War and Peace

Chapter 41

The firing of hundreds of cannons on both sides kicked off the battle.He stood on the hillside to watch the battle. Only with the help of binoculars could he distinguish the positions of the enemy and us. Otherwise, all he could see was the smoke of shells and the crowds everywhere.He walked back and forth here, observing the continuation of the battle.His adjutants and the messengers of the marshals always flew over to report the situation to him, but these reports were missing or inaccurate, because the situation was changing at any time, and some messengers never arrived at the battle position. The report is just a paraphrase of other people's words.And even if there was real intelligence, by the time Napoleon got the battle report, the situation ahead had changed again.So he makes decisions or gives orders based on these unreliable information. When these orders reach the battlefield, some of them can no longer be carried out, and some of them have already appeared too late.

The leaders and marshals were closer to the battlefield, but they did not personally participate in the battle. They just rode back and forth on the ground and issued some orders from time to time, and these orders were often not consulted with Napoleon.

Soldiers no longer fear the consequences of disobedience when fighting. They spontaneously protect their most precious thing, which is life.They rushed forward for a while, and ran back for a while, it all depends on their thoughts at the time.But their advance and retreat did not bring about any change in the situation of the army. Their survival and casualties depended on where the flying shells landed.

[34]

Napoleon's generals, as well as Daou, Ney, and Murat, who were closest to the front, moved their troops into the line of fire several times.But the result of the matter was unexpected. Not only did these people not get the news of defeating the enemy, but they found that their huge team was beaten to pieces and fled.The number of soldiers dwindled, and at noon Murat sent for Napoleon's aid.Napoleon was drinking delicious wine on the hillside when Murat's adjutant arrived.

While the adjutant's report was not finished, Belial also came to ask for reinforcements, and he also swore that if the emperor gave another division, they would wipe out the Russians.Before Belial was out of sight, someone else came riding from the battlefield to ask for reinforcements.

Napoleon was angry and helpless to send the reserve army division Frion.But he didn't see that he was playing the role of a bad guy in dealing with his army.Like other reinforcements, the Frion Division quickly disappeared in the smoke of the battlefield.The heralds seemed to have made an agreement, they were all saying the same thing, and they were all asking for insufficient troops.Napoleon began to think in his chair.

When Mr. Debosser dared to invite his host for breakfast and proposed to celebrate the victory, Napoleon said nothing, but shook his head negatively.He was in a bad mood, like a gambler who always wins when faced with a losing outcome.He used to win usually, and just when he was feeling good about his luck, he immediately began to count his winnings and losses, and he found that the more he thought about it, the more he was going to lose.

The soldiers were the same, the general was the same, the preparations were the same, he was the same, but his arm seemed to be bewitched and powerless in its terrible beckoning.He used all the methods, but the result of the matter was exactly the opposite of the original expectation.Instead of winning, they were killed and wounded. The Russians were not defeated, but their own army was in disarray.Based on his long-term combat experience, Napoleon clearly knew that a battle that was still not over after eight hours of hard work would be an unsuccessful battle, and any accidental incident might cause him and his men to die. perish.

He recalled that it had been a long war, and he had not yet won a decent victory in this war against Russia.A sense of foreboding seized him as he saw the worried faces around him, and as he listened to the reports of the retreating troops.This prompted him to think of all the things that could lead to his total defeat: the Russians might attack his left side, they might break through his center line, and he himself might be killed by a single shell.Where before he had thought only of victory, now he thought of all the possibilities of misfortune.

The news that the Russian army was attacking the left flank of the French army deepened his sense of terror, and he bowed his head silently, controlled by this feeling.

He and his generals walked through the battlefield filled with gunpowder and smoke. In such a small place, there were dead soldiers lying in pools of blood everywhere. Napoleon and the generals were very surprised to see this unprecedented scene.

The Russian army's formation is still very complete, and their cannons are still roaring.There was no more fighting, but the massacre continued. This kind of fighting was useless and meaningless to both sides.In this failed battle, Napoleon felt for the first time the meaninglessness and horror of the war here he decided and led.

Napoleon was silent for a long time, and at last he turned his horse and galloped towards Svordero.

[35]

Kotusov sat on the spot where Bin-Air had found him that morning, bowed his head and body wearily.He did not issue any new instructions, but merely affirmed or corrected what others had reported.

