Astrakhan is located in the delta of the Volga estuary, where the river is crisscrossed and the scenery is beautiful, and the large wetlands are inhabited by beautiful white cranes and beautiful sea lotus.

After hundreds of years of reclamation, the city of Astrakhan is surrounded by Russian farmsteads dotted with green land. As the center of gravity of the Russians in the Caspian Sea, Astrakhan has a population of 70,000 people, including the population of surrounding villages and towns, with a total number of no less than 200,000. They farmed, grazed, fished, and while commerce gradually developed, farming, animal husbandry and fishing continued to rise, laying a solid foundation for the development of the city of Astrakhan. But the flames of war forced the Russians living here to stay away from their homeland.

Tens of thousands of Russians were forced to leave their homes by the swords and guns of the Chen Han cavalry, and the weeping soaked the entire Volga Delta, but the cries of men, women and children could not move the hard-hearted Chinese. They had to take as many of their utensils and belongings as they could and left their homes.

Of course, there were also thousands of young Russians who rode on war horses, picked up swords and guns, and organized to resist the invasion of Chen Han's army, hoping to cooperate with the defenders in the fortress to resist the Chinese army. However, before the death of Major General Opokrov, who was defending the fortress, they were already strangled by the enemy's iron cavalry.

On the way to Astrakhan, they saw the bodies of hanged Russians and tied to wooden poles at many intersections. This made the whole army angry, and later Alexander I heard the news and sent a special order to Bagration to properly place the body of the Russian righteous man who had been killed.

This did not add much trouble to the itinerary of the Russian army, since the latter had a small base. But this has brought the fighting spirit and courage of the Russian army to a new level, and Alexander has quite effectively condensed the military spirit of the Russian army.

Throughout the battlefield of Astrakhan, the Russian army used a total of 300 artillery pieces, and they relied on the wide mouth of the Volga River to establish a strong position. Ships shuttle on the river, and the dredged Volga waterway is the best helper for the logistics supply of the Russian army.

The civil structure was the main body of the position, and a few concrete fortresses were dotted among them, which served as tactical support points for the defensive line, which of course could not be compared to Astrakhan, but surpassed by Turinsk. And the Russian army is transferring more and more reinforced concrete here from the rear.

Chen Hanfang only exposed more than 300 artillery pieces, and the two sides launched a stormy artillery bombardment at the outer defensive ring of Astrakhan. The Russian army put more than 50,000 soldiers into the battlefield, and the army deployed by Chen Han on the peripheral positions also had a strength of almost three brigades [30,000 people].

Bagration returned to the rear with a disgraced face, and looked at the Wehrmacht fortress in front of him with hatred. If his memory is not wrong, there is no such fortress in the original Astrakhan defense system, it is clear that this was quickly built by the Chinese after taking Astrakhan - code name 015 fortress, this position is called 015 position. Because the terrain here is measured at a relative height of 15 meters.

The Russian army has launched several attacks on this fortress, but they have all been repulsed by the defenders.

But Bagration doesn't care about this, isn't it just that the two attacks have not succeeded? Then come for the third time. Bagration must take the fortress opposite, and by taking here, he will be able to divide the outermost defensive line of the Chinese.

Cut it into two sections from north to south, and cooperate with the frontal attack horizontally, it can be said that this circle is won.

On the orders of the commander-in-chief Chen Wei, Pan Chang, who was inspecting the battlefield and boosting the morale of the army, immediately realized the seriousness of the situation when he passed behind this fortress. He immediately mobilized a regiment of the Praetorian Guard of the Hoshut Khanate, which was closest to there, to urgently reinforce the fortress. Sixty or seventy thousand of the 1440,000 Astrakhan army were the infantry army of the Seven Khanates!

The Heshute Khanate was a khanate dominated by the Mongol tribes in the north of Qinghai and Liangzhou, and its population was even smaller than that of Turghut, because the Qinghai Mongols were severely injured by the Manchus in the Lobzang Danjin Rebellion, and only about 20,000 people remained after the war. By the time Chen Han rose to prominence, Qinghai had experienced wars again, and by the time the Heshute Khanate was established, the population of Qinghai Mongolia was less than 50,000.

Therefore, don't look at the Heshute Khanate, which is a combination of Qinghai and Mongolia in the north of Liangzhou, but the population still lags behind the Turkuts.

There were no standing divisional and brigade-level military units in the entire Hoshut Khanate, and a Praetorian Guard army included everything, of which there were only three Janissary infantry regiments with a size of 1,000 men, and their main force was cavalry.

The Russian offensive was very fierce, although Bagration did not lead the troops again, but the Russian attacking troops were highly motivated, even some of the hunters, infantry, and even the lightly wounded who had been scattered before were also enthusiastic and followed the attacking troops into battle.

And when the Praetorian Guard Regiment of Heshute arrived, the defenders fought very resolutely. Pan Chang took his guards to the front line in person. A bloody fight lasted from four o'clock in the morning until dawn.

At dawn, when I looked down at the ground from the sky, corpses were strewn all over the field, and blood was pouring everywhere. The corpses piled up like hills on several of the breastwork, and the trenches were eager to be filled.

"Brethren! This fortress is the Motherland, and we are going to defend it with our chests! ”

Yermolov shouted loudly.

