Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Chapter 341 Schmidt's headache

In Schmidt's repeatedly revised plan, the success or failure of this battle depended on the actions of the Dokhturov column to cut off the French army's retreat.

However, at around 8 a.m., Dokhturov's column did not reach the designated position.

This did not block the French retreat, and the cavalry sent by Schmidt also captured a French messenger.

"General, we have captured the Frenchman."

"Ah, you look like a dragoon. Which unit are you from?"

The French are always talkative and they are quick to explain where they are from.

"I am from the 4th Dragoon Regiment, sir. As for the rest, there is nothing to say. When you see me, you should know what I do."

"Yes, a messenger, with orders to General Dupont."

"Not 'Pang', but 'Bang', sir."

"Dupont and Dupont are like Thomson and Thompson. There will always be people who misjudge them."

Solovyov's interruption was actually a way of choosing the right words.

"The order, then, is for Dupont, sir."

"It seems that Dokhturov has not yet blocked the intersection. Damn it, at this time we should send out cavalry to urge him, and then send the adjutant over as well."

"And what shall we do with this prisoner, sir?"

"Send it to the headquarters, maybe it will be of some use."

Schmidt gave the order for the column to continue moving forward and to urge Dokhturov, but there was no response from there and the movement was very slow.

At this time, Schmidt could only send a reliable liaison officer.

"Michael, damn it, I guess I'll have to trouble you to make this trip."

Dokhturov's movements were slow and hesitant, which was beyond Schmidt's expectations. At the same time, Dupont heard the artillery fire more than 20 kilometers away and urged the four regiments of his headquarters to speed up their march.

In fact, in the army of 1805, a division usually had two brigades and four regiments, which was considered a standard configuration.

DuPont has always been brave, proactive, responsible and resourceful.

At this time, the entire division naturally had to advance quickly, and also encountered Dokhturov's column.

When Solovyov came to Dokhturov, he also found that although the cavalry and infantry were still there, the artillery was not in the marching column.

This was a really bad thing, he thought, but the soldiers he led were all in the Guards Column, not here. Instead, Dokhturov was the commander.

"Where's the cannon?"

"They all stayed behind. The road is muddy. These artillery vehicles are stuck in the middle of the team, which will affect the marching speed."

"We need cannons, at least two to deal with the enemy. This won't do. Give me a company and I'll get the cannons."

Solovyov could actually understand why Dokhturov did this. For the Russian army, it was responsible for losing the artillery on the battlefield, and during the march, the Russian artillery was often heavier and more powerful, which sometimes got in the way.

But what Dokhturov did now was indeed a delay. He also considered that Solovyov had always kept his title of aide-de-camp. Although this man had always been upright, he was not hesitant to report to the emperor for the sake of justice. Although Dokhturov had also been an aide-de-camp, he was from the empress's reign, unlike Solovyov.

In particular, everyone knew that he was a stubborn person in the army.

Therefore, Dokhturov could not confront him and had to allocate a battalion to him to get artillery.

The battalion left for Solovyov was one he was quite familiar with, the 1st Battalion of the Smolensk Regiment.

"Brothers, we can't fight the French without cannons! We have to get the cannons now and defeat the French to be worthy of the glory of our Order of St. George!"

Although his speech was not very good, he could not refuse to accept the fact that the Smolensk Regiment was defeated by the Selenge Regiment led by him during the "Snow War".

In addition, another point is that the Russian army has always attached great importance to cannons.

But infantry commanders may not pay enough attention to artillery.
Even down to the time of Alexander, cavalry and infantry generals often took the lead.

It is indeed troublesome to run away after losing, but it should be more troublesome to lose the fight.

Especially in such a good battle situation, the French army, unlike the Russian army, left the accompanying artillery behind. The artillery was still assigned to the combat units instead of being organized into separate artillery regiments and artillery battalions.

At this time, Solovyov really got four half-Unicorn cannons, but the fuses were not very reliable. If they really needed to be fired, they would probably become solid bullets.

