On July 15, 1877, a total of 83,000 Russian troops besieged the Pleven fortress. Russian Chief of Staff Dmitry? "Alexyevitch?" Milyutin personally commanded the third siege of Pleven.
The Russian campaign was designed to attack from both sides of the Black Sea at the same time from north to south. The Danube Army west of the Black Sea crossed the Danube, broke through the Balkan Mountains and went straight to Constantinople. Pleven was south of the Danube and north of the Balkan Mountains. If this nail could not be pulled out, the Russian army would have to worry about a flanking attack from Pleven during a large-scale military operation.
In the first two battles, the Russian army suffered successive defeats. The Osman army in Pleven should be the elite troops of the Osman Empire. Getting rid of this army would not only make the Danube Army of Russia have no worries, but it would also make the Osman army tremble in fear. For this battle, Chief of Staff Milyutin was determined to win.
In the Pleven fortress opposite the Chief of Staff Milyutin, Li Weiren first commanded the Osman army to arrange all the stored supplies before entering the headquarters. Osman in the headquarters?? Nuri Pasha's expression was grim. This battle was harder than he had imagined. According to the agreement, the troops commanded by Suleyman Pasha, who was defending the Pushka Pass of the Balkan Mountains, would cross the Balkan Mountains and reinforce Pleven. According to the latest news, Suleyman Pasha could only barely defend the Pushka Pass. Now the situation had become Osman Pasha's. The 30,000 troops commanded by Nuri Pasha had to rely on their own strength to defend the Pleven fortress.
Seeing Li Weiren come in, Osman Pasha asked in a heavy tone. Nuri Pasha asked in a heavy tone: "Lieutenant Colonel Li, do you think we can defend?"
"That depends on how long you are prepared to defend. I don't think we can defend here for two years. "Li Weiren replied.
Hearing this, Osman Pasha could not help but sigh. Nuri Pasha could not help but sigh. This was not a joke, but a joke about what happened not long ago. In the past month, the Osman army also frantically searched for food around Pleven, but the results were limited. The nearby manors and farmers' houses were completely emptied, but in the end, they only managed to gather less than two thousand tons of food.
In order to replenish their vitamins, under Li Weiren's suggestion, the Osman army even plucked the unripe apples from the apple orchard. After adding salt, he mashed it into a paste and stored it. On the other hand, the local area was rich in tobacco, and a large amount of tobacco was enough for thirty thousand people to smoke for two years. Osman? Nuri Pasha even joked: "Are we going to stay in Pleven for two years?"
Now, Li Weiren was joking about it. As for Osman? Nuri Pasha was not amused at all.
While they were talking, the Russian Army of the Rhine started firing. This time, there were at least 400 cannons involved in the bombardment. Unlike the previous bombardment, the Russians used bigger cannons this time.
In the stronghold's sturdy core command center, Osman was in the stronghold. Nuri Pasha and Li Weiren only felt the earth shake, and the soil rustled and fell from the cracks in the wood at the top of the command post. The lanterns used for illumination swayed back and forth, almost falling off the iron hooks. The staff officers and guards in the command post had ugly expressions, and some people showed a look of fear.
The commander-in-chief of the Pleven stronghold, Osman? Nuri Pasha and Lieutenant Colonel Li Weiren, the actual commander of the defense, were not so excited. When the others got up, the two of them pulled a chair and sat down steadily. Russia had no money, and its industrial strength was relatively weak. Even if it had 3,000 cannons, it was impossible for it to be as generous as Britain, France, or China. Although the industrial strength of the Osman Empire was weaker than that of Russia, the two commanders of the Osman Empire at the moment did not think that this earth-shattering bombardment could be maintained for too long.
In less than a minute, the artillery fire of Russia weakened. Li Weiren stood up and ordered the correspondent, "Immediately send someone to check the communication trenches and determine if the firing points have suffered any damage."
In the last battle, the Russian artillery did not directly destroy the firing points of the Pleven stronghold. However, most of the important firing points of the stronghold were built below the ground, and a large amount of soil that was blown up by the artillery shells blocked the firing ports and vents. Because of inexperience and careless inspection, two people in the firing points were suffocated to death because of their remote location. This time, Li Weiren did not want to make the same mistake again.
These people had targeted training, and the Osman Army had also specifically identified the person in charge. Soon, the personnel of various specialized departments began to act under the artillery fire. When the Russian army lined up again and rolled toward the Pleven stronghold, all the firing points were ready. This time, the power of the Russian cannons was much greater than the last time. More than a dozen firing points and vents were blocked. Fortunately, the troops responded well. Other than one firing point that was directly hit by the enemy's cannons, there were no casualties.
Last time, the Russians also used the tactic of multiple siege, but at most, they only sent two attacks at the same time. This time, there were 83000 elite troops in the attack, and the Russians adopted a more radical approach and launched a four-way siege.
The Russian army attacked from four directions at the same time, like an iron ring tightly surrounding the Pleven stronghold. The response of the Osman Army was the same as the last time. First, they started from 2000 meters and fired with single-shot rifles. When the Russian army approached a distance of 200 meters, the Osman Army began to fire fiercely with Gatling guns and five-shot rifles.
