The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 892 Nothing is more ruthless than a big headscarf
As it turned out, Mogongze's decision to lure Reinstein with the title of Grand Duke of Bessarabia to defend Bucharest for him was absolutely the right one.

Because while Mo Gongze and Li Xingtai were leading their troops in the Franco-Austrian conflict, Ryanstein had already dealt with the Ottoman Turks.

Of course, "getting it done" does not mean defeating the Ottoman Empire.

Instead, he successfully got the Ottoman Turks, who controlled the Black Sea straits (Dardanelles and Bosphorus), to release the Yu Xia vassal navy, which Mo Gongze had cobbled together, into the Black Sea.

It's important to understand that this was no easy task, because the Ottoman Empire itself was a key player with significant interests in the Black Sea. The entry of over a dozen battleships from the Xia Fan navy into the Black Sea posed a considerable threat to the Ottoman Empire.

But the cunning Ryanstein accurately grasped the major changes within the Ottoman Empire: the military reforms of the current Grand Vizier Alemdar Pasha.

This reformer aimed to remove the Praetorian Guard's control over the Sultan and Istanbul, break the Praetorian Guard's monopoly on national military power, restore the fighting capacity of the imperial army, and become the savior of the Ottoman Empire.

It is conceivable how much vested interests would be affected by such reforms that have plagued the country for centuries. It immediately met with opposition from a large number of vested interest groups, but their power was not strong enough.

So Ryanstein immediately contacted these people and helped them attack Grand Vizier Alemdar Pasha from four directions.

First, because Mogongze was eager to go north to participate in the Franco-Austrian showdown after occupying Bucharest, he did not continue to occupy the plain east of Bucharest where the Danube River flows into the sea.

That is, most of the Principality of Bessarabia and part of the Principality of Kuruino were ceded to the Ottoman Empire.

The recapture of this most fertile land on the western coast of the Black Sea, and the fact that it was one of the few lands the Ottoman Empire had reclaimed in over a century, immediately earned Alemdar a great deal of popularity.

Therefore, Ryanstein quickly broke the peace treaty signed between Mogongze and Grand Vizier Alemdar, and prepared for war.

Just then, Lin Zexu, the prime minister of Liao, conscripted one out of every five men, and seven thousand brave soldiers from the Liao vassal garrison arrived. Ryanstein immediately launched an attack on the plain at the mouth of the Danube River.

In this battle, immigrants from the Huai River region and from Yichang Prefecture in western Hubei and Kuizhou Prefecture in eastern Sichuan—formerly the thirteen families of Kuidong—demonstrated their prowess, defeating the Ottoman army by fighting ten against one in the battles of Korbu and Constanta.

In particular, in the crucial Battle of Constanta, the immigrants from the Huai River region, with 2,000 cavalry, defeated 9,000 Ottoman cavalry. They then stormed up the high ground, capturing almost all of the Ottoman artillery, and forced them to turn their cannons around, directly blasting the Ottoman infantry to their knees.

Immigrants from western Hubei and eastern Sichuan demonstrated their ability to endure hardship and persevere through difficulties.

With fewer than four thousand men and more than ten thousand Wallachian vassal troops who were either just passing by or even observing, they trapped more than fifty thousand Ottoman troops in a depression, preventing them from getting out. This ultimately led to their collapse when the Huai River cavalry captured cannons.

In this battle, the Ottoman army was almost completely wiped out, and even the commander-in-chief of the Ottoman army, Aziz Ahmed, the governor of Rumelia (northern central Greece) who led the new Ottoman army to the rescue, was killed.

This dealt a severe blow to the ambitious Grand Vizier Alemdar Pasha, not only shattering the glory of reclaiming territory but also causing the loss of most of the Seqban New Army, on which he had placed his deepest hopes, and which was his main source of support.

Then, Ryanstein made a second move: he allowed the Armenians of the Western Asia, who were controlled by the Liao Dynasty and later slaughtered by the Turks, to cause trouble in eastern Asia Minor.

