“General Izmailov, sir.” Nick paused to think about his report for a moment. “A force of about eight thousand men is approaching from the southwest. From Smolensk, as near as I can tell. They’ll be here in a week.”
The general looked grim. “Well, we knew it was inevitable.”
He began issuing orders. “Tim, now that we’ve tightened the noose around Rzhev, we’ve got plenty of wall sections. We’ll use them to build our own fortifications between us and the oncoming force. Arrange it.”
That wasn’t a good solution but it was the best he could do with what he had. One thing he didn’t want to allow was a relief of the siege of Rzhev. Instead his force would be both besiegers and besieged.
“Yes, sir.” The young lieutenant-who was looking older by the day-took off toward the peasants and soldiers who were used to move the walls.
Work on tightening the noose around Rzhev was halted while the Russians set about making their own defensive wall. To General Izmailov this was looking more and more like a carefully laid plan where someone had jumped the gun. Tim was right about the Volga, or at least he might be. If the Poles got a base on the upper Volga, they would be in a much better position to press Wladislaw’s claim to the czar’s throne. If the enemy got Rzhev and Tver and held them for a while, they could build up supplies and equipment to make a rapid advance by way of the Volga. They wouldn’t need to take Moscow, just cut it off from the rest of Russia. Besides, if they held the Volga to Nizhny Novgorodi, they held the mouth of the Muscovy River. Apparently, someone in Poland had realized that Moscow was a false key to Russia.
It was the rivers that gave someone control of Russia, not Moscow. Especially if the Poles got their own up- timer somewhere to make them steam-powered riverboats. Russia now had some steamboats running up the Volga bringing supplies. What they weren’t bringing were reinforcements. Izmailov wondered if the people back in Moscow were crazy.
Meanwhile, everyone was working to get a second wall up about fifty feet outside the first and to get all their supplies between the two walls. That would give them a corridor that would stretch from the river on one side of Rzhev to the river on the other side. Rzhev was located on both sides of the Volga, but a bluff on the north side of the river commanded the lower city on the south side. For now, Izmailov would cede the lower city to the Poles. He could take it back easily enough once they had the upper city in their hands. There had been a ferry between the two, but that was easily dealt with. The Volga here was a bit over a hundred yards wide, making it impossible to occupy both sides of the river without dividing his force. The good news was the volley guns and small cannons placed at either end of the corridor could prevent the Poles from resupplying Upper Rzhev by crossing the Volga. That same bluff gave the Russian guns an advantage when protecting their resupply.
“All right, Nick. From now on you base out of Staritsa. I want you well away from Cossack patrols.” Starista was about thirty miles as the crow-or Testbed — flew, a bit over fifty miles along the river. And it had enough defenses to keep Testbed safe. “Do you really think the blinker lamps will work in daylight?”
“They should, General. The lamp on Testbed is located in shadow, so as long as we stay out of the sun, you should be able to see the flashes. You have the grid map and we got a good enough look at their army to give a good read on their units. They have been designated A through K. We’ll send an offset for the code wheels at the beginning and end of each message.”
“What about us sending you messages?
“Should work about the same. Blink at us from a shaded spot.” Nick said. “What really worries me, General, is… well, they will know that we are telling you their locations. And we can’t stay up all that long. They can just wait for us to leave, then move their units and attack where you’re not expecting it.”
“Pity about that,” Aleksander Korwin Gosiewski said. In general, Gosiewski was quite pleased with the way things had gone since his forces left Smolensk. He wouldn’t have done what Janusz Radziwill had, but since Janusz had opened the way, Gosiewski was fairly sure that he was safe from the political repercussions. And if it increased the size and power of Lithuania within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, that was all to the good.
“Our eight thousand and three thousand in Rzhev…” He felt confident that he could rout the Russians. His force was a modern army, six thousand infantry, two thousand cavalry. “But I would have liked to capture that balloon. I doubt it will return; I suspect the Rus commander has sent it away to keep it out of our hands.”
He nodded to his subordinates. “But it doesn’t matter that much. There is a time for subtlety, gentlemen, and a time for more direct means. This is the latter.”
“Sir!” Colonel Bortnowski said.
“As soon as their balloon is out of sight, Colonel, you will take the German dragoons…” Gosiewski continued with a list of units designated to attack the east downriver edge of the wall. “We will hold here until the artillery has produced a breech in their golay golrod. You will then advance. Our situation is simple. Once we get within their outer wall, at any point, they are done and we can roll them up. The Russian soldiers don’t have the stomach for a standup fight. They carry walls with them so they’ll have something to hide behind. Take that away and they’re like sheep among wolves.”
It took another hour to work out all the various details, including a skirmish against the upriver edge of the wall to pull the defenders away from the planned breech point.
Chapter 59
“General, the Poles are moving,” Tim said as he entered the tent.
“What?” the general had been taking a nap. He sat up on his cot. “Their cannon?”
“Not yet, sir.”
“Very well. Give me ten minutes.”
By the time General Izmailov got to the walls, the Russian corridor was acting like a disturbed ant bed. Izmailov didn’t rush. He strolled. Exhibiting no hurry, he listened to reports as he went, stopped and greeted people. And, to an extent, the ant bed calmed. Actions became less frantic and more purposeful. When it was reported that the Polish cannon were moving into position, he quickened his pace and started giving orders.
“Get those guns in place!” The small rifled cannon of the Russians were moved into position, set up and loaded behind sections of wall. Ropes were attached to those wall sections so that they could be quickly moved out of the way.
“We’ll give it to them now, boys,” General Izmailov shouted. “Before they realize what hits them.”
The order was given while the Polish cannon were still out of effective range. Their effective range-not the effective range of the rifled breech-loading Russian guns.
The men on the ropes strained and the walls moved out of the way.
“Aim them! Don’t just point them randomly!”
The gunners took a moment to refine their aim.
“Fire!”
Boomcrack! Boomcrack! Boomcrack!
The small cannons sounded like they couldn’t make up their mind whether they were cannon or rifles. The rounds they fired were small, just under an inch across and three inches long. But they exited the Russian guns in a flat trajectory and hit very close to where their gunners aimed them. Two rounds struck the outer wagon of the Polish gun train. The third missed, but hit a wagon wheel which it shattered. Pointlessly, though, since the exploding powder wagons would have destroyed it a tenth of a second later anyway.
A Polish gunner lay on the ground, blown off his feet but otherwise uninjured, shaking his head less to clear it than in confusion. The Russian guns were half again out of a cannon’s effective range. But even as he lay there, he heard another boomcrack and the gun carriage of one of the six Polish nine-pound sakers was struck and damaged by another Russian round. The gunner, after due consideration, decided that where he was, was a rather good place to be. Much better than standing up next to the guns.
Aleksander Korwin Gosiewski was not so sanguine. In the midst of disaster, he saw what he wanted to see. The Russians had opened a breech in their wall to allow their cannons to fire. He decided that if he moved fast enough he could exploit the breech. He rapped out orders to Colonel Bortnowski and sent off the messenger. “Attack now. Go for the breech. Charge, curse you! Charge!”
