Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 484 Battle of Usolye ([-])

On August 1790, 8, Rumyantsev led an army of 25 to the village of Cheremhovo, [-] kilometers away from Usolye, and set it as the base camp.

The name of the place comes from the Buryat word "Sheremkhe", which means coal.In another time and space, it was once one of the largest coal mining centers in Siberia.

He put a reserve force of 1 people here for the purpose of echoing the Zaimka Fortress 16 kilometers away. Once the situation changes, it is very convenient to take the post road or the river.

From August 8th to 26th, Rumyantsev rushed to the front to inspect the positions.He spent almost all of these two days on horseback, either studying the terrain, or studying the plans handed over by his generals, and issuing orders himself.

The Russian army is preparing intensively, and the Beihai Navy is not idle.In order to scout the deployment of the Russian army and the mobilization of troops, Zhao Xin released all the drones on hand and dispatched them in turn 24 hours a day.For a while, various drones of the Northern Navy were swaying everywhere over the Irkutsk-Cheremkhovskaya Plain.

Big ones, small ones, black ones, white ones, expensive ones, cheap ones, the buzzing sound kept ringing overhead all night, making the Russians extremely nervous.Many regiment leaders had no choice but to let the troops enter the dense forest to hide, and they were often bitten by mosquitoes.The problem is that they don't even know that many of Zhao Xin's drones are equipped with infrared thermal imaging cameras for the convenience of night reconnaissance.
Fortunately, Suvorov had reminded his teacher before that this strange "Tatar army" had a magical device, and he didn't know what it was used for; but Suvorov guessed it was a means of reconnaissance.

Rumyantsev organized dozens of hunters with good marksmanship to hide in various positions in advance, planning to lay down a few for research.

Things like blind cats hitting dead mice will always be covered up.Even Bei Haijun himself, because he is used to bullying others, sometimes becomes careless.

In order to see clearly the situation of the enemy cavalry in a dense forest, a reconnaissance team member operating a drone deliberately lowered the altitude.Unexpectedly, the Russian army was prepared and unprepared, and more than 20 people who had already ambushed suddenly opened fire together. Seven or eight lead bullets hit the target, and the drone was smashed to pieces on the spot and fell to the ground.

After the subordinates excitedly showed the fragments to the commander-in-chief inspecting the front line, Rumyantsev and his generals were all at a loss.

Among these fragments, some parts look like propellers, most of them are completely unknown, and the most puzzling thing is, what material is this thing made of?The texture is black, and it is very light. It is neither gold nor wood, which is really confusing.

"Holy Mother! The Tatars are really skilled craftsmen who can make such delicate things."

The person who spoke was an engineer in charge of repairing artillery and firearms in the headquarters. He was holding a magnifying glass to study the camera under the fuselage that was damaged by lead bullets.

Rumyantsev asked, "What is this?"

"My lord, I have only seen such a small lens in a microscope. It may really be an observation device."

"Observation? This thing is flying in the sky, how can people on the ground see it?"

"I really don't know that."

At this time, another officer found a clue on the wreckage. He pointed to something and said loudly: "PHANTOM? Phantom? This is English. Could it be that it was made by the British?"

When everyone heard this, they all gathered around and looked at the wreckage.Then a noble officer said: "Very likely! I remember that Anthony Leeuwenhoek, who invented the microscope, is a member of the Royal Society."

67 years ago, that is, in 1723, the 91-year-old Leeuwenhoek sent the method of making the microscope and his best 26 microscopes and hundreds of magnifying glasses to the Royal Society before his death.Historically, until the nineteenth century, with the development of technology, microscope technology surpassed Leeuwenhoek's technical level.

Rumyantsev got up and walked to the table, picked up the wreckage, looked at it for a while, and murmured: "PHANTOM microscope. Gentlemen, this is really interesting. The Russian Empire must obtain such technology and equipment! "

At the same time, after Zhao Xin learned of the loss of one of the cheapest drones, he did not blame the scout who operated it, but reminded them not to think that "the sky is my second child". No one is much smarter than anyone else in the world, and the enemies in the future will become more and more cunning.

After looking at the terrain, Rumyantsev and his generals found that due to the flow direction of the Belaya River, it was difficult for the Russian army to encircle the Northern Navy from both wings. The only way was to make a frontal assault in order to break through the enemy in a narrow area line of defense.

