Chapter 1017

“Your Majesty, this is news from Jinzhou.”

Qian Dafu entered the Imperial Study and placed a telegram in front of Xiao Ming.

Xiao Ming frowned as he scanned the content of the telegram. This telegram was sent by Qi Guangyi, but the incident happened five days ago.

“Have the telegraph lines been laid to Jinzhou?” Xiao Ming asked Qian Dafu about the telegraph line installation while pondering the content of the telegram. The current Qian Dafu had clearly become his secretary.

“Reporting to Your Majesty, they have arrived. This is the first telegram sent from Jinzhou,” Qian Dafu said with a smile. “In addition, Chang’an in the west and Jinling City in the south are now also connected by telegraph, and many transfer stations have been built for this purpose.”

Xiao Ming was slightly satisfied with the progress of the telegraph line laying. Although war was the main theme of the country now, the development of technology, industry, and commerce at home had not stopped.

Especially Qingzhou University, where the professional divisions were becoming more detailed, and now corresponding research laboratories had been established in various academies, such as bridge construction, civil engineering, applied chemistry, materials science, mineral exploration, mechanical physics, clinical medicine, and so on.

From the last year of the seventeenth century to the thirteenth year of the eighteenth century, in fourteen years, he finally established a complete scientific system at the level of the late nineteenth century, using the vast technology library of the technology crystals.

And more than ten years ago, Europe’s technological level was equivalent to the mid-to-late eighteenth century, a hundred years more advanced than the then Great Yu Empire. But now, even though they had obtained some of his technology through despicable means, Europe’s technology was still left far behind by him.

“Hmm, the progress is quite good,” he praised the construction progress. At this point, he began to seriously consider the content of the telegram.

According to Qi Guangyi, the barbarian banner head Gubat was prepared to cooperate with them in secret, on the condition that his tribe become imperial citizens and be able to live on the grassland.

If it were before, Xiao Ming would naturally not agree to this condition, because he could not tolerate the existence of barbarian tribes on the grassland that could threaten the frontier.

But now it was different. The appearance of the machine gun brought an end to the era of cavalry. Modern barbarians were nothing more than harmless little white rabbits to him. All he needed was for the barbarians to submit to him, and from then on, they would honestly herd horses, sheep, and cattle for him on the grassland.

However, under Dolgor’s rule, this was impossible to achieve, after all, his sons had all died under his forces.

In addition, he also could not tolerate Dolgor taking his tribe to seek refuge with Tsarist Russia, as this would undoubtedly increase Tsarist Russia’s strength.

Therefore, he had to eliminate Dolgor at the foot of Tian Shan, to prevent him from escaping to the Eastern European steppe.

Thinking of this, he drafted a battle report and had Qian Dafu send it to Jinzhou, and then from Jinzhou to Qi Guangyi. At the same time, in the battle report, he told Qi Guangyi to heighten his vigilance, because Tian Shan spanned the contemporary Southern Xinjiang and Kazakhstan in Central Asia, and Tsarist Russia was getting closer and closer there.

Five days later, his order reached Qi Guangyi.

“His Majesty intends to cooperate with Gubat to eliminate the remaining forces of Dolgor’s Golden Tent,” Qi Guangyi said to Feng Dongjin after receiving the telegram.

Feng Dongjin nodded slightly and said, “This Gubat is indeed a shrewd person. I didn’t expect him to have guessed His Majesty’s thoughts.”

“That’s right, this Gubat is very good at reading the situation and also knows how to adapt, but he is also a fence-sitter. However, now that the Empire is strong, this fence-sitter can only lean towards us,” Qi Guangyi said calmly. “In that case, immediately send someone to contact Gubat. This time, we must annihilate the Golden Tent cavalry.”

Feng Dongjin was still somewhat hesitant. He asked, “What if it’s a trick? We should always keep a trick up our sleeve when dealing with barbarians.”

As he finished speaking, the soldiers suddenly became clamorous. The two looked to the west, where a large number of black dots appeared directly in front of them.

Qi Guangyi looked through his binoculars, and his heart sank. These black dots were barbarian cavalry. He immediately shouted, “Prepare for battle!”

His order was given, and the soldiers immediately mounted their horses, their muzzles aimed at the charging cavalry. To their surprise, these cavalry all stopped when they were five hundred meters away from them. Three barbarian cavalry emerged from the middle of the cavalry and came directly towards them.

Qi Guangyi clearly saw the faces of the approaching people through his binoculars and exclaimed in surprise, “It’s Gubat’s cavalry.”

Feng Dongjin also saw who was coming, and he too showed a surprised expression.

Seeing this, the two waited for a while in front of the formation, and soon Gubat arrived in front of them.

Seeing Gubat again, Qi Guangyi and Feng Dongjin were both a little surprised. At this time, Gubat did not look like a barbarian banner head at all; he was completely like a defeated general.

At this time, his tattered armor was stained with congealed blood, and a foul smell mixed with blood could be smelled within half a step.

Behind him were startled soldiers and tribesmen, all with tired faces and lingering fear in their eyes. Some wounded soldiers even groaned constantly in ox carts. All of this told the two that Gubat seemed to have encountered a major change.

“Banner Head Gubat, what happened?” Qi Guangyi asked seriously.

His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. Gubat sighed and dismounted, saying in a hoarse voice, “General Qi, Chief Scribe Feng, things are not looking good.”

Qi Guangyi and Feng Dong looked at each other. He did not let the soldiers relax their guard. Dismounting, the two approached Gubat.

Facing each other, Gubat said somewhat ashamed, “Two generals, the plan has changed. Now our tribe can barely protect itself.”

“Why is this?” Qi Guangyi asked in confusion.

Gubat was somewhat indignant. He said, “Everything could have gone smoothly, but I didn’t expect a traitor in my tribe to leak my plan to Dolgor. Enraged, Dolgor personally led troops to ambush my tribe.”

After a pause, he continued, “I was not afraid of him originally; at most, it would be a Pyrrhic victory for both sides. But I didn’t expect that 30,000 Cossack cavalry from Tsarist Russia would suddenly arrive. My 50,000 cavalry were no match and could only flee west. However, the Cossack army continued to pursue relentlessly. If it weren’t for my brave generals fighting to the death, I would not have been able to escape to this place.”

“Cossack!” Gubat’s words made Qi Guangyi and Feng Dongjin instantly solemn.

“Absolutely true, it’s the Tsarist Russian Cossack cavalry. These cavalry are also equipped with firearms, and we are no match at all,” Gubat said with a desperate expression.

This time, he was fortunate to escape, but two-thirds of his tribesmen died under the siege of Dolgor and the Cossacks.

Qi Guangyi’s eyes darted around. In fact, he had this concern during the westward advance, after all, the further west they went, the closer they would be to the Eastern European steppe, which was the birthplace of the Cossack cavalry.