Struggle in Russia

The Kozelets Bridge became a top priority, but Li Xiao did not put all his hopes on Ogelinin's cavalry. After all, everyone knew that the traffic situation in Russia was a mess, and there were no roads on most rivers. The bridges are all normal.

What's more, after the chaos in Ukraine, we can't expect the rebels and the officials who fled in embarrassment to have much moral integrity. Maybe the remaining bridges will be almost destroyed.

Although the water volume of the river is small in winter, it is not that easy to cross the river.

Therefore, we must be mentally prepared to not be able to flank the enemy, that is, to attack by force.

For this reason, Li Xiao made precise arrangements. The first step was to order the artillery to set up positions. If they could not suppress the artillery fire of the rebels on the other side of the river, they would probably have to pay huge casualties if they wanted to cross this narrow bridge.

It's just that the artillery position is really difficult to set up. The main reason is that the enemy's position on the other side of the river is too ideal, and the entire front is firmly blocked. On the north bank of the river, except for the river embankment, there are too many residential buildings in low terrain. Unless the cannon is placed Move to the roof, otherwise you won't be able to hit the opponent at all.

Li Xiao looked at the terrain with a telescope and shook his head. Isn't this deadly terrain a disaster for artillery?

After thinking for a while he asked: "Do you have a mortar?"

In fact, he wanted mortars more. After all, mortars showed excellent characteristics during the Crimean War and were truly friends of infantry.

It's just that after the war, Russia was in dire straits. Except for a few elite troops who had emergency production of mortars during the war, the rest of the troops couldn't get it at all.

Even when Dmitri came to counter the rebellion, he only brought a few dozen mortars, and these artillery pieces were all taken to Nizhin by Dmitri. After all, the surrendering army needs field fire support.

To be honest, Li Xiao really regrets it. If he had known that this bridge was so difficult, he should have asked Dmitri for a few mortars. As long as three or five gates can have a good suppression effect.

So he could only retreat and ask if there was a mortar. After all, the mortar was the ancestor of the mortar. It had similar ballistic characteristics and could be used with some effort.

It's just that mortars are rarely used in field battles. Most of the time they are used in defensive battles. Field battles require direct-fire weapons with flat trajectories.

"Well, I found a few doors in the city, but they are all old antiques..."

It was more than an antique, it was simply a cultural relic, but cultural relics didn't matter to Li Xiao. Anyway, as long as it could be used, it would be fine for him. However, after the artilleryman demonstrated the striking effect of the mortar for him, he was speechless.

This thing is to throw iron bullets or stone bullets to hit people. It can be simply understood as a trebuchet fired by gunpowder. It would be bluffing if there were dozens or hundreds of doors, but Li Xiao only had five in his hand and could only throw five 20-pound iron balls at a time.

To be honest, unless luck is reversed or the enemy's luck is on his back, it is almost impossible to cause much damage.

But even being here is better than nothing, even if it makes a sound to scare the other party, it's good.

It seemed that we had to find another way to attack by force. At least we couldn't just rush along the narrow bridge stupidly. That was no different from delivering food.

Li Xiao immediately gave up preparations to storm the bridge. He was not stupid, how could he die because of his headache.

In addition to arranging a forceful attack to attract the attention of the enemy on the other side of the bridge, he ordered the ships to be collected immediately and prepared for a forced crossing!

It's more of a sneak crossing than a forced crossing. Anyway, the enemy on the other side can only cause trouble with their artillery, so just avoid them, cross the river at a place where the enemy's defense is lax, and then attack in a roundabout way!

In fact, this is similar to Ojelinen's task. The difference is that it is more convenient for infantry to cross the river than for cavalry. The only problem is the ships. Whether you can find enough ships is the prerequisite for whether this set of tactics can be realized.

Fortunately, Orginio did not control ships, which was normal. For a rebel like him, there were no such things in his mind.

So after two hours, Li Xiao collected five boats and could ferry hundreds of people to the other side of the river in one go.

In order to ensure success, he deliberately selected an area where the enemy's defense was weak, and specifically instructed the troops to cross the river not to rush to expand the results after crossing the river, but to consolidate their positions first to ensure the safety of the subsequent troops crossing the river.

At five o'clock in the morning, the Russian army, which had been busy for several hours, finally took a boat to cross the river. It was almost as expected by Li Xiao. The enemy on the other side was indeed unprepared. The troops crossing the river easily seized the landing site. With the continuous flow of troops crossing, After crossing the Oster River, Orginio's troops guarding the bridge were dumbfounded.

Even a fool can see that there is no point in continuing to hold on. After a while, the Russian army will be the first to deal with them after crossing the river, and they will not be lost by then!

Orginio was also a bachelor. When he saw that the situation was not good, he immediately waved his hand and ordered to retreat, but Li Xiao was waiting for him!

As soon as he saw his artillery starting to withdraw from their positions, he immediately ordered his troops to storm and seize the bridge!

So Orginio was in tragedy. The artillery had just withdrawn and was unable to deal with the Russian troops rushing over from the other side of the bridge. And there was a flank attack from the Russian troops crossing the river. It could be said that he was attacked from both sides. After a few minutes, his troops were attacked. It collapsed.

When he saw that things were going wrong, he immediately ran away, no matter what Kozelets, no matter what, the artillery was lost, and the most important thing at the moment was to save his life!

I don’t know if this guy has done too many bad things and been targeted by God, or if things have been going wrong these days. As soon as he started to run away, he bumped into Ojelinen who was taking the back road and had a big anus. In front of the Cossack cavalry, he couldn’t do anything. Not worthy of playing with horses.

Ojelinen only used one charge to cut down his horse, and then of course he beat up the drowned dog!

It was seven o'clock in the morning, but Li Xiao couldn't help but sigh after looking at Orginio's head sent by Ojelinen.

I really don’t know why these Cossacks are so violent. Just kill someone. What does it mean to chop off the head and give it to him? This thing is inedible and looks scary. What’s the use of chicken feathers?

Besides, it is best to capture a bandit leader like Orginio alive and send him to St. Petersburg. Alexander II laughed and laughed, and the credit will be even higher.

This is really a waste of natural resources!

It's just that it's all chopped up, so there's nothing to complain about. People are also kind-hearted, so just pick it up with some salt and sprinkle some lime powder and send it to St. Petersburg.

Presumably Alexander II didn't care if the heads were stale, as long as Dmitry could prove that he was unstoppable and regained the lost ground.

The only thing that made Li Xiao a little unhappy was that Ojelinen brought him bad news. There seemed to be a large number of rebels moving north more than ten kilometers south of Kozelets!