Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796

Soloviev also knew that because she had seen too much blood since childhood, Mihlima was either brave or numb to this kind of bloody environment, or both, or there were some other factors.

However, in his impression, even the brave Maria would be afraid of mice. Just like Catherine, she really dared to fire a gun and was a bit wild. Napoleon doted on her so much that he neglected other mistresses. Although it was a bit off topic, she was not afraid of firing cannons. During a demonstration of blasting, she was scared enough and went straight into Alexander's arms.

Mihlima was very calm in this regard, and the calm Soloviev felt a little strange.

Now, she made black tea again and brought it to Soloviev.

"Girl, aren't you afraid of the explosion?"

"What's the big deal? I was just afraid of the whip of that bastard."

"You're not afraid when you're my maid? I'm also a murderer!"

Soloviev pinched her nose while saying this.

"My Lord, I'm here to serve you. I'm your loyal servant. I'll do everything you say. Just don't always treat me like a child. I'm already thirteen."

Well, Soloviev also felt that it was easy to attract the gendarmerie to attack a girl of this age.

I had forgotten to ask her age before. It was also less than half a month since Mihrima had been with him. As a maid, she felt that she was serving her master and looked very close.

Soloviev was also a little emotional, so he said, "Good girl, you're not much older than my oldest daughter. To me, you're just a child."

He also took out some candy from the box and put some of it in her waist pocket.

"You are reluctant to spend silver coins, so I might as well give you candies."

Although this girl loves candies, she also pays attention to oral hygiene.

When she smiles, Solovyov can also see her neat teeth. After all, girls of this age have just changed their teeth.

When he was in Paris, he saw Silvia's two daughters and Giuseppe. They all had missing teeth, especially Giuseppe, who had just lost a big front tooth.

Their teeth were really good, and they didn't need to be corrected. And such white teeth are really rare.

But just when he was paying attention to Mihrima's teeth, there was another explosion in Vidin City.

This girl is really just afraid of whips, but she is not afraid of rivers of blood and rolling heads, not to mention the huge explosions.

Well, it seems that the British approach is really useful. Sometimes people's fear of whips may exceed death.

Soloviev didn't play with the children here, but looked in the direction of the Tafred Regiment.

"This explosion is quite powerful. Is it the Kiev Regiment's turn next?"

"We have to wait for a while. If you want to launch an attack, you always need to create a time difference to contain the enemy."

"Yes, I often say this. Karl, am I a little anxious now?"

"No," Clausewitz said calmly, "You are just absent-minded. This is not a good thing for a commander."

"Indeed, but such a battle also needs to let the enemy know how strong they are."

As they talked, the last explosion was about to come.

The Moscow Grenadiers had already launched an attack. The reason was simple. Solovyov gave the four main attacking grenadiers a reward for the first landing. At this time, there must be brave men under a heavy reward.

As long as the soldiers who first landed can survive and receive the bonus, even the company can get extra meals and clean tents to sleep together. Naturally, everyone is willing to fight and cover their comrades.

Igor was lucky. He followed the veteran Semyonov. The old man was really capable. He was a privileged veteran. Semyonov was one of the few veterans who could get 20 years of perfect service at an early stage.

He had never made a mistake that was caught. It was hard to say what happened behind the scenes.

Such an experienced veteran was at the front with a bayonet, but it was a pity that he was not as good as Igor. Igor was at least a rare literate serf soldier. Although Semyonov was a civilian, he couldn't read.

This made him unlucky. Now he is just a sergeant and can never be an officer. However, he won the St. George Medal twice after it was established, and with 24 years of "perfect service", officers always respected him.

When he knocked down a Turk who was howling and rushing over, his opponent realized that this old man was really not easy to mess with.

So someone wanted to shoot a cold gun, and he really hit the veteran's shoulder.

Igor's gun had ammunition in its chamber. He was a little late to find the gunman, but he would not give him a chance to retreat.

His bullet even made a hole in the gunman's head.

It was only Semenov who was shot. He covered behind him and brought the old soldier to a relatively safe place.

"Igor, you idiot. Why did you save an old man like me? Do you want the bonus of our 'little commander'?"

This stubborn old man was injured himself, but he did not forget to remind his companions.

The grenadiers who followed behind also launched an attack, but they fought hand-to-hand with the Turks in the gap in the city wall opened by the cannon, and they could not break through for a while.

At this stage of hand-to-hand combat, the Turks did not retreat, but many soldiers holding rifles replaced them with curved swords because they despised bayonets.

This time, they were easily at a disadvantage in hand-to-hand combat, after all, they were still infantry lined up like a wall, and it was more powerful to attack the front with bayonets.

The Turkish army, fighting alone, was quickly defeated, and many of them were sent to see Allah by the bayonets of the Russian army.

Now, in addition to the wounded, the grenadiers of the Moscow Regiment also rushed forward and finally took the lead in seizing the gap.

Then the Tafred Regiment and the Kiev Regiment also succeeded one after another, and all three gaps were opened. The troops directly attacking the city gate also succeeded with the cooperation of artillery.

In this way, the Turks could only retreat to the official residence of the local governor in the city and the fortress in the inner city to resist. They did not dare to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the Russian army in the residential area of ​​​​citizens.

It was not because of anything else, but because there were many Slavs and Orthodox Christians of other nationalities living in Vidin, which was probably the case in this case.

"Brothers, this road is closer to the Governor's Palace!"

