Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

After the British army was hit by a barrage of rockets, there was sporadic exchange of fire between the two sides during the siege.

This also puzzled Sir Moore. He had already guessed that the Russian army was conducting a tentative attack to find out his artillery deployment, and this guess was very accurate.

Solovyov did exactly that on the front line, and he also roughly discovered that if the British artillery fire on the front line broke through here, there might be some crossfire from both sides.

In addition, entering into street fighting was generally disadvantageous to the Russian army, so he thought of breaking through from the flank.

There were coastal batteries on the islands on both sides to protect Karlskrona, but John Moore reacted quickly. Although most coastal batteries were facing the entrance and exit of the port, he used 6-pound and 9-pound guns that could be quickly mobilized to build some artillery positions in the direction of the Russian army for protection.

In addition, there are heavy artillery taken from the Swedish Navy's battleships. If this thing fires grapeshot, it can cause huge casualties to the approaching Russian troops.

Solovyov did become worried as he observed the gun position from a distance.

In order to better control the situation, he also set up a "Chief of Artillery" to unify the management and deployment of these divisional artillery and newly assigned artillery. In addition, conducting siege warfare would more or less test command capabilities.

The troops trapped inside were the British army, not the Swedish army that would raise the white flag after being intimidated. Moreover, the commander was no mediocre person. Sir Moore's level was only slightly lower than Wellington's, but still better than Abercrombie and Picton.

At the same time, we must also consider whether there will be reinforcements coming from land during the siege.

In this kind of siege situation, Solovyov had already had many classic cases in his mind, such as Alexander's siege of Tyre, Caesar's siege of Alesia, all the way to Pétain the Elder at Verdun and Manbuqun at Sevastopol, until Königsberg and the War of Liberation.
It is helpful to think too much, because part of the urban area of ​​Karlskrona is on land. It is a defensive area surrounded by Russian troops on three sides. There are narrow passages and bridges leading to the naval base on the inside. There are temporary and permanent fortifications on the islands on both sides. Naval guns facing inland are also deployed near these coastal artillery batteries.

No matter how you look at it, it looks like a hedgehog. As for the situation of the artillery, Solovyov also saw it very clearly. Although Samsonov had fired a volley of rockets before, the British army did not comprehensively strengthen the artillery's anti-suppression measures, and some light artillery positions lacked protection.

"Samsonov, let your special artillery suppress the British over there with rockets, can you do it?"

"If we adopt a continuous firing, with some 12-pounders and unicorn guns for cover, there should be no problem."

"Now that you mention it, it seems we can give it a try. Karl, make some adjustments to our artillery deployment. While the ice in this section is still solid, we can sneak through part of it at night, then assemble two infantry battalions on the flanks. When we launch a frontal attack, we will launch a bayonet charge and try to capture the artillery position."

"Which infantry unit should go?"

"We need the Kostroma Regiment. They have more complete personnel and have experience in infantry towing artillery. We can let them bring a few 6-pound guns."

"The bayonet is on the cannon again. I've seen the French use this trick several times."

"We learned from them. The French army has many tactical innovations, and we can certainly learn from them."

As for transporting artillery at night and capturing a battery, Solovyov was not very confident.

But time is tight and it is impossible to wait for the Baltic Fleet to arrive.

Although they were friendly forces nearby, the Danish navy no longer existed. It had been wiped out twice in a row by the British in the past few years. It was impossible for them to send any reliable reinforcements, and even the warships had to be supplemented by temporary tree planting.

From this point of view, the loop has been closed, after all, Solovyov himself knows about this matter.

It was impossible to expect my uncle to send a few ships over. After all, the French navy had just suffered a humiliating defeat at Trafalgar and was currently building new ships at home.

That means we can mobilize some armed ships, which are frigate-level or privateers.

Indeed, compared to the vaunted pirates of the British, the French and Spanish pirates may have had a wider range of operations, and even used to cause trouble for the Royal Navy.

