When the king''s flag of the winged cavalry company and the flags of more than a dozen dragon cavalry and infantry were thrown under Smolensk as rags, the whole Smolensk city fell into fear. Anyone knows that the fall of Smolensk is inevitable without losing this third of the power.

    Prince Alexei''s messenger sent a letter of persuasion from czar Mikhailovich Romanov. This letter of persuasion was written by the Czar before the war and has now been sent to Smolensk.

    In the letter, czar Mikhailovich asked Smolensk to surrender immediately. The letter reads: "By God''s grace, czars and dictators of Russia, Moscow, Kiev, Vladimir and Novgorod; czars of Kazan, Astrakhan and Siberia; sovereigns of Smolensk, Ryazan, Rostov, Yaroslavl, belodjol, Ukraine, obedoria, kondia, Vitebsk, mszislav and all northern regions; pusco Mikhailovich Romanov, Lord of Nizhny Novgorod, declared: our troops and horses are like leaves in the forest and stars in the sky. When you look up to the sky and see countless stars, you should be frightened and crawl on the ground - this is the power of our troops. However, as the benevolent Lord of a country, I hate only those who are stubborn and against the will of heaven. If you offer the city to surrender, I will Give the greatest kindness to you; if you dare to disobey my heavenly authority, I will kill the famous city with fire and sword. "

    The contents of this letter of persuasion soon spread to all corners of Smolensk. Citizens of all blocks sent citizen representatives to petition Fyodor, hoping that he could negotiate with czar Russia to save the whole city.

    Speaker shchenko privately sent people out of the city to meet Prince Alexei and begged the prince for a day''s grace.

    At the strong request of the people, the mayor of Fyodor convened all the members of the military conference to discuss the surrender. But at the end, Fyodor refused to attend the conference.

    Perhaps because he didn''t want to face the outcome of the meeting, he entrusted the meeting with full power to count anzumov and speaker shchenko, and told them that no matter what decision the meeting made, he would sign it as the mayor. Count anzumov and speaker shchenko didn''t know whether it was intentional or unintentional. They didn''t ask Franco to attend the meeting. So the original military The meeting became an aristocratic meeting, and the place was changed to the chamber of Parliament.

    At the beginning of the meeting, the conditions for surrender were discussed. Among the nobles in Smolensk, the russinian nobles only wanted to keep their land and privileges after czar Russia occupied Smolensk, while the Polish nobles wanted to leave safely with their property and family after surrender.

    For this, they are willing to give everything in the city to the Russians, as long as it is not their own.

    "Dear gentlemen, what kind of crisis has our troubled Smolensk reached! Now we are worried about the shadow of the pass and want to serve the country. We have to succumb to the Almighty Tsar. But we are not betraying the country. We are saving our country! Let''s think about it. Who are our biggest enemies? The Cossacks of zaporoze. Now ten thousand people The able czar was bewitched by the evil zaporoches and became the enemy of the Republic. Our resistance just angered the great Czar''s majesty more and more, and let the plot of the humble zaporonen Cossacks succeed. This is wrong. Unfortunately, I have just discovered it. Just because I have insight into the zaporoches'' plot, I ask my compatriots that we should give up The fight with czar Russia, the surrender to the Almighty Czar, and our love to let his majesty understand who is the real friend. This is the best way to save the country. "Speaker shichenko spoke of betrayal so impassioned and justified that some people below wiped up excited tears.

    "The old man even finished my words." count anzumov cursed when he watched speaker shichenko''s performance.

    But immediately, the count was in a better mood. Because of his foresight, he sent someone to get in touch with czar Russia as early as the beginning of the siege. Even the intelligence of those spies disguised as businessmen sent by doronin was revealed to czar Russia. With such achievements, he will be higher than shchenko in the future.

    Count anzumov was secretly proud when the door of the parliament hall was kicked open.

    A man with open breast and milk walked into the conference hall with a wine bottle. Behind him was a heavy figure.

