Chapter 476： Silistra meat grinder

On February 23, 1854, at 9:00 am, in the tent of the Russian Empire, northwest of the Silistra fortress.

A military meeting about launching a general attack on the Silistra fortress is being discussed in this camp.

The people participating in the meeting were the commander of the Danube Russian Empire, Prince Paskevich, the deputy commander, General Gorchakov, the 13th and 14th corps, the army stationed in Poland, the division commander of the Guards Corps, as well as the staff officers and adjutants of the general staff.

After unanimous discussion at the meeting, the plan for a general attack on the city of Silistra and its surrounding fortresses and trenches in the Ottoman Empire was passed.

In order to complete this plan, the Russian Imperial Army transferred more than 30 siege cannons from the Polish possessions on the basis of the original artillery, making the number of artillery pieces of the Russian Imperial Army far greater than that of the Ottoman Empire in Silistra. The artillery in the region is even larger than the total number of field artillery in the entire Eastern Front of the Ottoman Empire.

Paskevich believes that under such powerful artillery, if the Russian Empire can no longer capture the fortress and its surroundings, it can only show that the combat capability of the Russian Empire's army is far inferior to that of the Napoleonic Wars.

Next, the Russian Empire said that the only way to do it is to retreat.

Of course, this is just Paskevich's inner thoughts. During the meeting, Paskevich still stressed that all troops should use all their strength to completely capture Sistra within a week, and then follow Silista south to fight against the British and French allied forces.

And this time, the deployment of troops for the battle was the same as it was a few months ago, and the Guards Division was still the vanguard to attack the Turkish fortress.

General Hield of the 13th Corps, as an auxiliary unit of the Guards Division, carried out civil work around the city of Silistra, dug deep trenches to transport the cannons close to the fort, and the artillery on the central island of the Danube in the northeast. It is also necessary to significantly suppress the firepower of the independent Fortress of the "Tabiya of Arabia", the gateway of the Silistra fortress, so that the Russian Imperial Army can successfully demote the Fort.

The Polish Legion and the Fourteenth Legion, except for the cavalry, were all used as the general reserve. The Cossack cavalry units under the two corps bypassed the Silistra fortress to scout south, and once they found the British and French troops, they immediately reported to Paskevich.

Rather than saying that the Polish Legion and the Fourteenth Legion were the general reserve against the Silistra fortress, it is better to say that the reason why these two legions did not participate in the battle was for the sudden attack of the British and French troops.

The battle between the Turkish troops and the Russian troops officially started at 2 pm that day. After receiving the attack order from the staff, the artillery units on the island in the center of the river immediately poured all their artillery on the outskirts of Silistra Fort. Bastion.

As the outskirts of the city of Silistrastra, the "Arab Tabia" connecting the keys of other independent bastions was hit hard at the first time, and nearly a hundred cannons shot the protective wall outside the bastion directly. blow up.

In order to prevent the Russian Empire from launching an attack immediately after the artillery fire ceased, the Albanian and Tunisian regiments defending the bastion were under the orders of their commanders, two captains from England, James Butler and Charles Nesmith. The cannon attack builds the broken walls.

A warrior loyal to the sultan came to the edge of the collapsed city wall one after another. They often started work with a team of six people. Two of the soldiers were responsible for building the city wall, and the remaining four soldiers covered it.

The soldiers of the Russian Guards Division in the trenches were obviously unwilling to let this golden opportunity pass. They stuck their heads out and shot at the Turkish soldiers repairing the protective wall. The remaining four soldiers also used rifles to shoot at the Russian soldiers in the trenches. .

A meat grinder battle to repair the protective wall began. In this battle, each soldier responsible for repairing the protective wall of the "Tabiya of Arabia" bastion wall lived an average of only five minutes.

Often, after a soldier was killed by a soldier of the Russian Empire, the next soldier would immediately fill the vacancy.

The Turkish army under the blessing of fanatical religious enthusiasm not only shocked the Russian imperial army in the trenches, but also deeply shocked the two captains from Britain.

Before the war started, the two captains believed that the bastion could not be defended by the army in their hands, and the best result was to defend for 72 hours, and then to retreat in an orderly manner in the main city area, from the Russian imperial army to fight in the streets .

But they still underestimate the Turkish army. Although this army has a big gap with the British Army in terms of equipment, it does not lose to the British Army in terms of fighting will. The outcome of this battle is still an unknown suspense.

Thinking of this, the two British captains were full of confidence, they believed that the Turkish army would definitely defend this place.

With the help of a Turkish soldier, the collapsed protective wall was completed after a round of shelling.

