I want to be emperor

The resistance of the Russian river defense forts was resolute and decisive to a certain extent, and they also made clever use of the terrain and took great pains to transport a large number of large-caliber smoothbore cannons from the rear.

They have deployed the best river defense forts under contemporary conditions in Astrakhan, even forcing the Chu army's unprotected warships not to easily break into the Volga River, and preventing the Chu army's warships from thousands of miles away. A unilateral attack was launched from a distance of just meters.

At the same time, various preparations were made before the war, the shooting elements were measured in advance, sufficient ammunition was stored, and there were sufficient well-trained gun crew members.

All of this resulted in them being able to force the warships of the Da Chu Empire Navy to risk getting closer to within 400 meters to engage in close-range bombardment with their Jiang Defense Forts. In the process, the gunners of the Russian Jiang Defense Forts performed very realistically. Excellent.

When the Chu army's gunboats first appeared on the firing line, they had already opened fire, and the hit rate was very high. In just the first round of shelling, a shell hit the No. [-] gunboat in La Liga.

But despite all their calculations, they never imagined that the strength of the Chu Empire was far beyond their imagination. There were even armored shallow-water gunboats that could withstand the close range bombardment of their large-caliber smoothbore cannons, and then calmly Use naval guns to fire semi-armor-piercing shells for a violent counterattack.

When the Chu army's gunboats launched a fierce counterattack, relying on the high precision and power of the rifled guns and the high rate of fire of the breech-mounted artillery, the Chu army's gunboats not only effectively suppressed the Russian fort's firepower, but also in 10 minutes Through intensive and rapid shelling, the entire Russian river defense fort was blown into ruins.

The [-]-millimeter semi-armor-piercing projectile even penetrated the protection of the fort, penetrated deep into the fort bunker and exploded. It not only caused a lot of damage to the active forces inside, but also blew the entire fort away.

Although the caliber of the artillery fired by the 115 mm rifled artillery is [-] mm smaller than the [-] mm smoothbore field artillery, the division's main field artillery early equipped by the Chu army, the shells of the rifled artillery have a unique long cylindrical shape. The projectile body makes the volume of this kind of artillery shell far larger than that of traditional spherical artillery shells... This brings greater shell weight and charge, and this difference is several times the difference!

This also led to the fact that the shells fired by the Chu army's 32mm rifled cannon, both in terms of shell weight and internal charge, actually exceeded the main large-caliber smoothbore cannon in the Russian Jiang Defense Fort opposite... The so-called large-caliber smoothbore cannon of the Russians The caliber smoothbore cannon is actually just a 150-pound cannon, with a caliber of just over 100 millimeters. The shells are not even heavier than the [-]-millimeter shells of the Chu army's rifled cannon...

So if you really calculate it, in fact, the so-called large-caliber smoothbore cannons that the Russians have on hand are equivalent to the medium-caliber in the Chu army in terms of caliber, and in terms of bullet weight, they are equivalent to small- and medium-caliber... …

This is not only the case in Russia, in fact, the contemporary indigenous armies of other countries are similar. Basically, 32-pound smoothbore guns with a caliber of about 150 mm to [-] mm are basically the absolute main force, and larger ones are extremely rare.

This thing was naturally powerful in the era of smoothbore cannons, but it was not enough in front of the Chu army's rifled cannon... The weight of the Chu army's 150mm rifled cannon shells even exceeded the Chu army's early 250mm mortar cannon. fired cannonballs.

Therefore, despite the fact that the Chu Army's West Sea Fleet only killed five inland river gunboats this time, the largest guns attached were two 75 mm caliber naval guns and three [-] mm naval guns, which seemed to have poor calibers. , but in fact the power is not small at all.

It's much stronger than the smoothbore cannon of the Russians on the opposite side!
That's it, it's just a simple comparison of the weight of the shells, and the key data of the grenade charge, kinetic energy, accuracy and range have not been compared.

This is also the reason why the Russian fort quickly collapsed when the West Sea Fleet's La Liga No. [-] gunboat withstood the Russian artillery attack and began to fight back.

Comparing firepower, the Russians really can't compare!

Therefore, the outcome of this showdown between the West Sea Fleet and the Russian fort was actually determined when the West Sea Fleet obtained a fully protected shallow-water gunboat like the La Liga No. [-] gunboat.

