Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Chapter 343 045 Big Liar Bagration
Dürenstein won a great victory in this battle, destroying nearly 10,000 French troops in one fell swoop.

But Kutuzov was not happy at all, and even after Andrei returned to him on horseback, he was still very worried.

"In this case, it's not good."

The veteran had received intelligence that the French had seized the main bridge in Vienna through deception, which on the one hand allowed the French army to capture the city of Vienna without a fight; on the other hand, the retreating Russian army, which had finally won itself a chance to breathe by inflicting heavy damage on the French, was now facing even greater trouble, as Murat would soon catch up.

Napoleon himself did not blame Murat too much for the consequences of his capture of Vienna. Although his brother-in-law's attempt to show off caused the Eighth Army to suffer extremely serious consequences, he and Lannes controlled the city of Vienna after all, which was a more important transportation hub and was easier to pass than the bridge in Krems.

The Austrians still left a lot of things in their capital. Now Napoleon was considering continuing to stick to Kutuzov's troops and inflict as much heavy damage on them as possible before they joined the main force of the Russian army.

Napoleon now had to worry about two directions. Archduke Karl was very cautious in his actions in the Italian direction, so he sent Marmont to lead the Second Army behind the Austrians, forcing Archduke Karl to retreat by a detour and wait for an opportunity to cooperate with Marshal Massena's actions. This was also the most complete group of the Austrian army at present.

As for the Russian army, he had to pay special attention to it. He hoped to use the troops at his disposal to eliminate the Russian army and part of the Austrian army scattered on Austrian territory within half a month.

But the cautious Kutuzov was obviously unwilling to give him such an opportunity, and after the French captured Vienna, he no longer cared about those things.

"Bolkonsky, you go to Bagration's column. And you, Soloviev, stay with me and serve as duty officer. We need someone to act as temporary quartermaster general until Veloso arrives."

Although it was only temporary, Solovyov knew that he now had a heavy responsibility.

But as the chief of staff, Werother might not be capable enough to coordinate a large-scale legion.

At times like this, perhaps an unlucky guy like Mark is still needed. However, his failure has also somewhat affected the personnel appointments in Austria.

Moreover, his foolish deployment in Ulm is also the biggest reason why the coalition forces are now so passive.

It might be okay to let Werosser design a combat plan for a force of 6, but now it is 10.

It will be quite troublesome when the various troops gather together.

Although Schmidt's death was somewhat unexpected, it was indeed very unfortunate and would affect the deployment of combat troops.

And Werosser has another problem. He always caters to his superiors to formulate more aggressive plans.

But now the Austrians have no one to use, so they have to let him take over. Solovyov is in a desperate situation now, and he has to play a role at this time.

"There is no new quartermaster general now, Misha, so you will still be the one drafting the order."

Kutuzov then prepared to dictate, and of course he also found that Solovyov's reaction was extremely quick. He wrote down the orders to the Russian columns in Russian. When it came to the orders to the Austrian army, he always copied them down and quickly changed them into German.

This is the benefit of being proficient in several languages, especially when two languages ​​are spoken in the coalition forces.

He would not be afraid even if the British army came. At worst he could just translate it into English, which was easier and simpler to learn anyway.

"Do you think this will work?"

"Very good, give the order. What I am worried about now is whether Bagration's column can get out safely. If..."

At this point Kutuzov also left his temporary headquarters and went outside to await Bagration’s arrival.

Obviously, he still wanted to give some instructions, but Bagration was good at playing rearguard battles, so he could only cross himself and pray.

Then, Andre was sent to go with him. It was a textbook scene.

The main force of the Russian army, as well as more than 10,000 Austrian troops, set out to move northward.

But before Bagration set off, he still needed to find Solovyov to solve some problems.

"You worked at the embassy in France, Misha. I think you are familiar with diplomacy, right?"

"Of course I am familiar with it, but I can't accompany you there. The old man still needs me here."

"I would like to have diplomatic negotiations, and then..."

My goodness, it turns out that you, a Georgian from the Caucasus, are also a big liar.

Considering that among the pursuing French troops, Murat and Oudinot were probably brave generals whose brains weren't working very well, Bagration's trick might still work.

"If you want to negotiate, maybe it will work. But we also need to see who the French general on the other side is."

Bagration looks like a fierce general, but he is a rough but delicate man. Plus he has a lovely loli wife, a dark face among Europeans, and the Caucasian people's reputation as "outlaws". You must be Mr. Zhang San, right?
What he was thinking about now was how to trick the pursuing French generals.

Since he dares to do this, he must be confident about it.

Looking at the rear guard troops going away, Kutuzov still had many worries.

"You have many concerns, but I still trust Prince Bagration."

"Ah, there are some cunning ways, aren't there?"

“I’m just more worried.”

Seeing Solovyov like this, Kutuzov also laughed.

"Ha, you can definitely tell me what you're worried about."

"Given the emperor's attitude, if he asks for a war, it will not be beneficial to us."

"This requires us to find a way. We all know what is needed now. It would be best if we have more and more troops here."

"Like the Fabian tactics, we need to find a way to wear down Napoleon and give him a fatal blow at the right time."

"You can think of this instead of relying on physical courage, which makes you much better than the young people today. But people like you and Volkonsky are still a minority after all. Many young people have the same courage as Andrei, but they don't have his talent and character."

Solovyov knew who Kutuzov was talking about. They were the young officers that Alexander had not sent out. There were still many young officers in the Russian army who hoped to make achievements. They all came from prominent families, and their status had been rising with Alexander's trust.

Even if they lost the battle, these people probably still maintained a high level of trust due to their long-term close relationship. "When we meet up with friendly forces, such as General Buckholden's troops, the emperor will also come here."

