It was early summer on April 23, the forty-second year of Chengshun.
Astrakhan, at the mouth of the lower Volga River, is a city with a long history. It originated from the local nomads and was captured by the Russians more than a hundred years ago. The Russians built a military fortress here. , a certain number of soldiers were stationed.
This place has been peaceful for more than a hundred years, but changes began about twenty years ago. As Russia continued to be defeated in Siberia, and after the Kazakhs on the southern Kazakh grasslands were finished, the Chu army began to appear in the Urals. Along the river, Xihai City was established at the mouth of the Ural River.
Although the subsequent Great Chu Empire did not continue its large-scale westward march, it actually continued to send troops westward into the lower Volga River basin hundreds of kilometers to the west.
In order to fight against the Chu people and protect the lower Volga River Basin, the Russians began to build military fortresses in the lower Volga River Basin for a long time, building the so-called Volga Defense Line.
Among them, Astrakhan is a fortress city built by the Russians, and they have gradually increased their troops.
As of April of the 42nd year of Chengshun, Astrakhan had evolved into a large fortress city with various complete city defense facilities... About 30,000 Russian troops and their servants of various types were stationed. The Russian servant army here is also quite interesting. The main body of it is a large number of nomadic troops who fled westward from the western Kazakh grassland.
In addition to the heavy garrison, a large number of artillery was also deployed here. There were at least more than 200 long-barreled smoothbore cannons of various types, some of which were large-caliber long-barreled cannons. They were mainly used to guard the river and prevent the Chu army's gunboats from intruding. Volga.
There are several other Russian cities like Astrakhan that carried out city defense construction and heavily garrisoned due to the threat of the Chu army, such as Tsaritsyn (Stalingrad) in the north, Saratov, Yekaterinburg, etc. .
It can be said that in order to prevent the Chu army from continuing to advance westward, Russia has invested a lot of manpower and material resources in the past two decades and deployed most of its conventional troops in the eastern region.
It's just that... this kind of heavy defense is actually meaningless to the Chu army.
If they really wanted to fight, the Chu army could have defeated them even more than ten years ago... It's just that the Chu army didn't want to fight due to various factors.
This also gave the Russians the illusion that their eastern defense measures over the past ten or twenty years had achieved positive and effective results... The reason why the Chu army attacked or did not dare to attack was because they were The Ural Mountains in the east and the Volga River defense line are strong and have strong troops!
Therefore, the Russians had enough confidence to reject the Chu Empire's proposal to fully open the market several times, hoping to retain the so-called bottom line.
It is because they feel that although the Chu people are strong, they are not without the strength to fight. As long as they can fight tenaciously in the war, not to mention completely blocking the Chu people's attack, as long as they can cause enough casualties to the Chu people, If you create enough trouble, and if you surrender and make certain concessions when the time comes, you will be able to successfully obtain a 'decent' ending that no other European country has ever received, and avoid becoming a full-scale colony.
But this statement is somewhat nonsense to the Chu Army... But the Russians themselves think so, and there is nothing they can do about it.
In response to the stubbornness of the Russians, the Chu people were too lazy to negotiate with Russia and directly came up with the "Eastern European Grain Development Plan". They didn't want any colonies or engage in economic plunder. They just took over the place and built one themselves. Forget about the super big granary.
In this way, the 18th Division of the Chu Empire Army marched westward from Xihai City, sweeping through many Russian outposts along the way. In the afternoon of April 23, Chengshun 42, its forward troops We have arrived at the outskirts of Astrakhan.
For a time, the Russians in the city were panicked, and a large number of people fled to the rear with their families to avoid the war.
And the Russian army in the city is also panicking... You must know that the Chu army in front of you did not appear out of thin air, but has swept all the way over in the past half a month. There are also Russians along the way. The fortresses and strongholds resisted, and the Russians once dispatched cavalry troops to attack and intercept...
But none of them could stop the continuous advancement of the main force of the Chu people.
Not only did they fail to stop the Chu people's continuous advance, but they also lost troops and generals!
