Chapter 487: Chapter 481: Blooming at the Center or a Lone Army Penetrating Deep?
"General Canrobert, please permit me to lead the Zuav Corps and take out these insolent fellows!"
Facing the Cossack cavalry’s provocation, Brigadier General Bazan, struggling to contain the fury burning within him, rode up to General Canrobert and suggested quietly.
As the vanguard commander of the Expeditionary Army, General Canrobert’s heart remained unmoved, and inwardly he was calculating the distance between the two, as well as the effect of the wind on the bullets.
No, the distance is still not quite right! It’s impossible to annihilate them effectively!
After silently coming to this conclusion, General Canrobert shook his head, indicating to Bazan not to be hasty.
On the opposite side of the Zuav Corps, the Cossack Cavalry, noticing that the Zuav Corps still hadn’t made any moves, grew bolder and began to test the range of the Zuavs’ rifles little by little.
Nearly a hundred Cossack cavalrymen began to approach the Zuav Corps, spreading out in an arc.
When the Cossack cavalry reached a position about 300 meters from the Zuav Corps, Canrobert immediately made a decision.
He gently waved his right hand, whereupon Brigadier General Bazan immediately understood and rushed to the front of the line formation captain, shouting loudly, "Fire!"
"Fire!" The captain, upon seeing this, also shouted loudly.
The Zuav Corps, receiving the order, hesitated not for a moment and pulled the trigger simultaneously.
The sound of intense gunfire erupted from the Zuav Corps’ camp. Bullets, gaining initial velocity from the gunpowder, spun along the bore’s rifling, then shot towards the Cossack cavalry at supersonic speed.
At such speed, the Cossack cavalry could hardly develop an effective response strategy.
One moment they were laughing and joking, the next they felt a sharp pain in their chests as red blood stained their green uniforms, and the warhorses let out agonized cries, both falling heavily to the ground.
Of the original nearly hundred Cossack cavalry, over 30 were lost after one round of shooting.
The remaining Cossack cavalry stared in shock at the Zuav Corps across from them, unable to understand how, at such a distance, the Zuav Corps could shoot so accurately.
Under the shocked gaze of the Cossack cavalry, the first row of infantrymen crouched to reload their ammunition, while the second row raised their rifles towards the Cossacks.
"Second squad, fire!"
Brigadier General Bazan’s command was again heard by the Zuav Corps, and the second row of Zuav members pulled the trigger once more.
After the gunfire subsided, another 30 Cossack cavalrymen fell to the ground.
The remaining 30 or so Cossack cavalry had no hesitation in turning their horses around to flee the battlefield. However, they did not realize that it was already too late to escape.
"Third squad, fire!"
Brigadier General Bazan’s furious command was again heard by the Cossacks, and under the third volley of gunfire, another 20 or so Cossack cavalrymen fell.
Less than ten of the Cossack cavalry managed to escape the Zuav Corps’ gunfire, and watching this fleeing group of Cossack cavalry, the Zuav Corps erupted in cheers.
This marked the complete eradication of the French Army’s fear of the Cossacks, and Canobie nodded in satisfaction, issuing the order to Brigadier General Bazan to clear the battlefield.
Brigadier General Bazan quickly dispatched personnel to clean the battlefield, then reported the number of casualties among the Cossack cavalry to General Canrobert.
The entire process took less than an hour.
"Your corps did very well!" General Canrobert praised Brigadier General Bazan.
Immediately following General Canrobert’s order, the Zuav Corps returned to their original position.
Observers, including Somerset and others, were equally amazed by the Zuav Corps’ skilled techniques and regimented actions.
Although their units could also repel the Cossack cavalry like the Zuav Corps, they were far from reaching the level of skilled coordination exhibited by the Zuav Corps. Such coordination required tacit understanding developed through countless battlefield collaborations.
Neither the Scottish Rifle Corps nor the Sardinian Hunting Corps could achieve the large-scale combat experience possessed by the Zuav Corps.
After all, not everyone has a field of training close to home, where rebellions are constant.
After reorganizing the troops, General Canrobert led the units forward, advancing until they were less than 2 kilometers from the Siliistra Fortress, where Major General Canrobert ordered the troops to halt.
Riding on horseback, he once again picked up the binoculars, staring at the flags on the distant Silestra Fortress through the lenses.
It’s the emblem of the Ottoman Empire! It seems Silestra Fortress hasn’t been lost yet!
Canobie silently thought to himself, then ordered the troops to build trenches here to await the impending attack from the Russian Army.
Canrobel intended to divert some of the Russian Army here, thereby alleviating the pressure on Silestra Fortress.