"Misha, don't speak out at this time. We can speak in many places. Besides, after the army reunites, you should return to the Guards and lead the troops well instead of thinking about too many things."

Or it was this fat and "lazy" old fox who knew what should be done, and he knew what Solovyov was thinking.

"And are you really related to that Corsican?"

Apparently, Kutuzov was also quite interested in this matter.

"Indeed, I did not make it known, except when I captured Marshal Mortier."

"Aha, then Bonaparte will be shocked!"

Now, let’s not talk about Kutuzov’s troops who are heading north to join the main force, nor let’s talk about Solovyov’s gossip. Bagration is now in the area of ​​Shengraben, serving as a rear guard to delay the French pursuit.

As for Murat, after he and Lannes fooled the Austrian bridge guards in Vienna, he now also wanted to use his brain, especially when the pursuing troops did not have an absolute advantage in numbers.

It was not wrong for him to think so now. After all, Mortier had been taken prisoner before, and the fighting capacity of the Russian army should not be underestimated.

If he used this army without absolute advantage to fight against the Russian army, even a brave man like Murat would be no match for him.

Then, he had an idea and remembered the method he and Lana used to fool the Austrians, and decided to negotiate with Bagration.

His negotiation was not a big deal, as Bagration had already prepared a plan in mind. Kutuzov had reminded him of it before, and he had also considered this before setting out.

"Do the French really still want to negotiate?"

"Yes, sir, they say they have reached an 'armistice' with the Austrians, now"

"armistice?"

Bagration wanted to laugh when he heard this, but he was also professionally trained, so he decided to send two people to negotiate with Murat.

Anyway, Russia doesn’t have any aircraft carriers now, so there are many fish ponds that can be vacated, allowing Murat to seize the time for training.

"You two, follow the formal diplomatic practice and have a good talk with Marshal Murat. And you must reiterate on our behalf that France has only signed an armistice agreement with Austria, but we have not received any instructions or orders from any party regarding the armistice. We must conduct bilateral negotiations."

Bagration's acting was very realistic and he really fooled Murat.

Murat wanted to take this opportunity to reinforce his troops, while Bagration thought that he could take this opportunity to rest for at least a day and buy time for Kutuzov's main force to retreat.

Then, Napoleon had just sat down in Vienna, and he was still furious about the failure at Mortier. The strange "revelation of missing relatives" was handed to him by the French wounded. During this period of time, Murat and Bagration were squatting there, negotiating with their eyes wide open, which made him even more furious.

"Murat, who does he think he is? This is an order! Attacking the Russians is an order. Time is the most precious thing for us now. This week, we must catch up with Kutuzov's troops and destroy them, instead of having a social gathering with knives and forks in hand!"

If Murat was not his brother-in-law, Napoleon would probably have an even worse temper.

So, after a day of "truce", Murat finally launched an attack on the Russian army.

This was the most famous rearguard battle before the Battle of Austerlitz, the Battle of Schöngraben. The Russian army launched a bayonet charge against the French army with a fearless spirit. All the troops bravely moved forward and at one point drove the French army back a long distance.

Tushin, who had performed well in Dürenstein before, and his artillery fought bravely without receiving any effective orders until Andrei arrived and conveyed the order to retreat.

Of course, during the night battle, the French themselves were also in great chaos.

Some Russian officers who were familiar with French told their brothers who did not understand foreign languages ​​to remain silent and not to shout "Ura" on the battlefield, but to let them shout in the intervals between gunfire.

"Brothers, don't shoot, they are our own!"

This made the French soldiers feel confused. While they were stunned, the hundreds of Russian soldiers who were guarding the rear filed out and escaped through the breakthrough point that the French army was almost closing.

Of course, this was not the most amazing thing. After 10 o'clock that night, when the troops of both sides on the battlefield had broken off contact, the marching columns of the two French corps met on the road.

They mistook each other for Russians, and the casualties caused by their mutual shooting were even greater than the losses the Russian army had caused them before.
After all, after the Russian officer shouted that, the French troops on both sides more or less regarded their opponents as Russians.

The battle was fierce, and although the Russians were not defeated, more than a dozen of their men were killed or injured.

Then, on this evening, Bagration's column escaped safely.

On the surface, the atmosphere of this battle is very tragic and heroic, but in the details, it is still a somewhat ridiculous farce.

In this way, Bagration was able to quickly break away from contact with the French army and chase Kutuzov's large force.

Kutuzov also joined up with the follow-up troops led by Buchholden.

Solovyov came to Bukhoden's headquarters on behalf of Kutuzov, and saw that everyone here was familiar, especially General Langgeron, the master of complaining from France.

But when he saw Solovyov, he pulled him aside and said this with a stern face.

"Damn it, being with such a drunkard will probably delay things."

"What can we do? General Buckholden is still trusted by His Majesty. To some extent, there is no difference between the Palace of Versailles and the Winter Palace."

"Yes, and you Russians learned it from us French, except for the way of serving dishes, which we learned from you in reverse. I really hope our commander didn't drink too much wine when fighting Bonaparte."

"Then we destroyed the winery in Dürenstein, which must have been very distressing to him."

After listening to this, Langgelon also burst into laughter.

But with Bookhoden's level, Solovyov now only regrets that he is too young. Although his status has risen rapidly, there is still a gap. He cannot enter the decision-making level and cannot influence personnel appointments and dismissals.

Unless Alexander immediately gives him the Order of St. Andrew the Apostle and activates the backdoor developed by Peter the Great, allowing him to quickly advance to the rank of lieutenant general.

(End of this chapter)