Chapter 632 Neither up nor Down

The conflict between Austria and Russia immediately attracted the attention of all Europe. People who didn't like Russia felt that the polar bear was seeking death, and they were gloating about waiting for Russia to be beaten. Those who like Russia are worried about it and deeply worried about their own destiny.

But what these two groups of people didn't expect was that just when they were happy or worried, the olive branch offered by Britain and France to Austria through secret channels was flatly rejected. After all, the Austrians did not dare to take the final step and chose to completely fall out with Russia.

However, from the perspective of historical trends, this is not actually important, because whether Austria joins or not joins this polar bear hunting operation, Russia's fate is basically doomed.

The difference is that Austria failed to be the straw that broke the camel's back. It's just that if Austria is not the straw, sooner or later other countries or other people will come to use this straw, which is irresistible.

Closer to home, the dispute on the border between Wallachia and Transylvania quickly ended with the "tacit cooperation" of both parties. Austria only verbally warned and condemned Wallachia, bared its teeth and howled twice with bravado, and made no new moves.

Russia, on the other hand, seemed to have nothing to do with this matter at all. The diplomatic system did not respond at all, not even mentioning it in passing.

As for the so-called Wallachia, they justly warned Austria not to cause trouble across the border again. If Austria insists on challenging the sovereignty and integrity of Wallachia, it will stay with it until the end.

Anyway, after shouting twice, there was no other action. Although the soldiers on both sides of the border were well prepared, both the Austrian and Wallachian National Army were ordered by their superiors not to act arbitrarily, especially not to provoke new conflicts. conflict.

Then this conflict, which was not particularly large in scale, subsided. The two sides were hostile to each other through caution, but in the end no further action was taken.

However, it is not difficult for those with sharp eyes to see that this incident, which both sides deliberately treated coldly and downplayed, has actually announced the complete disintegration of the Holy Alliance and the complete breakdown of the alliance between Russia and Austria.

Now they are just the last bedfellows before divorce. It is conceivable that the situation in Central and Eastern Europe will be completely rewritten in the next decades or even hundreds of years. Fierce conflicts may break out around the loose empire of Austria in the future.

But these are still too far away, let’s talk about things on the battlefield first. The situation of the Russian troops in Ineada was getting worse day by day. After half a month of non-stop artillery bombardment, the coalition finally made up its mind to start a total attack.

About 50,000 British and French troops launched wave after wave of fierce attacks on Ineada from three directions, and the Russian army was suddenly under great pressure.

"Your Excellency, Commander-in-Chief, as of 18:00 today, three streets along the front of our right-wing position have been occupied by the enemy. The 17th Army on the right-wing launched three counterattacks, but they were all repelled by the enemy's superior artillery fire. Our army lost about 3,000 people. people."

"The left wing has repelled five enemy attacks today. The boys of the Second Guards Infantry Corps are very tenacious. They launched a counterattack in the absence of artillery cover, killing and wounding about 2,000 enemy prisoners in total... only However, they have also suffered heavy losses, with about 4,000 dead and injured, and they are in urgent need of replenishment."

"As for the center of our army's position, the pressure was particularly huge. We encountered a fierce attack from about 20,000 enemies in the front. The Fifth Guards Corps and the naval infantry held their positions for a whole day under the enemy's bullets, preventing the enemy from taking a step forward... However, Our army also paid the price of nearly 4,000 casualties."

There was no expression on Paskovich's face, as if he had not heard the terrible number of casualties. Even this old face has nothing but gray age spots. The brown eyes are dull, like the eyeballs of a dead person.

His chief of staff failed to wait for his instructions for a long time, and then cautiously reminded him again: "Your Excellency, Commander, the frontline troops are strongly requesting reinforcements and urgently need to replenish urgently needed medicines and food. Do you think..."

"Is it something?"

Paskovich spoke quietly, but in a rush, like a wounded beast roaring.

"Can we retreat? Tell them, I will shoot anyone who dares to retreat!"

The chief of staff stood silently, not only because he didn't know what to say, but also because he didn't dare to offend this injured old beast.

"Is there any news from Constanta?" Paskovich sighed and asked quietly: "Has Duke Mikhail agreed to send reinforcements to meet us?"

Yes, just three days ago, after suffering an unprecedented violent attack, Paskovich also realized that it was very difficult to hold on to Ineada with his existing troops, so he hoped that Duke Mikhail could pull him A handful of reinforcements, tens of thousands of people, to help him consolidate his position so that he could hold on until the day when St. Petersburg conveyed Nicholas I's will.

It's just that he definitely couldn't say this idea directly, because it would be very shameless to say it directly, and he would lose his face. He said that the reason he gave clearly was to call for reinforcements so that he could continue to complete the established mission.

According to his idea, as long as there were reinforcements, he would have to block the onslaught of the coalition forces no matter how hard he tried. Then, after waiting for Nicholas I's latest decree, if he was asked to retreat, he could just pat his butt and leave calmly. If His Majesty allows him to continue the established mission, then he can continue to find Duke Mikhail to ask for people openly. Even if he fails to complete the mission in the end, it doesn't matter. He can completely blame it and say that the enemy is stronger than expected. What’s really awesome is that the enemy is using human sea tactics!

The chief of staff naturally knew what Lao Qiu Ba was planning, but in his opinion, this plan might not be useful to Duke Mikhail. Not to mention that Duke Mikhail's side is also extremely tight and it's hard to say whether tens of thousands of people can be mobilized for reinforcements.

Even if there are people, they may not be willing to help with this? After all, people have tried their best to oppose your landing operations before. Now that you can't get up or down, you hope others can help you move a ladder to let you down. How is that possible?

Anyway, if he were Duke Mikhail, he would directly reject Paskovich's request, and maybe he would take the opportunity to ridicule him.

Most of the chief of staff's guesses are reliable. Duke Mikhail certainly does not have tens of thousands of reinforcements, but he is not sarcastic. That is not in line with officialdom, and how can a person like him get things done? So ugly?

Even if you want to be sarcastic, you have to make it so that others can't find fault but can tolerate you, Lao Qiu Ba, isn't it...