Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Chapter 353 055 Austerlitz (IV)
The battle progressed quickly. After noon, there were no more Allied soldiers capable of fighting on the Pratzen Heights. Napoleon's own command and the Guards were also advancing towards the heights.

It is still winter now, so there is obviously no obvious smell of corpses on the battlefield. However, after the fierce battle, this core battlefield is still littered with corpses.

After listening to the report from an adjutant coming from the north, Napoleon issued an order for Soult to lead the Fourth Army to turn to deal with the left wing of the Allied Forces, where three columns, mainly Russian troops, were crowded.

The front was handed over to Bernadotte's First Army, which, with five regiments from Frere's First Division and Drouet's Second Division, advanced towards the Castle of Austerlitz and the village of Kozenowitz in front of it.

The First Army had not experienced fierce fighting before and was in very good condition. In addition, Bernadotte always moved slowly, so the soldiers had relatively abundant physical strength.

What Napoleon himself was more concerned about was not the Russian Guards who were forming a battle array along the river at the foot of the mountain.

"Although the Russians were defeated on the battlefield, they were well-organized and formed two lines of defense. I even saw that they were learning from the Romans and setting up a large camp."

"Your Majesty, would you like to deploy the Guards to join the battle?"

Bessières was eager to try at this time. After all, the Guards were acting as a sightseeing group today. Except for the cavalry fighting with the Russian Guards Cavalry, where they suffered minor losses and repelled the opponent who had consumed a lot of physical strength, the infantry did not experience any fighting, except for a few short-sighted old Guards who acted on their own and were brought back.

"No need. Who is the commander of the Russian Guards?"

"As far as we know, it was Grand Duke Constantine himself who was in charge."

"No wonder. The infantry is very organized, but the placement of these artillery is really bad."

After hearing this, Bessières knew that Napoleon would not be willing to use the Guards even after victory in the battle was certain.

"His Majesty."

Seeing this, Napoleon took back the telescope that was clipped to Caulaincourt's shoulder and turned to Bessières.

"The Old Guard has a more important use. We should let the First Army advance in this direction."

If the three columns of the Russian army put up a desperate resistance, the Guards might have to move in that direction. As for the current formation of the Russian Guards, it is obvious that they are going to use force.

Even Napoleon only needed the First Army to confront the Russian Army there, and did not want to consume too many troops here.

After all, the Russian army had already suffered some losses before, and the two main regiments suffered heavy losses when counterattacking the Old Vineyard.

Moreover, if the fighting continues like this, and if the retreating troops behind the Russian army and those that still have combat power have to reorganize their formation, the battle may be delayed until nighttime.

Therefore, when he gave orders to Bernadotte, he did not ask him to launch an attack.

On the Russian side, Grand Duke Constantine did not want Solovyov to fight head-on. He just wanted the Guards to retreat from this temporary defense line to the main camp after covering the retreat of the main army, and then alternately cover the withdrawal from the battlefield with the Fourth Column of the Russian Army led by Miloradovich.

As for Bagration, he had always fought well in rearguard battles. Although he suffered heavy losses on the northern battlefield, it was not a problem because he had the cavalry of the Fifth Column to alternately cover him.

But the entire main battlefield has become like this.

From the vicinity of Austerlitz Castle, Constantine could see the French army turning in the distance, obviously to deal with the three columns on the left wing. He then sent his adjutant to question Solovyov.

"Colonel, His Royal Highness asked if there was anything you could do now?"

Looking at this hussar, Solovyov was also in a dilemma. The French troops pushing over now were obviously not going to attack him, but to confront him from a distance and were preparing to set up artillery.

He counted the artillery he had recruited and found that there were 17 cannons on the first line of defense, so they could still fight back.

Forming a battle line here does not mean that we will passively take the attack, but we must take the initiative to contain the enemy, which may relieve the pressure on the troops on the left wing.

Since Kutuzov's headquarters was also retreating and Alexander could not issue any effective orders, the various troops were retreating in an orderly or disorderly manner. Only the Guards were still there, and on the flanks there were the Fourth Column troops that Miloradovich had taken in.

