After several hours of non-stop sailing, the British and French fleets finally arrived near Odessa at about 5 p.m.

At this time, the fiery red sun had slowly fallen from the top to the sea level, and the large white clouds in the blue sky were as red as fire in the setting sun, and the white sails blown by the sea breeze were also dyed orange-red.

Odessa, the pearl of the southern part of the Russian Empire reflected by the setting sun, revealed a French beauty that is difficult to describe in words, so that Vice Admiral Dunstar, who was observing the scene of Odessa with a telescope, could not help but sigh: "Alas! It's so beautiful! How nice it would have been if it weren't for the cities founded by the Russian Empire! ”

"General Dundas, the city was founded by the Duke of Richelieu, who was appointed by Catherine as the first governor of Odessa! It is because of his efforts that Odessa has become what it is today! "Rear Admiral Edmund Edmund Edmund Edmund Ed Lyons whispered to his boss Dundas.

"I say why the architecture of Odessa really has a French flavor! After a long time, it turned out that it was built by our French friends! Our French friends were really helpful! Dundas said sarcastically.

Edmund. After hearing Lieutenant General Dundas's complaints, Lyons immediately extinguished the idea that Lieutenant General Dundas would continue to popularize science, and turned to Lieutenant General Dundas to discuss the issue of attack sequence.

"No hurry! Wait until we get back from the reconnaissance fleet that went to the port of Odessa! Lieutenant General Dundas raised his hand to stop him.

After a while, the steam gunboats (two British gunboats, one French gunboat) in charge of surveying the enemy situation in the port of Odessa returned to the vicinity of the main fleet, and the flag men on board reported the situation to the main fleet through the flag.

The naval fleet stationed in the port of Odessa consisted of three main sail battleships, two double-deck ships, and three obsolete steam gunboats.

This scale is simply vulnerable to the Anglo-French combined fleet, and it should be noted that the batteries deployed in the area around the port of Odessa, each of which has artillery capable of firing twenty-four or forty-eight pound shells, these batteries were originally the weapons prepared by Nicholas I to prevent the Anglo-French forces from attacking the port of Odessa one day, but most of these weapons are the products of more than ten years ago, and the threat to the current Anglo-French combined fleet is far from fatal. The ships of the combined Anglo-French fleet were armed with guns of a larger caliber and longer range than those on the Odessa batteries, which were enough to pose a mortal threat to the Odessa batteries.

Of course, if against Turkey, these batteries are enough, and then the Turkish fleet drinks a pot.

Dundas, who received basic information about the port of Odessa, calmly analyzed the current situation.

Although the combined Anglo-French fleet was well aware of the deployment of the Odessa sea, the port of Odessa was still like a fog, and Dundas believed that it was not yet time to launch a general attack.

While Dundas was thinking carefully about how to deal with it, a small boat fell under the French command ship on the left side of the fleet he was on, and the small boat swam around the Dundas ship, and the sailors on the Dundas ship ushered the guests on board.

It was only after the guests had arrived on deck that the marines reported the arrival of General Bruard to Lieutenant Admiral Dundas.

Lieutenant General Dundas and Major General Aemond hurried to meet General Bruua, and the two shook hands again in the setting sun, and then quickly got to the point.

General Brua asked Vice Admiral Dundas for his opinion on Odessa, and Vice Admiral Dundas cautiously replied to Brua: "I hope that the fleet will hold off the attack, because we have not yet understood whether there is an army inside the port of Odessa!" ”

"What do you want to do?" General Brua asked Lieutenant General Dundas.

"It's better to be able to scratch a tongue and get the news of the port of Odessa from his mouth!" Lieutenant General Dundas responded to General Brua.

"That's not going to be easy!" General Brua said with a frown.

"Actually......" Major General Edmund whispered, "it's not that difficult!" ”

"Huh?" General Brua dragged his chin and looked at General Edmund with interest: "What can you do?" ”

"Based on my recent observations of the Odessa and Sevastopol fortresses, a small number of ships return to Odessa from the Sevastopol fortresses every day, most of these ships are merchant ships, and I think they are probably responsible for sending civilian ships to supply the Russian troops in the Sevastopol fortress! If we can take them prisoner, we will know about the situation in the port of Odessa! Major General Edmund offered his opinion.

"That's a good idea!" General Brua nodded and looked at Lieutenant General Dundas and said, "What do you think?" ”

"You can try!" Lieutenant General Dundas nodded.

Later, Major General Edmund took out the small notebook he had brought with him, looked through the contents of the record, and explained to Dundas and Brua the time of the mall's return to the port of Odessa.

