The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 827 The Cossacks can't hold on any longer.
The stream babbles, winter goes and spring comes.

Before we knew it, it was springtime in 1803. By the end of February in the lunar calendar, the temperature on the northern shore of the Caspian Sea had risen considerably, generally reaching seven or eight degrees Celsius at night and around twenty degrees Celsius during the day.

This is the best season for military operations, not only because temperatures are rising, but also because the rainy season in the lowlands north of the Caspian Sea is concentrated in April and May and in October of the fall.

Although this area has a temperate continental climate and the rainfall is not as abundant or frequent as the plum rains in southern China, the Karagiye salt desert separates Guryev (Atyrau) from Astrakhan.

Beneath this white salt crust lies a layer of fine black soil that has been salted for at least thousands of years. Once soaked by rainwater, it turns into saline-alkali mud.

Not only is it difficult to pass through, but it also corrodes human feet and horse hooves, especially causing ulceration of horse hooves.

Therefore, after the temperature recovered slightly at the end of February, Chen Jinchuan went deep into the front line and selected more than 3,000 cavalrymen from his 8,000 cavalrymen, breaking them down into smaller units.

With 80 to 150 cavalry as squadrons, they bypassed a hill and two streams occupied by the Russian vanguard from three directions, penetrating deep into the salt desert to search for the main force of the Russian army.

Their current task of confronting the Rakshasa vanguard has been taken over by Dong Jinfeng, who leads 8,000 Beiting garrison troops.

The Da Yu army indeed lacked experience in bloody battles, unlike the Tsarist Rus' Empire, which had fought against the Ottoman Turks with hundreds of thousands of soldiers year after year.

It could even be said that the only two armies in Europe capable of large-scale warfare today are Napoleon's French army and the Tsarist Russian army.

Well, the Austrian army, under Archduke Karl's command, could be considered half an army, even though they had a history of losing more than winning.

Unfortunately, the Great Yu was not a weakling like the Ottoman Turks.

Moreover, the Great Yu only lacked experience in real bloody battles, but in terms of equipment, training, troop quality, and tactical theory, it was far superior to the Russian army at that time, and at least slightly better than Napoleon's French army.

Therefore, under the intense training of the Da Yu army, this kind of cavalry infiltration operation has been practiced countless times.

Mo Zibu spends a lot of money every year to support 120,000 Imperial Guards and 180,000 Beijing Garrison troops. These 300,000 troops are fully off-the-job, have high salaries, and are trained all year round.

Their expenses alone account for more than five percent of the fiscal expenditure, not to mention retirement pay, land and estates as rewards, etc. It is impossible for them to lack combat power.

Han Zaibai led a small team of fifteen people, and the six teams, totaling ninety people, followed the command of a lieutenant colonel and worked together to explore the depths of the Karajye Salt Desert.

‘Pah! ’

During a rest, a gray horse couldn't hold it in and defecated on the ground.

Upon hearing the noise, the white dragon, whose ear was missing a piece, immediately stepped forward and bit the green horse's neck. The green horse grimaced in pain but dared not resist or move or neigh.

Warhorses are rigorously trained and have long since developed the habit of not moving, neighing, or even defecating randomly. They can even sense the various emotions of their two-legged companions and respond accordingly.

Han Zaibai sighed; he could clearly see smugness on Bai Long's long face.

This guy did it on purpose. Although this green horse did not follow the rule of defecating on time, it is not usually a horse that would punish it.

Sure enough, after Bai Long punished Qing Cong, the smug-looking Gaptooth left. Before leaving, it shook its right ear, which was missing a third of its length, in front of all the warhorses, as if showing off its war achievements.

What's even more surprising is that the other warhorses also showed a submissive posture and expression, as if they collectively acknowledged this victory.

"The white dragon has manifested! It's about to become a god!" A Xianbei Ekhok man from Lingbei, who later became a Chukchi cavalryman, looked at the white dragon, which seemed to understand human speech, with a hint of respect.

