Persian Empire 1845

Chapter 143 The Battle of Gyumri (Part 3)
After finishing breakfast, the Iranian soldiers began to assemble in their camp, one squad after another. Following several days of probing attacks, they had a basic understanding of the situation at the Gyumri fortress, and now they could launch their attack.

Isfahani was closely monitoring the battle. To prevent reinforcements from Tbilisi, he also sent troops to intercept them. To avoid any unforeseen complications, the fortress had to be captured.

All the soldiers stood ready, their bayonets like a forest, the cold glint of their blades chilling to the bone!

In the morning, at the commander's order, the 400 cannons surrounding the fortress began firing simultaneously! This was transported at the fastest speed possible, at the cost of the lives of over a thousand Armenians.

Boom boom boom... The sound of cannons echoed everywhere, smoke rose from the ground like dark clouds, and shells flew towards the fortress like a rainstorm.

Soleimani felt as if the watchtower beneath his feet was about to collapse, and even with something plugged in his ears, the booming cannon fire was still crystal clear.

Gyumri was instantly engulfed in flames, the explosions spreading throughout the city. Countless Russian soldiers were blown into the air by the shockwaves, losing their limbs.

"Find cover... The enemy's shelling won't last long... The enemy infantry will launch an attack soon..."

Amidst the deafening explosions, Gyumri trembled violently!

The sky over Gyumri was filled with the booming sound of artillery. Iranian soldiers preparing for the attack gathered in a safe area in front of the artillery positions, enduring the intense explosions while awaiting the final order to attack.

In response to the Iranian shelling, Skvortsnik angrily ordered: "Let our artillery return fire! If this continues, the morale of the troops will be lost!"

Boom! Boom! Boom! More than 100 cannons inside the fortress opened fire on the enemy forces outside the city, casting a shadow across the sky. But all the Iranian soldiers breathed a sigh of relief, because all the Russian shells exploded within a range of 1,500 to 2,000 meters of Gyumri. Despite the intense explosions, the Iranian forces suffered absolutely no losses!

Two hours later, the shelling stopped. It wasn't that the Iranian army was showing mercy; rather, they were preparing for an attack.

"The evil heretics are in that fortress, and today we will repay them tenfold for the humiliation they have inflicted upon us!"

Suddenly, the world fell silent. The frenzied artillery fire abruptly ceased, and the soldiers on the battlefield, unaccustomed to such quiet, felt a buzzing in their ears, some even itching from the vibrations. But then came the piercing sound of charging, as the encirclement simultaneously sounded the charge.

"Kill! Charge forward!" The officers raised their sabers and charged to the front, followed by layers of menacing soldiers.

Almost simultaneously, countless heads emerged from the fortress walls, and the Russian troops who had just been hiding from the bombing suddenly popped out again.

"Fire! Keep firing! Bomb these barbarians to death!"

The sky was filled with the whistling of Russian artillery shells whizzing through the air, and massive explosions created gaping wounds in the Iranian ranks. But these gaps were quickly filled by fearless soldiers, and the advancing tide surged forward!

The Russian soldiers watched in horror as the sea of ​​people outside the city surged toward them, wave after wave, seemingly endless! From the city walls came the commands of countless commanders: "Fire! Fire! All troops, fire!" Rifles stood everywhere on the city walls.

Bullets fired from below the city walls, pinning the Iranian soldiers to the ground. But they also began to fight back, using boulders, wooden stakes, and dilapidated houses as cover to fire at the city walls. Screams of agony could be heard from the Russian positions every now and then.

Taking advantage of the crossfire created by their comrades, the brave engineers quickly emerged from their cover, forming groups of three to five, each carrying or carrying bundles of explosives. The Russian troops spotted them and immediately opened fire, then lit the fuses upon reaching their designated positions.

With a muffled thud, dust billowed up along the entire section of the city wall, and a huge breach, more than a meter high, was blasted open in the foundation near the outer edge. The Russian soldiers on the city wall were thrown to the ground in disarray by the shockwave.

"Stand up...all of you stand up and keep firing!"

At this point, the Russian commanders were also in a frenzy of fighting. They refused to accept their defeat and kept demanding a counterattack.

At this moment, the second round of artillery fire arrived. The shells once again landed accurately on the city wall, and the newly risen Russian troops were once again decimated.

"Fight! Rise up and fight..." The officer swung his fist and smashed it into the cowardly soldiers. Bullets whizzed past him, sending stone chips flying from the city wall!

"Fight! If we don't fight and break through the city, none of us will survive! Attack..." A bullet flew up to the city wall, and the officer who had just been boosting morale was shot through the chest, his body rolling down from the top.

Soldiers were firing upwards from all around the city walls, effectively suppressing the firepower on the ramparts. Then, more engineers arrived with explosives to bombard the walls. Huge explosions echoed, and the fortress walls teetered on the brink of collapse.

Soon, several huge breaches were blasted into the city wall, and excited Iranian soldiers charged up the wall like madmen.

The Russian soldiers lying on the city wall were awakened by the shouts of battle. When they opened their eyes, they saw that the world was blood red. Blood from their foreheads poured into their eyes like a waterfall, and everything was blood red and distorted.

Some people struggled to their feet, looking at the huge gap around them as if it were the edge of a cliff, with Iranian troops swarming in like a flood pouring through the breach in the dam.

"Damn infidels, go to hell..."

The Russian soldier pulled the bolt to load a bullet, and without even aiming, he pulled the trigger from his high vantage point. As soon as the gunshot rang out, a soldier fell to the ground and screamed in agony from the crowd below.

The city walls breached, and Iranian troops poured in. Russian troops joined the fray, but when the first Iranian soldiers scaled the walls, they discovered that the fortress had been armed to the point of being impregnable.

Behind the city walls lay countless residential areas, factories, workshops, military camps, stables... a complex network of streets, dotted with sandbag walls. There were even several small firing bunkers equipped with cannons, capable of creating crossfire.

The retreating Russian troops poured into the complex urban warfare zone like a tide, while the pursuing Iranian forces were met with crossfire. Every building was a fortress, and every window offered a sniper's opportunity.

A hail of bullets felled a group of Iranian soldiers, and the rest could only retreat! But the troops outside the city continued to surge forward. Led by their officers, these Iranian soldiers fought to the death, no matter how heavy the casualties were.

Officers like Soleimani who went to Prussia to study took the lead, not only learning tactics in Berlin but also thoroughly implementing the ideology of loyalty to the monarch and patriotism.

Their charge not only affected every Iranian soldier, but also turned the battle into a fight to wash away their shame. At that moment, they had only one thought: to defeat the Russia that oppressed them.

(End of this chapter)