"Your Excellency, now that the war has begun, and we are surrounded by enemies, please forgive us for having to refuse to provide troops to the war." Li

The capital of the Crimean Khanate, Bakhchisaray, the Khan's Palace, sat on the throne of the Crimean Khan Sarim Gelai I and addressed the emissaries from the south.

After the war was waged against their suzerain, they sent emissaries across the Black Sea to the Crimean Khanate by boat, asking Crimea to provide a servant army to join the war.

The envoy listened to the words of Sarim I's refusal, although he knew that what the other party said was very true, but his task was to ask Crimea to send troops, so the envoy said in a stiff tone: "Crimea depends on the protection of the empire to continue to this day, the Sultan has always been kind and generous to your country, and now is the time for Crimea to repay the Sultan's grace, how can you refuse?"

"I understand the Empire's kindness to Crimea, but Crimea is surrounded by enemies, the fierce and savage Zaporozhye Cossacks to the west, the Russians who submitted to the Xia people to the north, and the Xia people's capital to the east, their troops may come here at any time, what good is it to treat the empire if it leads to the destruction of Crimea because of the supply of troops to the empire?" Sarim I asked rhetorically.

The envoy was speechless for a while, and at this time, the pro-Austrian ministers in the palace hurriedly stood up and persuaded him: "Khan, no matter what, the empire is our suzerain, and now that the suzerainty is in trouble, how can we stand idly by, it is our obligation to send troops and reinforcements."

The Crimean Khanate had been a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire for so many years, and most of its court had already been corrupted, and there were many bureaucrats in the country who were pro-Austrian, and if they united to put pressure on the Khan, Sarim I would have to back down.

Seeing that the ministers were persuading one after another, Sarim I also understood that sending troops was not something he could say alone, so he had to reluctantly agree to send troops, but he only agreed to send 2,500 Tatar cavalry to the battlefield, no matter how loyal he was to the suzerain, he must first protect his own foundation. Li

Although somewhat dissatisfied with the fact that the Crimean Khanate had agreed to provide only 2,500 cavalry, the Ottoman envoy returned to the country, unbeknownst to him, less than five days after his departure, the Xia army had moved from the east.

It was a huge army, 60,000 troops swept from the plain like a red torrent, flooding all the pastoral settlements encountered along the way, the eastern city of the Crimean Khanate Azabara, the first to discover the enemy, the defenders hurriedly sounded the alarm bell, in the rush of the bell, several fast horses carrying messengers to the cities of the khanate.

Zhang Pu, the adjutant general who led the front army here, squinted at the city that was immersed in the sound of rapid warning bells, and his heart was not worried about being discovered by the enemy, he silently observed the city's city defense.

The city of Azabala is a small city standing in the steppe, its walls are not stone, but made of a large number of logs, full of nomadic architecture, at this time many Tatar soldiers rushed up the walls, and many figures swayed behind the battlements.

"Vice General Zhang, the Tatars have made preparations in advance, should we wait for the arrival of Hou Ye's army before attacking the city?" The brigade commander beside Zhang Pu asked.

"Not necessarily." Zhang Pu looked at the wooden city wall, and his eyes flashed with a warm flame: "Just this wooden city wall, the artillery carried by our front army is enough to destroy it, if we can take this small city before the arrival of Hou Ye's army, it will be a great achievement."

The adjutant general looked at Zhang Pu's imminent expression, thought for a while, and agreed with Zhang Pu's statement, he waved his hand, and ordered people to recruit the artillery companies that followed the front army one by one, and set up the artillery of the army in front of the army, and the black cannon muzzle was aimed at the city wall. Li

"Reload the shells!"

After the artillery was erected, with the shouts of the artillery officers, the able-bodied artillerymen began to reload the artillery, when the artillerymen were busy, Zhang Pu rode his horse to the position, he watched the busy movements of the artillerymen, and then looked at the defenders on the city wall who were obviously panicking because of the appearance of the artillery, and the corners of his mouth pulled up a cold smile.

"Fire—"

Rumble –

Zhang Pu only felt that his eyes lit up, and then his ears were filled with a deafening loud noise, and the war horse under his crotch was also frightened by the loud noise, raised his front hooves, and let out a long neigh.

