Batur Hutaiji had already begun to reflect before he entered Liu Chengzong's handsome tent.
He reflected on whether he had offended the generalissimo by being too happy at the funeral.
Because through the curtains of the handsome tent, he saw Liu Chengzong sitting in the top chair holding a Junggar musket.
He said to Dai Daozi who was traveling with him: "Anda, go and persuade the commander. If you have something to say, why did you use the knife or the gun...Next time, next time I will die, why don't I stop laughing?"
Liu Chengzong actually had no such intention at all. He just wanted to talk to Batur about the situation in Russia, so he asked someone to take a Dzungar musket from the trophies to see their equipment.
To be fair, Junggar's muskets are good, and can even be said to be very good in terms of manufacturing technology.
Liu Chengzong had previously received a report from Wang Wenxiu. He said that the caliber of Wala muskets was slightly larger than that of bird guns, so their power and range were better than bird guns. However, the disadvantages were that they had different calibers, different lengths, and different shapes.
All I can say is that they look roughly the same.
The musket in Liu Chengzong's hand is no exception. The caliber is slightly larger than the bird musket and the heavy musket is slightly smaller. In some places, the workmanship is better than the heavy musket of the Marshal's Mansion.
Liu Chengzong was convinced that this musket was made by Junggar people and was definitely not bought from Russia, Ottoman and other countries.
Because this long matchlock gun is made very carefully and realistically.
Needless to say, the barrel, screws and reeds used to seal the door are forged.
But the trigger for firing the gun, the faucet rod holding the match rope, and even the round iron pillar that fixes the gun to the wooden gun bed all have hammer marks and wear marks on them. They are all made and polished by hand.
Also because they are handmade, Liu Chengzong believes that the workmanship of these parts is better than that of the Marshal's Mansion musket, after all, the castings are not as strong.
In the gun factory of the Marshal's Mansion, these small and unstressed parts are all cast.
Because of this, Liu Chengzong dared to be sure that this musket was made independently by Junggar. After all, Junggar did not know how to cast iron.
His conclusion was correct, but the reasoning process was wrong. In fact, neither did the Russians. The Russians only fired the first furnace of pig iron in the first year of the eighteenth century.
Before then, all their farm tools were wooden.
Metallurgy is a precious science and technology in the world, and there are extremely strong technical barriers. Only East Asians of this era think otherwise. This is the secret that even small countries on the East Asian continent can imitate guns and artillery immediately if they get them.
Because for them, all advanced weapons of this era are just design problems, not technical problems.
When Dai Daozi entered the account and relayed to Liu Chengzong Batur Hutaiji's apology for his rudeness at the funeral, Liu Shizi couldn't laugh or cry and said: "You let him in, what is there to blame? I came to him to ask about the Rakshasa Kingdom." thing."
After listening to Dai Daozi's words, Batur Hutaiji came into the tent with a sneer on his face, and said with a smile: "What does the commander want to know about them? I will tell you everything I know."
As he spoke, he remembered something, turned around and said a few words to the attendants waiting outside the tent, then turned around and said, "I'll have someone bring up the map of Oirat that I've drawn."
Liu Chengzong nodded, raised his hand to signal Batur Hutaiji to sit down, and asked the guards to pour two bowls of milk tea. Then he said, "I heard that you are at war. Have you been in contact for a long time?"
"Contact, in the north of Kazakhstan, there used to be a khanate called Shibi'er. Their Khan surrendered to the Rakshasa people, but was later overthrown by Kuchu Khan. After Kuchu Khan was defeated, he ran into our Zaisang Lake in Junggar and stole our Junggar kept chasing the horse until he saw the Rakshasa."
Batur Hutaiji broke away from racking his brains to recall historical stories: "If we count from that time, we have been in contact with them for more than 40 years."
As he spoke, he smiled and said: "That was a matter for my grandfather's generation. Junggar is still a small department and can only dispatch six thousand people at most."
Liu Chengzong took a sip of milk tea, raised his hand to signal, and said to Dai Daozi: "Ask him, what does he think of the Rakshasa people after so many years?"
"What do you think of Rakshasa people?"
Batur Hutaiji was a little confused about Liu Chengzong's question. To be honest, he had never thought about this question and didn't know what words were suitable to describe them.
He thought for a long time and finally found a suitable word: "mosquito."
"mosquito?"
Batur Hutaiji was so sure that he even rejoiced that he had found such a suitable word: "Yes, they are mosquitoes. They live in places with lush aquatic plants. If they are killed this year, they will pop up next year, unlike wild beasts. Kills people, but it’s upsetting to be bitten.”