However, the mud pits on the road were indeed very troublesome. At this time, he even saw soldiers willing to lie in the mud pits to allow the cannons to pass safely. This kind of thing was rare in the armies of other countries, but veterans in the Russian army often did this.

If the artillery carriage is too heavy, it might be fatal.

"Brothers, don't fill the pit with people. We have such good brothers, and we should use them to deal with the French instead of using them as pads for cannons here!"

So he ordered the soldiers to fill the gaps with felled trees and collected straw, and thus transported all the cannons to the battlefield. It was already close to noon.

Just as Schmidt worried, the French reinforcements did come chasing after them, and the Dupont Division quickly followed up and also engaged in a firefight with the Moscow Regiment under Dokhturov.

This put Dokhturov in a crisis of being sandwiched on both sides. Motier was blocked by Miloradovich and Bagration in front, and the road behind was finally cut off, so he began to struggle to break through.

However, when the river turned, a group of French soldiers also wanted to seize the boats and escape to the south bank. However, the Danube River was flowing rapidly in this section, causing many ships to capsize one after another. In addition, the river water was icy cold, and many people drowned in the Danube.

In the chaos, the counterattack launched by the French army was initially ineffective. The Russian army's own resistance was still very tenacious. Even though the artillery of the Dokhturov column was left behind by the commander, it still used three infantry regiments and the Mariupol Hussar Regiment to resist the pincer attack of the French army on both sides.

At this time, the situation was that the Allied forces had the upper hand overall, while the French forces had the upper hand locally.

As there was no way to convey the information at that time through communication means, Schmidt did not know the situation of each column at this time. He could only send out messengers to urge the three columns on his side to move towards the north bank of the Danube as soon as possible.

The problem for him was that the Austrian column had arrived first, but they were too weak to block the rear of the Dupont Division, and their combat effectiveness was worrying. Von Rosen's Sixth Column was far away from the battlefield, and under Schmidt's urging, it was also trying to get closer, but whether they could arrive that night was still a question.

In this situation, Schmidt decided to lead the column personally across the valley and into the battlefield.

However, this was also the last major order for him to execute.

After Solovyov brought the artillery back to the battlefield and handed over the 1st Battalion of the Smolensk Regiment to Dokhturov, he returned to Schmidt.

"Sir, the mission is accomplished. But Dokhturov left a lot of artillery and baggage behind, so the artillery fire on the front line is insufficient."

"How did you do it?"

"He led a battalion of soldiers and brought back four guns. In addition, artillerymen are still arriving."

"Ah, that's good. We have only the von Rosen column that has not arrived yet. But given the situation, we have no choice but to take action."

Schmidt decided to launch another attack before nightfall. In the current situation, 20,000 allied forces against 10,000 French troops was a rare action to gain an advantage, especially as artillery carried by various columns arrived at the battlefield one after another. The situation for the French army was already very bad.

Motier knew that in the current situation, not only his headquarters and the Gazan Division were surrounded, but the Dupont Division that came to support was also in a bad situation.

However, at this time, there were no troops that could be dispatched as reinforcements. The remaining division was even farther away and knew nothing about the battlefield situation. Even if it came, it would only be a tactic to add fuel to the fire.

After all, the Russian army also has a column of four to five thousand people outside the battlefield. If the two sides exchange fire at this time, it will be very disadvantageous for the French army, and it may even be wiped out.

But the French had no intention of surrendering at this time. They were preparing to gather their only forces to launch an attack, while leaving the wounded in the castle and the town of Dürenstein. Even if the Allied forces captured them, they would be given medical treatment.

After all, in this era, people still value martial ethics.

But even if they wanted to run away, Kutuzov and Schmidt would not allow them to do so. At sunset that day, the exchange of fire between the two sides did not stop.

Schmidt happened to come to the battlefield at this time, and he also wanted to observe the situation on the battlefield.

However, unfortunately, when he led the column into the battlefield, he happened to enter the firing range of Dokhturov's column and was hit by a stray bullet and fell off his horse.