Whoosh –

Eight guns of the artillery company roared towards the wooden wall, and at the moment of the sound of the cannons, the Tatar officers on the city wall raised their voices and shouted orders the soldiers to find cover, and the soldiers fled in panic, but before they could run a few steps, the shells hit the city wall hard, or directly over the wall, fell into the city, and smashed down the houses. Li

The 12-pounder infantry gun, as the standard artillery of the Xia army, was naturally reliable, and although the walls of Azabala were thick enough for three soldiers to stand at once, the shells still pierced through the walls and were deeply embedded in the walls.

Seeing that the wooden city wall was so fragile, the faces of the artillerymen became much more relaxed, they concentrated the scope of the shelling on that area, and then launched the shelling again, with the debugging of the shooting Zhuyuan just now, the accuracy of the shelling this time was greatly improved, and eight shells hit the city wall heavily, making this section of the city wall tremble.

"It's not good, the Xia people are going to directly collapse the city wall and rush in through the gap!" The governor of Azabala looked anxious at the walls that were shaking under the shelling.

In order to avoid more casualties among the soldiers, the officer hurriedly ordered the soldiers to withdraw from the city wall, and lined up behind the bombarded section of the city wall to meet the enemy, and the soldiers who received the order hurriedly withdrew the city wall as if they had been amnestied, but before they could finish withdrawing, the next round of shelling came as scheduled, a shell directly cut off the head of a soldier who ran by, blood splattered out from the broken mouth like a fountain, and the body that lost its head ran forward several meters along the inertia before falling heavily to the ground.

Under the continuous bombardment of the 12-pounder infantry guns, the wooden wall was soon overwhelmed, and under the horrified gaze of the defenders, a gap more than two meters wide was forcibly blasted, and sawdust flew sideways, and the flying sawdust even scratched many soldiers hiding behind.

After the city wall was collapsed, Zhang Pu gave an order, and the line infantry who had already completed the formation began to step neatly towards the gap under the accompaniment of snare drums and horns, and some of the soldiers who remained on the city wall shouted, picked up bows and crossbows, muskets, and shot at the approaching Xia soldiers.

For a while, sporadic gunshots rang out, and sparse arrows flew through the air and fell into the advancing Xia army columns, but most of them were guarded by the armor of the line infantry, and only a few poor eggs were shot at the vital point and fell down with a painful grunt. Li

Naturally, the Xia army could not allow the Tatars to shoot unscrupulously, and after approaching the city wall, some of the soldiers were ordered to stop advancing, and they raised their rifles to the shouts of the officers and aimed at the figures shaking on the wall.

Seeing that the muzzle of the row of black holes was aimed at the city wall, the Tatar musketeers who were about to shoot behind the battlements were shocked, he quickly retracted his body, and pulled down the robe next to him who was still stupidly ready to lean out and shoot, the latter was suddenly pulled and sat directly on the ground, before he could scold, he heard a row of thunderous volleys outside, and a few seconds later a row of bullets crackled and hit the battlements above their heads, and the Tatar soldiers who had not yet reacted were shot directly.

"Second platoon, gun raised—aiming—"

Hmmm-

The officer standing on one side of the line raised his saber in his hand, and at his command, the soldiers of the second row raised their rifles in unison, and the next second, the saber was heavily struck, and the second volley was fired again, and a row of projectiles hit the battlements like thunder from the gods, shooting the Tatar soldiers who ventured to lean out.

Under the suppression of the fire of the line infantry, the Tatar soldiers on the city wall hid under the battlements and did not dare to raise their heads, and they listened to the sound of the successive volleys and the sound of projectiles hitting the battlements overhead, and everyone felt a deep sense of fear in their hearts.

Under the cover of friendly forces, the line infantry quickly advanced to the gap in the city wall, and as soon as they approached, they were met by long-range fire from the Tatar soldiers in the gap, and a large number of arrows were thrown into the queue, and they immediately shot several Xia soldiers, but they did not retreat because of this, and continued to advance against the arrows, until they reached the gap. Li

"Raise your gun, shoot—"

At such a close distance, the infantry did not even need to aim, in

Under the roar of the officer, the soldiers in the front row raised their rifles and pulled the trigger, and the Tatar soldiers saw a dazzling flash of fire in front of them, and a row of projectiles attacked, and a piece of their line fell like an ear of rice after autumn.

Then, with two volleys in a row, the Tatar infantry fell apart in an instant, and they were crushed by this thunderous salvo before they even held out to the third salvo, but the Xia soldiers did not immediately charge, they stubbornly fired a third volley at the defeated Tatars, and only then raised their rifles and shouted to charge under the orders of the officers.

