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It is fast as the wind, slow as the forest, aggressive as fire, still as a mountain, unpredictable as the shadow, and as powerful as thunder.
It is not difficult to see from this passage that speed is given great importance in Sun Tzu's Art of War.
After capturing the Tsaritsyn Fortress and opening the southern gate of Tsarist Russia, Li Ding fully utilized the essence of Sun Tzu's Art of War to the extreme.
He left two thousand troops at Tsaritsyn, and then divided his troops into seven groups. Except for the central group with 10,000 troops, the other six groups had only about 5,000 troops each. Each group was 70 to 80 miles apart, and they marched into the Don River Plain in the north.
Among them, the six armies on the left and right were divided into ten teams of one hundred men each. On the vast Don River Plain, countless cavalrymen were as fast as the wind and as aggressive as fire. Countless war horses were roaring and galloping. Wherever they passed, they looted and set fire to everything. Almost all the men, regardless of age, were killed.
Several groups of troops sometimes joined and sometimes separated, unpredictable as shadows, and moving like thunder. Thousands of troops and horses drove the rolling war clouds and rushed straight towards the capital of Tsarist Russia.
Before Li Ding went on the expedition, he received an order from the emperor, which was not to occupy this land, but to completely knock Tsarist Russia to the ground and step on it a few times so that he would never be able to stand up again.
Based on this combat idea, Li Ding showed no mercy. The cruelty of the war was fully demonstrated on the Don River Plain. Wherever the roaring cavalry passed, almost nothing was left behind except young and beautiful women.
Russia was caught off guard. The Qin army was so fast that many towns were at a loss as to what to do until they saw the cavalry roaring in. In the midst of their amazement, countless iron hooves rolled in like a raging fire, turning towns into ruins.
The Qin army didn't have to worry about supplies, or even about the horses being too tired. On the rich Don River Plain, there was plenty of food and horses. As long as you were fast enough, all of this was yours.
During World War II, Hitler used tanks to launch a rapid offensive that defeated the Soviet Union, which was called blitzkrieg.
But in fact, it took the German army three weeks to advance 400 to 600 kilometers into Soviet territory, with an average speed of about two or three miles a day.
Li Ding and his men had three horses each, and they kept rotating. Their advancement speed was more than five times that of the German army in later generations, advancing an average of 200 miles a day. This also included the time spent killing and setting fire along the way.
It can be said that this is the real blitzkrieg!
On the third day, Li Ding's army took advantage of the night to capture the cities of Saratov and Horonezh when the Slavs were caught off guard, and both cities were burned down.
On the fourth day, the army broke through the city of Tambov. The defenders of Lipetsk west of Tambov were so frightened that they fled without a fight. The two cities were reduced to ruins, and more than 40,000 men were killed. The blood was overwhelming.
At this point, Moscow received the news, and the whole city was shocked! The young Tsar Alexei was shocked and angry!
In recent years, his most respected Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Nikon, has drawn a grand blueprint for Russia.
Nikon proposed that the Russian Tsar should become the ruler of the entire Orthodox world, and that Russia's capital should be set in Constantinople (the official name of the Orthodox Church is "Greek Orthodoxy", which mainly refers to the church that follows the Christian tradition passed down from the Eastern Roman Empire. Therefore, Constantinople, the former capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, is of extraordinary significance to the Orthodox Church.).
The Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia should accordingly become the spiritual leader of the entire Orthodox world.
Alexei was greatly inspired by Nikon's idea and put a lot of effort into it.
But now, the Qin people are almost reaching Moscow!
If he couldn't even protect Moscow, how could he talk about being the ruler of the entire Orthodox world? How could he talk about seizing Constantinople which was occupied by the Ottomans
This is intolerable!
With the support of Patriarch Nikon, the ambitious Tsar Alexei decided to lead the army in person.
This frightened the regent, who was also his teacher, Morozov, as well as the Duma clerk Pastor, the imperial chamberlain Dekseyev and many other ministers. When they learned that the Tsar was going to lead the army in person, they were horrified and tried to persuade the Tsar to retreat.
Because Russia's arch-enemies, the Polish Empire and the Kingdom of Lithuania, occupied a series of important cities headed by Smolensk, posing a constant threat to Moscow; therefore, most of the Russian troops were stationed on the Western Front to resist these two enemies.
