Make France Great Again Chapter 431

Some time after Menshkov's order, a hunting party of six steam clippers, three three-sail clippers, and six double-deck warships was formed to take advantage of the Strong maneuverability attacked supply ships in the eastern Black Sea, preventing them from continuing to provide effective support to the Caucasus.

In this way, it can not only help the Russian Empire in the Caucasus to gain some supply advantages, but also provoke the Ottoman Navy to make the main decisive battle with the Russian Empire Navy as soon as possible.

Only by completely eliminating the Ottoman ships in the Black Sea can the Russian Empire's supplies in the Caucasus and Near East be assured.

And the person in charge of commanding this fleet is none other than Lieutenant General Nakhimov, who is good at sea raids.

As for the rest of the fleet, they were gathered together by Menshkov, ready to be used as a sharp knife for raiding the port of Sipno.

From September 26 to 30, the "wolves" led by Lieutenant General Nakhimov frequently attacked all the Ottoman fleets in the Black Sea, and the frequency of their attacks was more intensive than before.

In just four days, five ships were attacked by Nakhimov's fleet, two of which were supply ships and the remaining three were steam clippers.

This made the Ottoman Navy, whose naval strength was slightly lower than that of the Russian Empire, fall into a more passive state. When the news was passed through the Sinop port to Constantinople, the angry Majid I immediately called the navy. Marshal Mahmoud.

"Didn't you tell me! The Imperial Navy doesn't belong to the Russian Navy at all? In less than three days, the Empire has lost three warships! Say, what the **** is going on here!" Gritting his teeth, he threw the information from Sinop at the feet of Admiral Mahmoud.

Grand Marshal Mahmoud didn't speak, he just bent down slightly to pick up the information under his feet, and then quietly waited for Abdul Mejid I to regain his composure.

After a while, Abdul Mejid's anger gradually subsided.

What followed was an inexplicable sadness. He was sad for being in a decaying empire and for his once glorious ideal.

"Tell me! What the **** is going on!" Abdul Mejid I asked Mahmoud weakly.

"According to the current information, the Russian Empire has formed a fleet dedicated to hunting supply ships! Our three steam clippers are all because of the protection of supply ships, so they were dragged down by the flexible fleet of the Russian Empire!" Mahmoud spoke to Abdul Mejid I calmly, as if everything was what he expected.

"How should we fight against such a fleet now? We can't let them destroy our fleet all the time!" Abdul Mejid I asked Mahmoud.

"Your Majesty, our steamboat is not as fast as the Russian Empire!" Mahmoud did not answer Abdul Majid I's question immediately, but replied to the steamship itself: "If our situation If there is no mistake, the steam engine used by the Russian Empire is the latest model of the British steam engine. The steam engine loaded by the Ottoman Empire fleet is the previous generation steam engine, so the imperial fleet is much inferior to the other in terms of mobility.”

"Isn't the empire without money!" Abdul Mejid I explained to Mahmoud a little embarrassedly.

In the final analysis, everything is still about money. If the Ottoman Empire can squeeze more money into the military field, then the Ottoman Empire will not become what it is now.

The current Ottoman Empire has fallen into a vicious circle. If the center of the empire wants to collect more taxes, it must have a central army that can win the battles of various towns (Egypt, Tunisia) and foreign forces (Britain, France) to be responsible for suppressing localities and establishing An army that can win against feudal towns and foreign forces needs more tax revenue to invest in the army.

If you want to centralize power, you must have an army. If you want to strengthen the army, you must collect more taxes, but if you want to collect taxes, you must have an army that can suppress the Pashas from all over the world.

Under such an endless cycle, most of the taxes that the Ottoman Empire can collect will only fall into the hands of the bloated bureaucracy, and a small amount of funds will be used to build a new army.

In the absence of sufficient salary and equipment, the combat effectiveness and will to fight of the army will not be high, let alone the Prussian and British military commanders in the Ottoman army and navy, whose salary is higher than that of the native Ottoman officers. Much higher.

As for why the Army chose Prussia, it was not because Prussian officers were cheaper. If the Ottoman Empire had money, they would of course choose the number one French military commander in Europe.

"Your Majesty, I'm not complaining like you!" Marshal Mahmoud said to Abdul Mejid I: "What I mean is: since we can't catch up with these guys, why don't we choose to dispatch more The fleet protects the safety of the routes! In this way, the fleet of the Russian Empire will not act rashly!"

