Chapter 201: A War More Than Wrong

  Chapter 198 – A War More Than Wrong

Balkan Peninsula

The Russians have already killed blood with the allied forces, it is worth mentioning that the Ottoman army with the largest number of men, was reduced to a supporting role in this war, and the main force of the allied forces has become the British and French.

In the Sliven area, the two sides were in a stalemate, with the French blocking the Russian advance, and now every step forward had to be filled with human lives.

Because the Ottomans were ineffective and were held back by the Russians with a small force, it was now 160,000 French troops against 280,000 Russians, it was very difficult for the French to hold back the Russians, a counterattack was non-existent.

The French commander-in-chief, Emabule Jean-Jacques Pelissier, was very much in his head, having fought off 20,000 Russians with 10,000 French troops in the previous battle.

Unfortunately, the ally is not strong, the Russian army just split a partial division, plus tens of thousands of Bulgarian partisans, it pressed more than 400,000 Ottoman troops to fight, and was able to get the upper hand. Anyone facing such a teammate would have a headache.

Emabule Jean-Jacques Pelissier admitted that the fighting power of the Ottoman army was not good, mainly due to the tradition of empty pay, and that the actual number of men who went into battle each time was nominally two or three tiers less.

Even if it is discounted, more than three hundred thousand Ottoman troops are always there, nearly twice the strength advantage, but also be pressed by others he is also drunk.

The plan can not catch up with the fast change, overestimated the strength of the allies, the war has become a war of attrition, so fight on even if you win the battle, but also two losses.

“His Excellency the Commander, a shortcut from the front!” A young officer said in a deep voice

“Read it!” Emabule Jean-Jacques Pelissier said calmly

“Yes!” The young officer replied

“Early in the morning of September 14, 1852, the 7th Infantry Division had an encounter with the enemy’s 16th Division in the area east of Sliven, and after a day of bloody battle warfare, our troops defeated the incoming enemy forces.

The battle resulted in the killing of 1,328 of the enemy, the capture of 16 prisoners, the wounding of a number of the enemy, and the capture of 8 horses, 628 rifles, 28 pistols, and a quantity of ammunition.

However, our troops also paid a terrible price. The Seventh Infantry Division suffered 1,236 casualties, of which 784 were killed, 652 wounded, and 196 missing, and the division commander, Major-General O’Reardon, was concentrated by a stray bullet, and his life or death is now unknown.”

Is that a victory? Emabule Jean-Jacques Pellissier was very skeptical that the officers under his command had forgotten the concept of victory.

He, too, had come up from the bottom, and had long since grown tired of this little trick. Defeated the enemy? It was clear that the battle went on into the night and each man dispersed.

If you’d won the battle, you’d have lost 200 men. If the French army had that many road warriors, this war would not be necessary. Maybe they’re all in Russian prisoner-of-war camps now.

Emabule Jean-Jacques Pelissier frowned and ordered, “Send someone to ask if that idiot Orehattan is dead, if he is still alive, report here as fast as you can. If dead, have the chief of staff come here.”

“Yes!” The young officer replied immediately

Emabule Jean-Jacques Pelissier didn’t believe this battle report, the 7th Infantry Division’s casualties should be real, no one dared to fake these things.

But the brilliant results were mostly bullshit, if the battle had really been won, there wouldn’t have been so few prisoners. The Russians are not a death wish, and the French will not massacre prisoners at this time.

Emabule Jean-Jacques Pellissier did not care about the outcome of such encounters; the battlefield was ever-changing, and it was acceptable to suffer a small loss now and then.

The French Expeditionary Forces also had a difference in combat strength, the strongest troops could beat all the Russians, but the weakest troops were also no match for the Russian elite.

The 7th Infantry Division’s combat power is only medium in the French army, so it’s not surprising if it encounters the main force of the Russian army and suffers a little loss.

After a few moments of contemplation, Emabule Jean-Jacques Pelissier ordered: “Order the troops to focus on defense, and try not to engage in a duel with the Russians.

We just need to hold them back in the Sliven area, and wait for a breakthrough in the Sofia battlefield before engaging the Russians in a decisive battle.”

The Ottoman army’s fighting strength was not good, and the Sliven area could not achieve a breakthrough, Emabule Jean-Jacques Pellissier had already given up the plan to fight the Russians here.

This was not France, it was not necessary to fight for the Ottomans, and in Emabule Jean-Jacques Pellissier’s opinion, the priority now was to preserve strength.

They had done their duty as allies by holding the Russians’ main force in check, and it was not their fault that the Ottoman army had failed to fulfill its task of cooperation, making the battle plan impossible to implement.

After the British had won the victory in Sofia, they could then join hands to besiege the Russians in front of them. Anyway, the Russian army over there was only 70,000, 50,000 British troops plus 20,000 Sardinians and 30,000 Ottomans had an absolute advantage.

Otherwise, if we take the risk of fighting with the Russians now, even if we win the war, there won’t be much left of this French expeditionary force.

……

Russian General Headquarters

Commander Mareshkov did not yet realize that he had dodged a lucky bullet. If the French had fought desperately mang a wave at this time, there would still have been a good chance of winning.

The Ottoman army is not strong enough to fight in a frontal duel, but not when the wind is blowing.

As long as the French army to spare casualties, willing to top in front of the upward charge, the Russian army’s flame down, these Ottoman troops followed the wind war, combat effectiveness will also come out.

“Order the troops, give me an attack at all costs, must tear through the enemy’s defense as soon as possible. Don’t worry about casualties, in the Principality of Wallachia, we still have 50,000 additional troops, and in the Ukraine we still have 300,000 reinforcements.

