Make France Great Again Chapter 473

After several hours of uninterrupted sailing, the British and French fleet finally arrived near Odessa around 5 pm.

At this time, the fiery red sun has slowly descended from the top to the sea level. The large white clouds in the blue sky appear a fire-like bright red under the illumination of the setting sun, and the white sails blown by the sea breeze are also dyed orange-red.

Odessa, the pearl of the southern part of the Russian Empire under the setting sun, revealed an indescribable French beauty, which made Vice Admiral Dunstad, who observed Odessa with binoculars, sighed, "Alas! It's so beautiful! How wonderful it would be if it weren't for the city built by the Russian Empire!"

"General Dundas, the city was founded by the Duke of Richelieu, who was appointed by Catherine as the first governor of Odessa! It is because of his efforts that Odessa will be It has become what it is today!" Rear Admiral Edmund Lyons, who was standing beside him, whispered to his superior Dundas Cope.

"I said why the architectural style of Odessa is really full of French flavor! After a long time, it turned out that it was built by our French friends! Our French friends are really helpful!" Dundas said sarcastically.

After hearing Lieutenant General Dundas' complaints, Edmund Lyons immediately extinguished Lieutenant General Dundas's idea of ​​continuing to popularize science, and turned to Lieutenant General Dundas to discuss the issue of the attack sequence.

"No hurry! Wait until the reconnaissance fleet we headed to Odessa port returns!" Lieutenant General Dundas raised his hand to stop it.

After a while, the steam gunships (two British gunboats and one French gunboat) that were in charge of surveying the enemy situation in the port of Odessa returned to the vicinity of the main fleet, and the semaphore on the ship reported the situation to the main fleet through the flag.

The naval fleet stationed in the port of Odessa consists of three main sail battleships, two double-deck ships, and three outdated steam gunboats.

Compared with the British-French combined fleet, such a scale is simply vulnerable. It should be noted that the artillery batteries deployed in the area around the Odessa port are capable of firing twenty-four or forty-eight-pound shells. The weapons prepared by Gula I in order to prevent the Anglo-French coalition from attacking the port of Odessa one day, but most of these weapons are the products of more than ten years ago, and the threat level to the current Anglo-French combined fleet is far from lethal. The ships of the fleet were equipped with guns of larger caliber and longer range than those on the Odessa fort, enough to pose a lethal threat to the Odessa fort.

Of course, if you fight against Turkey, these forts are enough, and then the Turkish fleet will drink a pot.

Dundas, who received the basic information of Odessa port, calmly analyzed the current situation.

Although the Anglo-French Combined Fleet knew all about the deployment on the waters of Odessa, the port of Odessa was still like a fog, and Dundas believed that it was not the time to launch a general attack.

Just as Dundas was thinking about the countermeasures carefully, a small boat descended from the French command ship on the left side of the fleet, and the small boat swam around the Dundas ship. Pick up the guests on board.

After the guests arrived on deck, the sailors reported the news of General Bruard's arrival to Vice Admiral Dundas.

Lieutenant General Dundas and Major General Edmond hurriedly went to meet General Bruard, and the two shook hands again under the sunset, and then quickly got to the point.

General Bruard asked Lieutenant General Dundas for his opinion on Odessa, and Lieutenant General Dundas responded cautiously to Bruard: "I hope the fleet can suspend the attack, because we have not yet understood whether there is an army in the port of Odessa! "

"What do you want to do?" General Bruill asked Lieutenant General Dundas.

"It's better to be able to grab a tongue and learn the news of the port of Odessa from his mouth!" Lieutenant General Dundas responded to General Brua.

"It's not easy to handle!" General Bruard said with a frown.

"Actually..." Major General Edmund said in a low voice, "It's not that difficult!"

"Huh?" General Bluard dragged his chin and looked at General Edmund with interest: "What can you do?"

"According to my recent observations of Odessa and the Sevastopol fortress, a small number of ships return to Odessa from the Sevastopol fortress every day, most of these ships are merchant ships, I think they are probably responsible for the The Russian army in the fortress of Sevastopol sent to supply civilian ships! If we can capture them, we will know the situation in the port of Odessa!" Major General Edmund put forward his own views.

"That's a good idea!" General Bruard nodded and looked at Lieutenant General Dundas and said, "What do you think?"

"You can try!" Lieutenant General Dundas nodded.

Afterwards, Major General Edmund took out the small notebook he carried with him, and after reading the contents of the records, he explained to Dundas and Bruard the time when the mall returned to the port of Odessa.

