บท 55: Winds of Change (1) (July-September, 1876)
Russo-Turkish War: Europe]
At the beginning of July the Romanian forces cross the Danube to go south, in essence the armies of King Carol I are divided into 2, one that goes to Vratsa (led by the king) and another that is going to join the army of the General Dmitry Milyutin.
Milyutin for his part after the taking of Telish advances towards Botevgrad without major inconvenience, threatening the Ottoman forces in Sofia.
On July 4, General Mikhail Skobelev destroys the Ottoman forces of Yambol, causing the city of Sliven to surrender to the Russian army shortly after.
With his left flank secured, General Iosif Vladimirovich Romeiko-Gurko advances towards the city of Edirne, although he is intercepted by Ottoman forces (led by Suleiman Pasha), Romeiko-Gurko defeats him without major inconveniences and advances between the Maritsa River and Tundzha capturing Ottoman forces in the region.
Pyotr Alexander Cherevin heads south from Silistra to support General Mikhail Skobelev's war effort, which is advancing on Kıyıköy with his right flank secured.
In mid-July (14-16), the city of Botevgrad fell to the Russians, Pirot to the Serbs and Vratsa to the Romanians. General Milyutin then marches on Sofia while a Russian column marches on Zlatitsa (which falls without much trouble).
Ottoman forces from Sofia retreat to the south, allowing General Milyutin to enter the city praised by the Bulgarians as a hero on July 18.
On July 20 the city of Edirne is taken by General Romeiko-Gurko, who now threatens the city of Karakilise. To make matters worse, the city is surrounded when on July 22, General Mikhail Skobelev takes possession of Kıyıköy.
Given this, the city of Karakilise surrenders to the Russian forces without much opposition.
On July 23 Shipka falls.
In the midst of all this, Generals Fyodor Fyodorovich Radetsky and Nikolai Ivanovich Svyatopolk-Mirsky take the Ottoman city of Plovdiv advancing towards the other side of the Maritsa River.
Radetsky advances towards Alexandroupoli while Svyatopolk-Mirsky protects his right flank when facing the Ottoman forces at Pazardzhik.
On July 26, the city of Pazardzhik is abandoned by Ottoman forces, allowing Svyatopolk-Mirsky to occupy them to prepare an invasion to the south, while Radetsky continues his successful march towards Alexandroupoli.
On the other hand, at the end of July General Romeiko-Gurko advances towards Tekirdag and Corlu, the Golden Horn is consequently under pressure from three Russian armies, led by Peter Cherevin, Mikhail Skobelev and Iosif Romeiko-Gurko.
*******
* July 23, Shipka.
Unknown Ottoman soldier.
"It was a cloudy day, the commander was with a gloomy look, the Russians had appeared a few months ago and had started walking over fortresses and cities as if nothing had happened.
Kamer had said that the devil must be Russian, maybe he is right ...
There were stories about Russian commanders, a general riding a white horse, or the speedy Romeiko-Gurko, they are reputed to be 'invincible' or so the stories say.
The Russians have not stopped attacking our position at the Shipka Pass. I'm afraid, every so often we get some news from the south, about how more positions are falling.
Edirne fell recently, I'm still waiting for news from my nephew- "
An artillery barrage stops the Ottoman, his pencil falls to the ground and he must get up to take up arms. The Russian armies were marching, and so must the Ottoman.
On July 23, after hours of combat, the Shipka Pass was taken by the Russians, eliminating most of the Ottoman forces.
*******
* Nikola Tesla perspective.
In the camp the Bulgarians and Serbs of the Russian Foreign Legion were singing and dancing after their recent victories against the Ottomans, General Mikhail Skobelev was planning to take over the city of San Estefano.
"After San Estefano, we will march on Constantinople!". Skobelev exclaims excitedly to the Russians, everyone seems to be celebrating the idea. Even the young Serbian Nikola Tesla makes a toast to such an idea.
