Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Chapter 349 051 Imitating Others’ Deployment May Cause Trouble

Werosser has many advantages. Even at the age of fifty, he is still energetic and conscientious. He is also good at collecting intelligence, analyzing intelligence, and making battlefield judgments.

But he had many shortcomings and was not suitable to be the quartermaster general of a large-scale army. However, there was no such talent in the Austrian and Russian armies. Schmidt, who had organizational skills, died in the Battle of Dürenstein.

Moreover, Werosser had very bad habits. He had never made any mistakes in Suvorov's headquarters before because he had always had deputies arranged by Suvorov to transcribe Russian orders. There were also many German officers in the expeditionary force, so except for a few generals with strange accents, communication was not impossible.

It’s just that everyone still likes to chat in French at pre-war meetings, and this time is no exception.

However, this monastery is currently missing many generals, especially the commander of the Russian Guards, Grand Duke Constantine, and the commander of the Guards, Lieutenant General Malyutin, as well as a number of Russian Guards staff and officers.

And there were indeed some serious issues during the discussion.

"In the current situation, the battle plan we finally confirmed is to launch an attack on our left wing according to the plan designed on November 11 to cut off the French army's transportation lines. At the same time, our center is deployed on the Pratzen Heights, while the right wing is here to contain the French army there."

"The deployment is clear, but we shouldn't come down from Pratzen Heights. We should use this as the central axis."

Kutuzov did not speak himself but let Peter Volkonsky speak in order to avoid any conflict.

Although he was the one who asked Werosser to come, the relationship between the two sides has deteriorated sharply in recent days. This is also an inevitable situation after joining forces. Disagreements will always lead to this.

Volkonsky happened to be Alexander's confidant and Kutuzov's general on duty, so Velosa had to take his words seriously.

"But the French army's right wing deployment still seems very weak, and we have the advantage in terms of manpower."

Werosser pointed with a pencil at the deployment diagram that had been drawn on the map, and did not pay attention to what Volkonsky said, nor did he look at whether Kutuzov was really taking a nap or pretending to take a nap.

He began to talk about his deployment plan and pointed it out one by one on the map.

"In our previous deployment, General Buckholden was on the left wing. Here we have General Dokhturov's First Column and General Langeron's Second Column, deployed in the area west of Platzenburg, as our army's left wing to attack the French right wing. The overall goal is the same as the results of the previous discussions, to cut off the transportation line here."

I don't know if Bookholden drank it or not, but he patted his chest to guarantee it anyway.

"We just need to shout 'Ura' and charge forward, and the French will run back, and the traffic line will be cut off."

Although he said so, Langgeron disagreed, but he did not say it out loud. He just said to Big Kamensky beside him: "If it really can be done with a few attacks, we don't have to fight Bonaparte here."

Although Werosser saw Langeron talking, he thought he was explaining the details to Great Kamensky. After all, Great Kamensky's brigade was right under Pratzenburg and was the connection between the center and the left wing. He didn't expect that Langeron was complaining again.

"At the same time, General Bagration will feint an attack on the French left wing as a diversionary force. Then, after the entire battle has begun, the two columns in the center will come down from the Pratzen Heights, and the fifth column composed of cavalry led by the Archduke of Liechtenstein is here. We will attack the center of the French army from both sides and force Bonaparte to use his reserve Guards."

This shows that he had studied Napoleon in great detail.

But his battle plan was somewhat modeled after Napoleon's, and his opponents might not always play in this way.

"But what about us? We have to come down from this high ground. What will happen if the enemy concentrates their actions in the middle?"

After coming down from the high ground, there were some problems in forming a battle formation with their backs to the mountain. This was no longer the old days of hand-to-hand combat with a shield in one hand and an axe in the other.

Since General Miller, who was assigned to the third column, asked, Weiser continued to answer.

"We will form a whole and push forward like this, pushing the French to the other side of the mountain."

No matter what he says, it's the same thing, and everyone has to listen. After all, that's just the plan.

