Chapter 383: A Textbook Siege Battle

Chapter 383: A Textbook Siege Battle

Chapter 383 A Textbook Siege Battle

Shao Quanxiao, dressed in military uniform, with a bear-skin hat on his head and epaulettes of a major general on his shoulders, walked out of the "Bulgarian Restoration Army Field Camp Military Academy", accompanied by the commander-in-chief of the 52,000-strong Restoration Army, Lieutenant General Potocki.

As Shao Quanzhong's second brother, Shao Quanxiao is also very handsome.

However, he did not have Shao Quanzhong's ruthlessness and determination, nor did he have Shao Quanzhong's cleverness and crooked ideas. After graduating from the Berlin Military Academy, he was trained to be rigorous, pragmatic and meticulous in his work.

This rigorous German style paired with a major general's uniform is absolutely handsome, and can be seen as a reference to the image of a general of the Third Reich.

He begged his elder brother for a long time for the Restoration Army to enter the Baoding Campaign. Considering that the Restoration Army, which had only been trained for half a year, was indeed very short of professional staff and command personnel, his elder brother finally agreed.

So he, the Prime Minister of the Grand Duchy of Crimea, put on his military uniform again and transformed himself into the "Chief of Staff of the Bulgarian Restoration Army."

Shao Quanxiao and Potowski walked side by side. Behind them, the generals of the Restoration Army and the red-haired Irish military supervisors who were attending classes walked out of the Military Academy in twos and threes, holding notebooks in their hands and reading them carefully. Even the lieutenant general next to him was asking Shao Quanxiao about tactical arrangements.

Shao Quanxiao felt extremely satisfied. My elder brother did not allow me to teach in Baoding, but I became an instructor here and was supported and respected by all the officers and soldiers.

"Commander, I'm just wondering why you Cossacks are so different from what I remember. Why are you so motivated and studious?"

"This is all thanks to the Irish military supervisors. If we want to eliminate Turkish imperialism, we must work hard to improve our own standards."

Perhaps this was the result of the feud between Lucia and Türkiye. Shao Quanzhong shook his head in confusion.

"Report! The Irish guerrillas encountered a blockade in the small town of Buhovo, ten miles away. There is a battalion of Ottoman local armed forces and a castle there. We request support from the main force of the regular army!"

Although the Restoration Army consisted of only Russians except for an Irish supervisor in each company, they all spoke Chinese. This was Shao Quanxiao's most important achievement after he became the Prime Minister of the Grand Duchy of Crimea.

"Commander, I will lead the First Mixed Brigade to take down this fortress. All the military academy officer cadets will follow to learn the tactics of regular warfare."

Potocki nodded. "I approve it. I will also go to learn from the Chief of Staff. I cannot give up such a good opportunity for advancement."

A whistle immediately sounded in the military camp, the First Mixed Brigade assembled urgently, and Shao Quanxiao took over command.

Two hours later, outside the town of Buhovo, Shao Quanxiao observed Buhovo Castle with a telescope for a while and instructed his staff, "I need information on the enemy's firepower deployment in the fortress. If there is none, we need to conduct firepower reconnaissance."

"Yes, the guerrillas' attack was blocked and they suffered heavy casualties. We have already discovered the enemy's strength."

With the sound of footsteps, two leaders of the Buhovo guerrillas came to Shao Quanxiao and saluted together, "Buhovo Independent Company Commander Sophie and Supervisor Robbie pay their respects to His Excellency the Chief of General Staff."

Quan Xiao took a look and found that the guerrilla leader was actually a woman. She was tall, wore a boat-shaped hat, and had captain's epaulettes on her shoulders. Beside her was a red-haired military supervisor of the same rank.

It is said that Bulgaria's three million people formed 700,000 guerrillas. Basically, anyone who could hold a gun went into battle, regardless of gender. They are truly a fighting nation.

As for the boat-shaped hat, it became popular when Maria was following Shao Quanzhong and was often mentioned in newspapers of various countries.

The beautiful Bulgarian girl put on a military uniform and a boat-shaped hat, looking so heroic that Quan Xiao couldn't help but take a few more glances at her.