Kotusov listened to the reports of the adjutants. Judging from his expression, he seemed not interested in what the visitors reported. What caught his attention was the facial expressions and tone of voice of these people.This is his many years of fighting experience, and it is also the wisdom of his old man.He understands that it is a force called morale that determines the fate of a war and the final victory or defeat. Struggle, he can only guide and adapt to this force within the scope of his ability.

Just before three o'clock the French stopped their attack.The people gradually returned from the battlefield, their expressions extremely tense, and Kotusov knew that the victory of the day far exceeded his expectations.His head was lowered from tension and fatigue, and just as he was dozing, he was called to dinner.

Kotusov munched hard on the grilled chicken, and looked at the general-level adjutant Worzogen with squinted and happy eyes. This person was sent by Barclay to report the defeat of the battle.Worzogen made a deliberate contempt for the Commander-in-Chief to show that he was a highly educated fighter.Before Wolzogen could finish his report, Kotusov stopped him. "The enemies on the left and right have been repulsed. Sir, if you haven't figured it out, then please figure it out. Go back and inform Barclay that I will attack the enemy again tomorrow," Kotusov said. It was very severe, and the breathing became short of breath.While drawing the word "ten", he shed tears and said with a choked voice: "The enemy has been repulsed. I thank God and our army. I will definitely defeat these people tomorrow and drive them out of Russia's holy land." territory."

In the event of a war, there is a link that connects the officers and soldiers of the entire army and becomes the primary nerve of the war. This is the elusive, weird thing called morale.It was through this link that all Kotusov's orders were sent to every part of the barracks.

Everyone learned that the next day will continue to attack the enemy.The news from the military gave them great comfort and encouragement to the exhausted.

[36]

Prince Andrey's regiment was a reserve, and at one o'clock in the afternoon they remained in the village of Semyonovskoye, without orders to move.However, within an hour, the regiment lost two hundred soldiers here.By one o'clock in the afternoon, under the combined bombardment of hundreds of enemy cannons, thousands of people had been killed or injured in the fortress.

Each new round of bombardment meant another opportunity to kill the living.The whole team is surrounded by this idea.They were all ordered to sit on the ground silently and sadly. There was occasional conversation, but as soon as someone was shot or the sound of calling the "stretcher" was heard, people's conversation stopped immediately.When someone dies or a stretcher passes by, when enemy soldiers reappear or when our army retreats, these people will not pay attention.But when our artillery, cavalry or infantry rushed forward again, they sighed.

The Duc d'Andrew, like all the men in the regiment, was pale and terrible, and had nothing to do, no orders to give, and everything to be left to fate.Like every soldier, all his energy was in trying to avoid the danger of imagining their situation.

There was another burst of shelling!A few steps away from him, a shell exploded.The sight sent a chill down his spine.There must have been fresh casualties in his ranks.Just as he was looking at his team, a soldier yelled in panic: "Be careful!" With this yell, a stray bullet roared, like a bird, and flew to the ground in Li Andre. Just two steps away from the Duke, there was an unpleasant sound.

"Is this death?" Duke Andrele thought while looking at everything around him with nostalgic eyes. "I can't die, I don't want to die, I like life, I love this earth, this green grass..." Before he could think about it, there was an explosion, and with the smell of gunpowder, shrapnel flew everywhere.He lunged sideways and fell chest-on the ground.The officers came running towards him.They found a large pool of blood on the grass against his right abdomen.The soldiers carried the Duke Andryl into the woods, where the baggage carts and dressing-houses were set up.The stretcher-bearers passed among the wounded and carried Duke Andryl to a tent.Duke Andrele opened his eyes, as if he hadn't fully understood what was happening around him.He continued to think about the grassland he saw just now, thinking about his attachment to life.

[37]

Duke Andryl was carried into the tent and placed beside a table which had just been cleaned.Duke Andrele couldn't distinguish the items in the tent, and the severe pain in his thighs, stomach, and back made him unable to concentrate on thinking about the things in front of him.Finding the bloody crowd in front of him crowded in the low tent, he suddenly thought of the sewage pool beside the street of Smolensk in August, and thought of all the people in that pool, the same The flesh, the same "cannon fodder", such a scene aroused his sense of terror at that time, and all of that seemed to be a harbinger of what was going on in front of him.

When Duke Andrele woke up, the broken bones in his body had been taken out.The wound from which a piece of flesh had been removed was also bandaged.He felt someone sprinkle water on his face, and when he opened his eyes wide, he saw the doctor leaning over him.The doctor kissed him tenderly, and hurried away again.

