NOVPUBThe city of Ava, after the war, had changed beyond recognition. The Austrian bombing was targeted, sparing few except military installations and landmark buildings.
Anything that stood out was bombed. By contrast, the less conspicuous civilian areas suffered relatively less damage, with most buildings merely affected rather than destroyed.
The fires caused by the bombing were quickly extinguished, but cries of despair echoed throughout the city. With the collapse of order, looters indulged in their rampages.
Many Ottoman soldiers, who ought to maintain order, joined the looting, revealing the dark side of human nature. Tonight, Ava wept.
If someone had kept track, they would have found that the chaos claimed more lives than the bombing itself.
Facing such turmoil, Akeul and his apprentices dared not venture outside. Recently, some thugs had attempted to loot amidst the chaos, but were driven off by Akeul and his apprentices wielding shotguns.
The shotguns were part of the blacksmith shop owner’s collection, said to be family heirlooms. Maybe due to the rushed circumstances or sheer nervousness, the shotguns were left behind.
The son of Huangsman Raja asked, "Master, will they come back again?"
Those in the household knew that these shotguns, antiques whose age was unknown, could intimidate but were unreliable for killing—there was nearly as much chance of them harming the wielder as the enemy.
Akeul replied uncertainly, "They probably won’t. This is a blacksmith shop, and those officials have requisitioned everything. Aside from a lot of iron and swords, there’s little else to take.
We still have guns, and unless they are fools, they will soon realize that."
At another time, iron and swords might have been considered wealth, but not now; the officials would simply confiscate them. The cold weapons were meant to be distributed to the civilians for a final stand when the city fell.
The great Sultan had decreed a grim order: "As long as the city stands, so shall its people; if the city falls, the people shall perish." Without a last stand, how could it be called a "holy war"?
Whether the people would fight to the death was not the officials’ concern. If the Ava region fell, the army officers would share in the misfortune.
Everyone was too busy with their own survival to care whether the populace would fight to the end. The goal was to mobilize everyone possible, lure the enemy into the city, and launch an attack. Even if they couldn’t defeat the enemy, they aimed to deter them.
...
At Ava Defenders’ headquarters, Brigadier Erzucher was troubled by the threat overhead. If they couldn’t handle this problem, the enemy could simply drop bombs from the sky, causing chaos below.
Perhaps some armies could face bombardment without flinching, but the Ottoman Army was not among them. Many, crying "divine punishment," fell to their knees during the bombardment to beg God’s forgiveness.
"The enemy’s airships are formidable. Does anyone have any countermeasures?" he asked.
Upon finishing, Erzucher looked expectantly at Colonel Saltus. Airships had first been invented by the French 90 years prior and had gone through several technological revolutions.
Rarely seen in the Ottoman Empire, they had become part of life in advanced European nations. Some even operated airship transport companies, though such cutting-edge businesses often struggled to stay afloat.
Erzucher knew it was unrealistic to expect a solution from a bunch of bumpkins who didn’t even know what airships were, but he pinned his hopes on the well-educated Saltus.
The Ottoman Empire had few students studying abroad, and many of them, upon return, joined revolutions under the influence of Western thoughts. Honest individuals like Saltus were rare.
"Honest" was the label Erzucher attached to Saltus. Any officer who had learned a bit of flattery wouldn’t have been sent to Ava.
Anyone with military sense knew that the Ava Region, near the Bosphorus Strait, could become the front line at any moment.
Their adversaries were Russia and Austria, and the odds were vastly against the Ottoman Empire; even the Sultan government sought only a dignified end to the war.
A destined-to-fail war placed front-line officers in danger, as they feared being made scapegoats afterward.
Otherwise, Ava, a military stronghold, wouldn’t be commanded by a brigadier general like Erzucher; with two divisions under him, at least a lieutenant general should have been in command.
Those present were the frustrated or less politically connected members of the Ottoman Army, relegated to the front lines.
Fiddling with the bandaged arm, Saltus began slowly, "General, this is the first time in military history that airships have been used for bombing, and no nation has effective countermeasures.
At the time I was studying in France, a classmate had envisioned airship bombing. To shoot down an airship is extremely difficult.
The bullets are not powerful enough, and unless they hit a vital spot, even if they strike the airship, they are unlikely to deal fatal damage. The best choice is artillery, but unfortunately, the angle of the guns is not sufficient for an anti-aircraft attack.
With our current situation, we can’t effectively retaliate against the enemy. The only thing we can do is harass them with rifle fire, forcing them to ascend and thereby reducing their accuracy."
Without a solution, Brigadier Erzucher was somewhat disappointed. The range of rifles was limited; most had an effective lethal range of only a few hundred meters, which meant that if the enemy bombed from a kilometer high, they would be powerless.
Brigadier Erzucher continued, "Does anyone else have different ideas?"
A middle-aged officer stood up: "Your Excellency General, while we may not be able to attack the enemy’s airships, surely we can still evade bombing, can’t we?
If the enemy bombs from a kilometer high, creating some camouflage, like disguising as weeds or bushes to disrupt their vision, might reduce casualties."
Wearing a helmet topped with grass or a bush, such low-tech camouflage had appeared in the military, but not for anti-aircraft purposes, rather for ambushes in field battles.
Colonel Saltus objected, "That won’t do. It might work in forested areas, but inside Sava Port, creating a bunch of clutter will just be offering targets to the enemy!"
