The members of the Kiev Cuirassier Corps never imagined that one day they would be killed by their own friendly forces, losing more than fifty men, and worse yet, their group leader was also taken out by a single bullet from an ally.

The members of the France and Sardinia Allied Army, as opponents, also did not expect that the Russian infantry would turn against their own cavalry. How deep must this enmity run between the two sides!

And the instigator of all this, Admiral Kiriyako, after ordering his own infantry to fiercely attack their friendly forces, could still laugh heartlessly. He was nothing but a downright Russian traitor!

...

Thanks to the "assist" from "Friend of the Allied Forces" Admiral Kiriyako, the Assault Brigade, which originally wanted to rely on a hollow square formation to counterattack the cavalry units, abandoned conservative tactics under the command of Major General Bo Ke Si.

Riding on horseback, Major General Bo Ke Si raised his command saber, pointing the blade towards the base of Telegraph Hill, and ordered, "Everyone, listen to me carefully!"

All the soldiers of the Assault Brigade, upon hearing Bo Ke Si's order, decisively took off their backpacks and prepared for battle lightly equipped.

"I don't care whether your front is filled with comrades or enemies, your task is to charge up the hill and take down those Russian bastards! If comrades fall, medical personnel will come to carry them back! Your only job is to rush there with all your might! Understood?" Major General Bo Ke Si shouted loudly, conveying the same message as Sir Cambening.

"Understood!" The members of the Assault Brigade in the front row likewise responded in unison to Major General Bosskey.

"Charge!"

With Major General Bosskey's command, all the members of the Assault Brigade launched an attack towards Telegraph Hill in column formation.

Gunfire resounded continuously on the battlefield. The white smoke generated from the firing of the Minie Guns filled the battlefield, obstructing the vision of the Zuav Corps soldiers, making it difficult for them to see the Russian soldiers on Telegraph Hill clearly. They could only approximate the positions of the Russian soldiers on the hill and shoot based on vague memories.

Even so, many Russian soldiers still fell to the ground.

460, 426 meters, 382 meters…

The soldiers of the Zuav Corps and the Sardinian Hunting Corps walked at a steady pace, taking pre-measured Minie Bullets from their backpacks. They tore open the packaging with their teeth, poured the black powder inside, placed the Minie Bullets into the gun barrels, compacted them with a ramrod, and pulled the trigger.

Over a short distance of about 100 meters, a skilled Zuav Corps soldier could fire two bullets at the Russian Imperial soldiers on the heights. The Russian Imperial Army, known for its bravery, had not yet inflicted any casualties on the French Empire before being scared witless by the bullets from the Assault Brigade and the Grand Napoleon Cannon, not to mention the presence of a "Friend of the Allied Forces" in their ranks.

Under the artillery and rifle assault from the French Empire, the Kiev Cuirassier Corps, which lost its commander, was the first to collapse. They began to retreat chaotically, trying to escape the battlefield as soon as possible.

The collapse of the Cuirassier Corps had a devastating impact on the morale of the Russian Imperial forces on Telegraph Hill, like the first falling domino. The Moscow Corps and the Minsk Corps also could not tolerate the passive beating and, losing all confidence in Admiral Kirikov, began to retreat involuntarily.

"Come back! Stop running! Are you all cowards? Are you still soldiers of the Empire?" Admiral Kirikov, in a half-drunken stupor, angrily rebuked this group of cowards before him. At this moment, he had not realized that the main reason for this defeat was not the troops themselves but Admiral Kirikov himself.

If it were not for his repeated attacks on the Russian Imperial Army defending Telegraph Hill, nearly 7,000 people from the three corps (3,000 from the Minsk Corps, 3,000 from the Moscow Corps, 1,000 from the Kiev Cuirassier Corps) would not have been so quickly defeated by the French Army.

Poor Admiral Kirikov could only watch helplessly as one after another the Russian Imperial soldiers abandoned their positions and retreated, completely disregarding him, the field commander.

If not for the still somewhat loyal Minsk Corps leader, Admiral Kirikov would probably have been left behind on Telegraph Hill as the first high-ranking officer to be captured by the Allies, in other words, Nicholas I's expendable.

The Minsk Corps leader, covered in the blood of his allies, sincerely pleaded with Admiral Kirikov, "Your Excellency, a military defeat is like a landslide! We need to escape! As long as we live, there is hope! (Where life persists, hope remains!)"

"But Prince Menshikov ordered me to guard this place, and it has fallen in just one day…" At the critical moment, Admiral Kirikov once again revealed his cowardly character. Hesitant about whether to leave with his troops, he feared being sent to the military court by Prince Menshikov.

"Your Excellency, I can't predict whether Prince Menshikov will punish you after this battle, but I can assure you that if you don't run now, there won't be an opportunity to escape later!" The Minsk Corps leader directly responded to Admiral Kirikov and then pointed towards the advancing French Army.

Admiral Kirikov glanced at the French Army nearing the halfway point up the hill and recalled the grudge between the Russian Empire and the French Empire from the Napoleonic Wars, causing him to shiver involuntarily, "Quick! Run quickly!"

After taking only a few steps, Admiral Kirikov felt dizzy, the result of his excessive drinking in the log cabin earlier finally showing its effects. The Minsk Corps leader had no choice but to dispatch two soldiers to support Admiral Kirikov and escape from Telegraph Hill.

