Chapter 489: Chapter 483: The First Wave of Attack from the Grey Beast
The praised Bashbozuk Cavalry let out a strange cry, and the head of the Cossack cavalry they held was thrown into the air.
The actions of the Bashbozuk Cavalry made Major General Conrobel, who was already somewhat disgusted by their style, even more dissatisfied; he subconsciously equated the Bashbozuk Cavalry with savagery.
Despite Major General Conrobel’s distaste for the Bashbozuk Cavalry’s behavior, he did not interfere as his combat experience in the Alger Province taught him not to overly demand them to maintain civility.
Because of the significant cultural differences between Europe and Arabia, forcibly replacing Arabian culture with European culture would inevitably lead to unnecessary ideological conflicts.
Unwilling to cause a split in the camp, Major General Conrobel simply ordered the Bashbozuk Cavalry to pick up the Cossack’s head and then ordered them to return to their stationed tents.
After the Bashbozuk Cavalry obeyed Conrobel’s orders and returned to the tent, Major General Conrobel stood in place, deep in thought.
This was the second close-quarter skirmish between the Allied Forces and the Cossack troops, and also the first cavalry-versus-cavalry encounter, through which Major General Conrobel clearly sensed the decline of the Russian Imperial Army.
The Cossack Cavalry Corps, perhaps, was no longer the red death reaping through blood and fire from the Napoleonic Wars.
The decline of national power, reflected in the decline of the military, was vividly manifest in the Russian Imperial Army.
An ominous premonition told Major General Conrobel that it wouldn’t be long before their troops would face the Russian Imperial Army in a direct confrontation.
Major General Conrobel immediately ordered Captain Jerome Patterson to summon the commanders of England, Italy, and Turkey to his tent.
Upon receiving the order, Captain Jerome Patterson saluted Major General Conrobel and then turned and left.
That evening, after explaining the situation to the commanders of the three countries, Major General Conrobel assigned tasks to them individually.
"Gentlemen, I hope you will give your utmost attention to the upcoming battle!" Major General Conrobel said sternly to everyone present: "The upcoming battle might be beyond our expectations."
After hearing Conrobel’s words, the commanders of England, Italy, and Turkey also tensed up, giving their full attention.
After the meeting, a battalion of the Zuav and a battalion of the Scottish Musketeer Team entered the trenches. Their task was to defend against potential night raids by the Russian Army.
Meanwhile, General Gorchakov, who had hastily retreated with the Cossack Cavalry Corps, returned to the camp of the Polish Corps, where he was greeted by Lieutenant General Orlov, commander of the First Division, and Major General Schelder, commander of the Second Division.
"Deputy Commander Gorchakov!" Lieutenant General Orlov and Major General Schelder shouted in unison as they looked at General Gorchakov on horseback.
"Let’s talk inside!" Gorchakov dismounted, handed his warhorse to a nearby guard, and briefly responded to Lieutenant General Orlov and Major General Schelder.
Immediately, Gorchakov and the two entered Lieutenant General Orlov’s exclusive tent.
Sitting in the camp chair, Gorchakov recounted to Orlov and Schelder what he saw outside the French camp: trenches, spiked roadblocks, and barbed wire.
"This time, the enemy we face is different from the Turkish Army! They are more troublesome than we imagined, so I hope you are psychologically prepared!" Gorchakov seriously said to Orlov and Schelder.
Upon hearing the dispositions of the Allied Forces, both Lieutenant General Orlov and Major General Schelder also showed serious expressions on their faces.
"Deputy Commander, how many of them are there? Do we have the capability to take them down with just our available troops?" Orlov asked cautiously.
"I am not clear about the scale of this vanguard, but based on the size of their camp, it can be deduced that their size is approximately 7000-8000 men! (In fact, this vanguard force consists of a total of 6400 men, including 1000 cavalry.)" Gorchakov replied cautiously.
"Our two divisions have a total of 32,000 men, plus a Cossack Cavalry Corps of 1,400 men, meaning we have a total force of 33,400 men!" Major General Schelder counted the existing forces and smiled: "If we assume this vanguard has 8,000 men, it means our disparity with this vanguard is roughly 4 to 1! Deputy Commander, I suggest using our existing numerical advantage to implement a strategy of encirclement without assault on this vanguard, wearing down their morale. This would avoid unnecessary casualties from forceful attacks, and once the enemy’s fighting spirit is completely worn off, we can slowly eat away at this isolated force!"
