The results of the Battle of Mashhad quickly spread throughout the Persian plateau, as well as throughout the Khorasan region, and caused an uproar. splendid

The Persian hierarchy undoubtedly had very high expectations for Nader Aziz, believing that even if they could not repel the Xia army's attack, it should be no problem to hold the northern defensive line.

But the outcome of the battle of Mashhad was a big slap in the face, which shocked the entire council, and after the shock, there was a deep fear.

The news of the defeat at Mashhad also succeeded in disturbing the Persian Shah Suleiman I, who was deep in the court, and the young Shah, who was drunk with the harem and alcohol paralysis, came out to meet his courtiers for the first time.

Suleiman I, who succeeded to the throne at the age of 18, is now more than 23 years old, and although he is still in his youth, he has not had a deep control over the power of the court because he has been manipulated by powerful ministers for many years and handed over power to his harem cronies.

But now his move out of the palace surprised the bureaucrats of the council.

"Your Majesty."

Prime Minister Abdullah Ami Sabit looked at Shah as he entered the House of Parliament and took the lead in stroking his chest and saluting. splendid

The young Bossha nodded indifferently, his face was unhealthy white, his eyes were covered with a dark color, and his body was swollen, obviously due to years of overindulgence in dogs and horses.

"Prime Minister Abdullah, I need an explanation, an explanation for this damn fiasco." Shah said in a flat tone, saying that it was flat, but when it fell into the ears of others, he could hear a little lack of qi.

"Your Majesty, this ...... There are many reasons why this fiasco will happen, the main one is that the Xia people's army is too strong." The Prime Minister said very honestly.

"You mean, our army is weak?" Suleiman I sneered and said, "May I understand that you are denying the ability of my grandfather, the great Abbas I, to reform the army?"

"Your Majesty, that's not what I meant." The prime minister quickly explained, "The Forces nouvelles have done very well in this battle, and it is certainly not because of the Forces nouvelles."

"And whose do you think it's the reason?" Suleiman I asked aggressively.

The reason why he behaved like this is that he still wants to find a suitable backstabber, so that his prestige will not be damaged because of this, he thinks that the best backstabbers are still the palace ministers, he has lived in the deep palace for a long time, and mainly relies on the palace ministers to govern, but if the palace ministers can find another backer, he doesn't mind borrowing the slope to get off the donkey. splendid

"Yes...... I think the main reason is because of the wrong command of the commander." In desperation, the palace minister had no choice but to push the commander of the Northern Army out of the blame: "Although the commander of the Northern Army, Nadel Aziz, is a veteran of the battle, but he is old, and he has become greedy for life and fear of death, and he was the first to abandon the army and flee the battlefield when the war was unfavorable.

The other eunuchs listened and did not argue with it, although they knew that this was not the case, but Nadel Aziz was not from their faction, and there was no need for them to risk offending the palace minister to help him.

"Is that so?" Suleiman I looked at the other eunuchs and asked.

The eunuchs were silent, and Shah glanced at him, and seeing that there was no objection, he said, "In that case, bring Nadr back to Isfahan for trial."

After saying that, he paused, as if remembering something, and asked, "What about the Russians?" Didn't they promise to declare war on the Xia Dynasty?"

The Prime Minister and the rest of the council looked at each other a few times, and one of the foreign ministers said, "Your Majesty, the Russians have already sent troops to the Ural Line, and I think it will not be long before they will fulfill their promise to declare war on Xia, but it is only ......

Speaking of the latter, he hesitated for a moment, and Suleiman I impatiently asked, "But what?" splendid

"It's just that according to the intelligence of the Russians, it seems that the Xia people also sent a large number of troops in the Kazakh region and hoarded a lot of grain and grass."

As soon as these words came out, everyone looked at each other, and one of the eunuchs said in a lost voice, "Who is the Xia people's target? It's us who still do

Russian?"

"Whoever it is, it's not good for us anyway." The Prime Minister said in a deep voice.

Suleiman I tugged at his robe with some irritation and said, "Alright, the most important thing now is the Xia army in Mashhad, we must recover Mashhad and drive out the damned Xia people!"

