Chapter 549

The Balkans

The Russians and the Allied Army had already fought to the death. It was worth mentioning that the Osman Army, which had the largest number of soldiers, was reduced to a supporting role in this war. The main force of the Allied Army was now Britain and France.

In the Sliven region, both sides were in a stalemate. The French had stopped the advance of the Russians. Now, every step forward had to be filled with lives.

Because the Osman Army was not strong enough, they were pinned down by the Russian Army with a small number of troops. Now, it was 160,000 French Army against 280,000 Russian Army. It was not easy for the French to stop the Russians, so it was impossible for them to counterattack.

The French Commander-in-Chief Amable Jean-Jacques Pellissier was having a headache. In the previous battle, he had used 10,000 French soldiers to defeat 20,000 Russian Army. It was a glorious result.

Unfortunately, his ally was not strong enough. The Russian Army had only sent out a division and tens of thousands of Bulgarian guerrillas to suppress the 400,000 Osman Army and still had the upper hand. Anyone would have a headache when facing such an ally.

Amable Jean-Jacques Pellissier admitted that the Osman Army was not strong enough. It was mainly because of the tradition of not getting paid. Every time they went to the battlefield, the actual number of soldiers would be two to three times less than in name.

Even if they were discounted, the Osman Army still had more than 300,000 soldiers. It was almost twice the number of soldiers, but they were still being suppressed. He was speechless.

The plan could not keep up with the changes. He overestimated the strength of his ally and the war became a war of attrition. If this continued, even if they won the battle, both sides would suffer.

"Commander, news from the frontline!" A young officer said in a deep voice.

"Read it!" Amable Jean-Jacques Pellissier said calmly.

"Yes!" The young officer replied.

"On the morning of the 14th of September, 1852, the 7th Infantry Division encountered the enemy's 16th Division in the eastern region of Sliven. After a day of bloody fighting, our army defeated the invading enemy.

In this battle, we killed 1328 enemies, captured 16 enemies, wounded several enemies, seized 8 horses, 628 rifles, 28 pistols, and some ammunition.

Of course, our army also paid a heavy price. The 7th Infantry Division suffered 1236 casualties, of which 784 were killed, 652 were wounded, and 196 were missing. The division commander, Major General Oryhatton, was hit by stray bullets and is currently unknown. "

This was considered a victory? Aimable Jean-Jacques Pellissier strongly suspected that his officers had forgotten the concept of victory.

He had also climbed up from the bottom, so he had long been tired of these little tricks. Defeated the enemy? It was obvious that they had fought until night and dispersed.

If you had won the battle, would you have lost nearly two hundred men? If the French had had so many bad sense of direction, the war would have been lost. Perhaps these people were now in the Russian prison camps.

Amable Jean-Jacques Pellissier frowned and ordered: "Send someone to ask if that idiot Orehatton is dead or not. If he's still alive, report to me as soon as possible. . of Orhatt.

. of Orhatt.

Amable Jean-Jacques Pellissier didn't believe this report. The casualties of the 7th Infantry Division should be real. No one dared to falsify these things.

But the glorious results were probably nonsense. If they had won, there wouldn't be so few captives. The Russian Army wasn't someone who would face death calmly, and the French Army wouldn't slaughter the captives at this time.

Amable Jean-Jacques Pellissier didn't care about the outcome of this battle. The battlefield was ever-changing, and it was acceptable to suffer a small loss occasionally.

The French Expeditionary Force also had a difference in strength. The stronger troops could defeat the Russian Army, and the weakest troops were no match for the Russian Army's elites.

The 7th Infantry Division was only average in the French Army. If they encountered the Russian Army's main force, it wouldn't be strange for them to suffer a small loss.

After pondering for a moment, Amable Jean-Jacques Pellissier ordered, "Order the troops to focus on defense. Try not to engage in a decisive battle with the Russians.

We just need to stall them in the Sliven area. After we break through the battlefield in Sofia, we will fight the Russians. "

The Osman Army was not strong enough. They couldn't break through the Sliven area. Amable Jean-Jacques Pellissier had already given up on the plan to fight the Russians here.

This wasn't France. There was no need to risk their lives for the Osman. In Amable Jean-Jacques Pellissier's view, the most important task now was to preserve their strength.

They had restrained the main force of the Russians and had fulfilled their obligations as allies. Now, it was the Osman Army who didn't complete their task and caused the plan to be unable to be implemented. It wasn't their responsibility.

After the British won the battle in Sofia, they would join forces to annihilate the Russians in front of them. Anyway, the Russian Army there was only 70,000. The 50,000 British Army, 20,000 Sardinian Army, and 30,000 Osman Army had an absolute advantage.

Otherwise, if they risked their lives to fight the Russians now, even if they won the war, there wouldn't be much left of the French Expeditionary Force.

…

Russian Army General Command

Commander Menshikov still didn't know that he was lucky to have escaped a disaster. If the French were to fight recklessly at this time, there was still a good chance of winning.

The Osman Army's combat power was not good. It was not good in a head-on battle, but it might not be the case if they fought with a favorable wind.

As long as the French Army was willing to suffer casualties and was willing to charge in front of the Russian Army, the Osman Army would fight with a favorable wind and their combat power would be revealed.

"Order the troops to attack at all costs. We must tear open the enemy's line of defense as soon as possible. Don't worry about casualties. In the Principality of Wallachia, we still have 50,000 reinforcements. In Ukraine, we still have 300,000 reinforcements.

We only want victory. The Russian Empire has been waiting for this victory for almost two hundred years. Nine generations of people have fought for it.

