Chapter 36 Under the Battle of Ulan-Ude (Thanks to Wang Tingyu)
Although Lieutenant General Vladimir felt sorry, the first day was just a test attack. At least the purpose of the test was achieved now.
As a result, Tsarist Russia's artillery proved to be unable to function during sieges. Although Tsarist Russia still had nearly a hundred artillery pieces, these artillery pieces would be destroyed as soon as they entered the opponent's range.
In other words, Tsarist Russia can only use infantry to conduct offensive operations. However, if the infantry attacks without artillery cover, the casualties will inevitably be huge.
Tsarist Russia's army is not afraid of sacrifice. As long as this sacrifice can be exchanged for the life of the other party, then all this will be worthwhile.
Fortunately, they now have rifled guns, otherwise they would have to be beaten passively when facing the Renaissance Army on the opposite side.
Now Khristenko understands why Governor Muraviev’s entire army was wiped out in the lower reaches of the Amur River.
Faced with the huge gap in weapons, the bravery of Tsarist Russian soldiers could not make up for this gap, so failure would be the final result.
In such a remote place, failure means the destruction of the entire army.
Because it is such a long journey and there are uninhabited areas along the way, escaping will be a road of death.
Even if we leave aside the pursuit of the enemy, the harsh natural environment alone is enough to kill the defeated soldiers.
The next day, the fighting ended with a one-sided artillery battle and a tentative attack by the Russian army.
The Russian army headquarters was filled with smoke. Khristenko, who didn't like smoking, couldn't help but go out to breathe fresh air.
This battle was not as easy to fight as he imagined when he set out. Maybe he should get in touch with the opponent.
Khristenko thought in his mind: What cannot be accomplished by war may not be accomplished by negotiation.
In the command room, Lieutenant General Vladimir is organizing everyone to discuss tomorrow's attack plan.
"Mr. Lieutenant General, I think we can extend the trench forward. If the soldiers can shoot at each other in the trench, then we will not be at much disadvantage." A young colonel suggested.
The colonel's words seemed to open up an idea for everyone. Since everyone has given up on the line formation, it is not surprising to use trenches to attack.
In fact, this colonel also learned it from the Renaissance Army.
On the battlefield, your enemy is your best teacher. On the battlefield, it is natural for both the enemy and us to learn from each other.
Therefore, many scientific and technological achievements commonly used by modern people were originally spread from the battlefield.
Just do it, that night, the Tsarist Russians took advantage of the darkness to start digging trenches again.
The Renaissance Army in Ulan-Ude was also summarizing the day's battle.
"Everyone, first of all, I want to apologize to everyone. Because of our intelligence errors, more than 100 casualties occurred in the army." Lu Guoyi said to everyone.
The intelligence was given to Lu Guoyi from the headquarters, and then Lu Guoyi released it to various junior officers.
"Division Commander, this is not your fault. Our officers and soldiers at the grassroots level were also a little careless when executing the drill. For a long time, we have been at an absolute advantage in the battle against Tsarist Russia, and it is inevitable that the soldiers will feel proud."
An officer stood up and said.
"That's fine. Today's battle just sounded the alarm for the gangsters." Another officer came out and added.
"Okay, let's not talk about this issue for now. We have to change our previous tactics for the next battle."
"We should try our best to prevent the Tsarist Russians from getting close to our positions. It is not a good idea to shoot at each other from a long distance and compete with the opponent. In this way, we may end up running out of ammunition first."
"Report!" This was the voice of the messenger coming from outside the door.
"Come in, what's the matter?" Lu Guoyi put out the cigarette butt in his hand, blew out a puff of smoke, and said to the messenger.
"Reporting to the division commander, the forward observation post found that the enemy was digging trenches again. This time they dug the trenches in front of our position." the messenger reported.
"This is the enemy's response. Zhou Bin, do we still have enough mortar ammunition?" Lu Guoyi asked Zhou Bin, the artillery regiment commander on the other side.
"Our current ammunition reserves are quite sufficient, division commander."
"But division commander, if we stop the opponent from digging trenches now, the ammunition consumption will be much greater." Zhou Bin said.
"Let's scare them first. At least we won't let them dig trenches so smoothly."
"Let's go and take a look at the city wall together." Lu Guoyi greeted the people around him. It was late at night and there would be no danger if they went to the city wall to take a look.
Lu Guoyi led a group of officers to the city wall.
There is no moon in the sky, and even the starlight is mostly blocked by clouds.
Lu Guoyi ordered a flare to be fired.
"Bang." A flare flew in an arc toward the sky in front of the position, and then fell slowly, just like a meteor suddenly appearing in the dark night sky.