However, the Turkish army lost hundreds of people, most of whom died under the guns of the Russian army, and a small part of the Turkish army died after being directly hit by artillery.

The only thing that Russian cannons brought to the Turkish army was shock, and the actual killing effect was not even as good as that of light artillery.

Of course, these are only summaries after the war. Cannons did shake the confidence of the Ottoman soldiers to a certain extent.

"For His Majesty the Tsar!"

Following a roar from the commander of the Imperial Russian Guard, hundreds of soldiers of the Imperial Russian Guard climbed out of the trenches and carried the bridge to attack the two and a half moon castles outside the bastion.

Gu Ji When the Russian Imperial Army climbed to the **** of the bastion, the Turkish video stationed on the bastion immediately launched an attack, and light artillery and rifles greeted this group of invaders without hesitation.

Due to the characteristic of the bastion itself, which has no dead ends and crossfires, many Russian soldiers just rushed out of the trenches and were caught by the Turkish soldiers on the bastion wall. After recovering hundreds of casualties, the Russian imperial soldiers finally arrived under the bastion wall exhausted. Before the group of Russian soldiers could build the bridge, Captain Butler on the bastion immediately gave the order to go out to fight.

The gate of the bastion opened, and a pair of soldiers with white headscarves screamed and ran out. They were soldiers from the Tunisian Legion. Each soldier had the determination to dedicate himself to God and His Majesty the Sultan.

"Thank you to God!"

This group of Tunisian soldiers, led by their commander, once again issued a frantic cry and rushed towards the Russian Imperial Army.

The Russian army, who did not expect the Turkish army to take the initiative to go out to face the city, immediately fell into a riot. Upon seeing this, Captain Barrett immediately ordered all the artillery and rifles on the bastion to be directed towards the Russian Empire who were about to climb the bastion. Soldier Center Shot.

The artillery and infantry on the bastion immediately obeyed his orders to shoot, and the Russian Imperial Army, which had been slightly defeated, completely turned into a defeated army under the double-sided attack.

The Russian Guards, known as the elite troops of the Russian Empire, retreated like a tide, and the Tunisian army immediately launched an attack. After some pursuit, hundreds of Russian soldiers became consumables.

However, this fanatical Tunisian regiment seemed to be advancing too deeply, and almost suffered a counterattack from the follow-up troops in the Russian trenches.

After more than a hundred bodies were left behind in the Russian trenches, the Tunisian regiment was able to return to the bastion.

The Tunisian Legion that returned to the bastion was cheered by the residents of the bastion, and was also personally received and rewarded by Omar Pasha in the city of Silistra.

After rewarding the Tunisian Legion and the two captain officers, Omar Pasha announced in front of everyone that he would appoint Musa Pasha in the Silistra fortress as the commander of "Tabia".

Anyone with a discerning eye could see that this so-called Musa Pasha was just a person sent by Omar Pasha to pick peaches.

However, Barrett and Nesmith have no objection to such an appointment.

Because they originally existed as the guest army of the Silistra Fortress, the victory of the Silistra Fortress was not linked to their promotion.

Not to mention that Omar Pasha also assured them in his private assurance that after Musa Pasha assumed command, he would not take away their command and would also give them a large sum of money.

In this way, Musa Pasha assumed the command of "Tabia", and took office with the tacit approval of the "Tabia" fortress.

At around seven in the evening, the sound of "Shasha" sounded from the Russian positions outside the bastion.

The Turkish soldiers stationed on the bastion immediately reported the sound to Captain BarrettCaptain Butler climbed the fort together with the soldiers.

Using the binoculars to find the source of the sound and look in the past, it turned out that the army of the Russian Empire was advancing forward.

Captain Barrett immediately understood that this group of Russian Empire wanted to imitate the tactics of Marshal Vauban and pushed their trenches all the way to the bastion walls, and then used artillery to suppress the attack.

Although this tactic is clumsy, it is very practical.

"It is absolutely impossible for them to smoothly advance to the city!" Captain Barrett immediately came to this conclusion, and he hurriedly began to dispatch troops to attack the Russian Imperial Army in the trenches.

As Captain Barrett was walking towards the bastion, Captain Nesmith and Musa Pasha met him.

"What happened? Is the Russian Imperial Army about to attack!" Musa Pasha asked Captain Butler with a flustered face.

Captain Barrett shook his head and told Musa Pasha and Captain Nesmith of his plans.

Musa Pasha and Captain Nesmith immediately agreed with Captain Barrett.

A group of carefully selected Turkish infantry attacked the Russian Empire all night, and the Russian soldiers who were caught off guard suffered a large number of casualties and retreated to the rear trench.

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