Dominate the Country

Just when so many things happened inside and outside Chenhan, the battle of Astrakhan finally decided the winner.

With the powerful artillery support, the Russian army led by major generals, lieutenant generals and even generals took turns to attack the Wehrmacht positions. Although some positions were in danger, the Russians never made any breakthrough progress.

Of course, Bagration did send shells into the fortress of Astrakhan, but that was not from land, but from the Volga River. The warships of the Russian Caspian Fleet, which went down the river from Tsaritsyn, often appeared on the water outside the Astrakhan fortress in the middle and late stages of the Astrakhan Campaign, and even raided the Caspian Sea. You must know that Astrakhan, a city and fortress, stands on the shore of the Caspian Sea. In the 21st century, the water level of the Caspian Sea has dropped significantly, and Astrakhan is only a short 200 meters away from the waters of the Caspian Sea.

Therefore, when the warships of the Caspian Fleet appeared outside the city of Astrakhan, they directly broke through the obstruction of Chen Han's warships and entered the Caspian Sea on the first day, and then bombarded Astrakhan.

So much so that Chen Han had to urgently transfer more warships to Astrakhan.

Chen Wei was accustomed to the adjutant running to him with a smile on his face to report the gratifying results after the battle started. But in this battle, news of failed attacks/assaults/counterattacks came frequently, and various units requested reinforcements one after another.

If it was like the previous battles - against Spain, Chen Wei would have sent out the reserve troops to reinforce. But at this moment, he was indecisive and hesitated again and again. He did not respond to Pan Chang and others' requests for reinforcements many times, but just paced back and forth in contemplation. After finally making up his mind to send out the reserve troops, he soon changed his mind. In his mind, this battle was no longer a battle that could be won by sending out the reserve troops.

The courage and tenacity of the Russians were unparalleled in this battle.

Chen Wei did not move his command post during the battle as usual, nor did he go deep into the front line to observe the battle situation.

It was not that he became cowardly, but that it was too dangerous to do so. As the commander-in-chief of this battle, his personal safety was related to the entire war and the lives of hundreds of thousands of soldiers.

Shen Shiying, the chief of staff of the entire war against Russia, did go to the front line once, but Admiral Shen, who had not been injured for 20 years, went to the front line on foot and was carried back lying down.

Last night, Chen Wei discussed the prospects of this battle with him.

Now he asked: "Old Shen, what is the situation in front?"

"Should we send the First Guard Division?"

"No, don't, don't destroy this elite!"

The First Guard Division is the emperor's favorite, don't waste it on defense and attack again and again.

During the time when Shen Shiying was at the front line, he saw with his own eyes that the Russian army launched fierce attacks on the positions of the National Defense Army again and again, and the defenders also launched counterattacks against the Russian army again and again. The front-line soldiers suffered heavy casualties, and the number of people who could persist in fighting was decreasing, but they still bravely repelled the Russian army's attacks again and again.

The model of the National Defense Army as the main body and the infantry and cavalry of the Seven Khanates as vassals won the biggest test in this battle. The army of the Seven Khanates is now getting weaker and weaker, and they are frightened by the severe casualties and cruel fighting.

Whether it is the infantry and cavalry, the performance in this battle is getting worse day by day. This also forced the National Defense Army to bear a greater burden.

The reason why Shen Shiying was injured was that when the Russian army on the opposite side gathered at least two thousand soldiers and launched the fourth charge towards a section of the National Defense Army's position in a scattered formation like a sky full of stars, Shen Shiying was hit in the thigh by a stray bullet.

But this was Shen Shiying's own fault.

When the Russian army charged, the defenders of course used intensive firepower to stop them, but the Russian soldiers showed a fearless spirit in the hail of bullets. The officers and soldiers ignored the huge sacrifices and stepped on the bodies of their comrades, approaching the position step by step.

Although Shen Shiying was in the enemy's position, he couldn't help but praise them. Then he took the initiative to move his observation position forward. He was the chief of staff, and he was very concerned about the army's fighting will and courage. He wanted to understand the Russian army more realistically, which would help him estimate the Russian army's war strength in the future.

Shen Shiying is not young anymore. When he fought Spain for the second time in America, he was still in his prime, and now he is already a sixty-year-old man. After this battle, Shen Shiying will withdraw from the front-line command position, and the position of chief of staff is prepared for him.

There are also people like Wei Baocheng and Chen Wei, who will also retreat to the second line.

Pan Chang, the youngest of them, will take over Wei Baocheng's position, and then a large number of new soldiers will begin to be replaced.

The iron camp is permanent, but the soldiers are changing. That's it.

From the perspective of the entire battle of Astrakhan, Shen Shiying's injury was naturally an accident, but it was also a turning point in the war. Since Shen Shiying was injured, the Russian offensive has been declining day by day, but the warships of the Caspian Fleet have been fighting with the Caspian Navy of Chen Han at the mouth of the Volga River.

