After annihilating 100,000 Russian troops, Moltke took control of the Dnieper estuary again after a period of recuperation. Moltke's own situation allowed him to fight around the Crimea and could not go too far from the Crimean peninsula, so after crossing the Dnieper, he could only maneuver to Nikolaev at the farthest.

This mobilized Muravyov's army, which gathered heavy forces at Nikolaev, seemingly intending to eat Moltke in one bite. The Ottoman second-line troops, half a million jihadist troops, again advanced to Odessa as planned, but were stopped by the Muravyov army, which had increased its firepower.

Moltke hoped to contain Muravyov's main force with his own forces, and Austria would be able to concentrate its elite and carry out a forced attack on Odessa, and if it could conquer Odessa, it would basically firmly control the range of activities of the Russian navy in the limited space around Nikolaev.

The coalition forces will begin to take the initiative on the southern front.

Due to the breakthrough of Gorchakov, the main forces of the Russian army were assembled in the direction of Poland during this time, where more than 800,000 Russian troops were concentrated, while the Russian army on the southern front only replenished part of the losses, maintaining 500,000 troops, and half of them were contained by Moltke in Nikolaev, the Austrian military believed that if it could use the elite and cooperate with the Ottoman army, it would have a chance to conquer Odessa.

The Austrian army was not weak, and the experience of the commanders was strong, they had suppressed the domestic revolution only two years earlier, struck at the Kingdom of Sardinia, and all of them were victorious, so they were not a weak army.

Count Johann Joseph Wenzel Radetzky von Radetz, Field Marshal of Austria, was a man of great military ability, he was 82 years old, and he developed an instinct for all aspects of war. He himself has extremely rich military experience, and it is not at all exaggerated to call him an expert.

Radetzky was not an Austrian, but a Bohemian nobleman, for whom ethnic divisions did not make sense, because they were all intergenerational marriages, and their birthplace and hometown were only indicative of their fiefdom location, and did not represent their national identity. Born in Bohemia in 1766, he was a traditional aristocrat who was a leader in the suppression of the Bohemian Revolution.

In 1784, Radetzky joined the Austrian Army, and fought in the Austro-Turkish War from 1787 to 1792, fighting in Belgium, then part of Austria, in the early days of the war against France, and in the Italian War of 1796-1797, he participated in most battles against Napoleon, of course, most of them lost.

In 1805 he became a major general, and in 1809 he became chief of the General Staff of the Austrian army, and based on his experience in the defeat against Napoleon, he worked to reform and modernize the army. One of the rare victories in Napoleon's early frontal battles was the Battle of Aspeen-Aisling, which he completed as Chief of Staff with Archduke Karl.

When the revolution broke out in 1845, he suppressed the revolution, especially against the invading Kingdom of Sardinia, and taught the Italians what modern warfare was, defeating 85,000 Italian troops with 70,000 Austrian troops.

He has been in service for more than 60 years, he has been a general for more than 40 years, and the commanders in the army are basically his grandchildren, and he is not stupid. He had a high prestige in the army, and the whole army called him Daddy Radetzky.

With such a figure in charge, the Austrian army will not fight badly, even if it does not fight badly.

His cloudy eyes could actually see better than anyone else. He quickly grasped the thoughts of Moltke, who was also a great man, and although he had not met him, he saw Moltke's unusual nature from only a few commands. So he not only sent 300,000 elite Austrian troops south, but also told Moltke that he would fully cooperate with Moltke's actions, and the 300,000 Austrian troops could even directly listen to Moltke's command.

In this way, Moltke has a more elite unit than the Russian army, plus the 300,000 Ottoman troops he has trained himself, in fact, he can already make some more elaborate strategic layouts.

In the age of the telegraph, Moltke was able to command more quickly than he had fought decades earlier, although he had been fighting alone.

After he got the command of the 300,000 Austrian army, he quickly revised the plan, no longer asking the other side to carry out a strong attack, but first let the Ottoman Jihadist Army launch a fierce attack, after the failure, carry out a strategic retreat, the organizational level of the Jihadist Army, it is easy to make the retreat turn into a rout, the Russian army launched a counterattack, but when pursuing to the Dniester River, it was attacked by the Austrian army that set up an ambush here. Muravyov, who had already been somewhat alarmed by the encirclement from time to time, began to defend himself and ordered an immediate retreat. The opportunity to pursue a large number of routs was abandoned, and the risk of being surrounded was avoided.

At this time, the Austrians began to maneuver in a roundabout way, first to the north of Odessa, and then to the front again by the jihadist army, which had recovered from its strength. More than 200,000 Russian troops do not have an advantage in any direction, so they can only defend. After completing the detour on the northern front, the Austrians quickly inserted diagonally to the south, trying to cut off the connection with the Russian troops in the Nikolaev direction along the narrow strip of the coast.

Muravyov tried to come to the rescue, but Moltke also launched a fierce attack on Nikolaev, and after a scuffle, the Russian army was cut off.

More than 230,000 Russian troops fell into the siege of Odessa, and the easiest direction to break through was the 500,000 jihadist army in front, but from this direction they could only break through to Austria's underestimated hinterland, and the north and west were Austrian elite troops, and it was very difficult to break through. But Odessa has the advantage that it is a good port, and the Russian army has sea supremacy.

Muravyov did not hesitate, and after reporting the unfavorable situation to the tsar, he asked the tsar for permission for the Russian army to retreat from the sea, and he could not accept that more than 200,000 troops were surrounded and annihilated. The Tsar could not accept it either, so he granted the request. The retreat was relatively successful, because Odessa was not far from Nikolaev, the railway connection between Nikolaev and Kiev had not yet been interrupted, and the large army retreated here with sufficient supplies and room for maneuver.

But more than 200,000 Russian troops want to withdraw, not for a while and a half, especially the more they retreat, the weaker the troops, the Russian army has always been worried that the enemy will launch a fierce attack, and in the end it will make it impossible for the troops to withdraw. Therefore, while withdrawing troops from various ships day and night, Muravyov also strengthened the containment of the Austrian army and intensified the offensive from the Nikolaev direction to the Odessa direction.

Perhaps the plan worked, the Austrian army was constantly tired of coping with a pincer offensive from the Nikolaev direction and could not carry out an effective offensive on Odessa, and more than 200,000 Russian troops successfully retreated to Nikolaev.

Without waiting for Muravyov to breathe a sigh of relief, suddenly worse news came that the railway line to Kyiv had been cut off. The reason why the enemy never interfered with his withdrawal from Odessa turned out to be holding back a more sinister purpose. It's not that they don't care whether the more than 200,000 Russian troops in Odessa retreat, but they plan to encircle all the Russian troops in the lowland areas of the Black Sea coast for annihilation!