The War Court and Lap Pillow, Austria's Mandate of Heaven

Chapter 1429: Great Victory in Northern Bulgaria

In fact, while Baron Raglan was designing Prinsky, Albrecht was also studying how to deal with the Anglo-Turkish coalition forces.

Sometimes we have to admit the intuition of some genius strategists. After the armistice, Albrecht did not return to Vienna at all but continued to study the situation in the Middle East.

Of course, it is also possible that he was too lazy to go back to the War Department and did not want to face those colleagues who were scheming against each other all day long.

It just so happened that the Belgrade Military District also had its own intelligence department, so Albrecht began to collect intelligence and formulate strategies with Britain and the Ottoman Empire as imaginary enemies.

In fact, Albrecht had sent a telegram to Franz at the beginning of the war. He had a more risky plan that could end the war in a short time.

Franz rejected Albrecht's plan without hesitation. In fact, it was not that the latter's plan was unfeasible, but that it was not in the interests of the Austrian Empire itself.

First, a quick victory might lead to further expansion of Russia's ambitions, which would be detrimental to the continued equal alliance between the two sides and to the strategy of the Austrian Empire.

Secondly, the victory belonged to Russia and the risk belonged to the Austrian Empire, which was also unacceptable. Although Franz believed very much in Albrecht's ability, no one could maintain 100% victory.

In addition, military adventures must be done in moderation. Otherwise, once inertia is formed, it will become difficult to stop and may even drag the entire country into the abyss.

Third, Franz did not want to be in the limelight anymore. The Austrian Empire had already announced to the world that he was back through a series of wars and international events.

This is enough. One of the very important considerations for Franz to form an alliance with Russia is that this ally is more hated than the Austrian Empire.

So Albrecht had to give up. There were many opportunities afterwards, but on the one hand, the troop deployment was not completed, and on the other hand, the cost of the combat plan was still very high.

Franz didn't want a miserable victory, nor did he want a miserable defeat.

But Franz's uncle, Archduke Albrecht, automatically ignored the second half of the sentence. He felt that only a resounding victory could break the current deadlock.

When Baron Raglan designed an ambush for the Russian army, it was the best time for the Austrian army to launch an attack.

When the Russian army fell into Baron Raglan's trap, he had no time to celebrate before news came that the Austrian army had broken through the defense line and established a beachhead.

Baron Raglan did not believe the Ottoman report at first. He thought that the Austrian Empire's army might not be able to cross the Danube in just three or two days, let alone establish a beachhead. The thought was ridiculous.

So Baron Raglan decided to ignore the Russian troops hiding in the city for the time being, just to break up the morale of the Russian troops first.

According to Baron Raglan's observation, the Russian commander was very reckless, but not brave at all.

If the British and Turkish forces launched a strong attack, the Russians would probably fight to the death, but if they were left alone, they would choose to surrender.

Baron Raglan had seen the Austrian army before. In his impression, they were a group of good-for-nothings, but they were not as difficult to deal with as a group of bandits.

Baron Raglan quickly devised a countermeasure: first drive the Austrians back to the other side of the river, and then come back to deal with the Russians.

As a result, Baron Raglan really saw a newly built military camp on the Danube River. The thick walls were enough to withstand the shooting of small-caliber artillery. Then Baron Raglan was stunned. The people he brought were obviously not enough. It seemed that he could only wait for subsequent reinforcements, but Baron Raglan never expected that the enemy would directly launch an active attack against his army.

The British army, which came from afar, was unprepared and exhausted. Albrecht did not take the local armed forces and miscellaneous troops of the Ottoman Empire seriously at all. He built fortifications on the shore just to attract the enemy's attention.

In fact, the Austrian Imperial Army had already entered the nearby mountains in batches, waiting for the big fish to take the bait.

Baron Raglan would never have thought that he would be ambushed in his own territory. Under the overwhelming bombardment of rockets, the Red Shirts ran faster than the Ottomans.

But no matter how fast they were, they could not be faster than the cavalry of the Austrian Empire. The British could only leave the Ottomans to the Austrians. In this way, the British fled all the way, and the Austrian army chased them all the way.

Since Baron Raglan himself was among the fleeing troops, the Anglo-Turkish coalition forces directly lost contact with the supreme commander.

Theoretically, Orma Pasha, who held the highest position, should have taken over the battlefield at this time, but the British obviously could not accept letting an Ottoman lead them.

The fragmented British and Turkish coalition forces were simply unable to stop the Austrian attack. In addition, a large number of deserters and Austrian spies filled the entire battlefield with erroneous and confusing information.

As a result, the 200,000 most elite British and Turkish allied forces were driven into the mountains in a confused manner, and the Austrian army captured more than 100,000 Ottoman miscellaneous troops along the way.

Until the end of the battle, Plinsky and his troops remained in the city foolishly.

At this point, all the plains in northern Bulgaria fell into the hands of the Holy Alliance. As for the southern mountainous areas, Franz was not stupid. He would not let his troops enter the mountains to fight a war of attrition.

Albrecht soon discovered a problem: the number of Russian troops was far less than the intelligence figures.

So the Austrian Imperial Army had no choice but to open the Ottoman arsenal and distribute weapons and ammunition to the local Bulgarians.

Officers and soldiers of the Austrian Empire even taught the locals how to use weapons and helped them form large militias to defend their homes against the Ottomans.

The news of the Bulgarian victory soon reached St. Petersburg. Nicholas I was very excited at first. You know, according to previous estimates, it would take at least half a year to occupy the northern Bulgarian region, but now it only took less than three months.

But he soon lost his joy because the troop losses were somewhat exaggerated. The Russian army lost a total of 80 people, 20% of whom were killed and another % were missing or fled.

The number of wounded soldiers is even more difficult to count.

At this time, the northern Bulgarian region was completely guarded by Austrians and Bulgarian militias, and Prinski's troops could only guard a few important passes.

What's worse is that the British launched a surprise attack on Dobruja. Although they did not occupy it for long, they burned a large amount of supplies stored by the Russian army there.

Nicholas I always thought that he had an army of more than 300,000 on the front line, but he did not expect that it would be reduced to less than 100,000 overnight.

He really wanted to kill Prinsky immediately, so Nicholas I ordered his confidant Duke Liubai to bring Prinsky back to St. Petersburg for execution.