"Your Majesty, most of the army in the country was routed by the Xia army in Mashhad, and if we want to launch a counteroffensive, we will not have enough troops to mobilize." The Minister of Military Affairs said in a deep voice.

"Then recruit soldiers, recruit me!" Shah said loudly: "Give me a mobilization order, all the people of appropriate age in the country must join the military war, and I will personally go out and lead the great Persian army to fight against the Xia people!"

The bureaucrats listened to his words and looked at each other, and the prime minister couldn't help but come forward to persuade the Shah when he thought that he had never been on the battlefield, but his mouth had just opened, and he was met with the gaze of Shah's cold gaze, and he subconsciously closed his mouth. splendid

Well, he's the one who is looking for death anyway. The prime minister comforted himself in this way, verbally agreed, and ordered to go down and prepare to issue conscription orders to all parts of the country.

Conscription and personal conscription were not only the ideas of Suleiman I, he also ordered to invite the British envoys to the court for talks, hoping to use the power of the British to fight against the Xia, of course, the probability of directly sending the British troops was very small, he wanted to buy ordnance from the British and hire instructors to train the army, just like his grandfather Abbas I.

A hundred years ago, his grandfather, Abbas I, had received help from the British to form a large-scale "modern" army in Central Asia armed with firearms and hired instructors to train a European-style artillery unit.

……

On the other hand, the Xia army's movement of troops and hoarding grain and grass in the Kazakh region soon reached the ears of the Russians, and out of the importance of the enemy in the Far East, Tsar Alexei I personally led his army to the Volga River valley under the pretext of hunting.

Although he did not continue to advance eastward, his army had already deployed heavy troops west of the Ural River, which was also detected by the Xia army patrols, and although the two sides were not to the point of saber rattling, the top brass on both sides knew very well that war would break out in the near future.

Tsar Alexei I, anticipating the imminent war, and in order to win the war and regain the territory east of the Ural Line, he recruited Cossack tribes from Europe to the east, and invited Ayuchi Khan, the head of the Mongol Turkut tribe who had settled in the Volga Valley, to his mobile palace. splendid

If the Mongolian Turkut tribe settled in the Volga River valley was placed in the original historical timeline, it would have launched the famous Turkut tribe to return to the east in the Qianlong period a hundred years later, but in this timeline, the Central Plains Empire in the east was still ruled by the Han Chinese, and these Mongols who were far away from their homeland were therefore not interested in the eastern empire at all.

At the tsar's behalf, Ayuqi Khan rushed with his guards to the mobile palace to meet his titular lord, and at the ensuing meeting the tsar demanded that the Turghuts fulfill their obligations to the tsar and provide at least 3,000 Mongol cavalry for the ensuing war.

For this reason, Ayuqi Khan did not agree, but he put forward his opinion, he hoped to expand his power beyond the Volga River Valley, after so many years of reproduction and development, the Volga River Valley can no longer accommodate the ambitions of the young Ayuqi Khan, he wants to take advantage of this opportunity to expand the territory he can control.

The tsar didn't understand his thoughts, but he still agreed, in his eyes, the small Turks were not opponents at all, and within the Turks, he had already gathered a number of nobles who held real power.

The two sides agreed that Ayuchi Khan would personally lead 3,000 brave Mongol cavalry from his tribe to join the Russian side against the Chinese army, and in exchange for allowing the Mongols to graze cattle in nearby areas beyond the Volga River valley after the Mongol cavalry entered the war.

Tsar Alexei, who had received the aid of the Mongols, was so proud that he felt that his strength was enough to wrestle with the Xia army, and he stood in front of the palace, looking to the east, silently thinking about the time of the war.

In his opinion, the reason why the first war was lost was entirely because the Xia army took advantage of the weakness to attack his defenses in the empty Far East, plus he was at war with the Poles and did not have enough energy to deal with the attack in the Far East, so he had to cede land and pay reparations. splendid

And this time, he was fully prepared, and mobilized a large number of troops from all over the country, and also borrowed troops from the surrounding countries, whether it was the Turkhut Mongols of the Volga, the Cossacks of Zaporozhye, the Tatars of the Crimean Khanate, or the barbarians of the Grand Duchy of Finland, all of them were transferred to the East, ready to participate in this war destined to go down in history!

