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Chapter 31 The Crimea

As the saying goes, "Plan and then act; know how to stop and then gain."

Dong Shuheng has been preparing for this day for two years.

Two years seems to many people to be a short time.

But in Dong Shuheng's heart, he has always been controlled by a feeling that time and time do not wait for us.

It seemed as if there was a hand pushing him, and a person following behind urging him.

If we, China, want to rise among the aristocratic families and all races, we must give wings to rapid development.

This is his mission, and it is also the mission of the Renaissance Army. The name of the military is its mission.



A few days before the Spring Festival of the fifth year of Xianfeng's reign, on the far shore of the Black Sea, Liu Qingnan led eight thousand soldiers and medical staff after an arduous journey and finally landed on a coast full of gunpowder smoke.

After landing in Kuwait, they took a boat along the Euphrates River and headed upstream, enjoying exotic scenery along the way.

It turns out that people grow wheat in such a far away place!

These soldiers who were born into poor boys sighed in their hearts.

Apart from the banker, the one they pay the most attention to is their daughter.

Occasionally, a veiled woman looks from the field to the boat, with her big eyes flashing and her face covered, and she looks like a beautiful woman.

When the ship reached the upper reaches, it was not until it could no longer travel that the expeditionary army switched to the land route.

After crossing the Taurus Mountains and marching north for half a month, the expeditionary force reached Samsun in northern Turkey.

This was the largest port city of the Ottoman Empire on the southern coast of the Black Sea.

Here the expeditionary force once again boarded a sea ship. This was a steam transport ship of the French Navy.

After traveling for two days, the ship finally arrived at its destination one early morning. This is the Crimean Peninsula, specifically the Kazak Bay southwest of Sevaspotor.

Compared with the hundreds of thousands of troops on this island, the number of Liu Qingnan's group is inconspicuous.

But their arrival is enough to attract people's attention. These people with black hair, black eyes and yellow skin look very different from Europeans.

Just like Liu Qingnan and the others saw the exotic Arabian customs after landing in Kuwait, and now they have seen so many white-skinned foreigners.

Many soldiers felt they had had enough foreign food.

Most of the coalition soldiers came from the lower classes, and few had actually seen Chinese people. They were also full of curiosity about these people with different faces and decent clothes.

In the eyes of the coalition forces, being able to wear uniforms is regarded as respectable.

In fact, their knowledge is similar to that of the soldiers of the Renaissance Army.

Most of these white soldiers recruited from cities or villages had never actually left their own country.

Only some officers had been to the East, and they recognized that this army was composed of yellow people from the East.

Around the landing site, coalition soldiers were whispering to each other.

"Hey, I know them, they are Chinese. Oh, of course they could be Japanese."

Many people couldn't help but show off to their companions.

"I feel they are very similar to the indigenous people in Southeast Asia."

"No, no, no, those Southeast Asian indigenous monkeys don't walk so upright."

"Why are so many Chinese coming here? Can they fight? I heard that the Chinese are cowards when it comes to fighting."

"They should be here to do hard work. Someone will do the work of repairing our fortifications in the future."

"Well, yes, the Chinese are very capable. My brother works as a sailor on a Dutch ship. They specialize in selling piglets in China. These people are very good laborers, and they are very popular in the United States or South America."

"Huh? Why don't they have braids? Doesn't it mean that Chinese people all have long braids?



Liu Qingnan and the others could not hear or understand the discussion of the coalition soldiers.

Regarding the prejudices of foreigners, it is useless to argue. Only by slapping them in the face with actions can their stupid minds get to know the Chinese again.

When setting off from Shanghai, the French Minister sent a major military attache as the liaison officer of the army to set out with Liu Qingnan and handle relevant traffic and liaison procedures along the way.

This man's name is Ramon Grosso. He has curly brown hair and a typical Western face. However, he is not tall and is actually thinner than many soldiers of the Renaissance Army.

He is a very funny person and can speak Chinese, but not fluently. However, along the way, he got to know so many Chinese people day and night.

Ramon's Chinese has improved greatly, which can be described as leaps and bounds.

"General Liu, we have finally arrived at our destination. This is the Crimean Peninsula. I can already smell the smoke from the front line." Ramon said with a smile.