These Armed West Asians, armed by the Da Yu, harbored deep hatred for the Turks. Once armed and trained, their fury for revenge was terrifying.

They attacked Turkish immigrants throughout eastern Asia Minor, and later even targeted anyone who practiced Islam.

The rebel army in West Asia killed the captured men, sold the women to Seres traffickers, and burned villages to the ground.

They also destroyed all religious buildings, including the Temple of the Immaculate Conception, burned a large number of scriptures, and executed all Immaculate monks, regardless of age, creating numerous tragedies that shocked the entire Ottoman Empire.

Grand Vizier Alemdar was helpless against the overwhelming criticism from across the country. He couldn't mobilize the Imperial Guard, and the local nobles whose interests had been harmed by his reforms were uncooperative. He could only mobilize 20,000 new troops from the Seqban Army in Istanbul to suppress the rebellion.

Seeing that Allemdael had lost his last source of strength, Ryanstein made his third move.

He took the initiative to negotiate peace with the Ottoman Empire, claiming that if the Ottoman Empire recognized the Kingdom of Hungary's occupation of the north bank of the Danube, it would return the south bank to the Ottoman Empire.

Alemdael, whose invincibility was on the verge of collapse, grasped at this news like a lifeline and desperately tried to negotiate peace with Ryanstein.

As a result, the envoy sent by Ryanstein to Istanbul, Cheng Zuluo from Shexian County, Anhui Province, deliberately rambled on and made all sorts of outrageous demands.

He even privately asked Grand Vizier Alemdar to give him his beloved concubine, which nearly gave Grand Vizier a stroke.

That's truly vicious!
By using this tactic, Ryanstein was both intimidating the Grand Vizier's opposition and threatening them with the message that if they didn't take real action, he would actually negotiate peace with the Grand Vizier.

On the one hand, Cheng Zuluo's reckless actions greatly distracted the Grand Vizier, reducing his ability to discern right from wrong and his sensitivity to the impending coup.

The last resort was to directly provide weapons. In order to control Istanbul, Alemdar strictly controlled weapons, especially gunpowder and bombs, which left the opposition with insufficient weapons despite their desire for a coup.

As a result, Ryanstein sent gunpowder and bombs directly outside the city, leaving the opposition with no further worries.

On July 14, 1809, the fully equipped Old Guard launched a coup in Istanbul.

Since there were fewer than two thousand Seqban New Army soldiers in the entire city of Istanbul, and Grand Vizier Alemdar Pasha was only protected by a few dozen Seqban New Army soldiers, he was quickly surrounded in his home by the coup plotters.

After praying to his God in despair, the reformer set fire to the gunpowder magazine buried in his basement.

It turns out that this man was prepared to die for his cause. He had hidden most of the gunpowder he had seized from Istanbul in his cellar, which amounted to more than a ton.

The violent explosion was felt even in Topkapi Palace, where the Sultan resided. Of the thousand royal guards who stormed into Alemdar's residence to kill him, more than 600 were killed or wounded on the spot.

Grand Vizier Alemdar's family and the remaining dozens of guards also perished along with Alemdar himself for his political ideals.

Cheng Zulu sighed. Historically, this man was known for his integrity, was serious and unsmiling as an official, emphasized education, and served as governor of several provinces. He had also managed salt affairs and presided over military affairs. He was a capable and morally upright official.

Therefore, Cheng Zulu felt very bad. He bowed in the direction of Istanbul, then held the beautiful concubine that Grand Vizier Alemdar had given him with one hand, and Alemdar's young son with the other.

"Though I am without virtue, the nation benefits, and I should not fear losing my reputation for the sake of the country and the people." After saying this, Cheng Zuluo said to the seven or eight-year-old child beside him:

"From now on, I'll be your father. Study hard, and when you grow up, lead an army back to avenge your father against the Sultan!"

Upon hearing this, the youngest son of the Grand Vizier nodded sharply, his eyes flashing with intense hatred.

Li Chengbiao, who was responsible for protecting Cheng Zuluo on the ship, stumbled upon hearing this and almost fell headfirst into the Black Sea Strait.

