Chapter 706 Strategic Detour (Additional chapter for Alliance Leader Lin Jiaer)
Chapter 707: Great Strategic Detour (Additional Update for Alliance Leader Lin Jiaer Clan)
Yeager said with a pale face: "Why are the Poles here?"
"I don't know either."
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"Didn't you say that the Emperor's troops beat the Poles very badly?"
Yakov lost his mind and said: "Master Gumilov said it..."
"But I think those Poles are very scary!"
In the city of Bryansk.
A captain saluted Kosciuszko and said: "Report to the general that there is very little food in the city."
The latter nodded and looked at Dombrowski: "Obviously the Russians are on guard."
"The wheat we got in Trubchevsk can last for more than half a month." The commander of the cavalry regiment said, "It is enough for us to rush to the city of Moscow."
Kosciuszko frowned and looked east: "You may have noticed that there are more and more Russian troops around us."
"Indeed. However, they have always kept a distance from us. Apart from occasional sneak attacks, they have no intention of launching a large-scale attack."
βBut this will slow us down.β Kosciuszko sighed, βThe 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 is impossible to 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 switching 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 Kosciuszko's army has been reduced by about half.
Dombrowski 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 just keep us stuck here."
"But our target 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?"
"It was decided at the military meeting in Paris," Kosciuszko said. "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has long considered that we might encounter this situation."
An infantry lieutenant colonel drove his horse to Kosciuszko and saluted: "General, all the Russian troops in the city have been cleared. What should we do next?"
"Take 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.
In particular, Russia has brought huge disasters to Poland, and 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 an easy 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?"
In order not to leak secrets, only Commander-in-Chief Kosciuszko and a few staff officers knew the specific plan for this mission into Russia.
Kosciuszko raised his hand and pointed 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.
Therefore, his goal has always been Russia's "southern gate" - Crimea.
Losing Crimea would mean Russia would 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 financial resources and lost tens of thousands of troops to seize this strategic location from the Ottomans.
In terms of importance to the empire, Crimea was no less important than Moscow.
This is also the reason why half a century later in history, Russia lost to the British, French and Turkish forces in the Crimean War and immediately fell into a trough for decades.
Dombrowski 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's impossible, let alone the enemy." Kosciuszko 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 never imagined that we would suddenly move south, so the defense there must be lax.
"We can take it. We must take it too!"
Dombrowski took a deep breath, nodded and smiled: "Okay, since you are going crazy, then I will go crazy with you this time. For Poland!"
"For Poland!"
At dusk, the burning Bryansk turned into a torch on the plain, lighting up the path of Polish soldiers heading 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, and then remembered something and asked sideways, "By the way, why didn't we go directly south from Mozyr, but first go around here on the north bank of the Oka River?"
Kosciuszko smiled and said, "This is the wonderful part of this plan.
"I dare to bet with you that the entire Russian army must be mobilized in the direction of Moscow now.
"If we are lucky enough, even a large part of the Kursk garrison will be withdrawn.
"And if we go directly south, we will face layers of blockades by the Russian army, just like our current situation. We can't go north to Moscow at that time, right? "
The two laughed together.
It seemed that they were not going to die, but to attend a long-awaited feast.
The next day, Korezhevsky, who was responsible for encircling Kosciuszko's army, suddenly lost the trace of the Polish army.
In the Russian temporary command post, Korezhevsky frowned and stared at the map, and suddenly slapped the position of Moscow:
"No matter what method they use, the final goal must be Moscow."
He said to the messenger: "Let Vasnetsov separate 3 regiments to defend Moscow. The other corps will concentrate on Kaluga and try to intercept the Poles there.
"In addition, send someone to urge the troops coming from Saratov to speed up their march."
"Yes, General!"
