Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Chapter 415 057 Napoleon's Quick Road to Berlin (Part ) The Prussian Army's Humiliating Defeat
King Frederick William III's performance was indeed very embarrassing.

Now that the commander-in-chief, Duke of Brunswick, is seriously injured and unable to command the troops, he is asked to command the army. Although his ability in this regard is not the worst in the Hohenzollern family, he is forced to do so at the most inappropriate time when the army is defeated.

He was even not very confident in Eugen of Württemberg. After all, the other party's big brother was a 200-kilogram German strongman, and after the French army entered southern Germany, he smoothly defected to Napoleon and directly joined the opponent's camp.

He didn't even care about that and left the Prince of Württemberg's camp directly to take over the army that seemed to no longer exist.

However, this man did not have this ability, and Queen Louise, who had been accompanying the army despite her illness, blocked her husband's way in a carriage.

"Your Majesty, where are you going?"

"Louise, go take over my army."

"At this time, it is not wise for you to leave the only unit you can still effectively control and take over the scattered legion. As your wife, Your Majesty, I can help you do anything unconditionally. But at this time, you can't make such a stupid mistake."

Louise mentioned "stupidity" directly, and with a look of disappointment.

Her lips were even a little purple, which showed that she was in very poor health.

But even such a queen has her words carry a lot of weight, but because of the royal authority, as a daughter-in-law, she can only exert influence.

Now that Frederick William III had made such a mistake, she had no choice but to intervene personally.

Moreover, with the carriage blocking the road and the queen's entourage and a squadron of hussars standing by, the King of Prussia had no choice but to follow the advice and return to the barracks.

In fact, the Württemberg family had a very long history of working in the Prussian-German army. This service experience lasted for more than 200 years, until the commander of the No. Tank Battalion of the Armored Training Division was killed in Normandy.

Of course, there were some surprises. For example, Frederick the Great was very dissatisfied with Paul's strong brother-in-law, who actually "betrayed his own country" and helped improve relations between Russia and Austria. As a result, he was expelled from the Prussian army and had to go to Russia to eat food and serve as an officer.

With this experience in the past, the Württemberg family still had people serving in the Prussian army. On the one hand, Württemberg was a small country and had to endure such things. On the other hand, all eggs should not be put in one basket. Being an officer anywhere meant making money, and side branches could also obtain manors and fiefs, so this was not shameful.

As for Eugen himself, he could also guess what His Majesty the King was planning.

He was just a high-level worker, so it didn't matter if he lost the war. He could either go to his eldest brother and live a good life in the manor, or go to St. Petersburg to live with his eldest nephew. The price Alexander offered was always good.

Of course, at this moment, he still has to fulfill his responsibilities and obligations to take this useless king out.

So he decided to listen to the queen.

As for the queen blocking the road with her carriage, that squadron of cavalry was sponsored by him.

The Prussian army was now scattered everywhere, and Napoleon was not very interested in capturing prisoners.

Since there were still more than 10,000 people of Lüchler's army in Erfurt, he ordered Lannes and Ney, who were advancing towards Erfurt from Fulda, to march quickly and encircle the Prussian army in the city.

Meanwhile, the French troops in Saxony-Weimar, east of Erfurt, began to adjust their marching columns, preparing to advance quickly towards Berlin.

However, there were still some bumpy roads along the way, and the Prussians still created some obstacles on the road between Weimar and Berlin.

But this is like a mantis trying to stop a chariot, and it cannot cause any waves.

And at the Russian military headquarters, Marshal Kamensky finally arrived.

Although he is old, he is not confused. The problem is that his physical functions cannot keep up with the times. It is fine for him to stay at home, but it is an embarrassing thing for him to go out to fight.

Langgeron and Solovyov stood here, waiting for the commander-in-chief's instructions.

Originally they thought that based on his performance in the Danube Legion, he would say some polite words, but he didn't, and they were directly disbanded.

"Michelle, do you think our commander-in-chief is still competent?"

"You ask me?"

Solovyov had been pretending to be confused before, just to deal with Marshal Kamensky, but after he came out, since Langgeron came to ask him, he had to think about this issue carefully.

The Frenchman wouldn't cheat him, the problem was the wording.

"Yes, I'm asking you."

"If it were Mikhail Fyodorovich's own opinion, I think he would still have self-awareness. But at this moment, the Prussians are probably already defeated by Bonaparte."

"Ah, you are still thinking about this question."

"In our headquarters, we have the Queen's rusty sword, young officers eager to try, you, who was forced to be the chief of staff of our legion, and that fellow Buckholden."

"You said that about Buckholden, but be careful that he may cause you trouble when you are sent there."

"I'm not afraid of that. He had to rely on Prince Bagration and I to defend his rear in Austerlitz. Grand Duke Constantine knows that."

Langgeron also knew that Solovyov’s connections were still with the Guards, and that because he no longer had a Jager Regiment, it came under the direct jurisdiction of the Grand Duke himself.

Considering his relationship, it would obviously be difficult for Old Deng Bookholden to cause trouble for him.

"Another rearguard. If the Prussians had a man like Bagration who was good at rearguard battles, they wouldn't have been defeated like this."

"Even the French don't have time to capture them. They should march towards Berlin, right?" "I think so. If you have any ideas, you can tell me now."

Langgeron was actually quite knowledgeable. He had the ability to be a staff officer, but he preferred to be the commander of a local garrison or lead a legion.

Therefore, he also intends to give more work to Solovyov. This guy is really useful. As long as he doesn't think about doing side jobs, he is still a very useful staff officer and is very suitable for the position of chief of operations.

