Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Chapter 293 060 The path to ascension is too dependent on the Ottoman Empire

When visiting a nobleman's manor, it is inevitable to stay overnight. After all, the distance between one manor and another is still very far.

The furnishings in the old duke's house are indeed very interesting.

There would be a Roman bust in his study, but his lathe could also be seen through the door, along with the rest of the furnishings, which seemed crudely welded together.

Now, there is certainly no modern welding.

"I thought you were going to ask me if I wanted to come back, young man."

"I don't think it's necessary. Our country already has many young generals on the roster."

"Yes, we have many generals, but there are too few who can play a role. As for who can become the commander-in-chief, I don't want it to be a foreigner. Bagration may be able to do it. Although he is a Georgian prince, he has been in the Russian army for a long time, starting with his father."

Speaking of which, Bagration was indeed an outstanding general, but as the commander of a front, he really had nothing to prove. At least Solovyov did not know about what happened to him in Finland and on the Danube front.

But the strange words of the old prince also reflected a situation to some extent, that is, although the Russian army has many generals, the echelon of reserve talents has never been interrupted. However, it is like this.

There were many of them, but they were useless.

"You seem to prefer Diocletian's life."

Among the four emperors who ruled Rome, the one with the highest vision even had the prestige to judge the chaotic situation when he just abdicated.

However, after a long time, no one took him seriously.

The reason why he didn't come out was that he was still a cabbage in his court in Solona, ​​doing what he liked.

"Andre said you read a lot of books."

"Yes, I also like to read books during the breaks in the war. I still carry two books in my bag now."

"This is a good habit. You are very perseverant and know how to learn on your own. This is rare among young people. I don't like those reckless officers of the Guards. It must be a headache for you to be their battalion commander, right?"

Speaking of which, the battalion commander of the 1st Battalion of the Pu Regiment was sometimes a major general or a colonel. It was indeed quite stressful for him, a major, to be the chief.

"I was worried at first that I wouldn't be able to do it well, but later I found that managing these people is not fundamentally different from managing a stable."

"Although you are a foot soldier, you are also a good driver. You can ride a horse and drive a car, right?"

"That's no problem. I happen to be in Smolensk. If you go to Petersburg or Moscow, I might be able to help you."

"But it was not possible during Emperor Paul's time. A general could not be placed as an adjutant in the headquarters."

This is indeed worthy of criticism. Although Paul was nice to Solovyov, the rules were sometimes a bit strict.

"But there is no such rule now. We can't always follow the rule, right?"

The old prince laughed and turned back to Andrea.

"Andre, your friends are not bad. At least they are not those pedantic guys."

He didn't praise him too much because he knew that Suvorov must have taught him the same thing and there was no need to use too many words to praise him.

Then he continued, but the way he spoke did sound like he was mocking something.

"There are certain principles to follow when doing things, but we can't do everything according to the regulations. If we do that, there's no need to do anything else."

Andrei and Solovyov could only listen. The old duke did not eat very fast today. Since he was entertaining guests, some dishes that were rarely eaten at other times would be served.

I have to say that the chef in the old Duke's family cooks venison really well.

"You just mentioned the situation of the Smolensk garrison. Although Apraksin has some skills, he is not capable of solving the problems you found in a short period of time. These things have accumulated over many years."

If it is dangerous, it will destroy the Russian army.

But we don’t talk much about business at the dinner table, we still have to enjoy the delicious food.

As for after dinner, the old prince thought it would be better to walk around, so he went out into the yard.

Solovyov began to read on his own.

In the 19th century, if you wanted to have some hobbies, reading books might be more economical and affordable. What he is reading now is "The Gallic War".

Speaking of which, there are indeed quite a few first-hand military studies that Solovyov could find in Europe that were left over from the Roman period. It is definitely a stereotype to say that Europeans were shot in queues during wars.

Some people even always show off their ignorance, which is unnecessary.

As for the content that I personally directed and wrote down, it is still worth referring to.

What is clear is what Caesar was doing in every battle, including the local situation.

Even in light of the present, we can understand why the Gauls were afraid of the Germans crossing the Rhine.

The French would certainly prefer their natural border to be on the Rhine, and if Austria intervened, war would probably be unavoidable.

However, when he met Archduke Karl, the Archduke actually had time to get engaged and later get married. He even gave up the position of Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights to his younger brother, which shows that the power he could control in the Austrian army was limited.

With the micro-control ability of the Austrian Emperor Franz and Mark's military organization, and the lack of the experience of the Austrian veterans and a group of battle-hardened soldiers, the war had already smelled the scent of failure before it even started.

But Solovyov didn't know that although Archduke Karl looked like a sickly person and the exiled French princess was not in good health, the two of them slept with each other for a few times and had a child.
The Habsburgs of Austria at least would not produce someone as terrible as Carlos II of Spain. Moreover, Carlos II was an extreme case, which was brought upon himself by Philip IV.

It seems that if things continue like this, the Austrians will still be prosperous. After all, after Maria Theresa, Leopold II and his wife have so many children. Even if some of them choose to become clergy, it will not affect their expansion in the country.

As for the later branches of the Habsburgs, except for the main branch, they all seem to have successfully detoxified themselves, which is quite ironic.

Archduke Karl no longer had epilepsy and his life became more orderly. It was truly a medical miracle that he no longer had seizures.

But having Austria as an ally now would indeed be a huge disaster.

But we can't say that at the dinner table, Alexander is so ambitious that he won't recognize his own abilities unless he suffers a little.

Russia is still an absolute monarchy after all, no matter how open-minded the emperor is, he cannot speak nonsense in public. As for the conspiracy group, it doesn't matter what they say, these rebels are all doing things in the dark corners.

