Chapter 608 Türkiye (5)

A cavalry team galloped on the rugged mountain road. Each of them carried a carbine and a cavalry sword on their waist. Their bodies kept shaking as the horses ran.

From the armband pattern, we can see that they are Cossack cavalry.

The Cossack cavalry was once a brave and invincible army that frightened the enemy.

There is a saying in Russia: Most of Russia's territory was rushed out by Cossack cavalry.

At that time, Russia was only the part west of the Ural Mountains and had not yet set foot in Asia. The hard-working Cossacks expanded their territory to the east of the Ural Mountains and built a fortress on the Heilongjiang River in 1643.

The way the Cossacks survived was very simple - eat everything they can eat and use everything they can use. In the bitter cold Siberia, interest morality is all bullshit, and being able to survive is the real truth. They still relied on their ancestors' set of methods to look for local natives to rob and loot, and finally obtained a large area of ​​territory for Russia.

During the reign of Peter the Great, the famous Russian emperor, the Cossacks also joined the war against the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Khanate in large numbers, and their record was impressive.

Napoleon also fought against the Cossacks, and he said frankly: "If my army had Cossack cavalry, my army would sweep the world."

Although the Cossacks were brave and good at fighting, their reputation was quite bad. The Cossack cavalry was more brutal than the Mongolian cavalry of the year. They would kill and drive away everyone, and even eat human flesh and drink human blood. They would throw children to death and rape women on horseback. The Cossack cavalry never welcomed prisoners, probably because they had never been prisoners themselves, so they didn't know how to treat prisoners.

And they were not very honest. The Cossack tribes rebelled repeatedly, which caused a headache for the Russian ruling class. In the end, in order to control these unruly Cossacks, Russia adopted the method of "both kindness and force". The later Red Empire called this method "carrot and stick", which means that while giving you a meal, you also have to use the stick to turn you.

As the war entered the era of hot weapons, the cavalry relying on scimitars and bows gradually lost their former glory.

However, Poland and the Soviet Union retained a considerable number of cavalry in World War II.

For the armies of these two countries, cavalry is not only a branch of the army, but also a representative of the glory and pride of the army in the past. A large part of the people in power in Poland in the late 1930s were cavalry colonels during the Soviet-Polish War. Among the five marshals in the top leadership of the Soviet army, two were directly from the cavalry (Budonny and Froshilov), and the cavalry became the "symbol of the proletarian army." Therefore, the vested interests of the cavalry will naturally do their best to protect it when faced with military reforms that will weaken the cavalry and their power. Marshal Tukhachevsky's mechanized reform of the Red Army was slandered as "destruction of the proletarian army" during the "Great Purge."

Moreover, cavalry also has its own advantages. Cavalry has strong off-road capabilities, is less dependent on logistical supplies, and has a greater advantage in performing deep penetration tasks. In the winter counter-offensive of 1941, the Soviet army of the original time and space invested a large number of cavalry divisions and tank brigades to form a cavalry mechanized cluster to carry out deep assault missions, achieving relatively good results.

In addition, when clearing the mountainous areas where the guerrillas are located, because the infantry is slow, the armored forces are inconvenient to move in, and the cavalry and mountain troops show their great power. For example, when the German army cleared Tito's guerrillas in Yugoslavia during World War II, it mainly relied on the SS Prince Eugen Mountain Division and cavalry.

However, the cavalry also has fatal shortcomings. Although it moves quickly, it cannot carry heavy weapons, and the amount of ammunition it carries is limited. It cannot undertake frontal assault operations. It is almost helpless against the strong support points held by the German army. This is a common problem of light infantry units. We often see that the Soviet cavalry can penetrate very far into the rear of the German army, but it cannot capture those important transportation hubs and supply bases. It can only temporarily cut off some important transportation lines. However, once the German army chooses armored combat units to escort supplies, the Soviet cavalry can hardly stop them. Therefore, the role of cavalry in the battle is not very significant. In the later period, the Soviet army mainly relied on heavy troops such as tanks with stronger assault capabilities. Only in complex mountainous and swampy forest areas will it deploy a rapid cluster of cavalry and tanks.

And these cavalry divisions only rely on horses for mobility. When performing combat missions, they dismount and fight like infantry, instead of the overall charge of cavalry in World War I.

At noon, they came to a valley.

This is a valley that you can't see the bottom of. There are steep slopes on both sides, sparse vegetation, and many bare stones. It is a veritable barren land.

The bare rocks here are relatively large. Many of them can hide several people, and some huge bare rocks can even hide more than a dozen people. The top of the valley is only more than 100 meters away from the bottom of the valley. This is the best range for gun shooting and is definitely a good place for an ambush.

"Captain, do you want to send someone up there to investigate first? If someone is against us and hides up there and shoots us from behind, we will be in trouble."

Captain Victor shook his head disapprovingly. Although such a place is indeed easy to be ambushed, it is far from the front line and there are two Turkish lines of defense in the middle. He doesn't think anyone will come here to ambush. "Quickly pass through the valley and walk another thirty miles to reach the destination."

But just after the cavalry team entered the valley, there was a loud rumbling sound from the rear, and countless boulders rolled down, instantly blocking their retreat.

"Damn it!" Captain Victor was shocked. There was an ambush!

He squeezed the horse's belly and roared. "Quick, rush forward, get out of here!" Although they didn't know who set up an ambush here, they had to leave this valley quickly if they wanted to survive.

Just as they rushed forward desperately and were about to run to the valley entrance, there was a loud "bang!", and a huge rock above the valley entrance was blown off in half, slowly falling down, hitting the ground hard, and raising a cloud of dust. The whole earth shook with it, as if there was an earthquake. The warhorse under Victor's crotch was frightened, and its two front hooves were raised high, almost standing upright on the ground, neighing, and almost knocking Victor to the ground.

Victor managed to stabilize the mount under his crotch and shouted. "Quick, get off the horse and find cover!"

As soon as the voice fell, a burst of dense gunfire suddenly rang out on the top of the mountain, and bullets swept down like raindrops. Accompanied by screams, a large number of cavalrymen who had not yet dismounted fell down.