Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

The Turkish army has fought with the Russian army before. In the past, when the Russian cavalry was not effective, they would let the infantry take over the battle and then bombard the enemy with artillery. This old trick was also effective in this war.

But sometimes it is different. The Russian soldiers on the top of the artillery position seen today have dug trenches instead of the fortifications they built in the past.

Moreover, the layout of the communication trench, although it is a siege posture, the cannons are placed on both sides and the front is full of infantry.

In short, it’s quite different from what I’ve encountered before.

The Turkish soldiers on the fort could see that a large pit had been dug in the middle with iron barrels inside, some of which were filled with explosive packs, and there were also homemade wooden catapults. It looked very bad.

Even though they had never seen the Russian army attack a city in this way, they knew that this style of fighting was definitely not for the good.

"Is the artillery ready?"

Under the wall of the fort, Christian came here in person to supervise the battle. Those who came to the fort were all grenadiers, so naturally they were under his command.

These guys were lined up on the battlefield, with their black gun muzzles pointed directly at the enemy's nest, which was also terrifying.

However, placing the cannons on both sides weakens the visual effect a little, but the power will not be reduced.

"My lord, everything is ready."

"Let Ola fire a few shots to see how it works."

Use a small cannon to fire a few times and test the trajectory.

Then these 6-pound cannons exploded accurately on the heads of the Turkish soldiers. Although they didn't hit anything, the effect was still very obvious.

The next order was to fire.

Even Solovyov, who was on the mountain, heard the rumbling of artillery fire here and his attention was drawn away from the city gate tower.

After continuous firing, there was a lot of smoke here, but the scene was also very spectacular.

"Good job. Now it's just the artillery. Next the grenadiers' grenades and engineers' explosive packs will also be effective."

If they did not surrender, they could also use the tactic of blasting the tunnel and using homemade planes. However, this tactic was not used in the end when Sweden was fighting against the British army. The first successful blasting was when Vidin was fighting against the Turkish army.

However, the Turkish troops here probably had never seen such a situation. After the artillery bombarded them, a large number of grenades and explosive packs were thrown at them.

Explosions also occurred one after another. If you look at the fireworks effects, they are definitely not as good as those in the movies. Those are all special effects, and they were made very intensive for the sake of filming.

Even now, there is still smoke everywhere, and a turret is completely covered by the smoke from the explosion.

"Do you need to do this to attack a fort?"

"When I deployed the troops, I added artillery for this effect. Wasn't it also a show when Charlemagne fought the Lombards?"

After hearing Solovyov's answer, Clausewitz just smiled and said nothing.

It was clear from the top of the mountain, and even closer to Murad Bey in Thessaloniki. The effect was so good that even the Turkish soldiers on the city wall were stunned.

The most important thing is to deter the enemy, and watching this continuous bombardment from the top of the mountain is indeed effective.

"After the artillery fire is ready, it's time for the infantry to launch an attack, but there will be another round of bombing before that."

He looked through the telescope to confirm the situation. The grenadiers began to line up and move forward. When the soldiers in the back row threw grenades onto the top of the turret, the explosive packs thrown from behind had also landed on the turret.

The same was true for this round of explosions. The Turkish army did not have much time to push out these grenades and explosive packs. There were too many of them. They were lucky enough to be able to hide in a safe corner and avoid being hit by the shock wave of the explosion.

As for the unfortunate ones, those who were blown away on the spot might be relatively painless.

If you are hit by the shock wave, your internal organs will be shattered and bleeding from all your orifices. It will be a disaster.

The sound of the explosion was still continuous, and some parts of the artillery position would shatter after being hit by the shells. As for the shock wave of the subsequent explosion, although the explosive packs thrown by the Russian army were still black powder, they were more powerful and naturally doubled in power.

As for the defenders on the fort, they could probably only wailing.

At this time, this artillery preparation had lasted for three hours, and the unprepared Turkish soldiers had now lost their will to fight.

When the Russian grenadiers launched the final attack on the fort, they encountered very little resistance from the Turkish army. On the contrary, when they attacked the perimeter of the fort and fought against the Turkish infantry, their losses were probably even greater than in the battle here.

The Russian troops who rushed up to the artillery position saw only a group of Turkish soldiers who had lost the will to resist. They had even thrown their weapons aside and were either lying or sitting there, or their bodies were twisted and even mutilated.

There is nothing much to say about the battle to capture the fort, and it probably just shocked the Turks.

If it were a shocking story, it could probably be written in a few thousand words, but this is not a major battle.

"Now the enemies are trapped inside. Siege battles are so boring."

As he spoke, the veteran grenadiers, after throwing their grenades, also climbed onto the battery.

Looking at this series of "masterpieces" of explosions, one probably won't feel that war is interesting.

However, the subsequent cleanup was very troublesome. The bodies of these Turkish soldiers had to be buried in pits. In order to prevent the bodies from rotting and causing plague, they were either sprinkled with lime and buried, or burned directly on a pile of firewood using the traditional Roman method.

In short, such a scene also frightened the Turks in the city. Murad Bey already felt that the hell was calling him. The Russian army used dozens of cannons and a large amount of explosives for a small artillery position. If they attacked Thessaloniki, they didn't know how many cannons and explosives they would use.

As for the letter of surrender, a Russian envoy was indeed sent over.

However, the letters brought by the captured Turkish soldiers clearly stated that if they surrendered now, they could still guarantee their personal dignity and property safety. But what if the city was captured?
Although Solovyov always carried the banner of "righteousness", he was also cruel sometimes. His opinion was that if you don't surrender, I will make the Turkish troops in the city and their families here suffer, and the threat was very clear.

