The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 911 This world ultimately belongs to Seris.

At the end of 1813, with the arrival of Chen Jinchuan's Northern Route Army, the Bulgars, who were deliberately called Tatars or even Huns by the Tsar to highlight the achievements of Tsarist Russia, also "enjoyed" the treatment of the Moldavia and were repeatedly killed by both sides.

Despite its proximity to Moscow, Tatarstan has always maintained a very strong degree of independence.

When the Soviet Union collapsed, Tatarstan was the first to break away and declare independence. It did not want to secede from the Soviet Union, but from the Russian Federation.

Even in later generations, Tatarstan continued to resist pressure from the Russian central government and remained the only federation within the Russian Federation to refer to its leader as president.

Even in the 21st century, the centrifugal force is even stronger now, which is exactly what Kutuzov is most worried about.

So, while the troops were stationed at Simbirsk (Ulyanovsk) in Mokollen, Kutuzov still risked sending out cavalry to forcibly relocate the Bulgars from Tatarstan.

Those who refused to leave would be executed, while those who were willing to leave would demand that their houses be destroyed, all the grain they could not take be burned, and the cattle and sheep they could not take be killed.

Upon learning of this situation, Chen Jinchuan immediately changed his strategy and personally led 20,000 cavalry to launch a direct attack on Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan.

In late November, amidst rain and snow at minus five degrees Celsius, Chen Jinchuan's troops engaged in fierce fighting with the Russian garrison left behind in Kazan.

Both armies consisted primarily of cavalry and had virtually no heavy weapons.

Because the Russian army had no intention of defending Kazan and was even more afraid of the artillery being used by the Da Yu, Chen Jinchuan's cavalry came to sweep through the area, so naturally they rarely brought artillery with them.

The two sides fought back and forth around Kazan, engaging in more than a dozen large and small cavalry battles, during which the revolvers equipped by the Dayu cavalry proved extremely powerful.

In light cavalry battles, this needle-fired pistol, while having drawbacks such as leaks and insufficient power to hit vital organs, was not guaranteed to kill an enemy even after five or six shots.

However, it is easy to load, highly adaptable to climate, and has a revolutionary firing speed. Especially in small-scale dogfights, it can get close to within a dozen meters and fire a burst of fire, which can gain a huge advantage even if it hits a warhorse.

With the aid of revolvers, Chen Jinchuan's 20,000 cavalrymen inflicted a major defeat on more than 40,000 Russian Cossack cavalrymen outside Kazan. At the cost of more than 1,000 casualties, they killed or wounded more than 6,000 to 7,000 Cossack cavalrymen.

World War I wiped out a third of the prestige that the Cossacks had built up over a century in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Meanwhile, the outcome of the battle terrified the Bulgars hiding in Kazan. They had heard that the Khitans were powerful and that the Yellow Peril was about to conquer the Third Rome again, but they never expected them to be so fierce!

Even the Cossacks needed six or seven cavalrymen to exchange for one Khitan cavalryman.

Chen Jinchuan also noticed this psychological shift among the Bulgarians and began to appease them on a small scale and to a limited extent.

This garnered support from a group of Bulgarians who were already dissatisfied with Tsarist Russian rule. Chen Jinchuan relied on them to control Kazan and pushed the front line forward by about 200 kilometers before the winter of 1813.

. . . .

The northern part of the East European Plain needed a ceasefire due to the extreme cold, while the western coast of the Black Sea did not require one. The fierce Battle of Turcia began at the end of November.

With Ryanstein's advance reinforcement and the more than one month that Constanta bought, Mogongze moved more than a hundred naval cannons ashore, and Turcha's defenses immediately began to take shape.

The French army of 80,000 and the Ottoman army of 130,000 launched continuous attacks from three directions, basically giving the Three Feudatories under Mo Gongze no time to rest.

The two sides engaged in repeated battles for the fortifications on the hills on the left and right flanks of the city of Tulcea.

