Chapter 368 Eliminate the tyrant and embrace the new monarch!
Suvorov's concerns soon became a reality. Under the cover of the Ottoman Navy, 20 million Ottoman troops set out from the downstream to attack the 6,000 Russian troops defending the opposite side. What is even more troublesome is that 10,000 Ottoman troops use naval warships to land about sixty miles behind the Russian troops defending the bank of the South Bug River. Then, shortly after the 20,000 Ottoman troops launched a frontal attack, they broke out from behind the defensive Russian Guards, which immediately caused a crack in the Russian defense line.
Then with the support of naval naval guns, the Russian defense line was penetrated by the Ottoman army attacked on both sides. In the end, only 2,000 Russian troops left were left to escape back to Nikolayev.
At the beginning, when the Russian downstream defense line was attacked by the Ottomans, a messenger hurried back to Nikolayev for help, but now Suvorov has no reinforcements at all. Seeing Yulian in the sky, Suvorov himself wanted a reinforcement. You should know that although the Ottomans also invested heavily in seizing the Russian positions in the upper and lower reaches of the Southbug River, the main battlefield was Nikolayev. Even though he repeatedly divided his troops, Selim could still invest more than 50,000 powerful troops in Nikolayev. What's more, his men also had a lot of Russian cannon fodder.
Until the Russian army in the lower reaches of the Southbug River was defeated, the only thing Suvorov could do was to force his spirits to send cavalry to the defeated Russian guards back to the city. As for the rest, he could do nothing.
After the Russian downstream defense line was broken, the 14,000 army of General Birgev, the upstream of the Russian army, was also defeated. Of course, even though they were defeated, they were still honored by the strong attack of more than 40,000 enemy troops. Birgev resisted the attack of more than 40,000 Ottomans with just the 14,000 army in his hand. In particular, he led more than 5,000 guard soldiers back to Nikolayev safely, and their results were that they caused more than 16,000 casualties of the Ottomans. In addition, a batch of Ottoman logistics supplies were seized. This news restored some morale to the Russian soldiers who seemed a little depressed since the war started.
However, this small victory obviously cannot change the situation on the entire battlefield. After the upstream and downstream positions collapsed, on January 20, more than 20,000 Ottoman troops coming from the upstream, 20,000 Ottoman troops coming from the downstream, and 50,000 Ottoman troops going westwards, just surrounded Nikolaev's three sides.
At this moment, even if the Russian troops retreated into the city were added, the total number was only more than 20,000.
After Selim, who had suffered huge losses since the war started, surrounded Nikolayev, his complexion finally improved a little, with a total of 140,000 troops. To this day, there are only less than 100,000 people left, which makes the proud Selim seem a little unacceptable. You should know that the army he lost exceeded 40,000, and the total strength of their enemy Suvorov's troops was only 40,000.
But now that Nikolayev has become an isolated city, Selim's heart has been a little better.
In addition, most of the 140,000 troops in Selim were troops of vassal states. The 20,000 Tatars, the 20,000 Kurds, and the 10,000 Moldovan vassals left, and the 28,000 Walakhiya army of Mardra was only 7,000. As for the 8,000 Mamluk of Mubarak, the 8,000 Mamluk, because Selim did not use it, it completely preserved the establishment. Yenisari, the Ottoman Empire's standing army, lost about 10,000 people. Fortunately, Selim's personal prestige and means were placed there after all. After killing the leaders of several vassal state troops, the various vassal states no longer complained about huge casualties.
Of course, this complaint did not disappear, but just turned from the open to the back.
But no matter what, when the ninety thousand Ottoman army surrounded Nikolayev on three sides and stood on the broken city wall, Suvorov felt a little desolate, or Suvorov never thought that he would be about to be annihilated for his whole life.
Paul I's imperial edict has been issued across the country. Areas loyal to St. Petersburg have begun to recruit troops on a large scale, and all young and middle-aged people of appropriate age have basically been forced into the army by the local government and garrisons. Those swaying areas have begun to recruit troops on a small scale, and at the same time they have sent troops to inquire about the news between St. Petersburg and the Crim Peninsula.
At this moment, the Krim Peninsula was already dominated by Blankov. Although Ililov was defended by his own army and broke out, their escape direction was not north but south, which made Blankov feel a burst of gratitude afterwards.
As mentioned earlier, the terrain of the Krim Peninsula is very strange. It only connects with the mainland to the only road north of Yamiansk, while other areas have no road access to the mainland at all. In this way, if you want to leave the Krim Peninsula, you can only go to the mainland by boats except to travel north from Yamiansk.
