Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Chapter 411 053 The Prussian Army Looks Fierce, but Actually It's Sending Them to Death (Part )

What the Duke of Brunswick was worried about at this time was Weimar's retreat. When Prince Louis Ferdinand was fighting with the French army, first the court attendants of Saxe-Weimar brought news of the French army's activities in Jena, and then Hohenlohe finally sent intelligence.

"What do we need this delayed intelligence for? Major, please return to the headquarters in Hohenlohe and convey the order to have his corps move eastward to protect the transportation line through Weimar, and keep in touch with my headquarters at all times."

"Sir, the Hohenlohe Corps should set a date, and we will arrive in Weimar a few days after them."

After hearing Scharnhorst's reminder, the Duke of Brunswick added an instruction.

"It shouldn't be difficult to ask Hohenlohe to hold out for two days. Remember to protect the transportation lines and don't engage in battle with the French easily."

The old duke was certain in his heart that he had to learn from Daun of Austria. Moreover, since he was not at an advantage in terms of military strength, he would retreat to Weimar with the existing forces, and then fight while retreating towards Berlin.

He was also very worried about this plan. Frederick William III was unwilling to give up Berlin, which would restrict all combat plans.

It might be better if the queen was a queen.

But Louise was a woman, and the Salic Law of Succession could be said to be the least friendly law of succession to women. Secondly, she was married into Mecklenburg, which naturally cut off the possibility for her to directly grasp power, that is, to exert influence.

Even after the officer who delivered the message left, he was still worried.

"If Lücher's corps follows, I'm always worried that Hohenlohe will cause trouble."

"Sir, this will still disperse our forces."

"There is no way. We may be led by Bonaparte. What he wants is to move out from Jena and mobilize our troops to come back for support. At the same time, look here. Gerhard, if you were Bonaparte, what would you do?"

"If it were me, I would choose to tie up the Duke of Brunswick's main force, preventing it from returning to Jena in time north of Fulda. Then his main force would leave Jena and go straight to Weimar to cut off the Duke of Brunswick's transportation lines."

"Yes, the strategy he adopted is the same as ours. And by doing this, he forced us to return via Weimar. It was a very clever move."

But the Duke of Brunswick could not continue to criticize, because he knew very well that everyone in the Prussian army, from the king to the generals, was generally unwilling to give up Berlin. Otherwise, Scharnhorst's plan would not have aroused unanimous opposition from the Prussian army. Moreover, they all knew that this plan was the most rational and had the greatest chance of success.

The old Duke himself did not dare to take this risk, so his choice was to have Prince Louis Ferdinand stay behind on the north bank of the Fulda River to give his troops some time to take the initiative.

At the same time, Napoleon received a report from Davout that he was approaching Jena and had a smooth journey.

This unimpeded flow was also a strategic issue for the Prussian army. The Duke of Brunswick's plan was just the optimal solution under the condition that the Prussian army was unwilling to give up Berlin at this time.

If they could abandon Berlin and fight and retreat to the Oder River, the Russian army would have been able to enter West Prussia even if they had to crawl over.

At this time, the Russian army was still preparing. The war between Prussia and France broke out so suddenly that Napoleon himself calmed down for a quarter of an hour. Attacking without any allies was tantamount to seeking death.

However, the incident happened suddenly, and if the French army had not already been in southern Germany, mobilization would have been very troublesome.

Both Russia and Britain were not fully prepared for Prussia's ultimatum. The former's 150,000 troops were still in training at home; although the latter's navy was able to respond, it was a problem where to deploy the limited number of British troops, not to mention that there was no means of payment, and there was no time to even write checks or ask the branches of British banks in Berlin to prepare banknotes and cash.

That’s it. The British Cabinet and the Russian Tsar did not scold their stupid teammates. They were already being polite and easy-going, and they put the overall situation first.

At his forward headquarters, Napoleon soon received the enemy situation report from Lannes, as well as the victory report of the next day.

