Boom, boom, boom.

Rumbling artillery fire ripped over the barren lands of the Central Asian plains.

In the steppe belt of Eurasia, in this region, wars have been going on for almost thousands of years.

All the powers you and I will be fighting in this area.

And now.

More powerful weapons brought the power that made the whole grassland tremble.

This is the barbarism that civilization breeds.

This is the sad song of the nomadic tribes.

In the distance of the battlefield, the scouts of the Kazakh Khanate roamed, looking at the battlefield in front of them with their mouths wide open, and the shock on their faces could not be concealed.

Quite a few people know about it.

The era of steppe warriors skilled with bows and horses is over.

Whether the Chinese win, or the Russians win.

The tribes of the steppes were forced to submit to these world-famous barbaric forces.

And now it looks.

It is the Chinese who will win.

Dozens of howitzers are constantly spitting tongues of fire.

The Chinese gunners had already stripped off their shirts and were shirtless, pushing grenades into the chambers before firing the deadly shells.

The infantry of the Ming army was also ready for the final assault at this time.

The infantry was in companies.

Skirmishers were formed, and the shouters rushed towards the trenches of the Russian army in front.

All three barbed wire fences have been broken through by the Ming army's vanguards.

Now all that could stop the advance of the Ming infantry was a few trenches.

The officers of the Ming army, armed with command knives in one hand and revolvers in the other, led their soldiers, opened the way with grenades and rushed into the trenches of the Russian army.

The Russian army put up a desperate resistance.

With a rifle with a bayonet in his hand, braving a dense number of pistol bullets, he rushed to the Ming army and started a fierce hand-to-hand fight with them.

Such hand-to-hand combat did not last long.

Human beings have limited physical abilities.

About ten minutes later, on most of the battlefield, the Ming infantry was able to take the position and plant the sun and moon flag on the position.

However, there are also some people who have suffered heavy losses and retreated, but even so, the follow-up Ming assault group will immediately top up to prevent the Russian army from counterattacking.

The hand-to-hand combat of both sides revolved around the defensive positions of the Russian army.

The Ming army fought hard to attack.

The Russian army will not retreat from the fight to the death.

In fact, they have a way out.

Great battles are breaking out on all fronts, and they are gradually being divided from each other.

And their counterattack did not work.

Whatever method they use.

Skirmishers, horizontal formations, columns, phalanxes.

In the face of the absolute superiority of the Ming army's firepower.

The Russians, who were not afraid of death, could not break through at all.

They suffered heavy losses.

The commander-in-chief of the Russian army, Musayev, watched as the forward positions were stirred into a pot of porridge.

An expected war in which the Russian army relied on superior fortifications to inflict huge casualties on the Ming army did not appear.

On the contrary, the Chinese used new weapons and new tactics to gain absolute superiority on the battlefield with far fewer people than the Russian army.

It has been three days since the Ming army began to attack!

These three days.

The battle did not stop for almost a moment.

The Ming army is attacking in turn, and the Russian army can only resist desperately on all fronts!

Even if they are more numerous, but the opponent's firepower is too strong, and in order to counteract the opponent's superior firepower, they must gather more numbers.

This led to a three-shift attack on the Ming army's side.

And most of the soldiers on the Russian side have not closed their eyes for several days.

Fierce fighting for days has plunged the Russian army into extreme exhaustion.

Although the Russian army is still maintaining its basic front, the casualties are too great!

Under the Ming army, which lasted for three days, almost non-stop shelling.

The death toll of the Russian army has already exceeded 10,000!

A temporary field hospital not far from Musayev's command post.

Everywhere you can see soldiers whose hands and feet have been blown off by bombs.

In addition to tying the major arteries with ropes to prevent continued bleeding.

They don't really have access to any medical help.

Not to mention here, even if they were in Moscow now, most of them would have to die in agony.

Doctors are trying in vain to disinfect the wounded soldiers with alcohol and the like.

Pastors are making their final prayers and reassurances.

Because of Zhu Daohua's contribution.

Medical care in this era is much more advanced than in the same era of another time and space.

European armies imitated the Ming army to establish a basic battlefield rescue system, along with the basic antibacterial drug allicin, in addition to the concept of disinfection with alcohol.

These things have saved at least a hundred thousand lives.

