Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Chapter 412 054 The Prussian Army Looks Fierce, but Actually It's Sending Them to Death (Part )

Surt also had a question at this time: what tricks was His Majesty the Emperor playing recently?
He could understand Napoleon's adoption of new tactics, but this method of mobilizing the enemy was not like his method of defeating the enemy one by one during the active attack.

But the order had been given and he had to carry it out, especially since his mission was to lure and contain the enemy.

At the same time, the Prussians were in a blind spot on Saxony soil, as if they were fighting a war abroad.

Although Saxony might be a foreign country, the French were not familiar with them and even killed the king who was a relative of Saxony.

But Bernadotte's First Army did seem to be heading north and was not nearby, while Davout's Third Army had actually "hid" its whereabouts and was currently outside the area that the Prussian army could detect.

Hohenlohe was even now keeping an eye on Soult, and was driving his fifty thousand men towards the French, and there was already a sporadic exchange of fire.

Soult's chief of staff, Jean-Dominique Compans, had just received the report of the Saint-Hilal Division and handed it to the army commander.

"Marshal, the 55th Line Infantry Regiment of the Saint-Hilal Division engaged the Prussians. It was Hotzendorff's Cuirassiers and Kraft's Dragoons, but there is no difference. The Prussian Cuirassiers have no breastplates, so they are actually no different from dragoons."

"Rang, are you still in the mood to joke at this time?"

"You have to have some fun, Marshal. And this means that the vanguards of Hohenlohe are heading for us. We learned from the captured officers that the Prussian army is currently moving towards Weimar. This is only the vanguard of Hohenlohe, and the main force of the Duke of Brunswick will follow."

"It seems that the emperor is right. He asked me to attract the Prussian army here so that he can launch an attack."

"But why did your Majesty do this?"

"Compans, I'm not sure about that. I'm just guessing that this is a strategic deception to lure the enemy over. But to lure the enemy over, we should take the initiative and let Lannes contain the Prussian army, and then we will gather the existing forces to sweep over."

"If we defeat them, will the Prussians retreat northward?"

Compans inadvertently said that Soult probably followed Napoleon's train of thought, which was to divide and disintegrate the enemy. Because he had always been in the position of army commander rather than considering himself as commander-in-chief, he indeed underestimated some of the calculations.

After all, he had worked as a staff officer before, so at least he could understand his leader's intentions.

"We only need to hold off the enemy for a day or two, like Suvorov did with MacDonald on the Trebia River, or we waited for the Russians to take the bait in Zurich, but the cunning old man ran away."

"So, should we report the military situation to His Majesty?"

"It is important to report at this time. Two heavy cavalry regiments are coming together, and there will be a large force coming behind them."

The next morning, just as Soult had expected, the Prussian troops in black uniforms had appeared opposite him, and judging from the width of the infantry formation, they were not a small number of troops.

"Okay, this will make it easier for us to cook. It's too inconvenient to catch chickens around here, and the only meat we have is dog meat."

There was a hint of sarcasm in Soult's words. The French army did encounter considerable trouble in logistics supply. Fortunately, the local Saxons still ate dog meat, so they were able to obtain meat supplies by slaughtering some dogs.

As for these Prussians, their formation is now very neat. It can be said that in the pre-war deployment of line infantry, the Prussians can achieve textbook standards.

"Very neatly, Marshal, but Saint-Hilaire and Leval both requested to take the initiative to attack, rather than waiting in formation here."

"Please ask the Prussians to come first. The terrain we occupy is not bad. There is no need to leave here now. If we let the Prussians take action, they may expose their weaknesses first."

Although the armies on both sides saw each other, they were not in a hurry to launch an attack. Instead, they lined up their own battle formations and made final preparations.

What Hohenlohe saw at this time was indeed only the Fourth Army. It was unlikely that he would have thought that the French would actually send two armies to bypass his left wing. He just thought that Bernadotte was speeding up and defeating the French army in front of him would be a perfect opportunity.

