Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Chapter 352 054 Austerlitz (Part )
While the fierce fighting was going on on the Pratzen Heights, there were also fierce battles on the north and south wings.

Verosa's plan was naturally to defeat the French right wing, so when deploying troops in this direction, three columns turned around to defeat the few French troops on this side and then turned north.

However, the terrain in this area is really not that good.

To be honest, whether you are the commander-in-chief or the chief of staff of an army, you must pay attention to astronomy and geography. Even if you cannot predict the weather, you must make use of the weather on the battlefield.

As for the terrain, it is indeed necessary to conduct sufficient reconnaissance before the war and take the entire battlefield environment into consideration.

The three columns of the Allied Forces were attacking in this direction. There were rivers, mountains, swamps, lakes, and all the terrain on the battlefield that could hinder the march.

In addition, there is a castle in Skolnitz, north of the village of Ternitz, and there are positions built by the French army around it.

The Russian army was more powerful and broke through the French first-line positions, while the subsequent French troops were still defending in the second-line positions.

But looking at the situation on the battlefield, the Allied forces of tens of thousands attacked this area, with advantages in manpower and firepower, and were able to mobilize 12-pound cannons to attack the French positions at a longer range.

However, this progress was really not good, and it delayed the arrival of a capable fighter.

After receiving the order, Davout's troops who were already on the road marched quickly towards the battlefield, not caring about anything else. Apart from the weapons they were fighting with, some even threw their backpacks and spoils of war on the roadside.

After all, if they win the next battle, they can obtain spoils. The previous battles were all small-scale skirmishes, and the villages along the way were almost looted by the two armies like a swarm of locusts.

As a result, the French Friant Division advanced quickly, with five infantry regiments and one dragoon regiment. Many infantrymen fell behind, but they finally arrived at the destination.

The Friant Division itself was quite strong in combat. After arriving at the battlefield, they lined up to fight against the Austrian troops in the front.

This Austrian army was a defeated force that had fled all the way from Ulm. Like the Russian army on the Pratzen Heights, it suffered heavy losses and had very low morale. They were unlike the Russian soldiers who would fight frequently as long as they had breath left.

When the fighting started, the Austrian army quickly began to retreat. Unlike on the high ground, Buckholden sent out a brigade of Dokhturov to engage in battle with the French army.

The situation is now in a stalemate. For the three Russian columns, the situation is not very good. After all, they are now gathered in front of these villages.

When Napoleon received the report on the top of the mountain, a sly smile flashed across his lips.

Caulaincourt, who was beside him, was puzzled.

"Your Majesty, what are you laughing at?"

"The three Russian columns are concentrated on our right wing. As long as we deal with the Russians on the Pratzen Heights, we can deploy the Grenadier Division here to cut off the Russians' retreat."

When it comes to cutting the enemy in half, Napoleon actually had a very big appetite, just like Hannibal at Cannae. He wanted to at least kill the Russian army on this side, which numbered about 30,000.

A brigade led by Kamensky the Great was fighting the French here. If they had only encountered the French army in front of them, they could have continued to fight, but they would not be able to resist the attack launched by the Grenadier Division.

Although both of Marshal Kamensky's sons were tough guys, the elder Kamensky was relatively brutal, while the younger Kamensky was resolute in fighting. They were different.

If the younger brother was here, he might suppress the troops and fight to the death stubbornly. After all, he had a bad temper and whipped the soldiers, but he shared the joys and sorrows with his brothers, so everyone would follow him and fight to the death.

As for the Great Kamensky, his fighting skills were slightly worse than his younger brother. He might be more powerful as an individual, but the soldiers were afraid of him, just like they were afraid of his father.

In this situation, if he were commanding the British army, he might be able to hold on.

But if the Russian army were to fight with whips, it would be better to have a hot-tempered officer to fight with them.

Therefore, the Russian army's combat effectiveness was still very strong, but they could not hold on when so many French troops came to attack.

The entire coalition's front line was now torn open.

