Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

The Moscow Grenadiers were still having dinner halfway up the mountain when they received new orders.

They had their share of fighting during this period, but apart from the tough battles in Vidin and Lom, the Turkish troops behind them were probably just chickens and dogs, and they were all defeated here.

But Solovyov's commands always came in a hurry. Although he would give sufficient time for rest in between, the ruthlessness of his use of troops could be said to have surpassed Suvorov's.

After all, there are only a few veterans who have fought with the generalissimo. Some of them might have been new recruits during the Italian expedition. If one recalls it, it is probably the same. This apprentice is faster and more anxious.

"Really? He's from our group, but he treats us well, that's fine. If it were someone else, would they listen to him now?"

If you change someone, it probably won't work. Sometimes the treatment is poor and they don't get paid, but they are asked to work very hard and keep the pressure on. It's fun to be in such an unethical place. No wonder some people feel that each generation is worse than the previous one.

If everyone were sitting at the top, everyone would definitely do this, but if they want to really experience life, it would probably be difficult for these high-ranking people to come down and take a look.

After all, Solovyov started out as an adjutant and company commander, and had worked at all those levels. Over the past decade or so, he was very familiar with the situations, and sometimes he even sat between junior officers and soldiers.

Therefore, the grenadiers only complained a few words, put on their backpacks and flintlock rifles and started to move.

Murad Bey's defense was not just to hide inside the city walls. He still left a small number of troops to guard the southern intersection in an attempt to ensure that he was not completely surrounded.

Therefore, before going to the artillery position, the Russian grenadiers had to engage in a firefight with the Turkish troops here.

The problem is that his deployment seems to be fine, but there are not enough soldiers.

As for the soldiers in the city of Thessaloniki, the capable fighting troops were withdrawn by Ahmed Pasha to defend against the main force of the Russian army led by Kamensky the Younger on the front line. Many of the troops left here were recruited bandits.

Only a few Pandur skirmishers can be used, but their number is limited, and even a sneak attack from these few soldiers will not have much impact on the Russian army.

But to put it bluntly, many of Pandur's scattered soldiers were bandits, which was very embarrassing.

Therefore, standing in front of the Russian grenadiers were just a motley crew of soldiers, some of whom might not even be equipped with guns. Some of them were using long rifles, which could be said to be somewhat retro in a place like Macedonia.

Besides, they were of little use, and the last of these spearmen in European armies were gradually phased out by the beginning of the 18th century.

The grenadiers simply fired a volley at them and drove the Turkish troops off the road.

Seeing this, Murad Bey mobilized some more people. He had some cavalry, but the number was small, so he had to use them carefully, so he had not used them in Vergina before.

The Russian army did not see many Turkish cavalry in the last battle, so the appearance of the Deli light cavalry here did surprise them.

However, the grenadiers reacted quickly. With the formation being relatively scattered, the six infantry companies in front of the Kiev Regiment formed an "Egyptian square", and the two companies behind followed the two companies of the Moscow Regiment to form a miniature square. In the end, the Turkish cavalry wanted to launch a direct attack, but they could not take it down and had to pay a lot of price.

Together with the main force of the Moscow Regiment and the neatly arranged Little Russian Regiment behind them, the Turkish cavalry harassed them for a while, suffered minor losses on both sides, and then returned to the city.

After all, there are no stupid cavalrymen. It would be a joke to launch a direct attack on the grenadiers in neat formation.

The Turkish army really cannot afford to lose this little bit of capital. If other cavalry commanders were in its place, they would probably do the same, that is, harass and delay the Russian army's actions.

Unless the Russian army failed to form a formation to counter the cavalry, they would not have taken the initiative to attack.

Now the Turks’ way out of the city was cut off, and there were also Russian troops to the west.

Uvarov was building a position over there, and Solovyov was stationed on the mountain because the terrain here was flat and the division was well-mannered. It was not that troops were withdrawn from Trubetskoy and Arkady, so the remaining people would be stationed there, and the grenadiers needed to be divided.

