Chapter 713: Small Fish
Chapter 697 Small Fish
The sudden Armageddon not only disrupted the layout of the Vienna government, but likewise the plans of the British.
The world is always “easy to add flowers, snow in the charcoal is difficult”. Russia and Prussia had already begun the decisive battle, and it was too late for the London government to help them to pull in allies.
The tendency to favorable and unfavorable is the instinct of human nature, international politics and diplomacy is no exception, after all, the decision of politics and diplomacy is also a human being.
Whether it is the Central Asian countries, or the Ottoman Empire, or the German Confederation, this time will choose to wait and see the situation.
If the Puppo Confederation lost in the Battle of the Congress, this war ended prematurely, the Berlin government could not afford to organize a second Congress, and the Russians would not give them time to stay.
At that point, even these potential allies together would not be enough for the Russians to beat them up, and the result would be the same with or without help.
If the Russians were defeated, the war would continue, but the power of the weak and the strong would change and the initiative of the war would be reversed.
People didn’t mind the icing on the cake to sell a good deal to Britain and Prussia, just as they did in the first Russo-Prussian War, pouncing on them and tearing a piece of meat out of the Russians.
No, the German Confederation was an exception.
George I would not have dared to accept a victorious Prussian-Prussian Confederation, and although usurpation of the throne was rare in Europe, the “Comedy Empire” was an exception to this rule.
Of course, if the Pope had won the war, the British would not have pushed for a German-Prussian merger. The government in London needed a counterweight to Austria, not a rival.
……
As the battlefield moved westward, the winters were no longer freezing, which was another major challenge to the Russian logistical system. This can be seen in the deployment of Russian troops.
The southern line of troops operated close to Austria, making it easy to resupply nearby; the northern line had maritime supplies, which could be transferred from St. Petersburg or procured from the Nordic Confederation; and the Warsaw battlefield had the Wisła and Narew rivers, which could be transported by water.
However, the Narew River is mainly snow water, the annual navigable time is limited, in two months will be frozen, the upstream break downstream naturally can not be counted on.
Ivanov had been opposed to the launching of the Battle of Warsaw and had taken this aspect into account. If the Vistula River had not been under control, he would not have initiated an outpouring of troops even if the Fourth Army had been stuffed.
In this respect, the Russian army was much more rational than in the First Russo-Prussian War, and did not send out troops as a matter of course, causing the frontline soldiers to starve.
It takes time to mobilize an army, especially when millions of troops are mobilized.
“It is not that the soldiers did not work hard, but the key is to march with provisions and supplies, so you can’t go fast enough.
In this regard, the local army had an absolute advantage, the Berlin government built the railroad can play a role, Mauch was the first to complete the deployment of troops.
The general headquarters of the Prussian army, looking at the marching route marked on the map, Mauch sighed.
Ivanov is still the same Ivanov he is familiar with, playing the word steady to the extreme, except for that greedy and adventurous fourth army, the troops behind are leaning in, the distance between two troops in close proximity is usually no more than thirty miles.
It was only a morning’s march, so it was difficult for him to do anything even if he wanted to do something in such a short time.
“Send out all of our cavalry, disguise as a small unit to attack the enemy, delay the marching speed of the rest of the enemy’s troops, but don’t engage the enemy in battle.”
After a pause, Mou Qi added, “Don’t worry about the enemy Fourth Army that has already been sent to the door, let them come in first.
Order the Seventh and Eighth Divisions to encircle from the right flank in a roundabout way; order the Fifth and Seventh Armies to assemble at once; I want to take the Russian advance guard first.”
If you can’t swallow the main Russian army, it’s a good choice to take the advance troops first. This was the limit of what Mao Qi could do with the maneuvering force in his hands.
War was to compare again who made more mistakes, and since the Russians had made a mistake, Mauch naturally could not let it go.
Facts once again proved: on the battlefield, grabbing credit and running too fast is not necessarily a good thing. In case the teammates didn’t follow, they had to accept the test of blood and fire.
The Russian Fourth Army, which had moved ahead of schedule, was now going to be put to the test. It looks like they just left two days earlier, marching speed is not very fast, in fact they and teammates action time staggered at least five days.
It took time for the General Command to make a decision, it took time for the orders to be conveyed, and it took even more time for the troops to move from assembly to action.
Five days was already enough time to change a lot of movement west. Even if the Fourth Army didn’t march very fast, the closest Russian troops were still more than one hundred and thirty kilometers away.
This distance, once the war broke out, even if the neighboring Russian army put all their efforts to come to the rescue, it would be two days later.
In reality, this only existed in theory. Troops that marched more than one hundred and thirty kilometers in two days existed, but only if provisions and heavy weaponry were discarded.
Without these belongings, and dragging their exhausted bodies, the combat power of the troops was directly nullified for the most part. Not to mention rescue, or perhaps they themselves are here to give away their heads.
No, the Russian cavalry can definitely do it, it doesn’t even need two days, just one day is enough.
Perhaps it was because of this that Lieutenant General Obodo dared to take the risk of marching on Warsaw.
