18th century total war

Chapter 361 Battle of Smolensk

On the Smolensk battlefield, the artillery fire was rumbling, as if it would never stop. Nicholas, who was lying in the field fortifications, saw one of his subordinates rushing over, and amidst the rumbling artillery, pulled voice shouted:
"Sir!
The Russians are at it again!
Brothers, I can hardly stand it any longer!
There are too many of them! "

"I can't stand it, I have to stand it!
The collapse of the defense line must not start from our section. The commanders of the Roman Guards behind are watching. Once we collapse first, everyone should know what will happen!
If you don't want to die, nail me behind the chest! "

Major Nicholas ordered with a cold expression.

"Sir, it's not that the brothers don't work hard. More than half of our brothers have already fallen. If we continue to fight, we don't need to be executed by the Roman guards. We will all be buried here!"

"It's better to die here than to be caught and executed as a deserter, don't you have no family?

Don't forget, how did Emperor Li Wei deal with the family members of those deserters!
Compared to us who die, our relatives at the back will only suffer more!

Don't worry, I personally bring my guards to the front line to fight with everyone! "

After finishing speaking, Nicholas ignored the captain who was crying and knelt on the ground, and began to gather the few remaining personnel around him.

Including the logistics clerk, everyone must take up arms and charge together!
Nicholas worked so hard not only because of the Roman Guards' punishment mechanism for deserters, but most importantly, as a middle-level officer, he had received news that the Russian Empire was completely at a disadvantage in the entire war situation!

Even had to use strong walls to clear the field to stop the advance of the Roman Guards!
Because of this, the gap guarded by their Prussian servants was attacked by the swarming Russian army.

In fact, the vast majority of these offensive Russian troops were troops retreating from the front line, and the tasks they performed were more like a finishing touch.

The final battle that could kill the vital forces of the Russian army!

Before leaving, Nicholas left his confidant and adjutant behind, looked into his eyes and told him: "Stand here, and pay close attention to the resistance of the other battalion leaders. Once our friendly forces abandon the line of defense they are defending, immediately Tell all troops to retreat!

Remember, the Roman Guard will only punish the first deserters to retreat, and that's the only way we will survive. "

After speaking, Nicholas rushed to the battlefield with the last man.

After reaching the front line, what he saw was a group of Russian beggar soldiers, half of whom were not even equipped with muskets.

They are skinny, with only a layer of worn-out cotton jackets all over their bodies, which is in no way comparable to the warm clothes they wear.

The weapons in his hands are even more uneven, and even wooden stools can be seen!

This has always been a beggar soldier, even the domestic militia is not as well equipped. However, Nicholas knows very well that they are the regular army of the Russian Empire!

It looks embarrassing just because these people retreated from the front line not long ago!

In order to survive, these malnourished Russian soldiers shouted "Ula" in their mouths, did not shoot muskets at all, and charged hundreds of meters away with a fearless spirit!
It was this spirit that made the Prussian servant army, which had better weapons and equipment, retreat steadily after being beaten.

Nicholas listened to the "Ulla" that could be seen everywhere, and instinctively retreated, but the scene of the execution of deserters by the Roman Guards yesterday suddenly appeared in his mind.

The first batch of deserters who were caught did not even enjoy the treatment of being shot. Those brutal Roman guards would nail the deserters to temporary wooden crosses one by one, and nailed their hands and feet with cheap wooden thorns. On it, let the deserters on the cross bleed dry in their wailing...

You don't need to experience it personally, just seeing it with your own eyes is enough to make Nicholas feel chills in his heart.

For this reason, Nicholas would rather die on the battlefield!

As for the surrender, Nicholas never thought about it. The Russian soldiers hated the Prussian soldiers very much. There have been rumors in the army that the Prussian captives who surrendered were tortured to death by the Russians.

What's more, the Russian Empire was defeated all the way on the battlefield. Even the ordinary Prussian servant soldiers knew that it was only a matter of time and death for the Holy Alliance led by the Roman Empire to win the fifth anti-French war.

In addition, the strength of the Holy Alliance is also increasing. Now Li Wei has not only the Prussian servant army, but also a large number of Polish servants who have the opportunity to restore the country.

