Chapter 245: Cruelty
Chapter 239 Cruelty
Despite the best efforts of the British bureaucrats to cover it up, the tragedy that took place on the Crimean Peninsula appeared in the London newspapers.
There was a civil outcry, and a large number of soldiers’ families took to the streets to demonstrate. To no avail, the bureaucrats at the Ministry of Munitions were doing what they were told, in full compliance with British law, and were not to be held accountable.
The bureaucrats were fearless, but the British Cabinet was under massive pressure, and the next general election was expected to be very emotional if the problem could not be solved.
No need to wait for the general election, now the Secretary of State for War, Stanley, felt what is the pressure.
“Mr. Prime Minister, public opinion is very unfavorable to us, and the media’s exaggeration has caused serious problems with our recruitment.”
With a poor logistical system, more than one-third of British soldiers falling ill and unable to be effectively treated, and a forty-two percent mortality rate for common casualties, the harsh reality is enough to discourage anyone.
After the artistic processing of the media, the Crimean Peninsula was naturally reduced to hell on earth, and it is not surprising that the population boycotted military service.
It can be said that the Russians, if the financial strength of a little bit, another three years and five years, Britain and France can only be left in the dust.
This has nothing to do with the war, relying on the disease can be crushed Anglo-French allied forces, no army can withstand the ravages of the disease.
George Hamilton Gordon thought for a moment and said, “Public opinion was started by the opposition party and is out of our control, all we can do now is to find a way to change the current situation.
The situation at the front is very bad indeed, and the bureaucrats at the Ministry of Munitions deserve to be sent to the gallows. If this situation doesn’t change, I’m afraid that we’ll be played by these bureaucrats without the Russians having to fight this war.”
Obviously, he wanted to take on the bureaucrats in the Ministry of Munitions. These people were simply the best allies of the Russians, and with their help in dragging their feet the Russians had yet to win the war, mainly because the bureaucrats of the Tsarist government were likewise allies of the British.
The war was only stalemated because everyone was at the same level, pulling each other’s armies’ backs.
Henry, the Home Secretary, reminded, “Mr. Prime Minister, the bureaucrats in the Ministry of Logistics do deserve the gallows, but there is nothing we can do about them.
All of their actions are in accordance with the rules and they are not to be held accountable. There are too many interests at stake here, and taking a chance will cause big trouble.”
Why is the bureaucracy mechanical? The answer is very simple – profit.
By following the regulations exactly, they, the makers of the regulations, can utilize the loopholes within the regulations for their own benefit without having to bear legal responsibility.
After calculating it all over again, George Hamilton Gordon said helplessly, “Can’t move them, so ordering them to change the current situation can always be done!”
No compromise can not, the real master of the British Empire is a huge bureaucratic group, these people have long formed their own interest groups, if torn face, the cabinet is really not necessarily their opponent.
At least George Hamilton Gordon established a coalition cabinet, take the bureaucratic group can not help. Even with only 178 people in the British Ministry of Munitions and only 44 in charge of the Crimean Peninsula, they didn’t dare to take any chances.
Henry, the Home Secretary, replied, “Of course we can, it’s our right.”
A single order to rectify the situation meant that everything that had happened up front was uncovered. The tens of thousands of British troops who died as a result would have all died in vain.
Faced with public pressure, the London government decided to change the medical conditions of the Expeditionary Force by recruiting medics from all over the country. Against this background, Nightingale’s Medical Ambulance Corps took to the stage of history.
……
The historic city of Constantinople is now becoming ethereal in the smoke. The artillery for which the Russians had waited so long was finally in place, and without any hesitation Mareshkov ordered an attack.
Constantinople was big, yet small. The outskirts of the city have been lost, the French army at this time is relying on the fortress bunker defense, but unfortunately these fortifications are too old a little bit, even after their reinforcement, the same can not block the baptism of artillery fire.
6-pounders can not hit across these fortresses, 12-pounders or not, but the replacement of 24-pounders, 48-pounders, or even 100-pounders, these old fortifications can not top.
A single shell from the giant cannons could topple a building, which brought very high casualties to the French troops inside the city, who didn’t know when a shell falling from the sky would take away their lives.
It was no longer safe inside the city, and the French General Headquarters had been moved to an artillery shelter, and the original headquarters of Emabule Jean-Jacques Pellissier had been destroyed.
A middle-aged officer defending the city said with a palpitated heart, “Your Excellency the Commander, the enemy’s firepower is too fierce, our city fortifications can’t hold back the baptism of artillery, and the soldiers have suffered heavy casualties.”
The officer in charge of maintaining order in the city said with a bitter look on his face, “Your Excellency the Commander, the situation inside the city is even worse, the enemy’s artillery shells could fly in at any time, causing a large number of casualties, the order of the city has collapsed.
Just yesterday afternoon, the Ottoman government building also collapsed under enemy fire, and the Sudanese government stayed behind to cooperate with our officer, Mousdra Pasha, died on the spot.”
The reality of the situation, was even worse than they said, and their losses would have been even greater if not for the lack of accuracy of the Russian shells.
The original reason for leaving the city’s inhabitants behind was so that they could provide services to the French army, so that the soldiers could enjoy a normal life during their leisure time in combat.
This was the excuse, the real reason was that the Sudanese government did not have the ability to evacuate so many people from the city. Those who had the ability to leave had long ago run away, and the remaining civilians did not know where to go even if they wanted to.