Liu Chengzong narrowed his eyes, what kind of comment is this?
He never dreamed that after decades of war, Junggar Taiji would say this about the Russians.
Seeing that Liu Chengzong was dissatisfied with his evaluation, Batur Hutaiji began to think again, thinking that Liu Chengzong asked about the Rakshasa people because of the safety of the garrison and worried that he had deceived him.
But Huitaiji didn't know how to explain it, and when he was scratching his head and head anxiously, his entourage handed the map to Liu Chengzong's escort outside the tent.
This made Junggar Taiji extremely happy. He quickly stepped forward to take the map and pointed it to Liu Chengzong: "Commander, you see, this is the territory of Oirat, the Ili River, the Chu River, the Talas River, all the way to Omu in the north. The river is the Junggar pastureland."
This map is not very detailed and does not even match the location of the map in Liu Chengzong's impression, but it can be roughly seen that the territory of Junggar is very large.
Then Junggar Taiji pointed to the northwest and north of the pastureland on the map, and gestured with his hands while talking, saying: "This river from north to south is called the Irtysh River, and the east-west flow in the middle is the Om River. They are in Irtysh The city of Tara was built far to the north of the Qisi River.”
Liu Chengzong nodded, having a rough impression of Junggar Taiji's description in his mind, and asked: "Your pasture is south of the Omu River. Why don't you continue to the north? Is it because of the cold?"
Continue north?
Batur Hutaiji leaned back. It was as if he was considering this issue for the first time. In fact, it was indeed the first time that he considered why the pasture did not continue to the north.
Thinking about nature is fruitless.
"It's cold everywhere."
Batur Hutaiji shook his head and muttered another sentence, which made Dai Daozi laugh.
After a while, when Dai Daozi came to his senses, he translated to Liu Chengzong seriously: "Further north from the Omu River is a swamp, and it's really not easy to herd sheep."
Liu Chengzong was also amused by this answer. It seemed that he took it too much for granted. What motivation would the Junggar people have to go to a place that the little lamb refused to go?
He probably understood the situation between Junggar and the Russians. It was similar to the Ming Dynasty and Mongolia, except that the roles were reversed. This time Junggar had a taste of facing the northern barbarians.
"You and the Rakshasa people are separated by a swamp that is difficult to move through. It is difficult for infantry and cavalry to cross, but the Rakshasa people attack you through waterways?"
Liu Chengzong felt that his speculation should be correct this time, but he did not expect Batur Hutaiji to shake his head again and said: "There are few of them and they dare not attack us, but they always rob the Tatar tribe and the Kyrgyz tribe who pay us tribute." , so we always have to fight them.”
"There are four months of the year where you can't walk because of the heavy snow on the ground and the swampy mud for four months. It takes a month to walk there, so you prepare for a year. There are only a few days when you can fight them."
Batur Hutaiji was very angry when he talked about this. He spread his hands and said: "Even if we win and burn the fort, we can't occupy it. They can't raise sheep in those places. When we go there next year, there will be hundreds of people coming by boat." Build a wooden fort."
He shook his head and said: "So we won't fight them now. There are many salt ponds on the east and west banks of the middle reaches of the Irtysh River. If they want to eat salt, they can no longer attack my tributes and sell me things. But This is just a temporary solution and this problem will never be solved.”
"I thought Tara was their important town, but it's not; I also thought Tyumen was their important town, but it's not... Let's do this first, it's better than letting people freeze to death all the time."
Batur Hutaiji sighed heavily, very frustrated.
In fact, there were some things he didn't say, but he and Liu Chengzong had a tacit understanding.
Just as Liu Chengzong knew, Oirat would never truly surrender until the Marshal's Mansion fought a great victory within a thousand miles of Oirat.
The opposite is also true. Before Oirat can threaten the important towns thousands of miles around Moscow, the Russians cannot stop heading eastward.
But Liu Chengzong was in a good mood at this time.
Batur Hutaiji knew much more about the geography of Siberia and the intelligence of the Russians than he imagined.
He asked with interest: "What was their method of marching, and how large was their army?"
"They went to some places to build fortresses along rivers. The wooden fortresses were equipped with towers, which were easy to defend and difficult to attack. In winter, they used sleds made of birch trees to march quickly. When the snow melted, they used boats. There were small boats, and some were six or seven feet tall. A long ship with five or six cannons weighing 500 to 600 kilograms is called a Zika."