In order to achieve victory, Napoleon pushed his old guard, whom he rarely used, to the front lines.

Mo Gongze was even more ruthless. He put his eldest son, Mo Houyao, who was born to the Hong family of Xiangshan and was eighteen years old this year, on the front line.

This terrified the Han army led by the Hong family of Xiangshan, who knew that the vast majority of their investments depended on Mo Houyao.

If Mo Houyao dies in battle, Mo Houxuan, the son of Princess Mary of England, will become the heir apparent of the Xia vassal state, and then all their efforts will be in vain.

Spurred on by this, Xia Fan's Han army fought to the death, even managing to achieve a one-to-one exchange ratio with Napoleon's old guard in hand-to-hand combat.

In this fierce and bloody battle, the French suffered more than 4,000 casualties in just half a month, the Ottoman army suffered more than 10,000 casualties, and the Three Feudatories army also suffered nearly 4,000 casualties.

After a month of intense fighting, the long-awaited event for Mo Gongze finally arrived.

In the spring of 1814, a light rain fell on the western coast of the Black Sea, and the French army, which had been fighting for two years, was short of medical supplies.

Even the non-elite troops from the Low Countries, Italy, and the Confederation of the Rhine were starting to experience food shortages.

Napoleon was right outside Turcha, watching the war unfold where they only needed to advance another kilometer to drive Mogonze into the sea, and he was burning with anxiety.

Belgrade remained unconquered, and the Danube's transport capacity was disrupted, causing the French army's logistical supplies to drop to 40% of what was initially estimated before the invasion.

At this point, Napoleon was very reluctant to leave.

Ninety-nine out of a hundred steps have been taken, but the last step is left undone; no one is willing to give up.

But continuing to fight seemed hopeless. With ammunition and food in abundance, what could they possibly use to fight?

Fortunately, Marshal Berthier brought back some good news.

The Ottoman commander agreed that when the next batch of military rations arrived, a portion would be allocated to France first, and Sultan Mahmud II also agreed that a portion of the rations could be sold to the French army.

"Then we don't need to be so frugal. Give each soldier an extra day's worth of black bread, and make some stewed fish, stewed meat, and roasted turkey."

Let the pastors create some Christmas spirit and dispel the low morale brought on by this awful weather.

The low morale wasn't due to the weather, but rather to the lack of significant gains in the war, coupled with a shortage of supplies. The French army could only provide two-thirds of the rations to soldiers not on the front lines, which led to the low morale.

Marshal Berthier hesitated for a moment, wanting to advise Napoleon that the promised grain from the Ottomans had not yet arrived, and that he should not be so extravagant.

But then I thought, after a month of fierce fighting in Turcha, we had suffered thousands of casualties and food supplies were limited. If we didn’t find a way to give them some benefits by Christmas, the morale of the army would really not be boosted.

Berthier nodded and went to carry out the order without raising any objections.

In the city of Turkia, Mogongze was also having a hard time, as supplies were very tight.

Nearly 50,000 of his troops retreated into the city, while more than 20,000 of the Western Route Army, led by Gui Han, were lying in ambush on the island at the mouth of the sea.

The needs of 70,000 people for food, drink, and basic necessities are no small number, and given the harsh sea conditions in the Black Sea, steamships cannot provide the necessary supplies.

Even more seriously, the Liaodong Peninsula, as the main supplier of grain, was on the verge of collapse.

Gaoliang Prefecture (Caucasus region) was not originally a grain-producing area, although there was grain that could be collected from the Hainan Plain (the southern shore plain of the Caspian Sea) located in the traditional Persian territory.

However, transportation in Gaoliang Prefecture was very inconvenient. Of the grain transported from the Hainan Plain to Bazhou County (Batong) on ​​the eastern coast of the Black Sea, only a little over 30% remained.

Forced by circumstances, Mogongze also began to implement a food rationing system in Turcha. Even the amount of food he, the king, ate each day was calculated precisely, and not a little more was allowed.

