Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796

Rifle bullets always make a small hole, and artillery shells always make a big hole, but there are more times when they miss.

Although the Russian army was "rushing to attack", the formation was kept very tight, which made von Essen alert, but the development of the battle seemed to be different from what he worried about.

In the past, the Russian army would take the initiative to launch bayonet attacks. In the battles of the past two days, it was obvious that the Russian army did not maintain this habit, but fought more steadily. If it was in Gävle or Uppsala, the situation might be completely different.

In this case, some commanders in the Swedish army were indeed more active. Since the Russian army did not take the initiative to launch bayonet attacks, it seemed to be more advantageous for the Swedes with numerical advantage when attacking.

They also noticed that the firepower density of the Russian grenadiers, who had always been fierce, dropped significantly today, which seemed to be a good opportunity.

Von Essen could also perceive it, and even now he was muttering: Is there really something wrong with the Russians?

This conjecture seems reliable, and even close to the fact that the Swedes want.

Although the Russian artillery fire seemed active during the battle, the infantry had not advanced much, and even took the initiative to retreat after the Swedish infantry began to attack.

At this time, according to the conventional way of fighting, the Swedes really had to hurry up to attack.

"Sir, in which direction should we launch the follow-up troops to attack?"

"It seems that the firepower of the Russian grenadiers is much weaker than yesterday, so let's move forward from here."

He also let go. After all, he had to decide the outcome, and he couldn't waver in his determination here.

Changing the determination to fight again and again would only lead to a doomed failure. It would be better to consider taking the initiative to attack at this time and regain the initiative.

Since he thought so, he also spread out all the troops.

It seems that the pressure on the front line is also relatively large for the Russian army.

All infantry regiments felt the pressure and began to retreat one after another, but the troops retreated in this way, which was still relatively orderly, and the ultimate goal was to fall within the range of the Russian artillery support.

"Mick, don't you think this is not a good idea? Our front is squeezed by the Swedes. Even if we really lure the enemy in, we should entangle for a while before leaving. Will the enemy see through us if we retreat slowly like this?"

"If he sees through us, wouldn't it be convenient for us to attack? Karl, after all, our army has an advantage in firepower, and it's not really short of ammunition."

As soon as he finished speaking, he heard an explosion from the Swedes.

"It seems that there is something wrong with the Swedish artillery position, but we should continue to follow the original plan."

The Russian army was still retreating slowly, and the Swedish army continued to pursue.

Looking at Tushin on the artillery position, he was a little anxious.

"What's going on today? Brothers, aim at the Swedish infantry and fire!"

Although the accuracy of the Russian artillery fire has declined compared to the first day, it is still steadily higher than the Swedish artillery fire, not to mention that one of their ammunition trucks exploded.

For most Swedish artillery, there is no need to worry about this.

Solovyov was still letting the Swedish infantry go deeper. At this moment, he was also paying attention to the situation of the cavalry on both sides.

"Why don't they let the cavalry enter the field?"

"You are finally a little anxious. Our cavalry is on the same side, but von Essen has not yet moved the cavalry forward."

"The strategy of luring the enemy remains unchanged, but it seems that we need to retreat more and leave room for the artillery to fire shotgun shells."

"I think so too. Do you want me to give an order?"

Clausewitz's question quickly drew Solovyov's consent.

"Go, send a messenger to tell the people below that our infantry will retreat to the firing line and leave room for the artillery to fire."

After the Swedish army finally approached the line selected by the Russian army, it was greeted by shotgun shells.

Seeing that it was going smoothly before, but now it is a bit frustrated, von Essen finally decided to take out the cavalry team, and several cavalry regiments will join the battle.

"Sir, look over there, the Swedish cavalry is moving."

"He's moving just right!"

After looking through the telescope, Solovyov finally made up his mind to put his front-line cavalry into battle after the Swedish cavalry came up.

"What about the reserve?"