Now there was big trouble, Constantinople, a bustling metropolis, where a Russian shell hitting any part of the city could bring a lot of damage.
The sudden artillery strikes broke down order in the city at the first opportunity. The Sultan’s government had long since moved the capital and fled, and the officials who remained to maintain order were again boxed in.
After a few moments of contemplative effort, Emabul Jean-Jacques Pelissier frowned and said harshly, “Order the troops to maintain order in the city, expel the crowds that are moving around, and allow the soldiers to shoot those who don’t listen to them.”
This order was very cruel, there were not many people in Constantinople who knew French, even if they wanted to listen to advice, they could not understand it!
Deporting the crowd out of the city was pushing them even further towards extinction. Don’t think you’ll be safe if you leave the city. There’s a firefight going on. Suddenly a group of people appear between the two armies, think of the consequences.
Do you expect the Russians to make a truce for them, let them pass freely and then resume their attack?
Are you kidding me, a group of people who have lost their livelihoods show up in Russian occupied territory, just think what will happen.
The Russian army is struggling to supply itself logistically, adding hundreds of thousands of refugees to the mix will eat them up.
The Russian army is here to fight, not to do charity work. If they delayed the attack on Constantinople to rescue the refugees, the Tsar’s government would have to kill them.
Emabule Jean-Jacques Pelissier naturally knew all this.
Originally, Constantinople has a sea connection, logistical supplies do not have to worry about, even if there are a large number of civilians in the city, the same can afford to stay.
Now it is different, under the fire of the Russians, the order of the city is out of control, the Ottoman government’s terrible ability to execute, simply unable to maintain order.
Repression was essential to restore normal order in a short time.
In order not to leave the enemy an opportunity to take advantage of the situation, Emabule Jean-Jacques Pellissier had to make this cruel decision.
“Yes, Your Excellency the Commander!” The middle-aged officer replied solemnly
Constantinople was too important to the French army, lose it and they would have lost most of this Near East war. One of those sitting here would be counted as one, and no one would want to have a good day.
French general Anthony proposed, “Your Excellency the Commander, we must organize a counterattack, now this is just taking a beating and not fighting back, Constantinople will fall sooner or later.”
Obviously he is advocating naval fire support, the war has just begun the allied naval forces have provided them with fire support, only this accuracy is really too touching.
Because of the distance, the British and French navies could not see the shadow of the Russian army at all, and just bombarded the direction where the Russian army was.
It looks like a great momentum, the actual role of the speed is very small, want to aim even can not find the target.
Of course, even if there is a target is useless, the center is still separated by Constantinople?
More than ten kilometers of straight-line distance, most of the naval artillery can not shoot the Russian position up, but because of various accidents fell into the city quite a lot.
Youth Army Tajik objected: “No, from the firepower analysis, the enemy’s artillery are heavy artillery, we usually can only be used as shore artillery, even if the Navy’s firepower is also worse than them.
Besides, we have to take into account accidental injuries, the fire support we received from the Navy in front of us caused us more damage than even the Russians.”
It was still the age of sails, and the artillery on warships still pursued quantity rather than power. After all, 48-pounders could sink enemy ships, even if they were replaced with several hundred-pounders, the effect would be the same.
Considering the Navy’s pathetically low hit rate, instead of increasing the power of the guns, it wasn’t a good idea to install a few more guns and rely on quantity to increase the hit rate.
Move more than a hundred guns warships, naturally, can not be equipped with large-caliber guns. If the installation of a hundred and eighty tons of huge guns, it is estimated that the installation of a few doors to the limit.
This is just, in case of brainstorming, there may be people to do it. The problem is that the recoil of large-caliber artillery is too large for wooden warships to withstand.
Whether it can hit the enemy is not yet known, anyway, after a few shots, their warships first sunk, this terrible consequence no one dares to try.
British and French naval artillery support can play a role, Constantinople first have to lose half of it, or limit the range to hit the enemy, there is no way to avoid accidental injury.
Give up half of Constantinople, Emabule Jean-Jacques Pellissier is not crazy, do not forget that most of the city’s fortifications over there?
Putting the Russians in to fight, with 200,000 French troops cowering in an even smaller area, and losing most of the city’s fortifications, isn’t that dying in battle?
Emabule Jean-Jacques Pelissier ordered, “I’ve asked for reinforcements from home, it won’t be long before we have more artillery than the enemy, for now everyone must hold their positions tightly, there’s absolutely no way we can give them an opportunity to take advantage of the situation.”
Artillery against artillery, that was the most effective means. But Emabule Jean-Jacques Pelissier did not feel at ease, for it would take time.
They had some hard time before the artillery from home reached the front. It was a time when, if they could not hold back, the Russians would be allowed to tear through the defenses and compress the space in which the French army could move.
Then in the future, even if they got the artillery, having enough places to deploy it would be a big problem.
Emabule Jean-Jacques Pelissier was no military buff, and would not simply assume that artillery, when centralized, was necessarily more powerful.
If the geographical area is too small and the artillery positions are forced to be centralized, they may likewise become a living target for the enemy.
Forget it, I won’t write about the specific artillery battles. For one thing, Hai Yue can’t write well, and for another, 404 is gazing, and the bloody scene is too dangerous.
(End of chapter)