***
The Mongolian cavalry that once swept across the Eurasian continent was by no means powerful because of their ferocity in head-on combat.
These descendants of the wolf tribe have inherited more of the wolves' ferocity and cunning. Their victories are usually not achieved through hard fighting, but through flexible tactics and sophisticated coordination to defeat enemies that are stronger than them.
Like this time, if Arsalan had used his 3,000 Mongolian light cavalry to fight against 1,000 Cossack cavalry head-on, the final outcome would be unpredictable.
But he used a pocket tactic, deploying 3,000 cavalrymen in a line. At first glance, every point of this formation seemed weak. In this case, almost all enemies would concentrate their forces and rush to the center of the Mongolian linear formation to attack their commander directly.
Few people realize that the Mongols could fight and retreat without losing the upper hand, and at the same time they could hold off the enemy's pursuit with minimal casualties.
This time, Arsalan paid the price of a hundred casualties on the front line, in exchange for dozens of enemy casualties. Using more than a hundred corpses of people and horses from both sides, he was able to form a barrier, making it difficult for the cavalry to rush through smoothly.
Once your charge is slightly blocked, the Mongolian cavalry coming from both wings will fiercely attack your soft spots on both sides, killing you and defeating you. Then the troops in the front will bounce back, creating a situation of being forced to kill you from three sides.
It is very difficult for cavalry to turn around, especially when they are trapped on three sides and the situation is chaotic. It is impossible for them to turn around and escape quickly. Therefore, encircling the enemy on three sides can actually trap the enemy to death.
In this battle, Arsalan successfully wiped out a thousand Cossack cavalry without Li Ding's help, and the commander Khmelnyk was captured alive.
In the past, the Mongols used various clever tactics to defeat many European legions that were stronger than them.
Li Ding watched this bloody battle attentively. He gained a lot of insights from it. When he went out to fight, Qin Mu asked people to collect some information about the Mongol westward expedition. He asked him to read and learn more on the way and absorb more useful knowledge from the Mongols.
In war, weapons are important, but they are definitely not the only magic weapon for victory. If you rely too much on weapons, they may become your fatal weakness.
So even though the Qin army’s weapons are advanced now, Li Ding cannot rely on them as his only reliance and still needs to study hard.
A brilliant cavalry decisive battle ended, with corpses strewn all over the grassland. The ownerless horses raised their heads and wailed, lingering around their masters' corpses.
Vultures in the sky flew down in groups to eat the corpses, while wolves, tigers and leopards on the ground also began to watch from afar, ready to enjoy the sumptuous meal.
According to Mongolian custom, all Mongolian soldiers who died in battle were not buried.
The Mongolians believed that wolves were messengers that led their souls to heaven after death, so they did not bury their dead bodies, but placed their bodies in places where wolves were active, letting the wolves eat their bodies. Only in this way could their souls be led to heaven by the wolves.
Li Ding commended Arsalan and then ordered the few captives to be separated and tortured to make them confess the military deployment of the Tsarist Russia in East and Siberia.
With these confessions, we can follow the map and avoid taking many detours and wasting a lot of time.
Li Ding then called all the generals together to discuss the matter. Xie Yun, one of the military staff, pointed to the map and explained the enemy situation in Eastern Siberia to the generals: "According to the information obtained from the interrogation of the prisoners just now, the total number of troops of the Rakshasa Kingdom in Eastern Siberia is only about 70,000, of which the largest number of troops are stationed in Kashrek, the former capital of the Siberian Khanate, reaching 2,000 troops, and most of them are elite Cossack cavalry.
Others such as Tomsk, Upper, Middle and Lower Vilyusk, Verkhoyansk, Nizhneyansk; Petroshvirsk, Upper, Middle and Lower Kolymask, Fort Okhotsk, etc., have as many as one thousand and as few as one or two hundred people.
These castles were usually built of logs, so they were not very large. Most of the garrisons were Cossack cavalry, with only a small number of Rakshasas.
In addition, the minority tribes they conquered could form an army of about 20,000 to 30,000. Although these minority tribes had simple weapons, they had lived in the bitter cold of the far north for generations. They were tall, strong, and resistant to the cold and should not be underestimated.
