Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796

Chapter 437 014 A Battle of the Flesh Mill (Ⅳ) What is this about being unable to attack or defend?

"Bonaparte is now launching attacks in several directions, but there is no movement in the southwest."

"Count, is there something on my face?"

"It's just that this lens looks a little strange."

"It's nothing, this is just a personal hobby. Now we have to defend ourselves and may even need to launch counterattacks in some places."

"What's your plan?"

"You are the commander-in-chief, and I need to complete the plan according to your vision."

Langeron and Solovyov worked well together, and had skillfully mobilized their troops in the past few months since they arrived at the East Prussian Army.

Even Langeron sometimes kicked the ball to Solovyov when he couldn't make a decision.

If he dares to kick, this kid really dares to take it.

But at this time, for the Russian army, the situation is relatively tense, and the Frenchman and the Russian who have changed the core procedures need to make decisions.

"Well, I still need to make this determination at this time. But one day, Michelle, if you are in the position of commander-in-chief, you must be more decisive."

Langeron's own headquarters is located in the church in the town. He now observes the movements of the French army through the bell tower of the church.

Although it is farther away, it is still very clear with a telescope.

"Bonaparte's idea is to launch attacks from several directions and then respond to them from afar. This can drive us out of our current position so that he can concentrate his forces. In this case, we cannot rush to mobilize the reserves. Take it out."

"But after we attacked Augereau's troops at night on the southeast road, it was obvious that Napoleon's approach was to follow our attack and launch a counterattack. If you want to defend, you also need to launch a counterattack at a suitable place."

"Are you still going to take action on the road?"

Langeron pointed to the area where Essen and Augereau are currently fighting. The smoke brought by black powder surrounds the area. If the battle continues for a while, the infantry on both sides will start to slack off.

At this time, if we follow the methods during the Seven Years' War, we should put the cavalry into battle, which can cause chaos in the French army.

But that was the King of Bourbon's army, and the current French army does not do this.

"If you send out cavalry, the effect may not be very good. The battlefield there is too narrow."

Langeron pointed out this problem. Although the infantry line could be put down, there was no chance for the cavalry to make a detour.

After Bagowut returned from the night attack, he was sent to the rear and did not join the battle immediately.

Therefore, some troops also need to be replaced to support Baron Essen.

"Take advantage of the Selenge regiment and the Smolensk regiment. I think these two regiments can be given to Essen and he can make good use of them."

Before Aprakshin went to Smolensk to take up his post, General Rosenberg was in charge there for a while. Essen was familiar with Rosenberg's tactics, and the Smolensk regiment was the most popular among the Russian infantry regiments. Elite, good at offense and defense, and the tougher the environment, the more resilient they are.

As for the Selenge Regiment? There is no way, this is how Apraksin arranged it when he dispatched reinforcements.

But Solovyov is relatively clear about this group. Although he has only been there for two or three months, he has set a good tone for the group.

Moreover, this is the reserve army that has participated in relatively few battles until now, and its morale is relatively high.

"Who is going to take command?"

At this time, it was Bagration who stood up. After all, he was Langeron's deputy.

"Now let me go there. If the French offensive is more fierce, start a rearguard battle there and let the 8th Division withdraw safely. However, when I go over, I have to unify the command. The Moscow Grenadier Regiment is coming. As a rear guard."

This regiment still has deep feelings for Bagration and Solovyov. They participated in battles in Italy and Switzerland with them, but they were unable to catch up with the front-line battle in Austerlitz due to the long distance.

Moreover, it is indeed more capable of fighting tough battles. Bagration was able to go all the way on the Swiss mountain road without letting Massena, the veteran ruffian, catch up. It was due to the heroic performance of this regiment in the rearguard battle.

"Then who will command the 4th Division now?" Solovyov asked this question, and Bagration understood it and answered.

"If Somov's words don't work, let Barclay take command. Although he didn't fight well at Hof, he still has some skills in bringing back a brigade intact in the face of the French cuirassier attack. "

As for the current arrangement, the 4th Division has 5 cavalry regiments, 6 infantry regiments and 6 artillery batteries with 12 guns. This is the most important force currently in the hands of the Russian army.

This division will not be used until the most critical moment.

After Bagration arrived in Essen with the two regiments of the reserve brigade, he was also able to find that there was such chaos on the battlefield.

The Russian army is holding on to its position. There are many corpses of soldiers from both armies under the fort. It can also be seen here that the fighting is very fierce.

Baron Essen breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Bagration coming.

"When you come here, you have to endure a lot of hardships, especially be careful of the French guys. They take turns to attack, and they are simply desperate."

"What on earth is this for?"

When Bagration asked the question, Essen still felt confused.

"I don't know. These French soldiers attacked our positions with red eyes. Maybe they are not going to seize our supplies?"

"It is very likely that this is the case. In this case, we should hold on even more."

The two infantry regiments that arrived later deployed on the flank of Essen and joined the battle.

After seeing the arrival of the Russian army's new forces, Augereau ordered the first division on the left wing to adjust the formation, but the French marshal felt more and more dizzy and started coughing.

This performance is also very simple. Unlike the performance of killing the French army on the battlefield, the insects carrying pathogens may have killed more French troops.

In addition, among the French army, there are no masks except doctors, so it is not surprising that some problems occur at this time.

Maybe it is mycoplasma infection.

In this case, Augereau's command is naturally greatly discounted. He felt that it was nothing when he set out, but the situation is not good now.

So he had to choose to rest behind a stone wall.

At this time, Bagration was not in a hurry to launch an attack. After he arranged the two regiments, he also paid attention to the situation on the battlefield.

