Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

After a stalemate for a morning, the Turks launched another attack in the afternoon.

However, their fighting style did not change much. Instead, they attacked the Russian positions in groups, as if they wanted to use their local advantage to break through the Russian positions.

Then, they were now hit with a barrage of grapeshot.

Compared with the opponents Solovyov had encountered before, Musa Pasha was only able to restrain his troops from coming out to kill people.

Continuing to fight like this will also be a test for the Russian army.

Although your opponent has been playing in a suicide style, if you can't hold on, and your opponent has more people, you will probably be the first to give in.

"It looks like we should let them cross the river."

The Russian army had previously used heavy artillery fire to keep the Turkish army on the other side of the river, but they could not keep holding off like this forever.

Solovyov was thinking that if he could fight across the river, it would be a good time to take advantage of the unfortunate riverbed.

As for his side, he still had to maintain order. Pretending to retreat was impossible. Moreover, the enemy didn't know that he was quite cunning in commanding battles and always liked to play tricks.

During this retreat, Musa Pasha was also short-sighted. When he saw the Russian army retreating, he quickly gave the order to pursue them.

As soon as they chased the enemy into the river, the Russian army's 6-pound guns, which had not yet retreated, continued to fire shells.

Solid bullets fired at the Turkish army's marching column were like a string of blood gourds, but they had to be opened among the cobblestones.

The French had a very deep feeling about it before. It was the Russian army that did this, and Solovyov liked to add more ingredients. He directly used the Unicorn cannon, which caused serious casualties to the Turkish troops crossing the river after the explosion.

But the Turks were still moving forward. It wasn't because they were stubborn, but because there were too many people behind them, causing everyone to be stuck here. If they retreated, they would be more likely to be trampled to death.

Therefore, the Turkish soldiers in the front row armed with cold weapons were still moving forward. Even though the Russian artillery fire continued to harvest them like wheat, no one was seen retreating.

As a result, the situation was that they had to fight to the death. The Russian army did not move too far from the second-line position, relying on the nearby towns. Moreover, there were many stone walls outside the courtyards here, which made it very convenient for the Russian army to defend.

At this moment, many Turkish troops were crossing the river, and the scene was very chaotic for a while.

Especially in the frontal defense area of ​​the Grenadier Division, which was responsible for the defensive mission, the pressure was still very high.

The Turkish ferry was facing them. Some Turkish soldiers armed with cold weapons swam across the river with scimitars or spears on their backs. By crossing the river from a deeper place, they were less likely to be hit by Russian artillery fire, and their casualties were not great after they reached the shore.

However, when they launched the attack, they were beaten back by the Russian army.

It was not the grenadiers' position that they were going to attack head-on, but the chasseurs hiding behind the stone walls on the flanks opened fire on the Turkish army one after another.

This was originally a small trick used by the Turks to deal with the Russian army on a daily basis. Apparently, the Russian army has learned it from them during this period.

Among the bushes, orchards, fields and villages, the Turkish soldiers were hit by volleys of fire much more severely than their own skirmishers were able to deal with the Russians in this terrain.

The Turkish army's scattered soldiers often operated in small groups, while the Russian army was massed and had more intensive firepower, which was a disaster for the Turks.

The subsequent Turkish troops that crossed the river have now come to their senses to deal with the chasseurs behind the stone wall. They also have to consider that although the Russian army does not have many troops, their formation is very stable. Even if the Turks use cannons to bombard them, it may not be very effective.

After all, it is not easy to find so many suitable reverse slopes in one place, but the Turkish artillery was a little unworthy of Solovyov's targeted deployment.

On one side, the positions were arranged according to some of the elite Turkish artillery, but the level of the artillery under Musa Pasha was not very good.

But this was not a useless arrangement. When the Turkish army rushed forward, they found that the Russians not only had fierce firepower, but also launched a counterattack with bayonets.

The Turks were in a state of great emotional turmoil. When the Russian army initially retreated, they thought they had a chance, so they crossed the river and pursued them under the Pasha's order.