    "Oleg, why are you here? Get out! Get out with your people. Is this where you can come?" speaker shchenko shouted angrily.

    It was Oleg, the current acting company commander of the registered Cossack company. Originally, the position of company leader was the old leader of tatarchuk, but on the day doronin left the city, the old man suddenly suffered a stroke. Oleg was elected as the new company leader by the Cossacks. In order to appease the restless Cossacks, fiordo had to recognize him.

    Without the suppression of the old head of tatarchuk, Oleg became unscrupulous. He frequently sent people out of the city to contact the Cossacks and proposed to take zaporoze Cossacks to occupy Smolensk. If the relationship between czar Russia and zaporoze Cossacks had not changed significantly, I''m afraid Smolensk would have fallen yesterday.

    Such Oleg, speaker shchenko''s angry drink, of course, had no deterrent effect on him. After the downfall of doronin, Oleg''s Cossacks had become a truly important force in Smolensk. And Tatar Chuk is critically ill, and no one can control him anymore.

    The deputy commander of the registered Cossack company stumbled up to the old speaker while drinking.

    "How did I get here? Of course I came," Oleg said jokingly. Then he poured most of the remaining bottle of wine on speaker shchenko''s head.

    The wine flowed down speaker shchenko''s head, through his neck, into his sleeves and drip to the ground.

    Such an unreasonable move simply drove shichenko mad. Where did the speaker of the Smolensk parliament suffer such an insult, and was a Cossack. Shchenko raised his silver inlaid stick and tried to hit Oleg.

    As soon as koshchenko''s stick was raised, Oleg''s hand held it. Oleg grabbed the stick with his left hand and threw the shchenko fan to the ground.

    When he fell to the ground, shichenko''s head hit the corner of the table, and blood flowed in an instant.

    No one would have thought that a Cossack would break into the meeting, let alone that the Cossack who was called like a slave dared to beat his master yesterday. So for a moment, there was no sound in the conference hall except the painful cry of speaker shchenko.

    "You, you." Oleg pointed to anzumov and others one by one with an empty wine bottle.

    "Have you forgotten one thing when you noble lords want to surrender?"

    Everyone looked at each other, not knowing what Oleg meant.

    "Your Excellency, I don''t know what you''re talking about," asked count anzumov carefully. Even the title of Oleg was changed to honorific.

    "You old man pretending to be stupid." Oleg roared, "money, of course. Do you want the Cossacks to give up resistance without giving money? Our registered Cossacks are very patriotic."

    Since they are patriotic, if they want to be unpatriotic, they must be given a reward.

    I came to ask for money. After hearing Oleg''s request, not only anzumov, but all the others also breathed a sigh of relief. For these big nobles and landlords, what can be solved with money is not a big deal. Moreover, some shrewd people immediately thought that if they could control such an armed force before offering the city, they would certainly have a different status from others in front of the Russians in the future.

    Count anzumov was undoubtedly such a wise man. With a smile on his face, he said to Oleg, "your company commander, you and your Cossack brothers defended the city bravely. Of course, my family and I will not forget. Our anzumov family is willing to give you 6000 Taylor as a reward."

    "Six thousand Taylor?" Oleg laughed as if he had heard the funniest joke in the world.

    "Old man, do you think six thousand Taylor can buy us off? Or I''ll pack all you people and sell them to Vassily to see if he will pay a higher price."

    Vasili in Oleg''s mouth is obviously Vasili zolotalenko. Zaporoze is the supreme commander of Cossacks in Smolensk province.

    The nobles were captured by Cossacks, which was worse than death. Even if you are not tortured to death, you will be sold to the Tatars in Crimea, which is a near death.

    "You, you can''t do that! We are protected by czar Russia." when I heard that Oleg was going to kidnap himself, someone immediately put out the shield of Czar Russia in horror.

    "You are in my hands now. No one can save you if you don''t give money." Oleg roared.

    As if to enhance the deterrence of his words, Oleg''s Cossacks scattered bullets outside the gate. Obviously, Oleg came prepared.