"It seems that the Prussians are still holding on to their old ways, which will make it easier for us to march into Weimar."

"Your Majesty, would you like to give another order?"

"Bernadoit and Davout are to continue their detour to the east, Soult will advance to Jena from the front, and where is Augereau?"

"The Seventh Army has passed Münchberg. Marshal Augereau should have reached Lichtenberg by now at the normal marching speed."

"Although it's a bit slow, this distance is enough. We can let Soult's 30,000 men lure the Prussians on the front line, and then the Seventh Army will join the battlefield, and the First and Third Armies will make a detour. This is a hammer and anvil. After attacking from both sides, if the Prussian army comes with a corps, we can easily defeat them. If it is the main force, we have to choose a good place for the battle. Berthier, let's go now and go to Jena to take a look."

"Your Majesty, you still have to be careful. After all, the fate of the empire depends on you."

"I believe I will be the master of my destiny, not just 'luck'. Berthier, let's go there wearing the uniforms of dragoons and chasseurs and see. If possible, Jena is not even a strategic focus. We can stop the Prussian army east of Weimar. The only thing that worries me is that they are unwilling to take the initiative. You know, the Duke of Brunswick has been in the army for 50 years and he is still very cautious. If it's just on the battlefield, he is not my opponent. If he doesn't fight with me, this is the most troublesome thing."

"Your Majesty, you hope to cut off his communication lines at this time and force the Prussian army to engage in battle with us."

"The Prussians also want to cut off our transportation lines, but Lannes defeated his vanguard in Fulda, so this plan is no longer possible. He can't risk everything and pull the main force of the Prussian army to the Fulda River, where Lannes and Ney can stop them. At the same time, the rear route in Weimar is not guaranteed, and our threat to Berlin, the victory or defeat will be determined by the transportation lines!"

At this time, Napoleon could be said to be confident. Before the large-scale fighting with Prussia began, the balance of victory or defeat in the war had already tilted towards him.

As for the Prussian defeat, the 9000 Prussian and Saxon troops on the north bank of the Fulda River were almost wiped out. Prince Louis Ferdinand refused to surrender and died in battle after being surrounded by French hussars. Of the Prussian advance force, only a few hussar squadrons succeeded in breaking through.

The main force of the Duke of Brunswick also stopped advancing towards Fulda at this time, and instead retreated to the pass of the Thuringian Mountains, first reaching Erfurt and then marching eastward.

At this time, Prince Hohenlohe's corps and General von Lucher's corps were both advancing towards the Weimar line. Although they were marching on the interior line, there was a problem. The Prussian army's forced march speed was significantly slower than that of the French army.

What's even more terrible is that after Hohenlohe received the order from the Duke of Brunswick, he did not take it seriously.

"The commander-in-chief is still old. He is so cowardly that he is afraid of the French. If the French army has fewer troops than us, we can definitely defeat them in battle. But he demands this." "Sir, our army only has 40,000 soldiers, and with Lucher's reinforcements, the number is still limited. The troops led by the commander-in-chief are still at the pass of the Thuringian Mountains. It is more advantageous for the armies to get together."

"That's not true. Ever since they chopped off the king's head, the French have never penetrated so deeply into the heart of Germany. We can take advantage of the internal battle to defeat the French vanguard first and dampen the French's spirit!"

Mesenbacher, the chief of staff, also highly agreed with Hohenlohe's opinion.

This also made Gneisenau, who had just put forward the suggestion, helpless. What if the French took the approach of showing weakness?

"Sir, I think we still need to take this into consideration. The French have lured the Austrians into a trap in Hornlinden before, so we still need to be careful in the battle!"

However, Hohenlohe remained unmoved: "You don't agree with the Hanoverian farmer, do you?"

