The Russian army on the southern front is led by General Muravyov, Muravyov is also a fairly qualified officer, he has assembled 500,000 troops in his hands, similar to Gorchakov's predicament, more than sixty percent of the recruits are equipped with smoothbore guns, and even smoothbore guns are difficult to ensure ammunition, each soldier has an average of only six bullets, in the Russian army that advocates bayonet charge tactics, it is enough, but how much combat effectiveness it can play depends on what kind of opponent it faces.

Muravyov deployed his army on the line from Nikolaev to Odessa and controlled the railway leading to it, and after receiving the order, he decided to concentrate his superior forces and first eat the Austrian army under Moltke's command from the Crimea to the Dnieper.

Muravyov judged that Moltke's army was stretched too long and lacked supplies and support by sea and land, and if he could connect Moltke's main force with the Crimean Peninsula, he would have the opportunity to eat more than 100,000 Moltke army forwards at the mouth of the Dnieper River.

But Moltke retreated, abandoning the Dnieper estuary, Muravyov decided to pursue, before Moltke's army retreated to the Crimean Peninsula, cut the opponent in half, he had the advantage of troops, the opponent had less than 300,000 men, but had to lay a defense line of hundreds of kilometers, and Muravyov could use the offensive force to reach 300,000.

Muravyov made a detour from the upper reaches and 100,000 elite troops marched forward, and they managed to find a gap and cut into it. Thinking that he had cut Moltke's army in half, Ke suddenly found that the Austrian army in the south was very empty, and learned through the captives that the other party's previous movement was not to retreat to the Crimean Peninsula, but to the north. Muravyov thought that this was the main force that the other side planned to take over the southward retreat, but at this time they found out.

The main force of Moltke's army cut off by them was as high as 200,000 people, which meant that most of Moltke's troops were cut off by them.

When observing the moltke army in siege for himself, Muravyov felt that something was wrong, the encircled army was too calm and the positions established were too complete, as if they were waiting to be surrounded. They dug trenches, built improvised earthen walls, and deployed a complete firepower, unlike a retreating army in a hurry. It's like it was built a long time ago. The feedback of the 100,000 elite Russian troops behind the encirclement was similar, believing that the enemy's fortifications were well repaired.

Caesar famously said, when you hesitate, attack. Muravyov also decided to launch an offensive to test it, but the opponent's defense was very effective, causing a lot of casualties on his side. Anyway, the other side had already fallen into the encirclement, and Muravyov was not in a hurry, he decided to strengthen the encirclement first and prepare for a long-term siege. He planned to mobilize heavy artillery to destroy the enemy's improvised fortifications first, and what surprised him even more at this time was that the other party had also prepared heavy artillery here, which was by no means the preparation that a hastily retreating army should have.

Within a few days, Muravyov received news that the Ottoman army had advanced to the vicinity of Odessa. At this time, Muravyov knew that he might have fallen for Moltke's tricks. The opponent withdrew the main force to the south, mobilized itself to the east bank of the Dnieper, and dragged itself here at the cost of being surrounded, in order to provide the 500,000 Ottoman troops in the direction of the Danube with the opportunity to attack Odessa.

At this time, Odessa's defense was insufficient, and 200,000 troops were deployed in that area, but the defense line from Mykolaiv to Odessa was too weak compared to the opponent's 500,000 army.

At this time, Muravyov hesitated, he found that he was in a passive situation, and the 100,000 elites who should have cut off Moltke's retreat were instead caught between Moltke's main force and the Crimean Isthmus, either attacking the isthmus to the south, or retreating, or combining the main forces to eat Moltke's main force.

Muravyov unleashed a sustained onslaught and found that Moltke had come prepared, had set a trap for himself, and his firepower in the encirclement was no weak.

So Muravyov decided to retreat, first withdrawing the 100,000 elites. But by this time it was too late, Moltke repeated his old trick, using small boats to bypass the Gulf of Calkinit, establishing a defensive line near the coast to block the retreat of the Russian army to the coast, and on the other side a detour from Sivash Bay, cutting off the retreat of the Russian army to the west.

Muravyov's reconnaissance learned that the two flanks ranged from 20,000 to 30,000 each, which means that Moltke's troops outside the Crimea had reached more than 250,000, and the army remaining on the Crimean peninsula was less than 50,000. But by this time, Muravyov could no longer afford to attack the Crimean peninsula. Odessa is in a hurry, and retreating means giving up the 100,000 elites transferred into Moltke's encirclement and continuing to attack, and Odessa may fall.

Moreover, Muravyov knew that the troops he left in Odessa were all poorly equipped recruits, and the troops equipped with rifled rifles and other new equipment were basically transferred to the front line.

The news that the Russian army was once again encircled caused an international sensation, and some ridiculed the stupidity of the Russian command, and comments praising Moltke's talent began to appear.

Moltke proved his strength with two big siege tactics, and he was not an unknown nobody.

Everyone is surprised that Moltke was able to command the Ottoman army to make more complex maneuvering tactics than the Russian army.

But in fact, Moltke himself knew in his heart that the level of the Ottoman army still did not exceed that of the Russian army, and only the main force of the 300,000 Austrian army led by him had the ability to compete head-on with the Russian army, and the organization and discipline also allowed some roundabout tactics. But it was just a few simple detours, and it was based on Moltke forming a professional staff team. At this time, Moltke admired his Chinese colleagues a little, and he deeply understood the difficulty of Song Ronggui when he commanded millions of people to conduct roundabout battles. It requires not only professional training, but also a high degree of obedience and unhesitation in all circumstances.

The 100,000 Russian troops trapped in Moltke's encirclement carried out a breakthrough operation, but Moltke had already completed the encirclement by this time, and he was still able to strengthen from the main force of the northern front to the two flanks. As for the Russian army on the front, he believed that under the fortifications, it would be impossible for the other side to break through in a short time.

The adventurous Muravyov made a risky move at this time, he ordered the 100,000 Russian troops in the encirclement to force an attack on the Crimean peninsula, believing that the Ottoman army would not exceed 30,000 people defending here, because the other side still had to defend the fortress of Sevastopol.

His judgment may have been correct, but the strong fortress built by Moltke on the isthmus not only failed to attack the Crimean peninsula, but allowed Moltke to seize the opportunity to further compress the encirclement, and now the 100,000 Russian troops have no chance to disperse and break out.

Muravyov was also a bastard, but fortunately abandoned the army, allowing them to put up an honorable resistance and surrender. Muravyov himself led the main forces back and went to the rescue of Odessa.

Seeing that Muravyov's main force was retreating, and Moltke was not greedy for credit, he could only lament the disadvantage of not having sea power, and was content to eat 100,000 Russian troops.

Moltke ordered the 500,000 Ottoman troops in Odessa to go on the defensive, not believing that the 500,000 Ottoman second-line troops, who needed to maintain long supply lines, would be able to capture a large city like Odessa.

The Russian army on the southern front was once again caught in a standoff, which failed to play a role in attracting the main Austrian forces to the south.

The Russian army on the northern front is even more crisis.

At this time, the British decided to mediate the war, and Prussia welcomed the British mediation.

Russia can also accept mediation at this time, they did lose on the battlefield, but it is not without the strength of a war, with the state of Russia, and the ability to arm a million troops.