The sudden bombardment came and went as fast as it came, and it ended in more than an hour, leaving only a mess.

After making sure that it was safe, Major General Ozgül walked out of the headquarters, looked at the billowing smoke rising from the city, and hurriedly ordered: "Quickly organize people to put out the fire, and the grain and ammunition warehouses must be saved." ”

The accompanying young officer replied: "Yes, General! ”

After saying that, immediately run forward to deliver the order. In the bombing just now, the exposed telegraph and telephone lines were unfortunately damaged and had not yet had time to recover.

At this point, Major General Özgül had no illusions about keeping the enemy out of the country.

Relying on artillery to prevent the enemy from landing, the question is what to do with the enemy in the sky? If they don't address the threat overhead, they will only be beaten passively.

No matter how tightly defended the position is, if there is a wave overhead, it will still collapse. The casualty figures are still being counted, and Major General Ozgül no longer has the courage to face them.

With his beloved telescope in hand and a cursory look at the battlefield, Major General Özgül knew that the losses were absolutely heavy.

In just over an hour, the airship brigade tilted hundreds of tons of bombs on their heads, and if you add naval shells, this number will be even greater.

For the small port of Ava, so much ammunition is enough to carry out a major explosion, not to mention the heavy damage to the port facilities, the key is the destruction of the fortifications.

As the minutes ticked by, the casualty report appeared in the evening in the hands of Major General Ozgül, and a thin piece of paper seemed to weigh as much as a thousand pounds at the moment.

Suppressing the uneasiness in his heart, Major General Ozgül quickly skimmed through the losses.

More than half of the artillery was lost, 686 were killed, 1,468 were wounded, and 315 were missing......

The strength of a regiment is just gone, don't look at the wounded and think that they can recover in the future. In fact, with the medical conditions of the Ottoman army, the mortality rate of the wounded was generally not less than 40 percent.

To put it simply, it is to resist yourself. If you are lucky that the wound does not become inflamed or suppurated, then you will pick up a life, or you will resign yourself to fate.

"Battlefield ambulance", where can the Sudanese government find so many medical personnel? Even if there are health care workers, they don't have enough medicines.

In this era, medicine is much more expensive than human life. For example, penicillin, which can only be produced in a laboratory, is dozens of times more expensive than the same amount of gold.

Affected by chemical technology, it is impossible to achieve large-scale industrial production, and can only rely on manpower for small-scale production, with an annual output of less than 20,000 pieces.

Austria itself does not have enough of this production. Flowing into the international market, it has naturally become sky-high. The black market has been speculated to 1,000 Aegis/piece, or is there a price, how can the Sultan government provide it to the soldiers?

I was injured on the battlefield, but I still look forward to *** blessing! Most soldiers were only able to perform simple bandages, which was a test of luck, and basically used whatever cloth came to them.

If you are unlucky and do not have sterilized gauze, you can also make do with tearing off a piece of clothing. A group of big-headed soldiers, but they don't know so much professional knowledge.

After reading the report, Major General Ozgül let go of his hands, let the documents in his hands fall, and sat down with his ass, as if he had been removed from his mind.

After half a sound, Major General Ozgül slowly eased up and sighed deeply: "Alas! ”

Shaking his head: "Immediately send someone to report the situation we have encountered to the top, ask the country to send reinforcements, and remind the country to be careful of the enemy's airships." ”

Airships have been around for many years, but because of the relationship between cost performance and low practical value, they are rarely seen in life.

If it weren't for his love of newspapers, Major General Ozgül might not even know that such a thing existed, let alone was used in war.

However, this is all in the past, and after this battle, airships will soon appear in the armies of various countries. In this regard, everyone's learning ability is still very strong.

Response, sorry, this is beyond the capabilities of Major General Ozgül. It is estimated that after a few more bombings, it may be possible to sum up the lessons learned.

……

Compared with the gloomy Ava defenders, the atmosphere of the joint command in Constantinople was much warmer, and the airship brigade had just made a great contribution.

