Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796

After the British army was hit by a barrage of rockets, there were sporadic exchanges of fire between the two sides during the siege.

This also made Sir Moore feel strange. He had guessed that the Russian army was conducting a tentative attack to find out their artillery deployment, and this guess was very accurate.

Solovyov did this on the front, and he also roughly explored that if the British artillery on the front broke through here, there might be some crossfire attacks on both sides.

In addition, entering street fighting is generally disadvantageous to the Russian army, so he thought of breaking through from the flank.

On the islands on both sides, there are coastal artillery batteries protecting Karlskrona, but John Moore's brain reacted quickly. Although the general coastal artillery batteries are facing the direction of the port entrance and exit, he used the 6-pound and 9-pound guns that can be quickly mobilized to build some artillery positions in the direction of the Russian army for protection.

In addition, there are heavy artillery taken from the battleships of the Swedish Navy. If this thing fires grapeshot, it can cause huge casualties to the approaching Russian army.

Solovyov was indeed worried when he observed the artillery position from a distance.

In order to better grasp the situation, he also set up an "artillery director" to uniformly manage and configure these divisional artillery and newly assigned artillery, and to conduct a siege, it is more or less a test of command ability.

The besieged are the British army, not the Swedish army that would raise the white flag for intimidation, and the commander is not a mediocre person. Sir Moore's level is worse than Wellington, but it is still better than Abercrombie and Picton.

At the same time, it is also necessary to consider whether there will be reinforcements coming from land during the siege.

In this kind of siege situation, Solovyov has already had many classic cases in his mind, such as Alexander's siege of Tyre, Caesar's siege of Alesia, all the way to Pétain in Verdun and Manbuqun in Sevastopol, until Königsberg and the War of Liberation.

Thinking too much is also helpful, because part of the city of Karlskrona is on land, which is a defensive area surrounded by Russian troops on three sides. There are narrow passages and bridges leading to the naval base on the inside, and temporary and permanent fortifications on the islands on both sides. Naval guns facing inland are also deployed near these coastal artillery batteries.

No matter how you look at it, it's a hedgehog. As for the artillery situation, Solovyov also saw it clearly. Although Samsonov fired a rocket before, the British army did not comprehensively strengthen the artillery's anti-suppression measures, and some light artillery positions lacked protection.

"Samsonov, can you have your special artillery suppress the British there with rockets?"

"If we use uninterrupted shooting and have some 12-pound guns and unicorn guns for cover, there should be no problem."

"What you said, it seems that we can give it a try. Karl, make some adjustments to our artillery deployment. While the ice surface in this section is still solid, we can sneak over part of it at night, and then assemble two infantry battalions on the flanks. When we launch a frontal attack, we will launch a bayonet charge and try to seize the artillery position."

"Which infantry unit should go over?"

"We need the Kostroma Regiment. They have more complete personnel and experience in infantry towing artillery. We can let them bring a few 6-pound guns over."

"It's the bayonet on the cannon again. The French have used this trick several times."

"We learned it from them. The French army has many tactical innovations. Of course, we can learn from them."

As for transporting artillery at night and seizing a cannon position, Solovyov is not very confident.

It's just that time is tight and it's impossible to wait for the Baltic Fleet to come.

Although they are friendly forces nearby, the Danish navy no longer exists. The British have been disloyal and have liquidated it twice in a few years. It is impossible to send any reliable reinforcements. Even the warships have to rely on temporary tree planting to make up.

From this point of view, the loop has been closed. After all, Solovyov himself knows about this matter.

It is impossible to expect my uncle to send a few ships over. After all, the French Navy has suffered a humiliating defeat at Trafalgar and is building new ships at home.

Even if some armed ships can be used, they are frigates or privateers.

Yes, compared with the pirates that the British boast about, the pirates of France and Spain may have a wider range of business, and even used to cause trouble for the Royal Navy.

If the French royal family authorized privateers in their heyday, they could even rent third-class battleships and seized second-class ships from the Royal Navy. If they were not confiscated by the regular army, I'm afraid we could see pirate ships equipped with 100 guns. In the future, it would not be a dream to have ships above first-class.

The current French pirates, that is, in the Indian Ocean, have made the British restless. If they send frigates, they may not be able to defeat them. If they send battleships, it will also be a problem if they cannot form fire suppression.

But these reinforcements are still difficult to get at this juncture because of the special situation in the Baltic Sea. If they come, they are only frigate-level.

Ignoring these, we have to fight a big one now.

In order to attack, Solovyov also sent out a feint attack force. The terrain on the enemy's left wing, which he wanted to attack, did not seem to be suitable for launching an attack.

This kind of place that is not suitable for launching an attack is always a better starting point, after all, you always have to attack when the enemy is unprepared.

As for the weather, Solovyov was also watching the sky. If it rained, it might be easier to send people to charge the artillery directly with bayonets, learning from the experience of the British in the far east, relying on numbers to win, that's probably it.

However, such a battle would definitely cost more.

When selecting the commando, he also knew that there were too many cavalry units, which were not very useful in siege operations, so he only left the Pskov Dragoon Regiment and two Hussar Regiments, and the rest were deployed in the west.

The Russian soldiers were also very careful when passing through the thinning ice. They still carried their rifles and ammunition on their backs. This area was okay. Most places were shallow, that is, where the ice was broken, they put their boots on their necks, had foot wraps on their feet, and just stepped over. The rifles were carried on their shoulders with straps, and the ammunition was placed in their hats. The grenades were carried by special auxiliary soldiers on their shoulders and hands, and the two battalions of Russian infantry were sent over.

In addition, there are 4 6-pound guns, and there are always some close-range fire support. After the gun carriage, there is an ammunition truck, and there are two squadrons of hussars to support the battle.

