The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 909 Life is as worthless as grass

In June 1813, the second batch of troops from Dayu set off to participate in the European war.

The army was led by General Luo Siju, a lieutenant general with the rank of deputy privy councilor, and admiral Chen Tianbao, admiral of the navy and commander of the South Sea Fleet.

The army deployed the Imperial Guard Left Tengxiang Guard and the two armies of the Beijing Garrison, Fenwu and Xianwu, totaling 27,000 men.

The navy deployed the Outer South Seas Fleet and part of the South Seas Fleet, totaling two steam-powered battleships, five sailing battleships, eleven frigates, eighteen transport ships, more than 6,000 naval officers and soldiers, and 10,000 marines.

At this time, after the appearance of the Liangwang Cannon (Darengel Cannon), the warships of the Great Yu had abolished the original classification system of sailing warships and were collectively referred to as battleships.

With the Liangwang Cannon, Tier IV battleships and Tier I battleships could be penetrated in one shot, making the tiering system unnecessary.

Currently, under Mo Zibu's guidance, the Dayu warships are beginning to evolve into steam-powered ironclad warships with all-steam engines, steel plates sandwiched in the hull, and covered in iron sheets, resembling a sea coffin.

The only problem was that the steam engine was not powerful enough, and the speed and range were severely limited after the ship was covered with iron sheets and sandwiched with steel plates.

Furthermore, all-steam warships rely too heavily on resupply along the way. Currently, the Great Yu only has a few key resupply points around the world: Guam, Hawaii, Ceylon, and Mauritius. Once past the Cape of Good Hope, they are at the mercy of others, and there are none in South America at all.

This greatly limited the combat effectiveness of steam-powered ironclad ships.

In early July, the Da Yu fleet arrived at Chittagong, adding dozens more ships.

In addition to Dayu's own troops, the Governor-General of British India also dutifully dispatched 30,000 auxiliary troops and more than 20 transport ships of various sizes.

In fact, Mozibu's letter to King George IV, the Regent of England, had only just arrived in London, and British India was in the process of handover when the Governor-General left office. Logically, it would have been impossible to prepare everything so quickly.

They shouldn't have even sent soldiers and warships out without orders from London.

Neither Gilbert Eliot, the former governor who had resigned but had not yet left, nor Francis Hastings, the new governor who had been appointed but had not yet arrived in India, dared to defy Mozib's orders.

These guys in India know very well that if they don't listen to London, as long as it's not treason, the worst that can happen is they go back to London and get a few years in prison.

However, if he doesn't listen to Mo Zibu, he won't be able to continue as governor, and he might even lose his life by causing unrest.

In August 1813, the combined fleet sailed directly into the Red Sea and landed at Havel, near the future Suez Canal, at the edge of the Red Sea.

Although Ali Pasha of Egypt had made contact with the people sent by the Great Yu, the time was too short and he had not yet made up his mind. So he actually wanted to play the role of a loyal minister of the Ottomans and the protector of Egypt.

As a result, the Dayu navy directly bombarded Havel City with the Liangwang Cannon, firing 3,000 shells in one hour, which directly destroyed Havel City.

Terrified, Ali Pasha immediately slid to his knees to welcome the Yu army into Egypt.

The army then landed directly on the Red Sea, while the navy turned south, circling Africa again before entering the Mediterranean.

However, upon arriving in Egypt, Rossiu immediately received bad news: the Ottoman Empire had already reached a secret agreement with the French Empire, and the Ottoman army had assembled and left Istanbul to head north.

. . . .

Meanwhile, the French army under Louis Davout had been besieging Belgrade for nearly two years.

Of course, in the first year, Belgrade did not face much of a test because the cavalry had the upper hand.

However, even counting from the time Li Xingtai withdrew from the position, it has been a full year.

Liu Guoqing's 6,000 troops held out for 700 days and nights, but were reduced to less than 3,000. Both the east and west cities of Belgrade fell, and the garrison retreated to the fortress on the island in the river to hold out.

Once they reached the island in the river, the French army's trench warfare tactics became less effective, because they first had to get onto the island to dig trenches.

On the Danube River, the French river fleet was no match for the steamships of the Da Yu, causing the French plan to land on the island to be repeatedly postponed.