The total number of Russian troops in the fortresses along the way was several thousand, but there were less than 500 Russian troops who were able to escape back to Astrakhan, a strategic fortress in the rear...
At the same time, the cavalry sent by the Russian army to attack and intercept also suffered heavy losses in a confrontation with the Chu army's cavalry.
After this calculation, the Russian army had lost several thousand people before and after, but it could not even slow down the Chu army's march, let alone stop the Chu army.
The actual situation is indeed the case. The Chu army attacking from Xihai City towards Astrakhan this time is the 18th Division. There is also an independent cavalry regiment to coordinate operations, with a total strength of approximately 18,000 people.
The Chu army that was actually arranged to fight the Russian troops along the way was actually only an infantry regiment and a cavalry unit, adding up to a forward force of more than 4,000 people.
More main troops, artillery troops, and baggage troops are still marching behind.
However, such a forward force swept the Russian army all the way, opening a passage of more than 300 kilometers for the main force of the Chu army to advance westward.
At the same time, the Russians continued to be defeated. After many defeated troops fled back to Astrakhan, they not only brought specific news about the front line to this place, but also brought panic.
In these descriptions of defeated troops, those Chu people were simply invincible...if ordinary soldiers did not have the ability and knowledge to understand the Chu army.
Then the description of the battle on the front line by the defeated officers in the rout made the Russian generals defending the city panic...
According to the officers of the defeated army, although they were defeated in various ways, some defended the city and were defeated, some fought in the wild and were defeated, some tried to be ambushed and failed and were killed, and some were defeated by Chu cavalry. Pursuit, interception, etc.
However, some experienced generals in the Russian army extracted from these various descriptions of failures a highly consistent statement that almost all officers of the defeated army would mention.
That's because the Chu army's firepower was too strong, far beyond the Russian army's expectations!
The Russian army's previous predictions had actually increased the firepower of the Chu army to a very high level. Don't think that the Russians are stupid enough to think that the Chu army on the opposite side uses smoothbore cannons like themselves. Russia also knows that the Chu army on the opposite side uses smoothbore cannons. The army uses breech-loading rifled rifles and breech-loading rifled cannons... not only can they shoot far and accurately, but they can also shoot very fast...
But according to the officers who defeated the army, it was even more exaggerated!
For example, in terms of infantry firepower, there were quite a few defeated troops, especially the officers who said that the rifles used by the Chu army who came from the east were faster... and they didn't have to reload each round.
An officer of the defeated army said that he once used a telescope to see with his own eyes the soldiers of the Chu army on the opposite side. He raised his rifle and simply pulled it to aim and shoot. In just about ten seconds, he fired five rounds of bullets. In the process, there was no There is no reloading action.
All of this shows, without exception, that the Chu army on the opposite side is using a new type of rifle that can fire continuously... a new rifle that they can't even imagine, but even if they only know a little bit about it, they will feel desperate.
In addition to rifles, the artillery firepower of these Chu troops was even more fierce... The defeated Russian troops were more deeply impressed by the fierceness of the Chu army's artillery fire, because of the previous series of small and medium-sized combat effectiveness, regardless of whether it was a fortress offensive and defensive battle or a field attack battle, etc. , these Russian defeated troops had been attacked by intensive artillery fire.
The intensity of its shelling far exceeded the Russian army's previous imagination!
An officer of the defeated army reported that when he led his soldiers to fight a group of Chu troops of about a hundred people, they were subjected to an extremely intensive artillery bombardment...the shells continued to fall on their heads like rain. More than half of his soldiers were killed or injured in an instant!
However, the defeated Russian troops were not sure how many Chu troops they encountered, and they were even less clear where the artillery fire came from. Was it carried by these small-scale infantry, or was it fired by the main artillery unit of the Chu army behind them.
The only thing that is certain is that the artillery fire of the Chu army on the opposite side is stronger than what they have learned in Europe before.
Whether it was rifles or artillery, the Chu army on the opposite side had changed... It was stronger than many things the Russians had collected in Europe before.
