Chapter 261 Ancient Sinner

Chapter 261 Ancient Sinner

Chapter 261 Eternal Sinner
The small town of Tokmak is located 1,100 miles northeast of Tashkent and 400 miles west of Almaty. This place has a nostalgic name in China - Suiye City.

Colonel Mikhail Chernyaev marched here with 20,000 Russian reinforcements.

The glory of the Tang Dynasty has faded, and Suiye City has become a thing of the past.

Three years ago, this place was an outpost fortress of the Kokand Khanate. It was captured by the Russians. Colonel Chernyaev personally led the people to dismantle the fortress and established Tokmak, a Russian settlement.

Later, the colonel led his troops all the way to Tashkent, and with a force ratio of one to ten, he defeated Yakub Beg's garrison stationed in Tashkent at the time and captured Tashkent for the empire.

Yakub Beg was unable to defeat the Russians, so he ran back to the Fergana Valley. After accepting British aid, he invaded Ili Province, where he was doing very well.

The colonel sighed on his horse, saying that so much had changed in three years.

Three years ago, he was able to defeat tens of thousands of people of the Kokand Khanate with just a few thousand men. Russia's modernized army was invincible in the backward Central Asian region.

Now, Governor Kaufman's 30,000 Russian troops cannot defeat the invading Qing army, and he wants me to lead people to reinforce Tashkent. How did this backward land in Central Asia suddenly become a hot spot?
Looking back at the camels stretching behind the 20,000-strong army, the 3,000 Cossacks led by Ivan were driving the camels across the Chu River during the dry season. Those were the food and fodder that they had collected with all their might in the Seven Rivers region.

Ten days had passed since Colonel Chernyayev received the order for reinforcements, and he had only traveled 400 miles from Almaty.

It was not that he was slow in acting. Based on his military common sense, he knew that 30,000 people could definitely defend the city of Tashkent. What they lacked was food and fodder.

The food and grass have to be collected now, right? These second-rate troops under your command have to be assembled now, right? Governor, you should understand how difficult it is to cross the Alato Mountains to get here, right?
The new Governor Kaufman made a fuss out of nothing and actually asked himself to withdraw all the troops in the Seven Rivers region to reinforce Tashkent. It was obvious that he was scared by the British during the Crimean War.

All the soldiers here have been withdrawn. What if the Qing army in Yili attacks? They are really taking care of the head but not the butt.

Now the British haven’t sent any troops, just the Qing army - forget it, forget it, after all he is the governor.

"Report, the vanguard encountered the enemy."

Huh? How did the enemy get so far? Did Tashkent get lost in just a few days? Governor Kaufman is such a fool.

Well, maybe the cowardly governor has retreated to Tashkent and dared not go out of the city to fight in the field, waiting for this famous general to rescue him.

The Qing army came here to stop us, probably because they were afraid of my reinforcements.

The colonel rode his horse and came to the front with his guards. He saw flags waving in front of him. On a big flag was the word "Heng". Shao Hengzhong led more than 10,000 troops to block the front.

The colonel couldn't help but slightly raise his evaluation of the Qing army in front of him. They actually knew how to dig trenches. However, at first glance, the Qing army was obviously in a hurry and had no artillery.

"The enemy has only about 10,000 troops, and we have twice as many as them. Come on, charge and break through the enemy's trenches!"

There were no artillery here, but no one could stop the bayonet charge of the grenadiers under their command.

A regiment of soldiers rushed forward with their Reed rifles and fixed bayonets.

The Russian army had a psychological advantage over the Qing army. The Russians all looked ferocious. In order to save precious bullets, they did not fire their guns but charged directly with bayonets.

When they were thirty steps into the enemy trenches, the strong grenadiers threw grenades and the tall Lucia soldiers engaged the enemy in hand-to-hand combat. Could the Qing army stop them?
Colonel Chernyaev seemed to have seen the Qing army abandoning the trenches and fleeing - wait, why did the grenadiers stop forty steps away from the trenches?
The colonel raised his telescope and suddenly discovered that the enemy had set up several barbed wire fences forty steps in front of the trench.

The barbed wire was not visible from a distance and had never appeared on the battlefield before. Even the battle-hardened Colonel Chernyev did not notice it.

The distance of forty steps was very awkward, and most grenadiers' grenades could not reach the enemy's trenches.

Where did the Qing army get so much iron wire? I have never seen iron wire used as a weapon.

"Clap! Clap!"

The enemy soldiers lying in the trenches began to fire volleys. From the frequency, it turned out to be advanced breech-loading rifles. We haven't equipped them yet, okay? Only 10,000 newly modified ones have been sent to Tashkent.

His brave subordinates were using an engineering shovel to destroy the barbed wire, but this thing was quite difficult to deal with. If they had known about it in advance, they would have brought pliers with them, as the engineering shovel was very difficult to knock over.

"Boom! Boom boom boom!"

A large number of grenades were thrown from the enemy trenches and exploded in the enemy's own grenade regiment array.

Oh my god, why are the enemy's grenades so powerful? One grenade can blow up a bunch of my soldiers. Also, are their soldiers all supernatural? How can they throw grenades so far?
In the trenches, the soldiers of Shao Hengzhong's division slowly and calmly put the large grenades into the grenade launchers. It was the new director of the Lanzhou Arsenal, Ding Jinshi, who designed the large slingshot - he also designed and made the barbed wire.

