Riga was once a settlement of the Liver people in ancient times and was built as a fortress city in 1201. In 1282, Riga participated in the Hanseatic League and became the most important trading center in the Baltic Sea. From 1709 to 1710, Tsar Peter I occupied Riga in the war with Sweden. Since then, it has become an important port and trading center in northwestern Russia, and developed into a harbor in the 18th century.

Riga's geographical location is very important, with a total area of ​​about 300 square kilometers. It is located at the intersection of western and eastern Europe, Russia and Scandinavia. Its port has important strategic significance and is known as the "beating heart of the Baltic Sea" and "Paris in the North". The entire city crosses the banks of the Daogava River and is close to the Gulf of Riga in the Baltic Sea.

In August 1812, Macdonald led his 10th Army to the city of Riga. Soon after, the main French troops that besieged St. Petersburg, Marshal Udino's 2nd Army and Marshal Saint Sier's 6th Army were successfully blocked by the Russian army in the Porotsk area. Therefore, Riga became the only land gateway of the Baltic French army to the Russian capital St. Petersburg.

Only by occupying Riga could the MacDonald's army continue to enter the heart of Russia and threaten St. Petersburg. At the same time, General Essian, who served as the commander of the fortress, issued a defence order to all the soldiers and civilians to never retreat. He had to snipe another French army that threatened the capital St. Petersburg outside Riga. As a result, a cruel city offensive and defensive battle followed.

Unlike the original history, the MacDonald Legion, which besieged the Riga Fortress, received the cooperation and support of the naval fleet, and the logistics supply was relatively sufficient. Although the relationship with the Desai Legion was sometimes good and sometimes bad, after September 5, the Prussian Legion, which suffered heavy casualties, finally cleared the outer defense of the Riga Fortress, trapping the remaining 10,000 Russian defenders in the city.

Since the central area of ​​Riga is located above the Gava River, Leruba River, the city canal and Lake Gis, the rivers and lakes form natural barriers. The city's fortifications are very strong. After successfully sweeping the Russian Navy participating in the Gulf of Riga, the Baltic Fleet could not continue to venture deep into the narrow and silted rivers several kilometers away.

On September 6, Marshal MacDonald asked the commander of the Riga squadron to send Marines to conduct landing operations, but when Colonel Mayar and British staff jointly rejected it, the crisscrossing river berths and muddy roads would only cause meaningless casualties. In addition to continuing to cooperate with friendly forces to block the Russian army's liaison channel for the fortress, Colonel Mayar refused other instructions.

On September 7, MacDonald sent his adjutant to the city again, demanding the second time that the Russian commander General Essian surrendered, saying that he would respect the private property of Russian officers and soldiers and protect the personal safety of officers and soldiers, but was once again sternly rejected by General Essian.

In the afternoon of the same day, MacDonald ordered the Prussian army to divide into three groups and launch a general attack on the Riga Fortress. His plan was to use two infantry divisions as the main attack; the other two infantry divisions were responsible for feint attacks from both east and west. However, due to the too hasty attack and insufficient estimates of the Russian defense intensity, the French marshal's plan was destined to be severely frustrated.

The battle began at 6 p.m., and the Prussians in the offensive showed amazing courage and spirit of sacrifice. In the bad weather with heavy rain, the soldiers braved the enemy's fierce straggling guns and cannons in the fortress, waded through the waist-deep muddy waters. However, the Russians' tenacious defense made the efforts seem powerless. After paying a major loss of one-fifth of the offensive force, McDonald had to order the soldiers on the front line to retreat first and seek other opportunities.

"My ground troops need heavy artillery support!" Late at night, MacDonald had to write a letter to Desay, asking for cooperation from friendly forces. At this time, the French marshal was too lazy to care about what the Polish king said in Lithuania and could not control it at all.

Two days later, the heavy artillery regiment led by Lieutenant Colonel Dupen arrived at the Riga Fortress and participated in the siege of the Prussian Legion.

On September 13, after days of fierce shelling, the city wall of the Riga Fortress was finally blasted open two gaps, one east and one west, but the scheming MacDonald decided to give up the night's attack plan. In order to distract the Russian army, he ordered the French army to concentrate firepower the next day to destroy a gap in the southeast corner, so that the most elite light infantry division would perform a preparatory assault.

Although the fortress walls had collapsed, the hungry army, which was far fewer than the French army, still did not intend to surrender without fighting. The Russians used limited time to strengthen the fortifications under the command of General Essian, and the trenches were covered with obstacles. A bloody battle was about to come.

The first group of the 10th Legion's suicide squads, which were about to enter the city, enjoyed a rare relaxation period on the afternoon of the 15th. The soldiers were allowed to go down the river and took a shower happily, hoping that they would be clean whether they were killed in battle or injured.

It is clear and cloudless during the day, and dark at night.

At around 9:30, the suicide squad quietly approached the Riga walls, and they tiptoed under the cover of frog sounds.

The assault on Riga officially began at 10 pm. The elite light infantry division, which MacDonald had high hopes, first opened the southeast gap. They threw a large number of sacks and bundles of firewood into the moat, and then took the ladder to the city.