"Look, to the northeast is the Sevastopol Fortress." Ramon pointed to the northeast, where a fortress could be vaguely seen.

Following the direction of Ramon's finger, Liu Qingnan looked northeast and saw that it was indeed a huge fortress. However, because the distance was too far, Liu Qingnan could not see the details clearly.

Ramon has no prejudice against the Chinese, but respects the Chinese very much.

After staying in China for several years, he felt that the Chinese people were just culturally different from those in Europe, but they were not backward.

Many of them are very cultured and live a very particular life. Moreover, they have profound cultural heritage, which is fascinating.

Especially for a young man like Ramon Grosso who likes to study Eastern culture.

After disembarking at the landing site, French Commander Carlo Porte came to the landing site and greeted Liu Qingnan politely.

The British commander Raglan, who was also the supreme commander of the coalition forces at this time, was not seen.

Commander Carroll Porter only had a few polite conversations with Liu Qingnan before handing over the placement of the Renaissance Army to Ramon.

Ramon thought he had completed his mission, but he didn't expect that he would have to stay on the battlefield.

At this time, the British army's camp was in Balaclava, and the French army's camp was in the west at Kamish and Kazak Bay.

The French army's camp faced the sea and could receive supplies from the sea.

The British had to face reinforcements from Tsarist Russia and had difficulties in supplying them.

Raglan may have made this arrangement for the sake of the unity of the coalition forces, because he is a British man. If he favors his own people, then some people in the coalition forces will inevitably be dissatisfied with him.

Especially the French army, which now accounts for the majority of the army's strength.

The current shape of the battlefield is that the coalition forces surrounded the Savastopol Fortress on three sides.

The French army is in the southwest, and the British army is in the southeast and east. There are also fleets cruising on the sea.

Liu Qingnan and the others were placed next to the French camp. The British seemed reluctant to stay with these Chinese.

Liu Qingnan chose a sunny and leeward slope one kilometer away from the French military camp as the expeditionary force's camp.

He immediately asked the soldiers to dig trenches around the camp and dig the foundations of the tents.

The temperature here is now below ten degrees and above zero. It's not too cold.

At ten o'clock in the morning, Liu Qingnan and Ramon came to the quartermaster.

Although Liu Qingnan couldn't understand what the quartermaster was saying, judging from the expression on the quartermaster's face and Ramon's reaction, it was obvious that what the quartermaster said was not pleasant to hear.

The two even had a brief argument in French.

Ramon took Liu Qingnan aside and said very apologetically: "General Liu, because a plague broke out in the military camp before. Many military supplies were burned, so we can only get two hundred tents."

There are only 200 tents for more than 8,000 people, which means that they have to squeeze more than 40 people into one tent.

When passing by the French army camp, he saw long tents that were very crowded with more than forty people living in them.

But Ramon has already explained it, and Liu Qingnan doesn't want to embarrass him anymore.

Let's make a living first and make enough food and clothing by ourselves. Liu Qingnan has no idea what to do. In a few days, let the soldiers build their own places to live.

When the quartermaster saw Liu Qingnan and Ramon taking away the receipt, the corners of his mouth turned up in a proud smile.

"Aren't yellow-skinned monkeys supposed to live in trees?"

This is what the quartermaster just said to Ramon. Ramon did not translate it.

Ramon has been with these Renaissance troops for a long time and knows that these people are very hardworking and self-disciplined.

While on the ship, he didn't see any soldiers gathering together to gamble and kill time. What surprised him was that these soldiers spent most of the day studying. They learned Chinese writing. There were even translators who taught them some simple French.

.

There are many excellent armies in this world, but this is the first time Ramon has seen an army that pays so much attention to learning.

After landing, they marched in Ottoman territory in an orderly manner. They did not rob a village or rape a woman.

They cooperated with the arrangements of Ottoman local officials throughout the process.

Also, they are very particular about hygiene. For this reason, none of their soldiers can grow their hair long, so these Chinese people don’t have braids.

And their army even has special "Health Regulations".

Ramon had never seen such an army!

He returned to the French camp in the morning and saw the messy camp. He suddenly felt disgusted and didn't even want to go in. There was dirty mud and water everywhere. The smell of feces could be smelled everywhere.