However, the morale of the Triple Expeditionary Forces was much higher than that of the French army. Firstly, everyone realized that after winning this battle, Moggonze would not only have control of the Kingdom of Greater Hungary, but also Serbia, Wallachia, Moldavia, Bessarabia, and even Bulgaria.

Despite the vast territory, the Three Feudatories' army numbered only tens of thousands, and even those tens of thousands might not all come to enjoy these benefits.

Many of them were promising in China, and their future was the responsibility of the emperor and the court.

So, if we calculate it this way, all of you here who are willing to stay here will have a promising future.

Mo Gongze is also very good at making empty promises to stabilize morale. After all, he has eaten so many empty promises, even if he is stupid, he can learn to apply what he has learned.

So Mo Gongze lavishly bestowed official titles and made promises in Turcha, even telling the officers and soldiers of the Three Feudatories that he had petitioned the emperor to posthumously grant the title of duke to Bai Fengshan, the Xia Feudatories' commander of the Central Guard who covered the rear of the army during the retreat from Bucharest.

And he would bestow the present-day Bulgar city of Sofia upon the eldest son of White Phoenix Mountain.

The officers and soldiers who sacrificed their lives alongside Bai Fengshan were all rewarded.

Sofia is a wonderful place, with mild winters and cool summers, spring-like weather all year round, crisscrossed by fields and rich in resources. Even in a place like China, it would be considered a wealthy county.

Their morale was immediately boosted. The soldiers of the Three Feudatories, while eating black bread, various beans, and half-cooked fish on the forts in and around Turcha, remained determined and fought bravely.

In January 1814, Napoleon received news that terrified him: the Ottoman army had begun to withdraw.

Although the city of Turcha was too small to be of much use, the Ottoman army's role was limited. However, the promised provisions from the Ottoman commander, the Brahmin Prince Scarlat Kalimaci of Moordavia, were still outstanding. Napoleon was frantic. The French army had just celebrated Christmas and was running low on food, desperately needing Ottoman supplies. If Napoleon dared to desert now, he would take his life.

Thus, the Three Feudatories on Mount Tulcea witnessed a scene that puzzled them greatly: Napoleon dispatched his Young Guard cavalry, who launched a surprise attack and stormed into the unsuspecting headquarters of the Ottoman Empire.

Meanwhile, four French armies blocked off portions of the Ottoman army's camps, preventing them from leaving.

The French army quickly gained control of the Ottoman army's high command, but Napoleon was far from happy.

It turns out that the reason why Prince Scarlat Kalimach of Ottoman Mordavia wanted to secretly evacuate was because the second expeditionary force led by General Luo Siju, the Left General of the Army, had already begun its operations.

Last year, in September 1813, Ross Ju led an expeditionary force of 20,000 men, while Ali Pasha's Egyptian army of 40,000 men crossed the Sinai Peninsula and launched an attack on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean.

Roth divided his forces into two routes. He led one route himself and in October captured Jerusalem, a city with only a few thousand inhabitants but a very high religious status.

They then turned northeast, capturing Amman, a city that had begun to decline during the Ottoman Empire but whose geographical location remained important. They then turned north, controlling the Golan Heights to secure the army's water supply.

Another force, led by Lieutenant General Yang Yuchun, launched a direct northward assault along the coast, capturing Beirut at the end of September and Homs further north in early October.

Yang Yuchun then turned south and joined forces with Luo Siju, who had occupied the Golan Heights, and launched a fierce attack on Damascus.

In mid-November, the Ottoman governor of Syria (Eyalette of Damascus), who had resisted for a month, surrendered, and Damascus fell.

The Great Yu expeditionary force helped Ali Pasha achieve a grand goal: to control both Egypt and Syria.

This caused a great shock throughout the Ottoman Empire. Istanbul was already somewhat out of control of Ali Pasha, but it could still be concealed. Now, the contradictions were brought to the forefront.