Originally, they thought that they would have to pay a heavy price to destroy the shore artillery fortifications in Ava, and the Russian army was ready to start landing from the nearby area and fight over the land.

Speaking of which, it is very simple to land from the surrounding areas, in fact, due to geographical conditions, there is no good port, the ship cannot dock at all, and the Russians are ready to get on bamboo rafts.

There is no doubt that this practice is quite dangerous and needs to be filled with human lives. Austria had landing craft, unfortunately due to insufficient preparation in advance, they were not delivered to the Black Sea in time, and if they landed from the Mediterranean coast, it would be no problem.

Intentionally or not, this question will not be raised for the time being. In short, the landing craft will not come in a short time, and if the Russians can wait, they will be there in a while.

This kind of boat can be produced by a small shipyard on the Danube. Without considering the service life, it takes two or three months to produce inferior goods, and it is no problem to land two or three times anyway.

Well, now that the enemy's shore artillery has suffered heavy losses, just hit it hard. Even the feint plan prepared in advance died because of this.

The tsarist government urgently needed to occupy the Black Sea straits in order to ensure the smooth passage of this most important foreign trade route. In order to give the country a satisfactory answer, Admiral Ivanov decided to be a speedy soldier.

Before the Ottomans could react, they preemptively landed in Ava. The battle plan drawn up earlier is not completely invalid, but the intensity of implementation has been greatly reduced.

Allied Commander-in-Chief Arest was very dissatisfied with this unauthorized tampering with the battle plan and ignoring the prior agreement between the two countries.

Although Arest was not from the army, the staff officers assigned to him by the Vienna government were all professionals.

Everyone saw at a glance the risk of changing the battle plan. According to the original plan, as long as the Ottoman forces were weak, the landing in the weak areas of the Ottoman Empire, the implementation of the scorched earth strategy, and the expulsion of the population into the interior, could drag down the enemy.

There is no need to fight hard at all, as long as you continue to engage in sabotage, you can win the war. After the change of plan, the Russian army will have to fight the Ottomans in a decisive battle.

The confidence of the Russian army is slow, and the Austrian military does not have such strong confidence in them. A mere 150,000 Russian troops have to fight against hundreds of thousands of Ottoman troops, and after losing the tactics of crowds, everyone has no idea how strong the combat effectiveness of the gray cattle is.

It has to be said that the first impression is important, from the very beginning Arest believed that this Russian army had limited combat effectiveness. According to Austrian standards, the Russian army basically failed all kinds of training.

……

Arest sternly reprimanded: "General Ivanov, this battle plan has been approved by the two governments.

Prior to this, both sides of us had carefully evaluated and selected the most suitable one from a wide range of combat options.

According to this battle plan, we can minimize the losses of both sides and win this war at the lowest cost, and I think this is the common pursuit of all of us. ”

Ivanov shook his head: "No, Your Excellency the Commander. The battle plan was too conservative, and it would take at least three to five months to force the enemy to divide his forces from all sides, and then attack Ava.

But this was built on the condition that the defensive firepower of the Ava defenders was strong, causing big problems for the landing. Now that the enemy's shore artillery has been almost destroyed by us, it is completely possible to launch an attack immediately.

Now that the Ottomans have not reacted, we can completely make a time difference, even if the enemy has more troops, but we have air superiority.

Believe me, no army was able to maintain its combat effectiveness under the bombardment of airships, and the decaying Ottoman Empire was broken with a single stab.

There is no need for us to argue over these meaningless issues, the victory is ours. General Arest, let's cast our own glory together! ”

Arest frowned, and said seriously: "General Ivanov, you are too optimistic. Airships are not invincible either, and many special terrains, such as those in the jungle, are difficult to function.

If Armageddon breaks out, even if we can win, you will lose a lot. The boys are going to fight with us, and we are going to bring them back as much as we can. ”

After a moment of silence, Ivanov shook his head. According to the established battle plan, as far as possible to reduce casualties, he also wanted to be so big.