After a barrage of artillery fire, it was obvious that their morale was dampened.

Now that they have rushed up to the Russian positions and have been pushed back in this way, they are obviously exhausted.

"This is not enough. We have to wait a little longer. The follow-up Turkish troops are still crossing the river. Victory seems to be almost at hand."

"Mick, you were still worried about the fight this morning."

"I didn't expect Musa Pasha to give me such a favor that the entire army was preparing to cross the river. It's a pity that we can't fight a war of annihilation."

"Don't even think about another Cannae. It's good enough to annihilate the entire enemy army once."

"Yes, we can't always annihilate the enemy. Instead, we can attack them halfway across the river. This way, it's easy to win."

After fighting for two or three hours in the afternoon, the Russian army still did not launch a counterattack.

The Turks were beaten because of the special terrain. They had already suffered heavy losses, and there were corpses everywhere.

Seeing that the supplies were almost consumed, Solovyov was also waiting for Kunev's action.

The cavalry were now able to move, and they passed upstream from the river, meeting no resistance from the Turkish cavalry, but went round to the rear, and were able to reach his poorly accurate artillery.

What followed was a wave of sudden killing, literally, as the Russian cavalry that rushed into the rear of the Turkish army quickly destroyed the artillery positions.

Kunev personally led the Hussars forward. He saw the magnificent Turkish tents and roughly knew that the Turkish commander was there.

Then, he was thinking about leading his cavalry to raid the Turks' lair, control the Turkish camp, plunder the Turkish supplies, and it would be even better if he could capture a few more Bayi masters along the way.

However, Musa Pasha was not as cowardly as Mustafa Bey whom he had met before. Although he was incompetent, he still had some courage.

He still had some heavy cavalry around him. When he was fighting fiercely with the Russian army in the front, he was attacked by Russian cavalry from behind. He personally led his Circassian cavalry guards and light cavalry to launch a counterattack against the Russian army.

Kunev did not launch an attack upon seeing this, but instead decided to withdraw while he was ahead and gather his troops together.

The Turkish cavalry were armored cavalry, and such strange attire naturally made their endurance even worse, so they could not chase too far after counterattacking.

Kunev used his mobility advantage to make a circle and rushed towards the Turkish troops that arrived later.

When he got closer, he became even more excited.

There were a lot of baggage here, and many of the Turkish light infantrymen were resting here separately from their own food, that is, weapons. I don't know why the Turks were so carefree, probably because although they had a hard time attacking in the afternoon, these infantrymen in the rear didn't have to go into battle immediately.

So they are resting, yes, resting.

This way, when the cavalry charges, it will be like chopping off heads.

That is to say, the Russian army has no habit of collecting human heads. Otherwise, given the current situation of the Turkish army, it is not impossible that the Turkish army piled up the severed Serbian heads into a mausoleum like what was done in Niš.

But the Turkish troops were too numerous to be killed, so Musa Pasha led the cavalry to rescue them.

Kunev then ordered his cavalry to use fire bottles to light the Molotov cocktails and burn the Turkish army's baggage carts before turning around and leaving.

When Musa Pasha saw the burning baggage train and the bodies lying all over the place, he knew that this battle could not be fought.

However, if an order is to be issued for a retreat, there is also a big question as to whether the Turks have the strength to organize the retreat.

Solovyov did not know that Kunev was so proactive. He probably knew that Kunev had succeeded from the silence of the Turkish artillery.

I just didn't know that he was so capable. When he was in Sweden, he often commanded hussars and Cossacks in the cavalry, and his performance was outstanding, but he was not as active as he is today.

Therefore, his thinking was still very cautious, and he just pushed it forward slowly.

He will regret it later if he does this.

The Turkish army's retreat was also in a state of collapse under his slow pursuit, and 50,000 people scattered in front of him.

Well, it’s not easy to catch them.

But as Solovyov attacked like this, he was already thinking about the next battle. If these enemies collapsed, it would be difficult to gather them back.