The British also discovered them, but because of the cannon firing angle and terrain problems, the cannon would only fly over the Russians' heads, so it is better to put it in and reward them with grapeshot.

Under this idea, they did not open fire, but were more patient.

It was not because of anything else. The British army had fewer troops in the artillery than the Russian army. The two battalions that had come up from the beach had more people than them. The density of artillery here reached an unprecedented high, so it was more difficult to deal with.

As for Sir Moore, since dawn, the Russian artillery harassment on the front has not stopped. Even if he has noticed the movements of the Russian army on his left wing, it is not easy to send troops here.

The Russian army itself has an advantage in manpower. If troops are sent over because of a possible "diversion" attack on the island, it will be very dangerous once the Russian army launches an attack on the front.

But he was not without preparation. There were some 12-pound cannons left by the Swedish army on this side, facing the beach where the Russian army landed.

Although Sir Moore was also an infantryman, his estimation of artillery was always reliable. His own artillery was completely out of the Russian army's range. Even if the rockets were increased, it would be difficult to hit here.

But for the British army, the solid bullets fired by these artillery were greatly reduced in power when they reached here, which meant that they could only harass the Russian army.

"We still have some ways to deal with Moore. We can't hit his artillery position at all, but now there are 12-pound shells on the beach, which will make it easier for us to attack him from the flank later.

Although Solovyov's tone was relaxed and happy, he did not dare to neglect it. He ordered the Russian army to launch artillery bombardment across the board and all attack the main attack, so as not to let the British army determine the direction of the attack.

In addition, a large number of rockets were used to shoot at the British positions, especially to drive away the artillery in combat positions.

In siege warfare, the group's infantry and deployed artillery are the key to the attack, at least in this era.

When the two special artillery battalions of the Russian army on both wings used the rockets in their hands to continuously fire and threaten the British side, it was indeed very shocking.

It's just that the lethality is relatively limited. Dozens of rockets were fired before, but they failed to kill Moore. This time, the British troops on the main position were somewhat defensive. , and even the British artillery at the front added a layer of protection to their artillery.

But the quality of the Russian rockets was uneven. Some of them could explode when fired, and some were just iron rods when fired. However, the damage to the British artillery was not great.

Throw those damn iron rods under the turret, and the artillery would be safe.

Therefore, the continuous firing of rockets only frightened the British, and did not cause any substantial damage.

But for the turret side, because the rockets were always firing, and the British artillery protection measures on the periphery were very few, they could only choose to hide here and there, completely making some artillery positions cleverly arranged by Moore meaningless.

The most effective ones were the 12-pound guns he deployed in the city. Although the Swedish artillery was not very accurate, it could always cause some interference when the Russian army continued to deploy troops on the front.

"Look here, Mick, should we send a signal?"

"The sky is clear, and we should indeed act, but the scale is too small, not the sun like Austerlitz. ”

For Soloviev, the biggest incentive now is probably the special guarantee given to him by Grand Duke Constantine. If Karlskrona can be taken, he will apply for promotion to Lieutenant General of Infantry.

This is a great incentive, but Soloviev also knows that if he goes from colonel to lieutenant general within three years, the speed of promotion will slow down.

Apart from other things, the promotion of lieutenant generals to generals needs to take into account the ideas of those older lieutenant generals. Although Soloviev is a general of the aide-de-camp and a general recognized by several higher-ranking marshals and generals, he also needs to consider that there are a large number of lieutenant generals with older qualifications.

Barclay was criticized for his promotion to general. Although Bagration did not have this problem and had enough qualifications and military exploits, he also had to delay for a while.

According to Soloviev's situation, he is only 28 years old now, which means that his master and father-in-law's families are very powerful. He has served as chief of staff and adjutant to several high-ranking generals and lieutenant generals. In addition, the royal family has always appreciated him, so he can be treated like those high-ranking nobles born in Rome.

Otherwise, even if he is a hereditary earl, he will have to be in his thirties to become a lieutenant general.

At the same time, if he wants to be promoted to general in the future, this time will definitely be postponed, unless he has made unignorable merits in a large-scale battle as a commander in chief, facing a powerful opponent - this item will be replaced by the high-level medals that are sometimes issued.

The sun came, and Soloviev had more ideas. As for the artillery, it can suppress the British artillery fire in front, which is also what should be done before the war.

The Kostroma Regiment, which launched an attack from the flank, also took into account that the British army might use grapeshot, so they chose the method of artillery cover and infantry flanking.

There were only two infantry battalions, but with the support of cavalry, the Russian army quickly cleared the outer artillery positions and drove the British army into the fort.

Next, it was the Russian soldiers who forced the crossing from the front. They had to withstand the shells fired from the British flank, which was currently the biggest obstacle for the Russian army to pass through this area.

But there was also a point of advantage, that is, the muddy mud on the beach would eat up the soles of the Russian soldiers' inferior boots, and also cause these shells to lose most of their kinetic energy.

Therefore, after suffering some losses, the Russian army still passed through the sea and even successfully brought some artillery ashore.

In this way, when besieging the fort, it was not just the few 6-pound guns that had been brought up.

"The outcome of the battle is already determined, but it's only for this coastal artillery. We still have to fight the final battle to clear the artillery, and then use our artillery to attack the British flanks and tighten the pocket little by little."

"Mick, what I am most worried about now is whether the Swedish army in the west will have reinforcements. If we want to attack the enemy's reinforcements, the offensive here will definitely slow down."

"It is indeed worth worrying about, but what is more important now is to use our artillery to further suppress the enemy."

When Solovyov said this, he still had a basis. The frontal feint artillery fire even suppressed the British front artillery fire in some areas.

However, in some places, if there are 18-pound guns, 24-pound guns, and 32-pound guns, it is not friendly to the Russian army. (End of this chapter)