The red-haired military supervisor had been trained by Zhang Siwen for many years and could speak Chinese. He reported, "Because the Ottoman Empire had retreated from Hungary, many Hungarian Ottoman nobles poured into Bulgaria, and the reactionary forces in Bulgaria were very strong."

"The enemy castle has sufficient food supplies, a company of regular Turkish troops, and three companies of puppet troops, equipped with the most advanced British bolt-action Peabody Martini rifles."

"There were old bronze cannons on the wall, and a Gatling gun was placed at that location, which caused us a lot of damage."

Quan Xiao listened to the report carefully, his expression serious, "Now, I order: the first battalion of the first infantry regiment to feint, the artillery battalion to prepare, the engineering battalion to prepare, the machine gun company and the rapid-fire artillery company to prepare."

The artillery brigade's hot air balloon rose up, the charge was blown, and the soldiers of the first battalion shouted "Ura" and rushed towards the castle in a skirmish line formation with guns in hand.

Seeing the enemy showing their heads from the castle, bronze cannons began to fire and machine guns sprayed out fire snakes. The battalion that was feinting an attack immediately lay down and fired back at the top of the city with Mauser rifles.

Quan Xiao ordered, "The machine gun company will suppress the defenders on the city wall with firepower, the rapid-fire artillery company will suppress the enemy's machine gun firepower, and the artillery battalion will knock out the enemy's machine gun firepower points."

"Boom! Boom!"

Even though it was only a horse-drawn six-pound field gun, the enemy's machine guns were immediately silenced by the cluster firing of TNT shells by a battalion.

"The rapid-fire artillery company will join in suppressing the fire on the city walls. The artillery battalion will bombard the enemy's bronze gun positions. The first battalion will charge, and the engineering battalion will follow up to fill the trenches and blast them."

The enemy troops on the city wall were suppressed by the machine gun company and the rapid-fire artillery company. The soldiers of the first battalion crouched and charged, followed closely by the soldiers of the engineering battalion. An inflatable pontoon carried by several people was erected over the moat.

Soldiers from the first battalion crossed the pontoon bridge and rushed to the city, throwing grenades onto the city walls. Soldiers from the engineering battalion followed suit, using sharp spades and engineer shovels to quickly dig holes and fill them with explosive packs.

As the soldiers of the engineering battalion retreated, pulled out the wires and pressed the button, there was an earth-shattering explosion, and the castle collapsed on a slope.

The charge sounded, and the soldiers of the first battalion rushed up the slope, extending their artillery fire into the city.

Half an hour later, the battle ended.

The main brigade of the Restoration Army attacked the weak with its strength, making full use of its firepower advantage. In a textbook battle, it broke the enemy's solid fortress with very few casualties.

After Quan Xiao finished his command, he turned around and looked at the officers' battlefield observation group, "Do you understand? How many of the key points of my lecture are included here?" "I understand!"

The students saluted Shao Quanxiao together.

Shao Quanzhong raised his hand in return, then turned around and extended his right hand to the two guerrilla leaders who were also watching the battle, "Thank you for your intelligence."

Sophie was full of admiration for Quan Xiao's command throughout the whole process. When shaking hands with Quan Xiao, she stared at his handsome face and asked, "General, are you married?"

After listening to the military inspector's translation, Quan Xiao was embarrassed. He was very uncomfortable with Mao Mei's straightforwardness.

Quanxiao was a serious person. He had been in the military camp all the time, obsessed with commanding wars. It was even harder for him to meet someone of equal status in Crimea. He was already 29 years old and still hadn't gotten married. His father had scolded him countless times in telegrams.

I attended several aristocratic gatherings, but because I was an honest person and not good at picking up women, I kept postponing them.

After Sophie shook hands with Quan Xiao, she turned around and walked side by side with the military supervisor. From a distance, she could hear her in Russian, "Military Supervisor Robbie, I want to learn Chinese."

……

The next day, the scouts reported, "An enemy reinforcement of 100,000 men is coming to Sofia, and it is still 40 miles away."

On February 1872, 2, Muzaffar Pasha led the punitive army through twenty days of hardship, marching thirty miles a day, and finally arrived at the outskirts of Sofia.

Along the way, the expeditionary army was constantly attacked by guerrillas, the grain transport team was ambushed many times, and the main force was shot from behind every day, which greatly slowed down the army's speed.