Today, in front of the quartermaster, Ramon really wanted to ask him where he got the confidence to humiliate these Chinese.

Liu Qingnan brought the tent, and the soldiers quickly set up the camp.

For lunch, they used supplies they received from the Ottomans, mostly flour.

The cooking soldiers made pancakes with flour. Then they boiled the meat soup. The meat was obtained from the Allied Forces Logistics Department. Although it was very small, it was still enough to make the soup.

The reason why Liu Qingnan wanted to stay so far away from the French army's camp was, on the one hand, to prevent conflicts from arising if he got too close. On the other hand, it was also due to the need for epidemic prevention.

From the information given by Ramon and the quartermaster's statement, the plague did indeed occur among the coalition forces.

After the soldiers of the expeditionary force had eaten, they continued to work.

They dug a pit as deep as half a person on the slope. The pit was rectangular in shape. The excavated soil was placed in the middle of the surrounding plywood and solidified to serve as a wall.

After building the walls, the soldiers placed hay in the pit and lit a fire. This could remove insects and moisture from the pit.

After the fire was finished, the pit was allowed to cool naturally, and then the soldiers sprinkled lime into the charred earth pit, and then used tools to flatten and compact it.

The next step is to make the roof.

The expeditionary force made shacks very quickly. A squad of soldiers could complete a shack in half a day.

Liu Qingnan is not idle either. He currently knows nothing about the situation on the battlefield. The information he had obtained in China was all from a few months ago.

So the first thing he had to find a way to get was a piece of combat intelligence about the coalition forces in recent times.

Fortunately, Ramon helped him solve this problem. Today Ramon returned to the French camp to handle this matter.

The old combat reports were not considered secret, and Ramon obtained them easily.

However, Liu Qingnan himself could not understand the information in French. He first found a military interpreter to translate the information into Chinese.

Through this information, Liu Qingnan gradually understood the context of the war.

The intelligence starts from Varna in the Balkan Peninsula.

The British, French and Turkish armies are getting along very well in Varna. However, health problems are becoming more and more worrying.

Moisture, small insects and schistosomiasis invaded the military camps. On July 19, cholera broke out in the French military camp. On the 22nd, it spread to the British military camp. Although all tents were destroyed, the plague was still not under control.

On August 10, 1854, a fire destroyed much military supplies, including 16,000 pairs of boots and 150 tons of biscuits, making the situation even worse.

Orders from London and Paris continue to urge the coalition forces to launch operations. The coalition forces do not know exactly how many Russian troops there are in Crimea, but estimates range from 45,000 to 140,000.

On August 24, 1854, the coalition forces began to board the ship, and planned to complete all boarding tasks on September 2, 1854. The troops able to participate in the operation included 27,000 British troops, 30,000 French troops, and 7,000 Turkish troops.

On September 7, 1854, British Admiral Dundas, the Allied naval commander, ordered the ship to set sail.

Saint Arnold, the original commander of the French army, set out on the 5th because he was suffering from cholera. The one-armed Lord Raglan followed the large army.

Raglan's flagship, the Caradoc, flew the Russian flag and went out for reconnaissance, eventually choosing Yevpatoria in Kalamita Bay, 35 miles north of Sevaspotor, as the landing site.

On September 12, the coalition fleet arrived in Yevpatoria. The mayor of Yevpatoria agreed to surrender, but in view of the plague carried by the coalition forces, the mayor demanded that the coalition forces must be quarantined.

At dawn on September 14, the coalition forces began to land, and everything went smoothly. Every coalition soldier was carrying a heavy load.

At 9 a.m. on the 19th, the main force of 55,000 coalition forces set off, and the landing site was guarded by the Turkish army. However, cholera infected some soldiers.

At the Nek River in the Balkans, the coalition forces encountered the Russian outpost for the first time. The British cavalry asked for pursuit, but Raglan refused because he found it was a trap. There were 6,000 people from the Russian 17th Division in the distance behind the Russian cavalry.

Both sides used artillery to attack each other from a distance, and the British army won.

The Russian army retreated to the main position in Omagh, where they hoped to prevent the coalition forces from advancing towards Sevaspor. That night, the coalition forces camped to prepare for the attack on Omagh. The British army had no tents and could only sleep in the cold, while the French army was much more comfortable.

