The next day, Cixi summoned Prince Gong in the Yanxi Hall of the West Ear Room of the Apse of the Yangxin Palace, and the two talked for almost an hour, the specific content of which is unknown to outsiders, only that Prince Gong who walked out of the palace gate had a brisk face.

In the afternoon of the same day, the palace issued an order, and the seventh prince Yiyun was ordered to leave Beijing and go to Tianjin to inspect the Dagu Fort. This intention came very suddenly, but it made the whole city of Beijing excited. This is undoubtedly a manifestation of the Manchu Qing's display of their hard-line attitude.

Although Russia's Siberian Fleet [not yet the Russian Far East Pacific Fleet] that slipped in Nikolaevsk on the banks of the Amur River is not vulnerable at all, and it cannot even compare with a finger of the British naval power in China. It's Yevgeny. Karlovich. Butzer himself never thought of threatening the Qing Empire from the sea.

Prince Yiyun's departure from Beijing is just an expression of attitude.

Bilateral negotiations in Beijing continued. The Russians have no intention of fighting, and Beijing has no real determination to fight. Karlovich. Bu Ce's precedent and Prince Yiyun's departure from Beijing for patrol are all rhythms of asking for money to be paid on the spot. Britain and the United States have played the role of 'bridges' here, which is really competent.

But this qiē has nothing to do with Liu Xian, who is thousands of miles away. The expeditionary armies in the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains are still in a state of war, and the Russian army's offensive in Ili has been halted, because the northern frontier in October is already full of snow and the temperature is extremely cold, which is really not a good time to fight a tough battle. However, in southern Xinjiang, the strength of the Russian army has always been increasing. The opening of negotiations between China and Russia in Beijing not only did not relieve the pressure on the expeditionary army, on the contrary, the Russians wanted to strengthen their capital at the negotiating table, but also to make it possible to regain the face they had lost before. After the troops were gathered, they forced the expeditionary army in southern Xinjiang more and more fiercely.

In mid-October, the Russian army had gathered more than 7,000 troops in southern Xinjiang. Kaufman drained the forces of the entire Turkestan Governorate and gave it to Velevkin. We want him to do his best to win a big battle and add some weight to Beijing's negotiations. At the same time in the north, the Russian infantry retreated to the town of Chelik. Located in the easternmost part of the Russian-controlled district along the Ili River, this town, which has just been established less than five years ago, is a semi-militarized town, almost entirely made of cement and stone, and is now garrisoned by about 2,000 Russian soldiers, and there is no possibility of being conquered by the expeditionary army. And Kaufman's two regiments of Cossack cavalry, which were not afraid of the cold, infested the north and south banks of the Ili River around Toulek. Liu Xian didn't dare to take Kaufman lightly now. lest the Cossack cavalry of these two regiments bypass the area of Touluck and slip behind their backs. Therefore, in response to the military report sent by Zhang Zhongkui and the increasing pressure on the southern Xinjiang expeditionary army, he felt urgent and helpless.

It is impossible for him to put aside the battle situation in Ili now and rush back to southern Xinjiang. And Dong Fuxiang has already occupied the ancient city. Included the local Han people in the ancient city Deng Shengyu, Zhang He, Zhang Xing, Zhang Zhu, Ma Jinfu and other him, and with other places in the northern Xinjiang always adhere to the Han people volunteers, Nanshan Xu Xuegong, Jimusar Kongcai, Changji Shen Tingxiu, Suilai Zhao Xingti and so on to get in touch, it can be said that although the army has not yet entered Urumqi, but the general trend has been achieved. However, if the Tu Ming army did not take it, it was not taken, and he did not die even if he took one breath, and Liu Xian would never have transferred Dong Fuxiang back to southern Xinjiang at this time. If you don't die by beating a snake, you will suffer from it, and you will be beaten to death with a stick. Fight to death!

Therefore, Liu Xian really does not have any reinforcements in his hand to be transferred to southern Xinjiang.

……

"Boom, boom—"

Kashgar, southern Xinjiang.

The delicate statue of the goddess of water in the courtyard was shattered by a cannonball. Fragments of earth and rock were scattered on all sides. The palace of Aquba, once again decorated with exquisite and elegant atmosphere, was ruthlessly destroyed by artillery fire.

"General be careful—" As soon as the exclamation of the pro-soldier reached Zhang Zhongkui's ears, the other person's back sank, and the whole body fell heavily to the ground. A cannonball landed in front of the windowsill of the command room, and the shock wave of the explosion shattered the entire milky white window, and the shattered glass and wood chips matched the shock wave, clearing the entire command room placed in a European-style building in the palace.

This is the fifth day of the Russian army's second siege of the city. The rain of cannonballs continued to baptize the old city of Kashgar.

[I always feel that something is wrong, so check forward.] I found that in the first 185 chapters and the next few chapters, I really confused the new city and the old city.

on this. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. 】

In addition to Zhang Zhongkui, there were only a few personal soldiers in the command room, and the two of them couldn't dodge, and now they were covered in blood and fell to the ground. In addition, there was a pro-soldier who had two fingers directly cut off by the fragments, and he couldn't help but scream in pain.