However, when Solovyov got the book, he had to start from the beginning. After all, he could not remember everything he had read before.

But when the Gallic War broke out, it was indeed related to a group of Gallic tribes who were fleeing the Germans passing through the Governorate of Gaul, which eventually triggered a bloody storm throughout Gaul.

This time, it started with the Gauls, but in three aspects.

"Britons, Gauls, Germans. They were all barbarians back then. Now they have become civilized people. They have begun to call Russia a barbaric place, but they don't know how barbaric they are. In civilization, there is always barbarism in the fight between each other."

When I said this, no one really saw me.

Talking to oneself is sometimes unavoidable. The British were looking for thugs, but in the end they had used up all the available ones, and all they had left was the energy to shout.

Their army's current performance is indeed not that good.

Solovyov even began to imagine in his mind how to fight the war.

So far, he was only a regimental commander, and the combat missions he had carried out in Italy involved a combined battalion or combined regiment when temporarily organized.

But what he will do in the future also needs to be considered now.

But the result of his thinking was that he believed that a staff team was needed to command a large army, but Russia itself was not very good at this aspect. It was also a problem that the Russian army always used Austrians as chief of staff when fighting abroad.

Another way he thought of was to learn from someone who liked to stay in the back office, streamline the command structure, and then run behind the front line to do the micro-management himself.

It sounds like Arthur Wellesley is now a Total War player. But it is more convenient for him to command less than 4 people. If there are more, the performance may be mediocre.

The Suvorov he saw was already very old and was not the general he had been when he fought against the Turks.

But there is a problem. The Russian Army relies too much on attacking the Ottoman Empire in its promotion path.

Many of the generals he met had fought against the Turks.

There is no way around it. The main target of the Russian army in recent years has been this opponent, and there have been relatively few clashes with the armies of European countries.

But if the First Anti-French Alliance was in such a chaotic state, if it were Suvorov, he might have taken advantage of the relatively chaotic order of the French Republic's army and bypassed it and marched directly into Paris.

That depends on the needs of the battlefield. After much thought, he decided that his ability should now exceed that of the regimental level, but higher-level troops still lacked experience, and battlefield experience was more important than what was learned.

After all, there was a Prussian king who had to rely on his tutor to clean up the mess after the first war.

Of course, Solovyov himself felt that his mind was more suitable for commanding an army of less than 35,000 people.

If there are more people, a staff team must be established. At present, there is almost no chief of staff in Russia, and it is often the generals of the legions who take up the position.

Perhaps Bennigsen, who went to the Caucasus and had a heated exchange of views with the Persians, could understand a little bit, but this man's character, plus the fact that he was a member of a conspiracy group, made that group of people less welcome after they were exposed.

From now on, Kutuzov will be the only commander-in-chief of the Russian army until Barclay and Bagration are able to take charge on their own.

This old, lazy, greedy, lustful, blind in one eye, "sleepy" and cunning fat man.

As for the remaining generals, they were a disaster.

Solovyov even thought that Langgeron should be the commander-in-chief, as he was most familiar with the French way of doing things, after all, he was a Frenchman.

Then I am afraid that this will lead to the general's strange complaints.
Of course, he corresponded with Langeron, who had gone to Brest as an inspector of infantry, and whose sharp tongue, though unpleasant to the ear, was always just the right one.

The Russian army's generals are indeed in a window period. There are many talented people, but there are some gaps, and the connection between the following echelons is not very good.

However, this is much better than the chaotic change made by the Austrians. At least there are still many qualified team leaders, and some will improve after fighting.

Solovyov himself even thought that if he had the opportunity in the future, he would go to the Danube front.

It's just like a Russian officer in this day and age wouldn't have a complete resume if he hadn't fought a war with the Turks.

But defeating the Turks, a relatively weak opponent, is still a necessary step for promotion.

Don't worry, there will always be opportunities in the future.

He even beat the French, but the level there was limited at that time.

But the one he will face next is a max-level character, and it seems that the opponent’s commander is his uncle.

It would be even more embarrassing if we look at it from the perspective that he and Polina had a son.

Without a bird's eye view, you won't know how to do this kind of operation of randomly entering a dungeon without going through the Novice Village.

All Solovyov could think about was the series of failures from 1805 to 1807, and the more he thought about it, the more headache he got.

It would be better to go to bed early. Although the fireplace in the old duke's manor has started to burn, it will not warm up so quickly in any way in the autumn.

He would not even be in the Selenge Regiment by then, for Bagration’s letter had arrived at his station before he even reached Smolensk.

The letter told him that if war broke out, he should pay attention to orders from St. Petersburg.

The prince himself still hoped that he would join the Guards Chasseurs. After all, this was his own army, and many of the equipment and new tactics were figured out by him.

Given the level of the Selenge Regiment, even if they trained diligently for a year, they probably would not be sent to the battlefield, but would remain in the Governor-General's District of Smolensk.

Although he was very confident that he could at least train this regiment to the level of the Smolensk Regiment in the Italian Expedition.

This regiment was awarded the Order of St. George. Although Solovyov was somewhat dissatisfied, after all, he led his troops to capture the Polish military flags many times, but the Smolensk Regiment was also the top-notch in combat effectiveness among ordinary infantry regiments.

Most of the time when he led his troops to capture flags and cannons, it was during pursuit, and repeatedly defeating the Poles is not a plus now. The Smolensk Regiment, on the other hand, won the honor directly in the Alps when it captured the flag.

On this point, it is impossible not to accept this goal.

(End of this chapter)