The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 898 It's Time for the Machine Gun to Take the Stage
March 1811, outside Rostov.

The disastrous defeat at Karashev ten days ago has put the Tsarist Rus' Empire in a very passive position in its defenses on the northern coast of the Black Sea, especially around the Sea of ​​Azov.

In this battle, Count Bennigsen led 30,000 elite Russian troops, intending to launch a surprise attack on the Western Route Army of the Great Yu and wipe out the vanguard. However, he suffered heavy losses instead.

The Russian army suffered more than 7,000 casualties and lost more than half of its weapons and supplies. Count Bennigsen, fearing encirclement, did not even go to Rostov and instead fled to Voronezh on the upper Don River.

The Western Route Army of the Great Yu also lost more than 3,000 men, but the Han army suffered only more than 200 casualties.

The rest were Zoroastrian Azerbaijanis and some Western Torghuts (Kalmyks), and the main force suffered less than 10% losses, so they were completely unaffected.

In March, the temperature in Rostov had slowly risen from below zero to above zero, reaching around five degrees Celsius during the day, making it a suitable time to launch an attack on Rostov.

Therefore, on March 20, after finally making contact with the Black Sea Fleet, Gui Han, the commander-in-chief of the Western Route Army, immediately led the main force westward.

The reason for this was that the army was launching a three-pronged attack on Russia. The northern army had the Ural River leading directly to the Caspian Sea, and at the mouth of the river, Xinghan City (Ayrau) served as a stockpiling point for supplies.

Needless to say, the central army, with Xihai City (Astrakhan) as the westernmost fortress of the Great Yu that will never fall, as long as it controls the Volga River waterway, will not be able to have its supply lines cut off.

The Western Route Army, however, was entirely transported by land, and its supplies were transported from Gaoliang Prefecture (Caucasus), putting it under immense logistical pressure.

Therefore, in the design before departure, a safeguard was left for the Western Route Army: in the event that land routes were frequently cut off, supplies could be transported via steamships over the Black Sea.

4 month 1 day.

The Western Route Army, numbering around 85,000 men, all arrived near Rostov.

Not only did they build artillery emplacements outside the city to bombard Rostov, but they also constructed a water fortress on the Don River, loading the captured Russian ships of all sizes with gravel and sinking them in the river to prevent the Russians from supplying Rostov via the Don.

When the news reached St. Petersburg, Alexander I was so anxious that he could barely eat, because Rostov was of utmost importance to the situation.

Once Rostov falls, the Great Yu will control the area north and east of the Sea of ​​Azov.

This would not only allow them to immediately acquire the coal mines of Donetsk, but also enable them to travel south by land to attack the Sevastopol fortress, the home port of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Crimea.

Even if the Sevastopol fortress is incredibly difficult to attack, it certainly cannot withstand an attack from both land and sea.

On April 5, Tsar Alexander once again handed over 110,000 troops, including 50,000 militiamen, to Army General Mikhail Barclay, ordering him to immediately proceed to relieve the siege of Rostov and stabilize the northern Black Sea coast.

On April 8, the Tsar issued a decree in St. Petersburg, declaring that the Rus' Empire had reached its most threatening moment and that the Yellow Peril had arrived.

He demanded that all the people of Rus' dedicate themselves to the country and to the Tsar, and he levied large quantities of grain, mules, gunpowder, and other supplies from the populace.

On April 9, Alexander I ordered all local nobles, clergy, and powerful figures in the Rus' Empire to send their families to St. Petersburg, while also allowing them to recruit militia to assist the imperial army in combat.

For nearly a century, the Rus' Empire had never mobilized on such a large scale and so thoroughly, and the Grey Beasts once again demonstrated their immense endurance to the world.

The Rus' Empire, with a population of just over 30 million, conscripted 500,000 men to the battlefield. With the addition of militia from various regions, the total number certainly exceeded 700,000.