After a bloody battle, the Russian soldiers finally took the fortress. Their offensive was so fierce, their attitude was so determined, completely at any cost.

But with these forces of the Russian army, how dare they make such a big sacrifice?

Chen Wei held his chin and looked at the map, thinking at the same time.

In addition, he is still waiting for Pan Chang's good news, and he believes that Pan Chang's counterattack will definitely achieve victory. After last night's bloody battle, the nerves of the Russians, even if they were made of steel, would tremble.

Moreover, Pan Chang's attack this time was not launched until after sunset, but had already been launched. It's ten o'clock in the morning!

Chen Han retreated from the 015 position, but this did not mean that the outer edge positions of Astrakhan defended by Chen Han were all lost. Whether it is the current Chen Han or the previous Russians, the defense of Astrakhan is a wide and deep space, and the position in the west alone is enough to fit two Tulinsk battlefields.

This is where two or three hundred thousand troops on both sides wrestle, not a small battlefield of 50,000 people like Turinsk.

Chen Wei did not know that when the Russian soldiers stormed Astrakhan, thousands of Russians had already dredged the Volga River little by little, and the warships of the Russian Caspian Flotilla had already traveled to Tulinsk, and the power of the warships was rapidly improving the safety of Volga water transportation. The cavalry units sent by the Chinese side, as well as scouts, can certainly continue to engage in sabotage, such as firing cold guns, releasing mines, and planting mines, but this cannot hide the fact that the Russian army's use of the Volga River has been on track.

It is possible that the Russian Caspian naval warships will appear at the mouth of the Volga River one day in the near future, and although Chen Han's transportation and supplies can also be transported by sea, from the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea to Astrakhan, a great saving of energy. But the arrival of Chinese military supplies on the western shore of the Caspian Sea was in itself a costly affair.

The form of the two armies has changed a lot compared to the time of the Battle of Tulinsk.

On the battlefield of Astrakhan, a day-long battle was opened because of Pan Chang's counterattack.

It was nearly noon, and from a distance, the battlefield was covered with smoke and dust. A large number of soldiers wriggled around the battlefield, sometimes seeing thin columns, and soon turning into stragglers like stars; Then the formation became in disarray, and the people fled back in a swarm, and one by one the dead and wounded fell to the ground, and the horses that had lost their masters galloped; After a while, new columns and phalanxes moved forward, and the flow of people was like a tide, rising and falling, back and forth. The routed team was retreating, and new teams were replenished and engaged in hand-to-hand combat, then routed again, followed by a fierce artillery battle.

The battle seemed to be going on endlessly, repeating itself, and no one knew when it would end.

Because both sides have a solid rear to rely on, such a fight does not hesitate to expose a large number of troops to the coverage range of shotguns and rockets, and it is difficult to completely defeat one side or the other. Because they still have a strong 'fortress' to rely on when the army is in decline. And the commanders on both sides have a large number of reserves in their hands!

This is very different from Napoleon's field battles.

The roar of the cannon spread dozens of miles away, and even the air trembled in the sound of the cannon. Huge echoes ripple over the twenty-kilometer-wide Voll Joining Estuary. Countless homeless Russian civilians fidgeted and listened to the sound of artillery in the distance, knowing that this battle would decide the fate of Russia and their fate.

If the Chinese win this battle, the lower reaches of the Volga, the mother river, will not lose to Russia. Their homes, their fields, will never be taken back.

Alexander I was sitting at a command post twenty or thirty miles from Astrakhan, silent and sullen. He seldom inquired about the progress of the battle, and his retinue did not know what was going on with the Emperor.

To the east of the command post, Bagration was also sitting in his command post at this time, and if it weren't for the fact that he was shaking the horsewhip in his hand, if it weren't for the fact that he used the horsewhip from time to time to draw something on the map, the people around him would have thought he was asleep.

Bagration is very thin, and he is completely at the opposite end of the spectrum with the obese Kutuzov. The latter's clothes are estimated to fit two Bagrations.

Bagration, who is famous in Europe for his representative of the Young Zhuang faction of the Russian army, is actually no longer young, he is already forty-eight years old. The only thing that Bagration is still as 'young' as a young man is his fighting spirit.

So his temples had grown gray hair, and he wore a flat military hat. He sat calmly on the square stool, calm and silent, but still very imposing.

At this moment, there is a contest between the commanders of the two armies, a fierce contest.

One only has to look at the situation on the battlefield, and then think about the significance of this battle and the entire history of the war, and you will understand that the apparent indifference of Chen Wei and Bagration is precisely to hide their inner tension.

The two armies on the battlefield were evenly matched, and each other's commanders could not speak of any genius command, wise decision, and the only thing they wanted was to ensure that they made the least mistakes.

Whoever makes the least mistakes wins the opportunity. By seizing the opponent's mistakes and giving them a surprise blow, whoever is stronger will appear to be more likely to win.

They all knew that no matter how many troops were invested in the 015 position, they would not win immediately.

And once a little more force is mobilized in some key places to carry out maneuvers, it is possible to weaken itself, and the result is either defeat before the maneuver is successful, or the failure of the maneuver will lead to irreparable disaster.

So this battle, it's critical, it's critical. It's like a node, whoever wins the victory will master the node; Whoever grasps the node of the war will have a greater chance of winning the final victory.