Dominate the Country

Bagration knew better than anyone what the success or failure of the Astrakhan battle meant. He knew that his motherland was looking forward to him, the millions of Russian people were looking forward to him, and countless kings and nobles in Europe were looking forward to his answer to the outcome of the war. This battle was related to his fate, the fate of Russia and more than 100,000 Russian troops, and even the fate of Europe and the fate of monotheistic civilization.

For Bagration, the burden of the latter two was too heavy. He was not Napoleon, who was threatening the European continent. He did not need to consider the future of the whole of Europe. He only needed to consider Russia and himself. The pressure of the first two was heavy enough. Who could be indifferent to things that were related to their life and death and honor?

Bagration was calm on the surface because he was good at keeping calm at the most tense moments of the battle. His bravery and persistence were never meaningless bravery, it was just recklessness and brainlessness. There were thousands of such people in the Russian army, and he, Peter Ivanovich Bagration, was able to stand out from the countless noble descendants in the Russian army, and was able to be conferred the title of prince and the rank of cavalry general, all thanks to his brain.

In the most tense moments of the battle, he could keep his head cool; in the most dangerous moments of the battle, he could keep his mind calm.

Only in this way could he fight against 30,000 French troops with 6,000 grenadiers in Schöngraben, and cover the main force of the Russian army to retreat to the Znaim Avenue in Vienna under the pursuit of 200,000 French troops. After completing the task, he led his subordinates out of the encirclement and rushed to join the main force. In the Fourth Anti-French War, it was Kutuzov's sophisticated strategy and Bagration's excellent rear guard that prevented Napoleon from completely defeating the Russian army before the Battle of the Three Emperors. In the final decisive battle, the right wing of the coalition army commanded by Bagration fought against Murat and Lannes, and was able to maintain a relatively good order when the coalition army was defeated.

This was not based on blind bravery, but more on a wise brain, the wisdom of war!

And with Kutuzov's loss of power again, the Russian army saw clearly Alexander I's prejudice against Kutuzov. It can be said that Bagration has taken over Kutuzov's banner, and one of his hands has already grasped the flagpole of the military flag. In this case, Bagration can no longer simply look at the war from a military perspective as a soldier.

Military is the continuation of politics.

This is a sentence recorded by the Chinese when analyzing the war in their military textbooks. It spread throughout Europe 20 years ago and was deeply recognized by the European military.

The Chinese also said that soldiers do not interfere in politics, but soldiers must understand politics and must not talk about politics.

China's senior military generals must understand politics and talk about politics.

This is the case with Bagration. He has passed the stage of being a simple military general. As a banner of the Russian army, he must be political.

Now Bagration's "politics" is to maintain his position. If the position of commander of the Eastern Front is taken by Bennigsen, it will be a heavy blow to the entire Russian army's local faction.

But this should be good for the authority of the Tsar. There is no real leader in the entire army, so the leader of the Russian army can only be the Tsar.

In history, Bagration was seriously injured and died in the Battle of Borodino. During the entire Napoleonic War, Alexander I only stingily awarded two marshals, Kutuzov and Barclay. Kutuzov died of illness the year after the end of the Franco-Russian War in 1812. After being awarded the title of marshal, Barclay almost completely bid farewell to his military career. His activities were mainly in administration and diplomacy. Moreover, because Barclay was strict in military discipline, he won an excellent reputation among French residents, but invisibly offended a large number of Russian officers and soldiers. In his later years, he was slandered and died in depression.

During this period, the Russian army, which had many marshals in the late 18th century, did not have a single active marshal, let alone a great marshal like Suvorov.

Ivan Vasilyevich Gudovich was awarded the title of Russian Marshal in 1807, but his marshal rank was obtained from the Ottomans, and he retired from the army the second year after being awarded the title of Marshal because of blindness in one eye.

A year later, he was elected as a member of the State Council and a councilor, but at this time, the Russian Marshal had degenerated into a weird old man. He retired completely in 1812. As a big landowner, Gudovich had about 13,000 serfs and spent his later years with music and hunting.

But that was in the original time and space. In the world that was changed by Chen Ming, the Seventh Russo-Turkish War did not break out at all. Gudovich retired in 1810. Until his retirement, he was only an army general. Another person who was promoted to Field Marshal with him in the original time and space, Alexander Alexandrovich Prozorovsky, did not die of illness in the army near Merchin in the defeat. Instead, he chose to retire with Gudovich. Although he died of illness in his own manor only two months after retirement at the age of 78, he lived one year longer than in the original time and space.

Therefore, after the death of Field Marshal Suvorov in 1800, the Russian army has experienced 13 years without a marshal until Tukuzov was named a marshal, but this obese old general was already sick and old.

This is really funny. Paul I offended seven marshals including Suvorov at one go, but before Paul I was sent to see God, those old marshals who were canonized during the reign of Catherine II went to see God one by one.