Louis Davout had no better options than to set up fortifications along the Danube to block it, waiting until the Da Yu's steamships dared not approach before devising a plan.

By the end of August, the French army's riverside fortifications were complete, and large-caliber coastal defense guns had been moved to eastern Belgrade, enabling them to bombard the bastions on the island in the river.

Louis Davout then began organizing suicide squads to swim across the Danube at night and in the early morning, mobilizing anywhere from several thousand to tens of thousands of troops each time in an attempt to gain a foothold.

The situation was extremely dangerous for the defending troops. If nothing was done, it was only a matter of time before Liu Guoqing's entire army was wiped out. No matter how brave the soldiers were, they could not make up for the physical disparity.

Under these circumstances, Li Xingtai, who had completely taken control of the Serbian resistance forces, opened a second front in Novi Sad.

Li Xingtai mobilized over 40,000 Serbs, along with 25,000 who spontaneously came from Hungary and Croatia to serve King Ferdinand, plus his Three Feudatories cavalry, totaling 70,000 men, to launch a major attack on Novi Sad.

Novi Sad is also located on the Danube River, upstream from Belgrade, about 80 kilometers away.

This city was the closest storage site for French supplies entering the Belgrade positions, and it was the most important logistical base for the French army. Losing it would put the French supply lines at risk of being cut off.

Upon receiving news of the siege of Novi Sad, Louis Davout immediately allocated 50,000 infantry and cavalry to Murat, urging him to rush to its rescue.

Outside Novi Sad, Li Yunlong, a native of Fucheng, Hebei and deputy commander of the Right Guard of the Liao Dynasty, was arranging the battle.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Serbs, Hungarians, and Croats, armed with flintlock muskets and even matchlock guns, fought desperately, advancing wave after wave.

The Serbs and Hungarians, in particular, were extremely tenacious in their fighting spirit; each unit would only collapse after suffering more than 30% casualties.

"This is all the French's own doing, and now they're getting their comeuppance." Li Yunlong couldn't help but sigh. In the past two years, the French had caused the Serbs a great deal of trouble.

After reinforcements, Louis Davout's forces numbered a full 200,000, and their daily consumption was astronomical. In addition, Li Xingtai continued to attack the French army's supply lines, causing the French army in Belgrade to frequently face a shortage of supplies.

In this situation, let alone the fact that the French army's discipline is no longer what it used to be, even if the army had good discipline, one should not have high expectations for the soldiers' discipline when supplies are tight.

Over the past two years, the French troops around Belgrade have engaged in rampant burning, killing, and looting, treating the Serbs like wild beasts.

At that time, Serbia had a population of less than 400,000. After being ravaged by 200,000 French troops for two years, one can imagine what the situation was like afterward.

The remaining 200,000 or so Serbs now regard the French as vicious invaders, just like the Ottomans, not to mention the rumors of an alliance between the French and the Ottomans.

This immediately triggered a reaction among all the Serbs, who flocked to Li Xingtai, even bringing their own weapons to join him.

They didn't seek any personal gain, only the chance to survive by following the Seres and avoid national extinction.

The situation was similar for the Hungarians. Two years ago, the French army levied three times the taxes in Hungary, and now they had doubled them again, making it six times the amount originally collected in Mogonze. Moreover, when the taxes could not be paid, the French army simply went to the countryside to loot.

This led to widespread starvation throughout Hungary. In 1812 alone, including Transylvania and excluding Slovakia, 170,000 of the country's 5.4 million inhabitants died from disease and famine, and more than a quarter of the land was abandoned.

If this fighting continues for several more years, all the men in the Kingdom of Hungary will die out, so the Hungarians can't help but be anxious.

On September 11, Joachim Murat's 50,000-strong army lifted the siege of Novi Sad. The Serbian and Hungarian militia forces suffered heavy casualties, with over 20,000 dead, wounded, or captured, severely weakening their forces.

But even with Murat's world-class wisdom down to the neck, he noticed something was wrong, because the main force of the Seres had not appeared.

After the situation was resolved, Joachim Murat immediately informed Louis Davout of Belgrade, warning him to be careful.

But it's too late.

Li Xingtai, the Liang King and commander of the first cavalry of the Great Yu, who idolized Huo Piaoyao, took a detour of 130 kilometers with the cover and support of the local Serbians and suddenly appeared downstream of Belgrade on the day that Murat lifted the siege of Novi Sad.