But Blankov had a very important bargaining chip in his hand, that is, the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
Previously, because of Akhvsky's trust, the transactions, negotiations and win-wins of the Black Sea Russian army were handled by Blankov, and most of the hidden lines of the Black Sea Fleet were persuaded and bought by Blankov. So after Akhvsky's death, after Blankov secured the interests of the Black Sea Fleet, the naval officers turned to Blankov.
Later, the Russian Black Sea Fleet blocked the waters near the city of the Second Army, and Blankov even dispatched more than 30,000 troops and forces to force the Second Army.
As mentioned before, Illyov was snatched away by his men after being shot. Even after returning to the large army of the Second Army, Illyov was still not awake. In this way, the leaderless Second Army gave Blankov a chance to use some hidden lines and a lot of money, and with the help of his huge military advantage, Blankov won the Second Army without bloodshed. While Illyov was still in a coma.
When Blankov saw Illyov in a coma, he just said four words lightly. Then he left, saying:
"Send him away!"
After reorganizing the Second Army, Blankov made a small adjustment to the Russian army in the Black Sea, and a group of Blankov's troops were placed in some key positions during the adjustment. After he completed the deployment, Blankov received information from St. Petersburg on January 17, and Paul I told the world that Akhvsky was rebellious and called on the world to fight against it.
After reading the news, Blankov just smiled and then tore the small note containing the news into pieces. Later that day, Blankov held the first meeting after the Russian army in the Black Sea mutiny.
At this meeting, Blankov formally overturned the military policy set by Akhvsky, and he announced that the army must be prepared for combat on January 19, and their target was Moscow, the former capital of the Russian Empire.
On January 19, 1790, Blankov, commander of the First Army of the Black Sea, officially announced a document in Yamiansk:
"According to our investigations from multiple parties, the St. Petersburg fire that occurred in 1789 was completely directed and acted by Paul. In order to fulfill his ambitions, Paul actually led his army to kill his mother and usurp the throne. This kind of eternal villain is really a thousand-year shame for our Russian Empire! After usurping the throne, Paul even ruled out dissidents. Under his butcher knife, more than a thousand nobles were treated unfairly. The blood of three hundred noble officials sprinkled the square of St. Petersburg. This was the agreement between the Tsar and the nobles at the beginning of the establishment of the empire.
Destruction! Not only that, in order to satisfy one's own selfish desires, Paul levies a lot of money, and the entire empire's people are living in poverty! In order to re-enforce the glory of the empire, for the prosperity of the empire, for the happiness and happiness of the empire's people, I, Blankov, the commander of the first Russian Army of the Black Sea, here is here to officially announce the launch of troops to attack the tyrants, and at the same time beg the Imperial Duma Parliament to urge the tyrants to step down. Only the throne of the empire with the moral integrity and integrity can be ascended by Prince Alexander, so we urge the empire's millions of people to support us in defeating the tyrants and establish a new monarch!"
In January 1613, Mikhail Fedorov Romanov was elected as the Tsar by the All-Russian Gentleman Conference, and began the Romanov dynasty's rule in the Russian Empire for three hundred years. At that time, Mikhail was just a small nobleman with a distant relationship with the previous Russian royal family. However, due to the chaotic era for decades before he ascended the throne, the Russian Empire's throne was long vacant, and the scarcity of royal blood made Mikhail enter the eyes of all Russian nobles.
The Poles at that time were not as tragic as Poland today. In 1610, the Poles could not even find the Russian National People's Congress. Under such circumstances, the Russian nobles were eager to find a wise monarch to lead them out of the weak national strength caused by the vacant period of the throne, and to defeat the Poles to achieve Russia's revival.
What's funny is that Mikhail ascended the throne of the Tsar completely under his reluctance. For some reason, perhaps it was God's blessing. Mikhail himself lacked his ability, but after he ascended the throne, a large number of talents emerged in Russia, who helped the empire defeat the invaders and gradually stabilized the empire that had been chaotic for decades.
Because Mikhail was elected by the All-Russian Gentleman Conference, the Tsar signed a law at the beginning of his ascension to the throne, that is, without clear evidence, the Imperial Tsar was not allowed to purge the imperial nobles and arrest the Imperial Duma members.
Blankov's accusations were very close to reality, which also led to the Russian army in the Black Sea, who had just experienced chaos, to be reunited under his command, although this group was far from being as close as before.
After the mutiny, the Russian army in the Black Sea had nearly 90,000 troops left. In Blankov's opinion, such troops were enough for him to complete some things.