That's right, Poland has been restored and restored to the Kingdom of Poland, at the cost of Li Wei wearing the Polish crown.

However, the Kingdom of Poland is different from the Kingdom of Prussia, which was completely defeated and surrendered. The Poles exchanged troops for the opportunity of independence and self-government. The king of the Kingdom of Poland is only the supreme leader of the country in name. that power!

Li Wei, who is very authoritarian in the outside world, actually agreed to the request of the Kingdom of Poland!
In exchange for hundreds of thousands of Polish soldiers stepping onto the battlefield, the young and strong population of the Poles was almost squeezed out by Li Wei.

Of course, all of this is worthwhile under independent power.

However, Nicholas always felt that Li Wei's concession would cast a cloud of blood over the future of the Kingdom of Poland.

Even if Nicholas was killed, he would not believe that Li Wei would really become a benevolent and great liberator as advertised in the newspapers!
It harshly deprived the Kingdom of Prussia of everything and implemented an absolute monarchy, but it was extra merciful to the restored Poland. It only squeezed the young and strong human resources of the Polish nation and put them into the battlefield. No matter how you look at it, it is awkward.

Of course, this is not something that Nicholas, a small major, needs to consider. The addition of Poland has relieved the pressure on Prussian officers like Nicholas a lot. After all, the number of Polish servants is not much smaller than that of Prussian servants.

This is largely due to the large territory of Poland in Li Wei's restoration of the country. Li Wei also included the Ukrainian region in the Kingdom of Poland, and the Ukrainians there were naturally included in the Poles and were forcibly recruited to participate in the war.

With a bang, Nicholas raised his own gun and killed a Russian soldier with a full mouth, fierce eyes, and a thin face full of cheekbones.

The age of the other party seems to be almost 40!
Among the civilian class in the Russian Empire, this can already be regarded as an 'old' crowd!
It can be seen that the human resources of the Russian Empire are not as rich as imagined.

Of course, Nicholas knows that the human resources of the Russian Empire have become so stretched that they no longer even have the advantage of military strength on some battlefields, which is inseparable from the Davari uprising that broke out in the country.

The Russian Revolution led by these Davari Mutual Aid Associations promoted the same revolutionary ideas as the French Revolution. Not to mention politicians, even the middle-level army like Nicholas guessed that the mastermind behind the scenes was Li Wei the Great of the Roman Empire.

Who called the timing of the Davari Mutual Aid revolution so appropriate?
The Russian Empire had just started a full-scale war with the Roman Empire. The newly armed troops with the British loan left the hinterland of the mainland, and revolutions broke out in many big cities one after another!
This fit is perfect!
Of course, the Davari Society never claimed ties to the Roman Empire.

Moreover, most of the revolutionary members of the Davari Mutual Aid Association are ordinary people and even serfs. Their combat effectiveness and weapons are not at the same level as the regular army of the Russian Empire. Outside, it has been in a state of being 'encircled and suppressed'.

Unlike the retreat of the frontlines of the Russian Empire, the uprising of the Davari Mutual Aid Society faced the transferred Russian Empire, and those who were beaten were about to perish.

Fatis, the leader of Davari's Mutual Aid Association, led a group of guerrillas to hide in XZ and lost all the uprising cities.

Facts have proved that the Russian Empire in this era did not yet have the mass base of the national revolution, and no matter how large the civilian class was in the cities, it was not comparable to the vast serf manors.

Moreover, the closed and conservative national system also severely hindered the spread of the revolution. This made the Davari Mutual Aid Association quickly fall into a state of depression after a wave of outbreaks. I don’t know how many revolutionaries in the Russian Empire died. The only thing that is cheap The Roman Empire is in an all-out war with the Russian Empire.

In order to suppress the Davari Fraternity, Tsar Alexander I lost the entire Poland and Ukraine, and the Lithuanian region was also in jeopardy. It was only a matter of time before it was captured.

This battle of Smolensk was the last battle to pry open the capital of the Russian Empire.

Nicholas knew that if the Russian Empire lost again in this battle, they would no longer be able to organize enough forces to fight the Roman Empire head-on.