As long as Canrobel holds on near Silestra Fortress for a few days, the following troops will inevitably arrive here.
By that time, the Russian Army will face the dilemma currently confronting Silestra Fortress.
Just as Canrobel ordered the troops to dig trenches and wait for the Russian Army’s arrival, Prince Paskievich at the Russian headquarters near Silestra Fortress also received intelligence that the Anglo-French Alliance had reached the vicinity of Silestra Fortress.
The intelligence was brought by Cossack Cavalry fleeing the battlefield, though the report they delivered to Prince Paskievich greatly differed from the actual situation of the French Army led by Major General Canrobel.
"What? You detected a 300,000-strong force marching continuously towards Silestra Fortress!" Prince Paskievich asked the Cossack Cavalry in a skeptical tone.
"Yes, Sir, it’s indeed 300,000!" The Cossack Cavalry confidently replied to Prince Paskievich.
Fearing punishment from their superior, the Cossack Cavalry resorted to wordplay with Prince Paskievich.
The number 300,000 was intelligence they gathered from a captured Turkish soldier, and they had no clue about the actual size of General Canrobel’s forces.
"Alright, I’ve got it. You may leave!" Prince Paskievich waved his hand, and two Cossack Cavalry left Paskievich’s tent.
"300,000? Impossible! Those two must have exaggerated the intelligence to avoid punishment!" Prince Paskievich muttered to himself, a mocking smile appearing at the corner of his mouth.
This smile was not only mocking those two Cossack soldiers’ false report but also mocking the entire Russian Imperial Army for their deception.
In an army where even reconnaissance personnel needed to lie to avoid punishment, how much real intelligence could he, as a prince, grasp? And how much genuine intelligence could His Majesty Nicholas I, far away in Moscow, possess?
Perhaps the intelligence he delivered to His Majesty Nicholas I was swapped out by those unwilling to face the reality of the Russian Empire’s situation even before it arrived.
Or perhaps His Majesty Nicholas I never wished to receive true intelligence at all.
Thinking of this, Prince Paskievich couldn’t help but feel a wave of sorrow for the Russian Empire’s predicament. The sense of helplessness in knowing impending disaster yet being powerless to prevent it filled Prince Paskievich’s heart, rendering him incapable of calmly thinking.
Prince Paskievich had no choice but to summon General Gorchakov, who was supervising the battle at the front line.
When General Gorchakov arrived at the tent, Prince Paskievich, lying on the bed, once again looked sorrowfully at Gorchakov and asked, "How is the situation at the front? Does our army have the chance to breach Siliistra Fortress?"
General Gorchakov shook his head and said in a heavy tone, "I’m afraid breaching the fortress in the near future is quite unlikely!"
"Damn it! We’ve sacrificed countless lives here, yet it remains unconquerable!" Prince Paskievich lamented in despair.
Since launching the all-out assault at the end of February, the Guard Division, Thirteenth Corps, and Fourteenth Corps have launched more than thirty attacks, unleashing thousands of tons of shells at Silestra Fortress.
Yet there was no way to breach Silestra Fortress... Not to mention Silestra Fortress, even the fort "Tabia" in front of it remained unconquerable.
Moreover, the personnel losses inflicted by the Ottoman Empire on the Russian Empire exceeded the expectations of the Russian commanders.
Nearly two weeks of relentless attacks on the fort led to the Russian Empire’s loss of over 8,000 soldiers (including 3,000 deaths and a cumulative 5,000 from illness and injuries), leaving nearly a quarter of the Guard Division below the "Tabia" fort with a small part of the Thirteenth Corps remaining in the trenches.
Thus, Prince Paskievich had no choice but to abandon his prior arrangements and draw the Fourteenth Corps into the attack on Silestra Fortress.
However, in just a few days, part of the Fourteenth Corps also suffered severe casualties.
The continuously rising casualty numbers prompted dissatisfaction with Paskievich from the Thirteenth Corps, Fourteenth Corps, and Guard Division, as rumors began circulating in the camp that Prince Paskievich deliberately sent these three armies to their deaths to let his own Polish Corps reap the benefits.
Already resentful of Moscow’s demand for a forced attack, Prince Paskievich was deeply hurt by these rumors.
He simply stopped going to the front to supervise the battle and let General Gorchakov of the Thirteenth Corps and Fourteenth Corps supervise, while he stayed in the camp, pondering ways to extricate the Russian Army from this meat grinder of a campaign.
Nevertheless, after pondering for several days, Prince Paskievich did not come up with any solutions.
"Commander, Silestra Fortress is originally a region that’s easy to defend and hard to attack, and setbacks in advancing are not unusual!"