Chapter 707 Strategic Roundabout (Additional Update for Alliance Leader Lin Jiaer’s Family)
Yager said with a pale face: “Why are the Poles here?”
“I don’t know either. "
"Didn't you say that the emperor's army beat the Poles very badly?"
Yakov said absently: "It was Master Gumilov who said that..."
"But I think those Poles are very scary!"
In the city of Bryansk.
A captain saluted Kosciuszko and said: "Report to the general, there is very little food in the city."
The latter nodded and looked at Dombrovsky aside. : "Obviously the Russians are on guard."
"The wheat we got in Trubchevsk can last for more than half a month." said the commander of the cavalry regiment, "enough for us to rush to Moscow The city is under.”
Kosciuszko frowned and looked east: "You may have noticed that there are more and more Russian troops around us."
"That's true. But they always keep their distance from us, except Apart from occasional sneak attacks, no large-scale "It means attacking."
"But this will slow us down." Kosciuszko sighed, "The further east we go, the more frequent these attacks will be.
"We are destined to not be able to reach Moscow within half a month. ”
When the army is on the march, it will line up in a long and narrow column, but this formation cannot fight at all.
Therefore, once you are attacked by the enemy, you must immediately switch from a marching column to a linear formation for defense.
But the queue conversion of the large army will definitely take a lot of time.
Since the Russian army began to adopt the "delay and avoid battle" tactic, the marching speed of the Kosciuszko Army has been reduced by about half.
Dombrovsky calculated silently and looked solemn: "Yes, we can only go as far as Kaluga at most. It seems that we have to try to find the main force of the Russian army for a decisive battle. ”
“No, that will only keep us stuck here”
"But our goal is Moscow. Are we just waiting for the plan to fail?"
Kosciuszko shook his head: "No, our goal has never been Moscow."
" What did you say?”
“At the military meeting in Paris, "Decided." Kosciuszko said, "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has long considered that we may encounter this situation."
An infantry lieutenant colonel drove to Kosciuszko. In front of him, he saluted and said: "General, all the Russian troops in the city have been cleared. What should we do next?"
"Bring all the food and ammunition you can find."
Kosciuszko looked at the city hall building in the distance and ordered: "Burn all municipal buildings, banks, warehouses, and workshops. . ”
The essence of war is destruction, and there is no room for mercy.
Only by causing maximum damage to the enemy can you better protect yourself.
Especially since Russia has brought huge disasters to Poland, Kosciuszko will not be merciful to them.
In fact, if the Polish army could not stay here for a long time, he would have burned down the shops and mansions.
But setting a fire without advance preparation is not a simple matter. So we can only destroy the most important things.
"Yes, General!"
After the lieutenant colonel left, Dombrowski couldn't wait to ask: "Then what is our real goal?"
< br>In order not to leak secrets, only the commander-in-chief Kosciuszko and a few staff officers knew the specific plan for this mission into Russia. Kosciuszko raised his hand and pointed to the south and said calmly: "Crimea."
Yes, Joseph knew from the beginning that with less than 20,000 Polish troops, it was almost impossible to threaten Moscow.
If Nahuang, who was at the height of his power at that time, wanted to do this, he would have to bring hundreds of thousands of troops with him.
So, his goal has always been Russia's "southern gate" - Crimea.
Losing Crimea, Russia will lose control of the Black Sea and lose access to the huge Mediterranean trade.
As long as the national strength allowed, the tsars of the past dynasties would spare no effort to use troops here.
And Catherine II also spent a lot of money and lost tens of thousands of troops to seize this strategic location from the Ottomans.
In terms of importance to the empire, Crimea is not much worse than Moscow.
This is also the reason why half a century later in history, Russia lost to the British, French and Turkish coalition forces in the Crimean War and immediately fell into a trough for decades.
Dombrovsky suddenly frowned: "We are now 500 miles away from Crimea, and our food is simply not enough to support such a long journey.
"Besides, there is the Kursk Fortress in the middle. The plan you proposed is simply impossible!"
"Even you think it is impossible, let alone the enemy." Kosciuszko He said, "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince will help us solve the logistical supply problem. He promised me.
"As for the Kursk Fortress. The Russians had no idea that we would suddenly move south, so the defenses there must be lax.
"We can capture there. We must capture there too!"
Dombrovsky took a deep breath, nodded and smiled: "Okay, since you want Crazy, then I will go crazy with you this time.”
"For Poland!"
At dusk, the burning Bryansk turned into a torch on the plain, lighting up the path of Polish soldiers going south.
Kosciuszko looked back to the east and said with great regret: "The Russians reacted too quickly, otherwise we would have had a chance to destroy Kaluga according to the original plan."
"Bryansk has already caused them heavy losses." Dombrovsky said , thought of another thing, turned his head and asked, "By the way, why didn't we go directly south from Mozyr, but why did we go around here on the north bank of the Oka River first?"
Ke Scushko smiled and said: "This is the beauty of this plan.
"I bet you that the entire Russian army must be mobilizing in the direction of Moscow.
"If we are lucky enough, even a large part of the Kursk garrison will be mobilized.
"And if we go directly south, we will face layers of siege by the Russian army, just like our situation at this time. We can't go north to Moscow by then, right?"
Two Everyone laughed together.
It seems that their trip is not to die, but to participate in a long-awaited feast.
The next day, Korezhennikov, who was responsible for besieging Kosciuszko's army, suddenly lost trace of the Polish army.
In the temporary command post of the Russian army, Korezhennikov frowned and stared at the map, and suddenly took a photo of the location of Moscow:
"No matter what method they used, the final goal It must be Moscow.”
He said to the herald: "Let Vasnetsov detach three regiments to return to Moscow. The other regiments will concentrate on Kaluga and try to intercept the Poles there.
"In addition, send people Go and urge Saratov's troops to speed up their march. ”
"Yes, General!"
(End of this chapter)