Struggle in Russia

Nicholas I's persistence made Kornilov extremely speechless. He knew very well that such an attack would be of no use at all, and it was meaningless except to consume Sevastopol's precious vitality.

However, the Tsar's order cannot be disobeyed. In desperation, he could only say to Nicholas I: "Your Majesty, if you want to defeat the enemy according to your plan, it is impossible to do it with the current strength of Sevastopol... The current Sevastopol The power available to Topor is tight even to maintain defense. If you want to defeat the enemy, you will need at least 50,000 troops!"

Nicholas I definitely couldn't give Kornilov 50,000 troops. After all, he has now deployed all the troops he can mobilize in the country to Wallachia and Crimea. If he deploys more troops to other places, his sincerity will become a vacuum. . Moreover, he also has to beware of attacks from Poland, Britain and France from other directions.

Then give up this attack?

This is also unacceptable to Nicholas I. He just wants to attack and defeat the enemy, so this attack must be carried out!

So he gritted his teeth and ordered Duke Mikhail to mobilize 20,000 troops to support Kornilov. Although this is really a bit small, Kornilov can't shirk it any more if he gives me 20,000 people, right?

Even if the troops are a bit small, mosquito legs are still meat. If you just grit your teeth and think of a way, maybe you can get enough?

Of course Kornilov could not raise enough, and he would not raise it. In September 1854, when he received 20,000 reinforcements, he just sighed and said helplessly to Nakhimov: " Now if we don’t do it, we have to do it!”

Nakhimov was also very helpless about this. It would be great if these 20,000 people were dedicated to the defense of Sevastopol! But who made them deal with a brain-dead king!

"What are you going to do?" Nakhimov asked.

"The enemy in front of us has built a solid offensive and has strong artillery support. Attacking them frontally is simply asking for death!"

"The only location where the enemy can be regarded as a loophole is near the Chornaya River. The terrain there is flat and undefeable, so it is relatively difficult to attack there."

Nakhimov didn't need to look at the map to know where Kornilov was talking about. Ever since the coalition forces began to besiege Sevastopol, they had been trying to cut off Sevastopol's aqueduct, so in Chornaya He deployed about five thousand men and horses.

Although the coalition's action to destroy the aqueduct did not achieve the expected results, these five thousand people have never been transferred back. Instead, they stayed on the banks of the Chornaya River to monitor the Russian supply lines north of Sevastopol.

Several times before, the supply operations organized by Simferopol were disrupted by these defenders. If they could be driven away, it would be equivalent to kicking away a bomb on one's own supply line. In addition, it could also threaten the coalition's water sources and supplies. flank.

Of course, that is to say, the latter two, because as long as the coalition forces are too strong, even if they lose their position accidentally, they can easily increase their investment to take it back in the future.

If Nakhimov had followed Nakhimov's will, he would certainly not have cared about such a useless place, but who made Nicholas I the boss? If you want to make an explanation, you can only start here!

But before that, Kornilov convened a combat meeting with the generals to see if there was a more ideal plan. But as a result, even his plan was unanimously opposed.

Count Osten-Sachen, commander of the city defense of Sevastopol's South Port District, said bluntly: "Judging from the current situation, the fall of Sevastopol is only a matter of time. The only thing we can do now is to do our best." Delay the process as much as possible instead of blindly investing in the attack to speed up the process!"

"I think any offensive action is undesirable and is completely stupid and crazy! As long as there is still a shred of sense in the mind, one should not have such an idea! The most correct way is not to attack but to retreat and break through immediately, giving up Sevastopol It is best for Bohr to retreat to Simferopol!"

As for other generals, although their words are not as straightforward as the one above,

But the meaning is also very clear, that is, to oppose offense. This made Kornilov even more speechless. In the end, he could only helplessly tell everyone: "This is His Majesty's will and cannot be stopped!"

In this way, everyone knew that it was useless to object, but everyone had different opinions on how to attack. For example, because of the broken pot, Khrulev thought that he should simply gather the entire army to launch a full-scale attack. Let's just compete with the enemy once and for all.

He said: "We should completely destroy Sevastopol, completely destroy this city, not even a brick or a brick is left to the enemy, and then we will concentrate our efforts on a full-scale attack. If we don't succeed, we will die!"

"Are you crazy?" Count Osten-Sachern exclaimed, "This is suicide. Do you want us all to go to hell?"

Khrulev replied nonchalantly: "So what? Let everyone die in battle, and we will leave everlasting marks on the map!"

Fortunately, not all Russian generals were lunatics like Khrulev. In the end, the calm faction prevailed. At the end of the meeting, everyone voted to approve Kornilov's plan to attack the enemies on the Chornaya River.

However, Kornilov was not optimistic about this operation at all. After the meeting, he wrote to the Minister of War, Prince Dolgorukov: "I will launch an attack on the enemy on the Chornaya River, because if not If you do this, Your Majesty will use more crazy and dangerous plans to bury Sevastopol. Although this attack is likely to fail, if it succeeds by chance, I hope you can try to calm Your Majesty. We can't stand it anymore. Take any similar dangerous action!"

Kornilov set the time for the attack on August 16, because the first day was the "Emperor's Day" of the French army. On this day, the French army fell into a carnival, drinking and having fun all night long. Kornilov must say Choose the right time to attack.

Under the cover of morning fog, Kornilov commanded the troops to march towards the French position. He invested 30,000 troops, including 25,000 infantry and 5,000 cavalry, as well as 270 field artillery pieces. .

According to his plan, there would be no advance artillery bombardment when the attack was launched. First, the cavalry would penetrate directly into the enemy's position. If the progress went well, the infantry would be thrown in. Otherwise, they would retreat immediately.

It should be said that Kornilov was still very cautious. According to his plan, the Russian army would not suffer too much loss even if the attack did not go smoothly.

It's just that there are always accidents of this kind and that in this world. For example, the Russian army's attack this time has been prone to accidents from the beginning...