It was common for Turkish soldiers to desert and run away, and there were tens of thousands of them, so they often scattered in a hurry. Some of them ran away and returned home nearby, while others became bandits. They became all kinds of people.

By dusk, the Russian army returned to their starting position, but the ground was littered with corpses. The Turkish army had left behind tens of thousands of corpses and wounded soldiers.

Kunev returned with the Hussars and a lot of captured supplies.

Every time he had horses. This time he burned the Turkish army's baggage and caravan. After Musa Pasha slipped away, he returned to the burned caravan and abandoned tents. This time he gained a lot.

However, he also had a problem.

"Why did you only chase him to the river bank?"

Then he recounted his battle results in detail. Solovyov slapped his forehead and felt a little regretful.

"If we cross the river and pursue them, even if we can't completely annihilate them, the results will probably be greater."

But there was no medicine for regret, and he knew very well that even if there were 50,000 pigs, it would probably take three days to catch them all, especially since the Turkish troops were running everywhere and there were also many bandits.

As for who to attack next, Solovyov's idea was to go around to the south.

The Turkish troops in the north were at the edge of the mountain pass, so it would not be easy to pursue him, and there was a possibility that he would be let escape.

The Turkish troops in the south were somewhat easier to stick to because the Serbian cavalry had been harassing them.

However, this night, the soldiers who have experienced the fierce battle still need to rest well.

For some time now, we probably don't have to worry about the Turks causing trouble for us.

Apart from them, Kamensky the Younger attacked the main force of the Turkish army in the lower reaches of the Danube. After losing several thousand people, Ahmed Pasha began to retreat into the fortress and refused to come out.

Sultan Mahmud was not really stupid. After he knew about the failure on the front line, he probably also knew that his army did not have the ability to launch the attack.

In this way, the Russian army could probably only confront them in these fortresses in Thrace and could not directly threaten Constantinople.

The next stage will definitely be another long, trivial and boring series of sporadic battles, especially the offensive and defensive battles around the numerous fortresses.

During this period, the Russian army can get enough rest, and the Macedonian Army will return to Sofia.

Solovyov was also unwilling to get entangled too much in the east, and he was also waiting for the Serbs to join his army.

According to the reports of the officers sent to the Serbian Army, at least these soldiers had combat experience, but they had fought too many guerrilla battles, so they were very obedient during training and their discipline was much better than that of the Turkish Army.

However, only three infantry regiments could be deployed immediately, and they were all light infantry. Line infantry could not be organized. After all, it was still difficult to make them form discipline.

It is naturally not an easy task to let the Serbs switch between line infantry and skirmishers.

But this is better than having nothing. Even if it is not full, there are still 3,000 reinforcements. This is a good reinforcement for the Russian army which has experienced two world wars and suffered more than 2,000 losses.

And now there is good news for the Russian army. That is, uprisings against the rule of the Ottoman Empire have broken out in Macedonia and Greece, but most of them are peasants.

According to our impression of ancient Greece, there would probably be citizen militias here, mainly citizens and self-cultivating farmers near the city.

But the current rulers here are Turks, and many people are actually still serfs or even slaves.

The formation of serfdom in Russia was related to the perverse actions of Ivan the Terrible and Boris Godunov, but Russia generally showed the protection of some serfs by landlords, and it was inevitable that some serfs had serious flaws and were not very virtuous.

In the Ottoman Empire, the slavery here was the original one in the Middle East. Many people were sold. It was not like the serfs in Russia, some of whom had skills and crafts and were actually free.

The story of Türkiye is a very long one. The slave market on the island of Delos can only be compared with it. Except for religious tolerance in some areas of the Ottoman Empire, this kind of great virtue has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

Therefore, the resistance aroused was also very strong, and Macedonia and Greece might just be the beginning.

However, in order to pass the checkpoint, we must first capture Skopje, which is a must-pass route into the Macedonia region.

If we go directly south from Sofia, the roads there are blocked by the Turkish army and we will have no chance.

Therefore, after Solovyov returned to Sofia, he immediately called the generals together to confirm the final offensive plan. (End of this chapter)