Naturally, the Russians on the opposite side did not know that the 18th Division of the Chu Empire Army they encountered was a serious first-class combat readiness division in the Chu Empire. It was also the core combat readiness force stationed in the western region and had priority. Permission to equip new weapons.
The Type 25 repeating rifle has just begun to enter large-scale service in the past two years. Although the 18th Division is not the first division-level unit to be equipped with this new rifle, it is also among the top ten.
In the first year that the Type 25 repeating rifle was officially put into large-scale service, the 18th Division received the first batch of more than 1,000 modified rifles for preliminary adaptability training.
In the second year, the 18th Division completed a comprehensive replacement of the Type 25 repeating rifle.
The reason why the 18th Division's artillery fire became more ferocious was that the Type 41 60mm mortar was put into service.
This kind of artillery was only officially finalized last year. The Army has not purchased much equipment. Strictly speaking, it is still in the early stage of actual combat testing. It was only because the 18th Division was to be transferred to the front line to participate in front-line battles that it was decided to give it to the 18th Division first. The equipment of the Eighteenth Division is used not only as direct firepower, but also as company and platoon-level support firepower.
Therefore, the 18th Division obtained dozens of 41-type 60mm mortars. Due to the lack of actual combat experience with this type of artillery, for better training and use, each infantry battalion was assigned a mortar. The artillery companies were assigned an establishment of four guns per company.
During battle, the mortars are directly assigned to the infantry companies, so that each infantry company can receive fire support from a mortar.
In normal times, training is carried out at the upper level, and during battles, they are transferred to the lower level units for combat. This is also the tradition of various artillery units in the Great Chu Empire.
For example, the army's artillery brigades and regiments are directly under the jurisdiction of the army. However, in actual combat, especially when fighting the indigenous people, the Chu army rarely uses the entire army to fight. It can send one to each direction. Divisions are good, so there will be an infantry division as the core, which will then be assigned to the military's cavalry regiments, baggage or artillery units for reinforcement, and will be fully responsible for a certain front.
Similarly, divisional artillery units are often transferred to infantry regiments to form a temporary mixed regiment.
The 70mm infantry guns belonging to the regiment level are basically directly distributed to the infantry battalions during combat.
Nowadays, the daily management and training of these mortars are also under the management of the infantry battalion, and they are assigned to the infantry companies for use during battles... If not, then each company will only have one mortar, which will not be easy to arrange training.
It’s impossible for every company to assign an experienced instructor to be the instructor...
A similar situation also occurs in some other technical arms. Scattered allocation is not conducive to training, so they will be centralized for training and will be decentralized during combat.
The same is true for the mortars in the 18th Division, and such a centralized training model also allowed the mortar troops in the 18th Division to complete preliminary training in just a few months, possess preliminary combat effectiveness, and be able to plunge into combat.
The 18th Division, which has been equipped with new rifles and mortars, has not changed much in other aspects. For example, the division's artillery is still mainly composed of the 32-year-old 75mm field gun and the 34-year-old 75mm mountain gun. The regiment's infantry artillery is the Type 34 70mm infantry artillery.
The infantry organization and scale have not changed much, except that the mortar organization and personnel have been increased.
As for the cavalry, they only installed the short-barreled cavalry version of the Type 25 repeating rifle and brought a few 60mm mortars. There were no other changes.
However, just this has greatly increased the firepower density of the 18th Division of the Dachu Empire Army, especially the firepower of the front-line infantry.
The firepower density brought by repeating rifles and mortars enables the infantry units of the 18th Division to exert a firepower density far greater than before the change of equipment during combat.
Especially after the mortars were directly transferred to the infantry company, the infantry company level, that is, the Chu army infantry of more than a hundred people, could receive direct artillery support, instead of the usual battalion level with only thousands of people. Only combat troops can receive fire support from 70mm infantry artillery.
From this we can see the important tactical role of the 60mm mortar in the Chu army!