But the French army's actions were finally discovered, and the defenders on duty shouted: "They are here!" Then, the Russians detonated the giant landmines previously laid out. The dazzling light made the gap look like daytime. The Russian army poured countless explosives onto the heads of the attackers.

The successive explosions of countless gunpowder and grenades almost caused the entire Light Infantry Division's assault troops to be in chaos, and even the subsequent troops suffered a lot. However, this elite division continued to rush into the gap after a roar, and the other troops were also advancing forward at the same time. Despite paying a heavy price to enter the city, the two divisions found that they had only five ladders in total.

Forty minutes after the general attack began, the suicide squad finally found the right place to set up the ladder, and the soldiers rushed to the city in a hurry. Behind them, hundreds of French troops had fallen into the irrigation trench carefully maintained by Russian engineers. At this time, another infantry division that should have sieged the city to the west had just recovered from the chaos caused by the flares and was ready to start the attack.

Since the gap in the city wall was filled by the Russians, the soldiers could only rely on ladders to climb and attack the city, and the Russian army did their best to resist. One of the ladders collapsed on the spot due to too many people loads. The soldiers who were about to climb to the top of the city fell into their own bayonets and died in an instant; the other was very lucky, and the ladders with a large load made the Russian army unable to push them away.

Under the cover of the companion bayonet, the suicide squad of the Light Infantry Division took the lead in climbing the castle and finally successfully broke through the Russian defense. An officer pulled off the Russian flag and couldn't find his own flag to rise for a moment. He simply took off his dark blue military uniform and hung it on the flagpole of the castle tower.

At the same time, the French army of another division finally broke into the city from a bastion to the west. At about 7 o'clock in the morning, General Essian and the remaining Russian troops finally surrendered. However, the French army paid a total of more than 3,000 casualties on this night.

At about four o'clock in the morning, the soldiers at the southeast gap heard increasingly sparse shooting sounds and endless screams of women. The subsequent troops finally attacked the long-awaited city of Riga through the gap. In order to repay the sacrifice of the soldiers of the 10th Legion, Marshal Macdonald promised his subordinates two hours of "freedom of movement".

And this means plunder, killing, and rape.

Just as the Russian army finally surrendered, the two or three hours of plunder and binge had left the Prussians without discipline. They vented their anger of unsuccessful attacks with a mutiny-like plunder. The officers who tried to maintain discipline were shot and killed by their subordinates, and the troops entering the city to restore order also joined the robbery. This massive looting movement lasted for three days, which was a tragic scene of hell.

In parallel history, until late October, the Prussian army commanded by MacDonald failed to capture the Riga Fortress, resulting in a downturn in the morale. Instead, the Prussian general Hans York, on his way to retreat from the Baltic Sea, resolutely reached an agreement with the Russian army with Clausewitz as an adviser, declaring that the Prussian army remained neutral, but in fact declared war on France.

However, due to the unexpected intervention of the time travelers, the Lone City Liga eventually fell into the hands of the 10th Legion. At the same time, the Prussian Legion also paid a very heavy price of casualties. After the 30,000 soldiers before the war only remained 15,000, including the slightly wounded soldiers who could walk.

As for Hans York, he was "accidentally" killed at the city of Riga.

When Riga was captured by the French army, and most of the defending soldiers and civilians encountered the bad news of massacre and looting of Prussian soldiers and quickly spread to St. Petersburg, Tsar Alexander angrily rebuked the inaction of the Prussian exiles led by Scharnhorst and Clausewitz in the palace, and publicly announced that the Russian army would not accept any form of surrender of the Prussian soldiers who wanted to massacre Riga soldiers and civilians, which was equivalent to directly verbing the final death penalty for this Prussian army.

In order to prevent the French army in the Baltic Sea from continuing to recommend to the St. Petersburg defense line and threaten the Russian capital and the most important city, Alexander directly ordered Admiral Chichakov to mobilize heavy troops to encircle MacDonald's 10th Legion. Three days later, a Cossack cavalry that was in charge of the front was less than 50 kilometers away from the Riga Fortress occupied by the Prussians.

...

The word "Cossack" originated from the Turkic language and means "free and free person" or "brave person". The Cossacks are mainly distributed in the Don River, the Terek River and the Kuban River basins. They are local groups with unique history and culture among Russian and Ukrainians. They belong to the Eastern European type of Europa and use the Russian Southern dialect.

In 1380, a Cossack general fought to resist taxes in the Polish Republic. During that period, the Cossacks were described as a top group, transferred from herders to a powerful military cavalry unit. During the era of Tsar Peter I, the Cossack cavalry regiment, which became a Russian mercenary, played an important role in the Swedish war in order to control the Baltic region.

The Cossacks were good at drinking, brave, good at riding and shooting, and committed suicide. Their cavalry occupies an important position in the Russian affairs. Leather hats, black cloaks, breeches, horse boots and small turtlenecks, and tight-cuffed tops were the standard military uniforms of the Cossacks. They were strong in physique, with a beard or a bunch of warriors, and a long saber hung around their waists.

Napoleon once commented on this: "The Cossack Cavalry is the best light cavalry in the contemporary world. If there are Cossack Cavalry in my army, I will use them to sweep the whole world!"
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