Chapter 22

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Chapter 22: Prussia Is Invincible

"Darn, what should I do?"

In early April, a big battle broke out between Russia and Turkey in the county of Auerstadt in Valachia, with over a hundred thousand soldiers from both sides, including Prussian mercenaries.

On one side, the Russian army had the Prussian Guard Light Cavalry Brigade, while Osman’s side had the Prussian National Defense Second Division. They faced each other across the battlefield, even though they were on different sides.

Both Russia and Turkey were sly, sending Prussian mercenaries to the same battlefield. Wasn’t anyone worried that the Prussians might start fighting each other directly?

Later, military advisors arrived to watch the battle. Lieutenant General Catherine instructed that the Prussians shouldn’t fight each other.

It was very awkward because the total number of soldiers in the battle was over a hundred thousand, but after subtracting Prussian mercenaries, advisors, and observers, there were only a little over eighty thousand left. Both Russia and Osman considered the Prussian mercenaries as crucial.

The Battle of Auerstadt turned into an epic showdown of inexperienced soldiers, which was hard to watch.

The terrain near the battlefield was flat, with no hills in sight. To get a better view, Catherine ordered the construction of a tall watchtower. She climbed up and down it every day, using a telescope to observe everything.

The two armies’ camps were five kilometers apart. Just by looking at the camps, one could tell the difference in military capability. The troops sent by Russia and Turkey were both second-rate, with very poor military training. Their camps were haphazardly arranged, lacking tents. Most soldiers slept under simple open tents and spent leisure time sitting around in small groups, not doing much.

Catherine got bored observing the Russian and Turkish armies, and decided to play with her new binoculars instead.

Last year, Prussia forcibly bought several crystal chemical and optical industrial companies in the Netherlands at a very high price. They bought a bunch of run-down workshops, many people didn’t understand. The prince regent said that in the future, these would all be the foundation of lithography machines, but still, many didn’t understand.

However, it seems that the super high-priced acquisition of several workshops in the Netherlands is useful now. This binoculars is a masterpiece from the Dutch helpers. Prussia’s defense army issued it to all military officers, and Catherine herself customized one, using a silver barrel with exquisite carvings to highlight her noble status.

This thing is much better than the single telescope before, much more interesting than the squabbles between Russia and Turkey.

The head of the observation group is slacking off, while others are bored working hard, analyzing the combat capabilities of the armies of Russia and Turkey, as well as the direction of this battle.

The infrastructure of these two countries is in a terrible state. The railways are only a few hundred kilometers, purely used for the entertainment of the nobles. The roads are unbearable to look at, not to mention carriages, horses can easily twist their feet and get stuck in the mud.

The Balkan Peninsula, what a broken place, far from the core areas of Russia and Turkey, and nationalism is awakening with guerrilla groups everywhere, making the already rubbish logistics even worse.

Coupled with the continuous internal chaos in both countries, the elite troops have to stay in the core areas to suppress rebellions at any time, unable to be dispatched to the Balkans front line for combat. They can only assemble a group of weak second-line troops, conscripted soldiers, and militiamen to fight.

After Chief of General Staff Moltke understood the situation, he believed that the first-line main forces of Russia and Turkey could only be on par with Prussia’s second-line troops. As for the second-line troops of Russia and Turkey, well… it’s just the level of the former Prussian militia.

On April 11th, the Battle of Auerstadt entered a crucial phase, confirming Moltke’s speculation.

Catherine couldn’t stand the low-quality and low-tech war anymore, she demanded to end this farce as quickly as possible.

Employed by the Earth faction, the Second Division of Prussian Defense Forces launched an attack on the Russian army alone, surprising forty-five thousand soldiers with only seven thousand.

The Second Division of Defense Forces was a standard infantry division after military reform, consisting of three infantry regiments, one artillery regiment, one logistics regiment, a communication company, an engineer company, and a cavalry reconnaissance unit, with a full strength of nine thousand soldiers, currently reduced to seven thousand.

