Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796

Chapter 552 064 It is not easy to create a ghost of honor drowned in the battle of Ice Lake (Part 2)

When fighting, you always need to pay attention to the terrain. Because the terrain on the Swedish side is always mixed with lakes and swamps in the woods, for both armies, the road from Linköping to Norrkoping is more suitable for the deployment of troops.

However, von Essen's troops on the Swedish side still have a lot of troops. If they do not focus on attacking one wing, even if they have a great advantage in troops, they cannot easily win.

Even if they fight like this, it is probably difficult to end the battle within one day.

For the Russian army, the more troublesome thing may be that except for the Finnish division and the guards who arrived here, the rest of the troops are far away, and the Russian army in Nykoping is also a garrison.

Therefore, they can only fight here, so Solovyov concentrated the grenadiers and guards on the right wing, trying to use their own firepower advantage to attack the enemy. At the same time, two infantry regiments concentrated on the front and the cavalry concentrated on the left wing.

His deployment was obviously a hammer-and-anvil tactic, with the infantry attacking from the front and hitting one side, while the cavalry made a detour.

There was nothing he could do about it. Now he had fewer troops, so he could only use his own organizational and firepower advantages to attack the Swedes.

At the same time, he also issued orders to the troops already in Southkoping, leaving only a few people to garrison in the city (Swedish towns are not big in themselves), and reinforcements quickly went to the battlefield in Norrkoping to support.

According to estimates, reinforcements will always arrive at the battlefield in the afternoon, and even if the battle is not going well, they can always delay it for a while.

Although this deployment looks good, it is not easy to predict what will happen on the battlefield.

At least the first round of Russian artillery fire did not cause too much chaos to the Swedish army.

"These Swedes don't even have uniforms, but the first round of artillery fire failed to disrupt their formation. I have to say that von Essen has something."

Soloviev saw the scene of shells passing through the Swedish army's line through the telescope. Often, there was a bloody mess, and then the line shortened again, as if the gap was swallowed up.

"So what should we do in this battle?"

"It seems that I need to personally guide the infantry's shooting. I can't sit here and wait on horseback."

Although he assigned the command of the Guards to the commander of the Semenovsky Regiment, as the commander-in-chief here, he still has the right to command in person in the front. Sitting in the back is not his style.

As the Swedish army approached, their artillery continued to fire.

However, this artillery fire did not cause any damage to the Russian army. The main problem was that their artillery training was very poor. The number of local artillery was small, and they were divided into several regiments. Many 6-pound artillery shells flew over the heads of the crowd, or simply drilled into the snow and hit a crater in the frozen soil.

"That's not bad. I'll go see the artillery."

But when he arrived at the artillery, he saw a familiar but still a little strange person.

"Tushin, what is your current rank?"

"Major of artillery, sir."

"Only promoted one level, considering your performance in Shengraben, it shouldn't be."

"Sir, you said so, but it's still good to be alive, and I can still be in the regiment with my brothers."

He was obviously more talkative than before, but his complexion was not good.

Seeing him, Solovyov was more assured about this artillery position. After all, a reliable officer was commanding these artillery positions here, so he brought the conversation to the point.

"Major, your artillery company must use artillery to concentrate firepower and continuously attack the Swedish troops coming to the intersection to distract their attention. I will mobilize the infantry to find a battalion to cover you from the side. Your artillery position is very good, just enough to suppress in two directions. If you don't receive new orders, your artillery will only attack the intersection and ignore the rest."

"Then, sir, what about the Swedish artillery behind?"

"They are not accurate, and you are asked to suppress them, and the artillery shells are not so accurate. It is difficult to reach there at this distance."

"Okay, I will follow your instructions. "

"Fight well, I will apply for a medal for you this time. You did a good job in Shengraben. I heard from Prince Bagration and Prince Andrei that as for Dürenstein, we also beat the enemy hard at that time."

"Yes, but the situation of those two battles was different from now."

"I can see that, as the saying goes, boots, since you have put them on, don't take them off in this cold weather."

After saying that, he rode away from the artillery position and at least met a more familiar grassroots officer.

However, with Russia's strange officer system, although he is also an officer, his official luck is not very good. When he was noticed by big men, although he performed very well, there was no follow-up. He was only promoted one level in all these years.

Such an artillery officer, who was very brave in battle, should not have only one artillery company-although his company is not bad now, all of them are powerful 12-pound guns.

Tushin's artillery company was indeed very accurate in its shooting, with solid bullets continuously bombarding the Swedish army at a long distance. The carefully selected artillery positions came in handy at this time.

Because the soldiers in his hands were relatively poor, Von Essen's choice was to attack from the front and push them into a straight line. However, the artillery fire from the Russian army still caused serious damage to his troops who served as the central axis of the entire battle line at the intersection. There were quite a few casualties.

When they exchanged fire with the Russian infantry, the Swedish army also discovered the problem.

"Hell, it looks like the Russian army is using elite troops, which is not good for us."

"What shall we do, Your Excellency?"

"The battle line needs to be turned at this time. I can feel that the Russians are now going to attack our side, which is beneficial to them. But this turn requires always ensuring the safety of the weak side."

He saw the Russian army's strategy, and he had to make adjustments. As for the next battle, at least he had more infantry on hand, and he could maintain the width of the battle line and the depth of the infantry attack, which was somewhat guaranteed.

It's just that he wants to switch to a column, and then to a horizontal formation when the battle begins, which suits Solovyov's wishes.

"Very well, that's it. If they want, they can go further."

"What are you going to do, Mick?"

Clausewitz himself had some guesses, but he thought it would be better to ask first.