    Truth is often the most persuasive. Facing a group of unscrupulous Cossacks with guns, count anzumov first gave in, and then the speaker gave in... Everyone gave in. They were forced to promise a huge sum of 60000 Taylor as severance pay for the scheduled Cossacks.

    "When the army of the Almighty Tsar enters the city, we''ll see how we deal with you."

    However, more than one person had such an idea.

    The assembly hall was very noisy, and the mercenaries also held a small meeting in the tower at the north gate. The atmosphere of the meeting was very dull. The participants were the former caravan companions who joined the Polish army with Pedro and Chechen. These people came together because of this fiasco.

    "I said to join the army of Czar Russia, so that at least we will enter the city as winners today," said a mercenary. Afraid of Pedro, he only dared to speak with his head down. Dare not look at Pedro.

    But his words do represent the voice of some people. At first, everyone chose to join the Polish army after listening to Pedro''s "sweet words", but now Smolensk''s surrender is imminent and everyone will soon become prisoners.

    "Czar Russia is not the winner," Chechen said in his heart. He didn''t think doronin they were losers.

    The battle scenes of doronin and others were brought back by some survivors. Although they were defeated, they were still proud and would rather die than surrender, which made Cherchen admire.

    For this argument, Che Chen immediately wanted to stand up and refute it. But he was held by Pedro. Pedro knew that Cherchen was young and impulsive, and was afraid that he would say something naive.

    Pedro glanced at the crowd, especially the faces of those who showed identification, and stayed for a few seconds. Those individuals were looked down by Pedro.

    "Yes, if you joined the army of Czar Russia, you should eat ice outside now," said Pedro.

    Without waiting for the man to speak, Pedro continued, "isn''t it good to come to Smolensk? Just for these two or three months, salary plus reward and embezzlement money, everyone has a hundred Taylor less! Can you have this treatment outside?"

    The man stopped talking. Indeed, since the war, everyone has made a lot of money.

    "But we failed after all." another voice came from the corner.

    "What does it matter if you lose?" Although the man hid well, Pedro found him at a glance.

    "When Lord Fyodor surrendered, we followed him to surrender. This will not damage our reputation, because we obey orders. What''s more, our performance is obvious to both sides. Maybe one of the Lords in czar Russia likes us and will hire us as soon as we terminate the contract." Pedro said confidently.

    At that time, the mercenaries of the defeated side were required to sign an agreement to ensure that they would not accept the employment of the other party for a certain period of time (usually three to six months). As long as the agreement was signed, the mercenaries would be released. When one side is short of troops, it will even hire mercenaries from the defeated side to fight for itself on the spot.

    As Pedro said, surrender is not an unacceptable thing.

    "Uncle, what will happen to Smolensk after Lord Fyodor surrenders?" suddenly, Chechen asked.

    "It shouldn''t be so?" said Pedro uncertainly, as if recalling some bad memories.

    "I hope that Prince Alexei is not as crazy as count Tilly," said Ruth.

    "Count Tilly?" Chechen wondered. Obviously, young people of his age do not know such distant history.

    So Ruth explained.

    On May 9, 1631, the army of count Tilly of Austria took Magdeburg. As early as in Netherland and other places, the count who fought with Protestants made all his mercenaries loot for three days, and finally more than 30000 Magdeburg citizens died.

    This atrocity also made the German princes who were originally wavering and Protestant fall to King Gustav, the "Swedish lion".

    "Ruth, don''t scare the children." Pedro glared at Ruth.

    "The city should be preserved, because Czarist Russians also have to collect taxes to support themselves." Pedro speculated based on his experience as a mercenary in Germany: "but then the land of the nobility will be confiscated, the property of those Jewish businessmen will be confiscated, and some people will be expelled. Maybe that''s it."

    "That''s not the worst result," said Pedro, and Chechen breathed a sigh of relief.

    "At least there won''t be any more dead people," Chechen thought.

    But will things really be like what Chechen thinks?