Russian commander Alexander Prinsky had received the intelligence as well. His own artillery could do nothing but take a beating, and fury flared up inside him.
Prinsky's first thought was to fix bayonets and charge forward, fighting the Ottomans to the death—but he quickly regained his senses.
"Disperse the artillery. Abandon any attempt to strike the enemy guns; focus on fire support. Tell the soldiers to hold their positions!"
With their superiority in firepower, the Ottomans advanced rapidly. The Russians' scattered, disorganized fire inflicted barely any casualties.
Feramuz, Turuljan, and Hanim had all fought the Russians for a lifetime. Without question, this was the most satisfying battle they had ever fought.
The Russians were pinned down so completely they could not raise their heads. Their troops had advanced to within less than three hundred meters of the Russian lines, and their casualties thus far were negligible.
Yet barely fifteen minutes later, the battlefield had turned into a slaughterhouse. Facing Russians who held the advantage of cover, the Ottoman infantry found themselves in an extremely passive position.
Worse still, the Ottoman artillerymen were poorly trained and lacked regular practice. Once the battle dragged on, their true colors were exposed. Shells flying wildly about dealt a severe blow to the morale of their own vanguard.
Both the Russian and Ottoman armies still relied mainly on smoothbore muskets at this time, so their lethality at long range was limited.
At a distance of three hundred meters, the Ottoman Empire's officers did not choose the usual exchange of fire. Instead, they ordered a bayonet charge.
But the Ottomans had clearly overestimated their soldiers' morale and underestimated the bloodiness of close combat.
Even a black bear could not withstand being hit point-blank by a powerful musket, let alone a human being.
Yet the smoke from