Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796

Chapter 73 023 There are many Poles on the opposite side

The Austrians have an old problem when fighting. No matter whether the friendly troops nearby are from their own country or foreign countries, if they are separated, they will easily hesitate or avoid fighting to preserve their strength.

The result is often greater losses. Such losses on the battlefield are often unnecessary. It makes people feel that your level should be because Austria is a bulk monarchy, right?

It does take a lot of effort to sew Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, Moravia and part of Italy, Dalmatia and Illyria together. It is not surprising that something happens on the battlefield.

It should also be explained here that the Austrian emperor's various magical micro-manipulations, often giving instructions to the commander-in-chief on the front line, and intervening in personnel appointments, always bring about the effect of turning magic into decay in the end.

As the saying goes, "not understanding the duties of the three armies, but seeking the power of the three armies", every time at a critical moment, he would intervene in the command, and the final result can be imagined.

Suvorov was also worried about this problem, but Melas was a reliable veteran. They still trusted each other and cooperated well so far.

After they marched through Alexandria, they continued to march east, leaving Bellegarde who was returning to the south to monitor Moreau in the direction of Genoa and surround the French fortress near Alexandria.

The important military information was that there were already movements of MacDonald's corps in the east. Suvorov decided to march eastward, first defeat MacDonald, who had a stronger force, and then return to deal with Moreau, whose strength was greatly reduced.

At present, Moreau can take out a total of 30,000 troops, but in the French occupied area, he has to maintain the presence of troops and guard several fortresses, and the actual mobile force is extremely limited.

But even so, he still determined such a high-risk combat plan in contact with MacDonald.

This may be useful if it is against ordinary generals. If there are only Austrian veterans like Melas or Krei on the Italian battlefield, considering their troop deployment and marching speed on the battlefield, this plan may also succeed.

However, Suvorov always emphasized the need to advance quickly. For him, since he knew where MacDonald had gone, he had to cut along the Po River.

The Bagration column, which was operating at the forefront of the coalition forces, was always in the vanguard when attacking and in the rear guard when retreating. The troops under his command obviously had the most opportunities to fight the enemy.

The Guards column and Miloradovich's column followed. Suvorov always had an idea that when concentrating the Russian troops, the troops should be divided into two routes and advance in columns with two corps.

Now on another marching route, because they are all Austrian troops, this idea should be put aside.

Solovyov's current marching position is at the forefront of the Guards column, followed by the 5,000 people of the Bagration column.

Since most of the Russian cavalry on the expedition were Cossack cavalry, at this time, heavy cavalry was needed on the battlefield, and they all relied on the Austrian dragoons. The Novgorod dragoons brought by Grand Duke Constantine were not enough.

That's why the Austrian cavalry can always be seen maneuvering quickly beside the marching column.

As officers, they should pay special attention to the movements of these cavalry. On the one hand, they are observing the marching speed of the infantry column, passing military information between the commander and the commander-in-chief, and changing the direction of the troops' actions. This is still very necessary.

Although a short rest is necessary during the march, the orders issued to each column now have to compress the rest time in the middle, which is similar to the previous all-out march to Verona, but the speed has also slowed down slightly.

"There is no end to the journey like this!"

In the queue, some soldiers have begun to complain.

"The road from our home to St. Petersburg is much farther than this, not to mention from St. Petersburg to Vienna, and then to Italy. It's better to be a soldier than to weed and spin at home!"

I don't know why weeding and spinning are put together.

"Captain, don't you feel tired walking with us like this?"

"Yes, other masters are riding horses, but you are the best, walking with a horse."

Soloviev looked at the soldiers in the queue, some from the hunting company he led, and some from other regiments. There were many people talking in such a mixed bag, so it wouldn't hurt to chat with them.

"If you are always on the horse, you can also try it and see if your butt can bear it!"

"Yes, the master is like this, and those Germans' butts are all stuck to the horse. If you want to talk about discomfort, it's not our turn! We farmers walk like this, walking on muddy roads, dirt roads, and Italian gravel roads are still the best roads. At least, they won't eat the soles of our boots!"

"If I know which shoemaker made your shoes, I want to shoot him!"

Soloviev said this, and the old soldiers continued to make a fuss.

"Master, if you kill that shoemaker, I'm afraid you'll have to go to Moscow. The shoes of us veterans of the Smolensk Regiment are all made by leatherworkers in Moscow."

"That's fine. My hometown is Ryazan. When I return to St. Petersburg, I can go directly to Moscow to kill the shoemaker on the way. It will save trouble. Also, have you bought new boots for yourselves?"

It is a daily routine for the Russian army to change shoes on the front line.

"I've already changed my shoes. The Italians are really good at craftsmanship. Just wipe off all the mud and you'll have a new pair of shoes."

"Of course, Italy is like a boot on the map, and making leather shoes is their specialty."

"Captain, what about our Russia?"

These veterans were more talkative than the hunters he brought out, but they could relax while chatting while marching, and at least they would be in a better mood.

"We are in Russia, have you seen my bearskin hat? It looks like a bear, but this is just a hat bought by the officer himself. This hat is still comfortable, but on this hot day, look at it, it's all hanging on The saddle is on."

"Yeah, when we are fine, we can't provoke those bears. Who knows which bear will suddenly go crazy!"

"You have to bring a shotgun!"

"Hahaha"

While these veterans were interrupting their fun, an Austrian cavalry brought orders for the regiments of the Guards column.

"The Union Chasseur Regiment changed its marching formation and joined Bagration's column. Do you want the Grand Duke Constantine's Guards Regiment to rest and recuperate?"