The middle-aged officer’s face darkened as he retorted, "Whether it’s effective or not, we won’t know until we try. We can deliberately expose fake targets to attract enemy airship bombardment. Such small changes aren’t easily noticed."
Brigadier Erzucher rubbed his forehead, conflicts among his subordinates were something he normally welcomed—as their squabbles ensured his authority remained unchallenged—but that was in peacetime.
With the enemy potentially striking at any moment, internal conflict became terrifying, and one misstep could lead to disaster.
...
Speed is of the essence in war. Having decided to launch the landing from the Ava Region, naturally, they would not leave the enemy time to prepare. On the third day after the bombardment, the Allied Forces were ready to land.
On April 18, 1874, under the cover of Austrian airships and warships, fifty thousand Russian soldiers initiated the landing operation in the Ava Region.
The roar of cannons fired; airships swooped in. Smoke once again enshrouded Ava, the shouts of blood and fire seeming to vent the sorrow of the land.
Above the airships, Colonel Jules raised his binoculars and gazed down upon the earth, his passion. To him, the resounding gunfire and explosions were the most sublime symphony.
Though the Austrian Airship Bombing Squadron had been established for over ten years and never suffered a shortage of supplies, they had yet to claim a significant victory. Each airship soldier bore the pressure of their heavy burden, desperately needing to prove themselves.
As the only unit directly under the General Staff, they existed outside of the army and navy, and were inevitably brought up during the annual military budget struggles.
Over time, calls to disband the airship troops within the Austrian military grew louder. Had it not been for the Emperor’s support, this unit might have already vanished from the Austrian army.
Lacking achievements, failing to demonstrate their value, this was the airship troops’ greatest weakness. An army is a realm for the strong, where speaking with victories holds sway over all else.
The outbreak of the Second Near East War finally provided a stage for the airship troops. After the great bombardment of Ava, the Austrian military was stunned.
For the first time, everyone realized the threat that loomed overhead, and the discourse about disbanding the airship troops dissipated overnight. Especially for the navy, who had witnessed the bombing firsthand and immediately reported back to the homeland, requesting anti-aircraft weaponry.
The importance of the weaponry was secondary; it was developed based on necessity. Once the navy recognized the aerial threat and the need for anti-aircraft weaponry, the arsenals would naturally engage in research and development.
As the commander of this Airship Bombing Squadron, Jules had long held a dream of transforming the airship troops into an independent air force, on par with the army and navy.
This was exceedingly difficult. Without significant victories, achieving such a status was almost impossible. Both the army and navy strongly opposed this idea, as none wanted another competitor vying for military funding.
Future wars would require air support. It didn’t matter if they developed army aviation or naval aviation, as it was only a matter of time before someone would make the proposal due to the short reaction time.
With a sense of crisis, Jules paid extra attention to this operation. To gain the high-level government support, speaking with victories would be more persuasive than any other reason.
The intense gunfire resonated, and even from hundreds of meters in the air, Colonel Jules could hear it. Through his binoculars, he saw a small figure swiftly move by just a few meters away.
The moment Jules realized this, he quickly ordered, "Command the fleet to ascend, increase flying altitude to twelve hundred meters and commence high-altitude bombardment."
By then, two airships had been hit, but fortunately, the rifles’ firepower was limited. As long as the vital parts weren’t hit, such damage wasn’t fatal.
As the Airship Bombing Squadron climbed higher, the Ottoman troops below breathed a sigh of relief. During the brief moment of anti-aircraft fire, there had been numerous accidents.
There was no other way, as not all rifles could shoot directly upwards. Designers had never considered a threat from above when designing them.
At twelve hundred meters, the altitude exceeded the effective range of most breech-loading rifles. From such a distance, not only was the hit rate greatly reduced, the bullets’ lethality also diminished, or one could say, they couldn’t reach that height at all.
In return, the bombardment’s accuracy would drastically decrease. Often, it was a matter of luck to achieve a hit, with low-altitude bombing being the best assurance for accuracy.
Clearly, the enemy was prepared, and a mass volley of anti-aircraft fire made Colonel Jules unwilling to risk flying lower.
Should bad luck strike and vital parts get hit, an airship would be lost. Such luxury assets were few in the entire Austrian army, and he could not afford such a loss.
Even harassing from high altitude was sufficient; the previous bombing had already destroyed most of the coastal defenses, which simply could not be repaired in a mere two or three days.
Now, with both airship bombardment and naval artillery attacks, how could the battered Ottoman Army have good days ahead? The casualties remained unknown, but the Russians had already begun their beach landing. Onboard the airships, Colonel Jules could still, through his binoculars, see the Russian soldiers being attacked by Ottomans hunkered in the bunkers, after landing.
Gatlings emerged from the corners and swept across the battlefield, inflicting heavy casualties on the Russians in short order. But this could not stop the Mao Xiong; they quickly set up artillery for retaliation.
From the moment the Russians successfully landed, the outcome of the landing battle became certain, the only question being the extent of casualties incurred.
Seeing the situation under control, Colonel Jules revealed a joyous smile, "Order the troops to bomb at will, stay away from the port area, and avoid friendly fire."
In the broader perspective of the landing campaign, the Allied Forces had already gained an advantage and the situation was basically settled. However, for the Russian soldiers below, engaged in the thick of the battle, their troubles were just beginning.
The Ottomans were not so easily defeated; many hidden fortifications were now revealing themselves, inflicting severe casualties on the Russians.
The clarion call to "attack" had sounded, and countless Russian soldiers...
