Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Time is limited, and Solovyov believes that every minute is precious. He needs to mobilize the 40,000 to 50,000 Russian troops and Serbian volunteers at the front and distribute the troops reasonably.

In Larissa alone, he had more than 8,000 troops, including the main infantry regiment, so it seemed that the fence in Thessaloniki was not very solid.

But the Russian army has a huge psychological advantage, that is, the Turkish army has been defeated repeatedly in battles with them, and their advantage is all-round and without blind spots.

Perhaps, except for single combat between cavalry and encounter between small-scale cavalry units, there is no battle that the Turkish army can win.

Therefore, it is just that the Turkish cavalry is more arrogant. After all, it can cause huge trouble to the Russian army at the cavalry regiment level.

But there were not many Turkish cavalry in the city of Thessaloniki, and the troops defending the city were mainly infantry.

Murad Bey's only hope now is to successfully seek help from Constantinople. While the Russian army has not completely blockaded Thessaloniki and there is still a passage on the sea, he naturally has to send envoys to ask for help.

Although the old dock of Thessaloniki is in a semi-abandoned state, there are always ships here.

The Ottoman Empire's fleet still uses older names, such as "Gale" to refer to some of their warships. Some of the large ships are equivalent to the Russian battleships, while the smaller ships correspond to frigates.

Perhaps the only thing that connects this empire with the European powers is its navy, which still has a certain strength. However, this navy, which always loses battles, can only play a certain role when it does not have to face the enemy fleet in the Mediterranean like now.

There are indeed some speedboats in the port. If they pass on the message, according to the current wind direction, they will be able to reach Gallipoli for help soon. As long as they enter the waters of the two straits, they will be safe.

However, the ship that Murad Bey hoped would deliver the message exploded after sailing away from the coast for some time.

The explosion left the Turkish officials at the dock stunned.

"Oh God! What is going on?"

Murad Bey said that he was asking for trouble when he took the position of commander of the Thessaloniki garrison. However, when he took office, he could not have imagined that the Russians would be able to make a big detour, come from the west, pass through Skopje, and emerge from the mountains to take him by surprise.

In fact, his performance was much better than that of many Bayi masters. At least he blocked Sofia's front, forcing Solovyov to give up the shortest route and take into account the movements of Serbia.

But this guy took a detour and the friendly forces were not prepared, so even he who was working seriously was in trouble.

It was not until some sailors floated onto the beach with planks that the Bey realized what had happened.

"Master, our boat was sailing just fine when an explosion occurred. We were lucky enough to be thrown into the sea and survive."

"Do you know the cause of the explosion?"

"It was probably a Russian mine. The water here is dark. When our ship approached, it felt like it hit a chain or something, and it exploded quickly."

What Murad Bey could think of was that the Russian engineers had used floating mines to blow up the bridge. This was common knowledge among some Pashas and Beys in the Ottoman Empire who were relatively knowledgeable about military affairs.

It is not impossible that it happened at sea, but it seems that I am unlucky and became the first one to be sacrificed.

A speedboat exploded in the bay, and people on shore noticed it, not only the Turkish troops on the dock, but also the Russian troops nearby.

In fact, it was the ship itself that was unlucky as it was leaving the port. It encountered a few mines on the waterway, and there were big holes on both sides of the ship, which also blew up everything that could be exploded on the ship.

How could the effect not be obvious?
However, the envoys sent by land always ran out from the woods where the Russian army's defense was slightly relaxed and came to the court of Sultan Mahmud.

In Constantinople, Sultan Mahmud has not been living in the Sultan's palace recently, but has come to his villa by the sea.

Not only is the environment here better, but it is also more convenient for working and holding meetings. However, it is a longer journey to the palace to pay a "payment of respects" to her adoptive mother, the current empress dowager.

But considering that the queen mother had no ability to interfere in politics and at most had some ability to protect herself, the actual power was often in the hands of Sultan Mahmud himself.

The situation he saw was not optimistic. The Russian army was now pressing forward from the front, and the main force of Ahmed Pasha's Turkish army was also here. Although the task of resisting the Russian attack was accomplished, they were unable to fight back.

What was even more troublesome was that a detachment of the Russian army actually crossed the Danube near Vidin and repeatedly defeated the Turkish troops that attacked them. They even went all the way deep into the country, and after stationing in Sofia for a while, they took a detour to Skopje.

When Sultan Mahmud first received the news, he was somewhat relieved. Perhaps it was because the frontal defense was so effective that this Russian surprise force had to choose to go west, possibly to plunder the relatively "rich" towns in the area. After all, there were many "Orthodox Christians" there.

But Sultan Mahmud did not expect that the Macedonian army would emerge from the mountains, set an ambush near Vergina and defeat Murad Bey, and then take advantage of the chaos on the Greek peninsula to launch a large-scale attack.

But Thessaloniki was completely surrounded by Russian troops, which was unexpected.

It came too fast. Sultan Mahmud was still slowly transferring troops from Asia. By the end of the year, an army capable of attacking the Russian army in the west would be formed.

However, the Russian army acted too quickly and even directly surrounded Thessaloniki, forcing him to consider mobilizing troops.

However, how to use the soldiers at hand is still a problem.

He had to call back Ahmed Pasha to discuss how to fight the enemy.

The Pasha now had the freedom to breathe a sigh of relief. Kamensky was stopped outside several major fortresses by him, thus temporarily guaranteeing the safety of Constantinople.

But now the Russian army is attacking from the west and has surrounded Thessaloniki. If they occupy this place and march all the way eastward, some fortresses between Macedonia and Thrace can barely resist the Russian army, but at the same time it will prevent the Turkish army from deploying and having no way to take advantage of their own military strength.