On April 28, 1671, with the arrival of the Cossack cavalry from Zaporozhye, Tsar Alexei gave an order and decided to declare war before the Xia army and take the Xia army by surprise!

In the early morning of April 29, with the order of the tsar, the Russian army began to force the crossing of the Ural River at night, and their plan was to force the crossing of the Ural River and launch an attack on the Kazakh plateau.

The towering Ural Mountains are a natural barrier for both China and Russia, so the Russian army can attack directly from the Ural River without taking into account the Ural Mountains.

In the early hours of this day, the night sky was covered with dark clouds, and the thick dark clouds almost completely obscured the bright moonlight, and only a few poor rays of moonlight could pass through the gaps between the dark clouds and sprinkle on the earth.

At a summer outpost on the east bank of the Ural River, Kazakh soldiers recruited from the Kazakh region gathered around a bonfire to keep warm, and although it was already April, the night temperature in the Ural River basin was still low, and they had to wrap themselves in warm animal skin coats and gather around the campfire to keep warm.

On the vast plains on the east bank of the Ural River, there are forward outposts built by the Xia army with local militia everywhere, and their role is to be used by the Russians in the west, once they discover the enemy, they will immediately light beacons to warn them. splendid

Because the smell of gunsmoke is getting stronger, these Kazakh militiamen are more vigilant than usual, chatting and looking in the direction of the calm Ural River from time to time.

In normal times, the Ural River would have nothing but the quietly flowing water, but today, one of the militiamen inadvertently saw that there seemed to be countless black shadows moving on the surface of the river, and he thought that he was dazzled, so he quickly looked at it again, and saw that there were indeed a large number of black shadows moving on the river.

"So, what's that?"

He hurriedly beckoned his comrades-in-arms to come over and several militiamen also came over, and after they saw the situation on the river, everyone's faces suddenly turned pale and stunned.

It took a while for someone to finally come to their senses and say, "Light the beacon fire and get out of here!" He shouted loudly, and ran towards the beacon with his hands and feet.

The other militiamen were awakened by his shout, and they panicked, some went to lead the horses in the stables, some ran up to the beacon, and after a few minutes, a group of bright flames ignited from the beacon, and then with the blessing of the oil the fire spread rapidly, and swallowed the entire beacon on the flammable material!

"Quick! Get out of here!" splendid

The militiamen shouted and fled for their lives, found their horses and turned over their horses, looked at the burning beacons, and ran in the direction of Atyrau without looking back.

Their mission is only to light the beacon fire and wolf smoke to warn them, after which they will be able to flee for their lives on their own, rather than remaining in the outpost and waiting for death.

The beacon fire ignited by this outpost was quickly discovered by other outposts within a radius of several miles, and the various outposts also lit the beacon fires and evacuated one after another, the beacon fire was particularly dazzling in this dark night, and it didn't take long for the guards of Atyrau City to discover the dazzling fire!

Enemy!

At the same time that the Xia army reacted one after another because of the beacon fire, the Russian army crossing the river at night on the Ural River also discovered the beacon fire, and the Russian general who personally led the team to cross the river instantly understood that he was exposed, and he did not hesitate to order his subordinates to speed up their movements and land as much as possible before the arrival of the Xia army.

Under the death order of the Russian general, the first group of Russian troops carrying timber and tools landed on the riverbank, some of them lined up to prepare for the attack of the Xia army, and some of them acted as sappers to urgently set up on the wide riverbank

A pontoon bridge was built to allow the army to pass smoothly.

The Alexei Tsar of the West Bank watched this scene, his brows were furrowed, and when his generals did not notice, he also sighed secretly, his original plan was to attack Atyrau before the Xia army found out, but now it seems that the plan has failed. splendid

However, this did not discourage the Tsar, who quickly regained his strength, personally went to the river, supervised the construction of the pontoon bridge by the soldiers, and after a few hours, the pontoon bridge was finally completed, and he rode his horse across the pontoon bridge to the east bank of the Ural River, despite the persuasion of the surrounding nobles and officers.

The Russian soldiers shouted cheers when they saw the Tsar crossing the river first, and crossed the river after him.