There are also a lot of copper, silver and other metal resources near Hetong City. In the past, the Jungar people themselves mined these precious metals in small quantities in this area, but it was not on a large scale, just very sporadic small workshops.
After the Chu army arrived here, they took a preliminary look around and found that there were still some precious metal resources, but the Chu army did not value these precious metal resources.
What the Chu army values most is coal and iron ore!
Because these two minerals are the basis of industry!
With coal and iron ore, the Chu Empire was able to build steel plants to make steel.
After the steel plant was established, even if the scale was small, the Industrial Department of the Da Chu Empire dared to directly build a small frontline arsenal that was small and fully equipped.
Just like the previous Kuhl City Arsenal and Yining Arsenal.
Now the Da Chu Empire is conducting a simple survey in the upper reaches of the Irtysh River and the surrounding areas, trying to find coal and iron mines. As long as they can be found, the Da Chu Empire will build a small-scale arsenal in Hetong City in minutes!
After all, Hetong is located along the Irtysh River, with such a big river as the Irtysh River, and this river will flow into the main stream of the Ob River all the way north.
The navigation conditions are very good and can be used as an important channel for mobilizing troops and transporting logistics supplies. If an arsenal is built here, a large number of weapons and ammunition can flow smoothly down the river, and finally enter the main stream of the Ob River, and finally even go all the way to the Arctic Ocean.
This is also the reason why the Chu Empire built a city and stationed troops in Hetong, because it took a fancy to the convenient transportation that the Irtysh River's navigability brought to the military.
In order to better utilize the river transportation capacity of the Irtysh River, the military has purchased a batch of important parts and components of steamships and then transported them all the way to Hetongcheng.
Just thinking about transporting parts, then building a hull on the spot, building a steamship, and building a steamship on the northwest front is not only to facilitate combat, but actually more to facilitate the transportation of logistical supplies.
After all, the huge role of steamships in inland water transportation is obvious to all. Private shipping companies may also consider costs and other economic conditions, but the military does not care about so much!
The cost of a mere steamship is nothing compared to the cost of transporting supplies over long distances.
The military not only plans to build steamships in Hetong City, but also plans to build simple high-pressure steam engine production lines in Kurcheng and Zhenbeicheng (Yakutsk) to produce small steam engines and ships locally. For military and civilian use.
If there is no requirement to limit costs, nor is there a requirement to have excellent performance, but simply to build a high-pressure steam engine, in fact many arsenals can directly build high-pressure steam engines...
After all, the main technical difficulty of the steam engine is the processing of the cylinder, and the processing of the cylinder is actually very similar to the processing of the gun barrel. An arsenal that can process wrought iron gun barrels will have no problem processing the cylinder of a high-pressure steam engine.
Of course, the premise is that performance and patentability are not considered!
Most of the patents for high-pressure steam engines are in the hands of Guangzhou Machinery Company. Even if you are an arsenal, you cannot use other people's patents randomly!
In order to solve the patent issue, before the Ministry of Industry took action, the military directly approached the Guangzhou Machinery Company and asked them to conduct research on the Kuolcheng Arsenal, the Yining Arsenal, the Zhenbei Arsenal, and other products that have not yet appeared but will definitely appear in the future. When the Armory Factory licenses the patent for high-pressure steam engines, you don't need a permanent license or anything like that. You can just grant a limited-time patent license.
You can talk about money as much as you want. Our military spends tens of millions a year on military expenditures, so I'm not afraid of you being a lion.
Through limited time and limited authorization, these arsenals can obtain the patent authorization of high-pressure steam engines and then manufacture high-pressure steam engines on their own.
The patent licensing fee provided by the military is very generous. As a government-run enterprise, Guangzhou Machinery Company feels a little embarrassed...
After the patent issue is solved, the next step will be easy. It is impossible to make a good high-pressure steam engine relying on the capabilities of these arsenals, but it is not a big problem to make a usable one. As for the high cost, it is not a problem. The military doesn't care about the cost... As long as it's not an exaggerated increase of dozens of times, it's just trivial to increase it by a few times.
