Crossing the Continent in the Eighteenth Century

A large number of warships docked in the harbor, and the harbor was crowded with people.

Uncle Zimischia took us off the boat.

"Glory to Rome!"

“Serve Rome!”

Several regiment leaders and their generals of the Imperial Kiev Army, who had been waiting for a long time, were very enthusiastic.The local governor hurriedly asked the attendants to carry the luggage, and then reported the preparations to Uncle Zimischia.

We rode together to the town hall in the city.

Uncle Zimiskia immediately asked about the Russians in the city hall.

To the northeast, there was not much movement from the Russians in Kharkov.Not only was there no movement, even the Cossacks who often came to rob were gone.The Russians in Kiev led troops to the south on the first day of the Russian ambassador's return. Their commander was Lukic, an unknown man, and now they are still looting in a straight line.The nobles and big landowners there have been clamoring for the empire to send troops to protect them.

It has been more than 20 days since the Russians left Constantinople. On October 21300th, near Odessa, the empire has gathered the Second Byzantine Army, the Third Spartan Army, and the Eighth Mograine Army , These three legions have a total of 32500 troops, the fifth Ryan Xi'an legion and the tenth Spartan legion, and they are still on their way.One is expected to arrive in Odessa within eleven days, and the other is expected to arrive in Odessa within thirteen days.If confluent, they, the Imperial Kiev Front Army, would have five legions totaling [-] soldiers.

According to the order, Uncle Zimiskia couldn't wait for them. He held a military meeting that day and told everyone the strategy of the old Duke Bringas to attack Kiev!

As far as we know, Russia has deployed more than 3 troops in Minsk to defend against the Swedes at any time, but considering that the Russians are thinking about going south again, there will be more Russian troops in Minsk, at least more than ours Army Group in Kiev, because it is the transportation hub for attacking Sweden in the north, invading the Empire in the south, and entering the German Plain to the left.

Uncle Zimiskia carried a map with him and explained the strategy of the army group to the generals of the three legions.

Kiev and Kharkov, these two cities are not only the forward base for the Russians to attack the south, but also the bridgehead for the Russians to enter the middle of the Russian territory. Kharkov is more threatening to the southern turf.Therefore, in order to ensure the safety of the southern provinces, Kiev bears the brunt. If the Russians continue to control this city, the empire will be very passive.

Dozens of people discussed the key to the next battle, and then everyone disagreed on the way to go. Should they choose to go overland and go straight to Kiev, or go to Kiev along the Dnieper River?

The advantage of going overland is that the time is short. Between two points, the straight line is the shortest. From Odessa to Kiev, a distance of 500 kilometers, we only need to walk for 24 days at a faster marching speed. If we force the march, it can be increased to 18 days.The disadvantages are also obvious. The distance from Odessa to Kiev is so long, and the logistical supplies are very difficult!The generals of the Second Byzantine Legion and the Third Spartan Legion who had fought in Damascus believed that it was best to go north along the nearby river.

"How many carriages do we have in total?" Uncle Zimiskia suddenly asked this question during the discussion.

The four-wheeled carriage, my predecessor imitated the things made by the peasant uprising army's chariot formation in the Hussite War.The front axle of this four-wheeled carriage is made together with double shaft rods, and is connected with the chassis through a rotating pivot, which is very convenient for steering.When the enemy is attacking, the vehicles can form a phalanx or a circular formation to cover the infantry.In the first 100 years, it was the sharp weapon of the empire against the Mongols and Western European pigs. It was also an army system following the classical Roman legion and the Byzantine cavalry legion for hundreds of years.

But now, due to the popularity of artillery, the empire's former weapon of destruction has become the main logistics force of the Imperial Army.

The regiment leaders of the three legions reported their quartermasters to the carriages in their regiments.The Eighth Mograine Legion coming out of the northern border has the most carriages, 415 heavy carriages and 110 light carriages. The other two legions have no more than 300 heavy carriages. 1071 carriages were used for supplies.

Each heavy carriage can carry 1.5 tons of supplies, and the load of a light carriage is even worse. The total load is only a little over 1900 tons. After deducting tents, sundries, ammunition, gunpowder and shells, it can be used to carry food and fodder, but only 1600 tons That is to say, after removing the accompanying ammunition and gunpowder, the carriages capable of transporting grain and fodder are reduced, and half of the grain and grass are carried with the army. Only half of the carriages are left to travel between the front line and the supply base, that is, about 800 tons. .

根据帝国后勤系统给出的换算，假如我们一支军队为2万人，那每天就需要3万日份面包。现在的焙制率为3:4，则生产1磅面包需要12盎司面粉，1磅=16盎司。设每个日份的面包为2磅，则10天期间所需面粉总量为30,000x2x10x34=45万，200吨。

Kiev is about 500 kilometers away from Odessa. According to the daily marching speed of 25 kilometers in the empire and 15 kilometers in the enemy's territory, 2 people would have to walk for four weeks.This kind of carrying capacity with the army is not enough for field battles, not to mention the long logistics supply line, how many people must be sent to protect it?By the way, the loss on the road is not counted, and what Vasily and several other famous Russian generals are best at is to cut off the food road and force the enemy back.

