Dominate the Country

The herders and farmers in Central Asia have already smelled the smell of war.

If nothing unexpected happens, the Northwest Military Region will soon recruit militiamen from among them. Now Chen Han's National Defense Army is a mule-horse-based army, and all transportation depends on horse-drawn carriages, so there must be enough drivers to drive them. Then who is more suitable than those who live on horseback? As long as you are brave and dare to risk your life, the opportunity to make money is great.

Although not all people will get rich, there will always be two or three out of ten people who get something.

Whether it is a wounded war horse or the remaining military supplies, such as dry food, canned food, leather boots, leather hats, leather coats, tents, etc., these people can get a little benefit.

And this was the case when the war ended before. Those who got the benefits returned to their hometowns and spread the rumor that everyone could get rich in a blink of an eye.

So at this time in Central Asia, many herders and farmers were talking about how to get a job in the logistics unit of the National Defense Army. To join the logistics and supply system of the National Defense Army, every militia recruited must have someone to guarantee them, and it is not one person guaranteeing at a time.

Instead, they are divided into three batches and three times of guarantee. The first batch needs five people to guarantee, just like the students who relied on scholars in China back then. Then the local direct administrative chief signed his name, and the third one needs the guarantee of the regional head.

The latter two should be called "responsibility system". But in name, it is also a guarantee. Moreover, these militias need to have family relatives, and bachelors are not used at all. In this regard, the National Defense Army is very careful.

"Before the heavy snow comes, we must organize a militia of 1,000 people." Tsering Deleke, the deputy king of the Torghut Khanate, looked straight at Du Rongzana, the governor of the Caspian Sea of ​​the Torghut Khanate, leaving him no room for escape. "The war has begun. General Dong's cavalry raided the Russian cavalry east of the Ural River, but their baggage was far behind. Now Nanjing wants us to recruit not only civilians, but also militia. I tell you, if you can't complete the task, you will take off your clothes and get out immediately." Tseringdelek has studied in Chen Han for many years. Not only can he speak fluent Chinese, but his tone of voice is also very Chinese.

In the Caspian Governor's Office, Du Rongzana, the current governor of the Caspian Sea, was scolded by Tseringdelek, who was ten years younger than him, and he couldn't even raise his head.

But in the feudal Torghut Khanate, let alone the deputy king Tseringdelek, even Tseringdelek's thirteen-year-old son had a higher status than Du Rongzana.

After Tseringdelek sprayed Du Rongzana, he rode a horse and led his guards to a camp of the National Defense Army on the coast of the Caspian Sea. Only the dusty Du Rongzana was left behind, blushing.

"Three thousand militiamen, one thousand militiamen, that's easy to say!"

The huge Caspian Province has less than 200,000 people, and this is already a densely populated area in the Torghut Khanate. If Du Rongzana remembered correctly, there were a total of 5,325 people who joined the army in the Caspian Sea. In the original resolution, the Caspian Province would not be selected for these militiamen, because the Caspian Province is the province closest to the battlefield, and it has a great advantage.

Well, the Torghut people regard being a militiaman as a good opportunity to make a fortune.

But now they suddenly have to withdraw 3,000 militiamen and 1,000 militiamen, which is more than 9,300 people. Not to mention whether other provincial governments will have any objections, just talking about the population pressure in the Caspian Province, how many young and strong people are there in the entire Caspian Province?

The entire Caspian Province has only 200,000 people in total.

Du Rongzana has always believed that after the war breaks out, the Caspian Province, as the westernmost of the Torghut Khanate, the westernmost of the four Mongolian Khanates, will definitely continue to recruit civilians. But he didn't expect that this withdrawal would come so quickly.

You know, this war is a good opportunity for the Caspian Province to make a fortune. The starting point of the war is near the Caspian Sea. As the Caspian Province closest to the battlefield, it will definitely usher in a good opportunity to make a fortune from the war.

The cattle, horses, sheep, leather, dairy products, etc. produced in the Caspian Province are the first choice for the Chen Han National Defense Army to purchase. Now there are already many orders placed in the Caspian Sea.

Therefore, in the resolution of the Torghut Khanate, the well-paid civilians were not recruited from the Caspian Province. But the current situation has changed.

As the governor of the Caspian Province, Du Rongzana must gather the civilians and militias required by the National Defense Army, but he does not want to disrupt the people's livelihood in the Caspian Province. Four thousand young and strong men were transferred, and half of the young and strong men in the entire Caspian Sea Province would be transferred. It was really difficult not to disrupt the livelihood of the Caspian Sea Province.

"Call Natu Ri." After returning to his office, Du Rongzana shouted to his secretary. Tsering Deleke is a tyrant and his tactics are very tough! After all, he is the vice king. He does not need to win people's hearts and does not care about people's face. People in the Torghut Khanate are more afraid of him than the Khan Tsering Namzal.

So when Tsering Deleke gave the order, Du Rongzana did not dare to squeak. He was so depressed that he dared to show a trace of anger only after Tsering Deleke left!

"Sir, militiamen are not real soldiers, and the salary is not high. Even the coachman is not as good as him." The secretary said on the side, and he was not without complaints in his heart: No one is stupid. Who would leave a more profitable business and do this?

Du Rongzana's expression became even more bitter.

…

China and Russia declared war, and the war began. Just as Tseringdelek forced Du Rongzana to gather the people and militia, Dong Wei had already rushed to the northern end of the Caspian Sea with three cavalry divisions of the National Defense Army.