Kutuzov was pretending to take a nap, but he was also paying attention to Weroser's deployment.

He did recall that when Schmidt and Solovyov were together, it seemed that the two of them worked very efficiently together. The reason was that both of them had good map-working skills, and Solovyov was like a human map, yet he could still complete his work accurately.

I remember that before Andrei's father returned to his estate, he mentioned that when Solovyov was a 15-year-old second lieutenant, he left a very deep impression on him in Moscow. His main advantages were his quick reaction and excellent work ability, and he was a good seedling.

The Russian army's past staff system, which was the prototype of a general staff, mainly relied on a limited number of adjutants and one or two generals on duty, and the actual processing efficiency was not high.

Solovyov also mentioned to him how to rebuild a staff system, and this time it would have to be a more powerful version.

The reason is very sufficient, that is, the staff work cannot be done by only a few people. If a wider network is cast, even separate positions must be set up to improve efficiency.

The era of a commander-in-chief and a few staff members will soon be over.

After all, at this moment, the amount of information on the battlefield is really too much. Sometimes there are people like Frederick the Great and Napoleon who have to fight and handle government affairs at the same time.

In other words, Frederick the Great didn't like to have affairs with women; he had more time, while Napoleon had to schedule times even for being intimate with his women.

But now it was too late. A man like Verose couldn't have anything to do with a legion of more than 6 people.

As for the pre-war deployment, the Guards were already behind the various armies, controlling important transportation lines and the army's retreat routes.

Except for Bagration's feint attack troops, the retreat route of the rest of the troops was in this direction.

Constantine was fully prepared at this time. He summoned the commander of the infantry regiment, the commander of the cavalry regiment and the staff of the Guards and began to study the deployment.

Although he was the commander of the Guards, he also had to consider command issues on the battlefield. Therefore, he gave the task of commanding the infantry to Malyutin. Count Tolstoy, the highest-ranking of the four regiment commanders, was not in the Prussian Regiment at this time. He was in the coalition forces in the north, leading the Russian army that was preparing to attack Hanover to join the battle.

As a result, the Putin regiment had no commander here, but considering that the previous commanders were generals, but often old and useless, and even rebels, it would be better to let Malyutin take unified command. However, if Solovyov had not worked with Malyutin for a long time in St. Petersburg, he would not have known how capable he was.

There was no way. Even if he knew a lot, it was unlikely that he knew the Russian generals. If documentaries had not been introduced into the country, all he could know were the Russian generals in a few operations designated by his father. Kutuzov was even more famous.

In fact, Kutuzov's youngest daughter, Dalia, is quite cute, but she seems to not want to be like her sisters because three of her four brothers-in-law are in the army.

There is no way around it. Since the war began, officers have become less popular. After all, the future is unpredictable during war.

Before the war, someone proposed marriage to Solovyov, which gave him a headache. It would be better not to set such a flag, right?
Fortunately, Dolgorukov was just asking. After all, they were all from the Putin Regiment, and Solovyov's father was the adjutant of their son-in-law. Although the relationship was distant, his future looked good. Although he was only the commander of the last small regiment among the four guards regiments, he was too young, and in terms of family background, he was indeed very poor.

It would be fine if he was one of the Stroganov families that were still royal merchants, but he happened to be one of the nobles who were conferred titles when the nouveau riche Menshikov was in power. With such a situation, even if Vasily Yurievich wanted to introduce his relatives to him, he would still have to think about it.

Of course, Solovyov had no idea what his friends would encounter in this battle.

He was only called here temporarily by Constantine to introduce Velose's deployment to the commanders.

After all, they were the only two people here who knew Werosser well. Although the Grand Duke himself was so brave that the Russian generals admired him, it was still difficult for him to explain such a detailed deployment.

So he called Solovyov, who was always talkative and meticulous.

However, after looking at the deployment and explaining it to his colleagues, everyone could see the ugly look on his face.