The Assault Brigade quickened their pace, stormed into the first trench line, and then some soldiers occupied the entire Telegraph Hill, hoisting the flags of France and Sardinia on the position. Meanwhile, other soldiers continued to charge in the direction where Admiral Kirikov was located.

To cover the retreat of the main forces, a battalion of soldiers chose self-sacrifice to preserve the living strength of the Russian Empire by holding their ground. Led by their battalion commander, these fearless Russian soldiers formed two columns and charged at the pursuing assault brigade, engaging in fierce battle along the path to Sevastopol.

The blood stained the soil of the road, as several hundred Russian Empire soldiers were entirely wiped out by the numerically superior Zuav Corps soldiers. Not a single Russian soldier surrendered from start to finish.

When Major General Bosskey descended from the high ground of Telegraph Hill, he saw the expression of the Russian soldiers who preferred death to surrender, and his expression turned solemn.

"Bury them properly! They are a group of respectable adversaries, only they encountered a leader unworthy of their trust!" Major General Bosskey commanded the Zuav Corps soldiers beside him.

"Yes!" responded the Zuav Corps soldiers to Major General Bosskey.

Subsequently, Major General Bosskey returned to the high ground of Telegraph Hill to discuss the next steps with Brigadier General MacMahon and Brigadier General Bazan.

"I have conveyed the news of the occupation of Telegraph Hill to Commander-in-Chief Pellissier. I believe he will receive the message soon! I hope your forces can quickly adjust their status to prepare for the next battle! Alma is not the endpoint, but the starting point of our journey!" Major General Bosskey said solemnly to Brigadier General MacMahon and Brigadier General Bazan.

Brigadier General MacMahon and Brigadier General Bazan immediately assured Major General Bosskey that their troops could continue to fight.

...

In stark contrast to General Bosskey easily occupying the high ground of Telegraph Hill was the Kurgan Mountain offensive. On the left end of the front line, under the leadership of Sir Colin Cambell, Sir Joe Brown, the Duke of Cambridge, and Sir De Lacy Evans, the Highland Brigade, the First Division, the Guard Division, and the Second Division launched successive attacks on Kurgan Mountain from different directions under Commander Lagren's command. The most intense attack came from the Highland Brigade's frontal assault.

In just half an hour, nearly 500 British soldiers perished on the road leading to Dome Fort, the vast majority of them injured by artillery fire.

Of course, Prince Menshikov, as the defender, was not faring well either, as well-trained British soldiers were repeatedly pushed back by artillery, while also launching one counterattack after another against the Russian army with fierce firepower and tenacious willpower.

Another 20 minutes passed, and Sir Canninby finally led the Highland Brigade to within less than 30 meters of Dome Fort's hillside. The grapevines and brushwood on the hillside became excellent covers for the British Army, offering the Kingdom of Britain a brief moment to catch their breath.

However, Menshikov would not give the Highland Brigade this opportunity; he intended to personally lead his troops to crush these resilient Highland Brigade soldiers.

Just as Prince Menshikov was about to lead the Kazan Infantry Brigade in a counterattack, his adjutant, who remained at the temporary command post, appeared before Menshikov and informed him that a messenger from Telegraph Hill was waiting at the top of the hill at the temporary command post, saying there was urgent news that needed to be reported to Prince Menshikov in person.

"Couldn't you bring him to me here?" Prince Menshikov shouted angrily at the rigid adjutant.

"I'll go..." The adjutant turned to return to the temporary command post and bring the messenger to Menshikov.

"Never mind! I'll go myself!"

Prince Menshikov had to hurriedly return to the temporary command post, but before leaving, he specifically issued a death order to the Kazan Infantry Brigade.

Returning to the command post, Menshikov met with the Cuirassier responsible for carrying messages. The Kiev Cuirassier reported the fall of Telegraph Hill to Prince Menshikov.

Upon hearing the news of Telegraph Hill's fall, Prince Menshikov was stupefied, as if someone had struck him on the head with a wooden club. A sense of powerlessness and dizziness flooded his mind.

The Cuirassier, standing nearby, quickly supported the swaying Prince Menshikov to prevent him from falling. After a moment, Prince Menshikov regained his composure and, upon realization, glared with wide eyes at the messenger horseman, shouting, "Say it again, what happened to Telegraph Hill!"

"Commander, Telegraph Hill has been lost! Admiral Kiriyako has already led the troops to retreat onto the Sevastopol Path!" reported the messenger horseman with a bitter smile to Prince Menshikov.

"Can you tell me! How did you lose a high ground so crucial to us in such a short time? Are you saying all the French soldiers can fly? Or did that fool Kiriyako drink on the battlefield again?" Prince Menshikov furiously questioned the Cuirassier responsible for relaying commands.

"None of us anticipated that the French Army would take the risk of climbing up from the cliffs. When we discovered them, the French troops already outnumbered us two to three times, and they had cannons whose power was roughly the same as your ship's cannons, so we had no choice but to retreat!" The messenger Cuirassier recounted the entire story of the loss, embellished by General Kiriyako, to Prince Menshikov.

"Are you saying the French hauled their ship's cannons up the cliffs?" Menshikov asked with a frown to the messenger horseman.

"Perhaps they're not ship's cannons, but their power is not far from that of our ship's cannons!"

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.