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Volume 8 From the Mediterranean to... Chapter 93 Attacking the Riga Fortress

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    Riga was a settlement of the Liv people in ancient times and was built as a fortress city in 1201.  In 1282, Riga joined the Hanseatic League and became the most important trade center in the Baltic Sea.  From 1709 to 1710, Tsar Peter I occupied Riga during the war with Sweden.  It later became an important port and trade center in northwest Russia and developed into a seaport in the 18th and 18th centuries.  Riga¡¯s geographical location is very important, with a total area of ??approximately 300 square kilometers.  It is located at the intersection of western and eastern Europe, Russia and Scandinavia. Its port has important strategic significance and is known as the "beating heart of the Baltic Sea" and the "Paris of the North".  The entire city spans both sides of the Daugava River and borders the Gulf of Riga along with the Baltic Sea.  In August 1812, Macdonald led his 10th Army to the city of Riga.  Soon after, the main French army that besieged St. Petersburg, Marshal Oudinot's 2nd Army and Marshal Saint-Cyr's 6th Army, were successfully blocked by the Russian army in the Polotsk area.  Therefore, Riga became the only land gateway from the Baltic French army to the Russian capital St. Petersburg.  Only by capturing Riga can Macdonald's Army continue to enter the heart of Russia and threaten St. Petersburg.  At the same time, General Aixian, who served as the commander of the fortress, issued an order to all soldiers and civilians not to retreat.  He must snipe another French army threatening the capital St. Petersburg outside Riga.  As a result, a brutal urban offensive and defensive battle ensued.  Different from the original history, the Macdonald Army that besieged the Riga Fortress received the cooperation and support of the naval fleet, and the logistics supplies were relatively sufficient.  Although the relationship with the Desai Army was up and down, after September 5, the Prussian Army, which suffered heavy casualties, finally cleared the peripheral defenses of the Riga Fortress and trapped the remaining 10,000 Russian defenders in the city.  .  Since the central area of ??Riga is located on the Gava River, the Leruba River, the city canal and the Keishi Lake, the rivers and lakes form natural barriers.  The city's fortifications are very strong.  After successfully sweeping away the Russian navy participating in the Gulf of Riga, the cooperating Baltic Fleet could not continue to risk going deep into the narrow and muddy river several kilometers away.  On September 6, Marshal Macdonald asked the Commander of the Riga Squadron to send the Marines for a landing operation, but Colonel Mayar and the British staff vetoed the decision. The crisscrossing rivers and muddy roads would only cost oneself.  Senseless casualties.  In addition to continuing to cooperate with friendly forces to block the Russian army's communication channel to the Haihe River, Colonel Mayar refused other instructions.  On September 7, Macdonald once again sent his adjutant into the city and asked the Russian commander General Aesian to surrender for the second time, saying that he would respect the private property of Russian officers and soldiers and ensure the personal safety of the officers and soldiers. However, he was again met by Aesian.  The general refused.  That afternoon, MacDonald ordered the Prussian Legion to divide into three groups and launch a general attack on the Riga Fortress.  His plan was to use two infantry divisions as the main attack; the other two infantry divisions were responsible for feint attacks from the east and west directions.  However, due to the haste of this attack and the underestimation of the strength of the Russian defense, this attack was destined to cause a serious setback to the French Marshal's plan.  The battle began at 6 p.m., and the attacking Prussians showed amazing courage and sacrifice.  Under the harsh weather of pouring rain, the soldiers braved the fierce fire from the enemy's guns in the fortress and waded through waist-deep murky water and struggled forward.  However, the Russians' tenacious defense made the efforts seem ineffective.  After suffering heavy losses, accounting for one-fifth of the attacking force, MacDonald had to order the soldiers on the front line to retreat first and seek other opportunities.  "My ground troops need heavy artillery support!" Late at night, MacDonald had to write to Desai, requesting friendly forces to cooperate.  At this time, the French marshal was too lazy to care about what the Polish King said and did in Lithuania, and he could not care at all.  Two days later, the heavy artillery regiment led by Lieutenant Colonel Dupont arrived at the Riga Fortress and participated in the siege of the Prussian Army.  On September 13, after days of fierce shelling, the walls of the Riga Fortress were finally blasted with two gaps, one in the east and one in the west. However, the wily MacDonald decided to give up the plan to storm that night.  In order to distract the Russian army, he ordered the French army to concentrate firepower on the next day to create a gap in the southeast corner, allowing the most elite light infantry division to prepare for an assault.  Although the fortress walls had collapsed, the hungry army, which was much smaller than the French army, still did not intend to surrender without a fight. The Russian people, under the command of General Essen, used the limited time to reinforce the fortifications, and the trenches were also filled with  Obstacles, a bloody battle is coming.  The suicide squads of the 10th Legion, who were about to be the first to land on the city, enjoyed a rare period of relaxation on the afternoon of the 15th.  The soldiers were allowed to go down to the river and take a refreshing bath, hoping that whether they were killed or wounded in battle, they would be clean.  It is clear and cloudless during the day, and pitch black at night.  Around 9:30, the death squads quietly approached the city wall of Riga. They moved on tiptoe, covered by the sound of frogs.    The assault on Riga officially began at ten o'clock in the evening. MacDonald's elite light infantry division, which had high hopes, was the first to attack the southeastern gap opened. They threw a large number of sacks and firewood into the city moat, and then climbed onto the city with ladders.  But the French army's actions were eventually discovered, and the defenders on duty shouted: "They are here!" Immediately, the Russians detonated the giant mines they had laid before. The dazzling light made the gap look like daylight, and the Russian army poured countless explosives into  The top of the attacker's head.  