Constantine could also catch this kind of expression, but he couldn't let the army lose morale, besides, the captains were the backbone of the Guards.

Of course, if you don’t say something, nothing will remain in your mind.

Moreover, Solovyov had a characteristic, which was that he always used a bunch of words to cover up his words. After all, in St. Petersburg, only the second son of the Saltykov family who worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was as proficient in this skill of speaking long and difficult sentences as he was, and that old man's skill points were even higher than his.

After all, Solovyov was in the army, and the officers and soldiers didn't like to speak in long sentences. He didn't have that habit, but he just kept this in his skill bag.

He said this just to cover up the problem. After all the generals left, Constantine still kept him.

"Misha, you are not very satisfied with this plan?"

"Your Highness, what we have is a comprehensive plan after all. The Guards must be deployed to the battlefield at a critical moment, and our deployment is too far behind. It will take some time to reach the battlefields, especially since we have to climb the Pratzen Heights."

As for what he was going to say, Constantine understood it. After all, this guy had always been against a large-scale attack in such a place. He wanted to use the most stupid tactics of consumption and delaying, and wait until reinforcements arrived, and then kill Napoleon in a battlefield with a large depth.

As for the Guards, they have to climb mountains and march long distances, not to mention anything else.
In terms of the marching and impact capabilities of the four major regiments, after a long march, when they arrived at such a battlefield, their combat effectiveness was actually stronger than that of other troops.

But at this distance, separated from the front line, it is really hard to describe.

Even if it was Caesar's Gallic legions, they would not have to attack from such a long distance.

Of course, Solovyov himself likes to deploy his troops in a dense formation, which makes it easier to be restrained by French artillery fire in such a place.

Fortunately, he did not participate in the battlefield deployment this time, otherwise he would have suffered psychological trauma.

In this regard, we need to admire Verosa. He was cheated on by Napoleon several times and once by Moreau, but he was still so confident. His psychological quality was far superior to that of other generals.

Next, he explained the overall situation to Grand Duke Constantine.

"The core of this battlefield is the Pratzen Heights. Although the importance of this height was mentioned in the previous military meeting, Werosser overemphasized the attack. What kind of terrain is this?"

Solovyov pointed to the heights behind the French positions and continued very seriously: "From the perspective of these heights, I'm afraid that even if we observe from the highest point of Pratzen Heights, we can't see what's behind them. There are even trees in some places."

"It can hide the enemy, right?"

"Yes, your highness. This is not good!"

But the deployment has been made and it is difficult to change it at this time.

Even someone as brave as Grand Duke Constantine realized that this deployment was still dangerous, and with Solovyov by his side to remind him, he realized it even faster.

"So, what should we do?"

"Your Highness, the Guards' cavalry can maneuver quickly and can be deployed to more dangerous battlefields to stabilize the situation. At the same time, the four regiments of the Guards will be deployed behind the Pratzen Heights. This height will definitely face fierce fighting. If our army can win, we can continue to advance. If..."

"Don't be shy. I think this battle will be difficult. We need to prepare for the worst. What are you going to do?"

"Please deploy the Izmailov Regiment and the Guards Chasseur Regiment to the rear of the battlefield as the final reserve."

After hearing this, Grand Duke Constantine realized that this guy was going to make preparations for both scenarios.

Watching him point out several key points on the location of a manor on the map, we knew that he wanted to use the chasseur tactics that the Turkish army had used to cause the Russian army to suffer repeated losses during the Russo-Turkish War.

However, the combat effectiveness of the Guards Jager Regiment is relatively strong, not only because of the training advantage, but also because the 800 guns in their hands are fast and accurate. In addition, the Izmailov Regiment, which is currently undergoing equipment replacement, can gather together a company of breech-loading rifles. In this way, the ability of firepower projection is still very strong.

As for the killer weapon, it was the elite soldiers selected by the Izmailov Regiment according to the standards of grenadiers.

(End of this chapter)