Before coming, Langeron and Solovyov emphasized that they used the existing positions in Essen and the temporary positions left by Bagovut to block the French attack, not to counterattack.

To put it bluntly, it is to actively defend and launch a counterattack locally to contain the French army. This requires too high a quality of the commander.

If it were someone else, the headquarters would not be very confident, but Bagration could lead the team wherever he went.

Solovyov continued to sort out the reports from the various divisions in the headquarters. It was obvious that Napoleon's attack this time was to attack in a combined force. It was just a separate attack, so that the Russian army could not distinguish the primary and secondary. After crossing the forest and leveling the front line, the armies should launch the next round of attack on Eylau.

At this time, the Russian army had shown extremely strong resilience in defense.

Langeron felt that he could not wait in the church all the time, and he would also go to the front line to supervise the troops.

Little Kamensky in the east is now entangled with Ney.

In Yankovo, he met with Soult for a while and got rid of the pursuit of the French army with great difficulty.

Now here, he has to face the warrior marshal of the Sixth Army again.

You know, Ney is still quite reckless when attacking.

And commanding an army is still handy for him.

When Langgeron came to him, he saw that the front line was under great pressure. The two divisions of the French army here were not the most, after all, each had only four regiments, not the five regiments and artillery divisions of Davout and Soult.

But when little Kamensky saw Solovyov's look, he couldn't help but complain.

"You definitely didn't learn this from Paris. The women in Paris would make you dress up more beautifully, not with a lens stuck in your eye socket."

Of course, little Kamensky didn't know that monocles were not popular among soldiers at first.

The audience at that time was even the opposite of the temperament of the soldiers. Judging from Solovyov's situation, his character was probably incomparable to this kind of people.

"It's not true. This is our company's latest product. I just think that when organizing defense, it may be more comfortable to look at the map like this. You know, I often stay up late to look at the map and do staff work, which is still very hard."

When they were talking here, the French army continued to attack, but it did not affect their chat.

Although it was indeed very hard during the war, due to the stubborn resistance of the Russian army, the French army only captured a little place on the periphery and failed to break into the position set up by Little Kamensky. He even held two dragoon regiments in his hands and did not join the battlefield.

"The French did not consider the back hand and directly attacked like this."

"That's nothing, but there are often artillery shells flying past us."

When Solovyov said this, a solid bullet flew past the front of the village where they were, breaking a small tree.

"You keep talking like this, it seems that the French want to drive us out of the front-line positions." Little Kamensky couldn't hold it anymore and said this directly.

"It's not that easy for him to drive us away. Now, the French army has no infantry reserves and has deployed all of them. It is obvious that they want to quickly run over us."

"If heavy cavalry comes, I don't know if I can stop them, especially those damn cuirassiers."

They looked at the situation and really had nothing to say. If the French army deployed cuirassiers, they would definitely not treat them as ordinary Russian troops.

If this happens, Solovyov is not without a plan. The new hollow square he designed before the war can exert stronger firepower on both sides. The weak side has only one company's wide side, and two battalion squares can be vertical or at a large angle to form crossfire.

In addition, there is the arrangement of artillery groups.

Now the French army still has a large number of heavy cavalry that have not joined the battle, but they also found that although the Russian army's firepower organization is still relatively poor, due to the adjustment of the formation, this firepower is much more fierce than before.

When the French army rushed to the front, they were often killed and wounded by the two rows of Russian chasseurs and the concentrated Russian artillery groups, so the offensive was often delayed.

However, their artillery was well organized. Although they could not suppress the fierce firepower of the Russian army, the casualties caused to the Russian army were also increasing.

After seeing this situation on the battlefield, both sides could not help but sigh. They had never seen such bloody and meaningless battles before.

The casualties on both sides continued to increase. In this relatively cold weather, if the soldiers were shot and fell down, if no one took them in time, they would be bleeding too much and losing body temperature, waiting for the final outcome of death.

In the morning, whether it was Bagration and Essen against Ogero, or Kamensky against Ney, they caused unprecedented casualties on the battlefield.

Even when Langgeron went north from Kamensky to Dokhturov, the shock did not seem to disappear.

The same is true for Solovyov, but what needs to be done now is mainly defense. It is best to let the French army retreat when they know the difficulty, but Napoleon obviously will not accept this.

He will continue to attack. Correspondingly, the Russian army must now defend here to the death. Without formal orders, they cannot retreat a single step and must withstand the French attack on their respective fronts.

The tenacity of the Russian soldiers did not allow the French army to make any progress in the whole morning.

Napoleon also felt troubled when he saw this situation.

Since the Sixth Army and the Seventh Army were both in a stalemate, the decisive factor in the battle was Davout's containment attack and Soult's side.

If the Russian army's attention was attracted to the east, and even the reserve troops were pulled to the most intense area at present, then Soult could launch a flank attack from the southwest when part of the Russian army's strength was withdrawn.

This time, it seems that they will also win by surprise.

However, the Russian army is obviously still well-managed in defense. Although they will feel hard, the pressure on the French side is not small.

However, there are some ways to deal with Davout's attack. His current attack has made Dokhturov exhausted.

It's just that without Yermolov's 12 cavalry guns, Dokhturov still has 60 guns available.

Speaking of which, what he lacks the least is cannons, but Davout's 46 guns can temporarily suppress his division.

Under this battle situation, for the Russian army, on the one hand, they must firmly hold on, and on the other hand, they really need the remaining reinforcements from Prussia to come, even if they just squat in the city of Eylau and move the 4th Division to the required direction, which may change the situation on the battlefield.