“It’s funny that the iron bucket is laid out like this.”

Looking from the mountain, all that could be seen on the battlefield 8 versts away was smoke. The specific battle situation would not be known until a messenger came to report the results.

Although in the end it was the Russian army that won, the Turkish cavalry could be vaguely seen retreating into the city through the telescope.

"Mick, it looks like everything is going well."

"This is not enough. The next thing is the artillery. The waters on the side of Thessaloniki are relatively open. It is probably impossible to completely block them with artillery. There are always some waterways where ships can pass. But with just that port, this amount of supplies is definitely not enough."

"From what you said, you want to add more ingredients?"

"Of course I'll add more ingredients. If I use a fishing boat to move the mines over at night."

"It's OK to use floating mines in the river. They can be used to blow up bridges and ships. What about you here?"

"Of course, we have to use the tides, and also make sure the enemies here don't have any peace."

Unfortunately, the electrolyte-triggered mines used in the Crimean War have not yet been developed. All we can use here are some mechanical fuses and time fuses.

It can scare people, but the actual effect is very poor, but it is enough.

As for the level of the Turks, it is certainly not higher than that of the British army in the American War of Independence. Solovyov's new type of mechanical mine also has a relatively advanced collision structure. Two mines are connected to an iron chain. If a ship accidentally hits the iron chain at sea, the mines on both sides will collide and explode, which can be said to be a devastating blow to the wooden sailing ship.

If the explosives were powerful enough, it would be useless to hit an ironclad ship in the future. However, because they had not been tested, the Baltic Fleet only made a small batch according to its creativity. Solovyov also asked the engineers to make the mines themselves during this expedition.

In this way, the Russian army has another means of counterattack at sea.

One artillery battery alone is definitely not enough, and the Russian army is also on high alert.

To lay mines, some people rowed small boats to the sea at night. The sea conditions in the bay where Thessaloniki was located were not bad. After confirming that the wave height was not a problem, Russian engineers and some volunteer infantrymen rowed to the water and began laying mines.

However, with their level, the number of mines they can bring out at one time is limited. After setting the fuses and anchoring the mines, they have to rely on the tide to reach the shore.

This can only be done at night, and the Turkish troops on the shore must also vigilantly pay attention to the movements of the Russian army. After the artillery position is surrounded, the Turkish troops in the city can only hide behind the city walls.

It takes time to seriously besiege a city and attack the enemy. The Turkish army is hiding in the city like this. Although they can be trapped by leaving a few thousand people to monitor them, in order to capture the enemies in the city, not only must communication trenches be dug, but artillery and tunnels must also be placed as close to the city walls as possible, so as to deal a fatal blow to the enemy.

Fortunately, as for the artillery level of the Turks, their elite troops had been withdrawn, and the only performance of the remaining ones was to fire the cannons, which was considered quite capable.

As for whether it will explode, only God knows.

The coastal artillery on the Kalamaria side is defended by Turkish troops, but the purpose of setting up this artillery is mainly to guard against enemies from the sea. The Arabs once captured and looted Thessaloniki from Crete, which happened about nine hundred years ago. Therefore, whether it was the Eastern Roman Empire or the Ottoman Empire, or Bulgaria which once controlled here, they all paid great attention to the vigilance against possible enemies from the sea, and thus designed coastal artillery.

However, the artillery facilities here are rather old and still use the old methods. The cannons are probably only facing the sea, and the design is also very problematic.

After seeing it, Euler returned to the Russian headquarters on the mountain that night and told Solovyov what he had seen.

"Since the enemy's artillery is facing the sea, we do have an advantage. However, to suppress the enemy, we always need to fire more grenades. It would be better to use some explosive packs. As long as we dig a sand pit and let the explosive packs fly over the enemy's head, it will be fine."

