Life of Being a Crown Prince in France

Chapter 1135: Chapter 1041: Bleeding on Two Fronts

Indeed, the Persian army didn’t even bother with pulling or harassing; they simply used heavy cavalry to barbarically pierce through.

The Turkic cavalry scouts immediately followed into the breach in the defensive line, brandishing horse sabers to expand the results.

The Georgian musketeers, numbering more than 4,000, only lasted less than half an hour before being overwhelmed by the death-defying charge.

The Georgians screamed in agony as they fled frantically towards Tbilisi City, with Persian cavalry frequently catching up behind them, slashing their bodies with horse sabers.

The several kilometers of land from the Kerchanski Hills to Tbilisi had turned into a dark red bloodstain.

Persian infantry soon swelled beneath the city walls, and hundreds of Armenian artillerymen began bombarding the fortifications.

Aga Muhammad appeared indifferent to the victory.

He asked his eunuch to bring the map and began contemplating how to proceed with the assault on Kartli.

The garrison in Kartli shouldn’t be numerous, and after occupying it, the old capital of Georgia, Odihi, would be readily attainable.

He looked at the officer beside him: “Bozorge, I want to take all Georgian cities before October. After that, it will be up to you to arrange defenses in the Caucasus Mountain, as the Russians will surely make a move.”

As soon as he finished speaking, dense gunfire came from the north.

He frowned immediately.

His troops had already begun besieging the city; flintlock guns shouldn’t be needed unless there were still Georgians resisting?

A bad premonition suddenly surged in Aga Muhammad’s heart. He grabbed the binoculars and looked towards the source of the gunfire, instantly tightening his heart.

Gray uniforms and black double-headed eagle banners—it was clearly a Russian army!

And they were positioned in the narrowest part of the Kerchanski Hills.

How could this be?

A look of panic flashed through Aga Muhammad’s eyes; his army advanced swiftly, so even if the Russians had received Georgian pleas for help, it was impossible for them to gather enough forces so quickly…

Several blood-stained cavalry scouts galloped over, shouting to him, “Shah, over 5,000 Russian troops are attacking us from both sides of the hills!”

Aga Muhammad no longer bothered to ponder where the Russians had come from and turned to the officer, shouting, “Bozorge, lead the Holy War Knight Order to intercept those Russians!”

“Yes, great Shah!”

While Bozorge was aligning the Holy War Knight Order, more cavalry scouts came to report that the musketeers near the Kerchanski Hills had already been routed by the Russians.

Bozorge’s heart was gripped immediately.

This meant that the vanguard and main forces beneath Tbilisi City were severed.

The vanguard had at least ten thousand soldiers.

He immediately drew his saber and led the army towards the hills.

The Holy War Knight Order was the most elite unit of the Persian Army, having never encountered an opponent in battles prior, now charging arrogantly with horse sabers towards the somewhat chaotic Russian infantry line.

The Russian army positions suddenly burst into orderly drumming, with many soldiers gathering to form tightly packed formations.

The soldiers at the front pointed their bayonets upward diagonally, while those in the back aimed their guns.

As the distance between them grew closer, dense gunfire erupted, and the rows of the Holy War Knight Order splattered with bits of blood, continuously seeing cavalry along with horses toppling in the swirling dust.

Yet the elite Persian cavalry gritted their teeth and charged up to the Russian army, only to be dumbfounded by the sight of enemy infantry not retreating in panic as expected, but pointing hedgehog-like bayonets at them.

The warhorses abruptly halted, as cavalry pulled the reins and split to both sides.

However, Russian gunfire never ceased, as the exquisite Chaleville Flintlock Guns relentlessly harvested the lives of Persian cavalry.

Once Bozorge regrouped the Holy War Knight Order, he found only about 1600 troops remaining.

Merely a single charge had reduced their numbers by nearly 400 elite cavalry.

This was the reason European armies rarely used cavalry to directly assault head-on; if a breach couldn’t be achieved, it would lead to severe losses.

But the Persian military, with relatively outdated military theories, still preferred reckless heavy cavalry charges.

Bozorge looked towards Rip Belgium City in the distance, gritting his teeth as he ordered the troops to charge once more against the Russian infantry line.

If he couldn’t rescue his vanguard, he might face execution upon returning.

However, the outcome remained unchanged; the fearless Persian heavy cavalry once again had to bypass the Russian defensive line after leaving behind a field of corpses.

On the eastern hills, Russian Commander Gudovich, in charge of the ambush, glanced towards the now utterly demoralized Persian cavalry through the binoculars and turned to the Order Officer: “Send the Third Cavalry Corps to annihilate those heavy cavalry.”

“Yes, General!”

Subsequently, Gudovich swiftly mobilized Russian troops based on the scouts’ reports from the hussars, forming an encirclement around Persian forces outside Tbilisi City.

He wasn’t particularly famous within the Russian army, but was indeed experienced in warfare, with a commanding style deemed steady and reliable.

Yet in history, he did not participate in this war—originally, Catherine II planned to let him command the operations in Transcaucasia, but Zubov leveraged intimate influence to push his brother Valerian Zubov into the position of overall commander.

This Valerian had no talent for warfare but liked playing the “win over through virtue” game.

After waging war on Persia, whenever he won a battle, he generously released prisoners and sent envoys to “recruit” Aga Muhammad.

In return, Aga Muhammad took this opportunity to regroup his army and launch counterattacks.

Thus, although the Russians won multiple consecutive battles, after almost a year, they still wrestled with the Persians around Georgia.

Until Catherine II passed away, Paul I withdrew the troops from Transcaucasia.

With their opponents gone, the Persians rapidly occupied all of Georgia, until 8 years later, when Paul I died in a coup, Alexander I once again sent troops to Transcaucasia.

Joseph naturally wouldn’t let history repeat itself; although unable to alter Zubov’s influence over the Tsar, he used diplomatic lobbying to have Gudovich accompany the army to Georgia as a deputy commander.

With this veteran overseeing the operations, coupled with fine weapons provided by France, Russia hoped to reach near Tehran before Catherine II passed.

Sensing the “nether regions” of its Indian colonies feeling chilly, Britain was bound to intervene.

By then, Britain would be trapped in a situation akin to bleeding along both the Portugal and Central Asia lines.

This time, the Russians also performed commendably, quickly assembling twenty thousand troops and setting up ambushes near Tbilisi upon receiving intelligence from Joseph.

Comparing history, where Russia hastily dispatched troops only after receiving Elkher II’s plea for help, this was many months earlier.

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