However, there is one thing that we can probably take advantage of. The Cossack cavalry are brutal by nature, and they bully and insult those minority tribes at will. These minority tribes are not willing to be enslaved by the Rakshasa State. If we can incite them to rebel, we may be able to use these minority tribes for our own benefit."
After Xie Yun finished speaking, Yu Xingguo, the military commander, stroked his beard and said, "General, although the Rakshasa Kingdom has a small number of troops in Eastern Siberia, their cities are scattered all over the place, some thousands of miles apart. If we go to eliminate them one by one, I'm afraid we won't have enough time.
It's already July. Winter comes early in this far north. It may snow heavily in February. By then, we won't be able to move forward."
Li Ding nodded and said, "Do you have any good suggestions?"
Another military advisor, Wu Dongshan, said, "General, I think we can take a two-pronged approach and attack the key points directly. Specifically, we can let General Guarjia capture these scattered cities one by one, and we will concentrate 10,000 or 20,000 troops and rush thousands of miles to attack the key points directly."
At this point, Wu Dongshan pointed to a location in the middle reaches of the Ob River and continued, "General, generals, look, this is Kashlyk, the former capital of the Siberian Khanate. It is located in the middle reaches of the Ob River east of the Ural Mountains. Its strategic location is very important. If the Russian army wants to move eastward, it must first cross the Ural Mountains, and then use Kashlyk as a base to spread eastward..."
When Wu Dongshan said this, Li Ding suddenly interrupted and said, "It's too hard to remember the name Ke. We need to change it. Hmm... Let's call him Qiu Ming. Okay, please continue, Chief of Staff Wu."
"Yes, General, Ka... ... ... No, Tyumen is the most important strategic stronghold east of the Ural Mountains. As the saying goes, hit the snake at its weakest point. We can ignore other places for now and concentrate our forces to the west, cross the Tannu Uriankhai, and directly take Tyumen, the strategic stronghold. As long as we succeed, it will actually be equivalent to cutting off the connection between the Russian Empire and East and Siberia.
By then, I'm afraid we won't have to conquer them. The minority tribes in East and Siberia will also rise up to attack the Luosha Army that enslaves them. As long as we adopt some conciliatory strategies, it should be easy to bring these minority tribes under the rule of the Qin Dynasty."
Although Tsarist Russia was marked as Russia on all maps of Daqin due to Qin Mu, the Mongols still used to call Tsarist Russia the Rakshasa Kingdom. Over time, Wu Dongshan and others also followed suit and called it the Rakshasa Kingdom.
It doesn't matter what he's called. What matters is how to quickly cut off his claws that are reaching out to East and Siberia. Li Ding doesn't want to wait for twenty years without being able to return to the court. After listening to Wu Dongshan's suggestion, he nodded and asked the generals, "What do you think?"
Arsalan, who had just made a great contribution, replied: "General, I think this is a very good idea. The Russian Empire does not have many troops in Eastern and Siberia. We will go straight to Tyumen. If we still cannot disintegrate their power in Eastern and Siberia, we will cross the Ural Mountains next year and go directly to Moscow to destroy the Russian Empire's lair. By then, the remaining troops in Eastern and Siberia will not be able to make any waves. Even if they do not surrender to our Great Qin, they will not have any will to fight."
Yu Xingguo, the military deputy commander, also said, "Calculating the distance, if we go straight to Qiu Ming, we should be able to reach there before winter. Taking this city will just provide us with a place to spend the winter. I also agree to take Qiu Ming directly."
Li Ding immediately made the decision and said, "Since everyone has no objection, then it is settled. Send a message to Qin Heng's troops and ask them to advance together with us. They will be responsible for attacking Tomsk, and we will be responsible for sweeping Omsk in the south. Then we will meet at the gates of Tyumen before winter comes. The rest will be left to Aobai to sweep."
"Yes, General."
The messenger immediately conveyed Li Ding's order to all the armies. After a short rest, Li Ding's 10,000 troops rushed westward.
Qiumin, a new place name, a new target, what kind of heroic scene will it create in the remote northwestern border of Daqin
.(To be continued..)
...