When the army arrived in Sofia, it had lost two thousand men, and the Restoration Army Corps had disappeared.

The Restoration Army, composed of more than 50,000 Cossacks, was an all-dragoon cavalry unit. They came and went like the wind and could run away at any time.

The siege of Sofia was finally lifted, and Muzaffar Pasha felt a little relieved. Five days later, a scout reported that "the rebels returned and were blocked by our army at the Pleven Fortress, and are now bombarding the Pleven Fortress fiercely."

"Because the Pleven Fortress had fallen into the hands of the rebels before, our army had no food after occupying it. Now the food that Major General Ali and Colonel Mohammed brought is about to run out. We request reinforcements."

"These two useless people, won't they go around to collect food?"

"The fortress was surrounded by guerrillas, and the Bulgarian mobs cleared the area. The troops that went out to collect grain encountered a large number of mines and guerrillas' cold guns, and returned empty-handed."

"Come on, tell these two losers to hold on, and send troops to Pleven Fortress to attack the rebels together and destroy them under Pleven Fortress."

The Pleven Fortress was 270 miles away from Sofia. Five days later, the army, escorting food and fodder, marched at a snail's pace of 100 miles amid the guerrillas' day and night harassment and attacks.

"Report! Pleven Fortress is in danger."

Muzaffar Pasha was furious. "Major General Talat Bey, you take 20,000 men and march lightly to the Pleven Fortress. Together with the 30,000 men in the fortress, you can attack the 50,000 rebels. I will be there soon."

Outside the Pleven Fortress, the Restoration Army had dug two trenches, and the artillery clusters continued to bombard the Pleven Fortress.

Although there were no heavy artillery, the familiar TNT explosives made Ali and Mohammed, two guys who had suffered in Yili Province, hide in the fortress and dared not show their heads. They hid in the fortress every day and prayed for reinforcements to arrive soon.

Pointing to the battlefield, Shao Quanxiao explained the tactics to his theoretical superior, Potowski, "This is Zeng Guoquan's old strategy of besieging Anqing, besieging the city and attacking the reinforcements, and destroying Chen Yucheng's main force."

"But we didn't eat up the enemy's 100,000 main forces. The enemy was advancing lightly, so we just ate up their vanguard. However, we were running out of food, which was a big problem."

Potowski smiled and said, "Chief of Staff, you can command the battle. I'll leave the command of the army to you. Now that we are fighting at home in Bulgaria, we don't have to worry about food and fodder. Just look over there."

Quanxiao raised the telescope and saw in the distance countless Bulgarian fellow villagers driving donkeys and pushing carts to deliver food to the Restoration Army.

Quan Xiao nodded and sighed, "My elder brother once told me that he who wins the hearts of the people will win the world."

"With the guerrilla tactics of Commander-in-Chief Garibaldi and the full support of our Bulgarian compatriots, the enemy can hardly move forward, making it easier for our main force to defeat them."

A day later, 20,000 Ottoman expeditionary forces, led by Major General Talaat Bey, marched lightly to the outside of the Pleven Fortress and formed a double encirclement of the Restoration Army together with the enemy forces inside the fortress.

The expeditionary force consisted of 1866 cavalrymen, equipped with Winchester lever-action carbines.

The artillery brigade had 2,000 men, equipped with Armstrong six-pound field guns, the engineer battalion had 3,000 men, equipped with Remington shotguns, and the infantry had 10,000 men, half equipped with Martini bolt-action rifles and half with Schneider breech-loading rifles.

Major General Talaat Bey used his troops cautiously and did not attack the enemy immediately. Instead, he ordered the engineering battalion to dig trenches for defense.

As long as these 20,000 men could attract the enemy's main force and keep the Pleven Fortress intact, it would be a great achievement. When the main force arrived and surrounded them, the enemy would surely surrender.

His idea was good and in line with the art of war, but the problem was that it was his art of war.

Before the trenches were dug, 30,000 troops of the Restoration Army came charging over. Hot air balloons rose in the rear, and Krupp artillery groups took the lead in launching their powerful attacks.

For a moment, the ears were filled with the loud explosions of TNT explosives.

(End of this chapter)