"Go on, a few versts more and we'll be in Perm, and when we're there, we'll be able to relax." Quid

In a forest path that winds far away in the birch forest, a group of Russian Cossack cavalry marched forward noisily, and the officer led by looked at his subordinates behind him with some helplessness, and said loudly.

The cavalry did not pay attention to the officers' words, they were still talking and laughing there, not thinking that the Xia army would cross the Ural Mountains to this side, and only some of them would observe the surrounding situation.

What they didn't know was that not far in front of them, a group of Xia soldiers had already sharpened their knives, waiting for the arrival of these Cossack cavalry.

"Here they are, ready to fight!"

The company commander at the head looked at the Cossack cavalry from far and near, and whispered orders to the soldiers around him, and at the same time raised his right hand and clenched his fist to the opposite side, and the soldiers who were ambushed on the opposite side also understood what he meant, and checked the rifles in their hands one after another.

Soon, these unsuspecting Cossack cavalry entered the ambush circle of the Xia army, and they were still talking and laughing freely, not realizing that the muzzles of hundreds of rifles were already aimed at them.

"Put!" Quid

The commander of the Xia army company who led the ambush saw that the time was ripe, and shouted, and the leading Cossack cavalry officer who took the lead in aiming at him pulled the trigger, only to hear a bang, the leading officer's body shook, and a bloody hole appeared in his chest, he looked down at the wound on his chest in disbelief, and before he could say a word, the whole person fell from the horse.

The sound of this gun was like a switch, and the line infantry lying in ambush on both sides of the path pulled the trigger one after another and fired at the Cossack cavalry on the path.

"Enemy attack—"

The cavalry who reacted hurriedly shouted loudly, regardless of how many enemies were around and how their comrades were shot, they hurriedly slapped their horses and continued to rush forward and forcibly break through, but the Xia army obviously would not give them this opportunity, and the cavalryman had just rushed out a few steps before he was hit in the chest by a shot and fell down screaming.

But he did not fall off his mount completely, and the poor horseman, with one foot still stuck in his stirrup, was dragged into the distance by the neighing of the frightened horse, and his whole body was rubbed against the ground until it was bloody and fleshy.

This volley of the Xia army did not kill all the Cossack cavalry, and the remaining cavalry were frightened by the sudden attack, and they did not know how many enemies were ambushing them around, so they did not dare to launch a counterattack, but screamed and slapped their horses to break forward, trying to force their way out.

The infantry of the Xia Army, which had only one company, could not stop their breakthrough, so he could only watch the remaining cavalry run away with regret, and the company commander who led the team followed out of the hiding place, he looked at the back of the enemy fleeing, and then looked at the wounded on the ground who were not dead and were still moaning in pain on the ground, and a soldier next to him came over and said with regret in his tone: "Ran."

"Company commander, just let them run away?"

"They can't run away." The company commander sneered, "There are still our people waiting for them in front."

As soon as he finished speaking, he heard a series of dense gunshots in the dense forest in the distance, and the company commander grinned, revealing his big yellow-black rotten teeth, and said, "Hear it, they can't escape."

……

"Lord Commander, these are the confessions we obtained from the interrogation of the captured Russian soldiers, the Russians really did not deploy troops in this area to defend against us, but their soldiers and horses are concentrated in Kazan, which is a key point of water and land communication and a strategic location, and also has a large number of Russian supplies and baggage."

The Perm Town Office had been temporarily requisitioned by the Xia Army as a command headquarters at this time, and Daniel Zhang, the commander of Anxidu, listened to the report of the adjutant general beside him, took the record handed by the latter, and after a few cursory glances in front of him, he put it on the table in front of him.

"How important is Kazan?" Daniel Zhang raised his eyebrows, thinking in his heart whether he could use this information to do a big thing, and after a moment, he slammed the table and made a loud noise,

Said: "In this case, while the Russian army is not clear that our army is here, gather the soldiers and horses sent out to set up an ambush and march towards Kazan!" Quid

The adjutant general listened to his words, his face hesitated, and he arched his hand and said, "Your Excellency, if you attack Kazan from the west, then our army will be alone and penetrate into the hinterland of the enemy country, and it is too dangerous."