In addition to the grenadiers, the Russian army also had infantry covering the flanks. After the grenadiers opened the gap, several infantry regiments also launched a column attack into the city with their own grenadier companies in the front.

If the Turks still want to surrender now, it is not without a chance, after all, the Russian artillery will not keep pouring shells on their heads.

It is still a question whether the Russian army, which is only for meritorious service and reward, will let them surrender.

Surrendering with weapons and being captured are two concepts.

Therefore, the Turkish commander who was defending the city always raised a white flag when his official residence was surrounded, indicating that he wanted to negotiate with the Russian army.

"Negotiation?"

When Solovyov came near the city gate, he heard Christian say this.

"Yes, the remaining Turkish forces have retreated to the fortresses and more solid buildings in the city. They have indeed expressed their willingness to negotiate with us."

"Then bring their envoys up, Christian. Be careful. I always suspect that the Turks will pretend to surrender."

"At this time, you are still so careful. If they really dare, we will use cannons to send them to the sky."

"Well, Christian, you must be careful."

Christian went to the position of the regiment in person to see what the Turks' attitude was.

As for Solovyov, the conditions he gave were simple.

"Either lay down your weapons and surrender unconditionally, or be sent to the sky by the Russians' cannons. That's what the Russian general said."

"Damn it!"

For the Turkish defenders, this condition was indeed embarrassing.

But he thought that he still had some treasures in the fortress of Pleven, so he naturally didn't want to die at this moment.

Moreover, the Russian troops outside had been preparing for action step by step, moving explosives and setting up artillery, and the infantry had also found shelters and were ready for battle.

It seemed that this would not give them much time, and Christian even had someone shouting at them with a megaphone, asking them to surrender quickly.

With this posture, the people inside also knew that the Turks had a very poor reputation when they fought against European armies in the past.

The Russians, who had fought the most with the Turks, no longer had any expectations that they would surrender unconditionally, and were even ready to fire directly with cannons.

In this way, the remaining Turkish troops knew the attitude of the Russians, and under the order of their own master Bai, they quickly laid down their weapons and chose to surrender unconditionally.

However, after these Turkish troops in the city were disarmed, they were not only waiting for the Russian army, but also angry citizens.

Think about the daily life of the Ottoman army. If there is even a slight tendency to cooperate with Russia in the towns of the country, they will be brutally suppressed. Many towns with tens of thousands of people were expelled or massacred, often leaving only a few thousand or even hundreds of people. Some towns may not exist anymore.

Vidin has always been an important part of the Danube defense line since the Roman Empire, so it was not destroyed too badly.

Just think about it, among the European cities under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, the second largest city is Sarajevo, and you can know what the Ottoman Empire was like before ruling here.

Even this Sarajevo was developed because a Pasha married an imperial princess and became an official there.

A large part of the center of civilization in the eastern Mediterranean has become a village level. This ruling ability is really too poor.

Soloviev quickly entered the city and saw the locals trying to retaliate against the Turkish army, if there were no Russian infantry blocking them on both sides.

It may not be rotten vegetable leaves and stone bricks. These Turks want to taste the power of the local villagers' knives.

Under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, the local villagers were more or less prone to becoming unruly people.

After the Russian army entered, the situation was better. Solovyov always demanded strict military discipline, and he was probably the strictest among the Russian generals in controlling the army.

Now it is the turn of spring and summer, and the climate is still good. If he does not enter the city, the troops will set up tents outside the city. He will only stay in the city with his personal followers and two grenadier regiments. In addition, he is also going to leave an infantry regiment to maintain local order.

Soloviev did not want to stay in Vidin for a long time. He wanted to launch further attacks, just like Suvorov, with bold and fast strategic maneuvers, appearing in unexpected places of the enemy, and then delivering a fatal blow.

Speaking of which, when the old marshal was still there, he was known for his stronger mobility. When commanding on the battlefield, there were inevitably some more or less problems. Considering that Suvorov was already quite old when Solovyov met him, it was inevitable that the elderly would have some omissions in command.

It was another old man, Austrian Marshal Melas, who was too cautious at the time, but the cooperation between the two old men was still very successful.

In Solovyov's own words, he was actually a little impatient. After all, the opponent of this action was relatively weak, and he really wanted to show himself.

Now this battle, from the beginning of the crossing operation to the final capture of Vidin, plus the negotiation with the Serbs in the middle, to solve the internal instability factor Stojkovic, it only took eleven days.

The effect of this battle, however, did not shock the Sultan himself as much as Kamensky's defeat of the Turkish army's 80,000 reinforcements with 60,000 men in the front.

After all, the direction where Kamensky was heading was the right way to Constantinople. No matter how badly Soloviev was making trouble, he would have to go a long way to get to Constantinople.

Soloviev would naturally not go south to Macedonia and then advance eastward because of greed.

His primary goal was to fully arm the Serbian uprising army, and then march south to Macedonia and get in touch with the Greeks.

He did remember that his friend Prince Mikhail's branch had some influence in Greece. If he could take the opportunity to let the Greeks launch an uprising, the entire Balkan geopolitics would change.

Although in this case, France and Austria, who have been trying to make a move in the Balkans, would definitely be unhappy, and the British, who are now fighting against Russia, would not let him get his wish easily.

But marching to Greece is still very useful in the entire strategy.

As for Serbia, if the Russian army returns home, the Ottoman Empire is likely to fight back, so it is more important for them to protect themselves.

Therefore, Soloviev decided to meet Karageorge. After all, he helped him to deal with the problem and eliminated a huge internal hidden danger. (End of this chapter)