Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796

Chapter 385 027 Characteristics of the various forces on the Balkan stage

Since Alexander gave the order, Van Suchteren asked the Operations Department to formulate a plan, so Volkonsky and Soloviev became busy.

There were only two sets of plans, and how to implement them did require a study of the situation in the Balkans.

They did a lot of preparatory work on this point, and even took the time to ask Mikhail Dolgorukov.

"If you two want to ask me, I can only say that my father has been to the Peloponnese Peninsula, where he commanded the Volunteer Corps to fight side by side with the Greeks. I can also tell you about the situation of the Greeks. After all, among the three of us brothers, only I have been there and was deeply impressed by them."

As for the general situation in Greece, Prince Mikhail also briefly described the situation of others when they traveled in Greece.

Although it has nothing to do with what they are doing now, the two of them still regard instigating the Greeks as an alternative plan.

In the Ottoman Empire, which spans three continents of Europe, Asia and Africa, there are always many border areas that have been heavily oppressed.

In addition, there are some local Pashas and Beys who are at odds with the Sultan of Constantinople and are probably planning something.

From this point of view, if the Ottoman Empire explodes under appropriate circumstances, it will probably be shattered to pieces, and it will be the kind that cannot be picked up.

Soloviev also recorded the situation in Greece.

However, he is more concerned about the situation in Serbia, after all, this time he needs to support the Serbian army.

On this issue, he also sorted out the intelligence related to Serbia in the past two years.

First of all, it can be confirmed that this Serbian uprising was itself a rebellion caused by the local Ottoman Empire Guards' extortion and extortion, and before the uprising was launched, the Janissaries also massacred the Serbian upper class in Belgrade, and only a few people escaped by chance.

Solovyov knew this very well. No matter how the Greeks and Serbs rebelled, the Sultan and the Grand Vizier would retaliate cruelly against them. In the future, there would be suppression of Armenians, Bedouins and Arabs, and the means would be very cruel.

But it was precisely because of this that, not to mention the faith arrears of the Ottoman Empire's violent machine, just for what they did, the Ottoman Empire could still maintain its overall integrity, which was already a blessing.

Therefore, this Serbian uprising included most of the Serbian settlements in the Balkans, and also involved the Albanians and Bosniaks who were adjacent to them.

The former was later famous for building bunkers, and was an important source of troops for the old army of the Ottoman Empire. Many people became Beys and Pashas through various means, and even Muhammad Ali, who split Egypt and almost overturned the Ottoman Empire, was a local power faction.

The latter were basically Yugoslavs who changed their beliefs, that is, the Muslims who became famous later.

This place looks troublesome no matter how you look at it. Albanians and Bosnians now support the Sultan's rule and actively send troops to suppress the Serbs.

But after a few decades, these people basically rebelled. It was also because the Ottoman Empire was on the decline and did too many inhuman things.

Now it seems that the Albanians are still capable of fighting, while the Bosnians in Sarajevo are generally in the city. Since being attacked by the Austrians several times, Sarajevo has suffered great losses and has never recovered.

As for Sarajevo, Soloviev can be said to be very familiar with it. Although he has never been there, he has heard of it.

In addition, he is also curious about the history of the city of Sarajevo, so he also looked up information.

At this time, he also found some cases of Ottoman Empire interfering with Serbia.

After the Ottoman Empire took control of Sarajevo, it began to build a lot. In the Balkan Peninsula, except for the Greek area, this is the largest city below Constantinople. A large number of mosques and Muslim communities have also been built in the city.

However, with the characteristics of the Ottoman Empire, they also retained the Catholic and Orthodox communities, and allowed them to settle in Sarajevo as a minority population to show religious tolerance.

This point is the same as Russia. Whenever the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Khanate condemned Russia on this issue, the Tsar always brought up the Kasim Khanate, a puppet regime of the Tsarist Russia. This was more than a hundred years ago. In the end, the subjects of the Kasim Khanate were assimilated and became Russian nobles and civilians.

"Look at this, Petya. The taxation and administrative system of the Turks in the Balkans will sooner or later trigger a chain reaction. At that time, the Sultan of Constantinople will suffer."

"Don't just think about how to detonate the Balkan Peninsula. Has the Serbian intelligence been sorted out?"

"Of course it has!"

Soloviev took out a set of analytical materials provided by the Intelligence Department, which included almost all the intelligence related to the Serbian uprising army.

"Okay, but what is your evaluation of the current Serbian army?"

"It's better to say that this is a typical peasant army, which is not regularized. If Serbian soldiers fight in their hometowns or participate in battles in nearby places, they can burst out with strong combat effectiveness. But now, whether it is besieging Belgrade or fighting in places slightly away from their hometowns, the performance of the Serbian uprising army is not satisfactory."

"What about the battles in Užice and Sabak?"

Seeing Volkonsky asked, Solovyov also got straight to the point and said directly: "Jokic, who was sent to Užice, led Karageorge's guards. These people have completed a little bit of regularization and can leave their hometowns to fight in distant places. And in Sabak, those who participated in the battle there were all veterans at the beginning of the uprising, which is not the same as the troops besieging Belgrade. If Karageorge had not defeated the Ottoman Empire's reinforcements last year, it would be impossible to carry out the war so smoothly now."

After listening to Volkonsky, he also knew what was going on.

"It's a pity that you don't go to the Danube front, but you don't want to go, and the Queen Mother doesn't want you to leave. His Highness Nicholas's studies are still very important."