The artillery regiment used 12 old-fashioned 6-pound cannons, 12 Keluobo cannons, and 2 old 18-pound siege cannons.

Keluobo 75mm field gun, rear-loaded, smoothbore, with silk powder bags for shells, spherical shells with wooden bases for gas tightness, all made of copper.

There was still a gap between this type of artillery and the large cannons desired by the prince regent, due to technological limitations. Steel cannons and metal fixed shell technology were not yet feasible, and rifled cannons were too expensive to use.

Despite not meeting the requirements of the prince regent, this transitional Keluobo field gun was excellent, with twice the firing speed of old-fashioned cannons. Threaded gun breeches and high-purity copper gas tight rings ensured airtightness, along with Prussian black technology explosives, which had over five times the power of black powder shells with the same amount of propellant.

The infantry were equipped with a large number of Dreiser improved firing pins, despite some issues with airtightness, the cost, reliability, and durability had greatly increased.

The grenade throwers under the infantry regiments had been equipped with the latest wooden-handle hand grenades, with power comparable to the previous large iron canisters, though they had some reliability issues, the tall and powerful grenade throwers could throw them up to fifty meters away.

In addition to being ahead in weapons and equipment, Prussia’s Second Division also started daring new tactics.

As the Russian side did not send out cavalry and Magic Energy Knights in this battle, their hired Prussian cavalry were lazy, while Prussia’s Second Infantry Division boldly used a very long formation.

The infantry were lined up in a single line without depth, reserve forces, or anti-cavalry measures. In the main attack area, they stood in two rows, with the front row shooting and the back row reloading.

The Russian army fought back with standard infantry tactics in lines, but they were bombarded heavily. The Keluobo field guns left a deep impression on them in this battle.

The artillery shells using delayed fuses made of softwood had a 50% chance of being duds. The remaining 50% could send a group of people flying with the powerful nitrocellulose explosives. Many Russian soldiers suffered no external wounds but were killed by the shock waves.

The artillery of the National Defense Army’s Second Division used a tactic called "two flanks suppression," concentrating all artillery fire on both sides of the enemy’s formation. This pushed the enemy to disperse their formation and move towards the center. If too many soldiers were gathered in the center, it would greatly reduce the enemy’s firepower output efficiency.

When the enemy started gathering in the middle of their formation, all artillery fire was concentrated on that area while our infantry began to charge.

This artillery strategy was created by the Chief of General Staff, Moltke, based on innovations in artillery weapons and explosives technology. Previous artillery had slow firing rates, poor reliability in shell explosions, and low power. Most used solid iron balls which were not very effective in killing, even piercing through a whole row would only affect seven to eight people.

The new rear-loading cannons had fast firing speeds and the nitrocellulose explosives were extremely powerful, killing many at once, enough to drive off and suppress the enemy.

The Russian soldiers were completely confused by the powerful explosion of the cannons. They were caught off guard by the strong impact of the exploding shells, which could kill a group of people within ten meters. It was something they had never seen before, making it difficult for the infantry to continue the battle.

Fortunately, the Prussian army had longer fuses on their cannon shells. After landing, they would wait for about ten seconds before exploding. There was a fifty percent chance that the shells were duds. The Russian soldiers panicked, dodging left and right, under the barrage of the Prussian artillery, moving towards the middle of their defense line.

Seeing the effectiveness of the artillery tactics, General Franziski, the commander of the second division of the defense army, took the lead and led the infantry forward.

General Franziski was a Magic Energy Knight, although he was considered the weakest class and could only defend against bullets, most of the time it was sufficient. In these times, anyone who was hit by a solid iron ball was considered doomed.

He enjoyed leading the soldiers from the front, which greatly boosted morale. Franziski walked at the forefront, with the long line of Prussian troops marching forward in unison, sounding like a robotic army in the military music.

Order and courage were the key criteria for judging armies in the age of infantry. When the Russian noble officers saw the Prussian troops in perfect formation, they knew they were in trouble and felt defeated without even exchanging blows.