Even more alarming, the Ottoman Empire received reliable intelligence that the Seres' army landed in the Red Sea under the escort of a fleet, meaning that at most two months later, another Seres fleet would round Africa and appear in the Mediterranean.

Therefore, the only chance for the Ottoman Empire was to send a large army to conquer Cairo before the Seres fleet reached the Mediterranean.

By forcing Ali Pasha of Egypt to abandon cooperation with the Seres Empire, thus depriving the Seres Empire of its ally in Ottoman territory, Ali Pasha then sought peace with the Seres emperor, agreeing to give up Moldavia and pay more reparations.

"Your Highness, leave us thirty percent of the grain. I do not wish for our two countries to clash at this critical juncture." Napoleon personally came to negotiate; nothing was more important than grain at this moment.

Prince Scarlat Calimacchi, his face ashen, looked at Napoleon with some difficulty and said, "Your Majesty, if I give you thirty percent of the grain, my army will go hungry."

You won't go hungry!

"You Fanar nobles have existed for over a thousand years, and you are all direct descendants of the Byzantine Angelus and Trabzon dynasties. Would you go hungry?"

Napoleon glared angrily at Prince Calimach, his eyes filled with mockery and sarcasm.

In fact, after the Ottoman Empire destroyed the Eastern Roman Empire, the Eastern Romans did not disappear. Instead, they were assimilated into the Ottoman Empire and gained a high status and power.

These people, represented by remnants of the Eastern Roman Empire, who helped the Ottomans exploit their own compatriots, were called Fanars.

Among the Fanar people, there are also Fanar noble families, one of which is the family of Prince Kalimach.

These nobles intermarried for over a thousand years, controlled the Ottoman diplomatic and educational departments, served as all the high-ranking priests of the Greek Orthodox Church under Ottoman rule, and monopolized titles such as princes, grand dukes, and governors in the principalities of Moldavia, Serbia, and Wallachia.

Some of these extraordinary families among the Fanar nobles even existed more than 1,400 years ago when the Roman Empire split into the Eastern and Western Empires.

Therefore, Napoleon was well aware that even if the Ottoman Sultan couldn't produce a single grain of food, these people definitely could.

"You corrupt fellows, having witnessed the collapse of the Roman Empire and survived for hundreds of years under the rule of pagans, do you still want to continue being rats with plenty of food stored in their burrows?"
Don't be so selfish. I know you can get the grain, and I don't want 30%, I want half of it!

Although Napoleon himself was pursuing an imperial dynasty that would last for generations, as an emperor who had been influenced by the revolution to some extent, he looked down on these corrupt nobles who were only concerned with the continuation of their families and cared about nothing else.

Prince Calimach stopped arguing, because he feared that if Napoleon got angry, he would lose the remaining 50% of the grain, and he could indeed still get grain.

Even after the food problem was solved, Napoleon still looked very nervous, completely unlike the high spirits he had shown the previous two years.

"Louis, keep this news under wraps. Don't let it get out." After a moment's thought, Napoleon gave the order to Marshal Berthier and others.

The reason is simple: once the Great Yu's expeditionary fleet arrives, it can attack Istanbul, but it can also attack France.

Given that the French fleet is still in a rebuilding phase, the Da Yu fleet can choose to land at any key location, such as Toulon, Marseille, Monaco, or Genoa.

They could even follow the tradition of the Ming Dynasty and directly land on Corsica to dig up Napoleon's ancestral graves; there were just too many options.

"It will be difficult for His Majesty the Emperor to keep this news from spreading, because as soon as Prince Ferdinand of Turcha sees the Turks retreat, he will immediately realize that the second wave of reinforcements from the Seres Empire has arrived, and he will definitely spread the news everywhere."

Berthier quickly shook his head; it was clearly impossible to keep the news under wraps. "Your Majesty, we must prepare to withdraw our troops. This war has consumed too much of our energy and yielded almost nothing."