What the military values most now is solving problems. What they value most is the powerful inland river transportation capabilities brought by steamships. This is of very important strategic significance to the military's subsequent activities in Siberia and even the vast Central Asia.
The water network in Siberia is very developed... Why the Russians were able to reach the Pacific coast of the Far East in just a few decades was because of the rich Siberian water network... They didn't go all the way. You can ride a horse and walk there, but you can take a boat all the way there.
Similarly, the Chu Empire's current series of military operations and even immigration in Siberia also rely on the developed Siberian water network. This is why the three major strategic goals in the Northern Strategy are all centered around the great river basin.
Because taking down the Lena River, Yenisey River, and Ob River, the three major rivers in Siberia, and their tributaries, it is basically equivalent to taking over Siberia.
This was true in the age of sailing ships, and after the age of steamships, these Siberian water networks can play an even greater role.
This is why the military is in a hurry to deploy steamships in Siberia!
However, it does not mean that the battle on the front line will not stop until the steamship is in place. After the destruction of Jungar in the south, the Chu army began to launch an offensive in the Ob River Basin.
In the east, more than 10,000 Chu troops were directed towards the upper reaches of the Ob River. The core goal was to capture Tomsk and control the mouth of the Tom River, a tributary of the upper reaches of the Ob River.
Tomsk is about fifty kilometers away from the mouth of the Ob River.
This place is very important!
Because with the support of Tomsk City, you can reach the vicinity of the left bank of the Yenisey River along the Keti River, which flows on the right bank of the Ob River, all the way east. Although you have to go through a land route in the middle, it is still very convenient. Fast track.
When the Chu army marched westward in the middle reaches of the Yenisey River, when Yeniseysk was the forward base, they followed the Keti River channel that the Russians had taken before.
In addition to the army of more than 10,000 people heading straight for the city of Tomsk, in the upper reaches of the Ob River, another force of more than 5,000 troops sent by the Second Army of the Chu Army also headed north along the upper reaches of the Ob River. March.
Their strategic target is 'Kuznetsk' along the upper reaches of the Tom River, a tributary of the upper right bank of the Ob River.
Speaking of which, the two important early strategic goals of the Chu Army's Second Army are actually related to the Tuomu River.
Tomsk is on the lower reaches of the Tom River, and Kuznetsk is on the upper reaches of the Tom River. Although these two cities are not directly built on the banks of the Ob River, they are still the largest Russian cities in the middle and upper reaches of the Ob River. An important strategic support base.
For example, Kuznetsk is a very typical military fortress. The Russians built the city here purely to resist the local indigenous invasion of Tomsk, and used it as a stronghold to continuously invade southward.
This fortress penetrated the hinterland of the local indigenous people like a sharp knife. It not only protected the northern territories such as Tomsk, but also continuously weakened the local indigenous people, eventually forcing the local indigenous people to continue to flee, and finally allowed the Russians to complete their control of this area. actual control of the area.
So it is very interesting that the Chu army's strategic goal is to control the Ob River, but the first stage of the battle target is not on the main stream of the Ob River, but on its tributary Tuomu River.
After all, it is this river that supports the Russians' control in the upper and middle reaches of the Ob River, and relies on this to fight against the local indigenous people.
It is precisely because of the importance of these two fortress cities and the Tuomu River that the Russian defense forces here have always been very strong.
Two Chu armies, one from the south and one from the north, headed towards the two cities along the Tuomu River at the same time.
Naturally, there were fights with some small and medium-sized Russian colonial strongholds along the way. For example, in the city of Makovsk, a transportation hub linking the Ob River and the Yenisei River, the Chu army encountered strong resistance from Russia.
However, this kind of resistance was in vain. There were only a few hundred Russian troops stationed there, but tens of thousands of Chu troops came to kill them.
