When night finally fell on the Balkans, Colonel Lucien-Leflair finally led his troops to a stop on the march to rest. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

The whole army carried out his orders silently, and in the absence of the division commander, General Ney, Colonel Leflaire's orders had absolute effect, and soon the well-trained soldiers were lit between the hills with bonfires, like sparks in the black darkness.

In order to facilitate the defense, the colonel chose to camp on an open high platform with a very good view, but the flaw was also obvious - there was no river passing through it, and it was difficult to replenish the water source, so the officers and men had to eat a simple dinner with the water stored in the kettle.

However, this is not a big problem, because they are now not far from their destination, and now it is more worth worrying about the next battle.

After dinner, Lucien summoned several of his officers to his tent, then checked the map by the campfire, and discussed the plan for tomorrow, and in the middle of the night they dispersed and returned to their tents to rest.

Although there were too many things to worry about and be wary of, Lucien soon fell asleep, and he slept very deeply that night.

After years of service in North Africa, he has developed the ability to fall asleep whenever needed to recharge his energy quickly, a skill that veterans must have, and some can even sleep peacefully to the roar of bullets.

When the crimson morning sun revealed itself through the cracks in the mountains, Lucien awoke from his slumber, stretched his waist, and found that he seemed to have an inexhaustible amount of energy.

And when he walked out of the tent, he found that most of his men had also awakened, and these soldiers were either chatting and gambling with each other around the tent, or they were chatting and laughing loudly with acquaintances from other units in the camp, and the officers walked through it, urging their soldiers to check their weapons.

At this time, the search party that had been sent out early in the morning also returned, and they brought not only the surrounding intelligence, but also a large number of water bladders. In accordance with the order, they searched the surrounding terrain to make sure that the enemy troops had not gathered nearby, and at the same time found a water source and returned with a large amount of water for the troops.

They threw the water they had brought back into an iron pot and boiled it with the fuel they had collected, and from time to time soldiers from various units came to fill their kettles with water, like a colony of blue worker ants roaming around the nest.

In order to avoid the plague and to prevent his poor subordinates, who had already suffered from various diseases, from being dealt another blow, Colonel Lucien-Leflaire forbade his subordinates to drink unboiled water.

Lucy watched the movements of the troops in silence, and when the sun was slightly higher than the mountains in front of him, he took out his pocket watch and looked at the time.

Then he called his adjutant to his side. "Give the order, we're ready to march!"

The Colonel's order soon spread throughout the troops, and the relaxed atmosphere instantly became tense, and the soldiers put an end to their chatter and laughter, and then took their places, regrouped in formation, and formed a large marching column as they had done yesterday.

The tents had been put away again, everything else had been put away, and the makeshift camp had become a wilderness again, as if nothing had been left but the remnants of a bonfire.

When everything was ready, the march of the new day finally began, and the long procession greeted the sun in the direction of the fortress of Silistra.

Lucien was still on horseback, his expression serious and calm at the head of the group, but his spirit was highly tense, keeping an eye on the situation around him and the reports from the scouts.

Now they are getting closer and closer to the fortress of Silistra, and naturally closer to the Russians, and the Cossacks they met yesterday are an unmistakable indication of how close they are to the Russians.

He did not yet know how many Russians were besieging the fortress, but it was certainly much more than the thousands of men under his command, and now they were deep into the interior and could not get naval support, and the next reinforcements did not know when they would be able to catch up, so the situation did not allow Lucien to be cautious.

Under the pressure of this situation, he was highly nervous, and he was much more sober than usual, and even the speed of thinking was much faster than usual.

As time passed, the troops marched farther and farther, and their path between the mountains became wider and wider, and the mountains and hills of the Balkans slowly opened their arms, revealing a large basin.

Lucien, who already knew the map by heart, knew that in a few kilometers they would be at the foot of the fortress of Sylistra, and with the help of telescopes, the outline of the fortress sandwiched between the mountains seemed to be in sight.

So, is this poor fortress still resisting the Russian attack?

Lucien held his breath and quietly gathered all the information he could get his hands on.

The wilderness was so quiet that he could faintly hear the shouts of slaughter and the roar of cannons, and in the shadows of the telescope lenses, he spotted a star and crescent banner flying high at the top of the fortress, the flag of the Ottoman Empire.

"This fortress is alive!" The French officer beside Lucien shouted in surprise.

Yes, the Turks dutifully fulfilled their mission, stubbornly holding the fortress under the siege of a numerically superior enemy army.

Lucien felt a sense of relief in his heart, and he also felt sincere admiration for these Turkish soldiers.

At first, he, like his colleagues, had some contempt for the decaying Turks, but the fighting spirit of these Turkish soldiers was admirable for holding the fortress for so long with the superior strength of the Russians.

