Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Chapter 423 065 Solovyov Shows Off His Skills in Pultusk (Part )
The troops led by Davout always move in a more stylish manner.

During the Battle of Austerlitz, Friant's Division marched quickly to join the battlefield and played a significant role.

Because history could not be restored, Davout's magical operation was lost, but when he was fighting the Prussian army, he also appeared on the battlefield in time, cut off Hohenlohe's retreat, and made a Prussian dumpling filling.

Previously in Charnovo, he had almost captured Ostermann-Tolstoy, but the count was quick enough and managed to escape after losing some of his troops. He also used his grenadiers to throw a row of grenades, successfully deterring the pursuing French troops.

But in Solovyov's opinion, it seemed that playing like this made him look like a ninja among those people who were living a good life and threw a smoke bomb before running away.

But the 2nd Division finally got out, and performed very well in Pultusk today.

"Sir, we have repelled the French attack. Should we continue the pursuit?"

Ostermann-Tolstoy sent his adjutant, still hoping to take advantage of this counterattack to continue the pursuit and expand the results of the battle.

If Gu Ding's division had not appeared on the flank at this time, Langgeron would definitely have agreed and handed over the reserve troops to him, and even pulled out the ambush troops.

But the problem is that the Gooding Division appeared here. Although the Suchet Division exposed its flank, it was obvious that when Gazan was beaten, it retreated in an orderly manner.

Apart from initially sending troops to attack a brigade of Suchet's division in Bagvout, these troops are still maintaining a relatively symmetrical front, making it difficult for the Russian army to attack at the moment.

"There are visitors coming from the Golimin direction, and we have no reserve troops to cross this road."

Langgelon sighed, looked through his telescope at the new French reinforcements, and finally gave new orders.

"Send the reserve brigade, the Novorossiysk Dragoon Regiment, and the Pavlovsk Grenadier Regiment to the right wing. I'm afraid there will be some trouble over here at Barclay."

"Count, who should lead the team?"

Solovyov asked this, and Langgeron just smiled crookedly.

"Now I have no choice but to let you go. There are already enough staff officers in the General Staff, but I don't even have a suitable commander left."

This is true. Wittgenstein volunteered to become the cavalry commander, and the division commanders and brigade commanders also performed their duties. Some of them were injured on the battlefield.

There were only one brigade under Kamensky the Younger and a reserve brigade without a commander. According to the formation, Kamensky the Younger had to cover Bagowut's back, while Barclay had the reserve brigade and the Sacken Division behind him.

Langgeron's proposal was obviously intended to split the troops into two groups and tear the French front line apart.

However, he was not completely confident about the division coming from Davout's Third Army.

Therefore, the Isaken Division attacked from behind Barclay to hit the flank of Suchet Division. After a series of complicated operations, Solovyov was sent with three infantry regiments and one dragoon regiment to deal with Gudin Division. Now this was the only way.

Langgeron thought so because the Selenge Regiment had never participated in any battles, and the Novorossiysk Dragoon Regiment was also a new unit with no guarantee of combat effectiveness. The pressure was normally on the Smolensk Regiment and the Pavlovsk Grenadier Regiment.

However, the Selenge Regiment was led by Solovyov himself, so the training methods were ready-made, and even most of the Russian troops now follow this method.

"Two infantry regiments must withdraw their grenadier companies. In addition, the grenadier companies of the Tenkins Regiment will also remain behind and temporarily form a combined grenadier battalion as the final reserve. The rest of the troops will directly attack the French army!"

"Launch an immediate attack?"

"Time is of the utmost importance now. We have not experienced any battles here. Instead, we have rested for two days. The enemy is marching to join the battlefield. We cannot be afraid of such a tired enemy here!"

After saying this, Solovyov drew the sword from his waist, and instead of picking up his pistol as usual, he walked in front of the team and launched an attack on the French positions.

Of course, this scene was a bit reckless, but one thing he didn't expect was
The Gudin Division, a unit that had always been known for its ability to fight tough battles and its outstanding performance in training and exercises, only fired sporadically at the Russian infantry columns. The Russian army, on the other hand, had been slowly advancing and firing, and was moving closer to the village where the French army was located.