There is no need to beat them, they will be frightened to death.
After several small-scale obstructions by the Russian army along the way, and after also conquering a series of Russian forts and colonial strongholds along the way, the Chu army officially reached the Ob River and soon reached the outside of Tomsk.
In August, the Russians in Tomsk were dumbfounded when they saw the Chu army outside the city...
Damn it, the Chu army is expanding westward faster than they were expanding eastward.
It took the Russians decades to fight their way from Europe to the Pacific coast, and they were already super fast.
But as for these Chu people, it is only the second year since they launched a large-scale offensive to advance westward.
But in the past two years, the Chu people had traveled thousands of miles and directly reached the gates of Tomsk.
In the first year, the Chu army captured the Lena River and the middle and upper reaches of the Yenisei River, and controlled the strategic location of Yeniseisk.
In the second year, this year, they completely controlled the Yenisey River Basin and continued westward to the city of Tomsk.
Damn, this is faster than the expansion speed of the Russians, and it is much faster.
Naturally, the Russians don't know that the seemingly rapid progress of the Chu Army in the past two years is actually based on the continuous management of the northern region in the past ten years.
During the period when the Northern Strategy was officially launched, the Great Chu Empire invested heavily in the Little Beihaifu area in the north. It built an arsenal in the city of Kuhl, far away from the hinterland of the Central Plains, and improved the large grassland supply line.
Before that, there is actually a longer and more complicated early development period.
The most important of these was the establishment of the city of Chur.
At that time, in order to build the city of Khur, and the logistics support was not smooth, it was actually not easy for the Chu army to fight. They could only rely on hundreds of thousands of troops to fight, and they fought for seven or eight years before they conquered this place. The occupying lord finally built a city in the city of Kur and carried out cultivation and established an arsenal.
With the city of Kuhl, there is actually a series of northern strategies behind it.
Without the support of the city of Khur, the Chu army would not be able to maintain so many troops in Siberia, let alone gather thousands of troops or even 10,000 or 20,000 troops to fight Russia.
Every grain of grain and every round of ammunition used here was transported from Kuhl City.
With the city of Khur, the Chu army can gather enough troops and artillery in the northern region, and then use its best tactics to defeat the enemy: use more troops and more artillery to push them all the way. !
There is no such thing as running attacks, surprise attacks, ambushes and other messy things. The battle that the Chu army is best at fighting is just to push through without any surprises.
Relying on the country's strong national power and large population, the Chu Empire's mediocre tactics have not failed so far!
The same is true in the northern region. The Chu army used more than 10,000 troops to attack Tomsk, and more than 70 large and small artillery pieces. The Russians in Tomsk were dumbfounded.
Damn, how do you fight this?
And the moment they saw the Chu army, they finally understood why the defenders in Yeniseisk were defeated, and they were defeated so cleanly that they couldn't even last a month... Winter was about to begin. , but before winter came, the Chu army used artillery to smash open the turtle shell, and then the whole army was annihilated.
With so many troops and artillery, we simply can’t hold it back!
In fact, this is indeed the case. The outcome of the Battle of Tomsk was already doomed from the moment the Chu army arrived outside the city.
If you really want to say it, the Russians' chance of winning is not to defend the city, but to take the initiative, especially to intercept or sneak attack when the Chu army passes through the Keji River. Only in this way can it be possible to block the Chu army's advance.
But Russia does not have such courage.
The Chu army did not come with three to five hundred men empty-handed, but more than ten thousand men with artillery, and there were also a large number of cavalry troops inside.
When the Chu army fought in the northern region, the number of cavalry was always very large.
When they marched along the river, it did not mean that all the troops moved forward by boat. Instead, auxiliary forces such as infantry and artillery baggage took a large number of baggage by boat. There were also some cavalry, but they would still take turns sending cavalry to both sides of the river. Do some sleuthing to find out what lies ahead.