The next step was a ruthless sweep. The Russian infantry, pressed by the earlier artillery fire, huddled together, making it impossible for the rear ranks to provide effective firepower. The front line infantry also lost their formation due to the intense bombardment.

The Prussian back-loading needle guns directly stunned the Russian soldiers. The Russian troops didn’t even have Minié bullets. The muzzle velocity of the old-style muzzle-loaded bullets was similar to the Dreyse needle gun, which could fire seven to eight times faster than the old-style rifles.

Amidst the artillery fire and chaos, the Russian second-line troops took about forty to fifty seconds to reload, while the well-trained elite soldiers with the Dreyse needle gun could fire every six seconds after aiming for a while.

The Osman army watched from behind and were amazed to see the Second Infantry Division of the Prussian Defense Army defeating over 40,000 Russian soldiers with their 7,000 troops.

The Russian army started fleeing without even engaging in hand-to-hand combat or extending their firepower. The Battle of Auerstadt ended in victory for the Prussian side without the Osman army even joining the fight.

The casualties of the Second Division were less than three hundred, while the Russian army left over five thousand dead bodies. They didn’t actually die in large numbers, but were overwhelmed and lost their morale, causing them to run away.

Catherine, who watched the entire battle from the watchtower, clapped in satisfaction. The Prussians had trained for years under the leadership of the prince regent and finally achieved victory. The Prussian army was now unrivaled.

The Russian commander ran and cursed because the Prussian light cavalry unit they had hired did not engage in the battle and slacked off the whole time.

General Zastrow, the commander of the light cavalry unit, had a reason to refuse to participate in the battle, saying that their soldiers couldn’t create opportunities since the infantry couldn’t hold the line. It wasn’t a lack of professional spirit, but a practical impossibility.

The Russian commander continued to curse, saying that they could have won easily if the Prussian army had attacked, as there were no measures against cavalry in their weak formation.

General Zastrow responded that the cavalry couldn’t charge against the intense firepower, especially not against the Dreyse needle gun.

General Zastrow, who was of Polish descent and a Prussian military leader, was indifferent to the fact that many Russian officers were his fellow countrymen. As a Prussian soldier, he prioritized Prussia’s interests above all.

Osman’s general was overjoyed. The Prussia mercenaries proved their worth. They had a great victory! Quickly report to the Sultan. We have defeated Russia. The Ottoman Empire is invincible!

Russia suffered a disastrous defeat on land, and the Tsar was furious. He demanded that Prussia withdraw the mercenaries. Prussia replied, "We must uphold professional ethics and cannot breach the contract."

Russia dared not face Prussia’s mercenaries on land anymore and decided to seek revenge at sea.

Just as Sultan Osman was celebrating, the entire Ottoman navy was annihilated by the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

The Black Sea Fleet was a formidable force with decades’ worth of resources, including first-rate battleships, second-rate battleships, third-rate battleships, large frigates with 60 cannons, small cruisers with 48 cannons, and many more.

The Black Sea Fleet dominated the Black Sea and Aegean Sea, easily defeating the Ottoman navy. With the Ottoman navy destroyed, the Black Sea Fleet emerged victorious.

However, this was the Black Sea Fleet’s final glory, as Russia forced the Ottomans to surrender, cede territories, and pay reparations, imposing harsh conditions. Britain and France, seeing their interests threatened in the Mediterranean, decided to intervene directly.

A joint British-French fleet set sail for the Black Sea, comprising first-rate battleships, second-rate battleships, third-rate battleships, and over fifty cruisers and single-masted ships.

Prussia watched the upcoming super naval battle of the age and could only spectate. With only one cruiser and no battleships, they were like onlookers. Regardless of the British, French, or Russian navy, they seemed like gods to Prussia.

Tsar Nicholas I was completely confused, why are people from England and France teaming up against him? Why are these two countries working together against him?

England and France had been planning for a long time, but Tsar Nicholas I still didn’t understand what was happening…