Make France Great Again

After Selim Pasha introduced himself, Marshal St. Arnaud and Commander Raglan immediately realized the reason why Selim served as the leader of the Ottoman Army: It was probably because the Sultan of Constantinople was afraid of Omar. The Pasha surrendered on the spot, so his son was appointed to command the Ottoman supporting troops.

If Saint Arnaud and Raglan guessed correctly, the commander actually appointed by the Ottoman Empire was not the foolish-looking young man in front of him, but probably Omar Pasha of Silistra Fortress.

Sure enough, Selim Pasha's next words proved their suspicions. He said sincerely: "Commander Raglan, Marshal St. Arnaud, I know that both of you look down on this army, but this This is our greatest sincerity. The troops of the Ottoman Empire are fighting fiercely with the evil Russian Empire in Silistra, Rouen, and the Caucasus. We no longer have enough troops... Moreover, I am not the real leader of this army. Commander, my father is the commander-in-chief of this army. I hope to work with you two respected elders to contribute to the fight against the Russian Empire."

After Saint Arnaud and Raglan looked at each other, Marshal Saint Arnaud cleared his throat and asked, "Your name is Selim, right?"

"Yes! Your Excellency, Marshal!" Selim Pasha responded to Saint Arnaud humbly.

"Tell me, how many troops you have in your hands that can fight!" Marshal St. Arnaud asked Selim Pasha in a eloquent tone: "I'm talking about troops that can fight the Russian army!"

After thinking for a few seconds, Selim Pasha responded: "Your Excellency, Marshal, among the troops under my command, there are only 20,000 soldiers who can barely fight against the Russian Empire, and 4,000 of them are cavalry!"

"20,000 people!" Saint Arnaud muttered and nodded.

Although this army was much lower than the 80,000 he expected, the 20,000-strong army still failed to penetrate Saint Arnaud's psychological expectations for the Ottoman Empire.

If Omar Pasha hadn't fought desperately against the Russian Empire at Silistra Fortress, thereby restoring part of the image of the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman Empire would have been dismembered by Britain and France in advance because of its incompetence.

It was precisely because of the Ottoman Empire's vigorous fighting in the Caucasus and Silistra Fortress that it gained united battle value in the eyes of Jérôme Bonaparte and Albert.

Saint-Arnault's attitude towards the Ottoman Empire was also based on the premise that the Ottoman Empire itself still had troops capable of fighting.

"Now immediately separate the troops in your hand that can still fight from the defective ones!" Marshal Saint Arnaud issued an order to Selim Pasha: "As for the remaining troops (Saint Arnaud) After a pause, he frowned) You can figure it out yourself!"

"Yes!" Selim Pasha gave a military salute to Saint Arnaud.

"Move quickly!" Saint-Arnaud waved his hand and did not forget to urge him.

After Selim Pasha left the camp, Marshal Saint-Arnaud showed a wry smile and said to Commander Raglan: "I never thought that there are only 20,000 soldiers in the 300,000-strong army who can fight! I really don't know. How on earth did the troops of Silistra Fortress not be defeated by the Russian Imperial Army!”

Commander Raglan nodded empathetically, and then asked Marshal St. Arnaud if he should send an officer to the Ottoman army to investigate to prevent Senim Pasha from fooling them with shoddy goods.

Marshal Saint-Arnaud, who also had little confidence in the Ottoman army, agreed with Commander Raglan. Commander Raglan sent his adjutant, Captain Kingscote, and Saint-Arnaud's adjutant, Brigadier General Trochu, to the Ottoman Empire. Conduct field research at the Imperial Army Camp.

In this way, affected by the Ottoman Empire's "begging army", the coalition forces had to postpone their original plan to set off on the 25th.

Time flies, and it’s evening in a blink of an eye.

The Varna Plain was exceptionally quiet at night. After completing their day's investigation, Captain Kingscote and Brigadier General Trochu arrived at Saint-Arnaud's camp.

"Commander Raglan, Marshal St. Arnaud, I swear these Turks are simply the most brilliant liars..." Captain Kingscote, who entered the camp, could no longer hold it in any longer. He immediately asked Raglan and St. Arnaud. Arnault reports: "If they tell you there are 300,000 horses, just investigate and you will find that there are less than 20,000..."

Captain Kingscote's report successfully provoked Commander Raglan to point at Marshal St. Arnaud and burst into laughter. Marshal St. Arnaud also showed a slight smile on his lips.

Captain Kingscote looked at Commander Raglan and Marshal St. Arnaud with a puzzled look. He didn't understand what was so funny about this.

Later, Commander Raglan told Captain Kingscote that he had reached the same conclusion as Marshal St. Arnaud had said in the camp that morning.

"Brigadier General Trochu, what do you think?" Marshal Saint-Arnaud looked at his adjutant.

