"Stupid, stupid! An inferior commander, he ruined this qiē, he ruined the interests of Russia! "In the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Alexander II was roaring and venting his anger. [

Russia actually 'lost' to the Qing Empire. Although it was only a small wrestling, and the strength used by Russia was only one hundredth of its own, but if it loses, it loses. How did this make him lose face in Europe?

If Semenovsky had now stood in front of Alexander II, he would have killed the colonel, who had buried two regiments of Cossacks, with one shot.

Engulfed the army by heavy snow? What a wonder! Could it be that Semenovsky could not see the danger on both sides of the mountains when he was pursuing?

Alexander II was full of anger and could not be vented, he was not a woman, he could come and smash things. He is the Tsar of Russia, and he can only soothe his resentment with a roar.

Russian Minister of War Dmitry. Alexievich. Miyukyo was silent. As an army connoisseur, he knew very well that Semenovsky was not so stupid. If it was really as the emperor thought, the Chinese would not need to be bombarded, but the gallop of thousands of war horses of the two armies would already be able to shake the mountain avalanche.

Although Dmitry. Alexievich. Milyutin didn't know how wide the valley was, but he knew how cold it was in the winter in Central Asia and northern Xinjiang.

The temperature had already frozen the outer layer of the snow, even though it looked like it was still white snow.

He was absolutely sure of that. Rong Ma's life experience made him understand this.

Such snow. Oh, and ice and snow, not new snow. A roar can form an avalanche. The valley is not a deep, tall, snow-capped glacier. It was just a small valley, and the snow layer was quite solid. Only by blowing up with shells like the Chinese and blowing up the top layer of ice can an avalanche be formed and this tragedy will be caused!

But a little Cossack colonel counted something, and the misunderstanding was also misunderstood. Demetri. Alexievich. Miryukin didn't want to get into a dispute with His Majesty the Tsar because of this.

"Order the remaining officials of the Seven Rivers Oblast that Almaty must be held. Otherwise, I will send them all to the gallows. And Verevkin. Intensify the offensive on Kashgar. If we can take Kashgar, our situation will improve. "Anger will not solve the problem, and Alexander II will have to come up with a solution after venting. And this solution does not require a meeting of ministers to discuss. He knew what to do.

"Finally, finally, oh God. The Great Tsar. The emperor and the ** and protector of all Russia, I actually want to make concessions to a yellow country. Sue Sù Butzer and let him back down a little bit from Beijing. For Beijing to order Liu's troops to withdraw from the Seven Rivers state, it will take time for Velevkin to open the southern front. ”

For both military and diplomatic considerations, Alexander II recruited only the Minister of War Dmitry of the Russian Army. Alexievich. Milyutin and Foreign Minister Alexander Murphy. Mikhailovich. Gorchakov. The two now bowed respectfully to the Tsar, "As you wish, Your Majesty." ”

……

What changes the St. Petersburg decision will bring to Beijing's negotiations, Liu Xian does not know. He only knew that the Russian army in southern Xinjiang had begun to launch a fierce attack on the old city of Kashgar regardless of a single thing. And the news was transferred from Kashgar to him. Ten days had passed, and he didn't know what the old city of Kashgar had become.

The only thing Liu Xian can grasp today is Almaty. He had already led his troops throughout the western part of the Seven Rivers State. Killed Almaty two days ago.

Almaty was founded 15 years ago as a bridgehead for Russia's invasion of Xinjiang, and was named Zailiysky, which was renamed Verny a year later. Now it's called Almaty. It is located in the southeast of Kazakhstan, at the foot of the Ili Mountains at the northern foot of the Tianshan Mountains, surrounded by mountains on three sides, at an altitude of 700-900 meters.

In the first half of the fifteen years of the city's existence, Almaty developed very little. That is, after the signing of the "Sino-Russian Treaty on the Survey and Demarcation of the Northwest Boundary", the territory of Almaty really belonged to the Russians, and Russia began to expand the city on a large scale, positioning it as one of the key cities for a period of rule in Central Asia.

At present, Almaty is already a large city covering an area of more than three square versts. This is what Liu Xian asked from the mouth of a captured Russian official. The verst is longer than a kilometer, and the three versts are almost the kind of small county towns in remote parts of China.

The city originally had only three or four thousand inhabitants, although Slavs were the majority in it. But for a city, it's clearly empty. But now there is no shortage of popularity, Liu Xian has broken through at least ten Russian towns these days, all the residents have been driven out, most of them have arrived in Almaty, plus there are many people who fled into the city first because of fear, and now there are at least 20,000 people inside.

"Your Excellency. We can't take Almaty at all. ”

Hanging one arm, Wei Ming rode on horseback, slightly behind Liu Xian's horse's head distance.

