Chapter 656: Battle of Lower Ural Fort

Bai Lang's great army marched along the Syr Darya River, first arriving at the Aral Sea, and then reaching the Caspian Sea. They headed south along the Caspian coast to loot cities. After breaking these cities, they burned, killed, and looted—having no respect for religious gold and silver vessels. The gold and silver crosses with special patterns on the churches, and the silver-inlaid holy icons inside the churches, were all taken down, stripped of their surface gold, silver, and gems, and the rest were burned.

Those precious books were not burned but packed up, ready to be transported away by the supporting convoy. They looted a lot of silver from the city, including exquisite exotic silver vessels from the Middle East. It was not good to just smash them flat as silver blocks; they had to be sent back in wooden boxes padded with straw. As for the rest, they were exotic female captives, and the whole army could have a good time—but Bai Lang did not let them mess around, instead distributing them to the soldiers.

After a few nights, they made a roster, and then let the teams that came to transport the spoils take them back. No one would come to rob them along the way—Bai Lang had already spread his fierce reputation across the entire grassland. These captive women would be sent back to Great Qin, waiting for distribution in the Capital. Bai Lang did not take a few for himself, because the ones captured so far had not caught his eye.

Bai Lang's army tortured the captured local chieftains and nobles and found out that the Tsar's army had already arrived. So, Bai Lang ordered the whole army to turn around and head north, setting off for the Ural River—the first goal was to capture Lower Ural Fort. "Waiting for that Tsar's army to come while resting, I want them to not even have a single piece of armor return to Moscow." Bai Lang's words were filled with murderous intent. He was also very happy; finally, there was an opportunity to kill Western barbarians.

Lower Ural Fort was a castle made of stone and wood. Bai Lang selected a few elites to follow him, directly entered the castle, and then had the great army surround it. He started killing inside the castle. The settlers outside the castle were also captured and looted clean; the city walls did not play any role. The occupiers of Lower Ural Fort fled from the city gates, preferring to surrender directly to the "Tatar" army outside rather than be killed like stinking bugs by that terrifying man inside the castle.

Lower Ural Fort was destroyed. The castle was forced by Bai Lang's army to be dismantled by the residents, and the stone was used to build breastworks for blocking. Bai Lang sent light cavalry out for a hundred miles to scout. Four days later, the scouts reported that they had discovered the Tsar's great army. In this era, the Tsar and the Cossacks had cooperation but also confrontation, and even more confrontation. The Cossacks not only refused to pay taxes to the Tsar but also liked to loot the cities built by the Tsar.

Anyway, Bai Lang did not care. As long as they were these nomads, he would execute the "wheel execution" without exception. He did not need these people to pay him blood taxes; he only needed them to roll back west of the Ural River. Bai Lang personally went to scout the scale of the Tsar's great army after receiving the report. According to his estimation by observing the "Qi," the Tsar had mobilized about fifty to seventy thousand people. Finally, after multiple reconnaissance by the cavalry and the detailed estimation of the scale after the Tsar's army set up camp, the Tsar's army was probably around fifty-five thousand.

"Infantry, cavalry, and artillery are all complete." Bai Lang said to the generals after observing the formation. There were many musketeers in the Tsar's army, and they had even begun to popularize flintlock muskets. There were also some armored spearmen, and the cavalry were all of the Cossack type. Bai Lang also saw no fewer than fifty cannons. "It's just that I don't know if the so-called Romanov Tsar is in the formation." The Tsar's army should be led by several dukes, and the main commanders were all foreigners...

The Russian officers were just apprentices helping them. These commanders were all veterans who had participated in the Thirty Years' War in Europe and had rich combat experience. Compared with the organization and command of the Russian army, Bai Lang's great army was more like an ancient army that had walked out of history. His army still used matchlock muskets, and the equipment ratio was not high. Most of the infantry were equipped with shields and spears. The cannons were also of the light "Tiger-Crouching Cannon" type, with a total of twenty-four.

As for the cavalry, the opposing cavalry were already equipped with wheellock pistols, while Bai Lang's cavalry were not equipped with this stuff and had never even seen it; they were not even equipped with three-eyed guns. Among his cavalry, there were "ancient" heavy armored cavalry. All of this was a disadvantage. The residents of Lower Ural Fort fled secretly every day. The camp set up by Bai Lang was not that tight, and he still had two-thirds of the logistics craftsman camp and a portion of cavalry and infantry grazing tens of kilometers away.

These people would not come over; they had to watch over hundreds of thousands of cattle and sheep. They only needed to transport supplies and weapons to Bai Lang's camp regularly. All this intelligence was brought to the Tsar's army by the fleeing residents of the city. They even brought the news that there was a "Great Khan" in these "Tatar" troops. This made the upper echelons of the Tsar's army feel very proud—if they captured the Great Khan of the Tatars, wouldn't there be plenty of land and ransom?

The two sides did not send envoys to each other; this was Bai Lang's unilateral refusal. He put on the appearance of taking the initiative to attack but only dispatched a portion of the cavalry. All his heavy armored cavalry were dispatched. The iron armor originally on the horses had been remade by the craftsman camp into leather armor inlaid with iron plates, which greatly reduced the weight and was easy to put on. Felt hung down to avoid being shot by arrows and injuring the horses' legs, and it also provided some protection against lead bullets.

And the men wore fish-scale mail armor, no plate armor—not that there was no loot, but there was little loot and they were not used to wearing it. The weapons in their hands were naturally spears, plus knives and war hammers. They had bows and arrows for long-range. Bai Lang also put on armor that had been wiped until it reflected light, and wore a gold-inlaid helmet, taking the lead in front of the whole army. Among the cavalry, there were a few who specifically raised Bai Lang's White Tiger banner. After the great banner was raised, Bai Lang led the cavalry in a cone formation and moved forward slowly.

The Tsar's army deployed their formation behind the anti-horse obstacles. First, they used cannons to bombard Bai Lang's cone formation—this formation was pulled very thin and long, and the front was almost just Bai Lang alone. The cannonballs flew over and bounced a few times on the ground without hitting anything, so the artillery fire was temporarily prepared and not fired, waiting for the Tatar cavalry to get closer. Bai Lang made a gesture, and the cavalry behind him slowed down, while Bai Lang himself urged his warhorse to start accelerating.

At the beginning, Bai Lang had already said that he would break the formation first in this battle, and the cavalry would follow after disrupting the opponent—who told him that the previous ghosts were used up and had to be taken on the spot. He charged over alone, and naturally, the musketeers concentrated their fire. When Bai Lang charged to about fifty meters, more than three hundred musketeers opened fire. Then, a scene that left the Tsar's officers and soldiers dumbfounded happened—the guy charging the formation was actually unscathed.

Some soldiers and officers with good eyesight saw lead bullets hitting this person and the warhorse under his crotch, but the situation was that they could not cause any damage at all. Those lead bullets were deformed and flew away. ===== CHAPTER 657 =====