.

On the Russian side, the Black Sea Fleet was trapped in the port of Sevastopol by the British and French fleets.

The plan of Prince Menshikov, the commander-in-chief of the Russian army, was to use Alma's favorable terrain to inflict a major blow to the coalition forces, and then counterattack to drive the coalition forces into the sea.

His army consisted of 4 infantry divisions and 1 cavalry division, with about 30,000 men. But to his surprise, the Battle of the Alma River he launched was crushed by the British commander Baron Glaren.

The Allied victory at Omagh opened the road to Sevastopol. Raglan's engineer commander, Lord Borgne, suggested that the Allied forces build a fortification to defend against attacks from Russian reinforcements from the north.

Marshal St. Arnold, who was already seriously ill at this time, supported this plan. The coalition's plan was sound.

On September 23, 1854, the British army marched southward in sunny weather. The troops were allowed to rob along the way, so their morale was high.

The curse of cholera has also been relieved a lot.

After the British army crossed the Purbeck River, Sevastopol was already in sight. Raglan decided to continue advancing south as planned and then attack Sevastopol from south to north.

On the night of September 25, the British army deployed on the wide front between the Purbeck and Chenaya rivers and rested.

On the morning of the 26th, the British army had a hearty breakfast and then headed south to Balaclava.

After a burst of ineffective artillery fire, the British army entered the small town of Balaklava. The local people brought out fruits, flowers and bread as a sign of friendship.

One day later, the French army followed the British army's route. At this time, Saint-Arnold was already dead, and the French army was commanded by Carlo Porte.

St. Arnold died on the 29th. Raglan decided to locate the British military headquarters in Balaclava.

The French army went to camp at Kamish and Kazak bays west of Balaclava.

Raglan advocated an immediate attack on the city, but between September 27 and October 10, 1854, he failed to persuade Carlobot and the engineer commander Sir Borgne.

On the 10th, the coalition decided to formally besiege Sevastopol.

On October 17, 1854, the bombardment of the Allied Navy lasted for a day, but the 1,100 naval guns had little effect. On the contrary, the Russian artillery fire severely damaged the Allied Navy. The Royal Navy lost 300 men, 7 battleships were seriously damaged, and the French fleet also suffered heavy losses.

The loss is not light.

On October 24, 1854, the battlefield situation changed significantly. Menshikov led the Russian reinforcements out of the northeast of the coalition. His intention was to cut off the Vorontsov Avenue connecting Balaclava and Sevastopol.

and threatened Balaklava.

On the second day after the war, the Russian army launched a small-scale attack on the British 2nd Division on the Khom Ridge. The purpose was to open up the post road from Inkermann Bridge to Vorontsov Avenue. Russian Colonel Federo

The husband led six battalions of troops into a secondary position of the British army, but was driven back by the British artillery fire on the ridge.

On November 24, the British and French forces were attacked by a storm early and suffered serious material losses.

After that, due to the cold weather, the coalition forces were unable to launch a general offensive, and the war entered a state of winter siege.

On January 10, 1855, the Russian army launched a small attack on Balaclava.

On January 17, the Russian army attacked Yevpatoria, which was guarded by the Turkish army, where the coalition forces initially landed. These attacks did not bear fruit.

On January 26, the Kingdom of Sardinia declared war on Russia and sent 15,000 troops to Crimea.

It is now the Spring Festival, that is, February 1855. After a period of accumulation, the supplies of the coalition forces have been greatly improved.

A simple railway was built to the British camp, solving the supply problem.

Throughout February, a large number of reinforcements arrived. The expeditionary force of the Renaissance Army was only part of them.

The French army increased to 90,000 men. The British army only had 11,000 soldiers in good condition, and the other 23,000 were either wounded or sick.

The Turkish army had 20,000 men and 30 cannons. The French army was the main force of the attack. In addition, there were some mercenaries, 9,000 German legions, 3,000 Swiss legions and 1,500 Polish legions. These were all troops hired by the British.

Liu Qingnan probably had a rough grasp of the battlefield. He felt that the coalition forces would launch a general offensive next.

So how do the expeditionary forces of the Renaissance find their place in such a large-scale war?

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