Moreover, this was during the spring planting season. In many places, the fields were abandoned to women and children. The able-bodied men who went to the front lines took most of their family's food rations with them. The women and children farming in the rear didn't even have enough potatoes to eat, and the whole nation had started digging up wild vegetables to make porridge.

On April 15, before Russian General Mikhail Barclay had even arrived in Rostov, the Battle of Tsaritsyn (Stalingrad) had begun.

In just three months last year, the main force of the expeditionary army in the central route pushed the battle line to a place only 40 kilometers away from Tsaritsyn.

However, with the arrival of winter, they were forced to withdraw their troops, and the Russian army subsequently recaptured these areas one by one.

However, while the territory can be reclaimed, the fortifications on it cannot be restored. The Rakshasa people are simply more adapted to the cold winter than children of the cold winter, and they cannot dig through the frozen soil at minus ten or twenty degrees Celsius.

Therefore, in mid-April of the Gregorian calendar, Army General Mo Gongling, General of Chariots and Cavalry, successfully led 4 infantry and cavalry to quickly approach Chalijin.

At this time, after eight years of painstaking construction by the Russians, Chalijin had become a fortress that inspired awe and fear.

Tsaritsyn's main city was built on an island in the Volga River, with seven bastions and more than two hundred cannons for defense, making it extremely difficult to land.

The Russian army also built seventeen pontoon bridges on both sides of the Volga River to connect the two banks.

Each pontoon bridge was fortified at its end, serving not only for defense but also to destroy the pontoon bridge before it fell, preventing it from being used by the Great Yu.

Meanwhile, ten kilometers downstream from Chalijin, the Russians sank a large number of ships and embedded thousands of wooden stakes covered with iron sheets, specifically to block the river, making it impossible for large ships of the Dayu with a slightly deeper draft to pass.

For the Great Yu, this battle involved mobilizing 300,000 troops and also supporting Mo Gongze, which was the limit of what they could do in the past eight years.

Even adding just a thousand more troops would cause enormous logistical difficulties.

Therefore, the central army of over 100,000 men basically comprised all the available troops.

With such a small force, it was impossible to besiege a formidable city like Tsaritsyn. The only option was to launch a direct assault from the east and south, which gave the Russian army great confidence to hold their ground.

However, the Russian army was not without its worries. Kutuzov held the battle report from Count Bennigsen on the Battle of Kalashev and was immediately filled with apprehension.

Not only because the Western Route Army of Dayu used a large number of new weapons, but also because the needle-firing gun of this new weapon showed the characteristic of being able to get rid of the drawbacks of queuing for execution.

"Is it even possible for us to fill in the moat outside the main city of Tsaritsyn now?" Kutuzov quickly realized this was a big problem.

Before the Earl of Bennigson sent back his battle report, trench warfare was not a tactic.

The reason is simple: loading a flintlock musket requires standing the barrel upright to pour in gunpowder, add lead bullets, and then compact it with a ramrod. This requires soldiers to stand up while loading, and it is impossible to use other methods.

In this situation, if the trench is dug too shallow, it will not only be useless, but may also affect the rotation firing tactics.

If the digging is too deep, exceeding 1.5 meters, the firing rate will be too slow, and the grenadiers, especially grenadier cavalry, will be completely defenseless, unable to even withstand close combat.

The trenches that Kutuzov dug outside the main city of Tsaritsyn, an island in the Volga River, were actually used to quickly deploy troops, transport supplies, transfer the wounded, and restrict the advance of the Dayu field artillery.

Because the main city of Tsaritsyn is still one or two kilometers away from the landing point on the island in the river, if we do not want to let the enemy land on the island directly, we must establish a fast and secure communication channel between the outer bastions for preventing landing and the main city.

In addition, the landing area on this river island is relatively narrow, making it difficult for cavalry to maneuver, while the infantry in the trenches do not have to worry about cavalry rushing over and throwing bombs.

Meanwhile, with artillery cover on the city walls, they weren't too afraid of infantry coming down from their high ground to encircle and annihilate them.