The Qin people came too quickly. The army on the western front had no time to return for defense. There were less than 20,000 troops left in Moscow. How could the Tsar lead the army in person with such a small force
What a joke! Not to mention whether 20,000 troops are a match for the Qin people, what if the Qin people suddenly come around and attack the empty city of Moscow
But Alexei was a very stubborn young man and insisted on leading the army himself. Morozov and almost all the ministers knelt before him and begged for half a day before they finally dissuaded him from the idea.
Half a day passed in the dispute over whether to lead the army in person or not.
For Li Ding and his men who were racing against time, half a day was enough for the army to advance more than a hundred miles.
By the time Moscow made its final decision and urgently sent Generals Belekov and Petukhov with 5,000 troops each to reinforce the last two cities south of Moscow, Tula and Ryazan, Li Ding's army had already completed the siege of Tula and Ryazan.
After the scouts learned that Belekov and Petukhov were leading their troops to provide reinforcements, Li Ding made a prompt decision to besiege the city and attack the reinforcements.
There were only more than a thousand defenders in Tula and Ryazan. Li Ding took out 5,000 troops from each city to besiege the two cities, and sent another 5,000 troops to delay Petukhov. Finally, he concentrated 25,000 troops to launch a fierce attack on Belekov.
The 5,000 troops led by Belekov were the elite of the Russian army. Li Ding fought a bloody battle for an entire afternoon with five times the number of troops, even using rockets and Type 68 rifles, before he annihilated these 5,000 Russian troops.
Berekov was defeated, and Petukhov was so frightened that he quickly withdrew his troops and fled back to Moscow.
Li Ding gritted his teeth and made a bold decision. He still only left 5,000 troops to attack Tula and Ryazan, and 30,000 troops to chase Petukhov, not letting him go, and chasing and beating him all the way. When Petukhov fled back to Moscow, there were less than 2,000 people left out of the 5,000 troops, and the road was littered with corpses.
Moscow is right in front of you!
There were only over 10,000 defenders in the city, and Li Ding's 30,000-man army rolled in, with smoke and dust covering the sun. The black-clad and black-armored soldiers were cold and mysterious, which frightened the people in the city. The Yellow Peril! The Yellow Peril has come again!
Tsar Alexei, along with his ministers and generals, personally climbed to the top of the city wall to observe Li Ding's army.
Li Ding was also observing the city. He could see the tall spires of the Kremlin from outside the city.
Kremlin means "fortress" in Mongolian. It is located on the Borovetsky Hill in the center of the city, facing the Moscow River to the south.
The most spectacular of these is the Faceted Palace, whose second-floor Faceted Hall gets its name from the fact that its exterior walls are made of faceted white stones. It was once the place where the royal family held weddings and where the Tsar received foreign envoys.
The tallest building is the white golden-domed Ivan the Great Bell Tower, built between 1505 and 1508, 81 meters high, with more than 50 bronze bells hidden inside. Outside the bell tower is the largest bell, 6.14 meters high, 6.6 meters in diameter, weighing more than 200 tons, with reliefs, portraits and inscriptions carved on the surface. Its sound can be heard for 50 kilometers, making it the world's "king of bells."
Accompanying the Bell King is a "Cannon King" that is 5.34 meters long, 0.89 meters in diameter and weighs 40 tons.
This ancient bronze cannon was built from 1540 to 1586. During this period, eight tsars replaced it, but it was never used. Two or three people can crawl into the huge muzzle at the same time.
This time, this "cannon king" may come in handy. With a caliber of nearly one meter and a weight of 40 tons, how powerful is it when it is fired
Li Ding knew very well that it would not be easy to capture Moscow, and he did not have much time. The Tsarist Russia's army on the western front would be able to return to Moscow to support it within a few days. In other words, he did not have much time left.
Once the Russian troops on the Western Front withdrew, it was almost certain that there would be no chance of capturing the city.
And this city was exactly the purpose of his Western Expedition. The words of the Great Qin Emperor were still echoing in his ears: Conquer Moscow and make sure that Tsarist Russia will never be able to recover!
Time, the key is time, which will determine the final victory or defeat of this Western Expedition!
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ps: Today I suddenly dropped to the 9th place in the monthly ticket list of the category, and I am about to be kicked out of the top 10. I urgently ask for monthly ticket support from my brothers and sisters.
Please give me a monthly ticket!
Please give me a monthly ticket! .
(To be continued…)
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