Therefore, the final combat plan determined by the Russian army is to quickly conquer the defense line of the Northern Navy with overwhelming momentum, try to kill and injure the opponent as much as possible during the battle, and force the enemy to retreat to Outer Baikal.According to this combat plan, the combat formation of the Russian army was organized into four groups: the right wing, the center, the left wing and the reserve team.

The army of the right-wing group was commanded by Tymokhin, deployed in the direction from the village of Taiturk to the village of Sredni, and consisted of five regiments of light infantry and four regiments of light cavalry.The movement of the troops was secured by three regiments of Cossack hussars and three regiments of chasseurs deployed in front of the infantry.

The central group, under the command of Bezukhov, was deployed between the villages of Sredny and Stepnoy, and consisted of six light infantry regiments and three heavy cavalry regiments.

The troops on the right and center were incorporated into the First Army Corps, under the command of General Repnin.In the reserve team of the army group, Repnin also secretly arranged three light cavalry regiments and two hussar regiments behind the right wing troops.

The left-wing group, commanded by Bolkonsky, was deployed between the villages of Stepnoy and Novomaltinsk, consisting of light infantry No.12, 11th, and [-]th regiments and [-]th, [-]th, and No.[-] cavalry The second regiment formed by the regiment.Because the left wing was obviously not strong, Rumyantsev placed the five reserve regiments of the entire army on the rear of the left wing, with six light infantry regiments and four light cavalry regiments under his jurisdiction.

The Russian artillery unit has a total of 567 artillery pieces, most of which are howitzers and unicorn guns (mortars). Except for more than 200 pieces that were deployed on the fortress 2.5 kilometers from the right wing to the central group, the rest are It was deployed in the reserve team behind the Central Group, so that it can be deployed at any time after the war.

Commander-in-Chief Rumyantsev's headquarters is located in the village of Cheremhovo, while he himself is located in the village of Mikhailovka, which is only a dozen kilometers away from the front line.

On August 8, at four o'clock in the morning, it was still dark.The Russian troops in the center group, the reserves, and the right flank were not dispatched, but the infantry, cavalry, and artillery columns of the left flank rose from their bivouacs and took the lead in action.

They were to descend from the highlands and hills to the plains to attack the right flank of the Northern Navy.Their task was to draw enemy fire, thereby buying time for a rapid advance by the Right and Center groups.

In order to advance lightly, the Russian soldiers threw all kinds of unnecessary things into the bonfire, and the bursts of smoke irritated their eyes.

Because it rained a lot last night, the weather at this time is a bit cold, the sky is covered with dark clouds, and there is a thick fog on the grassy plain.

It was pitch black all around.The officers hurriedly drank tea and ate breakfast, while the soldiers, chewing dry bread, gathered around campfires to keep warm.They threw the remaining sheds, tables and chairs, wheels, wooden barrels, and everything that could not be taken with them and was not needed, into the firewood pile and burned together.

Squads of light cavalry came and went between the infantry camps, passing orders one after another.Whenever the regimental and battalion commanders are full of food and drink, the troops they belong to begin to move.

The soldiers left from the bonfire, put away their belongings, picked up their muskets and began to line up.The junior officers buttoned up their uniforms, put on their triangular caps, sabers, shouldered their knapsacks, shouted, and patrolled the queue.The supply soldiers and orderlies are all harnessing the carts, packing their bags, and harnessing the horses to the carts.

The battalion commanders of each battalion mounted their horses, crossed themselves on their chests, and issued final orders to the remaining baggage soldiers, entrusting them to handle various affairs.

As the snare drum was sounded, the footsteps of thousands of people began to sound in the forest, and the well-trained war horses did not neigh.The battalions of the Russian army formed a column of five men, and slowly walked out of the camp under the guidance of two cavalry squadrons.

In fact, if a modern person came to the European army in the eighteenth century, he would definitely be completely confused by the establishment of the infantry.Fortunately, the Beihai Navy had fought against the Russian army before, so it was able to figure out its troop formation.

The European infantry tactical units in the eighteenth century were actually "battalions", organized into regiments for administrative and economic purposes, each regiment consisted of two to three battalions, and each battalion consisted of four to six companies.What is more wordy is that the "company" is not a tactical unit, but a purely administrative unit. Soldiers' garrison, training, and distribution of weapons, equipment, supplies, and salaries are all done on the basis of the company.