Everything was fine until a messenger shows up to deliver a note to Cherevin, the same note that Iosif Romeiko-Gurko would receive a few days later. "The tsar says we can't do that." The emperor's guard, Peter Alexandrovich Cherevin notifies General Skobelev.
Suddenly everything was silent. "What?".
General Skobelev was stunned. "The tsar informed that before the threat of British or Austro-Hungarian intervention, we can take San Estefano but Constantinople is off limits." Cherevin mentions.
"Who cares about the British? They can only beat us in the water, but on land we would sweep anyone away." Skobelev announces furious.
"Orders from Tsar Alexander III, not mine." Cherevin responds by taking another drink of alcohol.
"The idea of taking 'Tsargrad' or Constantinople seemed very important to the Russians, or to General Skobelev in particular. The next few days I spent in a strange state of mind.
Muttering against the British.
In August we would march on San Estefano. "
-Memoirs of Nikola Tesla.
*******
[Russo-Turkish War: The Caucasus]
Commander Mikhail Tarielovich Loris-Melikov in the first weeks of July marches over Artvin without major incident.
On July 20, together with the Russian forces of the defense line, the city of Ardahan is attacked from both flanks, which forces the Ottoman forces to withdraw before being destroyed by the Russian forces.
From there the Russian army forms 3 columns (the armies of Loris-Melikov, the Akhaltsikhe-Akhalkalaki line and the Aleksandropol-Aladza line) advance towards the city of Kars.
The city's army is locked up and Zivin's reinforcements are defeated by Commander Loris-Melikov, but Aleksandropol-Aladza's forces suffer heavy casualties in combat.
Fortunately the city falls on July 30, allowing Lotis Melikov to lead another campaign in August.
With Kars taken, Loris-Melikov's army marches towards Zivin, which falls without major inconvenience, and the city is used as a platform for the conquest of Erzurum on August 11.
The city of Dajar tries to attack the line of the Russian forces between Erzurum and Zivin, but then in the south the city of Dogubeyazit falls to the Russian forces of Igdir on August 21.
Ottoman forces in the south flock westward, splitting into small disorganized groups. Faced with this prospect, the city of Dajar surrenders, allowing Loris-Melikov to enter on August 31.
Loris-Melikov then has the job of defending this line until the end of the war, cooperating closely with Armenian volunteers and obviously Russian support from Georgia-Russian Armania.
*Aleksei Brusilov, Kars.
Terv's squad causes the fall of the right flank of the city of Kars, the battle against the Ottomans can be tough, but Commander Brusilov successfully leads his squad to another victory.
"There are problems in Aleksandropol." One of the captains reports.
"Have the Ottomans taken the city?" Brusilov quickly questions.
"No, but they have suffered heavy casualties." The captain reports.
"We will rush to support as soon as we can." Brusilov responds promptly.
After the fall of one of the walls of Kars, Brusilov stood out for his bravery in aid of the Russian forces in the east that supported the taking of the city. Appearing in Commander Loris-Melikov's reports.
"Come in, come in, eat whatever you want." An Armenian cook offers the Russian soldiers in a kind of bazaar, the Russians were excited to receive someone's hospitality.
"Men, don't go overboard. We have to go fast." Commander Brusilov sentences.
"I am sure you are not going to march on an empty stomach." The Armenian cook responds happy. Brusilov sighs.
*******
[August-September: Europe]
On August 4 the forces of General Iosif Romeiko-Gurko march on Tekirgad and Corlu. On August 7, Mikhail Skobelev's forces march on San Estefano, and finally Radetsky's forces march on Alexandroupoli on August 11.
Europe and the Ottoman Empire are undoubtedly shocked by the Russian advance in the Balkans.
With the prospect of not being able to attack Constantinople, the armies of Iosif Romeiko-Gurko go to join with Fyodor Fyodorovich Radetsky and Nikolai Ivanovich Svyatopolk-Mirsky for a campaign towards Thessalonica and Macedonia.
