Chapter 684 The storm is coming

Morkov was obviously a little surprised and hurriedly ordered the cavalry to come up and asked:

"What is the damage?"

"General, The Poles destroyed 5 trucks of grain and barley, as well as 7 ammunition trucks, and suffered more than 200 casualties. "

Morkov breathed a sigh of relief and smiled disdainfully:

"These poor cowards can only carry out this small-scale harassment."

The ranger was stunned for a moment and said carefully:

"General, according to Kiev's reconnaissance, There should be more than 10,000 Polish troops present there. "

Because of the sudden incident, the Kiev garrison was unable to find out the specific situation of Kosciuszko's department.

In fact, the Royal 3rd Infantry Division alone has tens of thousands of people. Together with the Royal Cavalry Battalion, 5 winged cavalry squadrons, Warsaw Grenadier Regiment, etc., the total strength reaches 17,000. .

"So many?" Morkov couldn't help but narrowed his eyes, "What do the Poles want to do?"

The staff officer on the side said:

"General, they must have discovered that General Mozyr It will fall, so we are making a desperate move and plan to delay the pace of our attack by disrupting our army's supplies."

Morkov nodded slightly:

"In other words, Mozyr is now. The defensive force will be very weak

"The town of Marice must be captured at all costs today, and the attack on Mozyr will begin tomorrow."

A major general standing beside him thought:

"General, before the Poles Being huddled behind the defense line has made our army's progress very slow

"Now that they have escaped on their own, we can take advantage of this opportunity to eliminate these more than 10,000 enemy troops in Kiev. This is much easier than killing them behind the lines. "

Hearing this, Morkov also hesitated.

General Suvorov's order to him was to quickly seize the area on the west bank of the Dnieper River and form a pincer offensive against Warsaw with the Lithuanian Front.

Now that his advance has been much slower than expected, it is rare for the Polish army stationed in Mozyr to leave. The top priority should be to take the opportunity to capture this place.

He looked at the major general: "General Smirnov, you lead the Ukrainian Army, plus 6 Cossack cavalry squadrons, and cooperate with Colonel Chaperov to hold back the Polish army harassing Kiev." 
“Yes, General!”

Chaperov is the commander-in-chief of the Kiev garrison. At present, there are nearly 4,000 Russian troops in Kiev. Together with Smirnov's troops, the total strength reaches 15,000, which is enough to entangle the Polish army that penetrates deep into Kiev.

Morkov looked at the staff officer again: "Purdarev, fire all the artillery into the town of Marice, I don't want to go on like this anymore!"

"Yes, general!"
 "After Mozyr is captured, we will go to Kiev to deal with that little mouse."

......

Prussia.

Potsdam.

Prince Heinrich walked quickly into the music hall of Sanssouci Palace with an unconcealable smile on his face.

He found William II on the high platform next to the band, hurriedly stepped forward to salute, and then whispered:

"Your Majesty, Russia has sent troops."

The latter immediately showed joy, signaled Prince Heinrich to come to the room next to the hall, and asked impatiently:

"How is the battle going?"

The latter took out a report and handed it to him:

"Your Majesty, Russia's 120,000-strong army launched an attack from Mozyr and Braslav at the same time.

“The good news is that currently almost all of Poland’s forces are concentrated on the Eastern Front, and even Warsaw has less than 3,000 soldiers left. "This is the result after Joseph continued to "force" Poland to divest Prussian military influence. Historically, the Polish army retained a large number of Prussian officers, and information such as military mobilization was simply transparent to Prussia.

Even now, the Prussians in Poland will continue to send news back to Potsdam, but the core information is out of reach for them.

William II clenched his fists excitedly and said: "Great, then when do you think it is appropriate for us to send troops? Now?"

"Ah, maybe we can wait first Look, Your Majesty," Prince Heinrich said, "Wait until the Russian army consumes more waves. With the addition of Dutch soldiers, we can achieve our goals with fewer troops. This can save us a lot of military expenditures."

Prussia's economic situation was originally the worst among the great powers. After Silesia and Austria. After the war, finances were already very difficult. If it hadn't been for the 300,000 pounds provided by the United Kingdom, it would have been very difficult to maintain the finances from collapse, let alone go to war.

Originally, William II planned to invade Poland with 40,000 to 50,000 troops, but now it seems that under the powerful Russian offensive, Prussia's 30,000 troops are probably enough.

William II nodded: "Then you can mobilize the army to the border according to the appropriate scale. This time we must obtain the entire Greater Poland area, and, most importantly, Gdansk."

The Greater Poland area refers to The westernmost provinces of Poland, from Sieraz to Poznań, are a very fertile area of Poland.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Prince Heinrich bowed slightly, thought of something again, and hesitated: "There is one more thing, Your Majesty."

" Please tell me, dear uncle.”

"Catholics in provinces such as Kulm and Nakwo have shown a tendency to sympathize with Poland. You know, whether we send troops to Poznan or attack Gdańsk, we must start from these places."
 Although the state religion of Prussia is Protestant, the three eastern provinces of Kulm, Inowroclaw and Nakwo are Catholic territories - they were just snatched from Poland during the "One Melon" period. , religion has not been able to reverse it.

The so-called "sympathy for Poland" is naturally also Mesmer's credit.

Although he did not directly enter the three provinces of Prussia to promote the Crusade, he gave many speeches calling for jihad in neighboring Poznan. Word spread easily to the three provinces, where many residents spoke Polish.

William II frowned and said to Prince Heinrich: "Let the secret police deal with the instigators. I don't want to hear that the dispatch of troops will be affected by this."

"Yes, Your Majesty, I will definitely handle it properly."

......

Austria.

Vienna.

In Schönbrunn Palace, Francis II waved impatiently to Count Rheinfels:

"I don't want to see him, please find a way to send that guy away."

The "that guy" mentioned by Emperor Shinra refers to the Polish Foreign Minister Count Szczesny Potocki. He came to ask Austria to send troops to help Poland resist the Russian invasion.

According to Austria's consistent policy, it is necessary to protect the territorial integrity of Poland.

But Franz II planned to sit at the dining table this time and participate in this gluttonous feast.

He looked at the Minister of State aside:

"Baron Turgut, how is the situation with the army mobilization?"

The latter immediately said:

"Your Majesty, 8 Royal German Infantry Regiments, as well as the Krems Army, Royal Vienna The cavalry regiment, a total of 24,000 soldiers, has arrived in New Songchi..."

(End of this chapter)