All we want is victory. The Russian Empire has waited almost two hundred years for this victory, nine generations have fought for it.

Constantinople is now less than three hundred kilometers away, and by tearing through the enemy’s defenses, there will be no one left to stand in our way.”

Mareshkov said with passion, as if this was not a command post but a lectern, and he was giving a rousing speech.

How much were the Russians willing to give for Constantinople? No one knows this question, but ask it differently.

Is it worth paying millions of casualties for Constantinople? The Russian answer was: yes!

From the First Russo-Turkish War to the present, the Russians have long since paid more than a million casualties for this fortress city, have they faltered?

Menshkov knew the determination of the Tsarist government that victory was necessary.

The minor goals of this Russo-Turkish war were to capture Constantinople and lock down the Bosphorus. The supreme goal was: to capture the land along the two straits and turn both the Sea of Marmara and the Aegean Sea into Russia’s inland sea.

Human casualties, from the beginning, were not in the consideration of the Tsarist government. As long as the war was won, paying tens of thousands of casualties and hundreds of thousands of casualties, in the view of the tsarist government this difference, just a number.

Lieutenant General Bold questioned, ”Your Excellency the Commander, we’ve already done our best now, if we increase the intensity of the attack further, it’s likely that we’ll leave an opportunity for the enemy.

The fighting strength of the French is clear to everyone, we can only rely on our strength advantage except for a small number of elite troops that can fight against them.

In the area around Sliven, which is more than a hundred kilometers of front, we do not have an absolute strength advantage, and in many places it is the enemy who has the strength advantage instead.

Now we have the upper hand, that is the Ottomans strength is not good. If we blindly attack the French positions, we have consumed a lot of strength.

If we don’t take precautions, and the French suddenly break out in a sneak attack, we will probably suffer a small loss. When the time comes, these Ottoman troops with low combat power will probably deal us a fatal blow.”

Menshikov shook his head and said, “General Bold, you’re worrying too much. It’s true that the French have a strong fighting force, but they have too few troops.

Attacking the French now is fighting them for consumption. The French are not gods, they will collapse just the same with high casualties.

As I said, if we create 3,000 casualties for them every day, in less than a month’s time, the French will collapse.

It’s so worth it to use more than 100,000 casualties to win this meeting.

If we don’t fight off the French’s elite troops and instead bully the Ottoman rabbits, even if we take out all of these hundreds of thousands of rabbits, this war will still go on.”

The arm couldn’t be bent, the commander-in-chief demanded an attack, so naturally, he had to fight. The ones who died were all gray animals anyway, and it wasn’t like they, the officers, were needed to charge into battle.

……

On the battlefield of Sofia

Montes doesn’t yet know that his French ally has given him the burden of winning the victory, and is now counting on a breakthrough on the battlefield of Sliven so that he can beat the hell out of him.

As for commanding the army, crush the Russian army in front of him and then go to plunge the Russians to win this meeting.

It was better to let the allies take on something so challenging! In Monteith’s opinion, the troops in his hands with fighting ability were 50,000 British troops, plus at most 20,000 Sardinian troops, and the Ottomans could not be counted on at all.

Opposite the Russian army also has more than seventy thousand, there is a Bulgarian partisan army, partisan fighting strength is not worth mentioning, it is estimated that and the Ottomans half a catty, the two happen to cancel each other out.

With seventy thousand against seventy thousand, even if we win the victory, but also have to lose a lot of money.

Monteith was only here to reap the rewards of war, not to ask for trouble. Domestic bureaucrats do not care, their contribution on the battlefield, people only look at the results.

Simply put, how many enemies were killed, and how much it cost. In front of the French deep in the siege, can play 1:1.3 exchange ratio, they are now 100,000 to fight 70,000, must fight even more beautiful.

Guerrillas were not on the radar of the London bureaucrats and could not be counted in the war effort, they only recognized the regular army.

Before he had fought the Russians, Montes had been confident. After the encounter, that confidence was gone. In terms of combined fighting strength, the British did have the advantage, but this advantage was not significant.

At least 50,000 British troops can not beat 70,000 Russian troops, if the opposite side of the Russian army are not changed, then with the advantage of firepower, it is not impossible to do.

Before the change of the Russian army used rifle range of only 200 yards, the British army rifle range of more than 1,000 yards, in the rate of fire of the British army rifles should be at least thirty percent faster, the artillery on the advantage of a greater.

(Note: 1 yard equals 0.91 meters)

Historically, the Russians suffered a major equipment loss in the Crimean War and were savaged by the British and French forces.

Not anymore, the refitted Russian army caught up in firepower. It was these troops that fought the British in the early days and directly caused Montes to overestimate Russian strength.

Based on this judgment, Montes made the decision to attack in a limited way and deplete the Russian strength first. Simply put, it is to command the Ottoman army as cannon fodder, rushing ahead to fight the Russians, and the British as the supervisors.

On the surface there was no problem with this, but in fact he overlooked the fact that such a battle was actually helping the Russians to practice.

An army that wins one battle becomes a veteran; after winning three or five battles, it becomes an elite. That’s how the elite armies of this era were fought.

Successive victories increase not only battle experience, but also confidence and morale.

The Ottoman army, which rushed to the front with unbeatable combat power, was sending experience to the Russians to help them complete their upgrades.

It’s a good thing that the Russian commander, Fitzroy Somerset didn’t notice this either. Otherwise he would have moved all the Russian troops up to rotate a few times, and the Russians would have had to add another elite division out.

Then the later battles of the British will not be necessary to fight, although their training is more rigorous than the Russians, but the elite troops can not be built by training, but also through the baptism of blood and fire.

(End of chapter)