One look at the handwriting revealed that the order was written by an Austrian. Suvorov's oral orders always talked about the old designation and "joint forces". Orders with new designations were issued by Verother to each regiment.

At this time, he also had to wait for specific instructions from Major von Bystrom, and the march could not be stopped yet.

If the marching column is switched, when Bagration's column stops in front, the combined regiment will need to take two more steps to follow.

Speaking of which, if a new formation is to be formed, the chasseurs will be in the front, the musketeers and grenadiers will be behind, and the artillery assigned to the column will be at the back.

The dragoons, hussars, and Cossacks were all on one side of the queue. If there was a hot air balloon in the sky now, you could see the billowing smoke of the infantry column marching.

Summer in Italy, because many places have a Mediterranean climate, is dry and rainless, and marching at this time is indeed torturous.

After that you have to walk to the town of Stradello and continue onwards from there.

Bagration was indeed waiting for the arrival of the follow-up troops in the town. The marching order was changed, and the two chasseur regiments advanced in parallel on the front line, with the remaining infantry attached behind and the cavalry deployed on the flanks.

He is also waiting for the chasseurs separated from the Guards. After adjusting the deployment in this way, he can also set up cordons in the villages on the frontier, and at the same time, the speed of the advance will be faster.

"Misha, you are moving very quickly. What we have to do now is to search and move forward. The scouts have reported that there are Polish legions operating here?"

"Poles? Who are they from?"

"It is our old friend General Dombrowski. He has now gone to the French to form a regiment. You can see many Poles in Italy. The news we know from our Austrian allies is that the Poles Among the French troops there were at least 10,000 men.”

"Good guy, why did you do so many things?"

"They want to restore the country, how easy it is! It's different from my hometown of Tbilisi."

On the Georgian side, we are looking forward to the stars and the moon now. The Russian army must come quickly, otherwise we will be robbed by Turks and Persians all day long.

The reason why Dombrowski is an "old friend" is that a few years ago, when Marshal Suvorov led his army to suppress the Warsaw Uprising, Bagration's troops finally penetrated the general's defense line. , the final result was the surrender of the Polish rebel army.

We can sympathize with them based on their national spirit, but as long as the Poles are a little more generous, they will take advantage of the surrounding countries, big and small, one by one. This is hard to explain.

Even Prince Czartoryski, who was by the Crown Prince's side, still wanted to secretly have an intimate relationship with the Crown Princess. As a Russian diplomat, he had to consider Poland's interests at all times. This was not acceptable.

Solovyov, a young man who had never experienced the suppression of the Polish uprising, had a bad impression of the Poles, which was caused by the suicide behavior of the Poles in the two dimensions.

Especially Prince Czartoryski, who he must defeat resolutely.

Although this guy didn't have a deep friendship with the Crown Princess, he did treat the Polish prince like his "love rival". Fortunately, not many outsiders knew about it.

When he was in the palace, he actually knew what happened that day from the maid next to the princess. Anyway, the Polish prince was much more excessive than Count Zubov. The count's formal pursuit of the girl was based on the queen's favor. , this one is completely driven by hormones.

No wonder he accidentally talked about Poland that day, and Crown Princess Elizabeth would say that. After all, Prince Czartoryski had been slapped before.

Fortunately, Louisa was too weak to give Ottoman a big slap, so she would have to be carried out lying down by the Guards.

What Gryazev said is even more interesting: Nothing in Poland is good except the village girls and war horses there.

Solovyov didn't know that the grenadier captain's march diary contained the story of his interactions with a local girl when he was stationed in Poland. Even this paragraph was not much less important than the description of the expedition.

The change of the marching column also became that the hunters formed a formation in front to search, especially the leading soldiers on the front cordon.

The task assigned by Bagration to Solovyov was to lead his company at the forefront of all troops.

This is good. Solovyov can take only two companies with him in the temporary formation. One company separated from Miloradovich will be handed over to Bagration's Jager Regiment, and behind them is the Guards Jager Battalion.

The way of fighting has become different from the standard battle of this era.

Normally, the French army should not have any stationed troops in the village of Santjovano, and even the report after the return of the Austrian cavalry was the same.

But the Jager Company found a bonfire in the middle of the village during the march, and there was a group of people dressed as Ulan cavalry around it.

"Damn, they are really Poles!"

"Captain, should we fight them?"

"Don't worry, we only have two companies, and we don't know how many enemies there are. But... ask the 'Bishop' to go around to the east first and block their retreat. When the time comes, you can fire a volley of gunfire, and then launch a bayonet attack. These Poles will definitely not be prepared!"

The reason for doing this is that this company separated from the Smolensk Regiment has a low firing rate of their weapons, so they use this method.

And Solovyov is more familiar with his basic troops. Going around is to turn the road east of the village into a shooting range at dusk when the Poles break through.

And we have to capture some prisoners along the way to find out which legion these Poles belong to, whether they are the remnants of Mantua or the vanguard of MacDonald's Naples Legion.

When the veterans heard about this arrangement, they thought it was right. They just liked to charge forward with bayonets. Although "bayonet is a hero" is a characteristic of the Russian army, Suvorov's training still emphasizes accurate shooting.

Even these veterans, under the command of their company commander, did not have enough people to form a battalion square, and they directly launched a bayonet attack.

At this time, Solovyov set up an ambush on the east road, and he found that there were quite a few Poles.

"Good guy, infantry, cavalry, and artillery are quite complete! I'm afraid we have caught a big fish!"

Then, he asked the messenger to ride on horseback to find Bagration and seek support from the column commander.