Grenade after grenade flew over the barbed wire and exploded in the enemy group. Soon the Russian soldiers could no longer hold on, stopped their futile and slow sabotage operations, and turned to flee.

The enemy ran out of the attack range of the grenade launcher, and the soldiers picked up their guns again, aimed and fired. An entire regiment of Russians were killed or wounded, and few of them escaped. The casualties on this side were zero.

Barbed wire is a really good thing.

Colonel Chernyaev gnashed his teeth in anger, "Come on, bypass the enemy's position from the south."

"Boom! Boom boom boom! Boom!" The two regiments of Russian troops had just circled a mile to the south when a series of huge explosions suddenly occurred on the plain.

When the scout was investigating, there were clearly no enemy troops over there, and the scout did not step on any mines. Why did it explode now?

The engineers who were lying in ambush several hundred meters away kept pressing buttons, and the electric detonators detonated very smoothly. The electric detonators that had just been delivered from the rear were finally used at the last moment.

With this thing detonating, soldiers can ambush far away and safely, and enemy scouts won't notice even if they step on TNT explosives.

The Huai Army dragoons rushed here, marching 100 miles a day to meet the ambushed enemy. They arrived in a hurry, only half a day earlier than the enemy. Not all places had time to dig trenches, so explosives were used here.

The TNT explosives, with the power to split mountains and rocks, quickly created a long series of obstacles and deep pits. A group of people and horses arrived in the distance with the word "Nie" on the big flag. A regiment of soldiers guarded the new terrain formed by the explosion.

Behind them, troops from Nie Shicheng's mixed division were coming in continuously.

"Not good, the enemy has more than 20,000 troops, and there is smoke and dust rising behind us."

Colonel Chernyaev made a quick decision, "Retreat, force a crossing of the Chu River, retreat to the Alatau Gorge, and hold the entrance to the valley."

The Lucia soldiers moved from the rear team to the front team and turned around. When they looked back, they saw the soldiers with the big flag with the word "wave" just arrived at the battlefield and were chasing them.

It's over. The enemy actually has more than 30,000 troops, all of them are breech-loading rifles. They want to attack us halfway across the river. I'm afraid that half of our troops will be destroyed.

Forget it, just run out as much as you can.

This is the limit of what Grant can do.

If the ambush is too close, the enemy will be more advantageous in the battle if they wait for the enemy to tire themselves out. But the enemy has scouts, and if they find out that Tashkent has fallen and turn around and run away, it will be difficult to catch them.

Now we can destroy half of them while they are halfway across the river, which is already a great achievement.

"kill!"

"Bang bang bang!"

Suddenly, flags fluttered at the opposite mountain pass, and a large number of Qing troops poured out of the mountain pass and quickly deployed along the Chu River. Rows of muzzle-loading rifles fired fiercely, and the water of the Chu River turned red. The enemy's retreat was blocked.

This is the real Qing army, and it is the Eight Banners, flying the banner of the Bordered Blue Banner, with a big "Gold" character on the commander's flag.

Colonel Chernyaev sighed to the sky, "With so many Qing troops besieging the reinforcements I brought, I think Tashkent has been lost. The empire's Central Asian strategy is over."

Colonel Mikhail Chernyaev led nearly 20,000 Russian troops and 3,000 Cossacks to surrender to the Qing army's Blue Banner general who was closest to them.

At this point, Russia's regular army and Cossacks in Central Asia were completely wiped out.

Neither Shao Hengzhong nor Grant knew where these Qing troops came from, but the other side knew them.

The Qing army commander met up with Shao Hengzhong and laughed loudly, "Finally I caught up with you. It was not in vain. I am Jin Shun, the deputy governor of the Bordered Blue Banner. I was originally a subordinate of General Duolong'a, and was ordered to guard Uliastai and manage the Altay region.

We had been planning to seize Tacheng, which was occupied by bandits, but your Huai Army quickly took over Ili Province.

I moved my troops to Tacheng and confronted the Russians, only to find that they had retreated. Hehe, it must be that you guys won the battle.

I led my troops into the Qihe area without hesitation and chased you all the way here. You don't have to go any further, the Qihe area has been liberated. Let's go, take the prisoners and go to Tashkent to see Shao Zhongcheng!"

Shao Quanzhong and Grant saluted Jin Shun solemnly. The generals of the Eight Banners did not have such courage and ability, and this one deserved respect.

There are no weak soldiers under a strong general. They saluted Jin Shun, mainly out of respect for his old boss Dolonga.

…………

On March 22, the sixth year of the Tongzhi reign, Gorchakov, the Tsar’s special envoy, imperial commissioner, and Russian Foreign Minister, arrived in Tashkent.

He traveled all the way from St. Petersburg, thinking that Tashkent was being surrounded by the Qing army.

But when he arrived in Tashkent, he found that not only had Tashkent fallen, but the vast land of the former Kazakh Khanate was also filled with Torghut Mongol soldiers.

The Seven Rivers region east of Lake Balkhash had been lost, and all of Russia's 50,000 regular troops and 6,000 Cossacks stationed in Central Asia were in the Huai Army's prisoner-of-war camps.

Gorchakov touched the cross on his chest and sighed, "Merciful Jesus Christ, the fighting in Central Asia is so ugly, how can I have this negotiation? Diplomacy is diplomacy, how can there be diplomacy without guns as a backing? I am afraid that this time I will become Russia's eternal sinner and be cursed in history books."

(End of this chapter)