How can the Russian Empire, whose military quality is not good, be crushed in terms of quantity?
As for the Russian Empire's strong wall clearing strategy, it was executed well in the early stage, and it caused a lot of trouble for the Roman Empire's offensive. Nicholas's initial mission was almost all to escort logistics supplies, and there was basically nothing useful on the front line...

However, after the outbreak of the Great Uprising of the Davari Mutual Aid Society, the effect of the strategy of fortifying the wall and clearing the field was greatly reduced. The Russian Empire, which deployed a large number of troops to suppress the inland rebellion, did not have enough manpower to carry out the fortified wall and clear the field. To the Roman Empire army that pushed all the way.

As for the other allies of the Anti-French Alliance, the Kingdom of Sweden dispatched a force of tens of thousands of people, but was wiped out by a considerable number of Roman guards in one battle, and could no longer intervene in this great power war.

The United Kingdom of Britain and Ireland tried to land on the long coastline under the control of the Roman Empire. As a result, due to too few troops, the landing troops were repelled one after another!

Everyone knows that the United Kingdom of Britain and Ireland, which has been staying behind the scenes, took the initiative to send troops to land, which shows that they have reached the end of the road!

The Russian Empire saw its defeat was certain, and the United Kingdom of Britain and Ireland could only do everything possible to save it.

However, a large part of the triumphant advance of the Roman Empire was based on the huge casualties of the servant army where Nicholas was.

After Nicholas killed a Russian soldier, he turned his head and looked around. All the people who were with him had already fallen into the battle group, especially those civil servants. They were not good at fighting, and they were easily torn apart by the Russian soldiers like beasts. turned into corpses.

On the entire battlefield, there is no trace of civilization at all, as if it has degenerated into the era of cold weapons, and even the teeth have become murderous weapons!
Although the arrival of Nicholas boosted morale, it did not save the battle situation. The Russian soldiers eager to break out did not give them a chance to fight back.

At this moment, Nicholas heard the sound of retreating, and he knew that it was the adjutant he left behind!
Like a dream of amnesty, Nicholas was the first to turn around and rush to the rear. Unfortunately, those ordinary officers and soldiers were not as lucky as Nicholas.

After all, as the leader of the first battalion, Nicholas' position is the safest.

When Nicholas fled to a safe place, he looked around and saw that there were not even 50 people following him!

You know, when the war started, Nicholas' battalion had already been replenished!

Ninety percent casualties?
No, the Prussian soldiers couldn't have such a disparate casualty ratio at all. Nicholas could imagine with his butt that most of the Prussian soldiers died on the way of being chased...

Of course, Nicholas has seen too many processes. He is grateful for his rank of major more than once, so that he does not have to stay on the front line. Fighting for the Roman Empire is more dangerous than when he was fighting for the Kingdom of Prussia!

Those Roman guards killed their own people, it was so cruel!
As soon as Nicholas stepped back, he saw groups of Polish reserve teams step up.

The Roman Guards are just a supervising team. It's not that they don't have enough reserve troops, but they just want the servants to exert their maximum "residual heat" on the front line.

This is why the Roman Guards only punished the first battalion to retreat.

The rest will continue to be cannon fodder!
Nicholas, who had long been numb to all this, returned to the camp behind under the custody of the Roman Guards. It didn't take long for him to receive a new batch of soldiers.

Among them were veterans who had been maimed and lost their organization on the front line, and there were also Prussian militiamen who had just been recruited from behind.

Since the surrender of the Kingdom of Prussia, neither the regular army nor the reserve militia has been cut, and they have all been thrown into battle as cannon fodder on the battlefield!

The Prussian regular army was used immediately, and the militia reserves with weak combat capabilities were trained and sent to the frontline battlefield as supplementary troops.

Ironically, in the all-out war between the Roman Empire and the Russian Empire, it was not the French who died the most, but the Prussians and Poles!

After Nicholas finished counting his new subordinates, he was suddenly summoned and brought before a captain of the Roman Guards.

Facing this officer with a lower rank than himself, Nicholas pretended to be full of enthusiasm, raised his right arm and saluted: "Your Majesty Levi, long live!"

(End of this chapter)