The Kozelets Bridge became a top priority, but Li Xiao did not put all his hopes on Ogelinin's cavalry. After all, everyone knew that the traffic situation in Russia was a mess, and there were no roads on most rivers.
The bridges are all normal.
What's more, after the chaos in Ukraine, we can't expect the rebels and the officials who fled in embarrassment to have much moral integrity. Maybe the remaining bridges will be almost destroyed.
Although the water volume of the river is small in winter, it is not that easy to cross the river.
Therefore, we must be mentally prepared to not be able to flank the enemy, that is, to attack by force.
For this reason, Li Xiao made precise arrangements. Naturally, he first ordered the artillery to set up positions. If he could not suppress the artillery fire of the rebels on the other side of the river, he would probably have to pay huge casualties if he tried to cross this narrow bridge.
It's just that the artillery position is really difficult to set up. The main reason is that the enemy's position on the other side of the river is too ideal, and the entire front is firmly blocked. On the north bank of the river, except for the river embankment, there are too many residential buildings in low terrain. Unless the cannon is placed
Move to the roof, otherwise you won't be able to hit the opponent at all.
Li Xiao looked at the terrain with a telescope and shook his head. Isn't this deadly terrain a disaster for artillery?
After thinking for a while he asked: "Do you have a mortar?"
In fact, he wanted mortars more. After all, mortars showed excellent characteristics during the Crimean War and were truly friends of infantry.
It's just that after the war, Russia was in dire straits. Except for a few elite troops who had emergency production of mortars during the war, the rest of the troops couldn't get it at all.
Even when Dmitri came to counter the rebellion, he only brought a few dozen mortars, and these artillery pieces were all taken to Nizhin by Dmitri. After all, the surrendering army needed field fire support more.
To be honest, Li Xiao really regrets it. If he had known that this bridge would be so difficult, he should have asked Dmitri for a few mortars. Just three or five of them can have a very good suppressive effect.
So he could only retreat and ask if there was a mortar. After all, the mortar was the ancestor of the mortar. It had similar ballistic characteristics and could be used with some effort.
However, mortars are rarely used in field battles. Most of the time they are used in defensive battles. Field battles require direct-fire weapons with flat trajectories.
"Well, I found a few doors in the city, but they are all old antiques..."
It was more than just an antique, it was simply a cultural relic. But cultural relics didn't matter to Li Xiao. Anyway, as long as it could be used, it was fine for him. However, after the artilleryman demonstrated the striking effect of the mortar for him, he was speechless.
This thing is to throw iron bullets or stone bullets to hit people. It can be simply understood as a trebuchet fired by gunpowder. If there are dozens or hundreds of them, it can scare people, but Li Xiao only has five in total in his hand.
Only five 20-pound iron balls can be thrown.
To be honest, unless you are unlucky or the enemy is unlucky, it is almost impossible to cause much damage.
But even being here is better than nothing, even if it makes a noise and scares the other party, it's good.
It seems that we need to find another way to attack by force, at least we can't just rush along the narrow bridge stupidly, which is no different from delivering food.
Li Xiao immediately gave up his preparations to storm the bridge. He was not stupid, how could he die because of his headache.
In addition to arranging a forceful attack to attract the attention of the enemy on the other side of the bridge, he ordered the ships to be collected immediately and prepared for a forced crossing!
It's more of a sneak crossing than a forced crossing. Anyway, the enemy on the other side can only cause trouble with their artillery, so just avoid them, cross the river at a place where the enemy's defense is lax, and then attack in a roundabout way!
In fact, this is similar to Ojelinen's task. The difference is that it is more convenient for infantry to cross the river than for cavalry. The only problem is the ship. Whether you can find enough ships is the prerequisite for whether this set of tactics can be realized.
Fortunately, Orginio did not control ships, which was normal. For a rebel like him, there was no such thing in his mind.
So after two hours, Li Xiao collected five boats and could ferry hundreds of people to the other side of the river in one go.
In order to ensure success, he deliberately selected an area where the enemy's defense was weak, and specifically instructed the force to cross the river. After crossing the river, he should not rush to expand the victory, but first consolidate the position to ensure the safety of the subsequent crossing force.
At five o'clock in the morning, the Russian army, which had been busy for several hours, finally took a boat to cross the river. It was almost as expected by Li Xiao. The enemy on the other side was indeed unprepared. The troops crossing the river easily seized the landing site. With the continuous flow of troops crossing,
After crossing the Oster River, Orginio's troops guarding the bridge were dumbfounded.
Even a fool can see that there is no point in continuing to hold on. After a while, the Russian army will be the first to deal with them after crossing the river, and they will not be able to escape by then!
Orginio was also a bachelor. When he saw that the situation was not good, he immediately waved his hand and ordered to retreat, but Li Xiao was waiting for him!
As soon as he saw his artillery starting to evacuate their positions, he immediately ordered his troops to storm and seize the bridge!
So Orginio suffered a tragedy. The artillery had just withdrawn and was unable to deal with the Russian troops rushing over from the other side of the bridge. Moreover, there was a flank attack from the Russian troops crossing the river. It could be said that he was attacked from both sides. After a few minutes, his troops were defeated.
Collapsed.
When he saw that things were going wrong, he immediately ran away, no matter what Kozelets, no matter what, the artillery was lost, and the most important thing at the moment was to save his life!
I don’t know if this guy has done too many bad things and was noticed by God, or if things have been going wrong these days. As soon as he started running away, he bumped into Ojelinen who was taking the back road.
Not worthy of playing with horses.
Ojelinen only used one charge to cut down his horse, and then he naturally beat up the drowned dog!
It was seven o'clock in the morning, but Li Xiao couldn't help but sigh after looking at Orginio's head sent by Ojelinen.
I really don’t know why these Cossacks are so violent. Just kill someone. What does it mean to chop off the head and give it to him? This thing is inedible and looks scary. What’s the use of chicken feathers?
Besides, it is best to capture a bandit leader like Orginio alive and send him to St. Petersburg when the time comes. Alexander II laughed and laughed, and the credit will be even higher.
This is really a waste of natural resources!
It's just that it's all chopped up, so there's nothing to complain about. People are also kind-hearted, so I'll just pick it up with some salt and sprinkle some lime powder and send it to St. Petersburg.
Presumably Alexander II didn't care if the heads were stale, as long as Dmitry could prove that he could regain the lost ground.
The only thing that made Li Xiao a little unhappy was that Ojelinen brought him bad news. There seemed to be a large number of rebels moving north more than ten kilometers south of Kozelets!