Chapter 195: Chapter 82, A War Fought by Mistake

Translator: 549690339

Balkan Peninsula

The Russians already bathed in bloodshed with the Allied Forces; it’s worth mentioning that the Ottoman Army, the largest in number, became a supporting actor in this war. The main force of the alliance had become England and France.

In the Sliven Region, a stalemate ensued. The French blocked the advance of the Russians, and now, every step forward required a human life to fill.

Due to the Ottomans’ lack of effort, restrained by a small force of the Russian Army, it was now 160,000 French troops against 280,000 Russians. It was already quite difficult for the French to hold the Russians back, let alone launch a counterattack.

French Army Commander Aimable Jean Jacques Pelissier was in quite a headache. In the previous battles, he had used 10,000 French soldiers to eliminate 20,000 Russians, which could be said to be a brilliant victory.

Regrettably, the ally was not strong. The Russian Army, allocating only a detachment aside, with tens of thousands of the Bulgarian Guerrilla Team, pressed against over four hundred thousand Ottomans, still managed to gain the upper hand. Against such teammates, anyone would have a headache.

Aimable Jean Jacques Pelissier admitted that the combat effectiveness of the Ottoman Army was not up to par, mainly due to the tradition of drawing excess pay, which caused the actual number of troops on the battlefield to be two or three layers less than on paper.

Even after making allowances, there should have been over three hundred thousand Ottomans. Nearly twice the manpower advantage, yet still being suppressed in battle, baffled him.

Plans cannot keep pace with changes. He had overestimated the strength of the allies, and the war had turned into an attritional one. Continuing this way, even if they won the battle, it would be a Pyrrhic victory.

“Commander, a victory message from the front line!” a young officer said in a deep voice.

“Read it!” Aimable Jean Jacques Pelissier said calmly.

“Yes, sir!” the young officer replied.

“On the morning of September 14th, 1852, the Seventh Infantry Division encountered the enemy’s Sixteenth Division in the eastern part of Sliven. After a day of bloody battle, our forces defeated the incoming enemy.

In this battle, 1,328 enemy soldiers were killed, 16 were captured, and several were wounded. We seized 8 horses, 628 rifles, 28 pistols, and various ammunition.

However, our troops also paid a heavy price. The Seventh Infantry Division suffered 1,236 casualties, including 784 killed, 652 wounded, and 196 missing. Brigadier General Olehaddon was hit by shrapnel and is now missing, alive or dead unknown.”

Is this also considered a victory? Aimable Jean Jacques Pelissier was doubtful. It seemed his officers had forgotten the concept of victory.

He had also climbed up from the lower ranks and was tired of such petty tricks. Defeated the enemy? It was clear that they simply dispersed at night.

If it were a true victory, how could nearly two hundred disappear? If the French Army had so many who could get lost, there was no need to fight this war. Perhaps these men were now in the Russian prisoner of war camps.

Frowning, Aimable Jean Jacques Pelissier ordered, “Send someone to ask if that fool Olehaddon is dead or not. If he’s still alive, have him report to me at the earliest convenience. If he’s dead, have the Chief of Staff come instead.”

“Yes, sir!” the young officer answered immediately.

Aimable Jean Jacques Pelissier did not believe this battle report. The casualties of the Seventh Infantry Division were likely true, as no one dared to falsify such information.

But the glorious victory was probably nonsense. If they had truly won, the number of prisoners would not be so low. The Russian Army wasn’t one to court death, and the French Army wouldn’t massacre prisoners at this time.

Aimable Jean Jacques Pelissier wasn’t concerned about the outcome of such skirmishes. The battlefield changes in the blink of an eye, and it was acceptable to occasionally suffer minor losses.

The combat effectiveness of the French Expeditionary Force also varied. The strongest units could thrash any Russian forces, while the weakest ones weren’t a match for the Russian elites either.

The Seventh Infantry Division’s combat power was only average among the French forces. It wouldn’t be surprising for them to suffer losses against the main force of the Russian Army.

After some contemplation, Aimable Jean Jacques Pelissier ordered, “Command the troops to focus on defense, avoiding decisive battles with Russia as much as possible.

We just need to hold them in the Sliven Region. After a breakthrough in the Sofia Region, we can then engage in a decisive battle with the Russians.”

The Ottoman Army’s combat strength was insufficient. Unable to achieve a breakthrough in the Sliven Region, Aimable Jean Jacques Pelissier had abandoned the plan to fight a decisive battle with the Russians there.

This was not France; it was unnecessary to fight desperately for the Ottomans. In Aimable Jean Jacques Pelissier’s view, the primary task now was to conserve strength.

They had tied up the main strength of the Russians and fulfilled their duty as allies. The failure of the Ottoman Army to cooperate, hindering the operation, was not their fault.

After the British achieved victory in the Sofia Region, they could join forces to encircle these Russians. After all, there were only over 70,000 Russians there, with 50,000 British, 20,000 from Sardinia, and 30,000 Ottomans, holding an absolute advantage.

Otherwise, rashly engaging the Russians in a battle now might leave little remaining of this French Expeditionary Force, even if they won the war.

Russian Army Headquarters

Commander Menshikov was still unaware that he had narrowly escaped a disaster. If the French had recklessly pushed forward now, they had a great chance of winning.

The lack of Ottoman combat effectiveness was evident in frontal battles. But if circumstances were favorable, the result might be different.

If the French were willing to take on casualties, bracing themselves at the front and undermining the Russian morale, then these Ottoman soldiers could also show their capability if they fought with the wind in their favor.