Seeing this, Solovyov jumped off his horse and observed the situation of the Austrian veteran.

When we saw it, we knew Schmidt was in trouble. He was hit by four bullets in a row. He was quite unlucky.

At this time, Solovyov was very calm. He had the highest rank among the headquarters' attachés. Schmidt did not bring a general here to take command. General von Essen led his column behind and was also responsible for the column's operations.

"How to do?"

"I will take command. According to the plan, gentlemen, the Second Column (von Essen) and the Third Column (Dokhturov) will also be needed to work together to block reinforcements. The Austrian army will be responsible for containment, while the Sixth Column (von Rosen) must hurry to the battlefield. The three of you should take the orders and remember the contents. Once you encounter the French cavalry, destroy the written orders and convey the message verbally."

Solovyov also thought quickly and took off the three medals on his chest and handed them to the three Austrian heralds.

"If there are no orders, use my medal to convey them. And Heinrich, go to the commander-in-chief and tell him that the right-wing column will attack the French army according to the original deployment, and that the left-wing columns should hurry up and get together!"

His organization was very clear, and all the Austrian staff officers were deployed under his orders.

If you ask them why they were so obedient, it is because Schmidt admired Solovyov very much, and with the cleverness of these officers, they also knew that Archduke Karl had a good relationship with him.

Since Mark was defeated in this battle, the Austrian army will still be led by the experienced Archduke Karl in the future. There must be some way out.

He was also trusted by Schmidt, and the veteran had reserved a command order. In addition, Solovyov happened to be the senior officer, so even though he was younger, he had to obey his orders.

Under such circumstances, the staff left behind by Schmidt began to work quickly again, and their efficiency was even higher.

Schmidt is experienced and has excellent plans and deployments, but when it comes to execution, it’s better to have someone with a quick mind.

That evening, three Russian generals received new orders, written in Russian.

"How is this going?"

The Austrian staff officer who came to deliver the message to them was quite clever and said this.

"General Schmidt was shot and wounded. It was the order conveyed by Colonel Solovyov." He also took out three medals of Solovyov. He was a close minister of two generations of tsars, and his name was engraved on the back of the medals.

There's no mention here that Schmidt had died, and it was too quick for him to die.

But he was lucky after his death. Considering that he was a general, Solovyov found a wine barrel and threw him into it, and took him to the rear to be buried alone.

Otherwise, they would have been thrown directly into a mass grave. The Allied forces were quite hasty in their actions because the French were chasing too closely.

However, due to the situation of closing the door and fighting the dog, two of the three infantry divisions of Mortier's Eighth Army were surrounded on the banks of the Danube, making the situation even worse for the French army.

At the same time, Kutuzov also took into account the possible reinforcements of the French army and issued an order late at night on November 11 to annihilate the French army in the Dürenstein Valley the next day.

If the battle cannot be resolved the next day, the French follow-up troops will surely swarm in, and then it will not be so simple.

The death of General Schmidt did indeed require a new chief of staff to come to Kutuzov's headquarters.

He considered that Solovyov was too young and could command one or two battles, but if he really wanted to coordinate the Russian and Austrian armies, he could not use a Russian colonel.

So, based on past experience, he wrote a letter to the headquarters, asking the Austrian emperor to send a new chief of staff.

Since Werosser had performed well under Suvorov and had participated in the allied expeditions to Italy and Switzerland, Kutuzov strongly recommended Lieutenant General Werosser in his letter to the Austrian Emperor to succeed Lieutenant General Schmidt as the Chief of Ordnance.

But on the battlefield, Kutuzov now asked Solovyov to continue to mobilize the right-wing columns in Schmidt's command.

Although he was a temporary worker, Solovyov now had an opportunity. This was the first time he had a legion of more than 10,000 people under his command.

Everyone hopes to have a day when they can gallop onto the battlefield.

Moreover, it is indeed necessary to test his abilities.

(End of this chapter)