Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Chapter 457 034 Swedish Assholes Trick Teammates

Mobilizing a large number of ships to support Danzig would be fine if it was just transport ships, but mobilizing warships is not enough compared to the large-scale battle between the Empress and Gustav III, which was the largest naval battle in the Age of Sail and the second largest naval battle in history in terms of the number of ships.

But there is a solution. Langgeron proposed that the Russian Navy should launch operations between May and June, also taking into account the progress of sending troops from the Gulf of Finland.

Another problem is that Russian army generals generally do not need to cooperate with the navy. Except for the battle in the Black Sea and some siege battles that require the deployment of the navy, most of the time they fight alone.

In this case, the Swedish Navy is indeed needed.

Solovyov still remembered that Paul had visited Kronstadt and had been dissatisfied with the navy's combat readiness after returning.

The Russian army has always been of this system. The army can enter a state of war very quickly, but the navy is not the focus of this battle.

Therefore, Solovyov only took the "Neva" which had participated in the round-the-world voyage on this trip.

"Look, General, that's Danzig."

"It looks like the French have already taken action and are preparing to blockade the river mouth. If this is the case, our army will easily encounter their artillery blockade when transporting supplies."

"What should we do?"

"Captain, I have an idea, but it requires a large ship to tow the steamer here. However, given the wind and waves here, we still need to take risks."

After several years of development, there are still a few steamboats on the Neva River. If they are towed, they can be used at the mouth of the Vistula River. If the rudder and paddle wheel are convenient,
However, this also requires sailing on dry land to get the ship out of the thawing port.

Even as they were talking, the French also noticed that the Russian fast sailing ships were approaching the river mouth.

According to Marshal Lefebvre's orders, any approaching Russian warships must be attacked.

However, the French army's cannons, usually used by the army, are usually the largest 12-pound cannons, which have a decent range. But the "Neva" took advantage of the wind direction and steering to turn, so it was not hit by the shells.

"It seems that the French Army doesn't like to fight with sail rigging."

"They must have this kind of shells, General."

This was indeed very troublesome. The French were obviously well prepared, and the Prussian troops in the city failed to coordinate in time.

We have to wait until Kamensky leads his team here before we can communicate through the mirror.

Of course, Solovyov did not take out the signal machine because there were foreign officers on the Neva.

It’s just the principle of communication in action. If others don’t know how you encoded it, it will be in vain.

After all, when the British plagiarized, they never paid copyright fees. Even if Nelson stole Ushakov's tactics, he only said a few polite words in a letter, which was considered respect for the elderly.

However, what Nelson did to Caracciolo was much more than ordinary retaliation. He simply hanged him to death.

If you cannot be hostile to these British guys, then try not to be hostile. If you have to fight them, then fight them to the death.

If they copied it, it would be a great injustice.

However, it’s not that the British don’t have what Solovyov wants. It’s just that these things are imported from Russia in a fair and open manner. Anyway, they are not going to the United States, and the British cannot control the technological blockade.

After all, it depends on money.

No one wants to go against money. In order to oppose France, the British have to pay no matter what. They will still be needed at sea.

It was just a ship coming, and Solovyov didn't react at first.

The 18-gun schooner "Bold" that was patrolling nearby approached, but the names called out directly were all in English. If they were not specific nouns, but adjectives, sometimes there was indeed no time to recall them.

After all, Warspite can mean "war contempt", but it turns out to be "war-weariness". It is unlikely that Dauntless will notice what it is at the first time, and you may not be able to recognize it even if there are ship girls all over the ground.

After all, it was a battleship that was sunk by a mine during World War I, so it was not surprising that it was missed.

If he thought about it, he would probably think that some warships were a little weird.

However, the Enterprise did not have this problem, because the second-generation Enterprise was still a small boat. Although the development of this ship name started from this small boat, it had to wait until the appearance of aircraft carriers to become a battleship.

However, this kind of thing is probably just a naval tradition and sometimes cannot be considered feudal superstition.

After the return of the Neva, Solovyov began to think about how to gain a foothold at the estuary.

"We need two steamships, towed by two fast sailing ships, close to Danzig. We can use these two ships for repeated transport, but we also need to pay attention to the wind and waves."

"Your invention has finally come in handy."

When Lang Jielong said this, there was a hint of joking in his tone.

This is not surprising. The idea and design were all his. The core technology came from France. There were a few nobles in Prince Condé's army who were good at invention and understood the principles of building steamships.

This is the only way to hit it off.

However, the prototype ship could not withstand the wind and waves, and adding a power system to the river sailing ship would make it more dangerous to sail at the estuary.

In the past few years, several ships sailing on the Neva River and Lake Ladoga have capsized due to strong winds and waves.

Therefore, the promotion of steamships was still somewhat difficult. Although sailboats could capsize as well, this impression was left by some nobles in St. Petersburg who loved to do some tricks.

What's more, the Solovyov father and son had a special shipping license for steamships with a term of 15 to 25 years in the waters, which was also very enviable.

As for the unfortunate French marquis, he did not have a good life in France, but he also obtained the shipping monopoly in the Sea of ​​Azov in Russia.

After all, in France, if someone in the Academy of Sciences does something bad, or if you offend the powerful, you will not end up well.

In Russia, the situation is even better.

It’s just that these great nobles will not hinder your scientific inventions, but if you affect their interests, they will take action.

However, there was no help from the Baltic Fleet, only a few frigates operating nearby.

The Swedish Navy is the main force, and the Swedish battleships coming from Gothenburg are large enough to tow Solovyov's two pure steam ships.

But on the first day of the operation, they encountered some minor troubles. As the chief of staff, Solovyov had to personally supervise the operation. After all, this was also a tactical innovation, and an amphibious landing would probably have to be planned.