Zhang Zhongkui quickly patted the dust on his body after getting up, and glanced at the soldiers around him gratefully. Thanks to this young man's cleverness, otherwise I am afraid that I will not follow in the footsteps of those few people and will be injured.

"General, let's change places." The captain of the garrison was frightened into a cold sweat by this thrill, it was so dangerous. "It had to be a different place. This is already the second shelling of the day, and it is only noon. ”

The incessant artillery bombardment day and night hit the morale and minds of the expeditionary army defending the city, although the artillery bombardment of the expeditionary army was also constantly returning fire.

Zhang Zhongkui hasn't had a good night's sleep in the past five days. Now his hair was disheveled, his face was dark blue, his eyes were bloodshot, but he was still in high spirits.

Glancing at the completely messy command room, Zhang Zhongkui exuded anger like a wounded lion. The Russian artillery was powerful, but more importantly, they had a long range, longer than the artillery in the hands of the expeditionary army in the city. "Move now, let's all go to the basement."

Russian troops outside the city.

After several days of artillery bombardment, accompanied by repeated infantry attacks, in the course of five days, there was little gain at all except for the occupation of a small area of forward positions.

If it weren't for the fact that some of the current batch of artillery of the Russian army are the latest breech steel guns, the lowest firing range is above 3,000 meters, which can completely cross the defensive positions outside the old city of Kashgar and directly drop the shells on the head of the city, and the Russian army will not be able to touch the city wall at present.

The breech steel cannon has a long range, a fast rate of fire, and a powerful explosion of shells. But this alone will not be able to take the old city of Kashgar. Zhang Zhongkui certainly felt that the situation was tense and knew that his troops were insufficient, but if the Russian army really wanted to gnaw at Kashgar, even if the defenders had no reinforcements, they had to wait for a heavy hemorrhage. And it will take a certain amount of time.

At present, Zhang Zhongkui has sent orders to Ding Yong from all over southern Xinjiang. These people can only get one tael of silver a month, but whoever can cut off the head of a Russian will get five taels of silver. and in the event of death or disability, the standard of bereavement is equivalent to that of a hussar battalion. Compared with the military treatment of Aguba, this is already a rare and generous amount.

These natives of southern Xinjiang either carried old muskets, or directly raised bows and arrows, scimitars and axes, and became part of the defenders of the various positions of the expeditionary army. They did not have the bravery and fearlessness of the hussar battalion, nor the discipline and bravery of the expeditionary army, as long as there was a certain number of casualties, they would turn around and flee, but this group of people had a certain ability to fight hand-to-hand combat, and it was also a great help to the expeditionary army guarding the old city of Kashgar.

It is precisely because it was blocked in the battle for positions piece by piece that the Russian army poured shells more ferociously towards the old city of Kashgar. It's just that today's artillery has just left the era of visual and self-aiming strikes, and the means of accurate artillery bombardment are still very scarce, although the Russian army has a map of the defense layout of the entire old city of Kashgar in the Agubai era, and the location of the shells is also quite different, and the actual effect of shelling the city is not ideal, and it needs to be improved.

"Papapa............" The sound of gunfire crackled like fried beans. Between the breastwork and the tunnel, the expeditionary army and the Russian soldiers were shooting at each other like bullets.

"Ulla—"

"Ulla—"

"Rush—"

"Rush-kill-"

In the positions outside the city, every fierce encounter will end in a white-knuckle battle at the end. Either the expeditionary army was forced to retreat, or the Russian army was completely annihilated or fled.

White bayonets pierced the flesh and blood, and blood was sprinkled on the ground.

"Report to your lordship that Kashgar needs reinforcements-" After half a month of daily artillery bombardment and white-knuckle fighting, Zhang Zhongkui was really anxious. After that, one rescue after another was sent to Liu Xian.

……

In northern Xinjiang, winter rose early in the air, and it was a sunny and good weather.

In the southwest of Kulongkui Mountain, more than 2,000 cavalry of the expeditionary army were stationed.

Liu Xian, Wei Ming, and Song Zuoxian were chatting around the fire in the shack, when a commotion suddenly sounded outside the door.

"I want to see Liu Junmen. I want to see Liu Junmen...... "The person who came spoke very fast, but the accent was strange, and I couldn't understand what he said if I didn't listen carefully." It's clear that this is an indigenous.

"Who, what is this? So unruly? Song Zuo stood up first and walked out.

At the door, an indigenous man holds a musket crossed in front of him by a guard soldier in both hands, and behind him stands a man dressed as a nobleman. Both of them were dressed in military uniforms, with blood stains on their faces and bodies, as if they had just come down from the battlefield.

Song Zuoxian's face changed, and Wei Ming, who followed behind, also turned pale instantly. The guards didn't know the two people in front of them, but Wei Ming and Song Zuoxian did, especially the indigenous nobleman.

- Ahmat.

He is the captain of Ishak's personal guard.

With the stalemate in the Ili war, Liu Xian also loosened the shackles on Ishak, and Ishak sucked more than 300 elites from Aksu to Ili to form a small horse team.

"Lord Song, General Wei ......" Ahmat's eyes were sharp, and he saw Song Zuoxian first, and then Wei Ming. (To be continued) R655