Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 530: The War is in a Stalemate
“Boom~”
Hundreds of 75mm cannons gathered together, and following the commander's order, they roared almost at the same time. After a loud noise, hundreds of shells flew out of the barrels and flew towards the enemy positions at a high speed.
After a while, these shells fell six or seven kilometers away, on the outskirts of the enemy's defense line.
Soon, the observers at the front transmitted the impact point back through the signal flag relay. After seeing this report, the artillery commander immediately issued a new order: "Move forward 500 meters and continue firing."
Seeing his artillery advancing in an orderly manner and firing shells closer and closer to the enemy's defense line, Gustav, the commander of the northern front, did not look happy at all.
It was already mid-June 1625. The EU's 500,000 troops, both on the southern and northern fronts, had already taken up their respective positions, fully deployed, and begun the attack.
However, although Gustav and Maurice were both the best commanders of the era, they were not time travelers after all, and they felt a little uncomfortable facing Ibrahim's defense line similar to World War I, which was made based on later movies and hearsay, with barbed wire, mines, stakes, trenches, and a small amount of reinforced concrete permanent fortifications.
The fighting on the northern front started earlier than on the southern front: the Russians who arrived outside Istanbul in April completely ignored Gustav's advice and launched a cavalry charge directly against the Ottoman positions.
Cavalry charged a position consisting of machine guns and trench barbed wire? The result was, of course, that 5,000 men charged forward, but only a little over 1,000 returned.
This result not only made the Russians completely obedient and no longer think of competing with the Poles for credit, but also calmed down the nobles and ordinary soldiers in the entire legion who were extremely impetuous at the beginning because of the unprecedented large-scale assembly of troops. They felt that with such a large army, how could the Ottomans stop the holy war soldiers from fighting hard. From this perspective, the sacrifice of these thousands of people was worth it!
But, after everyone's emotions have calmed down, you still have to break through the other party's impregnable defense.
From May of this year, the coalition forces on the northern front began to attack the Ottoman Istanbul defense line.
Everyone knows that Istanbul, or Constantinople, is a city that straddles Asia and Europe. But if we really want to talk about the "main city" of this city, it is still in the European part: on the narrow cape formed by the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus.
Since it is a cape, the part connecting it to the land would not be too wide: in fact, the Ottomans dug six trenches west of Istanbul, the longest of which was only thirty kilometers.
Such a defense line is guarded by soldiers armed with 60,000 to 70,000 light and heavy machine guns, five-round breech-loading rifles, mortars, six-round pistols, and a large number of grenades. Needless to say, its firepower density is very high.
So, in early May, Gustav arrived at the Istanbul front and organized 50,000 people to try the attack. After losing more than 10,000 people in two hours, he immediately adjusted the deployment of troops: his side also began to dig trenches to confront the enemy, and the rest was for artillery to repeatedly bombard the enemy's defense line.
According to the new army organization established by Rudolf during his lifetime, each division has its own artillery regiment, and each artillery regiment has 30 75mm breech-loading guns. Now there are 20 divisions on the northern front, which theoretically means there are 600 artillery pieces.
However, the crisscrossing mountains and poor roads in the Balkans made the coalition's logistics extremely difficult. In May, the coalition's new troops arrived in an area 60 kilometers east of Istanbul. By June, only 100 artillery pieces had arrived.
If we look at the equipment level of the Swedish army when Gustav led them to participate in the religious wars a few years ago, 100 cannons would be enough. But you can't beat the Ottomans, who also have cannons. Although Ibrahim has been in office for a short time, the production capacity of the artillery factory is limited, resulting in the fact that the entire Ottomans currently have only 50 cannons on the Istanbul defense line. But they do have cannons, and thanks to their natural superiority in materials science over Europe, their artillery range is even slightly longer than that of the European coalition artillery.
Therefore, the European coalition forces did not have an absolute advantage in terms of artillery suppression. After more than a month of mutual artillery bombardment, the artillery officers of the European coalition forces had learned their lesson: they had to move their positions when the enemy reached a certain point, otherwise they would easily be hit directly by the enemy.
In short, the current situation is that the infantry can't rush forward, and the artillery can't completely suppress the enemy. The entire battle is inevitably stuck in a stalemate.