More than 20,000 cavalrymen galloped across the withered grassland, and brutally strangled with the Russian Cossack cavalry.

The fifth and seventh cavalry divisions of the Russian army had less than 10,000 people in total. Together with the Cossacks in the Volga River, Astrakhan and the Caucasus, the Russian cavalry force was only close to 20,000 cavalry, and it was impossible for all of these cavalrymen to be on the east bank of the Ural River.

Such a powerful cavalry force naturally had a full mobility advantage before the main cavalry led by Dong Wei arrived at the front line. But now, the unlucky one should be the Russian army.

Dong Wei led the cavalry very quickly. After receiving the news that Nanjing officially declared war on Russia, Dong Wei led the cavalry straight to the Caspian Sea, leaving his baggage troops far behind.

The advantage of doing this is, of course, that they can capture many Russian cavalrymen who cannot retreat in time, achieve certain results, and give a fierce counterattack to the rampant activities of the Russian army before; but the disadvantage is that this is a one-shot deal. After the first battle, the entire team lost the mobility to continue fighting. Because their logistics and baggage have not kept up, the three cavalry divisions can only rely on the military station reserves in the area east of the Ural River and the dry grass everywhere to fill the stomachs of the men and horses.

Why did the Torghut Khanate recruit civilians and militias in the Caspian Province so quickly?

That is to transport military supplies and supplies to the front line as soon as possible.

The Russians were caught off guard by Dong Wei's counterattack at first, but now they have come to their senses. The Chinese war horses cannot maintain enough nutrition. Now both the condition of the war horses and the condition of the cavalry are in an abnormal state. And this is a good opportunity for the Russian army to counterattack.

Even if the Chinese cavalry soldiers lack a few bites of food, they still have good combat effectiveness; but what about their horses?

Soldiers can be firm patriots, but can war horses be patriotic?

Irrational and insufficient feed will seriously affect the condition of war horses. In battle, their performance is that their sprint speed slows down.

This will seriously affect the combat effectiveness of the Wehrmacht cavalry.

Moreover, the cold winter is coming soon, and the creek has frozen.

A large amount of military supplies must be transported from the forward base to the front-line battlefield as soon as possible.

However, the situation in the northwest coincidentally applies to the old Chinese saying: When it rains, it rains. This year, winter came a little early on the Kazakh steppe. It was only in September of the lunar calendar that the snowflakes fell down, and they were getting bigger and bigger.

This added more trouble to the transportation of the transport troops. Especially those baggage teams that were already on the road.

The cold winter was cold and the snow was flying. Gusts of wind blew away the remaining snow and hit the face, like a knife cutting meat.

The rammed earth road surface was frozen as hard as cast iron, and the snow on the road had accumulated more than half a foot thick, and it was no longer possible to see the original appearance. There was heavy snow in front of us, and a fiery red military flag appeared in the wind and snow through the fluttering snowflakes. Then a group of convoys slowly drove over from the east, and the last one flying in the convoy was another blood-red flag.

A full battalion of escort troops, including a cavalry team. There were more than a thousand militiamen accompanying the team, and more than 700 livestock pulling the carts.

The wheels of the carts rolled over the snow, which was the current situation of Chen Han's transport troops. Central Asia is really far away from Chen Han's inland hinterland. Even Yili, which has been under construction in recent years, is less than 5,000 miles away from the Caspian Sea in a straight line, and the actual distance is more than 6,500 miles.

Lake Balkhash and the east side of the Fergana Basin are Chen Han’s two ‘fortresses’ in Central Asia, and the actual distance from the Caspian Sea is more than 4,000 li. Therefore, it is unrealistic to rely entirely on logistics troops to maintain such a long transportation line. Chen Han must recruit a large number of local natives on the spot.

Of course, Chen Han also established some reserve warehouses in the four Mongolian Khanates and the three Kazakh Khanates, which stored a large amount of military supplies.

But for safety reasons, these military supply reserve warehouses can only be set up far away from the Ural River and the Caspian Sea.

Not to mention being located in the northwest of the Aral Sea, it must be at least 500 to 600 li away from the east bank of the Ural River.

And don’t look at the military supplies in the reserve warehouse as numerous as a mountain. Once a war breaks out, the consumption of 200,000 troops can easily drain the last grain of food in this reserve warehouse. To maintain an abundant supply of military supplies, you must look at Xinjiang, Lake Balkhash and the Fergana Basin.

In this war, Yili was China's rear area - just like Xichuan in later generations, Lake Balkhash and the Fergana Basin were central China, which could be affected by the war, and the Caspian Sea, the Aral Sea, and the east bank of the Ural River were the eastern coast, which could be directly hit by the war.

Whether it was the National Defense Army or the militia, they were all disheveled, their faces were frozen blue and white, and their lips were cracked. The whole body was dyed white by the snow.

Even the cavalry no longer ran around the team to scout. The rifles were tightly wrapped in cotton sheaths, and the pistols and short knives on the waist were also wrapped in cotton sheaths and linen. In this cold weather, the swords and guns were exposed outside for a long time, and when the wind and snow blew, they turned into ice in a moment. When encountering a war, the guns could not be fired and the knives could not be drawn.

The transport team's escorted supplies were mainly food and canned food. Each large wooden box was sealed and neatly stacked on a sturdy flatbed truck.