Persian Empire 1845

Chapter 134 Expansion
At exactly twelve o'clock, Rouhani ordered the artillery to open fire. More than 200 cannons fired simultaneously, and shells rained down on the Russian fortresses and the surrounding area.

The Russian troops in the fortress were still asleep when they were awakened by the rubble from the artillery shells. However, some of them, having drunk a lot of alcohol, were still unconscious.

"What happened?"

The Russian army captain, just waking up from a hangover, had no idea what had happened, but he soon found out. A shell had crashed through the broken roof and landed right in front of him, taking him away.

After half an hour of shelling, the Russian troops were completely stunned. Some surviving soldiers realized they were under attack and grabbed their weapons to defend themselves, but it was too late.

Seventy thousand Iranian troops, chanting "God is great," crossed the border between the two countries. At this time, Russian troops were already using artillery to attack the surging enemy forces, but the Iranian troops still pressed forward with great courage. They swarmed forward, took control of the camps and fortresses, and fought fiercely with the Russian troops inside.

"For Allah!!!"

At this point, the Russian defenders discovered that the Iranian soldiers were no longer the same as before; in fact, they had been completely replaced from top to bottom. Their eyes no longer held fear, but rather hatred.

An Iranian soldier killed two Russian guards in succession, and in his rage, he cut off their heads and impaled them on wooden sticks. The other Russians fared no better; this was their belated price to pay.

The Russian tricolor flag, white, blue, and red, was thrown to the ground by the soldiers and replaced with the Iranian flag of the Rising Sun and Lion. Having resolved the border defenses, they advanced rapidly; their first target, Megara, was not far away.

Meanwhile, two other corps of 40,000 men advanced northward from Ardabil and have successfully broken through the Russian defenses, preparing to rush to Baku in one fell swoop.

It was now the morning of March 10th, and everything had changed. Alexandrovich, who was preparing to leave Iran, had also received the official announcement of Iran's declaration of war against Russia.

Iranian newspapers were promoting the war against Russia, calling it a golden opportunity for revenge. The Iranian people were also swept up in this sentiment, overwhelmingly supporting the war against Russia. However, due to communication delays, St. Petersburg was still unaware of the operation while Iranian troops were still advancing and capturing territory.

Meanwhile, the Russian army encountered obstacles in the Balkans, becoming bogged down in the Danube Delta. This sparsely populated region suffered from food shortages, unable to support its large army, and many soldiers succumbed to hunger and disease. By this time, 90,000 Russian soldiers who had invaded the Danube Duchy were sick.

As Russian losses mounted, Menshikov grew increasingly reluctant to continue the offensive. He began to worry about the Austrian army's buildup on the Serbian border. With Austrian forces gathering in the west, the Russian army in the Danube Grand Duchy was in grave danger of being surrounded. He pleaded with the Tsar to order a retreat, even defying the Tsar's orders to accelerate the offensive, fearing that Austria would take advantage of the Russian rear to launch an attack.

Menshikov's concerns about Austria were justified. Austria, fearing a Russian occupation of Serbia, had mobilized troops along the Serbian border to suppress potential Serbian uprisings and prevent Russian invasions of Serbian-populated areas in Austria from the east. Therefore, Austria had been demanding Russia withdraw its troops from the Danube Duchy and had threatened war against Russia if the Tsar did not order a withdrawal.

While the land battle stalled, the British and French fleets, which had entered the Black Sea, opened fire on the Black Sea port of Odessa, initiating an attack on the Russian mainland. Intelligence obtained from captured merchant sailors indicated that Russia had amassed 60,000 soldiers and a large quantity of munitions in Odessa, preparing to send them to the Danube front.

In fact, the port of Odessa had little military value; only a few forts could withstand the Western fleet. They issued an ultimatum to the governor of Odessa, demanding his surrender and the handover of all ships. After receiving no reply, the Allied forces launched an attack on the port with nine steamships, six rocket ships, and one destroyer.

The bombardment lasted for eleven hours, severely damaging the port, destroying several ships, and killing dozens of civilians. Shells also struck the neoclassical palace built by Crimean Governor Vorontsov atop a cliff overlooking the port, with one cannonball hitting a sculpture of Prince Richelieu, the first governor of Odessa.

The shelling of Odessa served as a wake-up call for the Russian command, indicating that the Western fleet was approaching the Danube front. The question now was how long it would take for the Anglo-French forces to arrive and reinforce the Turkish troops in Silistra. Menshikov feared that if the offensive continued in the Danube principalities, the situation facing the Russian army would become extremely dire. He wrote this in a letter to Nicholas I.

Unfortunately, our enemies now include not only naval forces but also Austria, which appears to be backing us from behind Prussia. Britain will do anything to get Austria to stand with it, because without German support, they can't do anything to us, and if all of Europe is against us, we can't use the Danube as a battlefield.

The pressure from the Tsar was mounting, forcing him to order more than twenty infantry attacks, yet none succeeded. A major battle raged outside the main walls of Silistra, where the Turkish army, after repelling a large-scale Russian charge, launched a counterattack against the Russian positions. After the battle, the bodies of approximately two thousand Russian soldiers lay scattered across the battlefield.

Many residents went outside the city to cut off the heads of fallen Russian soldiers, hoping to claim a reward, but they were stopped at the city gates and prevented from bringing these things into the city. So the dead heads piled up outside the city gates, remaining unburied for a long time. A Russian officer begged for his life in memory of the prophet, but his throat was mercilessly slit.

At this time, Britain and France were still discussing the appropriate landing location. From the beginning, the two countries had strategic differences—Britain preferred a landing at Gallipoli and then a cautious advance inland; while France hoped to land at Varna to prevent the Russian army from advancing towards Constantinople. The French also proposed that the more advanced British navy control the naval operations, while the French army commanded the land forces, so that they could make full use of the experience gained from the Algerian War.

This was a reasonable suggestion, but any idea of ​​taking orders from the French would disgust and terrify the British, who distrusted French command. He was a Bonapartist who followed Napoleon, and the French felt the same way, believing the British to be treacherous and not to be trusted.

(End of this chapter)