The 10-minute battle was just the end of the duel between the two sides!

As the La Liga No. 10 gunboat led four other inland river gunboats of more than [-] tons and also had certain protective capabilities into the Volga River, and destroyed the Astrakhan River defense fort in just [-] minutes, these five A river gunboat continued its advance.

Subsequently, the three Tong'an-class patrol ships in the rear also entered the Volga River, passed the river defense fort position, and continued to move forward.

At noon that day, the West Sea Fleet entered the Volga River, approached the city of Astrakhan, and carried out precise targeted clearing and artillery bombardment of many military targets along the river.

In the evening of the same day, Brigadier General Song Xiangfei, commander of the West Sea Fleet, went ashore and met with Brigadier General Guo Fuwen, deputy commander of the No. 18 Division on the east coast and commander of the forward force.

The two sides discussed the follow-up plan for cross-river landing operations, with the focus being on the navy providing fire cover for the army.

The other problems in this battle are not big. Astrakhan City seems to be strong, but for the Chu Empire Army, it is just a matter of firing a few more artillery shells.

The only threat is crossing the river!
After all, when the Russians were building the Astrakhan Fortress, they did not foolishly build it on the east bank of the Volga River, but all on the west bank.If the Chu army wants to fight it, it must first cross the river.

But the Russians also have artillery. If they do nothing and try to build a pontoon bridge under the eyes of the Russians, they may suffer certain losses... Even with the absolute firepower advantage of the Chu army, they can build a pontoon bridge and cross the river. Jiang is successful, but he will suffer some unnecessary losses.

Therefore, naval firepower is still very necessary.

With the Navy's West Sea Fleet providing fire support, the artillery units that are enough to effectively attack or threaten the Russians do not dare to act rashly. At least they will not blatantly run to the shore to set up artillery and fire, which can effectively avoid unnecessary casualties.

After the safety of the pontoon bridge and crossing the river is guaranteed, as long as the main force of the No. 18 Division crosses the river, it doesn't take much. Even if only one battalion crosses the river, it can basically firmly seize the initiative in subsequent operations.

And the Chu army did exactly that.

The next day, some troops from the No. 18 Division arrived one after another.

On the third day, most of the engineering troops and baggage troops also arrived. At this time, more than 1 Chu troops gathered on the east coast of Astrakhan.

At the same time, the Chu army of more than 8000 people divided its forces and headed northward along the east bank of the Volga River toward Tsaritsyn. They cleared the Russian military strongholds on the Volga River along the way and opened up a promising passage for the subsequent main force to move northward.

From this, we can actually see that the main strategic goal of the Chu army in the early stage of this battle was to go north along the Volga River, occupy the cities along the way, control the middle and lower reaches of the Volga River, and continue to move forward after controlling this area. Arriving at the Don River Basin in the west and occupying the Don River estuary.

This was the early strategic plan for the Western Expedition launched by the Great Chu Empire. The military operations were mainly concentrated in the southern region of the Eastern European Plain, surrounding the middle and lower reaches of the Volga River and the Don River Basin, and subsequent military operations were carried out relying on these two rivers.

Of course, they will also occupy and control the plain area in the south near the Caucasus Mountains.

In this early strategic planning, in fact, the Chu army did not even plan to attack several important strategic cities in the Ural Mountains, such as Yekaterinburg and other areas. Even Moscow, the capital of the Russians, was not the Chu army's main early target.
The main strategic target of the Chu army is the southern region of the Eastern European Plain, including several important strategic nodes. The first one to bear the brunt is Astrakhan. Why is this place important?Because this place is the mouth of the Volga River.

Next is Tsaritsyn, which will be Volgograd in later generations. This is the closest place between the Volga River and the Don River. In this place, the distance between the two rivers is only a mere forty or fifty kilometers. The Russians in later generations are A canal was built on this section, connecting the Volga River and the Don River, and thus connecting the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea.

If the Chu army wants to successfully reach the Don River Basin and save trouble in transportation, the best way is to occupy this place, and then connect the Volga River and Don River through land transportation here.