If the Russians want to intercept the Chu army at the Keji River, they must either resist stubbornly somewhere in the middle of the river, or send out troops to ambush.
But don’t expect this ambush if the troops in this ambush are not as large as a few thousand... The Chu army is not a vegetarian. How can they watch your Russian troops attack without reacting? There is a high probability that the ambush will turn into a wild encounter!
Fighting against the Chu army in the wilderness, the Russians would not do such a thing as long as their brains were not broken.
It is also impossible to resist and intercept. It is better to retreat to Tomsk city to resist in these places with imperfect defense facilities.
So it's not that the Russians don't want to stop the Chu army in advance, but that they don't have the ability.
If they could pull out so many mobile troops, they would have killed some of the natives in the south, why did they delay it until now.
The lack of strength also caused them to huddle in the city of Tomsk.
Then he looked at the Chu army outside the city with fear.
After arriving outside Tomsk, the Chu army was not in a hurry to attack the city. After all, there were still about two months until winter, so there was still plenty of time.
They can rest for a few days, while they build a complete artillery position and the infantry move forward, and finally watch the Russians turn into pieces and fly in the artillery fire while holding tea...
After three days of rest and preparation, the Chu army launched the real attack...
There were no surprises or miracles after the attack began. Although the two to three thousand Russian defenders in Tomsk had the courage to resist, they did not have the steel body to stop the shells.
Under the fierce shelling of the Chu army, Russia could not hold on at all. When the Chu army's infantry rushed up, the battle line completely collapsed.
The city of Tomsk only held out for three and a half days under the fierce attack of the Chu army!
In the past three and a half days, the Chu army was shelling for the first three days. On the fourth day, the first wave of attacks had entered the city and fully captured Changcheng at noon.
If the infantry battle between the two sides is used as the time point, the Russians actually only defended for a mere half a day.
This mere half day was spent in a series of consecutive defeats.
On August 26, the 22nd year of Chengshun, the Ob River Dispatch Army under the Second Army of the Chu Army captured Tomsk.
A few days later, a large number of Chu troops began to move south along the Tomu River, preparing to cooperate with the Second Ob River Dispatch Army of the Second Army from the upper reaches of the Ob River to capture Kuznetsk.
As a result, the Russian troops in Kuznetsk saw that the situation was not good, so they directly chose to flee... or to escape westward over the mountains.
It was impossible for them to escape by boat, because the lower reaches of the Tomu River and the mouth of the Ob River, that is, Tomsk, were captured by the Chu army. Their escape by boat would be equivalent to throwing themselves into a trap.
In order to escape, they could only hurry overland and head west to the Ob River.
The Russian army in Kuznetsk fled without occupying it, which also allowed the Second Army of the Great Chu Empire to completely capture the Tomu River, the most important tributary on the right bank of the upper reaches of the Ob River, at a slight cost.
This established the Chu Empire's control over the middle and upper reaches of the Ob River.
Taking advantage of the Second Army's victory in the Ob River Basin, the First Army also dispatched the Irtysh River Dispatch Troop, which swam down the Irtysh River from Hetong City to take advantage of the opportunity before winter arrived. It is possible to control more areas and extend the Chu Empire's territory in this area as far north as possible. It is most hoped that it can completely pass through the Irtysh River and finally enter the Ob River, so as to connect with the main stream of the Ob River. The Chu army successfully joined forces.
But this is not easy, because the intersection of the Irtysh River and the Ob River is still far north.
In addition, this area already belongs to the Western Siberia region. The Russians have been operating in this area for decades, establishing many immigration settlements and cities along the river.
This way up north also has to be fought all the way.
Even if the enemies along the way are not very good, it still takes time. It is unlikely that they will reach the mouth of the Irtysh River in just two or three months, before the onset of winter.
But it doesn't matter. Anyway, the Chu army's strategic tasks in the north have basically been completed this year... As for completely controlling the Ob River, there is no need to rush it. It is the same thing to wait until next spring to continue.