"Others say that Napoleon was very good at mobilizing troops. I think it's because he defeated the Austrians so many times that the defeated Austrians praised him to cover up the embarrassment of their own failures."

After these words were spoken, Colonel Mesenbacher beside him looked unhappy.

After all, this is not the case. Moreover, in past battles between Prussia and Austria, even when the Austrian commanders' abilities were above the passing line, they were often defeated.

The unlucky guy Gneisenau was sent to the 2nd Division of the Saxon Army to serve as a staff officer just because he talked too much.

He had no time to innovate now and could only follow Hohenlohe's orders, even if it was a wrong order.

At this time, he had to agree with Scharnhorst's idea that the commander-in-chief was the old Deng who made the final decision.

While he was still complaining in his heart, Hohenlohe had already issued an order, not only for the artillery to fire, but also for General von Gravoert of the 1st Division, which had already been lined up, to lead two infantry brigades and one cavalry brigade under his command to join the battle.

In fact, apart from the commander of the 1st Division, there were also the commander of the 1st Brigade von Muffling, the commander of the 2nd Brigade von Simonski, the commander of the Cavalry General von Hotzendorff and the commander of the Cavalry Brigade von Heinkel, and the commander of the Light Cavalry Regiment von Ericsson. Although their names contained a lot of "von", they did not pose any deterrent to the French.

Not to mention the past experience of battles between the French and Prussian armies, when the Prussian army launched an attack this time, the French actually began to retreat slowly after a brief exchange of fire.

Hohenlohe was very proud at this time. After all, not long after the start of the battle, it seemed that the French retreated for a distance due to "insufficient troops". The French were not as terrible as the "cowardly" Austrians were widely rumored to be.

Therefore, he now had to command his troops to follow up, and it was his Prussian 1st Division that had to achieve the results.

Soult could see very clearly from the high ground. Although there were always shells falling, his position was very safe.

Since being captured, Soult was reluctant to command on the front line, but he was willing to observe the battle situation in the front from such a back slope. "Since the Prussians are coming, we will attract them. The farm in front can be given to them after a fight, but the village behind is too confusing in German, so let's call it Hof. We must defend this Hof, which is the key to the entire battlefield."

"Yes, Your Excellency, Marshal, but which regiment should we send to guard it?"

"Tell the 4th Line Infantry Regiment to go and tell their commander that the Russians seized their flag at Austerlitz, but that incident is over. If they hold on to Hof, the 4th Regiment will be the hero of the entire Fourth Army. I will commend them to the Emperor! Not just the 4th Regiment, but all the meritorious troops will be rewarded..."

Soult's words were all there. After his chief of staff Compans passed down the order, the French front-line troops were in high spirits and launched a fierce battle around the village.

However, the Prussian infantry always poured out more firepower than launching direct attacks. Due to the wind direction, even the Prussians were covered in white smoke caused by black gunpowder.

The battle looked fierce, but the Prussian soldiers, especially those in the first row, often had to lean over to shoot, and the soldiers in the back row had poor accuracy, often firing into the air or turning the shots into projectiles.

It was fine for those that were projectiles, as there was always a small chance that they would fall on the French side, but those that were actually shooting at the sky were completely wasting gunpowder and bullets.

But if the fight continues like this, the Prussians are now advancing, which will give Hohenlohe an illusion that the Prussian army is very strong and may even be able to win the battle.

He then increased the intensity of the attack and even threw von Prittwitz's reserve division into the battle.

The two brigades of this division have nine grenadier battalions. Grenadiers always have considerable combat effectiveness, and it seems that the French army has not received any reinforcements. It seems that by capturing the village held by the French, they can win the battle.

However, after playing for a whole morning, there was always something that made him feel good about himself.

As for Hohenlohe, he was waiting for reinforcements from von Lücher, but Soult did not want Davout to arrive too quickly.

After all, according to Napoleon's own intention, he probably wanted to lure out the Prussian army's vanguard and then launch a devastating blow.