After saying this, he chanted a few lines of the local dialect of the Okhotsk tribe, grabbed a handful of black soil from under the salt crust, slowly shaped it into a human figure, then crushed it again, smeared some of the soil on the white dragon horse's head, and then smeared the rest on his own face.

The white horse's eyes widened in shock as it glanced at the two-legged creature. Then, it nudged the creature with obvious displeasure, clearly unhappy that its long, straight white horse face was covered in black dirt.

"Let the warhorses relieve themselves here. Dig the pit deeper and hide it better." Han Zaibai smiled and pushed Bailong away. The guy looked aggrieved and stretched his head over, wanting Han Zaibai to wipe the black dirt off his face.

A little while later, the horse relieved itself, and the man also went to relieve himself. Then the man and the horse ate a simple meal together.

The fifteen men mingled together again and redistributed their bows and arrows.

Han Zaibai stood up and counted them. Among his fifteen men, there were two men from Huai River, three knights from Datong Prefecture, one from the emperor's hometown of Yuexi Jiaoji, one Manchu from Shenyang, one Bo from Yili, one Torgut from near Almaty, two Chechens from the northern desert, two Xianbei Solons from Jilin, one Xianbei Evenk from the northern mountains, and one Xianbei Ekhok from the northern mountains.

This was truly a hodgepodge, and the distribution of these ethnic groups in the army was intentional, in order to make these people from various northeastern tribes, who were classified as Easterners, become Han Chinese as soon as possible.

Of course, there's also the reason that these people were truly exceptional archers.

Han Zaibai redistributed the tasks, and about 80% of the remaining two hundred arrows were distributed to the four knights, including himself.

Although each of the fifteen men carried a bow and arrow, only three of them possessed archery skills at or near the level of Han Zaibai, meaning they were more effective at mounted archery than flintlock carbines.

Therefore, when arrows are scarce, they should be used first.

The remaining eleven men took up rifled guns, and their marksmanship was quite good; even with rifled guns, they were still very effective in combat.

After distributing the arrows and burying the human and animal excrement deep, a sharp whistling sound of an arrow piercing the air was suddenly heard.

Han Zaibai and the others immediately mounted their horses and headed towards the direction of the whistle-blowing arrow. It was their squadron, or perhaps another squadron, that had discovered a large number of Rakshasa soldiers.

The reason for this certainty is that the Russian Cossack cavalry had completely abandoned bows and arrows. The only ones still using bows and arrows were the Bashkirs, who were cannon fodder for the Russian army. And the Bashkirs' whistling arrows were completely different from those of the Yu cavalry.

After galloping for more than two miles, Han Zaibai and his men arrived at the battlefield, where another squadron had caught up with a large cavalry force of more than three hundred men.

'Clap clap clap! '

A burst of gunfire rang out, smoke and fire rose, many people fell off their horses, and then the two sides began a fierce charge.

This is a typical modern cavalry tactic: cavalrymen line up in rows and fire volleys at a distance of about 80 meters, then draw their swords and launch a wall-riding charge, eventually pulling out hand cannons to get close and fire.

However, this time was different. After the Russian Cossack cavalry finished their volley and charged, more than a hundred cavalrymen flanked them from both sides in a pincer movement. They roared strangely and were also carrying bows and arrows, hurling wave after wave of arrows.

"Bashkirs!" Han Zaibai whispered, waving his hand, and the fifteen-man squad immediately launched a surprise attack from the left.

He could tell that the forty or fifty cavalrymen who were entangled with the Rakshasa cavalry were running out of steam and needed immediate support.

Puff, puff!
Four archers, nearly at the level of master archers, fired at least forty or fifty arrows in a short period of time, instantly knocking down the Cossack cavalrymen who were engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the Dayu cavalry. At least a dozen of them were instantly rendered unable to fight.

After Han Zaibai's cavalry squad finished firing their flintlock muskets, they drew their sabers and charged forward. However, Han Zaibai and his men did not engage in hand-to-hand combat. They rested briefly, then changed positions and continued firing in rapid succession.