In the few major wars in Europe that gathered more than 100,000 troops, there were no epidemics such as plague and cholera, which was also due to Zhu Daohua's promotion of medical progress.

For Russia, though.

Their economic strength in the first place does not allow them to buy large quantities of allicin produced in Guangdong, although imitations have appeared in Europe, but they are not something that Russia can afford on a large scale.

As for the battlefield rescue system.

It is also completely inferior to the Ming army on the opposite side.

It is not as good as Britain, France and other countries.

So a large number of wounded people can only cry, and now most people no longer count on any God.

There were young soldiers muttering to their mothers.

When he was dying, he seemed to be lying in his mother's warm arms, and he couldn't help but smile.

Pain can cause hallucinations.

But some people can die in one fell swoop.

Those who are still alive will suffer even more.

Despair spread among the Russian army.

All Russian soldiers believe.

This is where they are buried.

Musayev closed his eyes in pain.

Then he turned around and walked into his own command post.

No sooner had he opened the curtain and entered than he heard a heated argument.

The argument was so heated that even Musayev saw that two officers had drawn their swords against each other.

"We can't wait here to die! We're going to break through! Breakthrough!!! ”

"Where to go for the breakout? Where can we go? ”

"We're going back to Europe! Damn, we Russia are European countries! Asia shouldn't be where we came from! ”

"Lost! The war has been lost! Continuing to fight will only result in unnecessary casualties! We still have more than 20,000 Russian servicemen here, and their lives should not continue to be consumed in this doomed war! ”

"You're surrendering!"

"Nope! I'm preserving the vitality of the Empire! Daming is an opponent we can't beat! We shouldn't be looking to the east anymore!! ”

"Don't look at the East? Have you forgotten the double-headed eagle on the coat of arms? ”

"The Rome of the double-headed eagle is only coveting Asia Minor, can Rome defeat the Han Dynasty of its time?"

The heated arguments made the atmosphere in the command post seem a little tense.

Those who advocate a breakthrough are those who fight to the death in the main battle.

But there is no advocate of surrender - because everyone is smart and knows that surrender is death.

Because it is impossible for the Ming army on the opposite side to consume their own military rations to feed tens of thousands of Russians.

A lower cost would be to reward every Russian soldier with a bullet.

Fight to the death or break through, Musayev

“…… Break through, we have already lost, and there is no point in continuing to fight, even according to the most optimistic estimates, the casualties of the opposing side are only forty percent of ours! But you and I both know that the casualties on the opposite side are likely to be less than 20 percent of our troops! Five-to-one ratio! Gentlemen, we are going to exchange the lives of five Russian soldiers for a former Qing soldier who was deported to the border by the Chinese emperor! Is it worth it? Does that make sense? ”

Speaking was the commander of the 12th Army, Major General Holcart.

He was a veteran of the Russian Empire.

For more than 30 years, he fought for the empire in the south and in the north.

The fact that he has gray hair is a testament to his rich resume.

It's just that at this moment, the tsar's loyal wolf dog's eyes are full of gray.

His spirit was on the verge of collapse.

The exhaustion of not closing the eyes for three days hit.

At the same time, there is also a huge psychological impact of the casualty exchange ratio, which makes this veteran almost unable to support it.

Now he's just pushing himself on.

He knows.

The Russian Empire is over—it will not be destroyed, but the ambition of imperial hegemony no longer exists, and the territory of the Asian part, although less valuable than that of Europe, is basically some permafrost.

But the Siberian fur trade, the colonial plundering of Central Asia, and the trade with China had always been an important supplement to the Russian Empire's finances—otherwise, how much tax would have been collected from the land cultivated by serfs on the plains of Eastern Europe.

Without Siberia, the tsar would probably have to compromise with the big landowners in the country, and by that time there would be no tsar with absolute authority in the Russian Empire, and thus become a loose feudal state.

This is the impact of the loss of Asian territories on the political system of the Russian Empire, and the weakening of the tsar's power will bring to the entire empire, Holcart does not dare to speculate for the time being.

But now there is an acute problem that the Russian Empire cannot solve.

How can an elite officer of the Russian Army fail to see the crisis in Russia as a whole!

The pattern of war has changed dramatically!

Under the bombardment of howitzers, with the ultra-high rate of fire of the rear-loading guns, the numerical superiority of the tsar's gray cattle was no longer an advantage!!