"Please tell His Highness that we will use our range advantage to strike the enemy and lure the French into the trap."

As for how to lure the French into the trap, it is to use the accuracy of rifled guns and the artillery at hand.

The Guards' artillery, mainly 12-pound guns, were deployed on the front, which was the area where the French First Army was advancing.

His idea was simple, which was to concentrate the fire of these artillery pieces and use solid bullets to strike the French formation that was approaching but trying to keep its distance, forcing the opponent to launch an attack.

After all, the opponent's artillery is still being deployed at this time, and in this era, there are no useful anti-artillery means.

There was no other way, this was the only way now, so he ordered the artillery to fire.

Constantine was behind him. If the six battalions in the front row were in a tough fight, he would lead the six battalions that were resting and the haphazard troops he had intercepted here into the battle.

The shells fell in the French formation, causing a lot of losses. The 2nd Division of the 1st Army, led by Brigadier General Drouet, knew that they could not continue to be hit by the shells here, so they launched an attack.

On the French side, part of the artillery they had deployed also joined the battle, firing at any Russian Guards soldiers they could see.

However, due to the soft soil in this area and various other problems, the damage caused to the Russian army was not great.

But the power of the artillery shells is no joke. Even if most of its kinetic energy is lost in the soft soil, it can still smash any flesh it comes into contact with before losing kinetic energy. Its power is there.

But this was enough. Seeing this situation, Bernadotte also ordered the First Army to launch an attack. In addition to the infantry, they also had several hussar regiments under the Little Kellermann Cavalry Division that had participated in the battle before, as well as the Guards cavalry coming from the flank and rear, and Murat's heavy cavalry division.

There was also a group of special cavalry mixed in, namely the Mamluk Guards that Napoleon brought back from Egypt.

One of them once boasted that he would chop off Grand Duke Constantine's head and present it to His Majesty the Emperor.

So when they saw that it was the Russian Guards, they attacked as well.

Solovyov was secretly delighted when he saw these cavalrymen rushing over. These Mamluk squadrons had superb martial arts and could cut through the gauze with their swords. Their purity was still quite high at this moment, but their fighting was somewhat brainless. It would not do to just rely on their personal martial arts all the time.

So, he ordered a company of the Guards Chasseur Regiment that had been lying in ambush there, as well as the selected archers from the Izmailov Regiment, to shoot at these cavalrymen one by one. Of course, they had to shoot at close range, which would be more effective.

Although the French army had encountered Russian rifle-armed chasseurs in Italy in the past, their numbers were too small, and chasseurs have always emphasized accuracy rather than rate of fire.

Even if you are using a breech-loading rifle, it is still the same. The loading speed is greatly increased, and you will not shoot quickly unless it is necessary.

Therefore, when these chasseurs shot at the Mamluks from behind the stakes and fences, the first reaction of these experienced cavalrymen was to snipe them, and the shooting speed would not be fast. After all, the chasseurs of the Ottoman Empire and the riflemen of the British were not fast, and they were both known for their accurate sniping.

At this time, it is experience that is harmful.

If someone says that Solovyov has no martial ethics and likes to use underhanded tactics, this is a great injustice. After all, his soldiers can reload and shoot repeatedly, and there will be no residue left in the barrel of the paper shell bullet. The hunters only need to reload quickly.

So the Mamluk team that rushed in the front originally tried to use the chasseurs' poor firing rate to attack the opponent, but ended up becoming the prey instead.

Of course, for the Russian army, fighting them was somewhat of a funny scene of racial conflict.

After all, one of the main tasks of the Russian army is to fight against the Ottoman Empire. The Mamluks’ home base is in Egypt, but their hometowns come from many places in the Ottoman Empire, as long as there are crosses hanging and people believe in Jesus.
Well, that's what happened. Many Mamluks were knocked down with their horses. After all, you have to shoot the horses first when shooting at people, and these war horses are big targets.

Although Solovyov wanted to say that it was a waste, these Mamluk horses were of very good quality, but this was on the battlefield, not when cleaning the battlefield and could not seize the spoils.

Therefore, he stopped drooling over these fine horses and ordered the hunters to shoot freely.

