Opening game, American Tycoon

Chapter 833 The Spring of Military Officers ([-]rd update, please subscribe)
While the British were enjoying the bright sunshine in late spring and enjoying the beauty of life, a war of unprecedented scale was going on on the land of Eastern Europe thousands of kilometers away.

On April 4, after Russia declared war on Turkey, Romania, a "country" still nominally belonging to Turkey, immediately agreed to the Russian army's attack on Turkey.In retaliation the Turks immediately bombarded Romanian towns, and in response Romania took the opportunity to declare full independence.Since the defeat of Crimea, the Russian army, which has been reformed and strengthened for many years, has been advancing like a polar bear. Although Turkey's new army has a large number of advanced imported guns, it is far behind in terms of morale and organization. The army was defeated steadily under the onslaught of the Russian army.

The Bulgarian rebels also joined the Russian army. By May, one-third of the Russian army was Bulgarian.

Finally, the Russian army marching all the way came to the Shipka Pass, which is an extremely important mountain pass, which is crucial to the capture and control of Bulgaria. Joseph Vladimirvich Gurko led a [-] The advance party of the rest came here, but he was asked to join forces with Prince Nikolai Mirsky before attacking.

"It's not necessary at all, General."

Li Bin, who is a member of the military spectator team, said directly.

"The purpose of war is to win. While you are here waiting to join other troops, the enemy's strength is also increasing. Now, what is the most important thing? To crush the Turks directly while they are short of troops resistance!"

"Captain, do you mean I should attack now?"

General Joseph Vladimirvich Gurko looked at the Ming officer and asked.

"General, you can at least try. Your troops have 24 powerful 150mm mortars, and the Turks' fortifications are extremely simple. You can completely destroy their resistance by shelling! After their reinforcements Take their positions before they arrive!"

Picking up the Phoenix brand binoculars to observe the Turks' defense line, General Gurko thought for a while, and then ordered.

"Then let's do it!"

With an order, the cannons of the Russian army roared. In a short period of time, hundreds of shells weighing 33 kilograms fell on the Turks' positions. The violent explosion directly destroyed the Turks' poor Simple fortifications, the broken stones that collapsed into sharp blades, tore apart the bodies of Turkish soldiers.

At the same time as the heavy shelling, Russian soldiers and Bulgarians armed with 72-type rifles started to attack. Their attack was very brave. Even in Li Bin's view, they almost recklessly launched the attack, and then used bayonets and bullets to fight with the Turks. People are tearing and killing.

Under heavy artillery fire, although the smaller Turkish defenders withstood the first two attacks, they realized that they could not hold on. So on June 6, they first pretended to surrender, and then took the opportunity to break through.So in just two weeks, Gurko relied on his own strength to capture three important mountain passes one after another.

Only at this time did the belated troops of Prince Nikolai Mirsky arrive at the pass, and after congratulating General Gurko, Prince Nikolai promised to lead the army to move on.

"Captain, for safety reasons, I hope you can stay here!"

Prince Nicholas pointed to the mountain pass behind and said.

"This mountain pass is very important, but I don't have any extra troops to guard it. There are only some Bulgarians with weak combat effectiveness and a small number of Russian troops. I hope to assist Colonel Valensky to guard this place!"

"Of course, Your Highness, if that's what you need!"

Li Bin did not refuse the prince's request. He was just a member of the army visiting group. It was the other party's care that he could go directly to the front line and even directly participate in the battle.

However, just ten days later, an even stronger Turk, Suleiman Pasha, led an army of 3.8 men to the Shipka Pass. At this time, the Shipka Pass had only 5000 Bulgarian volunteers and 2500 soldiers. Russian Army. On 7 July, the Turks began bombarding the Allied positions and digging trenches before launching a charge, with what had previously been believed to be Bulgarian volunteers fighting valiantly and repelling several of their attacks.

In the next three days and three nights, the Turkish army dropped thousands of corpses under the Shipka Pass, but the defense of the Shipka Pass remained intact.

Early in the morning, overwhelming artillery fire hit the Russian positions again.The Russian army position at the Shipka Pass was carefully designed by Li Bin, a captain of the Ming Empire Army. Under his guidance, in addition to strengthening the original fortifications, two trenches were dug. A criss-cross traffic trench was dug between the trenches.The artillery and machine gun positions were arranged more carefully, and a tight cross-fire network was formed with 26 cannons, 37 small mortars, and 16 Gatling machine guns. In order to protect the machine guns, he also introduced the unique stone fortress of Ming Dynasty, which is The fortress is built with logs and stones, and its top can withstand direct hits from 80mm mortars. It is precisely because of those inconspicuous stone fortresses that they resisted the artillery fire of the Turks and repelled the Turkish army for three days. The tide-like attacks killed no less than 3000 enemy troops, and our own casualties in the fierce battle were only a few hundred.

On this day, Turkey deployed hundreds of cannons opposite the Shipka Pass, firing, firing, and firing again at any cost. The artillery shells swept across the Russian army's positions in a torrential storm. The artillery was commanded by a converted Prussian officer. Under his command, the artillery bombardment of the Turkish army became more and more accurate.

I saw Russian artillery positions, machine gun firing points, bunkers, and infantry bunkers being hit by artillery shells one after another. For a while, the mountain was full of earth and rocks flying, and flesh and blood flew everywhere. Wherever the artillery fire passed, the mountain trembled. boiling, boiling...

After the command post was hit, when Valensky was dug out from the collapsed bunker by his subordinates, although his face was covered with blood, most of them were skin trauma. He asked as soon as he came out.

"Reinforcements... haven't the reinforcements arrived yet?"

The subordinates gave a negative answer.

"It doesn't matter if you don't arrive..."

Valensky looked at the officers around him and said.

"As long as we keep here, even if we all die here, our souls can see the cross erected in Constantinople again. It is a miracle of God, and God will remember our achievements. Gentlemen, let We use our lives and blood to defend God's will." While standing up with a smile and receiving the bandage, Valensky said while looking at Li Bin.

"Captain, you should leave here now, after all, this is not your war."

They are just foreign observers accompanying the army, so what if they are allies?This war is not a war of the Ming Empire, but a war of the Russian Empire.

There is no need for them to sacrifice their lives in this place.

"Colonel, if I leave now, I will live in disgrace for the rest of my life!"

Facing the colonel's persuasion, Li Bin said seriously.

"I will fight with you to the end, after all, we are close allies!"

(End of this chapter)