This basically announced that the Chu Empire's large-scale military operations in the northwest had come to an end for the time being.
Through a series of military operations this year, the Chu army destroyed the remnants of the Jungar tribe and captured the two strategic locations of Tomsk and Kuznetsk.
Relying on this, the Chu army captured a large area in the middle and upper reaches of the Ob River.
Wait until next spring to launch a wave of attacks northward and capture several Russian strongholds in the middle and lower reaches of the Ob River. Then we can declare complete control of the Ob River Basin.
If you continue to go west, you can think about hitting Tyumen and Tobolsk, the earliest colonial cities established by the Russians in Siberia.
If these cities can still be captured, it will be declared that the empire has full control of Siberia, and the subsequent war with Russia will probably start over the Ural Mountains.
In this way, it even exceeds the entire northern strategy!
The Chu Empire has been implementing its northern strategy for many years. What is its ultimate strategic goal?
It is the three major river basins that control Siberia, namely the Lena River, the Yenisey River, and the Ob River.
Relying on these three rivers, we will then completely control the area east of the main stream of the Erqishe-Obi River, and bring the above areas under the empire's local rule.
In order to completely solve the northern border problem that has troubled the Chinese nation for thousands of years!
As long as the imperial army can firmly control the Irtysh-Obi River, then the enemies from the west will not be able to come over and threaten the hinterland of the empire...
Of course, people can also take a detour through Central Asia and take the route of the Western Regions, Monan or the Hexi Corridor, but this is another problem.
As the war in the north came to an end for the time being, battle reports from the front lines were gradually transmitted back to the hinterland of the Central Plains. However, ordinary officials and people had little interest in the empire's expansion in the distant Siberian region...
It was too far away from them.
From Jinling City to Tomsk, even if we draw a straight line on a globe, it would be more than 3,000 kilometers.
If we consider the actual conditions, from Jinling City, we first take the Youhang Canal to Tianjin, then leave Zhangjiakou, and then take the Great Grassland Supply Line - the Siberian Water Network to Tomsk... This journey is nearly 5,000 kilometers!
The five thousand kilometers is also the distance measured directly on the map... but the actual roads and rivers are all winding, so the total distance is not an exaggeration to say that it has doubled, but seven or eight thousand kilometers is far less.
Such a long distance makes people take a breath just by looking at it...
The distance is too far, and coupled with the so-called Russians and the indigenous people, in the eyes of ordinary officials and people of the empire, the Gers are not a big threat...
The empire only dispatched tens of thousands of troops to defeat them, but the Dazhungeer Empire fought three times in a row. The first time it had nearly 100,000 troops, the second time it went straight to 200,000 troops, and the third time it was This time, 70,000 to 80,000 troops were dispatched.
In such a comparison, Zhungeer is still stronger, and Russia is just a little barbarian in Europe.
Therefore, after a series of war reports from the northwest were transmitted back to the hinterland of the empire, the people were less concerned about the war and expansion in Siberia, but more concerned about the war in Jungar and the post-war handling.
However, the thoughts and ideas of ordinary officials and people did not affect the thoughts of the empire's top brass. When they received the frontline battle report and captured the cities of Tomsk and Kuznetsk, the empire's top brass finally breathed a sigh of relief.
With the capture of these two strategic locations, the next control of the Ob River Basin will be a matter of course, and it is estimated that there will be no need to spend too much military expenditure.
In this way, the northern strategy, which has lasted for many years and consumed a lot of military expenditures, can finally come to a successful conclusion.
After the military fell off the big burden of the Northern Strategy, it was able to invest a certain amount of military spending in other directions and then expand.
Especially the navy, which is eagerly waiting for the end of the northern strategy, so that it can start the South Sea strategy and the American strategy led by their navy.
Yes, the Navy wants to expand its territory on a large scale in Southeast Asia and the Americas.
(End of chapter)