If the French royal family authorized privateers in their heyday, they could even rent third-class battleships and seize second-class ships from the Royal Navy. If they were not confiscated by the regular army, I'm afraid we could see pirate ships equipped with 100 guns. In the future, it would not be a dream to have ships superior to first-class ships.
The French pirates in the Indian Ocean are now making the British uneasy. If they send frigates, they may not be able to defeat them. If they send battleships, it will also be a problem if they cannot form fire suppression.

However, due to the special situation in the Baltic Sea, it is still difficult to get these reinforcements at this critical juncture, and even if they do arrive, they are only frigate-level.

Regardless of all these, we must now have a real fight.

In order to launch the attack, Solovyov also sent out a feint attack force. The terrain on the enemy's left wing that he wanted to attack did not seem suitable for launching an attack.

This place, which is not suitable for launching an attack, is always a better starting point. After all, you always have to attack when the enemy is unprepared.

As for the weather, Solovyov was also watching it. If it rained, it might be easier to send people to charge the artillery directly with bayonets, learning from Britain's experience in the Far East and winning by relying on numbers. That's probably it.

However, the cost of such a battle would definitely be greater.

When selecting the commando, he also knew that there were too many cavalry units and they would not be of much use during a siege, so he only left the Pskov Dragoon Regiment and two Hussar Regiments, and the rest were deployed in the west.

The Russian soldiers were also very careful when crossing the thinning ice. They still each carried their rifles and ammunition. This area was okay as the water was shallow in most places. In the places where the ice was broken, they put their boots on their necks and wrapped their feet with foot wraps, and just stepped over. The rifles were carried on their shoulders with straps and the ammunition was placed in their hats. The grenades were carried on the shoulders and hands by special auxiliary soldiers, and they delivered two battalions of Russian infantry in this way.

In addition to this there were four 4-pounder guns, and always some close fire support, with the ammunition carriages behind the gun carriages, and two squadrons of hussars supporting the battle.

The British also discovered them, but because of the cannon's firing angle and the terrain, the cannons would only fly over the Russians' heads, so it would be better to fire a cannon at them and blast them with grapeshot.

With this idea in mind, they did not open fire but were rather patient.

It was not because of anything else. The British had fewer troops at the fort than the Russians. The two battalions that had come up from the beach had more people than them. The density of artillery here had reached an unprecedented high, so it was more difficult to deal with. As for Sir Moore, since daybreak, the Russian artillery harassment in front had not stopped. Even though he had noticed the movements of the Russians on his left wing, it was not easy for him to send troops here.

The Russian army itself has superior military strength. If it sends troops there because of a possible "diversionary" attack on the island, it will be very dangerous if the Russian army launches a frontal attack.

However, he was not unprepared. There were some 12-pound cannons left by the Swedish army on this side, facing the beach where the Russian army landed.

Although Sir Moore was also an infantryman, his estimation of the artillery was always reliable. His own artillery was completely out of the Russian army's range, and even if they increased the number of rockets, it would be difficult to reach here.

But for the British army, the power of the solid bullets fired by these artillery pieces was greatly reduced here, which means they could only harass the Russian army.

"Moore still has some ideas. We can't hit his artillery position at all, but now there are 12-pound shells on the beach, which will make it easier for us to attack him from the flank.

Although Solovyov's tone was light-hearted, he did not dare to be negligent. He ordered the Russian army to launch artillery bombardment across the board and to launch the main attack so as not to let the British army determine the direction of the attack.

In addition, a large number of rockets were used to fire at British positions, especially to drive away artillery in combat positions.

In a siege, the group's infantry and deployed artillery are the key to the attack, at least in this era.

It was indeed very shocking when the two special artillery battalions of the Russian army on both wings used the rockets in their hands to continuously fire and threaten the British side.

However, the lethality was limited. Dozens of rockets were fired before, but failed to kill Moore. This time, the British troops on the main position were somewhat prepared. Even the British artillery at the front added a layer of protective shield to their artillery.