"The closest time to us is around 6 o'clock!" Major General Edmund said, Lieutenant General Dundas, then took out a pocket watch and glanced at the time it was now around 5:45: "It is about 5:45 p.m. Less than 15 minutes left!"

"Order the reconnaissance fleet to investigate along the route from Odessa to Sevastopol, be sure to seize the merchant ships!" Lieutenant General Dundas responded firmly.

Gu Fen "Yes!" Major General Edmund responded, and then he gave the order to the semaphore, who waved the flag to convey Lieutenant General Dundas' order to the reconnaissance fleet.

The reconnaissance fleet that received the order was like a runaway horse, frantically searching for traces of passing ships towards the route from Odessa to Sevastopol.

Time passed quickly, and about 20 minutes later, the reconnaissance fleet returned to the main fleet again, and the semaphore on the ship conveyed the order to the main fleet to complete the mission.

Edmund, who saw the order from the reconnaissance ship, immediately entered the cabin and reported the completion of the mission to Lieutenant General Dundas and General Bruard.

"Bring people here!" Lieutenant General Dundas ordered again.

Edmund quickly returned to the deck to convey the news of escorting the merchant ships to the main fleet to the reconnaissance fleet, and the reconnaissance fleet turned and left.

After a while, a boarding ship passed through the layers of siege and arrived in front of the command ship. The person in charge of uploading followed the two sailors and also boarded the ship heading for the command fleet, and then boarded the British command ship.

Looking at the Russian Empire businessman who looked like a Tatar, Dundas asked him in broken Russian if he could speak English.

"Dear Sir! (The merchant doesn't know whether Dundas is a noble or not, so he can only try to call Dundas Sir), I don't know English, I only learned a little French!" The merchant speaks fluent Russian To Lieutenant General Dundas.

Lieutenant General Dundas turned his attention to General Bruad who was standing aside, General Bruad stepped forward and had a simple communication with the Tatar-looking businessman.

From the mouth of this businessman, since the Anglo-French coalition declared war on the Russian Empire, Tsar Nicholas I of the Russian Empire has been strengthening the military force in the Odessa area. Now Odessa has gathered 50,000 to 60,000 Russians The army, so to speak, is heavily guarded.

"An army of 50,000 or 60,000 people? Where did the tsar get such a huge army!" Lieutenant General Dundas was a little unwilling to believe what the Tatar businessman said, and he immediately questioned.

General Bruard translated Dundas' words into French and told them to the Tatar merchants.

"Dear Sir, I'm just an ordinary businessman. I don't know where the tsar transferred these troops, but they are indeed staying in the port of Odessa!" The Tatar merchant said word by word. .

After listening to the Tatar merchant's words, General Bruard and Lieutenant General Dundas remained silent, and Major General Edmund immediately asked his subordinates to take the Tatar merchant down.

"What do you think?" Lieutenant General Dundas, who was silent for a moment, asked General Bruard.

"This possibility is not ruled out! After all, the port of Odessa is too important to the tsar! No matter how careful you can be!" General Bruard replied with his chin up, and then said with relief: " But we don't have to care too much about the number of people, I personally think that there are no 60,000 people in the port of Odessa! At best, there are only about 30,000 to 40,000 people!"

"Even if they have only 30,000 to 40,000 people, it is difficult for our army to gain an advantage!" Dundas' army responded.

The Anglo-French coalition forces on the ship were only about 8,000 people in total~www.mtlnovel.com~ They did not have any advantage in number at all. In addition to the early landing operations, a large number of soldiers were bound to be lost, which was really worth the loss.

"Then the only option is to destroy the living forces in Odessa!" General Bruard set the strategic goal of the British-French combined fleet.

"That's the only way!" Dundas nodded and responded.

Under the joint orders of Generals Bruard and Dundas, the combined British and French fleets began to change their attack formations and headed towards the port of Ossad.

Small and nimble gunboats were at the front of the line, followed by huge steam-sailed battleships.

When the Anglo-French Combined Fleet reached the maximum range of the ships and batteries in the port of Odessa, the Port Battery and the Russian Imperial Fleet that remained on the ships also noticed the appearance of the Anglo-French Combined Fleet.

Under the reflection of the stars hanging in the sky, the figures of the Odessa port battery began to move back and forth, and all this was seen by General Dundas and General Bruard on the commanding ship.

"Counterattack? Do you have the ability to do this?"

General Dundas, who vaguely saw the movement of the battery through the observation glass, put down the observation glass and dismissed it, and then ordered the fleet to execute the next order step by step.

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Chapter end