But now there's trouble, because the Dayu's needle-firing guns don't need to be reloaded while standing up, so they can crouch in the trenches to attack the Russian army, which in turn becomes a cover for the Dayu soldiers.

“It’s definitely too late now; we don’t have that much time or manpower,” replied Major General Sergei Kamensky, the newly appointed chief of staff.

Kutuzov sighed inwardly. If only Lieutenant General Guillaume Kinyaar were still here, he would surely have been able to handle this matter well.

Lieutenant General Guillaume Guillaume was an exiled Frenchman who, along with his father, initially followed Louis XVIII of the Bourbon dynasty into exile.

Later, due to political differences, Guillaume Guillaume's father left Louis XVIII and went to Austria to recuperate, while the lieutenant general himself left the Bourbon dynasty's government-in-exile and began to serve the Rus' Empire.

He was an excellent staff and logistics officer, with some ability to command cavalry, and worked very well with Kutuzov.

But at the end of last year, rumors circulated in St. Petersburg that he had accepted the offer of Princess Charlotte, the only surviving heir of Louis XVI and a concubine of the Crown Prince of Rus', and was preparing to betray the Rus' Empire.

Under pressure, Tsar Alexander I, after only a brief interrogation, concluded that the man indeed had motives for betrayal and immediately imprisoned him.

"Then prepare steam pumps. In case of an emergency, fill these tunnels and trenches with water so that the enemy cannot use them!"

Kutuzov was trying his best to prevent the trenches from becoming a weapon of attack for the Da Yu, while the Da Yu side was also discussing the role that new weapons could play on the battlefield.

However, the commander-in-chief, General Mo Gongling, decided to adopt a conservative approach, agreeing only to equip the Left Divine Lightning Guard, the Left Feathered Forest Guard, and a portion of the Guowu Army with needle-firing muskets, while the rest would continue to use flintlock muskets, in order to avoid causing chaos on the eve of the decisive battle.

In early May, after a large amount of supplies were delivered via the Volga River, Mogongling left 10,000 men to guard the main camp and protect the supplies, and another 10,000 men to protect the supply lines. He personally led the remaining 110,000 troops in three routes to continue advancing northwest along the Volga River.

The target of this advance was the underwater obstacle that the Russian army had placed in the river about ten kilometers from Tsaritsyn.

After removing these underwater obstacles, the Dayu steamships could enter the waters near Tsaritsyn to support the army's attack on the fortresses on both sides of the river. The Russian army, of course, would not allow the Dayu to easily take down their carefully laid underwater obstacles, and even when defending the city, they would not simply defend it without engaging in any open battle.

Not to mention that Kutuzov commands a full 250,000 men. If he wants to focus solely on defense, Tsar Alexander I will not allow it, nor will the officers below him who want to make a name for themselves.

May 14th (Gregorian calendar).

The vanguard of the Da Yu army's central route against Russia was led by Song Wentian, the fourth son of Song Jun, a Da Yu general and Marquis of Chang Le, who was a renowned military officer of three generations and had previously blocked the Qing army at the Bawang Temple in Beihe. The 4,000-strong Imperial Guard Left Divine Lightning Guard approached the outermost defensive line of the Russian army, and the battle officially began.

The Russian army established a complete defense system 25 kilometers southeast of Tsaritsyn, consisting of 14 medium and small fortresses, centered on the village of Marievka to the south, the village of Kolobovka to the northwest, and the town of Kirova to the east.

This is a bend in the Volga River, where the terrain is very open and flat, and the few high points have been utilized.

Among them, the villages of Marievka (southern village) and Kolobovka (northern village) are located one behind the other and are situated on higher ground.

Kirova (East Town) is located in the middle of them. Each village has a road leading to East Town, which is also on higher ground and has wide flat land that can accommodate a large number of infantry.

If Dayu only takes Northwest Village, it will be met with artillery fire from South Village and East Town, which are positioned on higher ground.

