"Lord Commander, in recent days, the number of attacks on our army's food collection teams has gradually increased, and the amount of food collected is getting less and less, so we should have planned early." Chop

In the camp of the Xia army outside Kazan, Liu Chongxi, the deputy general of the Anxi army, held the counted casualty records in his hand and reported to Daniel Zhang, who was sitting on the main seat.

"How much food has been collected so far in the army? How much time is enough for an army?" Daniel Zhang asked.

"If you save a little, you can at least last for more than two months." Liu Chongxi thought for a while and replied.

"More than February?" Daniel Zhang gently pinched the long beard on his chin, thoughtful: "In a few days it will be the autumn equinox, and the harsh winter will come after February, and it will be more difficult to collect grain at that time, and our army has crossed the Ural Mountains to this point, and has not carried enough winter clothes, and the weather will be cold at that time, and the sergeants and soldiers may not be able to continue."

"What do you mean?" Liu Chongxi showed an inquiring look.

Daniel Zhang did not answer, he said: "Summoning the commanders of all brigades to come over to discuss the matter, we must take precautions and prepare in advance."

Liu Chongxi hurriedly nodded in agreement, he turned around and walked to the door of the main tent, whispered a few words to the guards guarding outside, and the guards handed over the weapons in their hands to their comrades and hurriedly ran. Chop

After a stick of incense, the commanders of the brigades rushed to hear the news and gathered in the main tent.

Daniel Zhang looked at the brigade commanders gathered here, cleared his throat, first explained the purpose of his summoning them to come, and then he looked at Liu Chongxi and said, "Vice General Liu, has the Russian army on the Ural River reacted so far?"

"Lord Hui, the Russian army seems to be indifferent to the siege of Kazan, and has not sent a single soldier here so far, only increasing the frequency of scouts."

Daniel Zhang nodded and said, "Hear it, the reaction of the Russian army is really strange, you know, this Kazan has a large amount of grain and grass stored for them, or a vital water and land transportation artery, such a city, the normal reaction is that troops should be transferred back to defense, but they are completely indifferent, no matter how you look at it, it is full of suspiciousness."

When he said this, the generals all nodded yes, and the discussion began, and Daniel Zhang continued: "Not only that, in a few days it will be the autumn equinox, the temperature will drop next month, and the harsh winter is coming, our army does not carry enough winter clothes and warm clothing, and the reserve grain is not enough to survive the long winter, if we continue to besiege here, our army will definitely die."

Daniel Zhang's voice fell, and a brigade commander who was also from the Gansu border army held his fist and said, "My lord, listening to you say this, the last general has a guess."

"You say." Chop

"The last general dared to guess that the Russian army was fighting to trap our army here, our army was alone in the depths, there was no stable logistical supply, and it could barely survive by levying it in the countryside before winter, but if the harsh winter came, lacking sufficient logistics support, we would only be trapped and die here, and then the Russian army would be able to easily deal with us."

"Shhh

When his words fell, the generals around him couldn't help but gasp, and a brigade commander even said, "The Russians are really vicious, they don't dare to compete with us and others in a dignified manner, and they will do their best to use these vicious tricks."

Daniel Zhang agreed with the general's speculation, saying, "What you say is very reasonable, so we can't continue to stay here, we must find a place to stay before the cold dew arrives, so that our army can survive this winter."

After he finished speaking, he ordered someone to unfold the map bought from Russian merchants before the war, because it was a civilian map, so its details were very simple, and there were many traces of modification on it, which were made after the Xia army came here and found errors according to the field investigation.

After the map was expanded, Daniel Zhang walked to the front of the map, pointed to the location of Kazan above, and said: "At present, we are here, there are many Russian towns near Kazan, but the scale is relatively small, which is not conducive to the stationing of our army, and there are two that meet the requirements, one is Nizhny Novgorod in the west, and the other is Saratov in the south.

Nizhny Novgorod is located on the banks of the Volga River, is a large city, but its garrison is only a few thousand people, the garrison is not as strong as Kazan, and thousands of miles to the west is the Russian capital Moscow, from Mozambique

Sko's supplies to the east were all transported from the Volga, and if our troops were able to capture the city, it would be a nail in the coffin for the Russians. Chop

And Saratov, although the city is a small city, it is also a critical terrain, and the supplies transported from Kazan to the front line must pass through here, if our army can capture Saratov, it is tantamount to outflanking the retreat of the main force of the Russian army, and it will inevitably cause a crazy counterattack by the Russian army."

