Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Chapter 318 020 Hidden Concerns in the Guards Training
The representatives sent by Alexander are now arguing with the British side mainly over the issue of Malta.

If we say that Alexander was a bit lazy in domestic affairs, but he had the right direction, he was not as diligent as his father Paul. In military affairs, his IQ was low at the beginning, but he made progress after learning to delegate power. There were also some remarkable aspects in strategy.

Diplomacy is his strong point. In addition to external factors, it is also because he has always been an actor and has a good popularity among both men and women.

For example, after the representative sent by Napoleon to Württemberg mentioned Alexandra's appearance, the emperor himself felt that the appearance of the Russian royal family should not be bad either.

Paul had a serious illness when he was young, and then he began to grow crooked, but his 11 surviving children were all of excellent appearance.

Well, this also includes the two girls that Solovyov took away from the palace. Both children were secretly settled in the estate recently purchased by their old father.

As for Alexander himself, he was indeed fascinating. Solovyov had heard about the letters Napoleon wrote to him before.

It feels like Alexander the Great is mistaken for Alexander the Great of Macedonia.
This tone is not very good, and Alexander's preference is still women, preferably those with strong and muscular bodies.

By the way, the Polish girl is very strong. She can pick up Louisa and spin around. If others knew about this, they would be shocked.

Moreover, Alexander was also good at getting information from women. When the young ladies met him, except for the one at No. 17 Nevsky Avenue, it was difficult for them to refuse him.

For a young wife, it's the kind that can kill anyone.

In fact, Alexander was also prepared to solve the problem without fighting. In any case, he hoped to solve a series of problems as the arbitrator of Europe. He even offered the British a condition of exchanging Malta for France's withdrawal from Hanover and other territories, but the British held on to this important stronghold in the Mediterranean and refused to let go.

Therefore, not only did the signing not take place, but even this anti-French alliance could easily fall apart due to the deal between Britain, the rich man, and Russia, the thug.

But the training had to continue. Before Solovyov took office, the Semenovsky Regiment had conducted skirmish training under the guidance of officers from the Guards Chasseurs.

But the time is not enough, and there are also serious problems within the Russian army.

On the viewing stand of the parade ground stood a group of main Russian commanders, including Grand Duke Constantine, Count Kamensky the Younger, and General Langeron. These people were all of high level. In addition, there were two fierce generals trained by Suvorov, Bagration and Miloradovich. Except for Barclay de Tolly, almost all the capable and loyal ones were here.

The reason for this is that Bennigsen is still in the Caucasus and this Hanoverian is somewhat disloyal.

What they were seeing now was another shooting drill by the Guards.

"Who is leading the Guards Jaegers now? They are really quick, even quicker than when they were in the Jaegers Battalion."

Langgeron looked down through a telescope. Although he was always reluctant to praise others, he spared no effort in complaining, which was considered a great "reward" for the officers below.

"It's Solovyov. Isn't he very familiar with you?"

Grand Duke Constantine also knew that Langgeron could speak Russian, but his accent was strange. He had intended to complain about another colleague's poor French speaking, but was ridiculed by Solovyov - but this did not affect the relationship between the two. It was said that a lot of the inspiration for Langgeron's recent complaints came from Solovyov.

"This kid is so dishonest! How dare he make fun of me behind my back!"

"Count, who told you to criticize others? You talk too much, and you admire this boy."

Count Kamensky the Younger had been familiar with Solovyov since the time they were at Ghost Bridge. He had a good relationship with everyone and could unexpectedly act as a mediator and peacemaker among various factions and circles.

You know, although his father and elder brother had strict military discipline, they were extremely cruel to their subordinates. This youngest son was not like his father and brothers. While he was strict with his subordinates, he was also very strict with himself.

"Well, he is quite capable. He speaks beautifully and does things properly. He has many advantages."

When Langgeron spoke, he always tried to speak up first, but at the moment he spoke, the Guards Artillery Battalion happened to be shooting at targets with the Unicorn Cannon, and the position was relatively close to them, so they didn't hear much of what he said afterwards.

Of course, the Unicorn Cannon is quite powerful, especially the grenade fuses used today are of good quality. After they explode in the middle of the target, the visual effect is still very good.

"Your Highness, the five guards regiments performed well today and advanced very quickly."

However, there was one thing that Constantine did hear before the troops entered the training ground.

They mainly came from the 1st Battalion of the Putin Regiment and the Guards Jager Regiment, which must be related to Solovyov.

This guy is indeed capable and he does things in a low-key manner, but some things are really not easy to do this way.

For example, the remarks spread among officers and soldiers are all directed at current training subjects.

Therefore, Constantine still had to call the officers on the training ground.

However, the commanders of the three major Guards Regiments and the Guards Grenadiers Regiment are all generals, but the commander of the Guards Jager Regiment is a colonel. This means that the battalion commanders commanding these five regiments must be called in, and the purpose is very clear.

"Everyone who commanded the troops performed very well at the exercise ground today, but I recently heard some voices about the current problems in the training of the Guards."

Konstantin said this, but in fact everyone knew it. Before Solovyov came back, the Guards Jagers assisted the Semenovsky Regiment in a training session, and then the Semenovsky Regiment popularized skirmish training to all the regiments of the garrison.

However, this kind of training has obviously changed a bit among the Guards.

After Solovyov came back, he felt this problem within the Russian army.

"Your Highness, I discovered this matter. I had some questions before, so I'll talk about it here."

Konstantin looked at Solovyov. This kid came out quite quickly today.

