church, cursing the damned, demonic enemy. "Those infidels, they will definitely be punished, punished by God!"

"Forgive us, God, our Father in heaven, and hallowed be your name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven...... forgive us our debts, just as we forgive our debtors. He will not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are all your ......" In the church, the elderly, women and children were pleading and praying for their faith with tears in their eyes, and the rumbling cannons outside shook the glass of the church and filled their eyes with despair...... －－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－

And there are those who are angry, roaring in despair and rage, towards their fellow soldiers, at the Lord in whom they believe. "Didn't they say that the East had innumerable riches? Didn't they say that the Orientals were so cowardly and incompetent? But when we came here, all we saw was endless wasteland, countless beasts, and undug permafrost......"

“…… Why, why are they now under our fortresses, ravaging our towns, our armies with that terrible artillery fire? Why didn't the tens of thousands of troops who left here come to protect us, aren't we Russians? ”

Rumble! Rumble! Rumble! The deafening explosion interrupted their anger and questioning, leaving only the ** for survival and the fear of death. The bells were still ringing, and the prayers were rising and trembling as they pleaded with God, but they seemed so weak in the roar of the cannons.

"Colonel, Colonel, there is already a gap in the eastern wall, we need reinforcements, we need reinforcements." A Russian soldier in a fur hat rushed to an officer who was lying behind the wall, trying to catch his breath, and shouted loudly in spite of his superiority.

"Reinforcements, reinforcements, damn reinforcements, where can I get reinforcements for you, don't you see that I'm also in great danger here? You idiot, coward, go back to the walls you guard, and tell your sir, I don't even have a gun extra for him, and let him figure it out for himself. Colonel Arshavin, the defender of the Udinsk fortress, yanked at the soldier's shirt viciously and roared loudly, but soon another burst of artillery fire came and he had to try again to hold his head and retract to the foot of the wall.

And when the choking smoke disappeared, the soldier who was standing in front of him and ran to ask for help had turned into a corpse with a rotten watermelon head and a body still twitching unconsciously.

"May God forgive you, Amen." Seeing that he had been so alive a moment before, yelling at himself, and now waiting for his companion to be buried in the dust, Colonel Arshavin's mouth trembled nervously under his thick beard.

Still, he stood up, brandishing the scimitar, the tip of which had been severed by shrapnel, and roaring loudly, boosting the morale of the quail-like soldiers. "Shoot back, shoot back, you damned cowards, are our cannons dumb? Shoot me back! Don't forget that we are Russians, and that the Mongols, who have made all of Europe tremble and fear, have been trampled under our feet, and that the Turks, who have terrified all of Europe, can only bow down to us......"

His voice was intermittently shaken by the artillery fire, and the Russians on the city tried hard to withstand the artillery fire, trying to counterattack, but the range and rate of fire of their artillery were too inferior compared to the mortars of the Chinese Emperor's [***] team.

Even if they grit their teeth and fire a cannon regardless of life and death, it is a question whether they can hit the target, and after that, the gun position will immediately be covered by dense artillery fire, and the counterattacks on the walls will become more and more sporadic, and more Russians will flee from the walls in fear and hide in the city.

At the headquarters of the Reading Brigade outside the city, Zhang Jin, the commander of the third battalion of the Reading Brigade, rushed in and said loudly to Ye Zhengchang, the commander of the Reading Brigade, who was observing the Udinsk fortress shrouded in the smoke and flames of artillery fire. "Brigadier Commander, give the order. A gap had collapsed in the eastern wall, and now the Russians inside were terrified. ”

"Don't worry, continue the shelling, let the brothers in Dongcheng concentrate their firepower, and try to blast out a passage for Lao Tzu from the gap in the wall of Dongcheng." Ye Zhengchang commanded without looking back.

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"And we're going to continue staring down the city?" Zhang Jin's face was resentful. "The brothers are already waiting impatiently, boss, let the buddies of the artillery battalion better hurry."

", you think that fortress is made of tofu, and two cannons can make the whole big hole? Don't bother me, don't worry, you three battalions take the lead, I haven't forgotten this. Ye Zhengchang walked to the table, picked up a glass of cold water and drank it all. Don't you understand that the lives of the brothers are precious, and it is better to waste more shells than to fill them with human lives? ”

"Hehe, I'm just anxious, scratching my hair, don't go to my heart. By the way, Brigade Commander, after we take the fortress, will we continue to attack north, or will we just stay here? ”

Ye Zhengchang shook his head and said with a smile: "After taking the fortress of Udinsk, we will first rest here and wait for the order of the military department." You can rest assured that the ultimate goal of this battle is not only to take a few fortresses or encircle the expeditionary force sent by the Russians, but to encompass this vast Siberian plain to the north and west. ”

"Is that still a fight? But what do we want this land for, there is nearly half a fucking snow and ice here, and it would be nice to be able to harvest one season of grain a year. Zhang Jin didn't quite understand the authentic words.

"Your Majesty values resources, as well as the prospects for development, even if we can't develop this vast land for the time being, but in the future our children and grandchildren will be able to enjoy it. And His Majesty once said that the best way to deal with opponents is to try to strangle them in the cradle before they become strong! ”

"You mean to say that Russia will become a great enemy?" Zhang Jin took out a cigarette and threw it to Ye Zhengchang, and he also smoked it himself. Ye Zhengchang took a sip after the fire: "Don't underestimate Russia, Your Majesty said that Russians are very tough, suspicious, and extremely self-respecting and proud. Moreover, their greed for land far exceeds that of other Western countries, and their future eastward expansion will inevitably pose a great threat to the northern frontier of our empire. ”

"Therefore, I should take advantage of the fact that they are trying to expand to the west and fall into the quagmire of chaos and war with the West, to expand to the north and west, leaving enough space for development and buffer space for the future of the empire."

Just as Ye Zhengchang's words fell, he heard a huge roar from the direction of the fortress, and the earth seemed to tremble slightly.

"Report to the brigade commander that the eastern wall of the Udinsk fortress has collapsed for the most part under constant artillery fire." Rushing in from outside the door, a guard reported loudly.

"Damn, brigade commander, I'll go first!" Hearing the news, Zhang Jin, the commander of the third battalion, who was just leisurely crossing Erlang's legs and listening to Ye Zhengchang's words, screamed out of the command post as if he had been shot in the buttocks, and the wind that brought it even made the curtain fly.

"Battalion Commander Zhang, what are you doing here?" It took the guard a long time to come back to his senses, and he was very stunned to look at the back of the running frantically and muttered.

"He was worried that the commanders of the other battalions would see him not and rush to attack the head of the fortress, this guy." Ye Zhengchang shook his head and answered the guard's question with a smile.

(To be continued)