Judging from the entire battlefield, Kutuzov's decision to delay the Russian troops in the Fourth Column from descending the mountain did work. If this unit had already attacked and was flanked by Soult in the fog, there would have been a risk of the entire army being disintegrated.

In that case, the Pratzen Heights would have been easily occupied by the French army, and there would have been no need for Archduke Constantine to lead two guards regiments to hold out at the Old Vineyard. The Allied forces would have been torn in half by the French army, and they would not have to suffer the intense battle like they do now.

But these troops were now almost unable to hold on, and even Kutuzov himself was shot and wounded.

As for his injuries, the troops were unable to withstand the attack and were retreating from the high ground.

In this situation, he had no choice but to issue an order to the adjutant of the headquarters to go to each regiment to stop the retreat of each regiment and then launch a counterattack.

If we look from the southeast direction of the high ground, not only Kutuzov's own adjutant, but also some officers from the Tsar's entourage went to the various regiments to prevent the troops from retreating.

After all, the Tsar is here. If he is captured by the enemy, it will be a big trouble.

He is not the King of France, who has a history of being caught frequently. So far, no Russian emperor has had such a thing.

However, the adjutants who were sent out were able to organize the soldiers to return, and many of them held military flags and led the soldiers to launch a counterattack.

However, the formation was too disorganized, and the Russian soldiers were able to charge forward with courage and recapture the Pratzen Heights, temporarily forcing the French to retreat.

Some Russian soldiers on the side, without forming a battle formation, could kill the attacking French cavalry in groups of two or three with their bayonets, along with their horses.

But the French were also high-spirited. When the retreating front-line troops were reorganizing, the follow-up troops attacked the high ground after they were reorganized.

The Russian army finally couldn't hold on and retreated. The generals and adjutants led by the on-duty general Peter Volkonsky were injured one after another.

The wounded Kutuzov did not see Andrei and his son-in-law Tickenhausen come back. He just saw them being knocked down on the high ground, but he did not know the specific situation.

At this point, the French army pushed the Russian army off the Pratzen Heights. The Russian army was still struggling, but failure was inevitable.

Alexander, who was already a little nervous because of the worsening war situation, now gave the order for the Guards to continue the counterattack.

Constantine saw the current situation and realized that the Guards could only be mobilized to cover the retreat of the troops. The two Guards regiments launched a counterattack, but the losses were not small, so they soon switched to a defensive state, fighting and retreating slowly.

This made Alexander panic, and he had to retreat under the protection of his guards.

Now that the Tsar himself has retreated, the French army will move on to the next stage and attack the three columns of the Western Allied Forces.

Solovyov was still in the position he had just built, and he was more concerned about the troops retreating from the high ground.

He didn't care if the infantry and cavalry ran away, as they couldn't affect his frontal shooting range anyway.

But when the artillerymen ran down, they were blocked here along with the gun carriages, ammunition carts, and pack horses.

Some artillery officers were somewhat dissatisfied when they saw him like this.

"What are you doing?"

"You shouldn't just retreat like this. Leave all the artillery here. We have to cover the main force!"

Solovyov took out his pistol and waved it to intimidate the officers.

Looking at their two regiments of Guards, some artillery were left here, and Solovyov was also waiting for Grand Duke Konstantin and the troops in front of the Guards to retreat.

As for the fact that the Russian army would be severely punished for losing cannons, no one cared.

After all, this guy Solovyov is pointing a gun at you, which would be frightening to anyone.

In addition, there are already dozens of cannons thrown at the French. According to the current situation, it is not a problem to lose hundreds of cannons.

So, this is not a big deal.

Solovyov even felt that it didn't matter if all the cannons were left to the French. Although the Russians could not standardize the musket model, their cannons were still good, especially in the various artillery factories in the country. Excluding those factories in the Ural Mountains whose quality was not very good, the production capacity was still sufficient.

Therefore, losing the cannon was not a big deal.

In the current situation, the Russian artillery is more powerful. After all the shells are used up on the position, they can be abandoned on the spot. In fact, the loss is not that great. All they have to do is destroy the artillery and then retreat.