General Mikhail Skobelev stayed to guard the line in Thrace, looking from San Estefano towards the city of Constantinople.
General Dmitry Milyutin for his part marches to the south of Serbia to go to support the Serbo-Croats of Bosnia-Herzegovina, leaving Mikhail Ivanovich Dragomirov, the Bulgarian volunteers and King Carol I of Romania to defend the liberated Bulgaria by Russia.
* [Ottoman perspective.]
Everything seemed certainly lost, Austria-Hungary did not move towards an intervention against Russia and watched its borders, the public opinion of the United Kingdom had turned against the Ottoman government.
And the economic mismanagement left by Sultan Abdülaziz did not help.
In the midst of all this, on August 31, Sultan Murad V is deposed by his brother Abdul Hamid II, claiming that Murad V has mental problems.
Abdul Hamid II practically marches on horseback on Constantinople as a general, and seems to intend to fight Russia while Dmitry Milyutin marched in southern Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Between the Sultan and the members of his government it was discussed what would be the best strategy, with Thessalonica and other ports in the eastern Balkans occupied, deploying troops there was not an option.
There were still the western ports in Albania, but with Montenegro and Serbia close by (plus Greece and Austria-Hungary if they decided to join Russia) it was also a risky option.
But continuing to leave the Russian coalition in the region was unwise.
*******
On September 1, General Dmitry Milyutin marched to Bosnia-Herzegovina supporting the Croatian Serb rebels against the Ottoman Empire, on his way there were joined by Serbian, Croatian and Montenegrin volunteers who marched on the Ottoman possessions in the south of the region.
The Hungarians of the Austro-Hungarian Army were also excited at the prospect of joining the Russian war effort against the Ottoman Empire, but of course the Austrians were holding them back.
The Milyutin and Montenegrin army began to supply the Croatian-Serb rebels with a quantity of weapons for the defense of the Croatian Serb revolt.
Some Austrians argued that it was time for an intervention in the Russo-Turkish war to secure the Bosnia-Herzegovina region and take it for Austria-Hungary, but the Hungarians wanted a formal declaration of war against the Ottoman Empire.
Emperor Franz Joseph doubted the advice of his foreign minister.
Between September 1 and 15 the Russians took Thessalonica and some parts of the Macedonian region.
At the end of September General Milyutin was marching through the centers of Bosnia-Herzegovina pointing north, General Milyutin's support for the Croatian Serbs really gave them important help against the Ottomans.
*******
[International]
On July 8 the Austro-Hungarian Empire continues to send support to the Second French Empire of Napoleon IV, but one of the ships runs aground in Sicily. In the middle of this a battle between local officials and Austro-Hungarians broke out per incident, drastically increasing the tensions between the Dual Alliance and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, severely affecting the possibility of future cooperation between the Austro-Hungarians (who still desired revenge for the Austro-Prussian War) and the Germans.
The Italians kept pressing because Austria-Hungary will stop sending support to Emperor Napoleon IV by passing so close to Italian waters and coasts.
On the other hand King Henry V sees how his ideas of a France unified by the Legitimists-Orleanists are getting further and further away as the Bonapartist army tries to take Paris again.
Both forces had reorganized and resupplied as best they could after the truce due to possible German intervention, but the Bonapartists had more territory and men.
On September 5, William Gladstone from the United Kingdom publishes Bulgarian Horrors, a pamphlet against the pro-Ottoman positions of the English government due to the crimes committed in Batak against the Bulgarian population of the Balkans.
Supporting the idea of an independent Bulgaria, this is closely related to conservative politicians joining Gladstone's views against Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, and thus supporting the idea of the independent Bulgaria out of Ottoman control.
On September 12, King Leopold II of Belgium gave rise to the Brussels Geographic Conference, which gave rise to the International African Association (in full, "International Association for the Exploration and Civilization of Central Africa").
With the aim of "exploring and civilizing" the central regions of Africa (the Congo more specifically), through an 'international' body
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