Then Alexander I in history never canonized a Russian marshal again after Kutuzov and Barclay until his death for more than ten years.

It was not until his brother, the third Nicholas I, succeeded to the throne that Wittgenstein and Ostan-Sacken were immediately canonized as marshals. This ended the history of the Russian army without marshals for more than ten years, and at that time, the Romanov family had greater control over the army.

But some things in the original time and space are impossible to happen in Russia now.

The Russian army has a new leader. As long as Bagration does not suffer a major defeat under the city of Astrakhan, he will definitely be canonized as an army marshal by Alexander I later. But the premise is that he cannot suffer a major defeat on the Eastern Front!

Bagration could "throw thunder without rain" outside the Chinese defense circle. Anyway, the Chinese artillery could not reach the town named "New Astrakhan" on the bank of the Volga River and the tunnel defense lines and fortresses that were being repaired in a hurry.

But doing so would undoubtedly lose points.

The Russian army came to Astrakhan after a hard battle in Turinsk. Along the way, they were cheering for their soldiers to recapture Astrakhan. If this army arrived at the fortress and sat without fighting, it would be very damaging to morale. It would also give people a handle!

Bagration believed in the power of those soldiers who fought to defend their country; he believed that the Russian warriors would not retreat, and he would definitely rush to the city of Astrakhan, even if it would cost a lot of sacrifice and blood, but as long as the Russian artillery shells could fall on Astrakhan, it would be a great victory for Bagration.

So Bagration was very calm, because the number of casualties of the Russian army was far from reaching his psychological bottom line of 50,000.

Of course, the sacrifices made by the Russian army were definitely not in vain. At the cost of 50,000 people, Bagration set himself the goal of firing shells into the city of Astrakhan.

The Russian army was very motivated, and even the newly organized troops did not show weakness in the battle. The 27th Division commanded by Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov was an obvious example. The division was one of the three divisions formed by the remnants of Dokhturov after the Battle of Turinsk. The soldiers had experienced the previous difficult battles. It has not been a month to this day, but when they were thrown into the battlefield, their performance was absolutely amazing.

On the battlefield of Astrakhan, the Russian army fighting to defend the motherland was really a heroic army.

Even Chen Wei was surprised by the performance of the Russian army. In the previous Sino-Russian battle, the Russians did not perform so tough. He watched the Russian soldiers retreating on the battlefield and then rushing back to fight, and two idioms came to his mind: seeing death as home and dying rather than surrendering.

"Every country has patriots." It was the burning patriotic passion that made the Russian generals and soldiers so loyal and brave. If it weren't for this motivation, the army would have been defeated long ago...

In this battle, Chen Wei's will began to waver for the first time, but he was not discouraged. Didn't you see that the performance of the Chinese soldiers on the battlefield was exactly the same?

The infantry regiments of the Seven Khanates could not hold on, but the Chinese infantry was still very strong.

But Chen Wei also knew in his heart that the reason why the Chinese troops were so tough was that they were different from the Russians in the final analysis.

As an invader, Chen Han's army could not have the burning determination to defend their country. But as a "heavenly country", the pride of Chen Han's army cannot be underestimated.

Because the glorious tradition is also a huge force.

A strong army, an army that has always won, will hardly surrender to its opponent in a battle of equal strength.

Otherwise, "pride" would not be classified as one of the original sins of humanity by n different religions.

Supported by the power of pride, the Chinese National Defense Army also fought the Russians in blood and fire without showing any weakness.

The number of Chen Han's troops is 30,000 more than that of the Russian army. This is not a big advantage in the whole battle, but it is still very powerful when it comes to a small battlefield in a major war. If all the 140,000 or 150,000 troops were genuine national defense troops, the Russian army would have a high probability of failure in this fight. But unfortunately, they are not.

Among the 140,000 or 150,000 troops commanded by Chen Wei, the Chinese army only has 80,000 troops, more than half, and the rest are all the troops of the Seven Khanates, and many of them are cavalry. After dividing these cavalry units, in terms of the number of infantry, the army in Chen Wei's hands is not more than the Russian army at all, and a small part of it is the Seven Khanates Army. These troops really dragged down the National Defense Army to a certain extent.

"These Mongols..." On the front battlefield, Pan Chang looked at the retreating Khalkha and Chahar infantry regiments and was so angry that he didn't know what to say. The infantry of these two khanates and the Khoshut Khanate were all third-rate stuff, not to mention the National Defense Army and Japanese soldiers. Even the Gurkhas were much better than them. Only the Torghuts performed well.

The infantry of the Khalkha Khanate and the Chahar Khanate retreated. Pan Chang did not immediately send the National Defense Forces that were adjusted in the rear to take over, but instead sent out the Kazakh cavalry. If the Russian army was about to catch up, he would use the cavalry to charge them.