The last strategic node is Rostov, the estuary of the Don River. Of course, there are no cities in this place yet, but this does not prevent the Chu people from taking a fancy to this place. The reason is very simple. This is the estuary of the Don River. They occupy and build it. If it is a port, then the Chu Empire will be able to obtain a port on the Black Sea, and this port is connected to the Don River near Volga. Through a land passage of [-] to [-] kilometers, it can be connected to the Volga River, and the Volga River is connected to the Caspian Sea. , and then connects to the Caspian Sea port city of Xihai City.

In this way, it is possible to easily obtain a large number of people and materials from the country by connecting to Xihai City, a strategic town in the west of the Chu Empire.

There is no need to travel thousands of kilometers in a straight line by horse-drawn carriage on land to transport people and materials.

This is of great strategic significance to the Chu army, which has huge logistical needs.

At least until the railway network continues to be built westward, all the way to the Black Sea, the importance of this passage is irreplaceable.

Although the construction of the railway network was very fast, when the army began to advance westward, the army engineers in the rear had already joined forces with the Central Asia Railway Branch of the Dachu Empire Railway Corporation to start building a railway from Xihai City to the west. According to the plan It was built all the way west from Xihai City, first to Astrakhan, and then to the west to Rostov, that is, all the way to the Black Sea.

However, railway construction takes time. Even if the current construction is only a single line and a combat-ready railway with not high requirements, it is still a railway line of more than 1000 kilometers. The time required for construction still takes two to three years or even more. longer.

After all, to build a railway here, all kinds of materials need to be transported thousands of miles from the hinterland of the mainland. The nearest material supply place is also in Turcheng, Lianghe Province, more than 1000 kilometers away from Xihai City.

The overall construction difficulty and cost are actually very high.

If it were not for the Eastern European Grain Development Plan, a strategic plan related to the future of the country, the Railway Corporation would not be building a railway here at this time. The cost is expensive, and the operating income is almost negligible... In the early stage, except for the military Fang, no one probably uses this railway!
Building and operating a railway at a loss is a huge burden even for a purely policy-based railway company like China Railway Corporation.

But we still have to do it. After all, only with railways can we have convenient transportation, and only then can we have large-scale immigration and material transportation.

Only with immigrants and materials can we open up wasteland on a large scale in the local area, develop large areas of high-standard farmland, and produce a large amount of food.

With the railway, it was possible to transport a large amount of locally produced food eastward to meet the empire's huge food needs.

Therefore, although this railway is currently expensive and is expected to operate at a loss for many years, it still needs to be repaired.

What’s interesting is that although this railway has a starting point, the approximate location of the terminal station, and the general direction of the route, what should be done along the way, how to set up the stations along the way, and even how many rivers and mountains will be encountered along the way. , how many bridges need to be built, etc., the East-West Railway Corporation does not know...

Because when the Xiluo Railway was formulated, a large area west of Xihai City was still under the control of the Russians. The Chu people did not conduct detailed geographical surveys of these areas. They only roughly knew that this area was all plains. The land is very fertile...

Therefore, subsequent details such as the specific route direction still need to be repaired and surveyed at the same time!
This kind of situation can be considered strange in railway construction... But this is not the first time that the Chu Empire has done such a strange thing.

When the Chu people built the North American East-West Railway in the Americas, they did it like this, surveying while building it... Because in the early days, the Chu people had very limited understanding of the hinterland of North America, especially the central and eastern regions.However, due to immigration and the urgent need for railways, we could only survey and build them at the same time.

This is also the reason why the great east-west railway in North America does not look neat on the map, but rather winding. When it was being built, it was discovered that there were impassable terrains such as grand canyons, cliffs, mountains, and rivers in front of it, so it had to go around it. .

If nothing unexpected happens in the future, the West-Road Railway will most likely be like this...

It's just that the current Xiluo Railway has just started construction over Xihai City, and it is still early to be completed. However, the Chu army's military operations cannot wait for the completion of the railway.

After the main force of the No. 18 Division arrived in Astrakhan, it launched a river-crossing operation with the cooperation of the Navy's West Sea Fleet, and then officially launched a stormy attack on the city of Astrakhan.

Under the intensive artillery attack of the army and navy, especially the No. 18 Division also brought a 150mm light howitzer battalion under the military headquarters. The huge 150mm howitzer shells were used to attack bunkers made of original materials such as earth, sand, stone, bricks and wood. The power of fortifications is overwhelming.