In this era when orders were communicated on the battlefield by roaring, the number of soldiers in a battalion of the Russian army ranged from 1000 to [-].If there are fewer people, tactical tasks cannot be achieved, and if there are too many people, orders cannot be quickly communicated to every soldier.

Specifically, when marching and fighting, the battalion of the Russian army has to divide the formation into several equal parts. Usually, it will be divided into 8 or 10 units, which are called "platoons" or "semi-companies".

This is done because the platoon formed by a battalion in combat does not correspond to the company at all.Taking the Prussian army as an example, its infantry battalion usually consists of 5 companies, but in wartime it is divided into 8 platoons, or 4 sub-battalions.

This was the case in the age of the flintlock. The basic organization of infantry is actually "five". In order to ensure that the number of "five" in each platoon is consistent, the organization of the company must be disrupted.

After the Russian army on the left walked out of the dense forest, thick fog still filled the plain.Four kilometers away is the battlefield. According to the order of battle, the artillery must go first.

It was only six o'clock in the morning, and the sky above had already brightened, and the mist filled the entire plain like a vast ocean, and the bayonets on the Russian army's rifles shone slightly in the dense fog.The rising sun in the distance is like a big crimson hollow buoy, rippling on the milky white sea of ​​fog.

According to the tactical essentials formulated before, each column of the Russian army consists of two battalions, and the columns used for the impact are arranged in three rows. The purpose of this is to allow all soldiers in the queue to use their weapons to fire.

After research, Rumyantsev and his generals believe that the frontal width of the column during the impact should not exceed one sub-battalion. The column used for the impact is not a solid column, and there must be at least 3 steps between the front and rear parts.

Because the firepower density of the Northern Navy is too strong, instead of using one large column, it is better to split it into several small columns, and deploy a certain number of infantry in scattered formation between the columns, so that these hunters can pass through the firepower. Harasses enemy troops and draws enemy fire towards them.

The column tactics of this era require soldiers to advance at double pace without firing a single shot when charging, accelerate to triple pace after 200 paces away from the enemy, and run directly to attack when they are 30 paces away from the enemy.If the troops participating in the attack successfully repel the enemy's first-line troops, they should immediately deploy them from column to horizontal formation, and prepare to repel the enemy's counterattack.

When the left-wing Russian army entered two kilometers away from the northern naval position, the Russian army on the right-wing and central positions were also ready to set off. When the battle started in the east, the first to attack was the center of Bezukhov. group.

After the left-wing Russian army arrived at a position 1.5 kilometers away from the North Navy position, the Unicorn gun fired first.

Hundreds of Russian gunners pushed twenty 10-inch Unicorn gun carriages to the front of the formation. After adjusting the angle, the No. 20 gunner packed the gunpowder into the thick barrel first, and then the No. [-] gunner pierced through the fire door. Take the medicine bag and press your thumb on it.After that, the No. [-] gunner put a thin round wooden board into the gun bore. At this time, the No. [-] gunner had already ignited the fuse of a round grenade weighing several kilograms, and then put it into the gun bore.Gunner No. [-] moved his finger away from the fire door and inserted a gunpowder-filled squib into it, while Gunner No. [-] poked the lighted fire fork into it.Amidst the roar, more than [-] smoking grenades passed through the layers of fog and exploded in the dense fog one after another.

At this time, everyone on the North Navy position was already ready for battle.When the Russian army started to move at four o'clock, Jiuzang already knew it.However, in the face of the bombardment of his right-wing Russian army, Jiuzang was not in a hurry to launch a counterattack. Zhao Xin asked him to wait, and he had to wait until the Russian troops in the center and left were dispatched before starting a counterattack.It is said that the barbed wire fortifications in front of the battle have been laboriously laid out for so long, and the enemy must always have a taste.

After two rounds of artillery fire from the left wing of the Russian army, the light infantry finally began to advance. More than 20 minutes later, when the soldiers under the bombardment could already see the shoulder straps and red epaulettes that appeared and disappeared in the dense fog, several light machine guns erected in the fortifications on the second line opened fire. The Russian column in front fell down in an instant with more than a dozen people, and the sound of shooting suddenly resounded throughout the field.

(End of this chapter)