It is impossible for the Russians to win the war with bayonets, and now Russia has no rear-loading guns and not many explosives!

And these things do not require tens of millions of serfs.

It's industry!

Millions of industrial workers and a large number of factories are needed!

These things.

Was it what the Russian Empire was able to have?

"Now we can only break through! We need to break through! "There are also several high-ranking officers who speak out in favor of breaking out and escaping.

"The Ming army is not deployed on the other side of the Syr Darya, we can retreat at night under the cover of night!"

"These Chinese have been attacking for three days in a row, they must be tired too, they can't chase far!!"

At this point, Musayev knew he had to step in.

Break through and most of the Russian soldiers will die.

"The Chinese are waiting for us to break through! Their purpose in not deploying defenses on the other side is to give us the illusion that we can break through. In the art of war of the Chinese, there is a saying that "surround three sides and let go of one side". Musayev said coldly, "The Ming army has tens of thousands of war horses, and each of their soldiers has at least two horses, and their mobility is far superior to ours!" So we can't get it far......"

"You can go far...... We also have 10,000 Cossack cavalry in good condition. The speed of maneuvering is not below that of the Ming cavalry! ”

A Russian cavalry general in the headquarters proposed what was probably the only feasible way to break out.

Abandon the infantry and take only 10,000 Cossack cavalry!

Musayev looked at the man with a dark face and said in a deep voice: "Abandon more than 10,000 infantry, do you want me to go to a military court?" ”

"Military courts? Your Excellency, do you think that going to a court-martialed is the most terrible thing? At most, a military court deprives you of your military rank. Send you home. But if you throw all the main forces of the Russian Empire in Central Asia on the Syr Darya, then what forces will we use to defend the Western Kazakh steppes and Western Siberia? ”

Musayev was stunned when he heard this.

The officer had a point.

With 10,000 Cossack cavalry, plus the Russian defenders on the fortresses of Central Asia and Western Siberia, then Russia has at least more than 20,000 soldiers to protect Western Siberia!

"If we can keep 10,000 cavalry, then we can at least use Orenburg as a base camp and go down with the Ming army in the Kazakh steppe!"

The officer shouted!

"If we have 20,000 troops in hand, and then coerce the Kazakhs to submit to us and deal with the Chinese, at least we will keep the land west of the Yenisei River!"

Listening to this analysis, everyone in the command turned their eyes to Musayev.

The decision to abandon more than 10,000 infantry could not have been made by them, they did not need to take responsibility, it was Musayev who took responsibility, but although most of them were not cavalry officers, as senior officers, they also had horses, at least their lives could be saved.

Karma

Musayev was silent, and after a long time, he raised his head and looked at the officers who were looking at him expectantly, with a wry smile on his face: "You are right, the Russian Empire needs these ten thousand cavalry, but as a commander, I will not abandon my subordinates, I have now made a decision, ten thousand cavalry will cross the Syr Darya River and break through to the west tonight, I will stay and command the broken queen, then. Does anyone want to be with me? ”

A group of Russian officers, you look at me, I look at you, but no one speaks......

"The Russians have shrunk to the last line of defense, what are they going to do?"

"There are at least more than 20,000 guns in the trenches, and it is better to bombard them with artillery if they force up with such dense vitality, so it is better to !!bombard them with artillery."

"They're going to break through? Did you run? ”

"Run, run! To run out of the trench is to find death! ”

Inside the command post of the Ming army.

The staff officers were analyzing the battle situation they had just obtained.

"After fighting for so many days, the Rakshasa ghosts should not be able to fight, they can't resist for too long, and in the end they either surrender or break through." Yang Yuchun said to Chen Dewang beside him.

"Surrender is impossible, we can't afford to raise so many people, and they know it!" Chen Dewang stared at the map: "They will definitely break through!" ”

"Breakout? They still have 20,000 infantry, can they run? Yang Yuchun shook his head.

"But they still have ten thousand Cossacks!"

"Abandon the infantry and run with the cavalry? Will the Russian general dare to make such a decision? ”

"I don't know, but if these more than 10,000 cavalry run away, I'm afraid it will be a lot of trouble!"

As the two of them spoke.

A staff officer hurriedly came in and reported: "Marshal, chief of staff, the Rakshasa ghost has broken through!" Their cavalry is crossing the Syr Darya! (End of chapter)