"Commander, this is the specific method that Prince Rudolf devised to break through the enemy's trenches. Simply put, we need a firearm that can fire a large amount of ammunition at close range."
"It is said that this type of firearm is still in the laboratory in Asturias." After thinking about it in annoyance, Gustav sighed and said, "Where is our navy?"
"I'm sorry, sir. The navy tried to attack the Dardanelles ten days ago. The Ottoman artillery there is dense and strong, and the range is longer than our naval guns. So not only did we fail to capture it, but the Aragon was also hit by a 150mm heavy artillery and almost sank."
"..." As a rare and famous general, Gustav always led his troops to attack again and again. Now facing this iron defense line, he feels very uncomfortable with nowhere to attack.
Moreover, as the commander of an army of 200,000, the military difficulties are only one aspect. He also has to deal with a lot of troubles every day.
After waving his hand to Henry, the Grand Duke of Bourbon, who had returned to Europe from the Philippines and joined the Allied Forces to command a French division, he returned to his headquarters: a villa temporarily requisitioned from the Sipassi who had withdrawn early.
"Commander, you are back from the front. How is it going?"
"As always, I'll be happy if the battle line can be pushed forward 50 meters today. Your Excellency, Chief of Staff, is there anything that makes us happy?"
"Happy?" Wallenstein smiled bitterly, then picked up a stack of reports: "In the past ten days, our logistics and transportation troops have been attacked by the enemy at least thirteen times of varying scales. The total loss is 65 soldiers, seven tons of food, more than 10,000 rounds of bullets, 120 guns of various types, and one cannon.
In the past ten days, our soldiers have had six clashes with residents of the Balkan Peninsula. These are only the more serious cases, such as rape, robbery and murder. As for not paying for meals and looting local residents' supplies, all those that did not cause casualties were handled by the divisions themselves. "
"...F*ck me." Gustav covered his head with his hands and sat down on the chair tiredly: This march is different from the past. In the past, European mercenaries were quite severe in harming local people. But this time, His Majesty Philip asked to at least include the Balkan Peninsula in the European Union, which put forward extremely high requirements for military discipline.
However, the military discipline of the Spanish army on the southern front, which was mainly composed of Castilians, was relatively better because they had been trained and managed by Rudolf for more than ten years. However, the military discipline of the new army on the northern front, which was mainly composed of former mercenaries, could not be controlled by a few orders.
At the beginning of the war, Catholics and Orthodox Christians in the Balkans were generally willing to support the coalition forces. The leaders of Serbs, Bulgarians, and Romanians who longed for national independence were also willing to cooperate. However, the coalition forces began to march in March. After more than three months, the poor military discipline had changed the hearts of the people in the Balkans: after all, during the Ottoman rule, the taxes were a bit heavy, but the Sipasis would not kill and rob people at will!
Now, His Majesty Philip, who has learned that the conflict between the army and the people is getting worse, has sent Spanish Prime Minister Osvalles to organize a group of military police from Spain. If this guy who killed so many corrupt officials in Spain really comes, hey, maybe there will be fewer conflicts between the army and the people in the Balkans . But what about the relationship within the coalition?
Gustav's head was about to explode when he thought about this.
In the evening, after venting his anger on a beautiful Slavic girl reported by his subordinates, Gustav, whose emotions had stabilized, got up and began to write a letter by the light of an oil lamp.
Great King of Kings, Ruler of the Alliance, Beloved of the Lord, Son of God Guarded by Archangels, His Majesty Philip:
At present, our war... In short, the attack on Constantinople has inevitably come to a stalemate as the navy cannot penetrate the Sea of Marmara.
I will unconditionally obey and absolutely cooperate with your decision to send the military police to maintain military discipline. But as a frontline commander, I sincerely implore you to impose certain restrictions on Prime Minister Osvalles in advance. After all, the coalition forces are under great pressure now, and they need a channel to release their anxious emotions.
In my opinion, we should carry out a cleansing operation in the Balkans. That is, we should try to win the cooperation of the believers of the Lord. As for the pagans, I think they should not be protected by the gendarmerie...