More importantly, we cannot remain inactive while our own territory is under attack; doing so would severely damage your prestige among the people.

Napoleon slowly shook his head. "If we were to withdraw our troops with just a Seres fleet that hasn't even arrived yet, it would also damage the prestige of the Empire."

Moreover, this would expose our weakness, at which point the Austrians, Prussians, and Spanish, who now appear to have submitted, would form a coalition against us again.

Marshal Berthier sighed inwardly. It was too difficult. This was the difference in strength. The Seres Empire hadn't used its full strength, but the French Empire seemed to be struggling to cope.

In a moment of quiet reflection, Berthier and Napoleon's eyes met, and they both recalled a night ten years ago.

At that time, Napoleon, as commander of the Eastern Army, had just captured Cairo and gained control of Egypt, and was celebrating with Berthier and others.

During the meal, when the future was discussed, Berthier, who had already foreseen that Napoleon would become a pivotal figure in France, made a suggestion.

Napoleon's best future was to marry a princess of the Seres Empire and gain the support of the Seres Empire, which desperately needed to expand its influence in Europe.

But at that time it was basically impossible, because even though Napoleon was the commander of the Eastern Army, he was still a nobody in front of the Seres Empire and was far from qualified to ask for a Seres princess in marriage.

Later, as Napoleon rose step by step until he became emperor, victory blinded most people, making them unaware of the power and terror of the Seres Empire.

In retrospect, if they hadn't been afraid of the difficulties and had carried out this idea back then, they wouldn't be in this dilemma now, because whoever the Seres Empire supported could become the victor, or even the conqueror, in Europe.

"Your Majesty, good news has come from Serbia! Belgrade has finally been captured!" A young guards officer rushed in to report the good news.

Before attacking Constanta, Napoleon had sent Marshal Udino with 30,000 troops up the Danube to reinforce Louis Davout, who was trapped in Belgrade.

Marshal Udino found the secret naval port of the Three Feudatories more than 100 kilometers downstream from Belgrade, where steamships to reinforce Belgrade, as well as hundreds of tons of food and gunpowder, were stored.

After a fierce battle, the Blackbrunschweig Legion guarding the area had no choice but to retreat with the help of Li Xingtai, destroying all the food supplies they could not take and all the steamships.

Upon receiving this news, Li Xingtai quickly notified Liu Guoqing's troops who were still holding Belgrade.

Liu Guoqing's troops were reduced from 6,000 to just over 2,000, and they held Belgrade for more than two years. They were loyal and brave in every respect, and there was no need to let them die in battle when it was certain that they could not hold the city.

At the end of December 1813, Liu Guoqing's troops successfully broke through the encirclement and hid in the Balkan Mountains of Serbia with Li Xingtai, and the French army finally opened up the Danube River for transportation.

However, Napoleon's face showed little joy. "It's too late, far too late. If we had captured Belgrade six months earlier, the situation would have been completely different."

Muttering to himself, amidst a barrage of unfavorable factors, Napoleon made the right decision.

"Tell Louis Davout not to rush over. Send tens of thousands of men back to Budapest to stabilize the rear, then stockpile more food and establish outposts at key points along the river. We must prepare for a retreat."

He said that withdrawing troops would damage the empire's prestige, but after calming down, Napoleon realized that it was better for the empire's prestige to be damaged than for the emperor to be captured.

He also discovered a weakness in the Seris Empire that wasn't a weakness in itself: their power projection was too limited, and they needed a key local figure to provide support in order to turn the tide at crucial moments.

For example, King Ferdinand of Hungary, and Ali Pasha of Egypt.

Without such a figure, the Seres Empire is like Antaeus from Greek mythology, who has left the earth.

Given this, Napoleon believed that as long as he could bring his main force back to France, he would be able to contend with the Seres Empire.

(End of this chapter)