Siege of the fortress

 Siege of the Pishpek fortress on the city plan. On August 30, 1860, the royal detachment arrived at Pishpek and its siege began on the western side of the Ala-Archa River. “The Guide to Turkestan for 1912” wrote that “during this short-term siege, a remarkable shot was fired from the guns operating from the breach battery under the command of Staff Captain Obukh. The enemy guns located on one of the Pishpek towers were shot down, and one cannonball hit the very channel of a five-pound Kokand gun and was firmly lodged in it.” The fortress was fired at at close range from all batteries. On the evening of September 3, the commandant of the fortress Atabek Datha and Alisher Datha, who arrived from the Merke fortress to help the Pishpeks, asked for mercy and surrendered the next day. In a letter to Zimmerman, both Daths wrote: “For about five days we justified the salt given by our khan and fought, but we were convinced that we would be defeated, and therefore, not being able to resist, we will clear and surrender the fortress to you.” The garrison, consisting of more than 500 people, lost up to 20 people killed and up to 50 wounded, Russian losses consisted of one killed and five wounded lower ranks and one wounded chief officer. The trophies consisted of Atabek-Datha's axe, 5 copper and 11 cast-iron cannons, three banners and, finally, a fortification key, which turned out to be not at all Asian-made, but the most ordinary, far from sophisticated one, apparently bought at the Irbit fair. Subsequently, this key and other trophies were delivered to Omsk and were carried along the streets of the Siberian capital, and Zimmerman was honored as the conqueror of Pishpek. Having destroyed the fortress walls, the royal detachment returned to Verny, but the Kokand people soon restored the fortress. A new siege of Pishpek took place in 1862 under the command of Colonel Kolpakovsky and lasted 10 days, during which the fortress was shelled and assault mines were prepared. The garrison defended stubbornly. All the destruction caused during the day was corrected by the besieged during the night, and the embrasures and loopholes were restored. And in the morning desperate battles continued. On October 24, 1862, when the mine approach was ready and all that remained was to charge the forge, the fortress surrendered. During the siege, 2,051 shells and 31,879 rounds of ammunition were fired at it. The attackers lost 40 people killed and wounded, including 33 people from the explosion of a powder magazine at the dismantling battery. The number of dead defenders of the fortress was not calculated. The fortress was destroyed again, and this time completely.