The sudden bright light temporarily blinded many Tsarist Russian soldiers. They subconsciously lay down in the trench without moving.
Lu Guoyi now saw clearly that the trenches were extended from the trenches of the original Tsarist Russian artillery position, and the direction was towards the Renaissance Army's position in front of the city.
The enemy's plan couldn't be clearer, which was to use trenches to close the distance with the Renaissance Army, and then use the trenches to shoot at the Renaissance Army to cover the infantry attack.
I have to say that the enemy's calculations were very good.
"Commander Zhou, how are you? If you use flares to guide you, can you hit the trenches being dug?" Lu Guoyi asked.
"Captain Zhou, I just want to bomb them and interfere with them digging trenches. I don't want you to blow up those trenches."
"I understand what you mean, division commander. What you mean is that we use scattered precision shelling to disrupt them so that they cannot dig easily."
"That's right. You try it first, and we'll watch from here."
At the Russian artillery position, an engineer battalion commander was commanding his men, and some supporting army troops were nervously carrying out excavation operations.
A flare just now startled the soldiers who were digging. Even he himself lay down at the bottom of the trench and did not dare to move.
I thought the other side would do something, but there was no movement at all. In response to the enemy's flares, the engineer battalion commander took a look at the trench that had just been dug. It seemed to be a bit slanted, and he quickly remembered it in his mind.
, thinking about it and correcting it after a while.
Thinking about it this way, it seems that the enemy's flares were fired for his own side.
"Soldiers, the enemy is helping us set off flares. Everyone, hurry up and dig!" the engineer battalion commander shouted to the soldiers working in the trenches.
There was a burst of laughter from the trenches, which seemed to be laughing at the stupid actions of the Renaissance Army.
A few minutes later, another flare flew in the sky.
In this era, flares were still very valuable.
The soldiers of Tsarist Russia also learned wisely this time. They closed their glasses when they heard the gunshot.
Then they opened their eyes again. This time they did not stop what they were doing, but continued digging trenches under the light of the flares.
At this moment, a low sound of cannons came from under the city wall.
Boom boom boom! A series of explosions sounded around the excavation site.
Although most of the shells landed on both sides of the trench, a few still landed inside the trench.
At this time, the problem of the trenches dug by the Tsarist Russians became prominent.
In order to save time on digging, the trenches dug by the Russians were all straight.
Between two points, a straight line is the shortest. Such basic geometric knowledge is still known to the engineer battalion commander of Tsarist Russia.
When it comes to trench warfare, only the Renaissance Army is professional now. They know how to dig various trenches such as artillery defense trenches, communication trenches, and troop hiding trenches.
Of course, most of the artillery nowadays fires directly, so it is no wonder that the Tsarist Russian army did not know about the artillery protection problem of trenches.
The purpose of digging trenches was purely to prevent the Baath Army's rifle fire.
And provide soldiers with a safe shelter for reloading and firing.
However, once an explosive bomb falls into such a straight trench, the lethality will be huge.
There could not have been more than three shells that fell into the trench just now.
But these three shells basically swept away the engineers in the trench.
There was almost no intact soldier in this section of the trench, which was more than ten meters long.
This had a huge psychological impact on the engineers digging trenches.
"Retreat, retreat quickly, retreat along the trenches. Damn it!" The engineer battalion commander, who had been very arrogant just now, took the lead in retreating.
The bombardment lasted for one round and then stopped.
"Commander, they have retreated. Your trick of knocking the mountain and shaking the tiger is indeed effective." Zhou Bin said excitedly.
Just two rounds of shooting were enough to make the enemy retreat, and they paid a huge price.
"Don't get too happy too early. Just wait. The enemy won't give up. They will come back. I don't think we all need to stay."
"Captain Zhou, you stay. If the enemy continues to dig, you will do it again. Anyway, we can't let the enemy dig with peace of mind." After saying that, he took the others back. Except for the people on duty at the headquarters, everyone else was
You can rest however you want when you go back.
Lieutenant General Vladimir, who stayed up late at the headquarters, was originally going to take a rest. After all, just digging trenches was not a big deal.
But at this moment, the engineer company commander responsible for digging trenches walked in with a disgraced face, led by the adjutant of the headquarters.
"Your Majesty, Lieutenant General, the enemy used flares and cannons to deal with us, causing heavy casualties to our engineers digging trenches," the engineer battalion commander quickly reported.
"What? Digging a trench and something like this happens?" Lieutenant General Vladimir was simply speechless. Even something as small as digging a trench would cause problems.
"Are you coming here to report this situation to me now to say that you can't dig it?" Lieutenant General Vladimir asked with a gloomy face.
The engineer battalion commander was so frightened that his legs were weak. Based on this alone, the lieutenant general could send him to a military court.