Solovyov did not expect this and thought that the French were preparing to engage in a bayonet fight at close range, so he cautiously moved to a position ten steps away before giving the order to launch a bayonet charge!

"Ula!"

The Russian army shouted and rushed towards the French army, but what surprised him again was that the French army retreated just like that.

Originally, Solovyov was preparing for a tough battle, but he didn't expect that the Gudin Division was out of bullets. Faced with this new force of the Russian army, the acting commander Fournier chose to retreat and reorganize, but did not leave the battlefield too far.

The reason for doing this is very simple, that is, the French army is short of manpower. Fournier came with a division, but after a brief exchange of fire, they almost ran out of ammunition. Before that, they had fought with the Russian army near Golymin!

While supporting Lannes here, Davout also issued an order for the 3rd Division to return to provide support, but Fournier chose to support Lannes in Pultusk.

This frightened Solovyov so much that he did not move forward.

After all, looking at the French army's posture, it is unclear whether they have an ambush or something else.

Of course, under normal circumstances, Fournier’s bluff would have succeeded and even tied down some Russian troops.

However, when Solovyov saw this situation, he ordered the Novorossiysk Dragoon Regiment and several Cossack squadrons, which had not yet been put into battle, to bypass Barclay's right side and support the Sacken Division that was fighting Suchet.

Langgeron ordered the entire army to counterattack, but the Russian army's formation was still relatively tight, and no one had any fancy moves.

The French army was also fighting desperately at this time. The two divisions of Suchet and Gazin formed an iron chain that made it impossible for the Russian army to break through easily. In addition, the Russian army was constantly suffering losses in the battle, so they fell into a stalemate in this place.

Instead, Solovyov ordered his cavalry to support Saken's attack, which had a good effect.

But I wonder how he would feel if he knew that the soldiers of the Guding Division had almost no bullets in their gun chambers.

But the flank attack by the cavalry did cause the 3rd Light Infantry Regiment on the left wing of Suchet's division to fall into a brief chaos. At this moment, Barclay seized the opportunity to prepare for a counterattack, while the new force on the side of Sacken also crossed the line left by Ostermann-Tolstoy and directly attacked Suchet's troops.

Just like that, just like that, the 3rd Light Infantry Regiment had just avoided the attack of the Russian Dragoons, and then it was attacked by the Polish Lancer Regiment of the Russian Army. Not only was the phalanx dispersed, but the military flag was also taken away.

You know, the combat effectiveness of this regiment is not bad. They were the "Emperor's cousins" and the Bourbon Army. Their skirmishers were Corsicans.

Under such circumstances, the connection between Suchet's Division and Gudin's Division was cut off, and even the Russian cavalry now specifically launched attacks in the gaps between the French divisions, brigades and regiments in an attempt to split the French army.

Under such pressure, no matter how brave Rana was, he was not a reckless person and could only order his troops to prepare to retreat.

When the French army formed a battle formation and retreated, the Russian army did not launch a large-scale pursuit.

When the battle went on in the afternoon, Golimin could still hear the sound of artillery fire from the fierce fighting between the two sides, while on Putusk's side, it seemed that both sides had reached a tacit understanding and were not prepared to fight anymore.

The problem on Rana's side is that he believes that the Russian army has more troops than his own, and has been launching continuous counterattacks. If this continues, he is afraid that he will not be able to stop it. It is even a question whether the Russian army will send more troops.

At the same time, Murat and Davout were unable to capture Golitsyn and Dokhturov, who were fighting and retreating in search of a transfer route.

As for the Russian army, although Langeron still wanted to pursue, considering the Russian army's mission, it was originally to meet Wittgenstein and Buchholden and then prepare for battle. However, Marshal Kamensky temporarily changed his mind, which also caused the Russian army to abandon the original plan.

Even Langgeron didn't know where Bukholden's troops, except Dokhturov, had gone. Therefore, his battle was just to protect his artillery and baggage, and to ensure the safe evacuation of the large group of troops, and then he would have to choose another opportunity to fight.

