Struggle in Russia

"Do you think that old guy really won the battle?" Nakhimov asked Kornilov.

Kornilov chuckled, shook his head slowly and said, "I don't know. Although the loot brought back was pitifully small, and few prisoners were captured, it didn't look like he had beaten the enemy hard. But if If we really occupy the throat of the Balaklava region, it can be called a victory, but..."

When Kornilov said nothing, he glanced meaningfully at the crowd of carnival parades in the city. Most of the people, including Cossacks and sailors, were singing and dancing. They were all drunk and looked like a group of demons dancing.

In his heart, Kornilov strongly disagreed with this. He believed that soldiers should behave like soldiers and have the discipline of soldiers. How can you fight when you are drunk?

But Menshikov didn't care. He believed that celebrating victory must include alcohol. How can we have fun without alcohol to add to the fun?

As the commander-in-chief of the Crimean theater, Menshikov ordered the carnival, even if Kornilov and Nakhimov disagreed, it would be useless.

Fortunately, Kornilov was still able to control the situation in Sevastopol, and under his strict orders, all city defense troops did not participate in the carnival. Most of the men who reveled in Sevastopol were troops Menshikov had brought from Ukraine.

"Is there any movement among the British and French?" Kornilov asked.

Nakhimov shook his head and said: "I'm not sure. After the Battle of Balaklava, the enemy stepped up reconnaissance. It's almost impossible for my people to get close. And the old guy's troops are now in disarray. , I’m so busy celebrating that I don’t even care about anything else!”

Kornilov sighed. The current situation gave him a headache. Menshikov's arrival with 60,000 reinforcements was originally a good thing. After all, it greatly enhanced the military strength near Sevastopol. When facing the coalition forces No longer stretched.

But the old eunuch's ideas were completely different from those of him and Nakhimov. The old eunuch believed that the current military strength of the Russian army in the Sevastopol area was enough to compete with the coalition forces, and advocated taking the initiative to attack.

Of course, the old eunuch's original words were that he advocated annihilating the coalition forces in one fell swoop, but he didn't mention it much after the Battle of Balaclava. Probably he was still aware of the eye-catching performance of his men.

Kornilov and Nakhimov advocated sticking to Sevastopol, slowly dealing with the coalition forces, and consuming and killing the coalition's effective forces as much as possible. At that time, the coalition forces would naturally collapse without a fight and could only retreat.

As for defeating the coalition forces head-on, Kornilov and Nakhimov believed that it was too difficult and completely unrealistic based on the current strength and equipment of the Russian army.

Naturally, the old eunuch and them could not come to an agreement. After a quarrel, neither party accepted the other, so they simply did their own thing.

Here we must especially thank Nicholas I, the tsar for his suspicion of illness and the power of the emperor. Even though Menshikov was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the Crimean theater, he did not hand over all command powers to the old eunuch.

The tsar placed the main force of the Russian army, including more than 60,000 reinforcements from Ukraine and more than 30,000 temporarily recruited from Crimea, under the command of Menshikov.

Sevastopol's Black Sea Fleet and naval infantry, about 36,000 men, and about 20,000 locally recruited volunteers were handed over to Kornilov and Nakhimov.

In other words, due to differences between military chiefs, the Russian army in Crimea was officially divided into two groups. That is, the main offensive group headed by Menshikov, and the defensive group headed by Kornilov and Nakhimov.

The two major groups will do their own thing without interfering with each other for a period of time. Menshikov is preparing to concentrate his forces and take advantage of the victory in the Battle of Balaklava to annihilate the coalition forces in one fell swoop.

So after celebrating the victory for a day, Menshikov decisively ordered the troops to start attacking the Cossack Mountain position on the British right wing.

This mountain is V-shaped and 2,500 meters long, connecting eastern Sevastopol and the areas along the Cholnaya River from north to south.

Five thousand hungover Russian troops walked out of Sevastopol and marched eastward under the command of Colonel Fedorov, then turned south and climbed up the Cossack Mountains.

At that time, the Second Division commanded by the British Army Delessi Evans was stationed at the foot of the mountain and was digging trenches intensively.

At that time, the British army was relatively dispersed, and most of them were busy with construction. The number of troops that Evans could dispatch was about 2,600. The good news is that the British army's observation posts were very powerful, and they discovered the movements of the Russian army in time, and From a distance, he used a Miner rifle to teach the drunken Russians a lesson.

Although Colonel Fedorov had more people, he was still equipped with old-fashioned muskets, which were neither accurate nor able to shoot far. He also suffered a lot against the few British troops.

Evans reacted very quickly and immediately mobilized eighteen artillery pieces, which were aimed at the Russian army with a heavy bombardment. Fedorov had to leave hundreds of dead and wounded soldiers in embarrassment before retreating hastily.

This was actually Menshikov's test. No matter how stupid he was, he would not think that five thousand men could defeat the British army. This very unsuccessful reconnaissance operation was actually preparation for the next all-out attack.

According to Menshikov's plan, he will launch a full-scale attack in a few days and drive the coalition forces into the sea in one fell swoop!

The coalition forces did not realize this because the Russian army's test was too clumsy, and they were busy repairing the Turks and could not bother to fight with the old eunuch for the time being.

Yes, Britain and France were very dissatisfied with Turkey's performance. All the bad things in the Battle of Balaklava were actually the Turks. If they weren't so useless, there wouldn't be any of the nonsense behind them.

The British army accused the Turkish army of being too cowardly as the fundamental reason for this failure. They also accused the Turkish army of robbing and stealing everywhere, not only robbing the surrounding villages but also stealing the property of the British cavalry.

In British terms: "The Turks inflicted cold-blooded brutality on the unfortunate villagers around Balaclava, slitting the men's throats and looting their cupboards."

As a result, the life of the Turks became even more difficult. They suffered extremely bad treatment and were often beaten, cursed, spat on and ridiculed by the British army.

In the eyes of the British army, the Turks were no different from slaves, ordered to dig trenches or transport heavy supplies between Balaclava port and forward positions.

Because of their beliefs, they could not eat most of the rations provided by the British and French soldiers, so they often had to go hungry and work for the British and French soldiers. So much so that more than half of the 4,000 Turkish soldiers who landed in Balaclava died of malnutrition.

What is ironic is that the Turkish army commander, Egyptian Rustem Pasha, told the Turkish soldiers: "Be patient and obey, and don't forget that the British and French soldiers are guests of the great Sultan and warriors who come to defend the dignity of the Ottoman Empire. !Don’t be offended!”