The rumbling sound of artillery rang out in the Smolensk region, and the continuous battle flags of the Taiping army poured forward under the city of Orsha, and the shouts of killing and the shelling gradually approached the city, overwhelming the few Russian soldiers on the walls of Orsha.

"Oh, damn Lithuanians, what good did those Han pagans give them, why are so many Lithuanians working for them!

If it weren't for the group of Lithuanians wearing the robes of the Taiping Army and holding the banner of the Taiping Army, I would have thought that we were at war with the Principality of Lithuania!

Didn't you say that Grand Duke Janusz Rajvir, who had the blood of the Lithuanian royal family, was 'a guest' in the city of Moscow? We used the hard-earned money of the Russians to provide him with a Lithuanian royal family to eat and drink, play with the most beautiful woman, why don't you see what use he played when he was fighting! ”

The city lord of Orsha City cowered in the fortress and roared wildly at his subordinates, located on the front line near the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, this Orsha city lord was ready to fight the Taiping army, but he was not ready to fight against tens of thousands of troops!

That's a full 40,000 people, not counting the elite musketeers of the Taiping Army who were in the back of the battle, at the beginning of the battle, the Taiping Army took advantage of the absolute numerical advantage to launch wave after wave of crowd attacks from all directions, and the siege artillery captured from the Lithuanian region has not stopped.

In the face of this absolutely inferior battle situation, the Orsha City Lord seemed to have no other way than to curse and complain......

Although Orsha City is relatively close to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, it is more equipped with some regular shooting armies, but it is also relatively speaking, in order to prepare for the Russian Imperial Expeditionary Force, most of the essence of the shooting army in the Smolensk region has been siphoned off, and the remaining crooked melons and cracked dates are no different from the militia......

As for the militia, that is, the so-called citizen armed militia, they often have one thing in common - when they fight, they become gods and dogs against the wind, and these citizen armed militias who have little combat experience have a very simple criterion for judging the situation: number and firepower.

Obviously, at this time, Orsha City is at an overall disadvantage in these two aspects, and the gap is not ordinarily big!

The reason why the lord of Orsha City did not leave this city with a huge disparity in strength was not that he really wanted to die for the Russian Empire, but because the Taiping army was too abundant, blocking all the roads, and when attacking, all directions that could attack were sent at the same time, which undoubtedly greatly dispersed the already small forces of Orsha City.

"Lord of the city, why don't we surrender, the generals of the Taiping Army have already made it clear that surrender can save us from death and ensure the safety of our private property, if we resist, none of us will survive......

We have become a turtle in an urn, and there are not many troops in the entire Smolensk region against tens of thousands of Taiping troops, and it is impossible for us to win victory except for killing some more Lithuanian militia who have been "brainwashed" by the Taiping army. ”

After hearing the plea of his subordinates, the city lord of Orsha looked at the other party with gloomy eyes and said: "Even if we can save our lives and some floating wealth after we surrender, do you think His Majesty the Tsar can spare you and my family?" Moreover, we will be wanted criminals in the Russian Empire for the rest of our lives, unless ......"

Speaking of this, the Orsha City Lord stopped the rest of his words in a strange tone, because he suddenly discovered that the person who sat in the position of the tsar really could not stay on it all the time, and if the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom really won this war, it would definitely cause a political earthquake in the Russian Empire!

However, even so, once he ordered surrender, his family members in the Russian Empire would definitely be arrested for treason as soon as possible, and he would probably not live to the moment when the Tsar fell or the Russian Empire was defeated.

The only thing that everyone did not hesitate was the sincerity of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's surrender, and Hong Tiancheng's measures to buy off the local honorary nobles finally achieved some immediate results, at least after the lords with noble status surrendered, they were not abused by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and they were not even deprived of the property of the surrendered nobles.

At most, it is to confiscate the fief of the lord nobles, leave them a manor and let them be a rich man, if it is a noble lord who takes the initiative to take refuge in advance, even the fief can be retained, this kind of real kindness to the nobles, or hide the hearts of the nobles, which is also the reason why the Taiping army rarely encountered white nobles who resisted to death when they were fighting.

On the contrary, the surrendered aristocratic Taiping army was kind to the people at the bottom of the occupied area, but it was not friendly to the people at the bottom of the occupied area, and there were occasional killings after the war, partly because the Taiping army did not want to waste wound medicine on enemy prisoners of war, and partly because the Taiping soldiers resisted the stubborn surrendered white troops before avenging their dead comrades.

Of course, this phenomenon can only occur at the lower levels, and for the officer aristocracy, there will be no reprisals.

Hong Tiancheng knew very well that the key factor in whether or not the enemy surrendered lay in the upper-level and middle-level officers, and the low-level soldiers had no choice, and the soldiers' mutiny, to put it bluntly, was also caused by the grass-roots officers.

As a result, the Taiping army's treatment of prisoners of war was generally polarized, and as long as the surrendered aristocratic officers did not resist and issued a statement to join the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, they could be guaranteed their lives and property, but the captured soldiers were often demoted to official slaves.

Of course, becoming an official slave is better than dying!

What's more, there is one more option for white army soldiers - to be deserters.

"The city lord is not good, a part of the militia on the west wall mutinied, because of the heavy casualties and refused to climb the wall to fight, they wanted to escape, we have no manpower to suppress them, at this time the west wall has fallen into chaos!"

Before the Orsha City Lord could make a choice from hesitation, a terrible report came in.

"City Lord, surrender, if you don't make a decision, there will be no chance, as soon as the city wall is broken, we will have no bargaining chips to surrender!"

The cries of the subordinates brought the Orsha City Lord's thoughts back to reality, as long as he is alive, he can remarry if his wife dies, and he can regenerate if his children are gone, so ......

"Okay, you go down and prepare, before the next wave of Taiping army attacks, we open the city gate and surrender, we must do the work of the soldiers, I don't want to go wrong then, try to ensure the integrity of Orsha City as much as possible, so that our heads can be more stable!"

"Yes! Lord of the Castle! ”

The subordinates of the Orsha City Lord saluted with joyful faces, and rushed out of the City Lord's Mansion to deliver the order as if they had been reborn.