However, at dusk a letter arrived from the north, from Prince Bagration.

Langgeron called Wittgenstein to discuss the matter. Solovyov was still in the village at the westernmost end of the front line, staring at the slowly retreating French army.

"Aren't you going to continue the pursuit?"

"Such a pursuit is unnecessary. We don't know what the situation is in Golim. Besides, although our army is well-rested, the French army is very aggressive. Even with our concentrated bombardment of dozens of cannons, we were unable to make the tired French show any signs of collapse. In the near future, I think it is better not to start a war on this front. Instead, we should prepare to go to winter camp while preparing to attack them."

Moreover, Solovyov was not the commander-in-chief, and he really did not have the power to make this decision.

But there is still some room for imagination and room for development as to what to do next.

At this stage, the Russian army could retreat to its winter camp near Königsberg and look for opportunities to fight again.

In addition to the main force led by Napoleon around Warsaw, the French army had Jerome's Ninth Army active in Silesia, some troops were around Danzig and some fortresses, and only Bernadotte's First Army and Ney's Sixth Army were relatively far away at this time.

If they were to be attacked, some risks would have to be taken. For example, Napoleon designed a pocket and let Bernadotte lead his army to lure the Russian army deep into the territory so that he could intercept them from behind. This method could not be ruled out even if both sides had to camp for the winter.

Now, he indeed has a lot of issues to consider.

However, the wording in the letter of victory that Langgelon sent to Alexander was rather ambiguous.

After all, the Russian army only temporarily repelled the French army, and then had to abandon Pultusk and move.

This way, both sides can claim to be the winner of the battle.

However, the Russian army did not care about so much and immediately retreated to the border near East Prussia.

This was also a guarantee for the Prussian army ally. After all, the only Prussian army capable of mobile operations, the Lestock Corps, was nearby, and both armies had to advance towards Königsberg.

When the war reaches this point, it becomes more of a political battle and the settlement of political accounts is also political.

As long as Königsberg remained in the hands of the Allied forces, there was at least a reason to continue fighting.

In this regard, Alexander and Frederick William III have already reached an offensive and defensive alliance and "will never negotiate unilaterally with the French."

But having said that, Napoleon did use his diplomatic skills, even though he may have been rather clumsy in this regard.
For example, give Prussia a more decent peace negotiation condition, with the Elbe River as the boundary, so that Prussia will only lose some of its heavily invested industrial areas, and these places will be under the control of the Kingdom of Westphalia. The king is Jerome, Napoleon's stupid brother and Solovyov's friend in the United States.
This condition seems to make some sense, and the current war is taking place on Prussian territory.

When the news reached Vienna, Emperor Franz did not dare to act rashly, even though he had sent Archduke Karl to try to use his garrison in Bohemia to do something sneaky.

Of course, Archduke Karl did not want to fight at this time, and he even wanted to continue his career of having children with his wife in his temporary residence in Prague.

But Napoleon still had to be on guard against this move, so the defeat at Pultusk could be considered a victory for the French army because of the Russian army's active retreat.

After all, a few days after the Russian army withdrew, that is, in the last few days of 1806, the French army entered Pultusk and crossed the river from here.

Napoleon remembered the previous defeat at Pultusk.

"This is definitely not a battle that Langgelon, a royalist exiled abroad, can command. I'm afraid there are other people in the Russian army who are formulating the battle plan or participating in the command."

"Your Majesty, this is not the only issue we need to worry about. Supply is still very difficult. Should we camp in Poland during the winter?"

Napoleon really couldn't resist this problem. When his soldiers arrived here, they were unwilling to move forward and instead complained a lot.

"Well, we need to send out orders to all armies. At this time, they should indeed rest, and find a suitable place to winter camp, replenish troops and collect supplies."

When the French army went on an expedition, they often did not have tents. The price of simplifying logistics and increasing marching speed was naturally that there would be big trouble when there was a lack of supplies. Napoleon himself understood this principle.

(End of this chapter)