It can be said that the Chu army can do without 80mm or even larger caliber mortars, but it cannot do without 60mm mortars, because although large-caliber mortars are also good, it does not mean that they must be used. Others Barrel-barreled artillery can also perform similar tasks.
However, the 60mm mortar has filled the firepower gap of front-line infantry. It can directly obtain artillery support for company-level troops. At the same time, its range has reached 1,300 meters, which can effectively expand the projection distance of infantry firepower and fill the gap of rifles. The gap between firepower and the 70mm infantry gun.
And these are not even counting another important feature of the mortar, that is, the characteristic of large-angle deflection, which has the characteristic of killing enemy troops behind trenches and city defenses. This characteristic is especially useful in difficult battles. Use... Because when facing the Chu army, those natives like to dig trenches and hide in the trenches to resist.
Although the 70mm infantry cannon can also shoot at large angles, it is still a little less interesting.
The many benefits and features are also the reason why the Army quickly placed an order to purchase test equipment after seeing the successful development of the 60mm mortar.
As long as the Type 41 mortar performs well, the Army will probably place a large order and directly equip it with comprehensive equipment.
Even if the Type 41 mortar is not very good in appearance, as long as the Army can see several characteristics of the mortar, such as lightness and flexibility, curved trajectory, and fast rate of fire, then the Army will also We will not give up mortars. If Type 41 is not working, we will develop new mortars.
In short, the Army needs such a lightweight infantry direct-fire artillery. The specific model is not important, what is important is that there must be such a thing.
Under such circumstances, the 18th Division became one of the first units to be equipped with modified mortars, and then the Russians experienced unprecedented intensive artillery fire. Those Russian troops who were defeated thought that the Chu army's artillery would Fly, otherwise why would you just follow the infantry all the way forward and fight as you go?
The 18th Division's sweeping sweep frightened the Russians out of their wits. The 30,000 Russian troops on the Astrakhan side were even more terrified. When more than 1,000 of the 18th Division's forwards appeared on the other side of the river, At that time, there were even many deserters in the city of Astrakhan...especially the servants of the nomadic tribes in the city. At least a thousand people fled that day!
These servants of the nomadic tribes had fled all the way from the Kazakh grasslands. They had a natural fear of the Chu army. Now he heard that the Chu people were coming and became more powerful. Many nomadic tribes The so-called natural cavalry here has such weak legs that he can’t even get on a horse...
Under such circumstances, they did not care what the Russians above them thought or did. Many people fled directly, and many of them were led by tribal leaders and fled directly.
Russians and Chu people are fighting each other to the death. What does it have to do with my nomadic tribe that doesn’t even have a country?
The Chu people are coming, and the worst we can do is give up the pastures in this area and continue to move west.
Fortunately, the Russian generals discovered something was wrong early and sealed off the whole city the next day... Otherwise, they were worried that if things continued like this, all the servants would be gone before the Chu people even started crossing the river to attack the city.
The servant army had fled and only ten thousand of them were left, making it even more impossible to stop the Chu army's attack.
The Russian army on the other side of the river was facing panic, and there was even a large-scale organized desertion. The Chu army on the other side could see it to some extent, but they were not in a hurry to cross the river.
Instead, they built a camp on the other side of the river and prepared to wait for the arrival of the main force from the rear.
Especially waiting for the arrival of the main divisional artillery and engineering units from the rear. After all, there is a Volga River blocking the front. The Volga River at the downstream outlet is also quite wide, and it is not easy to cross the river.
At the same time, the Russians also built a fort on the other side of the river, which can directly bombard the river... Although the Russians have some front-loading smoothbore cannons, front-loading smoothbore cannons can also kill people.
Don't look down on front-loading smoothbore cannons. The Chu army's mortars, even most of the mortars in the 21st century, are still front-loading smoothbore cannons...
Therefore, these Chu army forwards did not act rashly. Instead, they rested on the other side of the river and waited for the arrival of the main force from the rear. However, the main force from the rear had not arrived yet, and the West Sea Fleet from the navy came first.
And they also brought a gunboat that looked strange, with its whole body covered in steel.