The successive explosions of countless gunpowder and grenades almost plunged the entire light infantry division's assault troops into chaos. Even the follow-up troops suffered heavy losses. However, this elite division continued to rush towards the gap after a roar, and other troops also followed at the same time.  move forward.  Despite paying a heavy price to reach the city, the two divisions found that they only had five ladders in total.  Forty minutes after the general attack began, the death squads finally found the correct location to set up the ladder, and the soldiers hurriedly climbed to the city.  Behind them, hundreds of French soldiers had fallen into the water-filled trenches carefully maintained by Russian engineers.  At this time, another infantry division that should be attacking the city to the west at the same time had just recovered from the chaos caused by the flares and was preparing to start the attack.  Since the gap in the city wall was filled by the Russians, the soldiers could only rely on ladders to climb up and attack the city. The Russian army did their best to resist.  One of the ladders collapsed on the spot due to the large number of people it carried. The soldiers who were about to climb to the top of the city fell to their death among their own bayonets in an instant. The other ladder was very lucky, and the ladder with the same heavy load made the Russian army  Powerless to push it away.  Under the cover of the bayonets of their companions, the death squads of the light infantry division took the lead in boarding the castle and finally succeeded in breaking through the Russian defenses. An officer pulled down the Russian flag. Unable to find his own flag raised, he simply took off his dark blue military uniform and hung it on the castle tower.  On the flagpole.  At the same time, another division of French troops finally broke into the city from a bastion in the west.  At about seven o'clock in the morning, General Aixian and the remaining Russian troops finally surrendered.  But the French army paid a price of more than 3,000 casualties that night.  At about four o'clock in the morning, the soldiers at the southeastern gap heard increasingly sparse shooting sounds and the incessant screams of women.  The follow-up troops finally entered the long-awaited city of Riga through the gap.  In order to reward the soldiers of the 10th Army for their sacrifice, Marshal Macdonald promised his men two hours of "freedom of movement."  And this means looting, killing, and rape.  Just when the Russian army finally surrendered, the Prussians lost all discipline after two or three hours of plundering and drinking. They vented their anger over the long offensive with a kind of looting similar to a mutiny. Officers who tried to maintain discipline were beaten by their subordinates.  They were shot and killed, and the troops who entered the city to restore order also joined in the looting.  This massive looting campaign lasted for three full days and was a tragic scene from hell.  In parallel history, until late October, the Prussian army commanded by Macdonald failed to attack the Riga Fortress, causing the army to lose morale.  On the contrary, the Prussian general Hans York, while leading his troops to retreat from the Baltic Sea, without the authorization of the King of Prussia, resolutely reached an agreement with a Russian army with Clausewitz as an adviser, declaring that the Prussian army would remain neutral, and in fact declared war on France.  .  But due to the unexpected intervention of the time traveler, Guchengjia finally fell into the hands of the 10th Legion.  At the same time, the Prussian Army also paid an extremely heavy price in casualties.  Of the 30,000 soldiers before the war, after the stronghold was captured, only 15,000 remained, including lightly wounded soldiers who were able to walk.  As for Hans York, he was "accidentally" killed in battle under the city of Riga.  When the city of Riga was captured by the French Legion and the bad news that most of the defenders were massacred and plundered by Prussian soldiers quickly reached St. Petersburg, Tsar Alexander angrily rebuked Scharnhorst and Clausewitz in the palace.  The inaction of the Prussian exiles publicly announced that the Russian army would not accept any form of surrender by the Prussian soldiers who wantonly massacred Riga soldiers and civilians, which was equivalent to directly pronouncing the final death sentence of this Prussian regiment.  In order to prevent the French army in the Baltic Sea from continuing to advance towards the St. Petersburg defense line and threatening the Russian capital and most important cities, Alexander directly ordered Admiral Chichakov to mobilize heavy troops to encircle Macdonald's 10th Army.  Three days later, the Cossack cavalry in the vanguard was less than 50 kilometers away from the Riga fortress occupied by the Prussians.  ¡­ ¡­ The word ¡°Cossack¡± originates from the Turkic language and means ¡°free man¡± or ¡°brave man¡±.  The Cossacks are mainly distributed in the Don, Terek and Kuban river basins. They are a local group with unique history and culture among Russians and Ukrainians. They belong to the Eastern European type of the Europa race and speak the southern dialect of Russian.  In 1380, a Cossack general fought against the taxes imposed by the Polish Republic.  In records of that period, the Cossacks are described as a group that evolved from herders into a militarily powerful cavalry unit.  In the time of Tsar Peter I, the Cossacks who became Russian mercenariesThe ?? Corps played an important role in the war against Sweden in order to control the Baltic Sea region.  The Cossacks are drunkards, brave and martial, good at riding and shooting, and care about life and death.  Their cavalry occupies an important position in the Russian military force.  Leather hat, black cloak, breeches, riding boots and a top with a high collar and tight cuffs are the standard military uniforms of the Cossacks.  They are warriors with strong physiques, a mustache or sideburns, and a long saber hanging on their waists.  Napoleon once commented on this: "The Cossack cavalry is the best light cavalry in the contemporary world. If I have Cossack cavalry in my army, I will use them to sweep across the entire world!" But in Desai's eyes, the Cossack cavalry is nothing more than a man who lives his life.  They live a nomadic life, do not abide by military discipline, like to dress gorgeously, and can bribe anyone. They are a bandit group with a very bad reputation.  Apart from serving as scouts and suitable for harassment tactics, the Cossack cavalry did not have much use.  They were so ruthless towards the common people that they were hated by friends and foes throughout Europe.
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