Hearing Rosovsky's words, Fu Fang hurriedly sat back in the saddle and asked, "Your Excellency, did you mean to pass through 12 versts south of that castle tonight...... Where to? ”

Rosovsky smiled: "Of course, we are going to the east of the Ming blockade line, I think it is still possible for the Ming army to send cavalry to search the grassland west of this blockade line composed of a series of castles, so we should pass through this blockade line!" ”

Fu Fang nodded in admiration: "High!" That's high! Ming Wei never dreamed that we would wear them to the east. ”

Rossovsky laughed when he was patted on the horse: "Fu, another 1,000 Eight Banner soldiers plus my 500 Cossacks will bluff in the steppe to the west and lure away the Chinese Guards cavalry, so that we can safely and boldly go to the south to kill people and set fire!" ”

"That's right! Go to the south to kill people and set fires, and kill all the Han people! ”

Just when Fu Fang was shouting loudly, he saw a dozen or so cavalry flying horses rushing over, looking at their size and the war horses under their crotch, they knew that Lu Dao was Fu Fang's Eight Banner Soldiers. There were also a few of them dressed in Mongol clothes, presumably scouts sent out earlier - this was the case in the movement warfare in the Mongolian steppes, and the scout cavalry that scattered out was no different from the "missing", and it was unknown whether they could return to their large army in constant motion. Sometimes these rangers had to search the steppe for days and nights to search for their own brigade of men.

The cavalry galloped in front of Fu Fang, and a knight dressed in Mongol clothes reined in his horse and saluted on his horse: "Lord Dutong, the villain went to the direction of Kulen on the seventh day to reconnoitre. Five days ago, about 50 miles north of Kulen City, a brigade of Ming troops was discovered! ”

Brigade Ming Army? North of Cullen? Fu Fang asked a little suspiciously: "What kind of troops?" Cavalry or infantry? How many people are there? ”

"Both! There were 50,000 or 60,000 people. With tens of thousands of men and tens of thousands of camels and pack horses! ”

"What?" Fu Fang exclaimed, 50,000 or 60,000 infantry mixed troops, good for horses, camels and pack horses...... This is going to the city of trading!

"Fu, what's wrong?" Rossovsky could not understand Chinese, but he saw a sharp change in Fu Fang's face.

"Something is wrong! Kulen's Ming army moved, and the direction was the city of buying and selling! Fu Fang silently calculated with a dark face, "It was discovered five days ago that the Ming army north of Kulun mostly had fifty or sixty thousand people...... If you march 50 miles in a day, you have now traveled at least 250 miles. Six days to get to the Buying and Selling City! ”

Now the Russian army and Yixin's Eight Banners claim to have 100,000, but in fact, there are 80,000 in Dingtian, but not all of them are concentrated in the trading city. The Russian army in the city of buying and selling turned out to be Rosovsky's 3,000 Cossacks, and the infantry of the Eight Banners has been dismantled and incorporated into the Russian army, and some of them are also stationed in Russia with the Russian army. Now that Fu Fang and Rosovsky have taken another 9,000 people, the total number of Russian troops and the Eight Banners coalition army left in the city may not exceed 30,000!

Fu Fang glanced at Rossovsky: "Your Excellency, Major General, do you want to come back for help?" ”

Rossovsky said lightly: "No need, we will definitely not be in the trading city in 6 days, let's continue to carry out the order!" If the buying and selling city can't hold it. His Excellency the Governor will arrange for the defenders to retreat to Russia. ”

Fu Fang nodded silently. It was a matter of time before the retreat to Russia was made. Aren't all his family members already in Russia now? I don't know how Lu Dao is doing? According to the Russians, it was taken in by the noble estates of Western Siberia. It should be okay, right?

He looked at Rossovsky: "You are right, we should act according to the original plan, and we should not let the Ming rebel build the railway, otherwise there may be no place for us in Western Siberia." ”

Rossovsky smiled and nodded, and said in his heart, yes, if the Chinese are allowed to pave the railway to the trading city, the Baikal region will definitely not be guaranteed, and maybe the Chinese will be pushed to the west bank of the Yeseny River, and then these Manchus will not even have the right to be serfs! In order to be a slave to a Russian aristocrat like themselves, they also have to work hard!

