Chapter 384: Large Artillery Deep Penetration Mobile Tactics

Chapter 384: Large Artillery Deep Penetration Mobile Tactics

Chapter 384: Large Artillery Deep Penetration Mobile Tactics

Major General Bey finally understood that Ali Kamzi and Mohammed Yusup were not lying.

The fighting power of Yakub Beg's former subordinates was not bad, and it was not unfair for the two of them to be defeated in Yili Province. It was not that the two generals were timid, but Shao Quanzhong's subordinates really mastered the secret of some new high explosives.

The Turkish army has an artillery brigade among its 20,000 troops, while our side has seven mixed brigades with more than 50,000 troops, seven artillery battalions, plus a direct artillery brigade and a division's field artillery, with more than 10,000 artillerymen alone.

The artillery of both sides has the same range, but the number is different. The firing rate of Krupp artillery is several times faster than that of Armstrong, and the difference in shells is even greater. The Russians have awakened to the doctrine of great artillery, which is a terrifying force.

Major General Bey was dazed by the enemy's artillery fire. "Come on, infantry, hold on. The engineering battalion, dig trenches. The cavalry, attack and hit the enemy's artillery positions."

Ahem, you Turks have cavalry, but don’t the Cossacks have them?
Five thousand Ottoman cavalry attacked from both wings, and the other five thousand cavalry immediately met them.

The Turkish cavalry still used the traditional tactic of advancing and retreating together. The two cavalry battalions went over to contain the enemy, and the fire support cavalry quickly arrived. Two thousand cavalrymen fired at the enemy with Mauser carbines.

In this exchange of fire, the Turkish cavalry suffered a loss.

They blindly bought new weapons, and the cavalry used the Winchester 1866 lever-action rifle.

It seems that a repeating rifle that can fire seven rounds in a row is pretty cool, right? This thing is well used in the United States, where it is used for hunting and close-range fire between cowboys and bandits.

In the cavalry shootout, the Mauser carbine had a much longer range than the lever-action rifle, and the Turks couldn't hit the enemy at all.

The Ottoman cavalry fell off their horses one after another, and the main Cossack cavalry of two thousand men immediately rushed out, with carbines on their backs, and a large number of Don horses galloping up dust. The traditional chakshi sabers kept slashing, and the Turkish cavalry was completely defeated.

Are the Turks so ignorant that they equip their cavalry with lever-action rifles?
Not only that, but in history they suffered great losses because of this in the Tenth Russo-Turkish War. Now their opponent is the Restoration Army, so they will suffer the same loss.

In fact, the Qing Dynasty did this in history. After the defeat in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the Qing Dynasty summarized the reasons for the defeat in the land battle, and one of them was that "the cavalry used Yunzheshide (Winchester) rifles, and the bullets were too close."

Shao Quanzhong himself had participated in the land battle of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 in his previous life, and he was a cavalryman. He still remembers the incident clearly, so he would never do such a terrible thing.

The Huai Army's cavalry were equipped with carbines from the beginning. This tactic was brought by Grant and was now passed on to the Restoration Army by Shao Quanxiao. They immediately crushed the Turkish cavalry who used traditional tactics and were equipped with the wrong weapons.

The Cossack cavalry pursued the Turkish cavalry and rushed into the artillery positions guarded by the enemy cavalry.

A dozen or so people from the artillery division here observed the hot air balloons and immediately avoided the friendly forces as the target of their artillery fire and extended their fire. The cavalry rushed into the artillery positions and slashed them. The Turkish artillery brigade, which had been suppressed and blown into a mess by its own artillery fire, was immediately wiped out.

The enemy had no artillery support, so the Restoration Army blew the charge. The Russian infantry shouted "Ura" and charged. Artillery shells flew over their heads. This was the barrage of bullets trained by Shao Quanxiao.

Thirty thousand men fought against twenty thousand, with obvious artillery advantage and advanced tactics. The enemy's artillery and cavalry were destroyed, the situation on the battlefield was one-sided, and the Turkish defense collapsed immediately.

Major General Bey led his personal guards to flee, allowing as many as possible to escape.

The Restoration Army chased for forty miles, and Major General Bey fled back to the main camp of Muzafer Pasha's army with only two thousand people. The vanguard was basically wiped out.

The first thing Major General Bey said to Muzaffar Pasha was, "It's not that I'm incompetent, it's just that the enemy's artillery fire is so fierce that we can't defeat them."

The second sentence was, "The Winchester repeater is useless."

If the Restoration Army knew this sentence, they would definitely laugh at the Turks for being so ignorant.

Why is the Winchester rifle useless? It's because you don't know how to use it.

Look here, our 20,000 men guarding the trenches are also using lever-action rifles, or shotguns with a shorter range of only 50 meters.