Now the Constantinople are less than three hundred kilometers away from us. If we tear open the enemy's line of defense, no one can stop our footsteps. "

Menshikov said passionately as if this was not the headquarters, but a podium. He was giving a stirring speech.

How much are the Russians willing to pay for the Constantinople? No one knew the answer to this question, but let's change the way of asking.

Is it worth paying millions of casualties for the Constantinople? The Russians' answer was: it's worth it!

From the first Russian-Turkish war until now, the Russians had paid more than a million casualties for this fortress city. Are they wavering?

Menshikov knew the Tsarist government's determination. They must win.

The small goal of this Russian-Turkish war was to capture Constantinople and lock the Bosporus Strait. The highest goal was to occupy the land along the two straits and turn the Sea of Marmara and the Aegean Sea into Russia's internal sea.

Casualties were never in the Tsarist government's consideration from the beginning. As long as they won the war, the difference between tens of thousands of casualties and hundreds of thousands of casualties was just a number in the eyes of the Tsarist government.

Lieutenant General Burd questioned: "Your Excellency, we have done our best. If we increase the intensity of the attack, it is likely to give the enemy an opportunity.

Everyone knows the fighting strength of the French. Apart from a small number of elite troops that can compete with them, we can only rely on our advantage in numbers.

In the area around Sliven, we don't have an absolute advantage in numbers in this more than 100 kilometers front. On the contrary, the enemy has the advantage in numbers in many places.

Now we have the upper hand, but that's because the Osman are not strong enough. If we blindly attack the French position, we will consume a lot of strength.

If we don't take precautions, the French will suddenly launch a sneak attack and we will likely suffer a small loss. At that time, these weak Osman troops are likely to give us a fatal blow. "

Menshikov shook his head. "General Burd, you worry too much. The French's fighting strength is indeed strong, but they have too few troops.

Attacking the French now is a battle of attrition with them. The French are not gods, and they will also collapse if they suffer heavy casualties.

I said that if we cause them 3,000 casualties every day, the French will collapse in less than a month.

It was truly worth it to win this battle at the cost of hundreds of thousands of casualties.

If we don't destroy the French elite troops and instead bully the Osman rabbits, the war will continue even if we kill all these hundreds of thousands of rabbits. "

The weak couldn't win against the strong. Since the commander had requested an attack, they could only fight. In any case, the dead were all gray animals, and there was no need for officers like them to charge and break through the enemy lines.

…

On the battlefield in Sofia.

Montes still didn't know that the French allies had handed the heavy responsibility of winning the war to him. He was still counting on Sliven to make a breakthrough on the battlefield. He wanted to beat a drowning dog.

As for commanding the army, it would be better to defeat the Russian Army in front of them and then cut off the Russians' retreat route to win this battle.

It was better to leave such a difficult task to their allies! From Montes' point of view, he only had 50,000 British troops with fighting strength and 20,000 Sardinians at most. The Osman couldn't be counted on at all.

The Russian Army on the other side also had more than 70,000 troops, and there was also a group of Bulgarian guerrillas. The guerrillas' fighting strength wasn't worth mentioning, and they were probably about the same as the Osman.

Even if they won by using 70,000 troops against 70,000, they would suffer heavy losses.

Montes was only here to gain military merits, not to look for trouble. The officials in the country didn't care about their contributions on the battlefield. They only looked at the results of the battle.

Simply put, it was how many enemies they killed and how much they paid. Even when the French were heavily surrounded earlier, they could still get an exchange ratio of 1: 1.3. Now that they were fighting with 70,000 troops, they had to do a better job.

The London officials didn't consider the guerrillas and couldn't be counted in the results. They only recognized the regular army.

Before fighting with the Russians, Montes was still very confident. But after the battle, that confidence was gone. In terms of overall fighting strength, the British did have the advantage, but it wasn't obvious.

At the very least, 50,000 British troops couldn't beat the 70,000 Russian Army. If the Russian Army hadn't changed their equipment, it wasn't impossible for them to do so with their advantage in firepower.

Before changing their equipment, the rifles used by the Russian Army only had a range of 200 yards, while the British rifles had a range of more than 1,000 yards. In terms of firing speed, the British rifles were at least 30% faster, and they had an even greater advantage in artillery.

(Note: 1 yard is 0.91 meters)

In history, during the Crimean War, the Russians suffered a huge loss in terms of equipment and were brutally abused by the British and French.

But it was different now. The Russian Army had caught up in terms of firepower after changing their equipment. It was these troops that had fought against the British in the early stages of the war, which made Montes overestimate the strength of the Russians.

Based on this judgment, Montes made the decision to attack in a limited manner to exhaust the strength of the Russians. Simply put, it was to instruct the Osman Army to act as cannon fodder and charge at the front to fight the Russian Army, with the British as the supervising troops.

On the surface, this didn't seem to be a problem, but in fact, he neglected the fact that this kind of battle was actually helping the Russians train their troops.

An army that won one battle would become a veteran; after winning three to five battles, they would become an elite. This was how the elite troops of this era were forged.

Consecutive victories not only increased combat experience, but also confidence and morale.

The weak Osman Army that was charging at the front was giving experience to the Russians, helping them to level up.

Fortunately, the Russian Army's commander, Fitzroy Somerset, didn't notice this. Otherwise, he could have rotated all the Russian Army troops several times, and the Russians would have gained another elite division.

Then there would be no need for the British to fight the following battles. Although their training was stricter than that of the Russians, elite troops couldn't be built up through training. They had to go through the baptism of blood and fire.