You big-turbaned people are really ruthless. Not only did you harm someone's father and take away his stepmother, you're also going to train this kid to be a henchman to seek revenge against the Ottoman Sultan in the future.

Five days later, the guys who came to power in the coup immediately allowed the Xia naval forces to pass through the strait and enter the Black Sea. They had already witnessed Ryanstein's methods, so they dared not break their promise.

On September 20, 1809, Wang Delu, the naval commander of the Xia Kingdom and a vice admiral of the Dayu Navy, led a combined Yu-Ying fleet of more than fourteen battleships to launch a surprise attack on the two cities of Kherson and Nikolaev on the northern coast of the Black Sea.

At this time, the Russian military was quite powerful in the Black Sea, with more than forty warships of various types. Although most of them were not large in tonnage, they were not easy to deal with.

Moreover, the home port of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, Sevastopol, is nearing completion.

To reach the port, one must traverse a bay more than eight kilometers deep, with thirty-four granite fortifications along the way.

This is not something that Wang Delu could handle with just a dozen or so warships and over four thousand marines.

Therefore, Wang Delu wisely chose to attack Kherson and Nikolayev.

The former is the shipbuilding center of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

The latter was the location of the officer and soldier training base and the main cannon foundry.

Wang Delu fought a brilliant battle, and the Russian army also demonstrated their true capabilities.

The shipyard in Kherson was only guarded by a little over a thousand marines, and most of the officers and soldiers at the forts were on leave, with only a small number on duty.

The Black Sea Naval Academy in Nikolayev and the city of Nikolayev itself had virtually no troops stationed there for protection.

The Count of Batumi, who rose to power in the invasion of the Caucasus, and his son-in-law Liu Guangzu, the commander of the Xia Fan Central Guard, personally led 3,000 men. From landing to attacking the naval academy, they encountered no resistance except for resistance from the student army.

In this battle, the Russian Black Sea Fleet destroyed five shipyards in Kherson, burned seven warships under construction, and cut off the possibility of the Russian Black Sea Fleet receiving supplies in the short term.

Xiang Tai and Liu Guangzu, father-in-law and son-in-law, cruelly killed most of the 1,700 teachers and students at the Black Sea Naval Officers Academy, making it impossible for the Black Sea Fleet to form combat capability even with new ships unless personnel were transferred from other places.

After this battle, the main force of the Rus' Empire's Black Sea Fleet remained, but its reinforcements and logistics were completely cut off. Moreover, more than half of the Great Yu Navy consisted of steam-powered warships, which did not need to consider range in the relatively small Black Sea, giving them a significant advantage.

Conversely, the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Empire was in much worse trouble. They had not expected the Yu-British joint fleet to break in at this time, and most of their warships were stuck in the port of Sevastopol.

Wang Delu arranged for five steam-powered fast cruisers with a displacement of around 100 tons to monitor the area outside Sevastopol, with the intention of entangled with the Russian Black Sea Fleet as soon as it set sail.

The Ross Navy consisted entirely of sailing warships, and they had to wait for the wind to change before they could start.

The steam engines of the 100-ton class steam warships of the Dayu were very advanced, and could heat up the boilers in just 25 minutes. As a result, the Russian Black Sea Fleet could not escape the detection of the Dayu Navy most of the time when it set sail.

"Go to Bozoni and tell the two kings that we can break out now." By the time news of Wang Delu's victory arrived, it was already the end of December, and Ryanstein immediately sent his grandson on his way.

To become an aristocrat, one cannot rely solely on his grandfather; one still needs to take some risks.

"Now that we've blocked the Rus' Black Sea Fleet, we can use steamships to continuously transport supplies from Anxi. The only worry is that we don't have enough fine coal."

Ge Yunfei's father, Ge Chengsheng, the logistics ambassador in charge of military supplies and a minor vassal of the Liao Kingdom, said with some concern.

This is also what Ryanstein is most worried about, because there is a lack of coal around the Black Sea, as are the Caucasus and the Ansar and Beiting provinces.