"Reserve"

Soloviev thought about it, and then took out a mirror.

Clausewitz didn't expect him to have this operation, and actually looked in the mirror on the battlefield, but he asked.

"Mick, why are you looking in the mirror?"

"It's okay like this, my eyebrows are not thick enough."

Clausewitz didn't expect him to have this sentence, so he asked: "What does this have to do with eyebrows?"

"It really doesn't matter, the reserve doesn't move, and see what results our cavalry can achieve."

So, the regular cavalry of the Russian army has also begun to take action at this time, and they have to wait for the Swedish cavalry to approach the flank of the Russian infantry regiment before they can deploy.

This was a bait on the battlefield. In fact, the grenadiers still had sufficient firepower. When the Swedish cavalry approached, they also deployed a hollow square formation, but it was a modified version.

When the Swedish cavalry rushed up, they would also be fiercely shot at by the long side of the hollow square formation.

At this time, von Essen also immediately realized that it was a huge trap. The Russians were indeed cunning.

He was the one who was most on guard against Russian "deception" on the battlefield. He didn't expect that it was hard to guard against here. There were actually tricks hidden.

The dense firepower soon knocked the Swedish cavalry who rushed up to the ground. Even the Russian artillery only had time to deal with the infantry and didn't turn the muzzle around.

After the Swedish cavalry was severely damaged, it was now the Russian cavalry. Several light cavalry regiments were in action. While chasing and killing the defeated and fleeing Swedish cavalry, they tried to cut off the Swedish army's retreat and attack their infantry artillery and command organs behind them.

This time it was going to hit the pain point. Seeing the Russian cavalry coming from the flank, von Essen had to let his command get closer to the infantry in front.

At the same time, Solovyov, who was more stingy in using the reserve, finally gave orders to the Tatars.

"Menglik, Mahamu, each of you leads your cavalry to pass between our infantry formations and attack the Swedish infantry, but remember, once the Swedish infantry forms an infantry square, don't fight too long, just use bows and arrows and muskets to kill them and try to save yourself!"

The two heard it and led their regiments to join the battle.

As for the Tatars and Kalmyks joining the battle, although it looks strange, their bows and arrows at medium and long distances still have a certain killing effect on ordinary infantry without armor in this era.

So the Swedish infantry felt how the Hungarian cavalry and the Russian principalities were crushed by the Mongolian cavalry.

Although this is just a typical miniature version, after two rounds of arrow rain, many Swedish infantry were shot and fell.

As for the Crimean Tatars who shot with muskets, they dared to get closer and use their own pistols to attack in the gaps between the shooting of the Swedish infantry.

After a fierce exchange of fire, although there were more Swedish infantry, their actions were compressed into a not-so-wide area.

The regular cavalry of the Russian army was behind them, and the Russian infantry was in front of them. In the middle, there was harassment from the Tatar cavalry and constant bombardment from the Russian artillery.

Under this circumstance, the square formations of the Swedish infantry were broken one by one. The situation was still a stalemate in the morning, but in the afternoon, the Swedish army began to collapse.

It was impossible to annihilate all the enemies on the battlefield. After all, even if you put them in a sheepfold, you can't catch them all.

The scattered Swedish soldiers soon filled the road to Linköping, and the Russian army now began to pursue them.

Until the end, the Semenovsky Regiment was unable to be put into the battlefield, and the Russian army won a great victory while still having a reserve force in hand.

Von Essen was lucky to escape from the fleeing soldiers. As for the commanders who actively sought to fight, many of them were captured by the Russian army because they did not have time to escape in the infantry array.

Even more unfortunate was that his head was cut off by the Kalmyk cavalry and brought directly to Solovyov.

This includes Amfelt, who was defeated before. Solovyov did not expect him to die in this way.

"Monlik Bater, what happened?"

"One of my baters saw a man wearing a general's uniform and shot him in the eye with a wolf-tooth arrow. I brought him to you because I was afraid that I could not find him in the chaos."