After all, Alexander Euler was the grandson of the great mathematician Euler. As for this kind of folk method, he at least knew that his grandfather was also very successful in surveying, his father and uncle made a living in surveying and mathematics respectively, and he was selected into the artillery because of this family inherited skills.

The things used by Solovyov actually have unstable trajectories. Their biggest advantage is their great power, and the choice of firing position is relatively convenient. They can be fired from an iron barrel, a dirt pit, or a sand pit.

If you are really worried, you can make a catapult. In this case, he as the director of artillery will be very useful. After all, it is back to parabola and ballistics.

The Turkish army watched the Russian army digging pits below in broad daylight, and the artillery would occasionally fire at the back of the artillery position, suppressing the Turkish soldiers so much that they could not raise their heads.

It would be quite difficult for them to harass the Russian troops below who were digging trenches. Even the Russian troops' marksmanship was not bad. These elite grenadiers were well trained in their daily lives.

Now the embarrassment came. The Turks were surrounded within a day or two, and the roads were dug up. There only seemed to be a road on the coast.

But no one cares about this road for the time being. Whether the Russian mines are useful or not is one thing, and whether the Turkish army can have a fleet to support it is another. Even both sides did not pay much attention to the situation on the sea at the beginning.

After all, Thessaloniki had just been surrounded by Russian troops, and whether the news could really get out depended on luck.

Seeing this situation, Murad Bey decided to defend the city to the death. It would be good if he could get support from the artillery, but if not, he could only leave it to fate.

After three days of preparation, the Russian army dug a communication trench on the beach. In places where it was not so smooth, they transported soil and wood to the front as support. For this purpose, they also moved bricks from a nearby brick factory and piled some stones at the back.

Although it can only barely protect against bullets, this level of attack is very embarrassing for the Turkish army. Their artillery is deployed here, and probably because of the shooting angle, they can only fire the shells far behind the Russian army.

If these shells are not damaged, they will probably be picked up, and the solid shells can be directly recycled and returned to the Turkish troops on the artillery position.

As for the Russian army, their means of attack are more diverse.

On the position of the Moscow Regiment, they not only have the half-pood Unicorn gun, but also a battery of 12-pound guns and 6-pound guns. In addition, there are also rocket and explosive pack launchers deployed next to them. If that is not enough, they can also prepare catapults.
This is just the means of the artillery and engineers. The grenadiers entered the position with a bunch of grenades, and some people were tying several grenades together, or preparing to throw them out with catapults, which naturally had great force.

In other words, the rocket launchers were not suitable to be brought here, and the transportation conditions along the way could not be guaranteed, so the Turkish army did not suffer an all-round attack.

But these were more complete than what the British encountered in Sweden. At that time, the Russian army used fewer weapons in the final stage, and grenades were not delivered to the front positions in boxes like they are now.

"Igor, this is great, we really will become grenadiers."

Many veterans put their rifles aside and prepared to concentrate on being grenade throwers. At this distance, the Turkish soldiers might not be able to hit them, but any explosives they threw would cause some casualties on the artillery position.

Old Semenov opened several boxes of grenades, and it seemed that with his old arms and legs, he was going to throw them all out in one breath.

If we really compare, these older veterans also know that if the young people nowadays are not diligent during training, they may not be as reliable as these veterans with more than 15 years of experience.

The quality of Russian military training has always been a mystery. Some ordinary regiments may be as powerful as elite troops, but some guards may not be much stronger than militia if they are not properly disciplined.

Solovyov had faced this problem before. He knew that the Jager Regiment of the Guards, of which he had been the commander, was inferior to the three major regiments in terms of its level.

If we really want to be careful now, the Russian army should also add some high-quality soldiers. In a few years, there will definitely be a big war. If the gentlemen do not contribute some high-quality soldiers at this time, their estates will probably be ceded to the French.

But this is something the masters have to consider. The grenadiers' current mission is to capture this artillery position and further suppress the Turkish troops in the city. (End of this chapter)