Especially the Black Sea, where the best coal mines are located north of the Black Sea, in the Donetsk region of western Ukraine, which has a history of mining. However, this area is the heart of the Rus' Empire, making it impossible to obtain coal there.

There are also some west of the Black Sea, but without exception they are all located deep inland in the Carpathian Mountains, and they haven't been explored at all yet.

Even if it were discovered, the coal in the Carpathian Mountains is mostly lignite, which has a lot of ash and low calorific value, making it unsuitable for steam engines.

“You’re just like me, a rough fellow, so it’s really a bit difficult for you to do these things,” Ryanstein said with a sigh.

There is a shortage of talent west of Anxi. Even a military man like Ge Chengsheng, who can only speak, write, and calculate, has to be in charge of complex logistical work.

This was manageable before, but now, to withstand the attacks from France and Russia, we must rely entirely on the power of steam engines and large ships. Therefore, the use of every ton of coal must be precisely planned.

At this point, entrusting logistics to a non-civilian official like Ge Chengsheng, who has no systematic training, could easily harm both himself and others.

"Your Excellency Rui, I am truly not cut out for this!"
If it were about fighting on the battlefield and serving the country, I, Ge, would not be a hero if I even frowned. However, logistics for this large army is indeed not my forte. Ge Chengsheng was also eager to hand over this important logistical responsibility as soon as possible.

This isn't something the king values; it's a death knell. If he messes up the logistics, he'll be beheaded.

“I will write a letter immediately and ask Lord Shen Yao, the Chief Secretary of Xia Province, to come and replace you. You can focus on doing your current work well.”

. . . .

In mid-February 1810, shortly after the Franco-Russian allied forces began their siege of Pozony, Mo Gongze and Li Xingtai received a notification from Ryanstein.

The Da Yu Black Sea Fleet has basically taken control of the Black Sea and opened up transport routes from Anxi and the Caucasus. Although it is still difficult, it is much better than not being able to transport anything at all. The time to break out has come.

Mo Gongze was overjoyed and asked Li Xingtai to assess the battlefield situation. The two of them then delayed until the end of February.

By the end of February, Pozoni had been besieged for almost half a year. The Austrian army had lost almost all of its positions outside the city. Only the southern positions, which were the responsibility of the Xia and Anxi armies, had not yet been closed in by the Franco-Russian allied forces. There was also a large-scale food shortage in Pozoni.

After receiving notification from Mogonze that he was preparing to break out, Metternich deliberately spread the word throughout the city about the peace terms offered by France, which immediately caused a great deal of discussion throughout Austria.

Subsequently, Mo Gongze immediately stood up and declared that even if he died in battle, he would never sign such a humiliating treaty that would cede national sovereignty.

Emperor Franz fell for the trap; Mo Gongze would rather die in battle than he would.

Even if this is a treaty that humiliates and deprives the country of its sovereignty, it won't stop the emperor from eating and dressing. Let's preserve the empire first, and then see how things turn around later.

Therefore, Mo Gongze's statement actually facilitated negotiations between France and Austria.

Seeing that the time was ripe, Moggenze delivered a speech outside the Archbishop's Summer Palace, declaring that he would never submit to France and Napoleon, and that for the future of the empire, he was willing to risk breaking out and going to Hungary to continue fighting the French to the end.

Mogongze's speech garnered much support, and Duke Frederick William of Brunswick decided to lead the Black Brunswick Legion to break out with Mogongze.

The Duke's father, the previous Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Karl William Ferdinand, was killed in the Battle of Jena, where the Prussian army fought against the French, and the Duchy of Brunswick was occupied and abolished by the French.

Therefore, even if the two highest leaders among the Germans, the King of Prussia and the Emperor of Austria, did not resist, Frederick William would never give up.

1810, April 3.

Mo Gongze first sent people to secretly contact the French, claiming that he was also willing to negotiate, giving Napoleon the impression that he was two-faced, saying nice things on the surface but being afraid of death in his heart.

Napoleon immediately realized that Moggallès was planning a breakout, so he quickly strengthened the defenses of the southern positions and transferred most of his cavalry to the south, preparing to use a deep blockade.