"The closest time we got was around 6 o'clock!" Rear Admiral Edmund said to Lieutenant General Dundas, then took out a pocket watch and glanced at the time, which was now around 5:45: "There are less than 15 minutes left until the time of arrival on the ship!" ”

"Order the reconnaissance fleet to conduct reconnaissance along the route from Odessa to Sevastopol, and be sure to catch merchant ships!" Lieutenant General Dundas replied in a firm tone.

"Yes! Rear Admiral Edmund replied, and then gave the order to the Bannermen, who waved their flags to convey Vice Admiral Dundas's orders to the reconnaissance fleet.

The reconnaissance fleet that received the order was like a wild horse on the loose, frantically searching for traces of passing ships on the route from Odessa to Sevastopol.

Time flew by, and after nearly 20 minutes or so, the reconnaissance fleet returned to the main fleet again, and the flag soldiers on the ship conveyed the order to the main fleet to complete the mission.

Edmund, who saw the order from the reconnaissance ship, immediately entered the cabin and reported the completion of the mission to Vice Admiral Dundas and General Bruua.

"Bring people over!" Lieutenant General Dundas once again commanded.

Edmund quickly returned to the deck and conveyed to the reconnaissance fleet the news of escorting the merchant ship members to the main fleet, and the reconnaissance fleet turned and left.

After a while, an embarker passed through layers of encirclement and arrived in front of the command ship, and the person in charge of the upload followed the two sailors to the ship that headed for the command fleet, and then boarded the British command ship.

Looking at the Tatar-looking Russian Imperial merchant in front of him, Dundas asked him in broken Russian if he could speak English.

"Dear Sir Lord! (The merchant didn't know if Dundas was a nobleman or not, so he could only try to call him a knight), I didn't know English, I only learned a little French! "The merchant spoke fluent Russian to Lieutenant General Dundas.

Lieutenant General Dundas turned his gaze to General Brua, who stepped forward and briefly communicated with the Tatar-looking merchant.

According to the businessman, since the Anglo-French alliance declared war on the Russian Empire, Tsar Nicholas I of the Russian Empire has been strengthening the military force in the Odessa region, and now Odessa has gathered 50,000 to 60,000 Russian troops, which can be said to be heavily defended.

"A team of 5 or 60,000? Where did the tsar get such a huge army! Lieutenant General Dundas, somewhat unwilling to believe the Tatar merchant's words, immediately questioned.

General Brua translated Dundas's words into French and spoke them to the Tatar merchants.

"Dear sir, I'm just an ordinary businessman, and I don't know where the Tsar got these troops from, but they do stay in the port of Odessa!" Tatar merchants said word by word.

After listening to the Tatar merchant's words, General Brua and Lieutenant General Dundas were silent, and Major General Edmund immediately asked his men to take the Tatar merchant down.

"What do you think?" Lieutenant General Dundas, who had been silent for a moment, asked General Brua.

"I can't rule out the possibility! After all, the port of Odessa was too important for the tsar! No matter how careful you are! General Brua replied with his chin in his hands, and then said with relief: "But we don't have to worry too much about the number of people, I personally think that there are no 60,000 people in the port of Odessa!" At best, about 30,000 to 40,000 people! ”

"Even if they only have 3 to 40,000 men, it will be difficult for our army to gain an advantage!" The Dundas army responded.

The Anglo-French troops on the ship were only about 8,000 in total, and they did not occupy any advantage in terms of numbers at all.

"Then you can only choose to destroy the living forces of Odessa!" General Bruard set the strategic goal of the Anglo-French combined fleet next.

"That's all there is to it!" Dundas nodded in response.

Under the joint orders of General Bruard and General Dundas, the combined Anglo-French fleet began to change its attack formation and advance towards the port of Osad.

Small but nimble gunboats were at the front of the line, followed by massive steam-sail battleships.

When the combined Anglo-French fleet reached the maximum range distance from the ships and batteries in the port of Odessa, the presence of the combined Anglo-French fleet was also detected by the port batteries and the Russian Imperial Fleet remaining on the ships.

Under the light of the stars hanging in the sky, the figures of the Odessa port batteries began to move back and forth, all under the eyes of Generals Dundas and Brua, who commanded the ships.

"Fight back? Do you have what it takes? ”

General Dundas, who could vaguely see the movement of the battery through the lookout glass, put down the lookout and dismissed it, and then ordered the fleet to carry out the next order in order.

Please know that the website of this book: 123 Reading Pen Mobile Version Reading:

『Click here to report error』『Add to bookmark』