"Gentlemen, it's time for us to do our duty!" Relieved and surprised, Lucien said to his officers, "We can't let the Turks overpower us!" ”

"Yes, sir!" He was answered by a warm shout.

After a long journey, these officers and men were already a little tired, but when the enemy was close at hand, impulses and passions began to occupy the hearts of the officers and soldiers, and their blood was already boiling.

At this moment, a blur of figures appeared in the telescope, and the gray shadow grew larger and larger, and finally occupied almost the entire lower half of the field of view.

Lucien stared at the gray shadow as if his body froze.

It was a group of Slavic soldiers, dressed in gray uniforms, marching in a neat queue of at least a few thousand, and possibly more.

It was clear that they had come to meet their sudden arrival of French soldiers.

It seems that yesterday's Cossacks have gone back to report to their generals. Lucien thought to herself.

This did not surprise him.

The speed of the march on the other side was not fast, but it was firm and powerful, like a gray frenzy that was about to consume everything.

Looking at this frenzy, Lucien's heart suddenly flashed with a flash of realization that he and his men would be the first coalition army on land to fight the Russians.

"The Russians are coming! Get ready to attack! He jerked his horse's head, then jumped off his horse, and shouted out to the heralds around him.

After a pause, he shouted to the officers, "Our ancestors are watching us, don't let them feel ashamed!" ”

"Yes, sir!" As if they had been electrocuted, the officers shouted loudly.

At the shouts of the officers, the military music changed its tune, and the army of thousands of men stopped at great speed, and then deployed according to Colonel Leflaire's arrangement, ready to meet the overwhelming Russians.

Under Lucien's orders, most of his few battalions were sent to the front to meet the enemy. The blue-shirted and red-pants soldiers lined up in a tight line, nervously or relaxedly looking ahead.

They watched as the Russian army pressed towards them, getting closer and closer.

The soldiers of both armies soon saw each other's faces, and although they looked similar, they had become indistinguishable creatures in their eyes, their eyes becoming bloodshot, and their breathing getting heavier.

"Fire!" When the distance between the two armies had become extremely close, the French officers at the forefront gave the order.

The barrage rushed towards the Russian army with smoke and smoke, taking away the lives of the Russian army in a scream, and also causing the formation of the Russian army to be a little scattered. The Russians did not expect the French to shoot at this distance, and they did not expect such accuracy at this distance, so they panicked a little.

But soon, this small panic was suppressed by the officers, and the Russians pressed back on the French troops, and by this time, in the rear of their flanks, the artillery was also in place.

"Boom!" Shells mixed with the whistling smashed into the positions of the French army, leaving a bloody blur of figures, even if it was only a six-pounder light gun, and there were not many of them, it still caused a lot of casualties to the French army, but the French army ignored it and continued to fire forward.

Soon, smoke rose on both sides, like the fog that greets the sun every morning, except that the fog was mixed with the smell of gunpowder and blood.

The Russians, who seemed to have the advantage of their strength, forced their way closer to the French army, supported by artillery, and then opened fire on the French army at close range, the roar of the guns suppressed all sounds, and made the god of war the master of the whole world.

In this thick fog covered with bullets, the French troops trampled over clusters of bushes and thorns, and charged forward on uneven mud ground, the sparse woods became a major obstacle for them, and the ground was full of large ditches with half mud, but they ignored such an obstacle and rushed towards the Russian soldiers on the opposite side with great speed.

The first encounter began here, the French soldiers lined up in a dense column one by one, and then rushed to the Russian positions like a blue flood, and the Russians scattered a little, and then rushed to the French army as well, the soldiers of both armies had already thrown away their burdensome backpacks, they shouted sharply, and waved their bayonets at each other in battle, and when one battalion was repulsed, another battalion rushed up, so that the small flat ground was soon filled with corpses.

The artillery fire never stopped, and the shells continued to pour down on the French troops, and these shells fell to the ground with a sharp whistling and raised patches of dust, but the French army swooped down on them, and in the shouting and shouting, the gray and blue uniforms were mixed together, and finally turned into patches of red blood, and on the bloody corpses, the two armies shot at each other without mercy, and pierced the enemy's chest and abdomen with bayonets.

In such a battle, reason was useless, and everything was left to the human instinct to kill one's own kind, which was not enough, because the French army was denser in formation and more resolute in its assault, and the situation gradually turned in favor of the French army.

And on the flank of the Russians, a troop of chasseurs, wielding sabers, rushed through the wilderness with the sound of fighting, rushed towards the Russian lines, and marched towards the artillery units.

It was these artillery batteries that had just been brutally and mercilessly bombarding their comrades. With the sound of horses' hooves, the cavalry rushed towards the Russian soldiers so quickly that they swept towards the artillerymen like a tornado.