This one-handed Fu Fang is really sensible, and he is not a bad person, if he is lucky enough to survive until the end of the war, let him become a serf in his own village. It doesn't matter if he can't do any heavy work, just let him watch a pigsty...... Thinking of this, the kind-hearted Rosovsky rode forward and galloped away in a northwesterly direction.

……

The night of the steppe gradually darkened.

Less than 80 miles south of Darkhan City, more than 100 carts loaded with timber and steel rails "formed a formation" under the command of Yang Laobai. It is to put more than 100 cars into two circles, inside and outside. The mules and horses that pulled the cart were unloaded from the cart and placed in the innermost layer. The cars were connected by iron chains. In the innermost part, wooden boxes containing things in the road were stacked to create a high lookout. Yang Laobai stood on it with a foreign gun on his back, and looked around with a monocular, as if he was a general commanding a war.

He is no longer an honorable working class, but a foreman who specializes in oppressing the workers! This was Hu Linyi's idea, to use the more authoritative "gun-carrying workers" from these collective farms to manage other workers with or without guns. And because this Yang Laobai is older, he still comes from the front-line collective farm and has fought against the guns of the Eight Banners, so he is very prestigious.

And this way of guarding the camp with a circle formation made of carts is very common, the Mongols on the steppe call it "Gureyan", which means circle, and the baggage troops of the Ming army also have the same tactics. Now these "armed Chinese working class" have learned the same way.

The workers in the circle, everyone has weapons, and half of them carry foreign guns! They all relied on carts to sleep on the ground with animal skins and clothes, and once there was a police, they could immediately rely on the vehicles to fight. The other half of the people did not have foreign guns, only wooden guns, and the heads of the guns were all made of stainless steel, glowing with a penetrating cold light. Of course, the foreign guns were the workers from the collective farms, and the wooden guns were the ordinary workers recruited from the Kannai. In the construction of the Saibei steppe, which has become a battlefield, they must also arm themselves!

In addition to these armed workers, there were dozens of cavalry from Suiyuan Town wandering around the circle, all of them with a little depression on their faces. They were originally Miao Peilin's Huaishang villagers, followed Miao Peilin all the way to Suiyuan, and their families were allocated land on the edge of the Yellow River, and they had three yuan a month's salary (vegetable gold) and 24 two meters of noodles a day, which was much higher than the income of the Eight Banners soldiers of the previous dynasty. But it didn't take long for such a good day to be sent to Mongolia as a soldier, and he was still guarding a castle, which seemed to be stationed for a long time!

A petty officer of the Suizhen soldiers saw that it was almost completely dark, and as soon as he whistled, he asked his subordinates to close the team, and entered the circle through the opening that had been left in advance. Seeing that Yang Laobai was still standing tall with his chest and belly bulging like a general, he hurriedly beckoned: "Come down, do you really think you are a general?" ”

Yang Laobai was not afraid of this petty official - how could the armed working class be afraid of a feudal reactionary officer? just glanced at the other party with heavy eyes, shook his head and said: "It's not okay if you're not careful, the rail we pulled this time is worth the old nose, it's hundreds of thousands of catties of good steel!" Master Jun, the material of your waist knife is not as good as these good steels! If someone robs us, we'll have to cut off our brains together! ”

Although the Besemai converter steelmaking method has greatly reduced the cost of steelmaking and increased production, because Lanfang has rolled most of the steel into rails, the good steel in China and even the whole of East Asia and Southeast Asia is still very expensive. Hundreds of thousands of catties of good steel are worth almost 100,000 silver dollars!

The officer smiled: "Did you rob it?" I have 50 cavalrymen, and your brother has 300 foreign spears under his command, and 200 men with spears. Even 1,000 horse thieves can't take it. Moreover, the emperor's guards cavalry is nearby, and Yixin's Eight Banners can't help but rush when they all run over! ”

Yang Laobai shook his head: "Master Jun, be careful to make the 10,000-year-old ship, or let it go for a few nights." ”

The officer waved his hand and snorted: "you, it's up to Lao Tzu!" Tell you, there are wolves in this area, and if you encounter wolves at night, you will have to feed them! (To be continued......)