The Russian army's rigid artillery system should indeed be revised after this battle.

He didn't even need any opinions now, because among the generals of the Guards in charge of command, except for Lobanov, who was still commanding the Grenadiers Regiment in the camp, and Grand Duke Constantine himself, who had been hit in the face by a French artillery shell and almost had his head chopped off by Napoleon's Mamluks, there was not even a general who could command the battle here.

Both Malyutin and Drepradovich were injured and were escorted away by adjutants and soldiers, but their lives were not in danger. After they recovered from their injuries, they would be able to come back to fight.

So, when Grand Duke Konstantin and Dolgorukov came to him, Solovyov suddenly realized that he had become a high-ranking official again.

To control the four major infantry regiments of the Guards, although the two absolute main forces, the Putin Regiment and the Semenovsky Regiment, each suffered some losses, most of the troops of the seven battalions of these two regiments had already gathered around the village of Kozenovitz, and some reinforcements of the Putin Regiment were brought here by Solovyov from the main camp.

The Russian Army's most elite Guards Infantry troops are now in his hands.

Grand Duke Constantine gave the order without even asking for his permission.

"Misha, you will command the infantry of the Guards and cover the retreat of the troops."

"Your Highness, do you want to fight back?"

"At this time, it is difficult for us to return to the Pratzen Heights. General Miloradovich will lead three infantry regiments on your flank. We must fight and retreat. If we can repel the French army, we must return to the camp!"

On the other side of the Guards camp, there was a grenadier regiment and some artillery that lacked horses. This position was on the high ground north of Austerlitz and could block the main road along the Austerlitz line.

As for the more than 30,000 troops on the left wing of the coalition forces, most of them were Russian troops, and they could only leave it to fate.

If Buckholden could withdraw the third column now and stop this meaningless attack, perhaps the troops could retreat in an orderly manner.

However, the Third Column was the farthest from his headquarters, and the Russian army was not all like the Second Column. There was also a brigade led by Great Kamensky who took the initiative to meet the French army in Plattsenburg.

There will definitely be a disaster over there, and the Guards' task now is simple. The Guards Cavalry will retreat while covering the flank of Bagration's column in the north, while the infantry will have to fight a tough battle here.

What Solovyov hoped now was that the French army’s first focus would not be on descending the heights to pursue the Fourth Column, but on turning to the west to deal with the three columns.

The pressure on his front could be reduced, although according to his estimation, he could force the French army back to the high ground here, giving himself some time to retreat to the camp and regroup on the second line.

Although it may sound a bit like "a friend dying rather than a poor fellow", the French army's turn was also a great opportunity to encircle and annihilate the left wing of the Allied forces. They had already captured thousands of Austrian prisoners on the Pratzen Heights.

The reason why they were able to capture Austrian prisoners was that the Russian army was reorganizing after suffering a setback. These Austrians were holding on in the front, but they soon couldn't hold on and almost disrupted the Russian army's newly reorganized formation.

The current situation of the Russian army is indeed very bad.

Solovyov hoped that the French army would attack the three columns on the left wing, but he did not expect that Vandamme's Second Division, with its morale high after winning on the high ground, would come directly towards him.

Moreover, the French army's formation was very neat. They also saw that the Russian army was the Guards, but they were afraid of the "game legion" left behind by Peter the Great, namely the Putin Regiment and the Semenovsky Regiment.

As for the Izmailov Regiment and the Guards Chasseurs, they did not think these two regiments were anything special, and they were even confident that they could attack and directly seize the military flag.

Solovyov now used the farmland and some village buildings to hide the 1st Battalion of the Putin Regiment behind him.

After all, he used to be the battalion commander of this battalion and could still command some veteran soldiers. He could also launch a bayonet charge here as elite grenadiers. Of course, they had to hide to recover their strength. They had consumed a lot in the previous battles and they generally lacked bullets.

The other three battalions and the Semyonovsky Regiment were in the hands of Grand Duke Constantine and were used as reserve forces for the fight.

(End of this chapter)