The saber swung in mid-air with a sharp cold light, and when it slashed at the gun and the human body, it made a thin and dull sound, almost like a blacksmith striking iron, and pieces of blood were sprinkled on the ground, making the earth a little more vivid red. Under the frightened gaze of the artillerymen, the group of cavalrymen rushed to them with bullets and bullets, and one of the cavalrymen, in order to protect the comrade next to him, received a bayonet from the infantryman's shoulder, although the blood was scattered, but he did not feel any pain, he grabbed the horse's mane so hard that he clamped the horse with his legs, so that the animal with whom he had been with him for many days was clamped as if it were clamped by pliers, and then, with the help of horsepower, he suddenly reined in his body, and then slashed down heavily.

"Poof"

The dull sound of the saber cutting into the human body brought out a large piece of flesh, revealing the white bones with the screams, and the Russian soldier fell to the ground miserably, but no one cared about his death, and his killer pulled out his saber and killed the next target.

Lu Xi quietly watched the battle in front of him, although this was a cruel scene, but he was not moved, he had been in the army for too long, no matter how many bloody scenes could not make him hesitate or fear, because he knew that hesitation and fear could only kill more people.

There was still a group of soldiers beside him who did not move, and although they were eager to see the battle of the robes, he still did not give the order for them to go for reinforcements.

Because they are now alone in the depths, and the situation of the enemy is not very clear, so he must put the lives of his men first, and the preservation of the whole army is limited, so he must keep the reserves in his hands, and he does not want to put the reserves of these two battalions into use in any case, and he would even prefer to retreat temporarily when necessary, he cannot trap the whole army in order to pursue victory in a battle.

He was given the order to help the fortress of Silistra to relieve the siege, and if it was unsuccessful, to hold on to reinforcements, to contain a part of the Russian army, and to alleviate the crisis facing the fortress - so as long as he could keep his troops, he would have achieved his goal, and the Russians would have to devote a large number of troops to confront him, and the threat to the fortress would be much reduced.

He was pleased to see that while the infantry was fighting, his cavalry had attacked the Russian artillery positions from the flanks, and although the Russians were desperately resisting, their artillery had suffered heavy losses.

In his eyes, now victory in this battle is tilting in his favor.

As if to confirm his opinion, the Russians halted their charge, and then the surviving soldiers slowly retreated under his gaze.

If only I had some cuirassiers here!

Watching the enemy slowly retreat in front of his eyes, Lucien couldn't help but think regretfully.

However, he also knew that such an idea was meaningless, they had originally rushed north from the landing site to rescue the fortress in order to rush for time, and now the heavy cavalry had not landed at all, and even if they landed, the hills and trails they passed along the way were definitely inconvenient for them to march.

Lucien was glad that there were now some hussars following this force.

Although he won the first battle and repelled the Russians, he did not dare to pursue now, because he knew that there were still too many troops behind the Russian army to mobilize, and he did not want to take too many risks.

On his orders, the French army stopped fighting, and by this time there were already too many remnants of the battle left on the ground.

With the help of his telescope, he saw that in the area where the two armies had just fought fiercely, many people had fallen to the ground, some of them were even mutilated - only an hour or two ago, they were still alive, with fear and hope, but now, they had nothing.

It is impossible to distinguish who is who, and there is no need to distinguish who is who.

All Lucien knew was that he had repelled the Russians in the first battle and had fulfilled the task given to him by the commander-in-chief.

However, he felt bitterly that he did not have enough troops to carry out a diversionary mission, which made him very nervous, because as long as the Russians continued to attack desperately, they would be very difficult to be at a disadvantage, and the Turkish soldiers in the fortress might not be able to coordinate with them.

However, his fears were in vain, and by the next day, the Russians had not attacked.

The originally noisy battlefield became eerily calm, and the French army was bewildered.

However, they soon received an answer over the next few days, and Lucien was pleasantly surprised to find that the Russians were gradually retreating under the fortress.

Of course, this is not too surprising, the Russians have been besieging this fortress for several months, and the losses must be not small, and they will not know that it is only a small French army that is now coming north to rescue, they must have thought that the British and French forces are preparing for a decisive battle with them, and the initial defeat has further damaged their confidence.

The Tsar would not allow his troops to take such a risk, and they were ready to retreat to their positions in the rear and fight the Anglo-French forces in a decisive battle.

Therefore, the coalition forces will, according to the original plan, avoid the Balkans and Ukraine, and do not attack their positions that are firmly guarded, but choose to land in their soft belly and continue to attack the Russian army.

"We're going to Crimea!" Surrounded by his subordinates to congratulate them, Colonel Lucien-Leflair spoke to them calmly.