Xinshun 1730

Chapter 57

In the car formation, the thick black smoke was like blood from a big fat fish in the sea, and those bloodthirsty sharks quickly surrounded them.

Two Cossacks rode horses and stopped more than a hundred steps away from the car formation.

The people in the car formation are busy acting.Several people were carrying felled wood, and some people were peeling birch bark there, looking like they were going to make some boats in a hurry.

Some people were around the campfire, as if they were trying to dry the rhubarb and tea leaves that had fallen into the water.The rest held matchlock guns and watched the Cossacks outside warily.

With a whistle, those who were busy "building ships" and "roasting goods" all jumped into the simple defensive car formation.

More than a dozen people raised their matchlock guns at the same time, aiming at the two Cossacks riding in the distance.

A Cossack waved at the people in the car formation and shouted, "Are you businessmen? Does anyone understand Russian? Are you Chinese or Korean?"

The Cossack who shouted was very courageous, and he slowly approached the chariot formation with the reins in hand, and found that it was not so much a chariot formation as it was a defensive circle surrounded by wood. Those carts did not have wheels, and many of them were like scraps of simple boats .

Jiaolaobutu gestured to the interpreter next to him to answer the conversation, and the interpreter stood up and shouted: "Go away, Cossack. There are many of us."

While talking, he shook the matchlock gun in his hand, and pointed at the Cossack on horseback like a demonstrator, signaling him to get out.

The Cossack took two steps back wisely, laughed and shouted: "Don't be afraid, we are good people. If you want, I can bring some people over to help you deliver the goods. What are you bringing? ?”

The interpreter didn't seem to believe his words, and pretended to whisper a few words to Jiaolaobutu before saying: "Thank you, Cossack. We don't need any help. Our ship will be built soon, In fact, a lot has been made, and we will leave soon. Our gunpowder is packed in barrels, but it is not wet. We don’t carry tea and rhubarb, just some groceries that you don’t need.”

While talking, several people also quietly gathered back the rhubarb and tea leaves that were placed outside to dry.The rest of the group kept wary eyes on the Cossacks outside.

Apparently, the Cossacks had a reputation for being "good-natured".

The Cossack on horseback made the sign of the sign of the sign of the cross and shouted: "All right. Good luck."

After finishing speaking, Zongma and the partner who came with him galloped towards the distance.

As soon as the person left, the interpreter asked: "Master Shu, can this be done? What if he is really a good person?"

Jiaolaobutu used the words taught by Liu Yu, and said with a smile: "Don't worry, all the good Cossacks are honestly farming in Ukraine."

"Master Liu said it. If we have hundreds of people guarding us, they will be good people. If we only have so few people, they must be bad people."

"Everyone!"

"Check the matchlock and gunpowder. Prepare to reject horses and wooden deer. Give me a moment to cheer up. We are not alone. Master Liu and his people are waiting by the side. Don't be afraid. When the time comes, we will be the first. , In the future, if we capture the Rakshasa castle, we will directly share [-]% of the goods and money."

These people had known for a long time that Liu Yu was leading people to ambush outside, and Jiaolao Butu's possession of money boosted his morale, and they burst into cheers.

The repelling horses and wooden deer that had already been prepared were all brought out to resist in front of the formation, and the guards began to check the team's muskets.Two bonfires have also been raised in case the fire rope goes out.

…………

Inside the Russian fortress, the mood of Mournen still lingers.In the cemetery outside the castle, the cornflowers left on the grave have not been completely dried.

In the moat, there are still garlands made by unmarried girls, and the candles used for praying on them have been burned out.

Next to the Orthodox church decorated with birch branches and bracken, several old ladies are praying there.Picked bracken and birch branches are hung upside down in front of every house, somewhat like wormwood for the Dragon Boat Festival.

The ears of rye outside the castle had already sprouted, and most of the Cossacks were mowing the pastures assigned to each family with death-like scythes, preparing to stockpile horse fodder for winter.

The faint bitter smell of hops and the smell of felled grass wafted around the fortress.

Cossacks at work looked no different from peasants to the south.But when two Cossacks on horseback ran out to the meadows to announce their discovery, the industrious peasants turned into wild bandits in an instant.

The women laughed and asked how many goods there are and how many rubles can they get?The children chased after them and asked if there was any sugar in those goods?

The man directly threw away the long-handled sickle in his hand, jumped onto the horse on the ground, and galloped towards the castle.They were going to fetch their sabers and muskets.

In the castle, Hannibal looked at the Cossack who was in a hurry, and couldn't help but cursed.

When these savages were asked to dig trenches and build cities, they were very reluctant and even disobeyed orders.This kind of thing does not require any orders, and everyone is excited.

Hannibal couldn't control these Cossacks. Unlike the gray cattle soldiers who recruited serfs, many Cossacks were serfs who had fled to the grasslands. They chose self-government and refused any constraints.

Many Cossacks were "recruited after the rebellion". Many Cossacks on the bank of Heilongjiang were fugitives at all, but Peter pardoned their crimes.

Nominally, Hannibal's military rank is brigadier general, the supreme commander here.