Chen Wei determined that the Russian army's strength has been exhausted, and now is the time for him to turn defense into offense. Then there was a bloody storm on the Russian defense line.

However, the Russian defense line was also built with high quality. If you want to attack this defense line from the front, you have to be prepared for great sacrifices.

And the Russians' convenient water transportation must be cut off. The logistical supplies that are continuously transported from the rear of the Russian army will bring a huge threat to Chen Wei's counterattack. Moreover, after controlling the Volga River, the National Defense Army can also outflank the Russian army from the rear, cut off their land routes, and finally trap them to death without fighting.

Now Chen Wei asked Chen Ming for help. First, more troops are needed, even the army of the Seven Khanates; second, more warships are needed. If you want to win this battle as soon as possible and pay the least price, you must eliminate the Russian Caspian Fleet.

After receiving the request for help, Chen Ming did not hesitate and quickly decided to send an additional 100,000 troops to Chen Wei. Among them, 50,000 are cavalry from the Seven Khanates, and the other 50,000 are two reorganized divisions of the Northwest Military Region.

The latter will be very happy. As one of the two largest first-class military regions on the Chinese mainland, the other is the Jinling Military Region. The total strength of the Northwest Military Region's infantry, cavalry, and artillery has reached 300,000. Including logistics, engineering, medical, and guard forces, the entire Northwest Military Region has no less than 350,000 troops.

In the past wars, such a large army mobilized less than half of its strength, and only 20% of its troops were actually deployed. Although not all of the First Guard Division was transferred from Nanjing to the Northwest battlefield, half of its troops were there. Together with the cavalry troops transferred from Mongolia, they took away 30% of the 100,000 troops.

Now the two reorganized divisions are only 50,000 people, which is a piece of cake for the Northwest Military Region.

Even Chen Ming dared to guarantee that the Northwest Military Region’s request for war would be handed to him in a few days at most, and the second batch of troops might have been discussed within the Northwest Military Region.

Just when Chen Ming was attracted by the new military situation in the Northwest Theater, there were new changes on the Caucasus battlefield.

The National Defense Army, whose chances of victory had greatly increased due to the Ottoman landing in the Sea of ​​​​Azov, encountered new troubles.

Platov seemed to be inspired by the difficult situation to have stronger energy. When facing a desperate situation, people either accept their fate and wait for death, or explode. Platov is obviously the latter!

His use of troops became more flexible and agile. He boldly launched a direct attack on the Principality of Khachmas and the Principality of Bakuba. These small countries were all vassal states of Persia. This was actively provoking Persia, which was not a weak country. But it was this move that opened up a new situation for the Russian army.

——This greatly disrupted the logistics supply of Chen Han's army.

Because Chen Han surrounded the Vladikavkaz Fortress, the logistics supply all depended on Khachmas and Baku, as well as Persia behind them.

Although this made Chen Han pay a large sum of money to them, it saved time and effort.

The Cossacks led by Platov were very successful in harassing the Caucasus region. The intelligence was soon reported to Wei Baocheng.

It took three days from the generation and recognition of the intelligence that the area south of the Caucasus Mountains was attacked by Cossacks to the failure of the local Baku and Khachmas defenders to counterattack. After verifying the battle report, they had to ask for help from Deng Yun under the Vladikavkaz Fortress, and then the battle report was quickly sent by Deng Yun to Wei Baocheng. During these three days, more than 3,000 Cossack cavalry had passed through the land of the Principality of Baku and killed to the Principality of Nakhchivan.

Nakhchivan is located in the southern part of the European Transcaucasus, bordering Armenia, that is, the Ottoman Empire, to the north and Persia to the south. As a semi-independent small country vassal of the Persian Kingdom, it has existed for many years.

Although the Ottomans and Russia broke out in the Black Sea, their battles in the Caucasus were much smaller. And more of the battles were centered around Armenia and Georgia.

Thousands of Cossacks suddenly appeared in Nakhchivan, behind Armenia, that is, behind the Ottomans. This was a threat to the Ottoman army in Armenia.

And a horizontal line from Bakula connected Nakhchivan, which almost cut off the land connection between Persia and the Chen Han army.

The most important thing is that these small Caucasian countries have a sparse population and a small number of troops, and thousands of Cossacks are already a huge threat to them. Just like Baku, without external factors, the Russian troops under Platov might have broken the city of Baku.

But Platov's desperate move - this would give Persia an excuse to declare war on Russia, but the more important significance was to deter these small principalities in the southern Caucasus and disrupt their plans.

The armies of various principalities retreated to important cities to defend, traffic was blocked, communication was blocked, and the overall operation and circulation came to a standstill.

This certainly affected the logistics supply of the Chen Han army.