Chapter 15 Unpredictable

When Perk reported the defeat of the army and the death of the commander back to Schönbrunn Palace, Joseph II was unusually silent.

If Frederick's defeat could be covered up by the disparity in the strength of the enemy and our army, then Prince Coburg's defeat was simply impossible to excuse. 30,000 people fought against 25,000 people, and the commander died on the battlefield. This was a serious blow to Austria's prestige.

You should know that Joseph II was not only the Archduke of Austria, but also the Holy Roman Emperor.

The defeat was not only a military threat to him, but also a political challenge.

Germany was already seriously divided, with more than 300 states distributed on less than one million square kilometers of land. Prussia liked to fan the flames behind, and his reforms in the Austrian Netherlands were not going smoothly. All of these required military defense.

In view of this, Joseph II could not send more troops to the Balkan Peninsula, and the Ottomans did not seem as weak as Catherine said, although the Russians' record was far better than Austria's.

In June 1788, Austria negotiated peace with the Ottoman Empire alone, and the two sides agreed to a ceasefire and keep the original border unchanged.

When Austria withdrew from the war, King Gustav III of Sweden took advantage of the opportunity when the main force of the Russian army was deeply involved in the Russian-Turkish battlefield and declared war on Russia under the pretext of the Anyara conspiracy.

The situation on the entire battlefield seemed to have been completely reversed.

On the southern battlefield, Potemkin's troops were alone and deep in the battlefield. On the northern battlefield, it was easy for the Swedes to take over Russian Finland. The only thing they could hope for was to use the Svartepol Fortress to stop the Swedes.

In the face of Gustav III's looting, Catherine publicly declared: "Gustav must "prove his remorse", unconditionally pardon all the traitors, and agree to abide by the peace under the guarantee of the parliament, and she will "forgive" him for this "disgusting invasion." "

However, the performance of the Russian army was seriously not worthy of Catherine's confidence. Since April, the entire Izmail Fortress has been besieged for nearly a hundred days. The Russian army has lost countless lives, but has never been able to conquer it.

The closest to victory was the general offensive in early June. Potemkin dispatched nearly 150 cannons to bombard the Izmail Fortress, and the outer wall of the northern city wall of the fortress was completely blown open.

Seeing the opportunity in front of him, Potemkin immediately invested all his troops and attacked the northern city wall with all his strength. Muhammad Ali, who was guarding the Izmail Fortress, quickly led Lead the reserve troops to support.

The Russian charge was blocked again and again, and the Ottoman army rushed to build new fortifications. Until Potemkin received the news that the Austrians had withdrawn from the war, he knew that it was impossible to capture the Izmail Fortress.

On June 19, 1788, Potemkin began to retreat. At Rumyantsev's suggestion, he divided the army into three columns and two horizontal columns used as front and rear guards.

During the march, in order to relieve the pressure on soldiers and logistics supplies, Potemkin launched a mowing operation.

Although the fortifications had been cleared, there were still many A large number of Romanians lived outside the city, and they became the target of the Russian army's looting. The entire northern Romania was almost a wasteland.

When the Russian army just arrived in Pohrad, the news of the fall of Komrat had already arrived, and the Ottoman army was still advancing towards Bilgorod. Ottoman rangers also appeared in the direction of Cahul and Galati, which meant that not only the supply line was threatened, but even the annihilation of the army might be caused.

In June, northern Romania was in the heat, but Potemkin felt a chill in his heart. When did he step step by step? He fell into the trap of this young lieutenant without knowing it.

From Odessa to Izmail, he did not make any wrong decisions, and every battle with the Ottoman army was real.

The only thing to say is that compared with the past, he advanced too fast this time. From driving the Ottoman army out of the territory to encircling Izmail, it seemed so easy. He thought it was the further decline of the Ottoman Empire, but it turned out to be a trap set by the enemy. Potemkin looked at the starry night sky and sighed deeply.

"Potemkin, have you decided on the direction of retreat?" The person who came was Rumyantsev. He was not as sarcastic as Potemkin imagined, but anxiously asked about the situation, which made Potemkin feel a little relieved.

"We are in Odessa, and there are still troops left in Chisinau. I have sent a message to reinforce Bilgorod and try to hold on until we withdraw. "

"I have an idea, Potemkin. The lieutenant defeated the Austrians in Sibiu a few days ago. He can't arrive so quickly. The Ottoman troops deployed in this area are just his pawns to delay us. We have 60,000 troops and can completely eat them up."

"What do you mean?" Potemkin's tone became a little hurried. If he could deal a devastating blow to the Ottoman army, he could still win victory for His Majesty.

"We will start from now on, throw away all the cannons, leaving only a small number of howitzers, quickly penetrate into the Anko area, eat up the Ottoman army in Cahul, and then go north along the river to jump out of the Ottoman encirclement. "

"That's it, Rumyantsev. "Potemkin nodded.

After three days of rapid march, the Russian army successfully arrived in the Anko area. The Ottoman army in the Cahul area did not notice such a large-scale movement. It can only be said that Yusuf Pasha was really not suitable for fighting.

After a short rest, Potemkin led the Russian army to attack the Ottoman army.

"Antonlov, you lead two cavalry brigades to bypass the rear of the Turks and be ready to charge at any time."

"Prigav, let your horizontal column quickly engage the enemy and suppress the Ottoman army. Lepnin, expand the column into a horizontal column and prepare to shoot while marching."

"Katiet, deploy artillery positions and bombard the rear of the enemy."

The Russian army quickly completed the deployment and launched an attack. The sudden attack caused the Ottoman army to fall into chaos. The commander Ahmed Pasha who stayed here hurriedly got up from the bed, pushed away the Romanian woman who had just been robbed, put on his pants and walked out.

"You bunch of idiots, what are you doing..." Ahmed Pasha's voice was not finished, and a cannonball hit him. Pasha screamed, rode on his horse and ran away.

A small number of Ottoman soldiers who saw the commander running away also spread their feet and started playing death race. Most soldiers were not so lucky. The chaotic formation and poor command allowed the Russian army to easily defeat the Ottoman army.

At sunset, the battle was declared over. 60,000 Russian troops attacked 20,000 Ottoman troops. The Russian army won a great victory, killing 7,000 enemies and capturing 5,000. As for Ahmed Pasha, he ran to Galati in one breath and then stopped. Since he neither issued an order to retreat nor indicated the direction for his soldiers to run, when he gathered the army, Pasha was surprised to find that he still had 2,000 people.

When the news that Cahul was lost and the encirclement was broken reached Napoleon who was marching, a rare flash of anger flashed across his brown eyes, and he ordered: "The whole army speeds up and targets Cahul."

There are probably a few more chapters in the Russo-Turkish War. After writing the difficult military description, it's farming. Book friends group: 866261215, you can add it, the introduction is wrong.