After speaking, Daniel Zhang paused, looked at his subordinates, and said, "Everyone, two choices, how do you choose?"

The generals began to talk again, and they quickly divided into two factions, and the generals who chose to capture Saratov thought that this would be able to encircle the main force of the Russian army in front and rear and solve the stalemate on the Ural River as soon as possible, which was also the purpose of Fu Xinghua's order to cross the Ural Mountains.

The generals who chose to capture Novgorod were ambitious, and they wanted to take the city directly along the Volga River to the west and take the Russian capital Moscow, although this plan was very risky, but it was not without feasibility - the tsar had transferred almost all the troops of the whole country to the eastern front, and there were not many troops left behind in Moscow, and if they relied on a sneak attack, they might not be able to take it.

However, they discussed it to the end, and finally decided to go south to attack Saratov and cut off the retreat of the Russian army.

After the order was issued, the Xia army immediately gathered the scattered grain collection team and cleaned up the items in the camp, and the Xia army's movements were quickly noticed by the Russian army in Kazan City, and reported to the governor of Kazan Alexander as soon as possible.

Alexander hurried up the city wall, and he was lost in thought as he watched the noise coming from the direction of the camp and the movement of the Xia soldiers dismantling the tents and loading the supplies onto the wagons. Chop

"Where do they want to go?" The general of the shooting corps beside him asked.

"They must have retreated, knowing that it would be useless to continue to surround us here." Another said.

Alexander did not speak, he watched the Xia army gradually complete the movement of the carrying, and ordered the commander of the Cossack cavalry to be called, and when the latter arrived, he instructed: "When the Xia army is withdrawn from the siege, you lead all the Cossack cavalry to follow, and you must find out where they are going, and do not fall in love."

"Understood." The chief of the Cossack cavalry saluted and agreed, and then turned and went to gather all the Cossack cavalry in the city to mount their horses and prepare for battle.

In the afternoon of the same day, the Xia army finally completed the camp, and under the watchful eyes of the defenders of Kazan, the Xia army slowly withdrew from the abandoned siege camp, carrying a large amount of supplies to the south.

Seeing that the Xia army was actually retreating to the south, Alexander fell into deep thought again, he was thinking about where the Xia army might go and their intentions, and at this time, the Cossack cavalry also left the city with the city gate opened, and chased in the direction of the Xia army's retreat.

The actions of the Cossack cavalry did not escape the eyes and ears of the Xia army, and soon, Daniel Zhang learned the news that the Russian cavalry was pursuing behind them, and after listening to the report of the adjutant general, Daniel Zhang sneered, and he said: "It seems that our enemies are not relieved that we will leave like this, and want to give us a ride, since they are so enthusiastic, we must also give them a little return gift." Chop

After speaking, he looked at the adjutant general Liu Chongxi and said, "You personally lead the first standard infantry to set up an ambush in the forest in front, as long as the Russian army chases after you, give them a head-on blow."

"Whoa!"

Liu Chongxi hurriedly agreed, turned around to count the soldiers of the first mark, and set up an ambush in the forest in front of him first, and after they completed the ambush, the main force had also passed smoothly, and in the distance, the Cossack cavalry was rushing to this side.

"Reload your ammunition and listen to me!"

Liu Chongxi shouted, and the soldiers in the ambush circle immediately reloaded the Type II rifles in their hands, while the Cossack cavalry in the distance did not perceive the danger ahead and still rode through quickly.

Soon, as the Cossack cavalry entered the ambush circle, Liu Chongxi shouted, and took the lead in pulling the trigger on the Cossack cavalry.

Sudden attack

The Cossack cavalry was thrown into confusion in an instant, and the huge casualties quickly shook their morale, and the cavalry shouted, cursed, and wailed, and had no courage to fight back, and they turned their horses in horror and tried to escape from this hellish place. Chop

But the Xia army obviously would not give them this opportunity, and the projectiles fired by the Xia army shot these panicked Cossacks with impunity, which was almost a one-sided massacre, and it was not until the Cossacks left hundreds of corpses and fled in a hurry.