"It's not just this. You see, we still have to continue fighting with the French. As for Serbia."

"Serbia is still useful. If we can help them resist the uprising of the Ottoman Empire, we will have the power to contain the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans. However, some things that can be solved at the negotiation table must be achieved on the battlefield."

Obviously, Volkonsky has just realized the usefulness of Serbia and Greece.

"What we have to do is such a plan. As for how to help Serbia, it depends on their own demands."

You know, after the Russian army entered Wallachia, no matter how the Ottoman army moved, the front line had to be maintained on the Danube side, and the area around Vidin was very important.

Strategically speaking, Vidin is very critical. It happens to be a traffic route between the Serbian uprising army and the Russian army, but it has always been controlled by the Ottoman Empire.

In the north, the Austrians certainly did not support Serbia's actions. Not only Serbia, but even if the Greeks came, it would not harm the Austrians. They often arrested those who were engaged in independence movements in various parts of the Balkans.

Karageorge was once an officer of the Serbian Free Corps organized by the Austrians. However, the Austrians' "support" for Serbia was to take advantage of the manpower of more than 5,000 Serbian soldiers for four years, and then they could not enter Belgrade. By the way, they also forced more than 10,000 Serbs who took refuge in Austria to convert to Catholicism, and then many of these people ran back. Therefore, unless Karageorge had to, he would not use his relationship to run to Austria, which was very troublesome.

It also led to the Serbs' later trust in the Russian brothers under the same faith and the same great ethnic system, and to stay away from the Germans.

Of course, if it were Austria itself, when they wanted to occupy Sarajevo, they would move faster than anyone else, and they could not suppress the local independence elements, and finally a bigger one came.

The Austrians controlled Transylvania. Controlling such a place with vampires basically meant that transportation was cut off. After signing a peace agreement with France, they would not make any moves.

Speaking of which, Russia chose Austria as an ally, but it has always been pitted. Anyone who has been teammates with Austria seems to have had this experience.

Ignoring this, Soloviev also formulated a more effective plan, relying on Corfu to support the Montenegrin and Serbian insurgents, while on the other hand, the Russian army needed to open up the Vidin line, which required the cooperation of the Serbs.

Then, Volkonsky and Soloviev took out the battle plan.

The plan to send a large number of troops to support Serbia was made by Volkonsky, and Soloviev, because he studied the situation in the Balkans, also insisted on sending only a small number of troops, mainly aid materials.

Although it sounds stingy, Solovyov has to count the arsenals of the Ottoman Empire that can be controlled by the Russian army and deliver these weapons and equipment to the Serbian insurgents. In addition, he has to hand over the old Russian equipment that has been replaced, as well as the "Brown Bess" rifles that the British had brought in before, to the Serbian army.

Anyway, these flintlock rifles are easier to maintain now.

General Van Suchteren looked at his plan, which obviously contained more content than Volkonsky's plan to solve the local situation purely by military means.

"How is the difference between our army going there and this kind of assistance?"

"Sending a troop into Serbia will not only consume a lot of resources, but it will also be difficult for us to obtain supplies in this area. If we just let the Serbs fight the Ottoman army, the consumption will be lower, because they are all locals. The problem is that such an army is poorly regularized, and it is easy for people to desert when they leave their hometown, and their combat effectiveness will also be reduced. What needs to be done is to regularize the Serbian armed forces, but not in terms of combat methods, but mainly in terms of the organization of the army. They have high morale. As long as the organization of the troops can be regularized, it can not only solve their own problems, but also protect our flanks on the Danube."

Soloviev actually had a bolder idea. After capturing Vidin, he would use Serbia as a huge flank to fight all the way to Skopje and Thessalonika.

But this is for the future. The primary issue now is to ensure the existence of the Serbian rebels and strengthen their combat effectiveness.

What he didn't know was that although Sultan Selim III had received Serbian peace envoys, he did not agree to Serbia's high degree of autonomy and wanted to return to the stage of stationing pashas in the past.

Therefore, the most important goal of the Serbian rebels now is to defeat the possible Ottoman Empire's punitive army. Only after winning will they be qualified to sit at the table.

But Soloviev's plan already includes this aspect.

You know, when the Scottish Highlands supported the Jacobites in launching a rebellion and attempted to overthrow the Hanoverian royal family, the poor mobility of the British army was completely defeated by the marching columns organized by the French Scottish officers in the Scottish army.

There are also some Serbs in the Russian army, and they can form an advisory group to go there.

However, Van Suchteren had no clear idea about who to accept the command from. He just wanted to leave this issue to Arakcheev or Alexander himself.

But the most suitable consultant was Miloradovich, but considering that he was a typical commander rather than a staff officer, it was unlikely that he would make any achievements in this regard.

Moreover, he was also responsible for commanding the front troops of the Danube Corps and might have to return to Kiev, so it was unlikely that he would go to Belgrade.

As for his relatives, after coming to Russia, not many of them became generals, but many of them served in the court and civil service system as nobles.

After seeing this situation, Alexander decided to send Paulucci, a former officer of the Kingdom of Sardinia who came to serve in the Russian army, to meet Karageorge and find out the local situation.

And Rajic was also on his way to St. Petersburg at this time.

Solovyov's plan was approved in principle, but it had nothing to do with him for the time being. It was just a plan, and he had to return to his daily teaching work for the two Grand Dukes Nicholas and Mikhail.