If we only capture Nancun, we can only advance through an extremely narrow watery area, which is very disadvantageous.

If we only capture Dongzhen, we will be attacked from both sides by the Russian troops in Nancun and Xibeicun.

The only way is to take all three places at the same time, completely destroy the Russian defenses, and force them to defend only Tsaritsyn.

After repelling the Russian vanguard that came to probe, Song Wentian's vanguard began to attack Northwest Village.

This was an uphill attack, mainly to test the power of Russian artillery, and of course, it would be best to find out where the main Russian artillery positions were.

Kutuzov was naturally not going to fall for such a trick. He assigned two main divisions of the Second Western Army to guard the village of Northwest, using less than twenty artillery pieces and relying entirely on grenadiers and hand-to-hand combat to defend the village.

The Russian army's numerical advantage was fully demonstrated at this moment. Their two divisions, totaling 16,000 men, took turns entering the village to defend it. Zuo Shendianwei captured Northwest Village several times, but was forced to withdraw in the hand-to-hand combat at night and in the early morning.

The Great Yu does have advantages in training and weaponry, but these advantages cannot be fully utilized in poor lighting conditions.

Furthermore, Song Wentian still couldn't bring himself to be ruthless. Most of the Left Divine Lightning Guards were composed of the Emperor's Yuexi Jiaojilang, and it would be too wasteful to have them consumed in such a chaotic battle.

Three days later, the troops from the Japanese envoy's garrison in Fusang Province—Aizu and Sendai—arrived, totaling 12,000 men, the main force of which were the original Aizu Domain soldiers and Sendai Domain soldiers.

Now that he wouldn't feel bad about the cost, Song Wentian immediately took over command and began to plan the attack.

Following the characteristics of the Orient, the Aizu and Sendai soldiers had small elite groups equipped with samurai swords made of fine steel, while the rest of the soldiers practiced what they called gun-sword techniques year-round and were very good at close combat.

Their arrival caused the Russian army a lot of trouble.

At this time, the Russians were not as tall and strong as they later appeared. Their height did not give them an overwhelming advantage over the Aizu and Sendai soldiers. On the contrary, they were much worse in terms of martial arts skills and agility.

At the start of the battle, the Aizu and Sendai troops inflicted heavy losses on the Russian army in the northwest village. Kutuzov, seeing that Mogongleng was holding onto his cavalry without moving, did not dare to bring out his main artillery force from the northwest to fight, and could only continue to send reinforcements to the northwest village.

Five days later, the Russian troops defending Northwest Village had reached 45,000 men, and Mogongling also sent an additional 6,000 men from Yiwu Town.

The two sides engaged in repeated battles in this small village, all of which were extremely brutal hand-to-hand combat and queuing to throw bombs.

Meanwhile, the fighting intensified in Nancun. Nancun was much larger than Northwest Village, and the Russian troops stationed there, though not elite, numbered over 50,000.

The combat forces of Dayu were mainly composed of the garrison troops of Hezhong Town.

However, more than 10,000 of the elite troops from Hezhong Town had already been transferred to Hungary by Li Xingtai for support. The remaining troops were mostly local soldiers, numbering only around 20,000.

Therefore, although the fighting strength of Nancun was fierce, it was far inferior to that of Xibeicun. The offensive momentum of the Dayu army was also relatively slow, and they never even managed to occupy half of Nancun.

But Mo Gongling did not put any pressure on the Hezhong Town army in Nancun, because he had placed all his bets on Dongzhen.

The eastern town, also known as Kirova, is a large town located right next to the Volga River. The main force of the Russian army here numbers around 100,000 men, all of whom are elite troops.

Mo Gongling had 60,000 troops at his disposal, all of whom were elite soldiers.

Despite the Russian army's advantages in manpower and terrain, their chances of winning are not high. Once they are defeated and the East Town is captured, the Northwest Village and South Village can be slowly worn down later.

5 month 22 day.