Some Cossack cavalry spotted Han Zaibai and his three riders and tried to stop them, but at a distance of fifty or sixty meters, the rate of fire of the carbine was no match for that of the archer's bow and arrow.

Not only were they unable to drive away Han Zaibai and his men, but many of them were shot dead in an instant.

Feeling immense pressure, the Cossack commander had no choice but to transfer some of the Bashkirs who were encircling and attacking from both sides to drive away Han Zaibai and his men.

The Cossacks largely abandoned the tradition of using bows and arrows as weapons about seventy or eighty years ago. This is not wrong, because the development of modern cavalry followed the pattern of volleys with muskets, followed by saber slashes and finishing blows with hand cannons.

On the European battlefield, even the Hungarians basically abandoned bows and arrows, and even the cavalry of the Great Yu were the same, using muskets and sabers. The only slightly advanced weapon they had was a six-revolver.

However, once you give up the archery talent, you can forget about unlocking the Eagle Shooter specialization.

On this battlefield, the Cossacks were utterly defeated by the sharpshooters selected by the Great Yu Empire, which had not abandoned their talent for archery.

Sometimes, too fast and too thorough change is not a good thing.

What truly made the bow and arrow obsolete was not the musket, but the one-pound field gun that could fire a shot every forty seconds, weighed less than two hundred pounds, and could be pulled by a warhorse, as well as the advent of the hand-cranked Gatling gun.

With these two things, no matter what kind of sharpshooter you are, I can just fire a shotgun with my super-mobile speed, or a Gatling gun can chase you down and provide fire support.

Even if you're one in a million, and you spend ten or twenty years training and honing your skills, you'll still just be a pile of rotten flesh.

But at that time, the industrial capacity of the Tsarist Rus' Empire was insufficient to manufacture such a one-pound cannon, and the hand-cranked Gatling gun was still under development.

Therefore, a sharpshooter like Han Zaibai, who was built with real money, could completely suppress a flintlock pistol.

Gunfire and screams mingled together, carrying further and further away. More and more Dayu cavalry or Rakshasa cavalry from nearby areas joined in, and the snowball grew bigger and bigger, making the battle increasingly fierce.

Even after the sharpshooter from the Ohawk next to Han Zaibai was shot and killed, the sun finally set.

Under the cover of night, the more than three hundred Russian cavalrymen fled in panic from the open salt desert.

They sent at least a thousand cavalrymen to reinforce the troops, but most of them perished here.

At least seven hundred cavalrymen from the Great Yu army arrived, and Han Zaibai saw at least four officers of lieutenant colonel or higher.

"Commander Wang of the 28th Regiment of the Yaowu Army has sacrificed his life. Let's go see him." Zhang Tianxing, Han Zaibai's deputy commander, also arrived and said with a somewhat dejected expression.

Upon hearing this, Han Zaibai immediately followed Zhang Tianxing. They traversed a large area where corpses were piled up and blood had formed streams, and arrived at the place where the initial battle had taken place.

Here, the corpses of Russians and Han Chinese were piled up in layers, many of them incomplete, and many of them remained in fighting postures until their deaths, which shows how fierce the battle was.

Commander Wang's body was located in the center, with a huge blood hole on his forehead on his pale face. The blood had all drained out, and purplish-red blood clots blocked the hole. His abdomen was blood red, and a piece that looked like a small intestine had slipped out of his uniform.

Han Zaibai sighed, and together with seven or eight officers, saluted their fallen comrades before beginning to collect their remains.

This Colonel Wang, the regimental commander, was the younger brother of Major General Wang Lian, the commander of the Yaowu Army. He was known for his bravery and was a young general that the imperial court was focusing on cultivating. Unexpectedly, he died here before the big battle even started.

"Move quickly, be careful the Rakshasa people don't sneak over," Zhang Tianxing said calmly in silence.

. . . .

