Struggle in Russia

Leo Tolstoy entered the city with his own troops while the coalition was busy opening up the "Second Battlefield". He described what he saw in detail in his book "The Story of Sevestopol".

In his eyes, Sevastopol was busy, and every day from morning to late night, various projects were carried out in an orderly manner, and all the Russians in the city were contributing their forces to the upcoming war.

This is not a lie, because Sevastopol is completely different from other cities in Crimea, it is more a fortress barracks than a city.

At this time, the city had about 40,000 or 50,000 permanent residents, most of which were connected to the naval base in various ways.

Many sailors and families have lived here since the port was built in the 1780s, and even three generations of the family have served the Black Sea Fleet.

Life in this city is very monotonous, and in the streets of the city center, it is difficult to see people wearing other clothes except navy uniforms.

The city does not have the great museums, flower galleries, concert halls or opera houses and all the other cultural life facilities that a normal city has.

Almost all the buildings in the city are related to the military, such as the Black Sea Fleet Command, the Naval School, the arsenal, the barracks, the shipyard, the military hospital, and the shops and warehouses of the military franchise. The only library was built by the officers of the Black Sea Fleet.

The fortress consists of two parts - the north city and the south city, separated by a port embedded in the land, and the ship is the only means of communication between the north and south cities.

There is an elegant neoclassical style building in Nancheng, which is almost the residence of the city's top personnel such as senior officers and officials. The Beicheng is another world, where the ordinary sailors and fishermen live in the city. All the houses are semi-rural, much like the countryside on the outskirts of Moscow. Vegetables are grown or raised in the gardens of each courtyard. Pigs and other livestock.

As for the majority of naval sailors and junior officers, they generally live in the west of Nancheng Military Port. Most of them are simple log cabins, and most of them are built next to fortifications. Between the outer walls of the bastion.

Like Tolstoy, visitors to Sevastopol will be impressed by the strange intertwining of military camps and market life, beautiful towns and squalid camping.

Yevgeny Ershov, a young artillery officer, came to Sevastopol in the early autumn. He was impressed that the local residents were still living their daily lives normally despite the threat of the approaching coalition forces. Write a letter and tell your family and friends:

"It's a strange feeling here that people are going on with their normal lives - a young woman is walking outside with a stroller, merchants are still doing their business, children are running and playing in the streets while forts and trench……"

Before the allied siege of Sevastopol, people here revelled, overeating, and gambled endlessly, as if they were in a carnival. The pub is bursting every day, and there is an endless stream of skilled women customers.

Even the news that the coalition troops landed in Crimea did not dispel the confidence of the residents of Stopol from top to bottom.

Almost all junior officers believed that they could defeat the coalition and create a glorious victory no less than 1812, especially when the news of the victory at the Battle of the Alma came, almost all officers ignored the coalition. Here, this made Kornilov and Nakhimov so anxious that they had to come forward with serious military discipline, and repeatedly explained the seriousness of the situation to all officers and soldiers, and repeatedly emphasized that "anger is not a problem." equals strength"!

This optimism continued until the Allied navies began shelling the fortresses of Alexandria and Constantine in Sevastopol.

These two fortresses are like two arms outstretched to the sea, guarding the mouth of Sevastopol. The Constantine Fortress is located in the North City, while the Alexander Fortress is located in the South City. The narrow estuary between the two forts was filled with mines to prevent the Allied navy from penetrating the harbor.

In fact, since the landing of the coalition forces, the Black Sea Fleet has been covered with mines on the main waterways outside the port, completely blocking the exit to the sea.

The coalition's shelling of Sevastopol was not so intense, because in the previous reconnaissance, a French frigate of the coalition was struck by a mine outside the port and was blown into two pieces, so the coalition navy did not dare to get too close to the port. Vastopol just used the heavy artillery on the battleship to harass the Russian fort from a distance.

Strictly speaking, this round of shelling was not strong and did not cause any losses to the Russian army. The only benefit was to let the defenders of Sevastopol know that war was really coming. At this time, news came from Simferopol to the north. The useless governor Vladimir Pasteli ordered the evacuation of the whole city. He himself loaded all the belongings into the cart and hurriedly left Escape towards Perekop.

The Governor suddenly ran away and caused a lot of trouble for Kornilov. He caused a lot of panic, causing many wealthy businessmen and municipal officials in Sevastopol to follow and prepare to escape. After the husband shot a few deserters forcefully, he stabilized the situation.

At this time, whether the entire Sevastopol or the entire Crimea can be defended completely depends on three people: Kornilov, Nakhimov and Totrebian~www.readwn.com~ It’s just that Kornilov is actually not sure whether he can defend Sevastopol. The reason is very simple. Even if he has done a lot of preparations before, Sevastopol's defense facilities are far from perfect. , and more importantly, he had very limited troops at hand.

He told his wife: We have only 5,000 sailors and 15,000 naval infantry that we can really use in combat. As for the other 30,000 volunteers who were temporarily recruited, they had a wide variety of weapons and even spears. They were simply a mob. The lines I need to defend are long and very spread out, and what's worse is the lack of connection to each other. If we can hold on, it will be an uncompromising miracle...

Compared with the poor equipment of the soldiers, the work of strengthening the fortifications is not perfect. Even if Kornilov and Nakhimov personally inspected it, there are many problems, and many places are just scraps. .

At the beginning of the project, the Russian army discovered that they did not have suitable and sufficient tools, shovels and hammers, so they could only temporarily go to Odessa to buy them, and on the other hand, they went to the outside of the city to cut wood to make wooden shovels to make up the number.

The newly built forts are all made of soil, wood bundles and gabion nets. Although they look good, only God knows if they can withstand heavy artillery attacks...