So go along the river?

Here again, the generals of the Second Byzantine Legion and the Third Spartan Legion were at odds.The general of the Second Byzantium suggested to take the Dnieper River.The Dnieper River will not freeze until December. The river is wide and the narrowest point is 30 meters. Although the water level is very low in autumn and winter, it can still accommodate ships.Take the single-deck paddle boats they used to go in and out of the river as an example. A single-deck paddle boat is no more than 250 meters long, no more than three meters wide, and has a load of 5000 tons. The load of ten paddle boats is comparable to that of a thousand horse-drawn carriages .Twenty paddle boats, 250 tons, are enough for the Kiev army to fight for [-] days.With so many materials, the advantage is that within a year and a half, we don't need to think about the supply line!Of course, Odessa doesn't have that many resources, but twenty rowboats can carry soldiers up the river.

Then build a fortress under Kiev. Even if Kiev cannot be taken down, there are still a lot of supplies and strong fortresses to restrain the Russians stationed in the direction of Minsk.

The general of the Third Spartan Army believes that walking along the Dnieper River is obviously not in line with our Kiev army's strategy of quickly assaulting Kiev.Because the distance from the mouth of the Dnieper River to Kiev is more than half. From the distance measured on the map, it is more than 780 kilometers in total.More than 280 kilometers more than walking in a straight line from Odessa.In addition, the carriages of several legions have been stuffed with supplies and are ready to go at any time, but it will take time to move these supplies from the carriages to the ships, and to fill the rowing boats that accompany the team, you have to get them from other places. Local mobilization of supplies over.It will take at least 20 days to finish all these back and forth. Coming out at this time will completely violate our strategic instructions, and it is easy to have no power to fight back in a raid by boat.

They feel that we can transport supplies from the South Bug River, even if the South Bug River is not as wide as the Dnieper River, and the widest is no more than 11 meters. We cannot put in a large number of transport ships at one time. Five ships are the limit. It will be frozen, but because it is within the Polish cities that have taken refuge in the empire, it is an internal transportation, which is relatively safe.The army could set up a supply point on the left bank of the South Bug below Kiev.Through the continuous transport of ships, and then by horse-drawn carts, food was imported to the army besieging Kiev.But in this way, we also exposed the transportation line. It is more than 100 kilometers from the supply base to Kiev. Although there are many hills around, they can't stop the Russians. This gives the Russians to cut off our transportation line and force us to have no food available. , and then the possibility of retreat.Moreover, to set up a supply point, it is necessary to repair the fortifications of the supply point, which will take a lot of time and divide a lot of troops.

In addition, as a military port, Odessa does not have paddle boats for inland rivers, and it is not too close to the South Bug River. We can only load food on large ships to the mouth of the South Bug River.

But no matter what, the two army commanders rushed from the garrison area to Poland, where they were not familiar with their lives. After hearing the strategic instructions, they immediately followed the map and spoke clearly and logically.

"We came here from all over the world to help them beat the Russians, and they want us to find food for ourselves? Don't waste time, I've been bored for seven years, let's eat all the way! Beat Russia well What a meal! Hahaha, I really miss the days when I was in Aleppo and beat people up when I had nothing to do!"

The head of the Eighth Mograine Legion, this is a typical Sparta, a foodie Sparta, and he provoked everyone's argument at the beginning of the meeting and suggested to go by land.

Uncle Zimischia narrowed his eyes, and turned to the commander of the Eighth Mograine Legion coldly: "A group of nobles who can't even protect their own country, do you want them to protect people from other countries? We cannot give our lifeblood to the Poles."

"General, I have something to say!" Valens, who consciously stood behind me, came out. As a young boy, dozens of uncles looked at him with piercing eyes, "We can let one person stay, let With the cooperation of the Governor, he was responsible for dispatching Odessa's grain transportation, and established a stronghold with expropriation on the left bank of the South Bug River. This stronghold does not have to be too close to Kiev, but must be in a local city, and then pass through this stronghold , we will use a few cities as a transit, use the outer Polish cities as protection, and extend to Kiev. Considering that we can't eat all the grain originally carried by the carriage on the road, I think we can send a group of cavalry first, so that The towns along the road prepared food in advance, and we bought carriages and food from the Poles as we walked. Then we used local food to load the extra carriages. In this way, the originally tight carriages not only did not lose, but increased instead. The two legions can arrive at our established supply point by boat, and then set off to join the main force."

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I obviously uploaded it, but the starting point didn’t come out, what a tragedy....

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