Meanwhile, Liu Guoqing, who was inside the island's fortress, also dispatched a thousand men who, transported by flat-bottomed boats from inside the fortress, stormed ashore at dawn.

Li Xingtai's target was not Louis Davout's French army, but rather the more than eighty forts the French had built along the banks of the Danube downstream of Belgrade. The primary purpose of these forts was to blockade the Danube downstream of Belgrade, preventing Da Yu's steamship fleet from resupplying and supporting Liu Guoqing's troops on the island in the river.

This was Louis Davout's trump card. Under the bombardment of the river forts, more than 20 of the more than 60 steam-powered riverboats, each weighing several tens of tons, that Mo Gongze had painstakingly built had already been destroyed. If this continued for at most two more months, they would be unable to support Liu Guoqing.

Louis Davout certainly knew these forts were crucial, and he stationed more than 30,000 troops to protect them and guard against a surprise attack from the army downstream of the Danube. However, he never expected Li Xingtai to come.

Moreover, it appeared suddenly when the Battle of Novi Sad had begun.

As a result, Li Xingtai destroyed more than 80 French artillery positions within three days. More than 200 cannons were either melted down and recast after their ignition points were sealed, or thrown into the Danube River. In the process, the French suffered more than 3,000 casualties.

With the war raging to this point, Louis Davout felt a throbbing pain in his head.

Indeed, the Battle of Novi Sad essentially crushed the Serbian resistance militia.

Admittedly, in order to destroy the fortifications, Li Xingtai's 4,000 cavalrymen of the Three Feudatories also suffered more than 1,000 casualties, and were similarly weakened, making it impossible for them to launch a large-scale operation in the short term.

But Louis Davout no longer had enough artillery to blockade the Danube.

Under these circumstances, capturing a bastion located on a river island, where supplies can be freely replenished, has become virtually impossible, at least not this year.

. . . .

Moldavia.

In the past year, Napoleon's main French army also launched a large-scale siege of Bucharest.

This siege was not only fought in Bucharest, but also throughout Moldova, and its most notable feature was the brutal persecution of the Moldavans by both sides.

Fearing that the Moldavia would defect to France, Moggonze decreed that anyone who refused to obey orders to retreat to the mouth of the Danube would be executed.

In order to obtain more supplies, Napoleon forced the Moldavans to stay in their homeland and farm, demanding half of their annual grain production.

Meanwhile, Moldavan men were forced to serve as laborers for the French army, while the women were forced to act as prostitutes and cook and do laundry for the French soldiers.

This is no longer a human life!

Under the dual cruel oppression of Napoleon and Moggallana, the Moldavia faced their doom.

The once prosperous lower Danube plain was ravaged into a hellish landscape; it is no exaggeration to say that "for a thousand miles, not a rooster crows, and white bones are exposed in the wilderness."

By September 1813, after more than a year of devastation, only about 300,000 of the original 840,000 Moldavia had survived; less than half of the original population remained.

Of these, 70,000 to 80,000 Roma (Gypsies) and more than 10,000 Jews from a dozen or so Jewish villages were almost all killed or starved to death, completely disappearing from history.

This almost perfectly aligns with Cao Zhenyong's view that in today's cruel Europe, without the protection of a nation or people, one might not even qualify as livestock.

By the end of September, the fighting in Bucharest, which had been raging for four months, was coming to an end.

It wasn't because the French army captured Bucharest; in fact, the French army didn't have a good solution for Bucharest, which was characterized by its dense network of waterways and numerous lakes.

Rather, it was because the Ottoman Turkish army of 150,000 had entered Varna, which is now Bulgaria, and was heading towards Constanta, the home port of the Great Yu Black Sea Fleet and the stronghold of Mogongze.

On September 25, after Mo Gongze had made all the arrangements, the army began to retreat. Mo Gongze ordered Bai Fengshan, the deputy commander of Xia Fan Zhongwei, to lead 9 men to cover the rear, while the rest of the army quickly broke through the encirclement.

On October 2, the entire army of more than 40,000 men had basically shaken off the pursuit of the French army, but almost all of the 4,000 officers and soldiers of Xia Fan Zhongwei, led by Bai Fengshan, were killed in battle.