After the battle, Liu Chongxi did not waste the idea of the corpses of those shot horses, he ordered to take away all the equipment and valuable things on the Cossack cavalry, and the war horses that were left behind were also brought with them whether they were dead or alive, as for the corpses of those Cossacks, I believe that the beasts that are raging here and the coming winter will deal with them.

The one-sided massacre of the Cossack cavalry inflicted on the morale of the whole army, and the Xia soldiers cheered as they continued south along the Volga River, finally reaching the outside of Saratov after six days.

Naturally, this movement of the Xia army did not escape the eyes and ears of the Tsar, who had been sending scouts to monitor the movements of the Xia army as early as when the Xia army was besieging Kazan, so he had already received a report before the Xia army arrived in Saratov.

The tsar instantly saw the intentions of the Xia army, he didn't even need to look at the military map to guess what the intentions of the Xia army were, Saratov was an important material transportation hub behind them, and there was also a considerable amount of material supplies in reserve, if it was taken by the Xia army, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Therefore, the tsar did not hesitate at all, and immediately sent troops to increase Saratov's defense force, and his response was not only that, the 50,000 Xia army led by Daniel Zhang was still a big threat after all, in order to avoid the Xia army behind him from continuing to pose a threat, the tsar finally made up his mind to calm this threat behind him first.

Although on the east bank of the Ural River, the main force of the Xia army is still eyeing the enemy, but the wide Ural River can become a boost for the Russian army, as long as there are enough defenders left here, it can block the frontal offensive of the Xia army. Chop

Taking advantage of this time, he personally led the main force to encircle and suppress the Xia army behind him, and everything should be in time.

The tsar thought so, and he did exactly that, under the tsar's orders, the Russian army only left more than 30,000 troops on the Ural defense line to defend, and the remaining nearly 70,000 people followed him and marched towards Saratov.

Daniel Zhang's movements were like butterflies flapping their wings, which quickly caused a counterattack by the Russian army and allowed Fu Xinghua on the other side of the river to seize the opportunity to attack.

Seeing that the Russian army had transferred a large number of soldiers and horses, he instantly realized that Daniel Zhang's mission had been accomplished, and Fu Xinghua immediately ordered the rearmament of the army to fight and tried to launch a fierce attack on the Russian positions on the other side of the river.

During this time, they also built a large number of small light boats on the western coast of the Western Sea, all of which were prepared for the forced crossing of the Ural River, including some larger ships that were used to build temporary pontoon bridges with the bodies of these boats as bridges for soldiers to pass through.

At night on the fifth day of September, after the main force of the Russian army was transferred, Fu Xinghua gave an order, and the Xia army launched a fierce attack on the Russian defense line on the west bank of the Ural River under the cover of night.

The artillery deployed by the Xia army on the river bank was the first to fire, and dozens of artillery roared and fired overwhelming flowering shells to the other side of the river, and the sudden shelling plunged the Russian troops in the position into a brief confusion, and a few seconds later, the shells rained into the position, and the flames from the explosion illuminated the entire position as if it were day. Chop

The Russian soldiers screamed and scattered in the explosion, and the officers among them shouted loudly and ordered their subordinates to take up arms and enter their respective combat positions, and at the same time as they were being shelled, on the river beach on the east bank, countless Xia Army line infantry pushed the boat into the water, and after the boat entered the water, the soldiers on the boat waved their oars vigorously, so that the boat rushed towards the opposite bank.

In just a few minutes, a large number of small boats of the summer army appeared on the Ural River, and the Russian soldiers watched this scene in horror, and could only silently recite the words of prayer in their hearts, and the artillerymen among them hurriedly lifted the gun jackets under the angry reprimand of the officer, and loaded the artillery, and soon, under the roar of the officer, the artillery in the Russian position

Artillery shelling was launched on small boats on the river.

With the deafening sound of the cannonballs, the solid shells flew towards the boat on the river, raining down on the river, splashing the sky, and several of the shells narrowly hit the boat, which was instantly torn apart, and the soldiers on board were killed in the battle.

Under the shelling of the Russian army, many fragments of small boats soon floated on the surface of the Ural River, and blood stained a small piece of the river red, and even people's intestines fell from the sky and smashed on the bodies of the soldiers on the boat.