Dai Daozi shook his head as he spoke: "Commander, I don't know what Zika means... Huitaiji said that the size of the army was about 400 to guard the fort, and the marching brigade came out in full force, with 1,500 to 600 people, guns and cannons. Possessed, well-equipped, and well-dressed.”
Liu Shishi nodded slowly as he listened, and in his heart he painted an image of a Tsarist Russian expeditionary team, a strong soldier and a shrewd commander.
He had just finished the war with Oirat, and had fought face to face with the Oirat army, which was dominated by the Heshuote tribe, for a whole day to understand the quality of the Oirat army.
No matter how strong it is, at least the units have cohesion, can fight against favorable winds and withstand adverse winds, have a commander with proper command, and soldiers who fight bravely. They have the necessary weapons and armor. They are a regular army.
As long as an army can meet the most basic conditions, it is possible to win against any army of the same era.
'Maybe' is very important. For example, if the enemy general is not smart and fights without water or food, he can win.
Just like the army that pretended to be Taiji in the past, they pulled out thousands of people in a mighty manner. They had less than a hundred armors, a few hundred iron knives, and arrow clusters that were either stones or bones... They could not stand up to the regular army of any big country. Gotta get beat up.
Even if the Ming army was deprived of water and food, they could still beat them to pieces. Because they knew Liu Chengzong's former pretense, the army that could compete was actually Li Wanqing and Luo Rucai's peasant army, not the regular army.
If an expedition team like this, with a size of more than a thousand people, dares to go head-to-head with the Junggars at the northern foot of the Tianshan Mountains, they will be eaten by the Junggars even if they come ten times a year.
However, with the help of the favorable geographical location of swamps and rivers, just over a thousand people can compete with large tribes like the Junggar who can mobilize tens of thousands of herdsmen, and even encroach on the land bit by bit.
In fact, before this, the image of the Tsarist Russian Expeditionary Force in Liu Chengzong's mind was a group of brave, unafraid of death, and brutal Cossack cavalry.
But after talking to Junggar Taiji today, Liu Shizi overturned this impression.
They are very smart and pay attention to strategy and tactics.
Grasslands and plains are a paradise for cavalry. The most important thing on the grasslands is the river, because horses need to drink water, and they drink a lot of water, so whoever controls the river can control the grassland.
"How's it going?" Liu Chengzong took a sip of milk tea, clapped his hands with a bright smile and asked, "Do you have the idea of going back into the swamp and burning down all their fortresses?"
Hearing his words, Batur Hutaiji smiled very tiredly and shook his head slowly: "After so many years, they can't do anything. Anyway, it is difficult for them to win in a frontal battle. Before they are ready, I I don’t plan to fight them again.”
After that, he seemed to have rekindled his fighting spirit: "If necessary, I will attack Tyumen again to scare them, and then use all my strength to deal with Kazakh Yang Ji'er. After taking Yang Ji'er, I can go all the way west and threaten the people in the southwest of the Ural Mountains. Ufa, that’s their stronghold.”
"Ambitious!"
Liu Chengzong praised him, but in his heart he didn't agree with Batur Hutaiji's plan.
Not to mention whether Junggar can make Kazakh surrender, even if the Marshal's Office provides support to Junggar and allows Huitai Ji to win the war, will Kazakh turn around and surrender to Tsarist Russia in the face of Junggar's feud?
Furthermore, if this war is protracted and inconclusive, and Tsarist Russia continues to avoid all powerful enemies in northern Siberia and invades eastward, then what good will it do me to support you so much?
Liu Chengzong felt that he had to make Batur Hutaiji change his mind. If he couldn't be cowardly, he had to work with the Tsarist Russian expedition in the north.
"He is building a wooden fort by the river. You are also building a fort by the river. You are burning bricks and ramming earth. You are not afraid of burning or cannons. The building is stronger than them. You are not lacking in people, you just lack some skills."
Liu Chengzong raised his hand and patted the table gently: "I will sell you cannons again. Just the cannons they put on the Zika ship. They weigh five to six hundred kilograms. I will make them for you."
Batur Hutaiji looked bitter: "Commander, I am very grateful to you for helping me, but you don't understand. You can't defend the fort after building it. They come and go very quickly on the ship, which is meaningless."
"There's something you may not know. Huitaiji, defecting to the Marshal's Mansion is the most correct decision you have ever made in your life."
Liu Chengzong shook his head with emotion and turned to look at Dai Daozi: "Dai Daozi told him that our Marshal's Mansion... has a navy!"
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－
good morning!
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