Meanwhile, over five thousand Hungarian light cavalry, led by the Hungarian nobleman Helán Petőfi, sacrificed themselves to cover the main force.

Throughout the battle, the Three Feudatories suffered more than 10,000 casualties, leaving only two weak strongholds, Constanta and Turcia, in the lower Danube region, making the situation extremely critical.

Fortunately, the main force of the Three Feudatories' army consisted of Han Chinese men, who had a way out and pride, and would never surrender even if it meant death.

If the main force of the San Francisco Army had been Hungarians, they might not have been able to hold on to this desperate situation.

During the retreat, Mogongze, with red eyes, encountered Prince Reinstein of Bessarabia, who had come from Constanta to greet him.

"Your Highness cannot go to Constanta. Although Constanta is wealthy and is the home port of the fleet, it is not a fortress-type port. It was chosen because of its deep draft and is too close to the Ottoman Empire."

This is a matter of life and death; we cannot place our hopes on a wealthy plains city like Constanta. Your Highness should go to Turcha.”

Ryanstein pointed to the location of Turcha on the map and said, "Turcha is surrounded by rolling hills and the port is surrounded by three mountains. We can defend it by dragging the navy's cannons up the mountains and building simple gun emplacements."

I made some repairs to it three months ago, and it is now ready for troops to be stationed there.

Furthermore, I wrote to His Highness the Crown Prince and General Mo Gongling three months ago.

Please hand over the entire Western Route Army to us. I believe His Highness the Crown Prince has already taken action, and General Gui Han should be arriving soon with the Western Route Army.”

That's what makes veterans so formidable; the saying "old people are shrewd and clever" is absolutely true.

Mo Gongze couldn't help but hug Ryanstein, and then immediately convened a military council to announce a change of route to Turcha.

At this point, Ryanstein volunteered again, asking Mo Gongze to hand over the Xia vassal king's banner and the stylishly dressed Hungarian King's personal guard cavalry regiment to him.

Seeing Mo Gongze's worried look, Ryanstein laughed heartily, "Your Majesty, rest assured, I am confident that I can hold out for at least half a month, and then withdraw with the help of the navy."

Even if it meant risking my own life, I would never gamble with the lives of these thousands of soldiers.

Hearing what Ryanstein said, Mo Gongze was relieved and immediately split his troops into two groups. He led 30,000 men to Turcha, while Ryanstein led a small force to Constanta.

The French army was indeed fooled. Although Napoleon suspected that the Hungarian king's hussars, dressed in fine clothes, were being overly deliberate, the French army lacked information about the lower Danube and could not guess Reinstein's intentions.

On October 12, the French army attempted to attack the city, but found that the defenders were heavily armed with artillery and that naval warships were also bombarding the flanks. Napoleon knew that it was impossible to take the city in a short time, so he did not want the French army to continue their fierce attack.

It should be noted that the French army has been extremely exhausted over the past two years, often fighting under conditions of supply difficulties and guarding against surprise attacks, and engaging in fierce battles involving crossing mountains and fortresses. They definitely needed rest.

After negotiations, the French army provided artillery support, while the labor of siege work was handed over to the Ottoman army that had just arrived.

Of course, the French army was not idle either. Napoleon ordered Marshal Oudinot to lead 20,000 elite troops up the Danube River to destroy Maurice's secret home port for his steamship fleet on the Danube.

On November 12, because the French army did not go all out, Reinstein held out for a full month, killing and wounding thousands of Ottoman soldiers, before leaving with the support of the fleet.

Meanwhile, the French scouts finally discovered the presence of Tourcha.

Napoleon was now a bit off guard; after chasing them for so long, he had actually chased them to the wrong place.

"The Seres Empire's Black Sea Fleet has only seventeen warships, less than half of which are steam-powered, so its transport capacity is very limited. They can take Ferdinand away, but they cannot take away all the troops."

"Continue the attack and take Turcia. Ferdinand is already at his wit's end. As long as he has no army, he will not pose a serious threat to us."

Napoleon quickly issued an order: the war had progressed to this point, and so much money and supplies had been spent; Moggallzer had to be defeated.

Only then could the French army confidently march north, across the Ukrainian plains, towards Tsaritsyn, and completely thwart the Seres' attempt to intervene in Europe.

(End of this chapter)