Schelder believed that under a four-to-one absolute numerical advantage, encirclement without attack was evidently the best tactic.
"No way!" Lieutenant General Orlov, standing by, shook his head, disagreeing with General Schelder’s idea.
Lieutenant General Orlov believed that behind this vanguard, there must be an even larger Allied Force advancing in this direction.
If the Polish Corps cannot quickly defeat this vanguard of the Allied forces, once the follow-up troops of the Allies arrive on the battlefield, both the Polish Corps and even the Danube Corps will be in a dangerous position of being attacked on both sides.
The Polish Corps must annihilate this vanguard with the utmost speed, using their destruction to intimidate the Allied troops, thereby buying time for the attacking forces on the Silestra Fortress.
Lieutenant General Orlov also believes that the defensive positions that the Allied forces set up in such a short time are indeed surprising, but this also indicates that the defense itself is nothing but a product of haste.
Its defensive capabilities are far less solid than the Silestra Fortress, and as long as the Russian Imperial Army is willing to pay a certain price in casualties, they can capture this position in no time.
At the same time, Lieutenant General Orlov hopes that the headquarters near the Silestra Fortress can transfer two artillery regiments to them. This would provide them with enough offensive capability to take this defensive position while avoiding major casualties.
Faced with Lieutenant General Orlov’s request, Gorchakov shook his head and said, "Commander Paskievich will not agree to deploy two artillery regiments here; he must capture Silestra as quickly as possible!"
Compared to annihilating this vanguard, capturing the Silestra Fortress is indeed a more critical task.
If they cannot capture the Silestra Fortress, then the Russian Imperial Army would only have the option to retreat.
"Then we can only rely on our infantry troops to carve a bloody path!" Orlov said with a heavy tone, frowning deeply.
"Yes!" General Schelder nodded in agreement.
Then, Gorchakov issued orders to the two division commanders present, "I plan to launch an attack on the Allied camp at 7 a.m. tomorrow, Commander Orlov!"
"Here!" Lieutenant General Orlov straightened his body and responded with firm resolve.
"Your First Division will be responsible for this attack!" Gorchakov said to Lieutenant General Orlov, "I need results in the shortest amount of time, do you understand?"
"Understood! I will certainly conquer that thorn planted in the flank of our army in the shortest time possible!" Lieutenant General Orlov responded with a grim expression on his face.
"Very good!" Gorchakov nodded with satisfaction, then instructed General Schelder to prepare the reserves of the First Division under Orlov, ready to relieve the First Division in combat with the Allied forces at any moment.
...
As darkness faded and the morning sun pierced through the hazy fog, rising slowly from the east, a massive army was approaching the camp of the Allied forces.
The soldiers of the Zuav Corps stationed in the trenches hurriedly reported the situation to Brigadier General Bazan inside the camp, who then rushed to report to Major General Conrobel in his tent.
Upon hearing Bazan’s report, Major General Conrobel showed a trace of surprise, even though he had anticipated the Russian Imperial Army would attack, he did not expect their offensive to be so swift.
"Understood!"
Major General Conrobel nodded at Brigadier General Bazan, then calmly put on his uniform and walked out of the tent.
When Major General Conrobel arrived at the trenches, Captain Jerome Patterson, Colonel Somerset, and others had already been waiting around the trenches for some time.
"Binoculars!" Major General Conrobel extended his hand to Captain Jerome Patterson.
Captain Jerome Patterson handed the binoculars to Major General Conrobel, who, through the lenses, saw a gray shadow in the distance, which grew larger and soon occupied the entire field of view.
This group of Slavic soldiers, dressed in gray uniforms, were marching towards the camp in formation under the direction of their commander.
By estimating the number of formations, the size of this army must be at least 3,000 men, maybe more...
"Order all units to be ready. Once the Russian army comes within firing range, hit them hard!" Canrobel ordered Captain Jerome Patterson beside him.
Captain Jerome Patterson immediately mounted his horse to relay Canrobel’s orders to every battalion within the trenches.
As time passed, this group of Slavic troops crossed the chevaux-de-frise and gradually approached the barbed wire. In the trenches, every soldier focused intently on aiming at the Slav soldiers, just waiting for the command from their company commander. They would then use bullets to viciously teach them a lesson, avenging the humiliation of the Napoleonic Wars.