Kornilov and Nakhimov had no confidence in the Danube Fleet but had great confidence in mines, because most of the current damage caused by the Black Sea Fleet to Britain and France was caused by mines and storms.
Among them, natural disasters such as storms are rare. If you encounter them once, it is God's favor. Don't expect God to cheat you every day.
Although the mines did not sink any local battleships, they were extremely effective against battleships and ships. A total of seven or eight British and French frigates and cruisers were sunk.
If the Danube Fleet could run to lay mines in the waterway where British and French ships moved, you can imagine what kind of blow they would receive if they were unprepared.
Kornilov and Nakhimov felt excited when they thought of this. They really hoped to see the dumbfounded looks of Britain and France soon. Since the sea power changed hands, they had had enough of the British and French fleets showing off their power, and they really wanted to take a breath!
Li Xiao also didn't expect that what finally convinced Kornilov and Nakhimov was the ability to mine mines. From this, we can also see how embarrassed the Russian Navy is. They are always in a situation where they are more than the superiors, less than the inferiors, always more than the inferiors.
It is far from the strongest in the world.
When encountering a true naval power, it has always been defeated. The huge fleet that has been built with great efforts can only be used to bully some trash fish. The cost-effectiveness ratio is really a mess.
What’s even more funny is that the Russians are still enjoying it. The navy has been destroyed and rebuilt, and they have been tossing it up and down countless times. Every time they have just made some appearance and think they can show off, they suddenly return to before liberation.
Li Xiao admired their tossing spirit. If it were him, he would have been tormented to the point of losing his temper.
Not to mention the ruins of the Russian Navy, after finalizing the various matters for the Black Sea Fleet to cooperate with the Danube Fleet to break through the blockade, Li Xiao and the others returned their focus to the land area.
"Be prepared as quickly as possible," Li Xiao sighed: "Kostya is probably going to get hit hard this time. You'd better prepare for failure in advance. I think the morale of the Sevastopol defenders is already low.
When we reach the bottom, I might have to do it again..."
Kornilov is also worried about this problem. The morale accumulated in the Battle of the Alma River has been squandered by Menshikov. Now the whole army is generally very pessimistic, especially the nomadic Cossacks.
He has no intention of fighting at all. He only just paddles around and robs his own people, which can make people mad!
"The performance of the Cossacks is indeed very bad." Li Xiao nodded.
As long as you are not blind you can see that everyone is a light cavalry, but this group of Cossacks is like heaven and earth compared to the British light cavalry. To put it bluntly, one British light cavalry can fight at least five Cossacks, this group of bastards
They are simply here to do bad things and get people killed.
"Then you make some adjustments, discuss it with Kostya, and use your Cossacks and dragoons to replace his infantry. Anyway, those scum are useless for defending the city, so it's better to leave them to Kostya.
Food is delivered from England and France!"
Kornilov and Nakhimov were speechless for a while, because this idea was too bad, and they simply didn’t regard the Cossacks as human beings. But, it can really be done.
Now they still have nearly 6,000 cavalry under their command. They are of no use in defending the city. They have to bring in food and fodder. They might as well exchange them for the infantry in the hands of Grand Duke Constantine.
"Six thousand cavalry for twelve thousand infantry?"
Grand Duke Konstantin was also confused by the high conditions proposed by Kornilov. This was the first time he had seen such a deal.
However, he was also a little tempted by this proposal. According to Nicholas I's request, he now has nearly 60,000 troops on hand, including more than 10,000 cavalry, and the rest are light infantry.
If there were more cavalry, the impact would definitely be extraordinary, but six thousand for twelve thousand felt a bit expensive.
"Why is it expensive?" Kornilov followed Li Xiao's prompts and deceived him vigorously, "The combat effectiveness of cavalry is comparable to that of light infantry. To put it bluntly, one cavalry can withstand four infantry. If it weren't for your highness, you
The troops here are so tight that 6,000 cavalry have to be replaced by 18,000 infantry!"
However, Grand Duke Constantine was not so easy to fool. He snorted: "Since the cavalry is so powerful, why do you want to trade infantry with me?"
Kornilov spread his hands and replied in great frustration: "Your Majesty has given you the task of attacking. I am only responsible for the defense of Sevastopol. What use can the cavalry have? It is better to leave it here than idle here."
Leave it to you to let them gallop on the battlefield to help you build meritorious deeds!"
Grand Duke Constantine glanced at Kornilov. Although he did not believe that Kornilov was so kind-hearted to help him, more cavalry would indeed be more helpful. After all, his strategy this time was to flank the coalition forces, and the cavalry
A little more mobility will make you more able to achieve suddenness.
But he still thought the asking price was too high, so he immediately went to the ground to exchange money: "Six thousand cavalry can only be exchanged for eight thousand infantry at most! This is mine..."
Before he finished speaking, Kornilov had already turned around and left. He could only swallow back what he had not finished and raised his bid: "In exchange for 10,000, any more will be impossible. After all, my troops are also very tight."
!”
Kornilov gritted his teeth, nodded and agreed to the conditions, and seemed to have suffered a big loss. But when he walked out of Grand Duke Constantine's reception room, his expression changed completely, and he was as happy as if he had eaten a magpie flight.
"It's exactly as you expected, six thousand for ten thousand." Kornilov said to Li Xiao happily, "How do you know this is his bottom line?"
"Guess."
Li Xiao curled his lips contemptuously. For him, it was not difficult to guess the temper of Archduke Constantine. If you want to take advantage of him, you must first pretend to be at a loss, and you must raise the price from the beginning.
You see, he must have been fooled!
"You have to hurry up and go through the formalities. Although Kostya is stupid, he is not without smart people around him. Get him back quickly so that he will not regret it later!"
However, this time Li Xiao guessed wrong. The smart people around Grand Duke Constantine did not realize that this was a trap. They quite approved of Grand Duke Constantine's behavior of exchanging 10,000 infantry for 6,000 cavalry.
So Kornilov got the people back without any effort, and after doing so, he quickly took these people into his hands and assigned them tasks, without giving Grand Duke Constantine a chance to regret it.
With the extra 10,000 infantrymen, Kornilov suddenly felt that he had a lot more money on hand, at least much better than when he had the cavalry who only ate and did not work. At that time, the cavalry was really busy with everything.
He couldn't help but only caused trouble. Now he can finally strengthen his defenses and wait for the next round of the coalition's offensive...