The fierce battle of Dongzhen broke out, and at this point, there was no need for either side to hold back. The Dayu artillery fired more than 40,000 shells at Dongzhen in two hours, including a large number of explosive shells containing nitroglycerin.

This far exceeded the Russian army's understanding of artillery. The most powerful artillery they had ever seen before was the French firing 60,000 shells a day, and the power of the French explosive shells was at most one-third that of the Da Yu explosive shells.

This terrifying power completely stunned the Russian army.

Among them, two divisions of the 3rd Corps of the 2nd Eastern Army of Russia, which were at the forefront, were hit by thousands of explosive shells due to lack of preparation, resulting in more than 2,000 casualties on the spot and almost being scrapped.

Subsequently, Mo Gongling ordered the Imperial Guards Left Divine Lightning Guard and Left Feathered Forest Guard, the Yangwu and Guowu armies of the Beijing Garrison, and a part of the Liwei Army, totaling 45,000 men, to attack from three directions.

Kutuzov immediately ordered the Russian army to intercept them with artillery fire. These elite troops of the Great Yu, carrying Russian artillery fire, approached the Russian positions at top speed, successfully reducing casualties.

Meanwhile, fearing that his artillery would be counter-fired by the Da Yu artillery, Kutuzov proactively moved his position, thus reducing the firepower of his artillery fire to far less than that of the Da Yu artillery.

Amidst the smoke and fire, the Zuoyulin Guard and the Guowu Army, both equipped with bayonet-fired rifles, were extremely fierce. The Zuoyulin Guard, positioned on the left side of Dongzhen, routed more than 20,000 soldiers from four Russian divisions within an hour.

The rate of fire of the needle-firing gun was terrifying; even if it were used to execute prisoners in platoons, its lethality would be far greater than that of a flintlock musket.

The Left Feathered Forest Guard was the elite of the Great Yu army, and their use of needle-firing muskets was far more ferocious than that of ordinary troops.

At a distance of 120 to 130 meters, bullets were flying continuously, causing thousands of casualties within minutes. No team could withstand it with just flesh and blood.

The two sides, numbering over 100,000, clashed outside Dongzhen. Kutuzov repeatedly adjusted his formation and sent cavalry to support the infantry charges, but with little effect.

Or rather, the effect was good, but the cavalry casualties were too high to be sustained.

"Raevsky, lead your cavalry to charge up and assault the Khitan artillery positions. Although they are indeed very brave, they cannot hold out without artillery support."

I now confirm that their artillery was only protected by two thousand men. This was a colossal oversight by the Khitan commander, and the fate of the Third Rome is now in your hands.

Kutuzov gave orders somewhat anxiously. An hour ago, he thought that the main force of the Khitan artillery was only protected by one or two thousand men, and that it must have been a deliberate breach to lure his last cavalrymen to attack.

But now, after considering all the possibilities, Kutuzov has confirmed that it was an accidental oversight, not a conspiracy.

Upon hearing this, Major General Raevsky did not hesitate and led eight thousand cavalrymen to prepare.

Still worried about safety, Kutuzov also transferred a cavalry force of 9,000 men, composed of Cossack militia, from the southern village.

However, upon seeing the Russian cavalry arrive in two groups, the artillery commander, thirty-year-old artillery brigadier general Guan Tianpei, revealed a cold smile.

He then personally unveiled a large piece of coarse linen covering the artillery position.

In the sunlight, a strange weapon gleamed and was revealed.

This thing has six barrels and a large iron frame. It has a hand crank on the right and a box on the left filled with expensive metal bullets with brass heads.

"Hmph, I have fifteen Zhuge Liang crossbows and machine guns, each capable of firing seven hundred rounds per minute. No matter how many cavalry you send, they won't be enough to kill you!"

It turns out that Da Yu had already developed his talent for machine guns forty or fifty years ahead of schedule, but the cost was too high and the logistical requirements were too demanding, so it was basically never used in actual combat.

This time, the Rakshasa people are truly blessed.

(End of this chapter)