But the problem was that the domestic could not withstand it, the Black Sea straits were cut off, and the foreign trade of the Russian Empire was hit hard. If the channel cannot be opened as soon as possible, the loss will be even greater after the autumn grain is put into storage.

As soon as the war broke out, the tsarist government repeatedly ordered him to speed up. War needs to serve politics, and military personnel must also consider national interests.

Austria can drag on the war, that is, the longer it drags on, the greater the benefit that Austria can gain from Russian-Austrian trade. Relying on the profits from monopolizing the trade of most of the Russian Empire could almost wipe out the losses caused by the war, and the Vienna government was naturally not in a hurry.

"Your Excellency, I still insist on changing the battle plan. This is what St. Petersburg meant, the economic losses from the war were too great for the Russian Empire to drag on. ”

At this point, unless he strongly organizes, for example, Austrian transport ships and warships do not cooperate, he can only convince St. Petersburg.

After pondering for a while, he spoke: "Okay, I will report to Vienna, and if the General Staff agrees, we will cooperate with you." ”

……

At the Vienna Palace, Franz, who had not yet had time to rejoice after receiving the contribution of the airship bombing brigade, immediately received the news that a "strategic struggle" had broken out at the front.

He knew that the Russians wanted to open the black cauldron channel, but he didn't expect the tsarist government to lose its breath so quickly, and he didn't even care about the casualties of the soldiers.

Well, it seems that the tsarist government never cared about casualties. This question should not be considered in the first place.

Franz patted his forehead: "What do you think, the Russians are in such a hurry to attack, do we agree or refuse?" ”

Prime Minister Felix: "Your Majesty, the choice of this question is the same, but I am personally inclined to agree with the Russians.

The war was just a strategic fraud, and victory or defeat was not so important. If we go according to the original plan, we can say that we will win, and it is uncertain whether the Ottomans can exist or not.

Now that the Russians are willing to change their strategy, then let them go. If the Russian army suffers heavy losses on the front, we can also take the opportunity to end this war. ”

Yes, militarily I simply don't bother to think about it, and it doesn't matter if I win or lose. If this salted fish strategy spreads, it is estimated that no one will believe it.

Perhaps when future generations study this period of history, they will be able to uncover the truth of the facts by connecting everything together. Of course, the possibility of being deviated is still greater.

Franz set his sights on the military, and he needed the military to give an answer, weigh the pros and cons in order to make a decision.

As if sensing Franz's gaze, War Minister Albrecht: "Your Majesty, after the change of battle plan, the Russians have greatly reduced their chances of victory in Asia Minor, and even if they can win the war, they will suffer heavy losses.

However, the victory or defeat of the battle on the Asia Minor Peninsula will not affect our Middle East strategy.

Now the Government of the Sudan does not dare to risk increasing its troops in the Middle East, and no one dares to guarantee that we will not increase our military input in the Asia Minor peninsula.

In the event of a defeat or heavy losses by the Russians, we can send troops to make a feint attack at any time, and the Sudanese government will not dare to act rashly. ”

Franz: "Then tell Arest, don't care what the Russians want to do, whatever they want, let them go." ”

As long as it does not affect the Middle East strategy, Franz has nothing to fear, and it is a big deal to send troops to the Russians to deal with the aftermath. It's nothing more than a matter of money, and compared to oil in the Middle East, it's not a problem.

……

In Constantinople, after receiving Franz's order, Arest gave up the fight and warned in a serious voice: "General Ivanov, you must insist on landing first from the Ava region, and we agreed."

But all the consequences arising from this are your own responsibility. If the main Ottoman force is attracted and there is no way to continue the next strategy, don't blame me for not reminding you. ”

This is not to shirk responsibility, but to blame reasonably. Since the Russian army has changed the battle plan agreed in advance without authorization, it will naturally have to take responsibility for this.

Let's make it clear now, and we can do a lot less in the future. Even if the Russian army suffered heavy losses, it could only swallow with tears in its stomach.

Ivanov replied happily: "Don't worry, Your Excellency Commander. We are old rivals with the Ottomans, and it is clear how much strength they have, and there will be no problems. ”

……