Struggle in Russia

After everything was prepared, the coalition finally took action. First came the high-spirited French. They drank the last sip of coffee from their tin cups and began to encourage each other and talk and laugh about how they should beat the Russians.

The soldiers put on their backpacks and lined up, and the officers began to give enthusiastic pre-war mobilization speeches: "Cheer up! Are we French men? If we don't succeed today, you are a bunch of bastards! Whoever is a coward? Be careful I use my sword to hook out your intestines! Look to the right! Move together!"

At the same time, the British finally launched the operation, and the soldiers also lined up to listen to the commander's instructions: "Brothers, we have been waiting for many days, and now the time for a big fight has finally arrived. We will not give the Queen Your Majesty is embarrassed, we will defeat the enemy, bring honor to Your Majesty, and return with meritorious service!"

At eleven o'clock sharp, the fully prepared coalition soldiers advanced slowly while the military priest prayed for the blessing of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Battle of the Alma River broke out!

After the coalition forces completed their assembly, the British army was on the left side of Sevastopol Road, and the French and Turkish troops were on the right, forming a formation toward the coastal cliff.

It was a beautiful, clear and windless day, and a well-dressed crowd gathered on Telegraph Hill. These were high-ranking Russian officers in Sevastopol, who had gathered at Kornilov's request. Observe how the coalition forces fight.

Looking from Telegraph Hill, you can clearly see the details of the uniforms of the coalition troops. The sound of military drums, bugles and bagpipes, and even the sound of metal collision and the neighing of military horses can be clearly heard.

As mentioned earlier, under the order of Peter Gorchakov, the Russian artillery set up distance benchmarks on the only route of the coalition forces to let the gunners know when the enemy came within range. When the coalition forces advanced to 1,800 meters, the Russian artillery opened fire!

Hundreds of artillery pieces roared in unison, and countless projectiles flew toward the advancing coalition soldiers. For a moment, people were flipping over and their limbs were flying, but the coalition forces were not intimidated and continued to advance towards the Alma River at a fixed speed of action.

According to the battle plan agreed upon by Raglan and St. Arnaud, the British and French forces would advance simultaneously, maintain a broad forward front, and then attack the Russian flank from the left, that is, inland.

But when things came to an end, Raglan suddenly changed his mind. He ordered his troops to stop advancing and waited for the French army to make a breakthrough on the right wing before defeating the Russian army in front of them.

Suddenly the British army stopped advancing and lay down within the range of the Russian artillery, waiting for the right opportunity to cross the Alma River.

This wait lasted for an hour and a half. From twelve o'clock to one o'clock, the British army suffered heavy losses under Russian artillery fire, with almost two thousand casualties.

On the other side, the French also encountered trouble. The French Bosquet Division arrived at the bank of the Alma River. Directly in front of them was a steep cliff, almost fifty meters above the river!

Historically, the Russian army suffered a big loss here in the Battle of the Alma River commanded by Menshikov. In the opinion of the old eunuch, it was impossible to climb up such a steep cliff unless the French army were all monkeys. Therefore, this cliff was a natural and insurmountable "natural chasm", and there was no need to send troops to defend it.

Therefore, the old eunuch carelessly let this place go, but he had no idea that the forward of the Bosquet Division was the Jouaf Regiment. Most of the soldiers in this regiment came from North Africa and had accumulated rich experience in mountain combat on the Algerian battlefield.

The mountain soldiers of the Zuav regiment left their backpacks on the shore, swam across the Alma River, and quickly climbed up the cliff with their bare hands under the cover of the woods, catching the Russian army by surprise!

The Russian army was stunned by the agility of the soldiers of the Zhuav regiment, and watched helplessly as they climbed up the cliff under the cover of trees, as nimble as monkeys. After ascending the cliff, the Zhuav regiment immediately hid among the rocks and trees, taking advantage of the firing speed and range of the Minier rifle in their hands to kill the small number of Russian defenders one by one!

Loire, the regiment leader who participated in this battle, later recalled: "The performance of these guys is really amazing. They are so flexible and their concealment is so clever. Even I, the commander, can't find where they are hiding!"

Encouraged by the Zhuav regiment, the morale of the French army was greatly boosted. Not only did more and more soldiers climb up the cliff, they even transported twelve artillery pieces up the cliff like a cheat, and this time Menshikov was beaten. Being caught off guard directly caused his defense to collapse.

Of course, this was a mistake Menshikov made in history. Neither Kornilov nor Peter Gorchakov will make the same mistake now.

They had noticed this steep-looking cliff as early as when they were setting up their defense line on the Alma River. At first, many officers, like Menshikov, believed that this cliff was insurmountable and suggested that Kornilov and Peter Gorchakov did not need to focus on defense here.

But who was Kornilov? He had deep doubts about this conclusion, so he simply sent a team of sailors to climb the cliff in person. As a result, the sailors climbed up almost with their bare hands. Now the so-called natural chasm is self-defeating!

Kornilov not only noticed that the cliff was a huge crater, but also found that the trees under the cliff were a huge hidden danger. They blocked a lot of sight, allowing the enemy to hide and move around easily. So he immediately ordered Peter Gorchakov to send people to cut down the trees in front of the cliff, leaving not even a clump of grass or a tree stump for the French.

He even ordered a large number of mines to be laid under the cliff, and a smaller fort, known as the Three Fortresses, was built above the cliff. At least twenty artillery pieces were placed in this fort, and its firepower could completely destroy the cliff. This area is completely blocked.

So when the French Bosquet Division arrived in front of the cliff again, what was waiting for them was a cliff!

After the Zhuav regiment crossed the Alma River under the fierce firepower of the Russian army, it was extremely difficult not to mention climbing up the cliff, but even getting close to the cliff. Grape bullets fired from the fortress above their heads knocked them down in pieces, and they were beaten every step forward. Pay the price in blood.

And unlike in the past when they could rely on the range advantage of the Minie rifle to bully the Russian army, the Black Sea Fleet has long been fully equipped with new rifles, which not only have a longer range than the Minie rifle, but also have a faster fire rate than the Minie rifle. The two sides have just begun to shoot at each other. , the French army was beaten so hard that it couldn't hold its head up.

After half an hour of fierce fighting, more than half of the Zhuav regiment was killed or wounded, and they had to retreat to the north side of the river bank to rest in embarrassment.

It was already close to two o'clock in the afternoon. The coalition forces had been fighting fiercely for two hours since eleven o'clock. As a result, thousands of people were killed and injured because they could not move forward. The losses were not ordinary heavy!