After reading the document, Blankov officially announced that the entire army would swear to advance towards Moscow. As for the Krim Peninsula, there were 5,000 troops left to cooperate with the Black Sea Fleet to defend. In fact, in Blankov's view, the Krim Peninsula was completely useless, and it would be a pity to abandon it. However, it was necessary to leave the army to guard the Krim Peninsula now. Otherwise, there would be no way out, and just a fantasy peach would not be able to make the army obey his arrangements. Moreover, the Black Sea Fleet was at least on the Krim Peninsula, and at least it could bargain with the Ottomans through this.
In order to effectively achieve his goals, Blankov sent his most capable men to East Poland, and he needed to convince Kutuzov. With Paul I's imperial edict, Kutuzov's attitude became a little ambiguous. In this way, Blankov felt that he could never give up this natural ally, and he had to let Kutuzov take action.
The ninety thousand army advanced towards Moscow. After entering Ukraine, Blankov's 90,000 troops once again turned into 100,000 troops, and the 10,000 troops joined was contributed by the Ukrainian Governor.
Ukrainian Governor Freman is not a fool. Akhvsky was shocked when he decided to march towards Ukraine. Although he had already contacted Akhvsky and was willing to become his subordinate, this does not mean that Freman can sit and watch his territory be taken away by others, even if this person is his own leader.
Now, Blankov and Akhvsky are completely different. Blankov's goal is not a small Ukraine. His goal is Moscow, the entire empire! In this way, Freman felt that he and Blankov had no conflict of interest at all, and even the interests of the two were even consistent. So after expressing his willingness to surrender, Freman sent his only decent army that could still provide Blankov with 10,000 troops.
In fact, there are quite a few troops in this 10,000. Ukraine is not as strong as Kutuzov in East Poland. The main reason is that Ukraine has been conquered by the empire for decades, and the local forces have accepted the rule of the empire. In addition, don't forget that many of the 100,000 Russian troops in the Black Sea were recruited from the Ukrainian region, so this 10,000 troops were also the last army in Freman's hands.
Of course, this does not mean that Freman has a good impression of Blankov. Being able to hand over his last chips to Blankov, nor does it mean that Freman is really selfless and generous. As a superior, can you still expect this creature to have some good qualities? It can be said that no superior has good qualities, even if there is, he pretends, otherwise he would have been cheated to death and he would have been killed once, so where would he be the turn of his position!
The reason why Freman spent a lot of money on Blankov was that he knew that he could no longer have a way out. Even if he defected to Paul, he would definitely not be accepted. This was mainly because Freman had offended Paul before he ascended the throne, so he did not think that he could have a way out under Paul.
In this way, it is no wonder that Freman had a lot of thought in his heart.
When Blankov's army arrived in Dnepropetrovsk for a while, he received a report of Nikolaev's war.
January 23, 1790
There were dozens of gaps on Nikolayev's city wall, the largest one could be about seven or eight meters long. Under the command of the officers, the Ottomans rushed towards the gaps in the city walls with scimitars. At the same time, there were climbing ladders everywhere on the city walls. Teams of Ottomans launched wave after wave of fierce offensives on the city walls under the cover of their comrades.
Selim had not closed his eyes for three days. When he led the Ottoman army to surround Nikolaev on three sides, he issued an order for a total attack. However, three days, three days, although it was thrilling, just like before, Nikolaev was still in control of Suvorov.
The corpses piled under the Nikolayev walls were about two meters high, and the Ottomans seemed to devote all their energy to the siege. The corpses under the walls were not sent to transport them away, but were placed there like that.
Fortunately it was winter, otherwise, the plague caused by these corpses would be enough to make the offensive and defensive sides inside and outside the city drink a pot of hard work.
But there is no way. It's so tired. All the troops were sent by Selim to the siege. Every day, when they were invisible, Selim ordered the king to withdraw the troops. In this case, the soldiers who fought for a day, would you still expect them to have the energy to clean up the bodies?
Fortunately, there are some Russians in the Ottoman barracks. The Russians who were driven from the army became slaves of the Ottoman army. Their role is not only to cover the army to attack the city, but also to bury the corpses. However, their number is too small. The original thousands of Russian people survived less than 200 after the previous battles. Most of these two hundred people are old, weak, sick and disabled. Compared with the thousands of corpses under the city of Nikolayev, their role is really too small.
Looking at the walls that were incomplete but still in the hands of the Russians, Selim gritted his teeth secretly. God knows how many war damage reports are piled up on his table now. Since the day after the besieged Nikolaev, Selim has stopped reading those war damage reports because he is afraid that he will be driven crazy by those high numbers! Now, in his heart, he can only conquer Nikolaev, otherwise, he will face the hustle and bustle of the Ottoman Empire! (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendations, monthly votes, and your support is my greatest motivation.)
PS: Sweat. I'm going on a business trip again. I'm anxious this time. Let's leave today. It's a man. It's a business trip with someone I don't like. It's a shame.