He didn't cut a little oil skin in the battle with the two regiments of Cossacks, and Song Zuoxian, who was dancing with a sword that day, was still lying in Touluck, but in the subsequent battle of Qihe Prefecture, he was extremely unlucky to be broken by a shot.

Liu Xian's eyes continued to stare at Almaty and did not speak.

With 20,000 people, at least six or seven thousand Slavs, the Russian army and government defending the city could easily recruit a thousand Slavic militia from them. Just they were enough to stop Liu Xian's army, which lacked artillery fire. Although Liu Xian's army is no longer the 1,500 cavalry it set out from, the Han Chinese, Kazakhs, and Xinjiang natives in the towns along the way are by no means all willing to submit to Russia's rule over their own people.

Liu Xian drew young men from these people and organized and trained an armed force with the nature of a 'village soldier'. The number was around a thousand, and the weapons, in addition to knives and spears, also included muskets. After conquering so many towns, Liu Xian did not lack weapons in his hands. In addition to transporting materials, maintaining the order of women, children, the old and weak, and being responsible for a certain amount of security work, these 'village soldiers' are ultimately responsible for following the expeditionary army to attack the city and seize the land, and the danger is not great. As long as Liu Xianam's main cavalry force continues to exist.

"Almaty is surrounded by mountains on three sides, so we just need to set up a few fortresses at the exit and block them. The remaining troops continued to advance south and west, driving more men to Almaty. "Liu Xian has made up his mind." Hopefully, Almaty's food stocks won't survive this winter. "I also hope that Zhang Zhongkui in southern Xinjiang can survive this winter.

With no soldiers to help, Liu Xian was really worried about the war in southern Xinjiang. Such worries also drove him to frantically toss the Russians in Almaty.

The fort doesn't need to be big. This is not the era of smoothbore guns, and the Mini rifle has a range of four or five hundred meters, and the amount of cross-fire must be counted. At the same time, the workload is not large. Now it is winter, and even if the earth ramparts are reinforced with logs and constantly poured with ice water, the strong ramparts are enough to withstand the bombardment of small artillery in two days.

And is there still a full-scale artillery in the city of Almaty? No! The Russian army has marched many times, and it has already taken away almost all the artillery and artillery here. And the city defense cannon at the head of the city was too heavy to move lightly.

Shamusi three days later. After easily crushing a tentative attack by a fleet of Russian horses, the expeditionary army began to fire heavily on the city of Shamusi with its captured six-pounder cavalry guns.

These are just three cavalry guns, and they are all old Russian-made guns, and there are no flowering shells, only solid shells. But it's enough for a small city like Shamusi.

"Boom! Rumble! "Solid cannonballs hit the outer wall of Shamusi City, denting a large part of the brick-clad wall that exposed the inner rammed earth wall. This small city is still the same as it was when it was in the Qing Dynasty, and it has not changed in the slightest in the past few years since it fell into the hands of the Russians. The defenders at the head of the city were in a panic, who let them have no artillery to counterattack, now they can only be beaten.

"Attention!"

The sheriff of Shamusicheng blew his whistle vigorously, and he was flanked by more than a hundred musketeers dressed in different costumes. These people included the police of Shamusi City, the local Slavs were young, and the Russians did not have troops stationed in this small town that appeared to be the heart of the Seven Rivers State.

Except for those on the head of the city, the more than 100 people under the current city are already all the strength of Shamusi City. Thanks to the Brondé and Tokmak that the expeditionary army had previously conquered, although most of the inhabitants of these two towns were driven towards Almaty by the expeditionary army, there were still a small number of young men who ran to the city of Shamusi, so that the small city of Shamusi, which had a population of only more than 1,000 even in several villages outside the city, was enough to gather the strength of 300 people.

He was even able to assemble a cavalry to launch the tentative attack just now.

More than 100 Russian militiamen raised their rifles, and they were divided into two rows, the front row squatting and the back row standing, and aimed their loaded muskets at the 100 natives who were lined up on the front line outside the city gate.

They are the second line, and they are also the Warlords. It is better to use indigenous people as cannon fodder on the front line.

It's just that such means are useless at all. When three or five rockets smashed down the hastily constructed breastwork on the first line, the dense barrage of bullets hit the natives who were guarding there with their heads in their hands. A cavalry of the expeditionary army swept their butts towards the city of Shamusi.

Most of the natives fled to both sides. They understand the cruelty of the Russians, and if they flee back like this, they will be shot by the Slavs at the city gates. Therefore, most of them ran towards both sides of the battlefield, and only a few of them ran back in a panic.

Then ...... "Poof! Burst! "More than a dozen natives who fled back were not killed by bullets, but were pierced with bayonets.

Immediately after, "Bang! Bang! "The musketeers at the gates fired a full salvo at the incoming cavalry! (To be continued......) R527