"I think we should send the Wittgenstein Corps ahead of time. No matter what happens with the Prussians, we must first reach the Vistula River and control Warsaw. Then we will pull up the Wittgenstein Corps and the Buchholden Corps to support the remnants of the Prussian army. It would be best if the Swedes only leave a few people in Pomerania and put all the coalition forces that can be concentrated on this line."

Solovyov still likes to talk on the map, and he also pointed out several key points.

"You can see here that Count Danzig must be controlled. Even if he is surrounded by the French, he must be prepared to hold out for a long time. If it doesn't work, let the British navy come to deliver goods. We must ensure that the port can be used during the thawing period. Now there should be some food reserves. If the reserves are sufficient, we can bury a nail in the back of the French. In addition, it would be best if our army could control Warsaw. The nobles there suffered a lot more than a decade ago and will not easily raise the banner of rebellion."

"You want to have a chance to meet Bonaparte at the Vistula?"

Solovyov looked at Langgeron. Although he was a Frenchman, he seemed to have no such idea in his subconscious mind.

This is not surprising. Among the royalist people he had met, only the Duke of Richelieu and the Duke of Enghien cared more about their French identity and then their noble titles.

Those royalists care more about their own noble titles, and some of them may even be proud to serve the king as chamber pots.

"I have this idea, but what will happen to our commander-in-chief and the two legion commanders?"

"You can't ask me to replace Wittgenstein and make him the chief of staff, right?"

"The only cavalry general who can be the chief of staff is probably Bennigsen, and he's an opportunist."

Langgeron agreed with what Solovyov said. One of them was a small troll, and the other was a big troll. They had made many sharp comments on various phenomena in the current Russian army, but they had not been sarcastic.

After all, one of them is a general and the other is a colonel, both of them are masters and are involved in the situation.

"It seems that we have no choice but to set out in this situation. There is another terrible problem, which is that the reality is very grim. If Bonaparte goes to Berlin like this, the war may end before we set out."

"It's a question of distance. St. Petersburg is even closer than Moscow. At least the sea route news provided by the British arrives very quickly."

There was a key point in the issue they discussed, which was that if the Prussian royal family had not stayed in Berlin but chose to flee, there would obviously be some things that could be discussed.

But they could not take any action and had to wait for instructions from St. Petersburg.

The news of the Prussian army's defeat spread quickly. When Marshal Kamensky arrived in Jelgava, the messenger sent from Berlin had already passed by here for several days, which was enough time for Alexander to issue a new order.

Unfortunately, however, there was no request from Prussia.

So Alexander had only one solution, which was to send someone to pick up his sister Maria who was in Berlin, or at least to meet her on the way.

Originally he wanted to send a court attendant, but these people were unreliable and Alexander was still worried.

When Maria and Catherine were in the palace before, Alexander discovered that the court attendants assigned to them were actually lords of registered nobles, who were more likely to skip work than the maids who could take turns to rest. Such work still needed to be given to someone in the Guards who had experience as an adjutant.

Although Peter Dolgorukov was deceived in Austerlitz, we should also consider that he is a reliable person.

But after he came back, he immediately fell ill and his condition was critical.

If his brother Mikhail was there, it might be suitable, and he was in the East Prussian Corps.

So Alexander issued an order for Mikhail Dolgorukov, who was in Jelgava, to go to Berlin and bring back Maria and her son.

As for other royal relatives, when the Austrians were defeated last time, many of them had voluntarily returned to Russia. Everyone knew that there would be no peace in Europe in the next few years, especially in places with relations with the French.

As for the corps in the front, Marshal Kamensky had already arrived, but Alexander was worried.

After all, this old marshal is not like Marshal Suvorov who becomes more powerful as he gets older. It's simply because there are no generals available, and other veteran generals are even less qualified. As for why Russia has such a magical matching mechanism, it is probably an ancestral institutional problem.

When Paul was still there, he had already realized that he wanted to make renewal, but the young people had not caught up yet, and people he promoted, such as Korsakov, were disgraceful, so he could only select according to the list of marshals and generals left over from the Empress's time.

Alexander himself was very optimistic about Bagration, but he also had to consider the issue of qualifications. This time, letting a Frenchman, Langgeron, be the chief of staff was already an exception.

After all, some generals from Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands are not suitable for staff work in a legion of this size. The only relatively suitable one, Van Suchteren, is the Quartermaster General and Chief of Staff and cannot go to the front line.

But Langeron himself did not like doing staff work, so Solovyov found that going to the East Prussian Corps to serve as the chief of operations was just like what Paul had expected, that a colonel could serve as the chief of staff and really be in line with Prussia.

But he also had a lot of issues to consider. In this position, he actually became the Chief of Staff of the Russian Army. If Marshal Kamensky did not take care of things, Langgeron would most likely become the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army according to the order of command.

You know, when Potemkin died of illness in the Danube Army, according to his military rank, Marshal Kamensky should have taken over. However, Potemkin left a commission for Kakhovsky to take over the army.
This also seems to be a cycle.

As for what level Marshal Kamensky is, his past record is still very strong, and as soon as he took office, he made the Russian soldiers feel afraid.

Suvorov was able to command the respect of his soldiers, Kutuzov had a similar ability, and Kamensky was a believer in the Prussian way.

If we want to win this battle, we may have to let this old marshal choose to sleep during the battle.

As for the two corps commanders, Wittgenstein was relatively junior, while Buchholden was a problem.
Considering that the Russian army was going to East Prussia next, Solovyov's mind was full of Tannenberg and Max Hoffmann, as well as the discord between the two Russian army group commanders.
This is really a bit troublesome.

(End of this chapter)