Shao Quanxiao used 30,000 men including 10,000 artillerymen to defeat the 20,000 Turkish vanguard troops. Major General Ali in the Pleven Fortress was no pushover. As soon as the friendly forces and the Restoration Army exchanged fire, the 30,000 troops in the fortress rushed out and cooperated in the pincer attack on the Restoration Army.

Shao Quanxiao deployed 20,000 troops here, relying on two trenches to block the 30,000 enemy troops rushing out of the city.

All the artillery was transferred to attack the Turkish vanguard. The 20,000 people had no artillery support and could only defend themselves in the trenches.

Ali was most afraid of the artillery here. Seeing that the artillery was gone, he drove his soldiers to charge fiercely.

Then they were attacked by machine gun and rapid-fire artillery fire. The Turkish soldiers risked their lives to charge under the machine guns and rapid-fire artillery fire, suffering heavy casualties. They finally reached the trenches but were blocked by barbed wire.

A large number of grenades were thrown over the barbed wire, and the effect was similar to that of artillery shells.

The enemy engineers finally used quilts to press down the barbed wire, and the infantry rushed to the trench. The six-chamber shotgun blasts of the Restoration Army showed their power, and the Turkish soldiers who had rushed to the trench with great difficulty were turned into sieves.

This is the correct way to use a lever-action rifle, and the Turks learned this lesson with blood. The price was that when the 30,000 people in the fortress withdrew, only 18,000 were left.

Three days later, the remaining 70,000 troops of Muzaffar Pasha finally arrived at the Pleven Fortress amidst the continuous harassment of the guerrillas, and unexpectedly discovered that the fortress was still firmly in the hands of their own people.

Even though there were only 18,000 men left in the fortress, the Restoration Army did not force an attack, unwilling to suffer casualties.

Blocked by the fortress, the Restoration Army could not escape to the border with Romania, and they did not want to escape in the first place. Instead, they headed southeast and headed directly to the small town of Harmanli, the logistics base of the expeditionary army.

Halmanli stored food and fodder for the expeditionary army, which was extremely important. Muzaffar Pasha had no choice but to abandon the Pleven Fortress and join forces with Major General Ali, gathering more than 90,000 people to pursue the Restoration Army.

Although the Restoration Army was composed entirely of cavalry, the cavalry pulling field artillery could not move very fast and could not reach the speed of the Mongol Westward Expedition, which could only travel seventy miles a day.

That's a miracle, how come it's so fast? There's no logistics.

Wherever the Restoration Army went, the local people would push carts to deliver food to them. This was an internal battle.

Muzafer Pasha dared not abandon the food and fodder, otherwise the troops would run out of food and disband in two days.

Marching while protecting food and supplies in an environment full of guerrillas shooting at you is a very slow process. If you march too fast, the food and supplies might be destroyed.

The expeditionary army made a big detour and chased back to the starting point, Halmanli, only to find that it was a scorched earth.

The 50,000 logistics soldiers led by Prince Murad stayed here to protect the food. Their number seemed to be the same as that of the Restoration Army. They were defending against guerrillas and had no artillery.

After a division of field artillery bombarded the enemy, Prince Murad fled and retreated to Thrace.

Not many soldiers were lost, but all the food was lost.

There were mountains of food here, and the Restoration Army couldn't take it away, nor did they burn it.

The guerrillas who appeared took the common people with them and transported the food in large and small vehicles for two days, and all the food was given to the Bulgarian people.

The Pasha was furious and personally led his army to the nearby villages to massacre them.

Seeing the Turkish army approaching from afar, the young soldiers on guard knocked down the message tree at the entrance of the village and rang the gong.

All the villagers fled and scattered in all directions.

The Turkish army stepped on countless mines in the village, which were made of TNT explosives and produced by the Lanzhou Arsenal.

As for food, a lot was dug out, but how could it be enough for an army of nearly 100,000?
The scouts reported that the Restoration Army was advancing rapidly towards Sofia, Shao Quanxiao and his second army were attacking Sofia, and Sofia was in a state of emergency.

Muzaffar Pasha had never fought such a cowardly battle before. It was obvious that the enemy had fewer soldiers and did not dare to fight a decisive battle with him. He could not catch them, and their firepower was very strong. If he divided his troops, they would be eaten up.

Their 180,000-strong army was sent to fight the enemy, but their 50,000-strong logistics force was defeated, and their 130,000-strong regular army was led around in a long circle by the enemy, with 40,000 casualties.

The enemy was not captured at all, the Pleven fortress was lost again, the food was lost, and Sofia was surrounded again.

The main force of Russia awakened the tactics of large artillery and deep penetration and mobile warfare, and coordinated with guerrilla warfare. The Turkish expeditionary army was caught in the vast ocean of Bulgaria's national resistance, returned empty-handed, and ran back to Thrace in disgrace.

The Bulgarian Restoration Army led by Garibaldi, Potowski and Shao Quanxiao achieved a complete victory in its first counter-encirclement and suppression campaign.

(End of this chapter)