As a result, the Anxi Army, the Xia Fan Army, and a small number of Black Brunswick soldiers, totaling 25,000 men, suddenly left the city and launched an attack on the north bank of the Danube. They captured three Russian positions in succession, seemingly intending to break out to the eastern Carpathian Mountains.

Although Napoleon initially did not believe it at all, because the Carpathian Mountains were difficult to traverse, and if one went northeast through the Eastern Carpathian Mountains, it would be impossible to return to Mogongze's stronghold in Budapest.

As a result of this hesitation, Mogongze broke through the Russian army's positions and headed directly northeast into the Eastern Carpathian Mountains.

It turned out that Mo Gongze had planned it all along. A Transylvanian labor force of tens of thousands of people had stored the supplies needed for the army in the Eastern Carpathian Mountains half a year ago.

Napoleon realized he had been tricked and immediately dispatched Marshal Marmont with 50,000 troops to march south along the Danube and attack Budapest.

1810, October.

After a brief resistance from the Hungarian militia, the Xia army in Budapest burned the pontoon bridge connecting Buda and Pest, took the river ferries, and withdrew from Buda.

By the end of May, the French army had been blocked for more than half a month before they were able to cross the river. However, in the city of Pest on the other side of the river, only a few civilians and some merchants remained; the rest of the Hungarians had evacuated.

Almost simultaneously, after a two-month march, the Anxi Army, the Xia Army, the Liao Army, and the Black Brunswick Legion, totaling 36,000 men, arrived at the Transylvanian Plateau.

Mogongze established his command post at the Deva Fortress in Alaba County, the westernmost part of the Principality of Transylvania. This was the frontline fortress blocking the enemy from entering the Transylvanian Plateau.

Meanwhile, Mo Gongze ordered the brothers Liu Guoqing and Liu Rongqing, renowned generals of the Xia Kingdom, to lead 5,000 troops to Belgrade to oversee defense.

Meanwhile, Napoleon was busy coercing Emperor Franz and his ministers to sign the humiliating Second Treaty of Pressburg.

He only chose to send the Russian general Prince Balagdion to attack Deva, and instead appointed Marshal Bernadotte, who had been marginalized and harbored resentment towards Napoleon but whom Napoleon did not fully understand, to take over Belgrade.

As a result, one of them remained indifferent and continued to just watch the show.

A resentful man lingered on the road, and it took almost half a month for the Liu Guoqing brothers to arrive in Belgrade before Marshal Bernadotte finally arrived, thus missing the best opportunity to capture Belgrade.

In mid-June, France and Austria, and Russia and Austria respectively signed the Second Treaty of Pressburg, which was several times harsher than the historical Treaty of Schönbrunn.

The Austrian Empire was completely transformed from a once mighty empire that dominated Europe into the Electorate of Vienna.

This seriously offended many Austrians, and even Germans.

Many deeply humiliated German nationalists, overcoming numerous difficulties, traveled thousands of miles to Transylvania to join Mogonze, hoping to fight the French alongside him.

For a time, the Sibiu-Deva Fortress and the Belgrade-Petrovaradin Fortress became the centers of anti-French sentiment on the European mainland, and Mogonze became a hero in the hearts of the German people.

However, Napoleon did not have time to launch an immediate attack because large-scale nationalist uprisings broke out in Tyrol and other regions in southern Germany. They resisted the heavy taxes of the French Empire and were unwilling to submit to being second- or even third-class citizens.

In addition, the situation on the Iberian Peninsula also deteriorated. Arthur Wellesley landed in Portugal again and, with the assistance of Qin Dingyang, repeatedly defeated the French army. The situation was so dire that Napoleon could not stabilize the country without his personal intervention.

Therefore, after signing the peace treaty, Napoleon left Marshal Marmont with 50,000 troops to garrison Austria, and rushed back to France without stopping.

Mo Gongze also took this opportunity to rush to Bucharest. The Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Empire has not been destroyed yet, which is always a hidden danger. We must find a way to force them out.

(End of this chapter)