Chapter Seventy-Seven: The Two Armies Fight The Great War Begins

It is said that watching the excitement is not afraid of chaos, and the people of Yaogang have this mentality, and the planes have to be dispatched once a day to reconnoiter the movements of the Ottoman and Russian imperial armies. The armies on both sides, the big moves of one or two million people, the movement is really not small. There is almost no secrecy about the actions of the two sides, but their means of communication are really backward, and they have a good grasp of each other's activities.

In fact, whether it was the Ottoman Empire or the Russian Empire, their early dispatch only reflected that both of them were already very impetuous. The weather made them move very slowly, until the snow began to melt, the roads were even more muddy, and the army was even more sluggish. It made everyone in the command center of the west line of Yaogang feel very depressed.

Ning De and Li Kui's army mainly has a cavalry corps, an infantry corps, and a northwest frontier army, and then the newly formed border army that is preparing to build a frontier army. The 20,000 Mongol cavalry also followed them all the time, and no matter how much they persuaded them to go back, they would not leave. The original North-Western Frontier Army has been dispersed along the long border, as well as in the major cities occupied. The newly formed border guards have not yet been dispersed, because, in the opinion of the Yaogang people, the border guards are ready to be stationed on the border.

The army on Jiang Ping's side had two cavalry corps, six cavalry divisions, and a border guard. However, under the command of Jiang Pai, there are also rocket artillery regiments and flight teams.

Now, Li Wei brought his armored division, as well as Li Jing's special forces brigade of more than 1,000 people, and Liu Chenghuang's ten planes. These armies could well sweep through the Ottoman and Russian empires. However, in the long run, the people of Yaogang still do not want to give the impression that the western countries are aggressive and like to invade and expand.

It seems that the Russian Empire made better use of terrain than the Ottoman Empire. On the Eastern Front, the Russian Imperial Army, entrenched north of the Volga, at the southern end of Donetsk and the upper hills, waited for the Ottomans to cross the Volga, intending to fight a decisive battle while they were on their backs.

The Ottoman army is also an old powerhouse, and it is very clear that this is very clear, but the Ottoman Sultan was very determined to win this time, and did not follow the advice of some generals, and insisted on crossing the river with the whole army to start a decisive battle with the Russian Imperial army.

This time, it seems that the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empire have thought together, and they both want to end this protracted war through this decisive battle. Both of them were exhausted and couldn't fight anymore.

Not only the Yaogang people, but also everyone in Europe is focused here, and this big victory and defeat has a great impact on the situation in the entire region.

The Russian Empire also understood the principle of attacking half-way, but the Tsar understood that the Ottoman army was too large to decide the winner in a single battle by the river. They did not send a large group of men and horses to attack the Ottoman army crossing the river, but sent Cossack cavalry to attack the Ottoman army that had just landed, but the Ottoman army was not ambiguous, many of their warships went up the Volga River from the Black Sea, and supported the crossing army with the artillery fire on the river, and the Cossack cavalry, without taking much advantage, ran away.

The Volga River has two estuary, one into the Caspian Sea and the other into the Assyrian Sea. The Volga River, which enters the Sea of Azov, divides into two tributaries and enters the Caspian Sea (the Soviet Union later took advantage of this and connected the Caspian Sea and the Sea of Azov with more than a dozen locks).

The Ottomans also transported large quantities of military supplies by ship.

The place where the Russian Empire was preparing to go to war with the Ottoman Empire was chosen on a steppe on the way through which the Ottoman Empire must attack Moscow. However, they camped on the back of the hills, and the terrain they chose was very favorable.

Nearly a million troops crossed the river and had to deliver large quantities of supplies, and the Ottoman Empire was busy day and night, but it still took a few days. The elite Yenichevan Guards of the Ottoman Empire, who crossed the river first, set up a cordon on the north bank of the river, and they had several skirmishes with the Cossack cavalry who came to them, but there were basically no major battles, and both sides were gathering strength and preparing for a desperate fight.

The Ottoman Sultan, after all the troops had crossed the river, sent a war letter to the Russian Imperial Army, demanding a decisive battle with the Russian Empire. The Russian Empire was supposed to carry out a defensive counterattack with the pre-established camps. However, since the Ottoman Empire came down to war, Tsar Alex felt that he could not refrain from fighting, and said that he agreed to fight a decisive battle with them on the steppe in front, although the Ottoman Empire was behind the great river, and it was impossible to escape backwards, and other conditions were the same for both sides. Although the Russian Empire lost its geographical advantage by leaving the camps, it was more flexible in the movement of troops. It's also a mixed pros and cons.

In late February, the grass roots on the grassland are already slowly green. Perhaps it was the prayers of both sides that worked, and God once again favored the soldiers of the Ottoman and Russian Empires, and the only little cumulus cloud in the sky quickly dissipated at dawn. The sun will shine red rays on the grassland that is about to start a bloody battle.

After the Ottoman army left the camp, it spread out an eight-kilometer-wide front in the steppe.

The Russian Imperial Army, coming to the battlefield, the tsar also ordered to open a front of equal width.