An hour later, the Xia army occupied the small city of Azabala, purged all the defenders in the city, and most of the soldiers surrendered in time, while the few soldiers who resisted were killed on the spot.

When Fu Xinghua's army arrived, they saw the dragon banner of Bactria fluttering on the walls of Azabala, the line infantry armed with rifles patrolling the walls, and some soldiers surrounding the gaps in the walls that had been destroyed by artillery, supervising the captives to repair them.

Soon, Zhang Pu, who got the news, led a group of officers out of the city to greet him, and he saluted Fu Xinghua, who was sitting on horseback, and said, "Dadu Hu, after the last general captured Azabala, he interrogated the surrendered defenders, and has a rough understanding of the domestic situation in Tatar."

"Enter the city." Fu Xinghua raised his head and signaled, and the group immediately rode into the city, and the army that followed set up camp outside the city, and the camp lasted for several miles. Li

After entering the city and coming to the temporary headquarters set up by Zhang Pu, Zhang Pu directly ordered someone to present the information from the interrogation to Fu Xinghua, and while the latter checked it, he said: "Although the Tatar State is a small country, its military strength is famous, and the Tatar cavalry is known as the best cavalry in this area, with a standing strength of more than 20,000, and two thousand 500 Tatar cavalry rushed to the aid of the Ottoman Empire two days ago."

"Oh?" When Fu Xinghua heard this, he raised his eyebrows and sneered, "This Tatar is really loyal to their suzerain, and they also provide two thousand five hundred cavalry to fight in the situation of engaging the enemy on three sides."

"However, the Ottomans also have territory in Crimea, and if we attack the Tatars, the Ottoman cities will not stand idly by." Zhang Pu continued.

"They are afraid that the mud bodhisattva will not be able to protect himself when he crosses the river." Fu Xinghua waved his hand, not caring about it at all.

Subsequently, Fu Xinghua ordered someone to present the map of the Crimea region provided by the Russians and spread it out, he pointed to the east coast of the Sea of Azov where Azabala was located, and said: "I have ordered the Zaporozhye Cossacks and the Russian *** team to attack from north to south to contain the forces around the Tatar capital, and our initial war goal is to take all the territories on the east coast of the Sea of Azov, regardless of the territory of the Tatar State and the Ottoman State."

The generals nodded, and Fu Xinghua then issued an order, he ordered Zhang Pu to continue to lead the second brigade south, attack Kuban, a small city south of Azabala, and the Ottoman port city of Finegur, located on the east side of the mouth of the Sea of Azov, blockade the Sea of Azov, and collect boats, waiting for an opportunity to cross the strait, and land at Kaffa on the west side.

Fu Xinghua led a large army to the west to attack the Ottoman town of Karaaqiu on the northern coast of the Sea of Azov, and after conquering the city, he continued westward to join up with the Cossacks and Russian servants. Li

After Fu Xinghua's order was issued, the army rested here for a day, and then set out for the battle, Zhang Pu led two infantry brigades to continue southward, and very smoothly conquered Kuban, a small city with a population of only a few thousand people, and then advanced to Finegur.

Across the sea from Kaffa, the two cities firmly controlled the confluence of the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea, and the strait was so narrow that it was possible to block the entry and exit of ships as long as one side was arbitrarily controlled, so the Ottoman Empire firmly controlled the two cities and the surrounding territories.

It is worth mentioning that Kaffa is the most prosperous city on the Crimean peninsula, even the capital of the Crimean Khanate, Bakhchisaray, which was inhabited as early as the sixth century BC, and later developed into the most famous Panhellenic colonial city on the Black Sea.

Today, Kaffa is notorious for being the largest slave market in Europe, with more than a million people sent here for sale, and is a veritable slave city, although in 1616 it was captured by the Cossacks and thousands of slaves were freed, causing the slave trade in Kaffa to decline

Large, it is still the most influential slave market.

Since the beginning of the war, rumors spread through the streets of Kaffa with the Tatar cavalry and slave catchers, and the war also affected the city's slave industry, and the unscrupulous Tatar cavalry was basically conscripted into the army by the Crimean Khan, either sent to the Ottoman Empire to aid the suzerain, or assembled near the capital to prepare for the invasion of the enemy.