Mahmoud's method made Abdul Mejid I a little moved, but he still had some concerns about the safety of Constantinople: "But... Constantinople must not make any mistakes, now Our troops in the fortress of Silistra are under attack from the Danube area! It would be bad if the troops of the Russian Empire arrived directly in Constantinople by warships!"

It turned out that Paskevich, who is located in the Danube Principality, also received a letter from the Minister of War of St. Petersburg, Minister Dolgolu, after Menshkov formed a rapid response fleet to attack the supply of the Ottoman Empire. Dolgoruko told Paskevich that the army of 130,000 Russian Empire stationed in the Danube Principality began to attack the Silistra Fortress at the moment of receiving the letter, until the Silistra Fortress was completely conquered. group so far.

In the face of this letter from Dolgoruko, Danube Commander Paskevich and Deputy Commander Mikhail Gorchakov once again rushed several commanders of their subordinates to their tents to discuss countermeasures.

After a heated discussion, Paskevich decided to implement Russia's policy with reservations.

That is to say, the 140,000 troops under Paskevich will not be put into battle all at once, and nearly 60,000 troops of the 13th and 14th Corps under Mikhail Gorchakov are stationed in the northwest to guard against the gradual Transylvania increases the strength of the Austrian Imperial Army.

Although Nicholas I repeatedly assured Paskevich that the Austrian Empire would never attack the Russian Empire, Paskevich was still unwilling to believe all the promises of the Austrian Empire and left the army to monitor Transylvania The Austrian garrison was a necessary choice.

The remaining Guards Division and the Polish Legion, nearly 80,000 troops, were also divided into two groups by Paskevich, of which 30,000 pretended to attack Ruse, which was used to attract the troops of the Ottoman Empire stationed in Ruse. Contain part of the Ottoman Empire.

The main guard division and most of the Polish legions went to the Silistra fortress to attack, trying to win Silistra as soon as possible.

If it weren't for the fact that Omar Pasha, who was stationed in Silistra, held a force of nearly 40,000 people (including the field army + the Egyptian army + the "Jihad Army"), and the excellent commander of the Prussian fortress defense engineering Officially, Silistra had already been taken by Paskevich on the first night.

The Russian Imperial Army at that time, under the command of Paskevich, was spearheaded by an elite Guards Division and covered by 70 artillery pieces (all the artillery of the 130,000-strong force was concentrated in Silistra) to Scilly Stella's bastions attack.

After the Ottoman Empire in the bastion suffered the first round of artillery, it showed signs of collapse. Many Ottoman soldiers couldn't help but run towards it after suffering such strong artillery.

You must know that things like a fortress are not afraid of violent kilometers from the outside, but they are afraid of the self-destruction of the interior.

Once the internal morale of the bastion fortress group is unstable, coupled with the attack of external enemies, a fortress can be quickly attacked.

Fortunately, Omar Pasha still held an unselfish supervising team in his hands. They led the troops who left without authorization, and the whole army stopped the signs of rout.

After that, Omar Pasha dispatched Egyptian veterans with rich combat experience to the walls of the bastion for coordinated defense. Some of these Egyptian veterans had the honor to participate in the war of Muhammad Ali against the Ottoman Empire.

Unexpectedly ~www.mtlnovel.com~ After thirteen years, these two armies actually stood in the same trench and fought each other.

With the help of Egyptian veterans, Silistra's army finally stabilized, and the next thing was a contest of wills.

The Guard Division attacked the Silistra Fortress again and again, and the defenders in the Bastion Fortress also fought back tenaciously.

Although these defenders of the fortress of Silistra did not have enough artillery, they were able to attack the guard division with only a dozen artillery pieces in their hands.

In just five days, the corpses of more than 200 soldiers of the Guard Division had been piled up in the Silistra fortress group.

Facing a war like a meat grinder, Paskevich decided to put the attack on hold.

The soldiers of the Russian Empire stepped back and plotted their next move.

Omar Pasha was also able to send personnel to deliver news to Constantinople. Abdul Mejid I, who received the news, was relieved, but at the same time, he was concerned about the safety of Constantinople. Anxiety, so there is still a large number of army and navy around Constantinople.

Chapter end