After going through that pain, he hasn't felt this kind of happiness for a long time.

Everyone was busy around the other wounded nearby, helping him up and looking after him. Duke André felt that the appearance of the man was very familiar.Suddenly, there was a panicked and unfortunate groan from the man over there, and when the doctors showed him his amputated, blood-stained, booted leg, he wept like a woman. cry.

"God! What's the matter? How did he come here?" Prince Andrei recognized that the unfortunate man who was crying and had lost his leg was Unladury Kuragin.

Duke Andrele thought of his youth from Kuragin, his nostalgia and tenderness for Natess, he couldn't bear it anymore, and shed tender and affectionate tears, crying for people, crying for himself, Cry their mistakes and their own.

"Compassion, love for all, including our enemies, is what God preached, and Miss Molier taught me, but I didn't fully understand it at the time, so I only loved my life, It's too late now!"

[38]

The dreadful sight of the dead bodies, the news of the death of twenty generals, the experience of the weakness of the arm and the severe headache all tormented Napoleon's will.He usually likes to watch death scenes to test his willpower, but the terrifying scene of this day has far exceeded the ability of himself that he used to be proud of.He returned to the base camp and sat listlessly on a chair. His face was swollen and yellow, his nose was red, and his voice was unnatural.He looked miserable and melancholy, as if he was waiting for the end of a war he had no control over.A universal human emotion that soon shattered the artificially created circumstances of life that he had long embraced.He knew the horror of suffering and death, and felt the possibility of suffering and death himself.At this time, he no longer expected Moscow, he did not want victory and glory, all he expected now was rest and freedom.

However, when he turned back to the previous artificially constructed fantasy world, he began to fulfill his cruel, pathetic, and inhuman orders tamely, like a horse, which regards turning around the millstone as a own destiny.

The man whose conscience and spiritual world were covered with a cloth, took up this mission more sadly than anyone else, and until the end of his life, he will not understand the truth, goodness and beauty, and cannot understand the meaning of his actions, because he is far away. Human nature is getting farther and farther away, and he has been unable to stop his behavior that shocked the world. He has completely abandoned the principles of truth, goodness, beauty and all human nature.

God's will predestined him to act as an involuntary and unselfish executioner who slaughtered the people. He understood that his motivation for behavior was to benefit the people, and he was confident that he could control the fate of millions of people and give everything with power.

He believed that the Russo-French war had been initiated on the premise of his will, and that the horror of this series of events had not disturbed his soul.He boldly took full responsibility for all events, and justified his actions by the fact that fewer Frenchmen died than Hessians and Bavarians.

[39]

Tens of thousands of dead people, despite wearing different costumes and posing in various poses, all slept peacefully in this field.On the formerly beautiful fields, there was thick moisture and the smell of gunpowder smoke, and the air was full of the sour smell of gunpowder smoke and the unpleasant smell of blood.As the dark clouds gathered, the thin raindrops hit the dead and wounded soldiers, and the groups of tired and panicked people, it seemed to make people wake up immediately.

The tired and hungry soldiers were already thinking about whether to continue fighting.On them, there is already a look of hesitation and hesitation. Although the battle is about to end, although they are already afraid of what they have done, although they no longer want to continue fighting, a mysterious force continues to fight. It is working on them and still manipulating these people.

Anyone who saw the confusion in the Russian rear could see that it only took a few more attempts from the French to defeat them.And those who saw the rear of the French army would also say the same thing to the Russian army, that is, as long as the Russian army made a little more effort, they would also defeat the opponent.But neither side made any more such efforts, and the fighting slowly subsided.

The Russians did not make such an effort, for the entire Russian army was routed and lost half its men just on the ground.The French sent no Guards and made no such effort because low morale would not allow them to.

Faced with the enemy who lost half of the army and has not yet conquered, not only Napoleon, but all French soldiers have a sense of fear. In the past, they only needed one tenth of their strength to make the enemy frightened. Unshakable steadfastness to his own soil made the Frenchman as much as Napoleon feel the weakness of his own arm.The French were on the offensive, but their morale was gone.The Russian army won this fierce battle. This kind of victory does not refer to occupying the opponent's position, but a spiritual victory, a victory that makes the opponent feel powerless spiritually.

(End of this chapter)