Struggle in Russia

While the coalition forces were busy opening up the "second battlefield," Leo Tolstoy entered the city with his troops. What he saw and heard was described in detail in his book "The Story of Seystopol".

In his eyes, Sevastopol was a busy place. Every day, various projects were carried out in an orderly manner from morning to late at night. All Russians in the city were contributing their efforts to the upcoming war.

This is not a lie, because Sevastopol is completely different from other cities in Crimea. It is not so much a city as a fortress barracks.

At this time, the city had approximately 40,000 to 50,000 permanent residents, most of whom were connected to the naval base in various ways.

Many sailors and their families have been living here since the port was built in the 1780s, and even three generations of one family have served the Black Sea Fleet.

Life in this city is very monotonous. On the streets in the city center, you rarely see people wearing anything other than navy uniforms.

The city does not have outstanding museums, flower galleries, concert halls or opera houses or any other cultural facilities that a normal city has.

Almost all the buildings in the city have a military connection, such as the Black Sea Fleet headquarters, naval school, arsenal, military barracks, ship repair yards, military hospitals, and military-franchised stores and warehouses. The only library was built for officers by the Black Sea Fleet.

This fortress consists of two parts - the North City and the South City, separated by a port embedded in the land. Ships are the only means of transportation to communicate between the North and South cities.

There is an elegant neoclassical style building in Nancheng, which is almost the residence of the city's top personnel, such as senior military officers and officials. The North City is another world. It is the residence of ordinary sailors and fishermen in the city. All the houses are semi-rural, much like the countryside outside Moscow. Vegetables or crops are grown in the gardens of each house. Pigs and other livestock.

As for the majority of navy sailors and junior officers, they generally live in the west of Nancheng Military Port. Most of them are simple cabins, and most of them are built next to fortifications. The clotheslines for women to dry their clothes are hung in their cabins and fortresses or between the outer walls of the bastion.

Like Tolstoy, visitors to Sevastopol will be impressed by the strange intertwining of military camps and urban life, beautiful towns and squalid camps.

Yevgeny Yershov is a young artillery officer. He came to Sevastopol in early autumn. He was deeply impressed by the local residents who still lived their daily lives normally despite the threat of the approaching coalition forces. Write a letter telling your family and friends:

"There's a strange feeling here, as people continue to go about their normal lives - a young woman is walking outside pushing a stroller, merchants are still doing business, and children are running and playing in the streets while forts and forts are being built around them. trench……"

Before the allied forces besieged Sevastopol, people here caroused endlessly, feasted, and gambled, as if they were in a carnival. The tavern is packed every day, and there is an endless stream of skilled female customers.

Even the news that the coalition forces had landed in Crimea could not dispel the heartfelt confidence of the residents of Stopol outside Seoul.

Almost all junior officers believed that they could defeat the Allied forces and create a glorious victory no less than that of 1812. Especially when the news of the victory in the Battle of the Alma came, almost all officers did not take the Allied forces seriously. Here, this made Kornilov and Nakhimov so anxious that they had to impose strict military discipline and repeatedly explained the seriousness of the situation to all officers and soldiers, stressing again and again that "anger does not exist" Equal to power”!

This blind optimism continued until the Allied navy began bombarding the Alexander and Constantine Fortresses in Sevastopol.

These two fortresses are like two arms reaching out to the ocean, guarding the seaport of Sevastopol. The Fortress of Constantine is located in the North City, while the Fortress of Alexander is located in the South City. The narrow entrance to the sea between the two forts was filled with mines to prevent the coalition navy from breaking into the harbor.

In fact, since the coalition forces landed, the Black Sea Fleet has placed mines on the main waterways outside the port, completely blocking the outlet to the sea.

The coalition's bombardment of Sevastopol was not very intense, because during the previous reconnaissance, a French frigate of the coalition hit a mine outside the port and was blown into two pieces, so the coalition navy did not dare to get too close to the Sevastopol. Vastopol only used the heavy artillery on the battleships to harass the Russian forts from a distance.

Strictly speaking, this round of shelling was not intense, and it did not cause any losses to the Russian army. The only benefit was to let the Sevastopol garrison know that war was really coming. At this time, news came from Simferopol in the north. The useless governor Vladimir Pestel ordered the entire city to be evacuated. He himself loaded all the belongings on the cart and left in a panic. Escape towards Perekop.

The governor's sudden escape caused a lot of trouble for Kornilov. He caused a lot of panic, causing many wealthy businessmen and municipal officials of Sevastopol to prepare to escape. The husband finally stabilized the situation after forcefully shooting several deserters.

At this time, whether the entire Sevastopol or the entire Crimea can be defended completely depends on three people: Kornilov, Nakhimov and Totelebian.

It's just that Kornilov was actually unsure about whether he could hold Sevastopol. The reason was very simple. Even though he had done a lot of preparations before, Sevastopol's defense facilities were far from adequate. It is perfect, and more importantly, the troops he has at hand are very limited.

He told his wife: We only have 5,000 sailors and 15,000 naval infantry available for combat. As for the other 30,000 volunteers who were temporarily recruited, they had a variety of weapons and some even used spears. They were simply a ragtag group. The fronts I needed to defend were long and spread out, and worse still lacked connection to each other. If we can hold on, it will be an absolute miracle...

Compared with the poor equipment of the soldiers, the work of strengthening fortifications is not perfect. Even if Kornilov and Nakhimov personally supervise it, there are still a lot of problems, and many places are just making do. .

When the project first started, the Russian army discovered that they did not have suitable and sufficient tools, not enough shovels and hammers, so they had to temporarily go to Odessa to buy them, and on the other hand, they went to cut wood outside the city and make wooden shovels to make up for it.

The newly built fort is entirely made of soil, firewood and gabion nets. Although it looks good, only God knows whether it can withstand heavy artillery attacks...