"If the Swedes shorten their front so that our cavalry can outflank their cavalry reserves, then"

"It started with a diagonal formation. Now are you going to replicate the Battle of Cannae here?"

When Solovyov heard what the Chief of Staff said, he also said quite proudly: "But there are not so many people on both sides of us. It would be best if we could do this. But I am worried that today's battle will be inconclusive. For example, if we fight In the afternoon, once it gets dark, night fighting is not feasible. We can only seek to camp on the front that night and decide the outcome the next day.”

"It's just that your enemy may not be fooled now. What's more, our firepower seems to be very strong. A volley of infantry is enough to cause huge damage to the enemy."

"Yes, but they should also know that we marched on Swedish soil and did we capture any prisoners?"

"Not yet, what are you going to do?"

"If we capture an officer who understands German, we need to let him know that we don't have enough ammunition, you know?"

"Ah, you and Prince Bagration were indeed taught by the same teacher."

"But it's not the same. We really lack some special types of shells, such as the grenades of the Unicorn Cannon."

"Is the battle just going to be two days?"

"It will take two days to fight anyway. There is no outpost battle, just set up the battle formation like this. The more enemies there are, the more trouble it will be for us. I don't know the Swedish army's movements in other directions."

In his mind, Solovyov also greeted the hussars who were scouting in the west, at least "to their families".

After all, he missed such a large group of enemies near Lin Xueping. He had never encountered such a reconnaissance error before.

That is to say, the Swedish army encountered this time, their combat effectiveness is always relatively weak. If it were the French or British army, he might have to shrink to this size in Norrkoping and wait for the support of follow-up troops.

Moreover, in other directions, if the scouts who went to conduct reconnaissance also slack off, this would probably be the most troublesome thing.

Fortunately, what he worried about did not happen. The two infantry regiments stationed in Nankoping finally made a quick march in the afternoon and arrived behind the main force of the Russian army.

"You came at the right time. The Swedes want to attack us. It doesn't look like it's going well. Our artillery fire at least has a big effect."

"Your Excellency, it's just that our soldiers are relatively tired due to the rapid march. It's not as easy to find accommodation here as in East Prussia and Poland."

This problem is equally bad for both sides. Fortunately, Solovyov always attaches great importance to logistics and always asks the engineers and baggage troops in Norrkoping to bring over all the tents. At least the Russian army will be there at night. Stayed here for the night.

"What are you going to do?"

"We don't set up false campfires to let the enemy think there are many of us. Carl, can we let the soldiers gather in fewer places to warm themselves up?"

"What are you doing?"

"You should have noticed the battle case I translated some time ago and the story in it, right?"

"You're saying that General Tian and his advisers used the method of increasing troops and reducing the number of troops to make the pursuing enemy mistakenly think that their troops were reduced, right?"

"In addition, during the Battle of the Trebbia River, we fought against the French. When Macdonald was escaping, he used a false campfire to try to scare people."

"But the generalissimo discovered his problem and launched a pursuit. It was indeed a glorious victory."

"McDonald is indeed self-defeating, but when using troops, we cannot let the enemy guess the true intention. But"

"Let's put on a show for the captured Swedish officers. We can all cooperate in the show."

"Not only the chief of staff, but our group leaders can also cooperate with you in acting. After all, it seems that none of us can speak Russian well."

But in fact, the Russian language proficiency of these German infantry regiment leaders varies from high to low, but it is more convenient to speak German for daily communication.

"Okay, I will entertain you well tonight and let the kitchen cook the stew."

“No canned food, fresh beef.”

Heidenreich also bargained on behalf of several regiment commanders, and Soloviev agreed. "Of course, we have to supply you officers with something good, otherwise how can you command the battle when you go back?"

As for the soldiers, they had no objection to using canned meat as the main ingredient for stewing meat. It is indeed rare to see an army like the Russian army that has enough pickles, pickled fat and canned beef.

The first day of the battle was indeed anticlimactic. The Swedish army initially prepared to push forward on the front line, but was hit by the Russian artillery fire and the infantry concentrated on one side.

However, because the Swedish army had more infantry and the wind direction on the battlefield was favorable to the Swedish army after the exchange of fire, if the smoke did not dissipate, even the Russian Guards who were very accurate would be affected.

At the end of the battle on this day, Soloviev's idea was to lure the Swedes into a trap the next day.

It turned out that he also considered pushing the Swedes to the ice lake and let them learn from the Teutonic Knights and feed the fish in the lake.

But the Swedish army was crowded together. Whether it was outflanking or charging with cavalry, it was difficult to drive them onto the ice as planned. As for the artillery blasting open the frozen lake of Austerlitz, it was just good propaganda. In fact, the place where the French army caused the greatest losses to the Russian army that day was not the location of the frozen lake. There were only more baggage losses.

Now, he had to consider the battle situation on the second day. As for what would happen to the Swedish officers here, he didn't care.

After being in the court of Petersburg for a long time, even the most numb people would be familiar with the self-cultivation of actors.

Now, it was his turn to act.

But this time, whether it could work or not depended on how well these regiment commanders cooperated with him, and whether the Swedes would believe it.

At least the reduced bonfires and the denser soldiers around could not be seen from a distance.

Von Essen just vaguely felt that the Russian army might have bluffed during the day.

Although he was a relatively talented general in Sweden, he also instinctively judged that the Russians would cheat, but the current situation would always affect his judgment.

As for the most important thing, it was probably Solovyov's conspiracy that night, wanting to "ceasefire negotiations" with the Swedes and let both sides retreat.

He knew very well that von Essen would not agree with this opinion, but to make him feel that although the Russian army looked strong at the moment, it was actually "weak", and to make him really think that this would happen, his acting skills still needed to be good.