In the Rakshasa army camp, Major General Mikhail Barclay, the commander, felt a chill run down his spine.

He could hardly believe that the Cossacks, who were renowned for their cavalry, were being driven to the brink of defeat by Seris's cavalry, and that by this point, they were no longer able to cover the battlefield.

He found it even harder to accept that the weapons posing a deadly threat to them included bows and arrows. What kind of era is this? How could such a thing still happen!

"General, the Seres don't have many sharpshooters, maybe two or three hundred at most, because it's impossible for elites who can make bows and arrows far more lethal than flintlock muskets to appear in large numbers."

At the same time, their warhorses are also handpicked, one in ten thousand, so it's impossible for too many to appear.

Major General Mikhail Barclay nodded. Indeed, there wouldn't be too many, but these few hundred men, in this small-to-medium scale cavalry dogfight, had inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy and even seemed to be dominating the battlefield.

"The current situation is like this: our Cossack cavalry has lost the advantage they used to have against the Ottoman Turks. I think the Khitan cavalry will find us soon."

Just like how we used to use Cossack cavalry to spot the Turks, then gather superior forces to catch them off guard and wipe them out.

Upon hearing Major General Barclay's words, the generals in the room were all startled, and they suddenly realized where their bad premonition came from.

They had become the Ottoman Turks during the Russo-Turkish War, while the Khitans to the east became them.

"If we are to fight such a powerful army, then it is impossible to go far from home."

Only by utilizing the advantages of a sturdy castle, familiar terrain, and the ability to quickly replenish supplies and personnel can they be defeated.

At the same time, we also need to extend the supply lines for the Khitans as much as possible, forcing them to cross the Ural River and the more than 100-kilometer-long Karagiye Salt Desert, thereby weakening their strength.

Major General Barclay openly shared his plan for defeating the Seris Empire.

"So, General Barclay, you actually hope to fight a decisive battle with the Khitans in Astrakhan, is that right?" someone asked.

“No, I hope the real decisive battle will break out in Tsaritsyn!” Major General Barclay said. Tsaritsyn is Volgograd, which is already in the heart of the Tsarist Russian Empire.

Major General Barclay believed that the only way to defeat the Khitans was to hold Astrakhan to the death, force the Khitans to expend a great deal of energy to capture the castle, and then lure the exhausted Khitans to Volgograd.

At the same time, a scorched-earth policy must be implemented along the way, burning all the supplies that cannot be taken away and executing all those who are unwilling to leave, thus stretching the Seres' supply lines to nearly two thousand kilometers, in order to ensure the defeat of them.

"If everyone agrees with this policy, then sign this document; if not, we must immediately march to the city of Guryev (Atyrau)."

Otherwise, Seris's elite cavalry would immediately cut off our connection with the 15,000 vanguard men, and we would suffer enormous losses.

The generals took the document and saw that it was a letter of consent agreeing not to rescue Guryev and to unconditionally obey General Kutuzov's command thereafter, even if a decisive battle eventually had to be fought in Volgograd.

For Major General Mikhail Barclay, if he strictly followed Kutuzov's instructions, these people would also suffer losses.

So when they realized what was happening, they didn't dare do anything to Kutuzov, but these lower-class white men from Poland who believed in Lutheranism would bear the brunt of the anger.

As for Kutuzov's claim that he would take all the blame for him, well, just take it with a grain of salt.

If the wave of accusations is not strong, Kutuzov will certainly not go back on his word. If it comes on strong, it is conceivable that they would go with the flow and send him out to quell the anger.

"Generals, I am a Livonian. If I am captured by the Khitan Emperor, I might be given an important position based on my abilities."

And you, everything you have is in the Third Rome; after defeat, you'll probably have little choice.

After hearing Major General Mikhail Barclay's words, the group of Russian generals fell silent, for it was the truth.

After a long pause, someone finally gave in, saying, "I'm willing, I'm willing to sign the documents, and I'm willing to follow the general's orders!"

(End of this chapter)