"No, Lieutenant General, even if all our engineering battalions are sacrificed, the trenches will be dug out. I just hope that the Lieutenant General can give us more time and more manpower."
Lieutenant General Vladimir pinched the bridge of his raised nose with his hand, then waved his hand and said: "Go!"
The engineer battalion commander returned to the forward position dejectedly.
This time, he did not send all the engineers up, but sent some soldiers to dig soil in front.
The Renaissance Army on the opposite side will fire a flare from time to time.
It can be said that all the actions of the Tsarist Russians fell in Zhou Bin's eyes.
In the darkness, more than thirty commandos of the Renaissance Army groped in the dark and crawled forward quietly. They passed through the passage left by the barrier trench and climbed to the front of the Tsarist Russian army's position.
Each of their bodies was loaded with grenades.
These people crawled on the ground silently. The only sound was muffled by the sound of Russian engineers digging the earth.
In this way, they reached a distance of twenty or thirty meters in front of the trench work site of the Russian engineers.
They carefully tied the grenades together. Then, under the leadership of the commando leader, they pulled out the fuses and threw them into the front section of the trench.
In a moment, the engineers who were working in the trench were knocked upside down by the explosion.
Even a large section of the newly dug trench was destroyed by the explosion.
…
In the next few days, the Tsarist Russian army seemed to be fighting against the Renaissance Army in this trench.
The more the Baath Army tries to stop it, the more Tsarist Russia will dig in, regardless of the cost.
In the process of such a struggle, Tsarist Russia's army also made progress, and they even learned to dig curved trenches.
The Renaissance Army not only uses mortars and commandos, but also various anti-trench measures.
Although the trenches of Tsarist Russia were still digging forward unyieldingly, they were doing so very slowly and sometimes even retreating.
Although it was not possible to completely prevent the Tsarist Russians from digging trenches, the Baath Army's purpose of delaying time was achieved.
The Russians had been digging this trench for five days.
Originally, the artillery position was only five or six hundred yards from the forefront of the Renaissance Army's position, but the trench was dug and it is still two hundred yards from the forefront of the Renaissance Army's position. Moreover, the horizontal shooting trench has not yet been dug.
Lieutenant General Vladimir in the headquarters has completely lost confidence in the engineers.
Almost the entire engineer battalion has been sacrificed in the past few days.
"I'm sorry, Lieutenant General. It's all my fault, but our engineer battalion has tried its best. There are basically hundreds of people in the entire barracks who are not intact. Maybe I should accompany those soldiers who died."
Chang said desperately.
They used various means in the past few days, and with the support of infantry, they were able to build several hundred yards of trenches.
It can be said that in these hundreds of yards of trenches, every inch of soil is soaked with the blood of Tsarist Russian soldiers.
During the counter-trench warfare in the past few days, the Renaissance Army killed more than 500 Tsarist Russian soldiers through shelling, assaults and other means.
Seven days have passed, and apart from building a trench of several hundred yards, the Tsarist Russians have not even broken through the first line of defense of the Renaissance Army.
"Your Excellency, Lieutenant General, why should we use the lives of our soldiers to open up a way forward? This army is defending Ulan-Ude, but there are Chita City and Nerchinsk City behind them. It is impossible to defend everywhere.
It’s heavily guarded.”
"We still have eight thousand Cossack cavalry, why not let them capture some civilians to help us dig trenches? Moreover, they may also be used in the next siege." Kristenko interjected at this time.
Kristenko has also been very depressed these days. The envoy he sent to the city was bombarded back before entering the city. The envoy sent to the south has not received any response. Now he has nothing to do.
The current Tsarist Russian army is facing a dilemma and urgently needs to find a way to break it.
So Kristenko began to examine the power his side held.
The Cossack cavalry, which has not been put to any use so far, should be the key to breaking the situation.
After so many days of testing, the enemy's main force should be in this city. The enemy obviously wants to drag them here. Then it is even more difficult for us to let them get their wish.
Klinsky, the division commander of the Cossack cavalry, strongly agreed with this proposal. They were cavalry and could not participate in the attack and defense of such a well-defended city.
The cavalry should mobilize. These days, he has been staying here with his men to guard, and his brothers have complained.
Originally, I was going to grab a handful and do some good when I came out this time. Now that I am stuck here without even a bird feather, it is better to go out and grab silver and silk and satin in the territory of the Chinese people. Why not? It is better than being here.
It's good here.
In this case, the matter was settled. The Cossack cavalry was sent to the east to destroy the Chinese cities and arrest the civilians.
ps: I was dozing off while reviewing the manuscript just now, and I don’t know if it’s refreshing now. If there are any typos, please help me, I’ll do it right away.