"He is a person of high status in the Swedish court, and he is a baron. His great-grandfather once followed Charles XII to fight against Peter the Great. He died like this?"

"This also happened on the battlefield. My baters rarely cut off the heads of the enemy."

"It's okay, just kill them, and you can do whatever you want with this head."

Anyway, Solovyov's command had fewer troops left because the infantry and cavalry went out to pursue the Swedish army.

No one would pay attention to the head of an enemy general, so this article was turned over.

It was just because of the beliefs of the Kalmyks that Solovyov did not know what Amfelt's head looked like in the end.

He was not as cautious as before, because there were more enemies on the battlefield this time, so he chose to focus on attacking and pursue quickly, but the Swedes could not help but fight, so they collapsed directly.

He could not even care about what Stockholm had to do, at least he had to quickly control Linköping and block the intersection here.

The British army and some scattered Swedish troops that were originally planned to support would soon know that von Essen was defeated this time.

This was considered a relatively good battle among the Swedish army. After expanding its forces, the Swedish army, which had worse quality, collapsed after at least two days of fighting. Moreover, with more than 30,000 people, even if it was counted to the end, Solovyov only eliminated half of the enemies on the edge of the forest near Linköping.

The strategic initiative was in the hands of the Russian army, and now Solovyov could choose the next attack target according to his own wishes.

However, after defeating the enemy and repelling the large group of Swedish troops, he chose to send cavalry to Jönköping and Västergötland to scout and see what the Swedish army was doing.

At the same time, the victory was reported to Stockholm. Bennigsen had already set out for the Swedish capital. He also had to gather a large army and prepare to move south when the ice and snow gradually melted to attack the remaining forces of Sweden and Britain.

After all, the Swedes were only half wiped out in this battle. If they regrouped, united with the British army, and signed a formal armistice agreement with Denmark, they would still be able to fight.

But it was hard to say what the final outcome would be.

After receiving the news of the failure on the front line, Gustav IV was now dumbfounded. He had expected von Essen to win a victory, but the result was another failure.

If it weren't for the average quality of the Swedish soldiers, which allowed them to run faster, I'm afraid the Russian army would have fought a rare large-scale annihilation war in the era of line warfare.

More than 30,000 people ran to the vicinity of Jönköping. In the end, von Essen took in only more than 14,000 people, and their morale was low. Most of them abandoned their weapons.

If the battle continued like this, I'm afraid the Swedish army would have to change to the fighting method of Gustav II's era, using a phalanx of spears in front of the infantry to fight the enemy.

In this situation, Gustav IV could only hope to temporarily put the command in the hands of Sir Moore. Although this person had always been at odds with him, his words now seemed to be correct.

At this time, the British and Swedish coalition forces finally avoided interference from the monarch and had unified command. At the same time, the British continued to provide funds and weapons and equipment to the Swedish side.

At least the weapons used by the Swedish army now are no different from the British "Brown Bess", which can be regarded as standardizing the weapons.

Because the British army itself has a large number of colonial troops outside, there is a huge stock of weapons in the homeland, which are usually stored in warehouses. In this way, there is no problem in supplying allies or arming their own troops.

In the end, the Swedish army became a force armed with British weapons, but it also looked strange.

Because the British artillery can provide relatively few heavy guns, the Swedish army can only make do with 6-pound guns.

But the loss of cavalry is too huge, but it is not realistic for the British to unload another batch of cavalry in Gothenburg.

You know, Napoleon's campaign in Spain has been going on, and the British also have to send troops to Portugal, led by Arthur Wellesley, also known as Wellington.

Unable to spare more cavalry, they can only rely on Moore's troops, the relatively high-quality King of England's German Corps.

No more reinforcements can be sent, otherwise they have to send several Scottish regiments and Coldstream Guards, and then there will only be Boy Scouts left in the UK. (End of this chapter)