And think about the population distribution in the city of Thessaloniki. Jews already make up half of the population, and the rest are Greeks and Muslims. It seems that they want to make themselves look good, and it is not impossible for them to do so. After all, the sultans of all dynasties have been suppressing the Christians in this big Greek city, so they added a large number of Jews to mix in the mix.

As for the Jews, these local Jews from all over the Mediterranean may be sold at a good price, but they are not as unethical as Bibi. They still pay more attention to the credibility of merchants. After all, it was always these people who did business in Spain in the past.

Especially those in Central and Eastern Europe, where the attack power is relatively strong. The beards of these people don't look very impressive, and no one knows whether they will turn against us.

Therefore, Murad Bey had also been shaken, but if he surrendered directly, he would have no choice but to run to the court of people like Ali Pasha in the future to have a chance to save his life.

But what he didn't know was that Ali Pasha had already found Solovyov through Odysseus, and not long after the fort battle ended, Ali Pasha's messenger arrived.

Judging from the letter, the ruler of Albania and Epirus offered a price of not attacking his territory, and he also hoped to guarantee his rule in his own territory. As for what His Majesty the Sultan thinks, he doesn't care.

Unlike the seemingly profitable option of getting involved with the British, the Russian army was too close, and through the channel of his "godson", he could get in touch with the Russian commander to some extent, which could be considered a means of saving his life.

"To guarantee Albania and Epirus? As I recall, Ali Pasha was the governor of Albania, but his court happened to be in Epirus."

"Yes, my lord."

"You can tell Ali Pasha that we have no interest in Albania. There are only stones there. Since there is no profit, we will not go there. As for Epirus, the Russian army is currently only interested in Thessaloniki and Larissa. After reaching Lamia, the road there will not lead to Epirus. Places like Ambracia are not within our consideration at this stage."

In short, what it means is that the Russian army has no interest in Ali Pasha's territory and only cares about these current places.

As for the fact that he has his own independent ideas, he is not against Russia. This is a conflict with the Turks. It seems that more "loyal" places like Albania are also considering their own way out.

"My Lord, I will convey your wishes to the Pasha."

"Albania is still too barren even though it's Burke. If it's Muhammad Ali, his land is fertile and he might be more of a threat to us."

"But he is far away in Egypt. If you need help, you can find our master."

"You can go back now, but be careful to conceal your actions. It would be bad if the Sultan's spies noticed you."

But Solovyov also had his own ideas. Since Ali Pasha, this old man in his sixties, had the ambition to continue to be a local emperor or even live alone, it would be better to satisfy his face-saving demands.

As for what will happen in the future, once the Russian army focuses all its attention on fighting France, Albania, and even Greece and Serbia, will also face war even if their status is guaranteed in the treaty.

What's more, there is Austria, which will only make things worse if Russia makes any move, or it will station troops to threaten the Russian army's actions. Now is Austria's weakest time, and they will not come to cause trouble.

If you want to give them a break, then just wait.

Austria has participated in all the Russo-Turkish wars, except for joining the last one, probably because it hoped that Russia would not even be able to cross the Dniester River, and the territories on the Balkan Peninsula would be its sphere of influence.

However, they were able to force Serbia to rebel, which showed that they were indeed "very capable".

Therefore, there is no better time than now. The Russian army has penetrated deep into the Balkan Peninsula. The only countries that have the strength to support the Ottoman Empire are Britain and France. However, they are also competing with each other. Austria and Prussia have been abolished and will not have any impact on this side.

To solve the problem, we have to take advantage of now. Solovyov even has some ideas, such as directly occupying the whole of Greece, or being bolder and letting the Russian flag be planted on the Theodosian Wall or even reach Hagia Sophia.

That means all the battles are bad ones, and he might get some rewards in advance.

However, it would be difficult to do so given the troops he had.

Therefore, what he was considering now was to surround the defenders in Thessaloniki, annihilate the enemy's reinforcements, and then make the city surrender. After that, he would march to Athens. By the beginning of next year, he would probably be able to solve the Greek problem and even seriously weaken the power of the Ottoman Empire.

Without bargaining chips, they will be at the mercy of others at the negotiation table.

The idea was indeed good, but ending the war against the Ottoman Empire a year earlier might have changed Napoleon's final decision.

Before Napoleon was able to invade Russia, it was because of Sweden and the Ottoman Empire on its two wings, both of which seemed to be "his own people", and then one betrayed and the other was beaten and forced to ask for peace.

But the current situation is that Sweden has replaced its king with the young King Gustav V and has become Russia's partner. If the Ottoman Empire is defeated again, Napoleon's plan will probably be broken.

But the good news is that Massena, who has both eyes, has confined Wellesley to Portugal. The war in Spain seems to be in the French's favor. This will allow them to draw out a lot of veterans, and the French army's combat effectiveness may be further strengthened.

In this case, Napoleon probably wouldn't care about anything else and would just attack directly.

By now, Solovyov actually realized that the situation had changed so dramatically that it was hard to predict what would happen in the future.

For example, Queen Louise was pregnant with her own child. Although only he and the queen knew about this, King FW ignored her and the queen herself was in good health. If she were still there, Prussia might have been more determined to secretly oppose France.

With the addition of this variable, the situation has become somewhat delicate. Solovyov is also thinking about whether Napoleon will come in 1812.

The countdown is less than two years, and we need to hurry up to resolve the Turkish issue. It is always difficult to predict what will happen in the future.

Under such circumstances, he decided to write to Petersburg again to express his opinion that the Ottoman Empire should be greatly weakened and most of its European part should be separated. (End of this chapter)