But in fact, these Cossacks have their own committee members and leaders, and they don't listen to everything Hannibal says.The troops that Hannibal could really control were only one hundred and ten people, some of them were to maintain the trade order, and the other part was the shooting army that was liquidated to the frontier because of participating in the coup d'état.

Hannibal found a captain who was quite prestigious among the Cossacks, pointed to an additional section of the city wall that had not yet been completed, and said: "A few days ago, I asked the Cossacks to repair the city wall, and the Cossacks said it was time to mow the grass. He also said that it would be too late to mow the grass after the calla blooms, and the horses would not eat it. Now you are not mowing the grass, why do you have no time to build the city wall, but you have time to do this kind of thing? "

The Cossack captain bit his mustache, grinned, pulled out his saber and shouted, "The Cossack's harvest is not plowed with a plow or cut with a sickle, but plowed and cut with a saber and horseshoes."

"We will not dig holes and build walls like groundhogs on the prairie. Cossack horsebacks are the best city walls. We are not Huohol who build cities and live in them!"

After speaking, he ignored Hannibal again, kicked the horse's belly and ran away.

Hannibal was helpless, he couldn't control it, and the Cossacks didn't have the slightest respect for him.

He didn't know how many times he heard the Cossacks talking behind him.

Some people also said that Emperor Peter also liked such things, so he made a black man a brigadier general, and the reason why he married a Polish army chicken as a queen was to deceive others...

In the high society of Petersburg, he is Peter's godson, a newborn aristocrat; in the high-end salons of France, he is the black eagle in the mouth of enlightenment scholars.

Hannibal shook his head as he looked at the Cossacks who had begun to assemble outside the city.

I thought to myself, I don't know when the castle reinforcement work here will be completed?

However, I shouldn't be here for too long.

A few days ago, he received a secret letter from Petersburg, telling Hannibal that Menshikov, who is now in power, is fabricating that he is also a descendant of the "Rurik" family, implying that he also has the claim of the Tsar Quan... The old nobles are very dissatisfied with the "Regent" of the Peter Gang, and are secretly contacting the Imperial Guard.Tell Hannibal, please don't lose heart, things will turn around soon.

Seeing that the Praetorian Guards were planning another coup d'etat, Hannibal felt that Russia was really like the third Rome.

Hannibal, who originally wanted to continue doing some serious business after being exiled, was completely discouraged after receiving this letter.

Originally, he grew up in the court, and he didn't like these barbaric frontier atmospheres at all.Coupled with these vulgar messages from the Cossacks, it made him unhappy every day here.

Apart from drinking and robbing, people here don't understand the spirit of law, contracts, and rights that the upper class talk about; they don't drink coffee; they don't wear perfume; the tableware is not expensive Chinese porcelain; Dirty, lice-infested braids; no courtly French speaking; no balls for evening entertainment... just a bunch of savages.

Seeing that the Cossacks who didn't fit in with him had completed their team, Hannibal just shook his head.

Close the window, sit back in your chair, and continue reading Locke's "On Human Understanding".

Before that, he really wanted to renovate the fortress. He was exiled and still worried about his country even though he was far away.But for now, building the fort is just a hobby to pass the time in exile.

…………

"Come! Come! The Raksha people are here!"

From far away, you can hear the sound of rumbling horseshoes.

Jiaolaobutu stood on the tree and looked at it for a while, and after a rough calculation, there were quite a few people who came.

These Cossacks did not charge immediately, some of them got off their horses and began to form a team under the orders of several officers.

Others were still on horseback, although they were preparing to charge.

The entire team of Cossacks lined up in a standard horizontal line. They don't need to worry about the flanks, they just need to maximize their firepower advantage.

In their view, their "reputation is outside", and the people in these caravans have made sufficient preparations to guard against them.

The horses and wooden deer that made the horses irritated were outside the car formation, some wood was thrown randomly in front of them, and there were some traces of digging horseshoe holes.

The cavalry cannot charge immediately, and some Cossacks need to dismount and fight on foot, opening up the front to reject horses and fight hand-to-hand to create chaos.

As a veteran of car formation tactics on the grassland, the Cossacks naturally have a way to deal with such simple fortifications.

Two small cannons were mounted on the side of the column, the Cossacks unloaded several wagons, and the rest felled trees nearby.

Soon, some wood was loaded on several carriages, and the Cossacks packed some soil in cloth bags and piled them on the carts.

A group of six Cossacks pushed the carriage full of earthen bags and wood, moving forward slowly.Behind each followed some of the strongest, carrying heavy axes.

The remaining Cossacks of the entire team began to advance slowly, and they had to advance to a close enough shooting distance.After shooting each other, relying on the two dirt-filled carriages as cover, let the hand-to-hand fighters rush to the wooden deer and the refusal horse, and then the cavalry can launch an impact.

Carts full of earth bags are useless in a general battle where there are many field guns.It can only be used to bully enemies who don't have guns, or can't use guns, or can only defend and not attack.Dealing with caravans is very effective.

Boom...boom...

The two small cannons finally fired, white smoke rose, and the attack officially began.In other words, the Shun-Russia War officially started.

(End of this chapter)