An early showdown was demanded by many at home anyway, and as the instigator of the battle, innately Opoedo reaped a huge wave of favors.
If he then made a war record, replacing Ivanov as the face of the Russian military in the future would be a natural thing to do.
“Risk”?
There’s no such thing as risk these days. The Fourth Army is a strong force, and with their strength, they can still hold their ground and wait for reinforcements to arrive.
With the successive victories on the battlefield, General Obodo was already in a state of euphoria and didn’t give a damn about the enemy.
In the Russian army, there were many people who believed that the enemy’s victory in the last war was a fluke, coinciding with the weakest moment of the Russian army.
Now that the Tsar’s government had purged the army of its worms and replaced it with their “godlike” generals, how could they not win the war?
……
Early in the morning, the sky just released a light, just woke up and still a little confused, Lieutenant General Obodo, ears heard the faint sound of artillery fire.
In the end is the army in the general, immediately caused Obodo’s vigilance, do not wait to figure out what is going on, the guards hurriedly ran over.
“General, our army’s advance force has had an encounter with the enemy, requesting fire support.”
“How is the enemy so fast?”
As soon as the words hit the ground, Obodo realized that he had lost his temper, a question that was simply not something the guards could answer.
“Order the artillery to give them fire support, and inform the officers to come over for a meeting, I want to deploy for combat duty.”
All the way over, the enemy hadn’t intercepted them, and now that they were almost at Warsaw’s doorstep, the sudden appearance of enemy troops naturally wouldn’t just be a mere blockade.
Since he dared to take the risk, Obodo was naturally not someone who was afraid to fight. If he really was a waste, there was no way for him to hide it from the General Command and move with the Fourth Army.
The Russian army also had checks and balances, and only strong officers could completely control the troops. The army is a place for the strong, and if you want to be strong, you must have “war merit”.
If you don’t have a convincing ability to control your troops, it is likely that the telegrams will arrive at the headquarters as soon as Obodo makes his move.
……
The brutal battle began, Obodo guessed the beginning, but did not guess the end.
The Prussian army was much faster than he expected, and without waiting to react, he was caught in an encirclement.
From the outbreak of the battle to the appearance of the encirclement, the enemy just used less than two days. Obviously the enemy had prepared for this, otherwise it could not have been so fast.
Whether or not to break out became the biggest problem in front of Obodo’s eyes.
A bearded officer, excitedly said: ”General, we can’t withdraw now. The enemy is obviously prepared, once we choose to break out, we will surely suffer heavy losses.
We have taken this action on our own, if our troops suffer heavy losses, we will have to go back to the court martial.
Instead of squatting in prison, I would rather die on the battlefield, the battlefield is the soldier’s home!
Besides, the situation is not that bad, we at least have more than 100,000 troops, the enemy can’t eat them in a short time.
How about defending on the spot, waiting for reinforcements to arrive, and giving the enemy a centerpiece!”
The “court-martial” is the crux of the matter. It’s not a crime to take matters into your own hands on the battlefield. How can you seize the opportunity to fight when you have to wait for orders from headquarters?
And if they lose the battle, it’s a mortal sin. All the responsibility must be carried by them, and they can’t even find someone to blame.
Obodo knows clearly, the enemy’s encirclement must have loopholes, now ordered to break out at least can run out half of the troops, but as the supreme commander, he himself will be finished.
Not only will he be in bad luck, but all the top brass of the Fourth Army will be in bad luck. Whether or not you can go to the court-martial depends on luck, or perhaps will be Ivanov used as a typical, directly to the raid.
Analyzed the situation, Obodo helplessly found that now ordered to break out of their own dead. Not only is he finished, the family will also follow the shame.
Stay to defend the same crisis, the enemy is obviously prepared, they can wait for the possibility of reinforcements is very low, if you are not careful, you will be wiped out.
Reinforcements would arrive in a week, and that was the ideal situation. The closest troops to the Fourth Army are only a hundred kilometers away, and the cavalry can arrive overnight, but the farther ones are still hundreds of kilometers away.
If you want to relieve them, you can’t do it with a small number of troops, you have to mobilize a large army, otherwise it’s just a meat bag.
Gathered troops, but also to conflict with the enemy’s halfway interception, this all need time, and the Fourth Army is the most lack of time.
“Order the troops to hold on and wait for help, from now on send a telegram for help to the headquarters every day, remember to pay attention to the wording and highlight the seriousness of the problem.”
After further hesitation, Obodo still decided to let go. A dead friend of the road is not a dead friend of the road, and for the sake of a ray of hope, he had to use the more than 100,000 soldiers of the Fourth Army as a bargaining chip.
The big deal if he lost the bet was to die in battle, it was better than being executed, the Tsarist government was still very tolerant in treating the dead.
People die and debts are canceled, as long as the battlefield death, the previous things can be turned over.
In case the gamble is won, it’s a big profit. The winner is not to be blamed, and the self-interest in front of him becomes the battlefield to improvise and seize the opportunity of battle.
The “halo of a famous general” will automatically fall on his head, and he will become another miracle in the history of Russian military history for future generations to admire.
……
(End of chapter)