But the bald man Davout, who was wearing glasses and reading war reports at this time, also received the latest order from Napoleon's headquarters outside the battlefield.

What Davout could see was the order drafted by Berthier himself, and there would definitely not be any low-level spelling mistakes made by His Majesty the Emperor himself.

As they were classmates from the same military academy, Davout understood what Napoleon meant.

Therefore, he was not in a hurry to directly reinforce the battlefield where Soult was. Directly reinforcing the battlefield would not achieve the goal of attacking Hohenlohe.

What he had to do was to advance to the flank and rear, use his three divisions to outflank the Prussian army, cut off its retreat to Erfurt, and attack von Lucher's corps that might arrive nearby.

He was still very confident about this mission. At least Friant and Gudin were always fast runners. As for Morand of the 1st Division, he had the shortest distance to travel and was used to contain Hohenlohe.

Friant's marching distance was about 15 kilometers.

Compared with the Third Army's jogging at Austerlitz, many soldiers fell behind before joining the battlefield and supporting the French right wing.

This time they were helping Soult again, but they had to cut off the Prussian army's retreat. It could be said that the results were brilliant. After all, they were able to encircle and annihilate a large number of Prussian troops at a time. It was even possible that if they were encircled and annihilated, 40% of the Prussian army's combat effectiveness would be wiped out.

The Duke of Brunswick lost the advance division of Prince Louis Ferdinand, which was transferred away, in exchange for the main force of the Prussian army to advance safely to Erfurt. If Hohenlohe was lost here, the situation would still be very bad.

At this time, Dawu still resolutely carried out orders. He immediately judged that the situation on the battlefield had changed and it all depended on his thundering strike.

So before the battle, he encouraged his soldiers to establish merit and completely defeat the treacherous and capricious Prussians here, which would also remind the emperor once again of the glory of the Third Army rushing to the battlefield.
At this time, when the French soldiers heard the emperor's name, they all shouted "Long live the emperor", then formed a marching column and quickly advanced towards the battlefield.

Hohenlohe had not expected this. On the one hand, when the scouts were moving towards Davout, the French army was hiding well, and they also fought with the light cavalry sent by Soult, so they misjudged the situation in the northeast.

In addition, Davout's position was too good. There were rolling hills to the northwest and west of Weimar, and these hills just hid the position of the Third Army.

Even if Hohenlohe had conducted reconnaissance, it would have been difficult to discover the whereabouts of these troops. Moreover, all roads out of Weimar were blocked by the French army, and the Duke of Saxe-Weimar and his family had fled to Berlin, making it even more impossible for someone here to tip off the situation.

You know, Saxony has always been exploited and coerced by Prussia, and has long been secretly dissatisfied. It is only because Prussia is too close and the countries that oppose Prussia are too far away that they have to compromise.

The nobles might still have some considerations, but the common people were different. Even if the French came and wrote IOUs like robbery, it was still much better than the Prussian masters who robbed and conscripted men.

Then it was Hohenlohe's turn to be at a loss.

When he first received the news that his left wing was engaged in a firefight with the French, he was unwilling to believe it.

It was not until he climbed up a wind mill and saw the French cavalry through a monocular telescope from the window that he believed his subordinates' report.

But at this point, it's too late to say anything.

Davout's troops moved too quickly, and Hohenlohe only saw Morand's division coming to contain him, while Friant had already been behind him.

Moreover, Friant and Gudin had already considered how to respond before the battle. Friant's division and cavalry came to cut off the Prussian army's retreat, while Gudin's division held off von Lücher's Prussian reinforcements in Erfurt.

As a result of Davout's action, it can be said that the two Prussian corps were completely separated.

Von Lücher still wanted to pass through immediately, but Gudin blocked Erfurt's only way out of the city. In addition, von Lücher did not judge the strength of the French army and did not counterattack in time.
Hohenlohe was trapped in a French trap, and the situation was very bad.

(End of this chapter)