Even though the Russians dug numerous artillery-proof trenches in advance and hid in the trenches during shelling, the soldiers in the trenches were still killed and injured in large numbers...not directly killed by shell fragments, many of them were shocked alive in the trenches. dead.

The Russians have never seen such a battle of formations... The defense line that they thought was impregnable was like paper in front of the Chu army's artillery.

Moreover, with the cooperation of the Chu army's long-range artillery and hot-air balloons, the Russians in the city had no safe place at all. Some of their important and conspicuous buildings in the city, such as warehouses, official buildings, military camps, etc., were immediately attacked by Chu. The army's long-range artillery fire.

Many senior Russian generals were killed and wounded in the shelling on the first day.

After three consecutive days of shelling, the Russians in the city suffered heavy casualties, and their morale dropped to the extreme... This was not a war in which they could muster the courage to resist.

Most of them, who had never even seen what the Chu people looked like, died inexplicably in the gunfire.

Because the Chu people's attacking troops never came within a kilometer in the past three days, they all used artillery to bombard them from a distance of 1000 meters or even farther.

And the infantry of the Chu army?

The infantry of the Chu army were either sleeping or watching a show, and did not get close to the front line within a thousand meters.

However, even so, the Russians in the city had suffered heavy casualties, and their morale had dropped to the bottom.

The Chu army then tried to persuade them to surrender. If the Russians surrendered early, they would be able to save some ammunition and avoid casualties in subsequent siege operations.

This ammunition was transported from the Turkish city in Mesopotamia Province, covering a distance of several thousand kilometers. Moreover, after being transported by rail in the early stage, it had to be transferred by ship to the Turkish city, and then transported by ship to Astrakhan. Coming to the city is very troublesome and the transportation cost is also very expensive. If you can spend less, you have to spend less.

Not to mention the casualties of soldiers. Although the Chu army is not afraid of casualties in battle, they will try their best to avoid unnecessary casualties... What are unnecessary casualties are the casualties that occur when fighting the indigenous people head-on.

In a head-on confrontation with the indigenous army, the Chu army had such a huge weapon advantage and could still cause relatively large casualties. So there would be no second possibility except that the commander was incompetent.

Of course, the situation of being ambushed by the natives is another matter... In the case of being ambushed, the enemy's bows and arrows, matchlocks, flintlock guns and even cold weapon spears can pose a certain threat to the Chu army.

The Chu army has been fighting with many indigenous people all over the world for so many years, and they will always encounter some unlucky situations, such as being ambushed by the indigenous people and losing their troops. Sometimes hundreds or even thousands of people were killed or injured.

However, in frontal battles, the Chu army's casualties were extremely small, and they were often able to achieve a very exaggerated exchange ratio.

There are many situations where you kill and injure only a few dozen people, but kill tens of thousands of people on the opposite side.

After being equipped with breech-loading rifled guns, this situation became even more exaggerated. In several large-scale frontal battles in Europe, the casualties of the Chu army's regular army were only single digits.

However, in some small-scale battles and sporadic street fighting, there were more casualties.

This is also the reason why the Chu army increasingly uses servant armies such as the Indian Army to carry out daily patrols, urban operations and other small-scale sporadic battles, in order to avoid the casualties of the regular army composed of Chu people.

This time, they did not use servant troops to fight against the Russians. Instead, they used regular troops. In order to avoid casualties under such circumstances, the Chu generals were more cautious and even persuaded the Russian troops in the city to surrender many times.

However, the Russian army still chose to resist to the end. For this reason, the Chu army continued shelling for two days before launching a formal infantry attack on the city.

At this time, the infantry artillery composed of [-]mm infantry cannon and [-]mm mortar played a huge role.

The 2000mm infantry gun can effectively kill enemy targets within a range of [-] meters. It can not only kill living targets, but also destroy enemy bunkers and other defenses through flat firing mode.

Although the 34-year-old [-]mm infantry gun is small and has a short barrel, it is a breech-loaded rifled gun anyway. The [-]mm shells fired are very powerful, and in order to attack enemy fortifications, the Army This thing is also specially equipped with a certain number of semi-armor-piercing bullets... which are very effective when building fortifications.

The 41-year-old 1mm mortar has stronger firepower because it has a faster rate of fire and can burst out extremely powerful firepower in a short period of time. It can easily fire more than ten shells in one minute.