He thought about this problem, but the current situation was too bad. Even Sultan Mahmud could not find a suitable candidate to be the commander of the Turkish army. In Constantinople, Ahmed Pasha soon met Grand Vizier Yusuf Pasha.

"You are finally home, Kushid Ahmed. His Majesty the Sultan is waiting for you in the Royal Villa."

"What's going on? The Russians are making more and more unexpected progress. What are they going to do if this continues?"

"I think they will come to Constantinople, but with only 40,000 people, they don't have enough manpower."

"But everything is possible in war. After all, you are the commander behind me, and we have no one else available now. If I don't go to Thessaloniki, it will probably be you. But your physical condition."

Yusuf Pasha lost one eye when he was young, so he was one-eyed. It was okay for him to be the head coach sitting in the rear, but it was a bit difficult for him to go to the front line.

If they did not go, it would probably be Aziz Ahmed Pasha, who was of higher status than Ahmed Pasha, who went.

This Pasha and Ahmed Pasha have always had a bad relationship, and they both accused each other of poor command. After all, the Russian army had been chasing them and had been defeated repeatedly. Perhaps the situation on Ahmed Pasha's side was better, and at least he could maintain the basic front line.

But when the former faced some small Russian troops, they always won some battles by stealing and cheating.

Therefore, sending Aziz Ahmed Pasha to Thessaloniki seemed an acceptable option.

As for who would go with him, it would probably be Haji Mustafa, who had defeated the Russian army in a previous encounter and was considered one of Ahmed Pasha's more useful generals.

In this environment, it is imperative for the Turkish army to deploy troops.

Several masters who were capable of winning battles were summoned to the royal villa today, and the young Sultan Mahmud was obviously a little anxious.

"The Russians have made rapid progress this time. The damn Dolgoruky family always had people from their family come to Crimea and Greece to cause trouble. This time, it's their son-in-law who came."

Other intelligence was not clear, but the Dolgorukov family had always been using military merits against the Turks, and coincidentally, Solovyov had close relations with the two princely families that were looking for trouble with His Majesty the Sultan, and he was even the grandson-in-law of Prince Krimsky.

It seems that it is indeed a match for the profession.

"Your Majesty, I think we still need to withdraw troops at this time, but we need to let Murad Bey in Thessaloniki continue to hold out for a while. No matter how strong the Russian army's siege capabilities are, a city like Thessaloniki has enough food reserves for the army in the city to use for a while, and it won't be a problem to hold out for one to two months. Although the Russian army looks powerful, this son-in-law of the Dolgorukov family has defeated our army twice, Mustafa Bey and Musa Pasha were both defeated by him, but his troops are limited. If Kamensky had arrived in Thessaloniki, it might have been even more troublesome for us, but fortunately they are trapped in the mountains."

The Sultan looked at Ahmed Pasha, and Aziz, who was at odds with him, nodded. The Grand Vizier began to speak: "Your Majesty, I think it is time to gather our troops to rescue Thessalonika. But unlike the previous times, we must send a reliable general as the commander this time. We must not repeat the mistakes we made in Lom."

At this point, Sultan Mahmud himself frowned. Mustafa Bey was nowhere to be found, alive or dead, and he couldn't find him even if he wanted to punish him.

After the current defeat, they could only summon a bunch of useless soldiers again and put them under the command of a suitable commander.

He looked at the Grand Vizier, a Georgian who was blind in one eye and could only choose one of the two Ahmed Pashas who were at odds with each other. He preferred Aziz Ahmed, who was quite familiar with Macedonia and the garrisons in Bursa and Erzurum.

It is currently more convenient for Aziz Ahmed to command these two garrisons, which are mainly guest troops transferred from various places under the command of Ahmed Pasha.

He didn't even discuss it, he just looked at Aziz Ahmed Pasha and said, "It seems that you are needed, Aziz Ahmed, but you must be careful this time, the Russians are very cunning."

"Your Majesty, at this time, the more cunning the fox is, the harder it is to hunt. If you believe me, you must at least recruit 80,000 troops, and even need external assistance, such as the British. Although what they did in Alexandria before..."

"I know, Aziz Ahmed, I will summon the British ambassador and ask him if he can send troops to support us."

They also regarded the British as a lifeline. After all, when Napoleon invaded Egypt, it was the British who almost trapped him to death.

Then Napoleon fled, Kléber was assassinated, and the French were finally defeated by a combination of British and Turkish forces.

Under the current situation, based on past experience, the arrival of the British can indeed help them hold out for a while.

However, whether the British army will come or not, Solovyov made them suffer in Sweden last time, and the British Parliament has been arguing over various affairs recently, so the timeliness of this is definitely a problem.

No matter how fast the ship runs, it still takes time to travel back and forth to send troops.

What's more, the British army has limited manpower on the mainland, and if the remaining people also join the battle.

Although the French will not attack, the United States poses a real threat to the colonies. They have recently attempted to ask General Moreau to command the army, which is also a dangerous signal.

But the Turks had already defeated an invading enemy with the help of Britain, and although there was a battle between the two sides three years ago, it was a minor matter.

As long as there are people who can resist the Russians, we will definitely give them whatever they want.

Moreover, Britain at that time was not short of money. When it came to the Spanish issue, they were able to come up with a large amount of funds to support the Spanish army, and they had also paid money to the anti-French alliance before.

Therefore, he is always a reliable teammate.

However, even now this teammate can only give money, and their troops really cannot be mobilized.

The Turkish army itself can get a lot of soldiers, but the combat effectiveness of these people has always been a big question mark. The cavalry is too strong, and the infantry is basically garbage. (End of this chapter)