"If you don't enter the tiger's den, you will get the tiger!" Daniel Zhang raised his eyebrows and said to the hesitant adjutant general.

Seeing this, the adjutant general had no choice but to answer and pass on the order, and Daniel Zhang's order was quickly implemented, but in order to prevent the residents of Perm from reporting after they left, Daniel Zhang did not hesitate to order all the residents of the city to be killed.

At noon the next day, with an endless murderous aura, the Xia army left the dead silence of the small city of Perm, and they marched towards Kazan with the food they had stolen from the city.

The distance from Perm to Kazan was not far, and the Xia army only had to advance along the Volga River to enter the Eastern European Plain, where Kazan is located, where the terrain is flat and green as far as the eye can see, but this also means that the Xia army can be easily spotted.

And that's exactly what happened.

Even before the Xia army entered the East European Plain, they were discovered by the towns and settlements established along the Volga River, and the local residents looked at the flying dragon flag in horror and hurriedly reported to the nearby Russian outpost. Quid

When the Xia army entered the Eastern European Plain, the Russian army in Kazan had already received the news in advance, and the governor of Kazan, who was appointed by the tsar, was greatly frightened when he learned of this news, and he initially thought that it was a lie made up by the herdsmen, because it was impossible for the Xia army to bypass the Ural defense line to reach here.

But soon, he thought of the Ural Mountains, which are not insurmountable after all, after all, there are still many indigenous people living in the mountains, and throughout the history of the war between the East and the West, there are countless cases of similar climbing over the mountains.

"Gather your troops, close the gates, and send someone to report to His Majesty the Tsar."

Having figured it out, the governor of Kazan, Alexander Baratisky, quickly made arrangements, and as his order was given, a hurried alarm bell sounded over the city of Kazan, and before the gates were closed, several cavalrymen rushed out on fast horses and hurried along the paved road in the direction of the Ural River.

One day after the full martial law in Kazan City, the Xia army approached the city of Kazan, and Alexander stood at the head of the city, looking at the Xia Dynasty army outside the moat, and couldn't help but gasp.

"It's a terrible army." He commented.

At this moment, the commander of the Russian army in the city trotted over, stood beside him and saluted, and said, "Your Excellency, all the troops in the city are on standby, and the artillery has also entered the gun emplacement, ready to meet the attack of the Xia people at any time." Quid

Alexander nodded, he looked at the city cannons dotted on the stone walls, those bronze cannons were his strength to defend Kazan, as the main water and land transportation route in the Volga River valley and the Eastern European Plain, the city was naturally extremely well defended.

At least fifty artillery pieces were placed on the four walls of Kazan, and in addition to this, there were 5,000 men of the Archery Corps, 4,000 Fortress Corps, and 1,500 Cossack cavalry, which were enough defenders to hold the city of Kazan.

On the other side, Daniel Zhang outside the city was observing the city defense of Kazan with a monocular, he noticed the cannon emplacements protruding from the city wall, and while observing, he said to the adjutant general beside him: "This city wall is high and strong, and there are many city fire defense cannons, which are easy to defend and difficult to attack, only with our soldiers and horses, it is impossible to take it in a short period of time, and we do not have the capital to besiege it here for a long time."

"Are we going to change our plans?" The adjutant asked.

"Nope." Daniel Zhang put down the binoculars, shook his head, and said in a firm tone: "Continue to besiege the city and force the Russian army on the Ural River to come back, and that's all we can do."

After that, Daniel Zhang ordered the whole army to set up camp outside Kazan, cut down trees to build a siege camp, and at the same time, considering that the grain and grass carried by the army was not enough to support the long-term siege of the army, while building the siege camp, he also sent part of the army out to collect grain.

…… Quid

The news that Kazan was surrounded by Xia troops was quickly noticed

The arrival of the Russian camp on the banks of the Ural River made the Tsar furious, but he was not surprised, because the day before the news arrived, he had received a report from the north that Perm had been massacred, and none of its inhabitants had survived.