“Order the troops to attack at all costs. We must break through the enemy’s defenses as quickly as possible. Do not worry about casualties. In the Wallachia Principality, we have another 50,000 reinforcements, and in Ukraine, another 300,000.

We just need victory. The Russian Empire has been waiting nearly two hundred years for this victory, for which nine generations have struggled.

Now Constantinople is less than three hundred kilometers away from us. Once we break through the enemy’s defenses, no one can stop our advance.”

Menshikov spoke with soaring passion, as if this wasn’t a command center, but a podium where he was delivering an inspiring speech.

How much is Russia willing to sacrifice for Constantinople? No one knows the answer, but let’s put it another way.

Is it worth millions of casualties for Constantinople? The Russians’ answer is: It’s worth it!

From the first Russian-Turkish war to the present, the Russians have already surpassed a million casualties for this fortress city. Have they wavered?

Menshikov knew the Tsarist Government’s determination, which was to secure victory at all costs.

The minor goal of this Russian-Turkish war was to take Constantinople and lock down the Bosphorus Strait. The ultimate goal was to occupy the lands along the two straits, turning the Marmara Sea and the Aegean Sea into internal seas of Russia.

The consideration of personnel casualties didn’t occur to the Tsarist Government from the start. To them, the difference between tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of casualties was just a number, as long as the war was won.

General Burde questioned, “Commander, we have done our utmost. If we increase the attack intensity further, it’s very likely we will provide the enemy with an opportunity.

Everyone knows the French fighting power. Apart from a small number of elites who can contend with them, we can only rely on our numerical advantage.

In the areas surrounding Sliven, along this front line of over one hundred kilometers, we do not have an absolute advantage in numbers. In many places, the enemy even has the upper hand.”

Now that we have the upper hand, it’s because the Ottomans are too weak. If we blindly attack the French positions and deplete a large amount of our strength,

we might even suffer a setback if we aren’t careful and the French launch a surprise attack. These weak Ottoman forces could then deliver a fatal blow to us.”

Menshikov shook his head and said, “General Burde, you worry too much. The French do have strong combat power, but they have too few troops.

Attacking the French now means a war of attrition. The French are not gods; they will collapse if their casualties are high.

I’ve said it before, inflict three thousand casualties a day on them, and in less than a month, the French will collapse.

Winning this battle with the sacrifice of tens of thousands is truly worth it.

If we don’t take out the French elite troops and instead bully the Ottoman rabbits, even if we exterminate these hundreds of thousands of rabbits, the war will still continue.”

When the Commander-in-Chief demands an attack, then naturally we have to fight. After all, it’s the grey beasts that die, not the officers who lead the charge.

On the battlefield of Sofia

Montes did not yet realize that his French allies had passed the burden of victory to him, and he was still hoping to achieve a breakthrough in the Sliven battlefield and to mercilessly beat a fallen foe.

As for commanding the troops to crush the Russian Army before them and then flank the Russians for victory in this battle,

such a difficult task should be left to his allies! In Montes’ view, the only troops he had with any combat power were the fifty thousand British and, at most, another twenty thousand from the Sardinian Army. The Ottomans were utterly unreliable.

There were over seventy thousand Russians opposite them, plus a Bulgarian Guerrilla Team. The guerrilla team’s combat effectiveness was negligible, probably on par with the Ottomans, and they just happened to cancel each other out.

Facing seventy thousand with seventy thousand, even if victorious, would result in heavy losses.

Montes was there to gather military glory, not to invite trouble. The bureaucrats back home would not care about their contributions on the battlefield; they only looked at the results.

To put it simply, it’s about how many enemies were killed and at what cost. The French had previously managed a kill-to-loss ratio of 1:1.3 while being heavily surrounded, so now a force of one hundred thousand against seventy thousand had to perform even better.

The guerrilla team did not fall within the consideration of London bureaucrats and could not be counted in the military achievements; they only recognized regular forces.

Before clashing with the Russians, Montes was quite confident. After engaging them, that confidence was gone. In terms of overall combat power, the British did have an advantage, but it was not substantial.

At least, fifty thousand British could not beat seventy thousand Russians. If the Russians had not been armed with new equipment, then relying on the advantage in firepower could possibly have made a difference.

Before the upgrade, Russian rifles had a range of only 200 yards, while British rifles could exceed 1000 yards. In terms of firing speed, British rifles were at least thirty percent faster, and the advantage in artillery was even greater.

(Note: 1 yard is equivalent to 0.91 meters)

Historically, in the Crimean War, the Russians suffered greatly due to inferior equipment, brutally outclassed by the Anglo-French alliance.

Now it’s different. The Russians who had upgraded their armament had caught up in terms of firepower. The units that engaged with the British in the early stages were these troops, which directly led Montes to overestimate Russian strength.

Based on this assessment, Montes decided to mount a limited offensive to wear down the Russian strength. Simply put, he commanded Ottoman forces to act as cannon fodder, taking the lead in fighting the Russians, with the British acting as the supervisory team.

On the surface, this seemed fine, but in reality, he overlooked that such combat was actually helping the Russians train their troops.

An army that wins a battle becomes a force of veterans; after three to five battles, it becomes elite. Elite forces in that era were forged precisely this way.

Consecutive victories not only enhanced combat experience but also confidence and morale.

The front-line Ottoman forces, easily defeated in combat, were delivering experience to the Russians, aiding their progression to a higher level.

Fortunately for Montes, Russian Commander Fitzroy Somerset hadn’t noticed this. Otherwise, if he rotated all Russian units in turns, the Russians would gain another elite division.

Then the British would not need to fight anymore. Although their training was stricter than the Russians’, elite troops could not be established simply through training; they also needed to endure the baptism of blood and fire.