"Go ahead, Solovyov, I think you should have some ideas." "Our grenadiers are tall and strong, and their bayonet skills are excellent. During the Italian campaign, as long as we launched a bayonet attack, the French would retreat and reorganize. But there is one thing that was not obvious at the time. It was only after I came back from abroad that I found some problems, first in the newly formed Selenge Regiment and now in the Guards Chasseurs. I think it's a problem with our training. The enemy will not easily give us the opportunity to fight with bayonets. If there is a group of damn French in the bushes, I am afraid it will cause us huge casualties."

After hearing this, everyone nodded in agreement. After all, after this guy took over the Guards Jager Regiment, he had turned this unit into elusive hunters.

However, we all know that "Sextus" means 6 in Latin, but we don't know what Solovyov meant by "sixth".

In their opinion, the one like 666 might be more devilish.

"So, how should we solve this problem?"

"I noticed three things on the training ground. One is that our soldiers focus too much on bayonet attacks, no matter what the circumstances. The Guards still have time to adjust. The second is our shooting training. This was even mentioned in the Emperor's edict at the beginning of the year, requiring all regiments to strengthen live-fire shooting training. The third is..."

Before he could say the third one, someone else said it first.

"Yes, the Guards Jaegers have the most thorough shooting training, and each Jaeger Regiment has also increased its shooting training. But what about the line infantry?"

"This is the more important of the second point. Our soldiers should not do that kind of ineffective free shooting. At least the first few rounds of shooting must ensure accuracy. After the initial command is given, the accuracy of the first few rounds of shooting is critical."

"Is that so, Solovyov? There is a third one?"

When Grand Duke Konstantin asked this question, Solovyov continued speaking.

"Your Highness, our soldiers are prone to fatigue after a long-distance charge. This is unlike our hard-working Russian army in the past. Can I tell you about the Battle of Pharsalus?"

Russia regards Moscow as the "Third Rome". The country has an average Roman citizen population. There are even descendants of the Komnenos dynasty of the Eastern Roman Empire and descendants of the Bagration royal family of Georgia, an important ally of the Eastern Roman Empire. They are very familiar with the first Rome.

"The Battle of Pharsalus, wasn't that the decisive battle between Caesar and Pompey?"

"There are two problems. First, Caesar's troops in Gaul have been forced to march on the battlefield and fight against the elusive Gauls."

Well, the Gauls and the Franks together make up the current French. There is nothing wrong with this. There is nothing wrong with using this example when dealing with the French.

"So what happens?"

"It is precisely because of such long-term fighting that Caesar's veteran legions still have strong endurance, because they always have to make long-distance maneuvers on the battlefield. The same is true when we fought the French in Italy. Starting from the march to Verona, the troops were in a highly tense state for a long time, and they did not relax until the Battle of the Trebbia River. At that time, although our troops only had a few guards, their impact on the battlefield was still very strong."

"But now, if we charge down a long distance and reach the enemy, we will inevitably get a little tired, especially if we start the charge too early, which will also cause problems."

If we were to say, the one that had problems on the training ground just now was the 1st Battalion of the Putin Regiment led by Solovyov, and the attack from the front was quite fierce.
The Jaegers Regiment launched the attack much later, and the Izmailov Regiment also seemed to perform better during the attack.

"If there is no accumulation of training, this problem is likely to occur."

"Yes, there are two critical time points. One is the Earl. Do you understand?"

Count Kamensky the Younger did not forget to joke with Cheryon. This guy often pretended that he did not understand Russian, but in fact he could understand it. It was just that his accent was strange and he was laughed at many times, but people could still understand him.

“That’s no problem!”

He also crossed his arms and looked very confident.

Seeing this, Count Kamensky continued speaking.

"Two moments are critical. One is the time to give the order to start firing after the formation is in place. The other is the time to launch the bayonet charge. If it is too early, when we are close to the enemy, we are likely to suffer huge losses. And if we start firing too late, it is the same, except that the enemy's scattered soldiers or volleys in front of us will cause casualties, and the latter may be the enemy's artillery."

When Grand Duke Constantine saw the expressions of the officers, he knew that there was still a problem today.

"We can discuss the problems more often. We will have plenty of time to train before we finally decide to go to war. Even if we don't go to Europe to fight the French, we may have to fight the Turks in a few years, so we must always be prepared."

This is true. Now that the Grand Duke has spoken, everyone knows what they have to do.

However, in this way, we can discover problems during training and summarize them. Given the efficiency of the Russian army, we should be thankful that we can discover problems.

This army more or less relies on bloody courage to fight the enemy, although it also has some cunning, but that kind of strategy depends on the commander and soldiers to take the initiative to display it.

When Solovyov thought of this, he recalled the time when he was in Prussia and went to the home of the Duke of Brunswick. The old commander who had retired for many years was worried about the rigid tactics of the Prussian army, although he himself was not much better.

Actually, he was the nephew of Frederick the Great, but he retired because of the conflicts in the Prussian court. That court was still more or less obsessed with the military prowess of the Prussian army back then, and even boasted that even the Russians were learning from us.

On the other hand, Suvorov was very contemptuous of many of the Prussian army's practices. He believed that the Russian army's combat style should be "like a galloping hare", with fast speed, accurate shooting, fierce bayonet fighting, and flexible movements.

However, the current Russian army has thrown away a lot of these things, which makes people feel helpless.

When selecting officers and soldiers for the Tsar's guards, they always chose the more outstanding ones, but there were still some problems during their training.

What's even more ridiculous is that this problem did not occur mainly during Paul's reign, but rather after Potemkin's death and before Paul's reforms, that is, the period when Count Zubov was favored, and after Alexander came to power, when Paul's strict requirements on discipline were relaxed, problems began to arise.

As for the hidden dangers that have not been discovered, we don’t know how many there are. It would be fine if they were discovered during training.

If it is on the battlefield, you have to pay the tuition with blood.

(End of this chapter)