"Damn the Xia people, they are so bold and reckless that they don't take us seriously at all, aren't they worried that they will be wiped out outside Kazan?" The Tsar said rather annoyedly.

"Your Majesty, now we need to consider whether to go back to rescue Kazan, or continue to stay here to contain the main force of the Xia army." Ivan Khovansky said: "My idea is to stay here and contain the enemy."

"Oh?" The tsar stared at him, waiting for Ivan's next answer.

Facing the Tsar's gaze, Ivan Khovansky explained unhurriedly: "There are more than 10,000 defenders in Kazan City, and there are sufficient material reserves, I think it will not be a problem to hold out for a year, but the Xia army is different, they will definitely not carry a large number of supplies when they cross the Ural Mountains, and after a long time, they will definitely collapse without a stable source of supplies, and we have another helper."

"What help?" A general asked.

Before Ivan could reply, the Tsar understood what he meant, and he said, "It's winter." Quid

"That's right." The commander of the shooting army nodded, and he showed a smug expression: "The Xia army does not have sufficient material reserves, how can it survive the cold winter, we just need to survive until winter comes, and then divide our troops to besiege this Xia army with the governor of Kazan, and they will die."

"So." The tsar stood up and looked at the generals beside him: "We don't have to come back, everything will wait until winter comes, but in order to prevent accidents, pay more attention to Kazan and be ready to send reinforcements at any time."

……

After the tsar determined the next response plan, they continued to confront the Xia army on the Ural River, and the Xia army outside Kazan also waited for the arrival of the Russian army, but until more than a month later, they still did not wait for the enemy's reinforcements.

This made Daniel Zhang and the other generals somewhat confused, and for a while they could not guess what the Russians thought.

However, although the enemy's reinforcements did not arrive, and the Xia army was not idle, seeing that the month passed, in order to meet the cold winter, but also to reserve as much food as possible to avoid falling into the dilemma of running out of ammunition, Daniel Zhang sent more search teams to collect supplies.

With Daniel Zhang's tacit approval, the Xia army showed its hideous fangs to the local residents without mercy, and they invaded the towns and villages around Kazan, snatching all the food inside, and also snatching away the warm animal skin coats in preparation for the winter. Quid

A wagon full of various grains was pulled back to the camp, and Daniel Zhang looked at the gradually accumulating grain reserves, and the smile on his face became more and more presumptuous.

But then, the actions of the Xia army caused the anger of the inhabitants of this area, and the people living in the East European Plain have never been submissive, and they began to take up arms and spontaneously join the ranks of the Xia army.

From then on, the top management of the Xia army began to receive frequent reports of attacks on the search team, and the returning team was no longer as full as before, and casualties gradually appeared.

"Enemy attack—"

Phew-

On the south bank of the Kazan River, outside a forest known locally as Tetyusi, the Xia search party was attacked by local civilian forces, and the deadly arrows continued to fly out of the forest and shoot at the Xia convoy in the middle of the road.

Listening to the sound of arrows breaking through the air from time to time overhead, the company commander who led the team cursed in his heart, and he quickly finished loading, and then, seeing the right time, ventured out and pulled the trigger on an enemy with a short bow in the woods, and the archer fell to the ground with a bullet. Quid

But then, more arrows flew in the direction of the company commander, and he quickly retracted to hide, and the next second he hid, several arrows rang into the wall of the carriage in front of him, and one of the arrows even hit his hat, knocking his hat to the ground, so that the company commander could not be affected by the back

A cold sweat broke out uncontrollably.

The other soldiers in the convoy also raised their guns and returned fire, and after they returned fire, several screams rang out in the woods, and the low-intensity battle lasted only a little more than ten minutes, and the attackers hiding in the woods seemed to know that they could not eliminate the group of invaders, so they left the bodies behind and quietly retreated.

After the soldiers were sure that the enemy had retreated, they came out of the bunker one by one, they looked at the dozens of arrows inserted on the side of the carriage, and immediately went to check on the comrades who fell to the ground after the arrows, but found that they had already lost their breath, and then looked at the forest, only a few corpses were left that they had shot.