As long as it's not a fatal terrain like Gallipoli, it's fine anywhere.

Especially the mouth of the Vistula River. Although the water flow is a bit turbulent, it is still convenient to enter and exit here, but the firepower of the French army needs to be suppressed.

For this matter, Solovyov wanted a rather intimidating battle. He wanted a squadron of the Baltic Fleet to stay at the mouth of the river, and to bring the Swedish Navy's galleys and frigates close to the shore. After flattening several French artillery positions at the mouth of the river, he would send reinforcements and launch operations behind the French army.

The Swedes also agreed, and they agreed to tow two steamboats closer.

But the performance of the Swedish Navy
"Today's weather is pretty good. It's really suitable for landing and also for picking up the Prussians in the city."

Solovyov was secretly proud of himself. He knew the power system of the latest steam ship. If it was at maximum power output, it could still run at more than ten knots. If the boiler did not explode, it would not be easy for the French artillery to hit moving targets at this speed.

If you want to hit it, you really need to practice your artillery skills, or you can use a flying dragon to get close to it and bombard it with artillery shells.

In this way, the two steamships arrived at the Prussian defense zone unscathed, bringing with them messengers and a small amount of supplies, as well as the news that the Russian-Swedish coalition would soon send a fleet and reinforcements to Danzig for support.

The Prussian officers and soldiers cheered when they saw the steamship. After all, the friendly army's ship was a ship that could be powered without sails. The country bumpkins in Berlin had never seen one. Those who could build steam-powered ships all had some relationship with Prussia.

As for the relationship, apart from relatives and their sons, there are probably two guys who have been to Berlin.

It’s just that everyone thinks that Fulton was the first to come up with it, but he ranked second in the United States and was the first in commercialization.

"Not bad, it seems to be going well. The French artillery fire has not stopped."

Solovyov was somewhat complacent. After all, science and technology are the primary productive forces.

Now, in order to get these two ships out, the Prussian army was desperately using the artillery fire at hand to cover them, so as to prevent the French army from getting close to the river bank.

The two steamships were seen going in and out, in and out again, and this was considered as mission accomplished.

After returning, after confirming the contact with the Prussian army, we also had to prepare for Kamensky's troops to land.

These subsequent troop transports picked up Russian infantry from Königsberg and Memel and were ready to land.

The Russian army was full of confidence in this battle. After careful planning, although they chose the simplest plan, it was still the most effective one in terms of communication means.

Moreover, compared with winter, the Russian army has been able to use signals more skillfully. Kamensky can even send signals directly from his ship.

However, when Solovyov saw it, he was no longer happy.

"Damn it. A regiment of infantry got separated when the troop transport ship didn't follow the route."

"what?"

Hearing this, the Russian naval officers nearby were all stunned.

"That's the explanation for the signal we sent. At this point, we still need to confirm it again using flag signals."

After hearing the explanation, the "Neva" also sent out flag signals and optical signals, and the results obtained were highly consistent.

"No, which part of this troop transport is missing?"

Now the naval officers were cursing, after all, this kind of thing had not happened for a long time, and the Russian Navy's landing skills were still there. Normally, they might go to the wrong beach, but they would not lose their way during the voyage.

"The lost ship is a Swedish one."

After hearing this, Solovyov's face became even more tense than that of his senior brother Bagration.

"If we lose one regiment, it won't affect our support to Danzig, but the force is not enough to completely break the blockade. We will definitely be stuck in a stalemate."

The situation was that the Neva also felt it was in great trouble.

"If we go to gather reinforcements, I'm afraid it will be too late. It will be difficult for us to organize another landing operation, even to establish a beachhead. The enemy will be prepared."

But since they were already here, they had to go and provide support. After some communication with Kamensky, he decided to go ashore and set up a camp to tie down the French forces, even if he was missing a main infantry regiment.

As for a large-scale landing, it is probably unlikely.

Solovyov did suffer some setbacks in commanding the battle this time, but what was on his mind was no longer the strategic issues of this stage.

In the future, if anti-landing operations are carried out, some specific bays and estuaries can still be relied upon and defended on the spot.

A typical example is probably the Crimean War, in which the British and French armies did not gain any advantage in the attack and defense of the Kamchatka Peninsula and the White Sea Monastery, and only captured a few islands off the coast of Finland.

It was not until nearly fifty years later that the landing was possible, and the harsh environment in Crimea made the later arrivals miserable. The number of people who died of illness on both sides was staggering.

If we want to carry out a landing battle now, it will be difficult to mobilize a large-scale army if we do not rely on a medium-sized or larger port.

Therefore, although future strategies may be more arrogant, in order to defend the coastline during the Russo-Turkish War, using too many troops would actually hinder the occupation of the front line.

If this war was over, the next war would probably be fought on the Turkish battlefield before 1812.

After imagining the possible problems, Solovyov was still cursing the Swedish idiot who was delaying the matter, but he also had to continue mobilizing troops.

Kamensky's troops quickly landed successfully and captured some villages behind the French army, where they built temporary positions.

Seeing this situation, Marshal Lefebvre decided to divide his troops to monitor this Russian army so that they could not join up with the Prussian army in the city.

The Prussians could only sigh and lament. The reinforcements were clearly nearby, but due to the obstruction of the French army, they were separated and monitored.

They don't know it yet, but the Swedish troop transport was delayed and took the wrong direction in the Baltic Sea.
This kind of thing happened, and it was an inevitable embarrassing situation in a landing battle.

So Solovyov thought of some solutions. He paid attention to the situation of several French troops controlling the ferry and prepared to attack the river mouth here.

But the place he was eyeing was between the pontoon bridge of Pultusk on one side and the bridge on Alle on the other.

(End of this chapter)