And it is extremely light. After all, it only weighs more than 20 kilograms. It can be carried by one person. The range is also good, with an effective range of 800 meters.

Don't think that the 800-meter range is not good. You must know that this thing is positioned as a company-platoon-level weapon in the Chu army. It is usually assigned to the infantry company during battles. When necessary, it will even directly support the infantry platoon in combat.

In other words, with a combat power of dozens of people, the Chu army can directly use this thing... Because the rate of fire is very fast, it can fire out more than ten shells in just 1 minute to directly cover the enemy. Bombarded face.

According to the Army's rating, this thing has almost no shortcomings except that it consumes too much ammunition and is too expensive to use.

When the 34-year-old 41mm infantry gun and the [-]-year-old [-]mm mortar are combined, the Chu army's battalion and company level troops also have very powerful artillery firepower.

This kind of artillery firepower was enough to suppress the Russians without even raising their heads.

Coupled with the [-] rifles equipped by the Chu army's infantry, the powerful firepower of this repeating rifle is enough to sweep away any enemy at medium or close range.

Under such circumstances, when the Chu army's infantry units launched a formal attack, they advanced almost in a crushing battle. Once the Russians on the opposite side showed up, they would be wiped out. Once they resisted, they would be blown to pieces. The only option was Keep retreating and retreating.

Finally, when there is no way to retreat, they must either surrender or be surrounded and annihilated.

The Russians in the city only persisted for one day before declaring a complete defeat. The city was completely occupied by the Chu army.

As for this, it was actually because the No. 18 Division held back and fought slowly in order to avoid casualties. If the Chu army commander had fought a little more boldly, he would have been able to win it in two hours.

The weapons and equipment of both sides are not on the same level, and this is a head-on battle. Even if the Russians are Spartan warriors who are not afraid of death, it is impossible for them to hold on for more than three hours.

Although it is said that the biggest factor that determines the outcome of a war is people, when the generation difference in weapons reaches a certain level, it is weapons and equipment that determine the outcome of the war!
A group of Chu troops using repeating rifles, infantry guns, mortars, rifled cannons, and 150 mm large-caliber artillery. According to this level of weapons and equipment, they could barely fight the First World War, but they used Come and fight a group of Russian troops who have reached the level of the eighteenth century and use front-loading smoothbore cannons and flintlock muskets.

If this doesn't lead to a crushing victory, every senior general of the No. 18 Division will draw their swords and kill themselves to thank the Emperor for his kindness!
Therefore, the Chu army captured Astrakhan without any suspense, and suffered very few casualties, only a few dozen people. Only eight people were killed in the battle and 22 were injured. This also includes non-combat casualties... For example, there are When a soldier was chasing and fighting, his pursuit was so wild that he missed the mark and accidentally fell down, spraining his foot!
Most of these casualties were caused after fighting in the city because of the numerous buildings and complex terrain in the city and being shot coldly by sporadic Russian soldiers.

But how many Russian casualties were there?Eighty or nine thousand were killed... nearly [-] were captured, and quite a few of the prisoners were injured.

This kind of seriously exaggerated exchange ratio is almost impossible to appear in the battles between the two armies at the same time. Even servant armies such as the Indian Army of the Chu Army and the indigenous armies cannot achieve such a large exchange ratio.

However, in the battles between the regular Chu army and the natives, similar exaggerated exchange ratios appeared frequently.

After settling the casualties and leaving a few people to guard the disarmed prisoners of war and let them build port facilities, the main force of the No. 18 Division, with the cooperation of the Navy's West Sea Fleet, went all the way north along the Volga River and headed straight for Tsaritsyn, that is, and left for Volgograd in later generations.

The distance between the two places is only more than 300 kilometers, and the Chu army also has the Navy's West Sea Fleet to provide cover and logistics transportation, so it can travel north lightly. Therefore, if nothing unexpected happens, the Chu army can reach Tsaritsyn in at most half a month.

Faced with this situation, the Russian troops in Tsaritsyn were dumbfounded... How long had it been before Astrakhan, which was heavily garrisoned, was finished?

And all the Chu people who were in Astrakhan came to Tsaritsyn?
In addition, before this, a Russian army of several thousand people had already marched north along the east bank of the Volga River.

Combined, the Chu army totaled more than 2 people.

Under such circumstances, how could they possibly hold on to Tsaritsin!
I can't keep it!