"Sir, I am considering the fate of the Prussian army! This battle is related to the fate of Prussia! As for Colonel Scharnhorst, his opinion is still useful. We must concentrate our forces to fight the French army instead of doing it now."

As a 46-year-old lieutenant colonel, his future in the Prussian army was relatively limited. After all, there were a group of old colonels in their 50s and old generals over 60 years old above him.

Before the milk law, we also have to look at the Prussians when they were speed-passed, their age structure was actually the same.

But Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, although they did not know each other at this time, they still demonstrated their abilities.

They knew how the Prussian army should fight at this time, but all of them were denied by their superiors, or there was interference from within the Prussian army. If this continued, hundreds of thousands of Prussian and Saxon troops would probably be destroyed here.

As for their current location, it is Gotha, 40 kilometers west of Weimar. It seems that the distance is not far, just a day's journey.

However, according to the French army's movements reported by the Hussars who led the way, French cavalry had already appeared near Weimar.

Now, the situation is not very good.

The Duke of Saxe-Weimar was in the Prussian army, and his family had already moved from Weimar to Berlin before the war began, so there were not many defenders in the city.

In this situation, Hohenlohe decided to send a cavalry unit as a vanguard to drive away the French cavalry operating near Weimar.

There was nothing wrong with this action. After all, if the French cavalry were allowed to operate nearby, they would continuously pass intelligence to Napoleon, allowing him to grasp the movements of the Prussian army.

However, after the Prussian cavalry arrived and drove out the French cavalry, they also discovered that there were more French cavalry active near Weimar.

If we analyze according to the numbers of the French soldiers who were killed and captured, they belonged to three different cavalry regiments, but all belonged to Soult's Fourth Army.

"The Fourth Army is the largest of Bonaparte's armies. We estimate that they have 30,000 men, but the other troops, according to the prisoners' confessions, are quite far away. In this case, should we launch an attack directly to repel this French force first?"

Hohenlohe convened a military meeting in Gotha and called all the generals and many staff officers to decide whether to fight or adopt a strategy of avoiding war.

Gneisenau looked at these Prussian officers who were eager to try, and he could do nothing.

Even Hohenlohe did not give him a chance to speak, as the senior officers present all agreed to take the initiative.

After all, including Luchel's more than 10,000 troops, their strength exceeded 50,000, which was still a "significant advantage" even compared to Soult's 30,000 troops.

The deployment of the French army indeed confirmed Gneisenau's concerns.

At this time, Napoleon placed the Fourth Army in Jena, which was actually very close to Weimar.

The two armies were in Erfurt and Jena respectively, which were actually within 20 kilometers of Weimar. Considering the winding roads and the difference in marching speed between the two sides, it can be said that the Prussian army still had a slight advantage.

But the French army acted faster, and Hohenlohe apparently did not notice the information obscured by the "fog of battlefield". The armies commanded by Bernadotte, Davout and Augereau were not far from Soult.

This is not to mention the Old Guards who are actually hiding south of Jena and waiting for action. They don't wear bearskin hats during the march and look no different from ordinary French troops.

The Prussian army's reconnaissance was very inadequate and even had many loopholes.

Now they had actually fallen into a trap carefully set by Napoleon.

Even Bernadotte and Davout, although their two armies moved at different speeds and it was difficult for them to communicate with each other on the battlefield, Davout was currently operating in the northeast of Weimar. As long as he moved forward a little, he would be able to quickly cut off the Prussian army's rear transportation lines.

Once the communication lines were cut off, Davout could use his glasses to say that he had cut off the Prussian army's main artery.

Of course, from the perspective of the bald marshal, he would not do such a funny scene.

However, as outstanding graduates from French military academies, it is inevitable that they have some common characteristics.

Hohenlohe was still trying to get Lücher to get closer to him. Once the two armies joined forces, they would give Soult a big blow.

He thought he had the advantage, but the French army actually had more troops than him.

In this place, if you are not careful, you will get beaten.

(End of this chapter)