In this way, it is clear that the Russian Empire suffered somewhat, because the Ottoman Empire was much more numerous than the Russian Empire, and the thickness of the front, the Russian Imperial Army suffered. It was clear to both sides that the Ottoman Empire wanted to outflank the Ottoman Empire from both flanks by virtue of its large number of people, and the Russian Empire wanted to break through the Ottoman front and achieve a central breakthrough. If the front of the Russian Imperial Army was not as wide as the Ottoman army, their army could easily be rolled over from both flanks. The Russian Imperial Army was also completely correct in this response, but the first move of the Russian Empire was a bit passive.

The Ottoman army hid their chariot troops in the rear of the Central Group, which concentrated fourteen musketeers of 1,000 men, as well as 100,000 Ottoman elite Janicheva Guards and Sipasi Guards who crossed the river first, 100,000 Turkmen red hat cavalry, and 200,000 red hat infantry. Except for the elite musketeers, who are a phalanx of 1,000 people, the cavalry is a square of 2,000 people, and the infantry is a square of 5,000 people, and there is a certain gap between the squares to facilitate the transfer back and forth. The left flank of the Ottoman Front was dominated by 30,000 Ottoman elite Janichevan Guards, as well as 50,000 other cavalry and 50,000 infantry. The right flank consisted mainly of 30,000 cavalry of the Sipasi Guards, as well as 10,000 Serbian cavalry, plus more than 40,000 other cavalry, and 50,000 infantry. On the left and right flanks there were also 5,000 musket teams in formation.

The Ottoman army was phalanx, and the lineup was very neat, and it was well-trained at a glance. In this way, the phalanx can be flexibly mobilized on the battlefield, and each phalanx is a powerful force.

The Russian Imperial Army on the opposite side is also well-trained, and the plastic surgery is also very neat, and the Ottoman Sultan can't help but admire. The Tsar of the Russian Empire likewise placed elite troops in the Central Group.

The Russian Imperial Army had always had fewer muskets and fewer muskets than the Ottoman Empire, and they were the same as the Ottomans, a soldier armed with a kiln musket, with two soldiers armed with homemade muskets as secondary marksmen. They had a total of 4,000 muskets, forming a musket regiment of 12,000 men, but the Tsar saw that the Ottomans were going to outflank them, so he divided the 10,000 musketeers into two parts, 5,000 on each flank. Only 2,000 musketeers remained in the central group, and the role of these 2,000 musketeers was not too great, and the tsar decided to take the offensive in the middle, so that the pressure on the defense would be lighter. Besides, there is a powerful car fleet behind the Central Group. However, the tsar also sent many shieldmen and archers on the left and right flanks, and more than 10,000 Cossack cavalry each. Since it was on the defensive, more infantry was sent from both flanks. The two main wings sent generals who were very good at commanding. The last time I was able to form a situation with the much stronger army of the Ottoman Empire, the generals' application of good warfare and flexible command played a big role.

The two armies faced off against each other this time, and there was a common change, that is, there were more firearms and more artillery.

The battle between the two armies began first with an artillery battle. Although the accuracy of artillery firing on both sides is not high, the effect of artillery bombardment is still very obvious at such a close distance. The Ottomans were the first to fire artillery for calibration. As soon as a shell fell, the Russian Imperial Tsar was a step ahead, and he had already ordered the artillery not to fire at all, and all the large and small artillery pieces should be aimed at the formation of the Ottoman army, so that at such a distance, there should be no problem for the shells to fall into the opponent's formation. So as soon as the Ottoman artillery sounded, the Russian Tsar shouted, ordering: "Fire!" ”

"Knock knock!" "Knock knock!" The whole earth was shattered by the simultaneous opening of all the large and small artillery pieces behind the Russian Imperial Army, and then the explosion of countless shells in the formation of the Ottoman army was deafening, and the cries of the wounded were heard everywhere.

The Ottoman Sultan did not wait for the casualties to be reported, and ordered the artillery to open fire. This time it was the turn of the Russian Empire to suffer casualties in the formation. Although the casualties of the armies of the two countries were not small, the formation was not chaotic, and the well-trained army could best see the difference from the motley army at this time. The regular armies of the two countries did not move, and the mercenaries of the miscellaneous army did not dare to move.

Before the smoke of the first round of artillery fire had dissipated, and before the second round of shelling began, the Ottoman Sultan ordered the flag to be raised and gave the signal to attack on the right flank.

The Ottoman army's right flank was still very strong, with 30,000 cavalry of the Sipasi Guards, 10,000 Serbian cavalry, plus more than 40,000 other cavalry, and 50,000 infantry. On the left and right flanks there were also 5,000 musket teams in formation.

According to the original plan, 20,000 cavalry of the Sipasi Guards were dispatched for this attack, as well as 10,000 Serbian cavalry, plus more than 20,000 other cavalry, and 30,000 infantry.

The 20,000 cavalry of the Guards of the Sipassi Guards were all heavy cavalry, and although they did not move very quickly, the 20,000 heavy cavalry made a total of ten phalanxes, and the movement was very majestic, and the whole dust raised on the steppe covered the sky and the sun. They were followed by Serbian light cavalry and miscellaneous light cavalry sent by various lords, followed by 30,000 infantry. The infantry broke the rear to prevent the enemy from attacking them from behind the formation. The infantry was a large phalanx of five thousand people. But as soon as the attack began, the infantry phalanx spread out into a phalanx of 2,000 men. Such an attack is unstoppable. The left flank of the Russian Empire was the direction of the attack of the right flank of the Ottoman Empire, and the generals here were nervous when they found that the Ottoman army was attacking from this side.