However, the quality of the Russian rockets varied. Some would explode when fired, while others were just like iron rods that fell down. However, the damage caused to the British artillery was not great.

Throw those damn iron rods under the gun platform, and the artillery will be safe.

Therefore, the continuous firing of rockets only frightened the British but did not cause any substantial damage.

But for the fort, because rockets were constantly being fired and the British artillery on the periphery had very few protection measures, they could only choose to hide here and there, completely making some of the artillery positions cleverly arranged by Moore meaningless.

The most effective weapons were the 12-pound cannons he deployed in the city. Although the accuracy of the Swedish artillery was not very good, it could always cause some interference when the Russian army continued to deploy troops on the front line.

"Look here, Mick, should we send out a signal?"

"The sky is clear now, so we should indeed take action, but this is too small a scale, not the kind of sun that we have in Austerlitz."

For Solovyov, the biggest motivation now is probably the special guarantee given to him by Grand Duke Constantine that if Karlskrona can be captured, he will be promoted to Lieutenant General of Infantry.

This was a great motivation, but Solovyov also knew that if he went from colonel to lieutenant general within three years, his subsequent promotion speed would slow down.

Apart from anything else, the promotion of lieutenant general to general needs to take into account the opinions of those older lieutenant generals. Although Solovyov is an aide-de-camp general and a general recognized by several higher-ranking marshals and generals, it is also necessary to consider that there are a large number of older lieutenant generals there.

Barclay encountered a lot of criticism when he was promoted to general. Although Bagration did not have this problem and had enough qualifications and military achievements, his promotion would also be delayed for a while.

According to Solovyov's situation, he is only 28 years old now, which means that his master and father-in-law's families are very powerful. He has served as chief of staff and adjutant to several high-ranking admirals and lieutenant generals. In addition, he has always been appreciated by the royal family, so he can be treated on par with those high-ranking nobles born in Rome.

Otherwise, even if he was an earl who had inherited the throne for several generations, he would have to be in his thirties to be promoted to lieutenant general.

At the same time, if he wants to make further progress and be promoted to general in the future, the time for this will definitely be postponed, unless he, as a commander, faces a powerful opponent and achieves unignorable merits in a large-scale battle - this can be offset by the high-level medals that are sometimes issued.

The sun came out, and Solovyov had more ideas. As for the artillery, it could suppress the British artillery fire in front, which was also something that had to be done before the war.

The Kostroma Regiment, in launching an attack from the flank, also took into account the possibility that the British army would use grapeshot, so they chose the method of artillery cover and infantry flanking maneuvers.

There were only two infantry battalions, but with the support of cavalry, the Russian army quickly cleared the outer artillery positions and drove the British troops into the artillery positions.

Next, it will be the Russian soldiers who force a crossing from the front. They will need to withstand the artillery shells fired from the British flanks, which is currently the biggest obstacle for the Russian army to pass through this area of ​​water.

But there is also an advantage. The muddy beach will eat away the soles of the Russian soldiers' poor-quality boots, and will also cause the shells to lose most of their kinetic energy.

Therefore, after suffering some losses, the Russian army still passed through the sea and even successfully brought some artillery ashore.

In this way, when besieging the fort, it would not be just the few 6-pound cannons that had been brought up.

"The outcome of the battle is already determined, but it is only for this coastal battery. We still have to fight the final battle to clear the battery, and then use our artillery to attack the British flanks and tighten the pocket bit by bit."

"Mick, what I am most worried about now is whether the Swedish army in the west will have reinforcements. If we are to attack the enemy's reinforcements, the offensive here will definitely slow down."

"It is indeed a cause for concern, but what is more important now is to further suppress the enemy with our artillery."

When Solovyov said this, it was well-founded. The frontal feint attack artillery fire even suppressed the British frontline artillery fire in some areas.

However, if there are 18-pound guns, 24-pound guns, and 32-pound guns in some places, it would not be friendly to the Russian army. (End of this chapter)