Although free-fire has never been very efficient, breech-loading rifles still have many advantages.

Even Napoleon, who was watching the battle on the top of Pratzen Heights, had begun to pay attention to the battlefield here.

"Your Majesty, the First Army's attack was thwarted, and the cavalry that attacked from the flank suffered heavy losses."

"Yes, I have seen it. It seems that they want to contain us or serve as a rear guard for the retreating troops."

"Should we call back Soult's troops?"

"No, Berthier, that would be a trap set by the Russians. In this way, Bernadotte will continue to attack. He has more troops than the Russians, and the heavy cavalry division of the cavalry army will go around the Russian flank!"

Napoleon saw the camp of the Russian Guards, but he did not want to waste too much energy here, so he just wanted to force the Russian troops in front of him to retreat.

So Murat joined the battle.

After repelling the Mamluks, Solovyov was forced to turn his attention back to Bernadotte's infantry due to the French attack from the front.

To be honest, the French army had been mainly marching in the past few months, and the soldiers who fell behind were able to return to the army quickly. Most of the troops were still intact. In fact, because of Bernadotte's previous slow advance, the losses of his army were almost negligible.

Fortunately, the Russian troops that engaged in the battle were only the Guards, so they were able to put up a good fight.

As for the high-rate-of-fire jaegers, Solovyov had also considered that it was better to shoot at close range.

This also caused a lot of casualties to Bernadotte's troops.

In public, it was a fierce battle between France and Russia. In private, Solovyov had no time to think about it at this time. Even if Bernadotte became the King of Sweden in the future, he was only concerned with the frontal battle.

The French army has now discovered that these Russian troops are tough guys and have caused huge casualties to their infantry.

What's even more embarrassing is that during the exchange of fire, the French 54th Line Infantry Regiment was defeated by the powerful firepower of the Russian army.

The defeated soldiers even abandoned their commander, Colonel Armand Philippon, and the flags of two infantry battalions, and dispersed in disorder.

This was a more complete defeat than the friendly forces in the previous Battle of Dürenstein. This regiment had now lost its organizational order, which made Bernadotte shake his head.

There was no other way. Solovyov just liked it this way. He had the chasseurs squat in two rows in the grass and behind stone walls at close range and concentrate their fire, which could cause huge casualties to the French army.

However, the 27th Light Infantry Regiment in front of the nd Division did not suffer as much losses as the line infantry because of its loose formation.

After seeing this situation, the remaining French regiments began to disperse their formations to avoid being lined up in three rows and being called out one by one by the Russian shooters.

This brought the battle to a stalemate. The Russian army only had a slight advantage at the beginning, but then the French artillery fired back.

In this situation, Grand Duke Constantine ordered the Semenovsky Regiment to return to the battlefield to reinforce the right wing of the Guards position which had been hit harder.

French cavalry kept coming over there in turns. Except for the Mamluks who suffered heavy losses at the beginning, the subsequent heavy cavalry and cavalry artillery cooperated and caused considerable losses to the Russian army.

Under such circumstances, Constantine sent the Semenovsky Regiment back to stabilize the front line.

At the same time, he was also considering letting the Guards retreat to the second line of defense, where was the Guards camp and there was some ammunition available, and then fight and retreat.

The problem now is that the situation of the three Russian columns on the left wing of the coalition forces is unclear, so Constantine did not retreat rashly.

If he and Miloradovich retreated here, they would abandon 19 Russian infantry regiments and dozens of cavalry squadrons. If these troops were completely wiped out, there would be no need to fight the subsequent battles.

Therefore, he gritted his teeth and endured the losses here. What's more, up to now, the French army had never seen the Guards Chasseurs' style of fighting, so they were given a welcome gift. The French army even suffered greater losses, which led to a certain degree of reversal of the situation on the battlefield.

But this has no effect on the overall situation.

Napoleon, on the top of the Pratzen Heights, had already realized the Russian army's intentions. In this case, he had to first wipe out the three Russian columns and then come back to deal with the Guards.

Just like this, the First Army will be in trouble and will have to continue to suffer casualties.

(End of this chapter)