As a brigadier general, Trochu obviously had different insights from Captain King Scott. He did not repeat what King Scott said, but conducted an in-depth analysis of the weapons, equipment and personnel of the Ottoman Empire, and concluded that Selim The number of people under the Pasha who can barely fight is probably only about 18,000-19,000, and most of the remaining teams are temporarily recruited.

Gu Jing/span "Your Excellency, Marshal, Your Excellency, Commander, I hope that the command personnel of the British and French armies can be evened out to help the Ottoman Empire reorganize its army. Only in this way can the Ottoman Empire's army have the initial ability to fight against the Russian Empire!" Brigadier General Trochu reported in a sonorous tone.

"This..." Marshal Saint-Arnaud hesitated for a moment, then asked Commander Raglan: "What do you think?"

"How about calling Selim over and asking for his opinion?" Commander Raglan said tentatively.

"That's fine!" Marshal Saint-Arnaud nodded and responded.

Immediately, Saint Arnaud issued an order to the soldiers guarding outside the camp to invite Selim Pasha into the camp.

The soldiers who received the order rushed to the Ottoman camp to invite Selim Pasha. After a while, after Selim Pasha arrived at the military camp, Marshal Saint Arnaud pointed out the problems of the Ottoman Empire with all his heart, and hoped that Selim Pasha would allow British and French commanders to enter the Ottoman army and transform the Ottoman Empire. Imperial Army.

Faced with the requests of Saint Arnaud and Raglan, Selim Pasha nodded in agreement without hesitation.

In this way, under the instructions of the joint command, the grassroots commanders of the British and French armies went to the Ottoman Empire army to help the Ottoman Empire reorganize its army.

After nearly more than a week was wasted, the streamlining of the Ottoman Army was finally completed on March 6.

After streamlining, the Ottoman army was reduced to 19,000 people based on the original "300,000 people", of which 15,000 were infantry and 4,000 were cavalry. Their equipment was also changed from the original old-fashioned muskets to minie rifles. , each person carries 60 rounds of minie ammunition.

These are light infantry plans tailored by the Saint-Arnault General Staff for Selim's troops, and the money required to replace these equipment is also paid by the high-level government of the Ottoman Empire.

[PS: The high-level government's money is borrowed from French bankers by mortgaging the "property rights" of certain islands. From a certain perspective, this can also be regarded as a left-hand operation.]

After changing their equipment, the Ottoman Army finally no longer felt like a begging army when they first met. Every Turkish soldier had a smile on his face.

Selim Pasha looked at the completely transformed army in front of him, and he was also full of confidence.

However, Selim Pasha did not know that this army with a bright appearance was actually a disposable army like the Beiyang Army.

If Walewski and Canning hadn't put pressure on the Ottoman Empire's high-ranking officials, the high-ranking government would not have spent any money to arm this army.

Each "new" Turkish army spent about two to three times as much as the previous "beggar army", and it was impossible to promote it with the existing finances of the Ottoman Empire.

On the evening of March 4, after the last Ottoman army had been reorganized, Marshal Saint-Arnaud, the French commander of the Combined Command, sent General Raglan, commander of the British Expeditionary Force, and La Marmora, the Minister of War of the Kingdom of Sardinia, to Selim, the acting commander of the Ottoman Empire, called to the military camp and gave them instructions to go to Silistra Fortress to relieve the siege.

After receiving the order, Selim Pasha showed an eager expression. He could not wait to go to the Silistra Fortress to fight against the Russian Empire.

Under the command and dispatch of Marshal St. Arnaud, all 20,000 soldiers from Sardinia and 19,000 soldiers from the Ottoman Empire were dispatched, followed closely by Britain and France with 10,000 and 30,000 troops respectively. .

The coalition forces have a total of 79,000 troops, and together with the 40,000 to 50,000 troops at Silistra Fortress, look for Shuyuan www.zhaoshuyuan. com was fully capable of driving back the Russian Imperial forces around Silistra.

However, since the army itself is too large and there is no railway in the Varna area, it is impossible to maintain the supplies of the coalition forces by requisitioning them locally. If you want to maintain the logistical supplies of such a large army, you need to requisition Varna and its troops. Animal power (e.g. mules and horses) from surrounding areas transported supplies.

Recruiting animal power will take a long time. Until now, the total number of animal power possessed by the coalition forces is only 60% of the original plan. It is obviously impossible for large-scale troops to march quickly. Now they can only order combat power at the same time. The powerful regiment immediately headed to the Varna area, while speeding up the collection of animal power, striving to arrive in Varna in batches within a week.

Under the order of Saint Arnaud, quick reaction forces such as the French Empire's Juave Regiment, the Kingdom of Sardinia's Chasseurs, and the British Scots Fusiliers first went to the Silistra area to support Silistra. Fortress, large follow-up troops followed closely for reinforcements.

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