Attack at night.
During night time he and his troops will leave and flank them from the side, Avoiding the artillary completely.
"We will attack them during night time, before that gather 20,000 men to be used as a distraction charging straight at the enemy. While the rest will follow me to flank them"
"Yes sir."
---
"Sir Dimitry, we detected large troops movements from the enemy. Somewhere around 20,000 men are coming towards us while the rest(55,000) are moving north-west, presumably to flank us while we are busy."
Dimitry, listening to the report gets the general idea on what the enemy is planning to do. Seeing as its night time they will probably start their attack soon.
While also being glad that sending informants in the city paid off. Information is king as they say.
"Tell the men to get ready, the artillary men included."
---
Semynov, leading his men recieves a report saying that the 20,000 men are ready to attack. So he sends a letter back telling them to charge straigh at the enemu while he would flank them.
And then... it starts.
Hearing the sound of gunshots as well as artillary? Why is he useing artillary? Its a waste of artillary shells since hitting snything in darkness is nearly impossible.
Doesn't matter, looks like that commander wasn't as good as he thought. All the better for him.
"Sir, it started. We are being attacked from 2 sides, from the west and from the east."
"Good, tell the artillary men to not stop firing, even if it means they will miss."
"Yes sir."
Even though Semynovs army is attacking from 2 sides they are not making much progress. The reason? The troops under his command are low on morale. The thundering sound of dozens of cannons firing is scary, not to mention when you see your comrades die infront of you. The longer the battle goes on the less willing Semynovs troops are to fight.
It would have been more mansgable if he attacked during the day time, at least his men could see the enemy and will be less scared. But then they would be bombarded to death by artillary. It can only be said that Semynovs defence (or attack) was doomed to failure.
"Damnit! How are the troops lead by Kornikov doing?"
"Sir... we just recieved the news that he surrendered."
"WHAT?! THIS SOON?!"
- 2 hous ago-
"Anyone who leaves the battlefield will get shot! Understood?!"
The troops under Kornykov are in even worse situation. Seeing their fellow men die left and right with the sound of artillary while barely seeing the enemy have lost their morale completely. At the end of the day, the troops that they are leading are peasents who got conscripted, with bare minimum of training.
Excpecting them to stay disciplined during this situation is a fools dream.
If it were that easy then the governments around the world would be fools for strictly training their soldiers.
-present-
'Now, with the eastern front secured its time to flank the enemy. Wiping them out in one fell swoop, and it was so worth it to have the artillary fire.'
Now the freed 8,000 troops from the eastern front flank Semynovs army.
'Blyat The situation is getting worse and worse. Should I surrender? No. If I surrender now then all my titles,land, and serfs will get confiscated, what will I have left then?'
"KEEP FIRING!, If I see any one of you deserting you will get shot!"
But alas, its there is no winning.
His troops, watching their comrades falling one by one surrender, at last they will get to live.
"Sir, we have won the battle."
"Good, give me the report."
Taking the report Dimitry is in a good mood.
It had all gone better then he excpected, he thought he would have to fight a brutal battle in the city, levelling it in the worst case scenario.
Looking at the battle report Dimitry is happy.
Such results are incredibly rare, its safe to say that he will get rewarded well.
"The captured units could be used by us, they have no loyalty to their feudal lords and if we show them some compassion they'll become great soldiers. After all, they managed to survive such a battle, it would be a waste not to use them, with some good training they will become professionals."
Now Dimitry gets ready to capture the city, with the enemy garrison dealt with its as easy as walking in and taking control. Now the city can be used to further increase supply, allowing to support more troops.
"Oh right, its time to send the battle report to his highness."
-June 8 1839-
Alexander is in his working room? Office? Anyways doens't matter, what matters is that he is currently working on not becoming the pariah of europe.
And while browsing through some papers a servant knocks on his door.
"Come in, what is it?"
"Its a battle report your highness, from general Dimitry."
"Oh? Has the siege concluded so soon?"
"Its seems so your highness."
"Alright, your free to leave now."
While watching the servant leave and close the door, Alexander is in deep thought. Normally it would take months for a succesful siege so he is a but worried, maybe the copious amounts of artillary shells that had to be transported has something to do with it?
Anyways, not time to dwell on it, everything will be become clear once he opens the report.
Battle Report:
Date: June 5 1839
Location: Outskirts of great city of Novgorod
Reporting Officer: General Dimitry
Commanding Officer: Tsar Alexander II
Forces Engaged:
Russian Forces:
Total Strength: 40,000 troops
Task Force 1: 10,000 troops
Task Force 2: 30,000 troops
Enemy Forces:
Total Strength: 75,000 troops
Distraction Force (Under Kornykov): 20,000 troops
Flanking Force (Under Semynov): 55,000 troops
On the night of june 5 1839, We encountered a two-pronged attack outside the city of Great Novgorod while resting from continuous artillary bombardment. The enemy, consisting of a main force of 55,000 under the command of General Semynov, attempted to flank our positions while a secondary force of 20,000 led by Kornykov acted as a diversion.
Despite the difficulty of night fighting and limited visibility, our forces maintained discipline.The night's low visibility limited the effectiveness of artillary though, the thundering sounds of cannons firing managed to rapidly demoralize the enemies peasent units.