This time, the Russian team was more elite, which meant that they were more resilient. Not only did the Russian army shoot at the Osman Army inside the stronghold from a distance of 200 meters, but several troops even began to charge into the stronghold under the hail of bullets. As long as they dared to pay the price, any army could continue to move forward.
With their bravery, these Russian troops rushed to a distance of 50 meters from the Pleven stronghold, regardless of the losses. At this time, a trench that the Russians could not see before appeared in front of them. The Russians didn't care so much, and they all jumped down. As soon as they jumped down, the Russians discovered the strangeness of the trench. On the side of the attacking side, the trench was still the same as a normal trench. On the side of the defending Pleven stronghold, the trench was completely flattened. In other words, the Russians who jumped down the trench found themselves like people who had been shot, with their backs against the trench that was not easy to climb back up, and they were shot to death by the firepower of the Pleven stronghold.
A moment later, these brave Russians were killed in a storm of rifle and Gatling gun bullets. From the time they jumped down the trench to the time they were killed or seriously injured, the distance they moved was less than ten meters. The difference between life and death was only a distance of ten meters.
At this time, the Osman Army had no time to count the results of the battle, and the Russian army that came like a tide was not just here to die. They also fired fiercely at the Osman Army, and the dense bullets killed and wounded many machine gunners in the firepower. The Osman Army that was fighting in the outer positions suffered even more casualties.
Doctors with the insignia of military doctors led logistics personnel to and fro the various shooting points, carrying the wounded and the dead away. The dead were sent to the back to be parked, and the wounded were sent to the hospital for treatment. New combatants immediately took over the battle.
Ali, a lumber merchant? Lieutenant Liza was responsible for transporting ammunition. He ran through the tunnel with his company carrying the ammunition boxes. The strong smell of gunpowder made it difficult for him to even breathe. But the lieutenant did not stop. Like his companions in the transport unit, he covered his mouth and nose with a wet cloth. The ammunition boxes were placed in fixed positions next to the shooting positions.
Someone in each shooting point was responsible for collecting as many shells as possible from the ground and placing them in the empty ammunition boxes. Ali? Lieutenant Liza and the others also had to carry these boxes and place the shells in the corresponding positions at the various entrances. This was a combat operation that they had trained many times. After repeated training, these movements could be completed with their eyes closed.
Someone would send these shells to the small arsenal in the stronghold. Inside the arsenal, 500 military workers began to use tools to reload these bullets. Among the materials that were sent to Plevin were the reloading equipment made in China. Considering the level of Turkey's industry, these equipment were all operated by manpower. These equipment were suitable for Turkey, especially for the current Plevin Fortress.
The production used an assembly line method. Remove the fire cap, remove the dust in the shell, enlarge the opening of the shell, install the fire cap, put the fixed amount of gunpowder into the shell, install the bullet, and use a machine to press the joint. Although the reloading did not need to be sent to the front line immediately, the military factory was still working hard and did not care about the fierce battle outside.
Under Li Weiren's arrangements and training, the entire fortress operated in an orderly manner. On the other hand, the Russian army outside the fortress could no longer hold on after three rounds of attacks. The main force of the attack was the Bulgarians, who had a deep hatred for the Osman Empire.
The Bulgarian army was mainly made up of militia as the backbone of the armed forces. They did not have the same formal training as the Russian army. Their formation was sparse and scattered. When the enemy fired, the Bulgarians would lie on the ground and use the Russian corpses to avoid the bullets. This practice undoubtedly showed the Bulgarians' unprofessionalism, but it did achieve the effect of reducing casualties in the process of advancing. And when the Bulgarians moved, they would pick up the weapons that the Russian army had left behind. Their own weapons were undoubtedly inferior to the Russian army's weapons, and a considerable number of them were muzzles.
But the Bulgarians' hatred for the Osman Empire was far greater than that of Russia. Their actions looked irregular, but no one ran away or hesitated to advance. They approached the Plevin fortress and began to exchange fire with the Osman army.
The advantage of the militia's flexibility in fighting disappeared when they reached the trench fifty meters away. When they saw that they had the opportunity to rush to the Osman army's position, these Bulgarian soldiers full of hatred for the Osman Empire jumped into the trench like moths to a flame and were immediately exposed to the firepower of the Osman army.
The corpses in the trench began to pile up at an alarming rate. After this wave of fighting, less than a thousand of the five thousand people who participated in the battle could return to the starting point. The dead Kaliya soldiers used their own bodies to fill the trench that Li Weiren had painstakingly designed. When Li Weiren saw the trench filled with corpses through the binoculars, he did not even feel proud. Holding the binoculars, Li Weiren felt that his world view was about to collapse. Even when he saw the cruelty of the battle with his own eyes, he still felt that it was completely unbelievable.
Many years later, the fortress in the city of Plevin had long been demolished and disappeared. The Plevin Battle Museum was located next to the trench. The lowest part of the trench was dug out again and became part of the museum. Even if it had been buried, even if it had been decades, when the trench that had absorbed tons of blood was dug out again, it was still clearly black compared to the other layers of soil.
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