Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Chapter 440 017 A meat grinder battle (VII) Russia’s weather controller technology?

Baron Sacken was determined to hold on to the death. After all, the route on his side was quite critical. If something went wrong, he could only escape after the Prussian army arrived, instead of dying here now.

Solovyov supported his idea and promised that the Somov Brigade could join the battlefield as reinforcements at any time.

Considering the distances between these Russian positions, Somov was indeed able to join the battle at the right time.

While they were fighting fiercely, Davout had led the French Third Army to achieve significant results. Under the tenacious defense of Tuchkov and Dokhturov, they captured two outer positions. After the Russian infantry in these places were driven away, the French could now send out light cavalry to detour to Tuchkov's flank.

This was more dangerous for the Russian army. Although the four French armies were blocked by woods, this could also cover the maneuvers of the French cavalry behind them.

As for the artillery, it was embarrassing to talk about it, except that Yermolov's cavalry artillery caught the French army by surprise, which was a bright spot. Obviously, the Russian artillery had stronger firepower and even faster reloading speed than the French, but there was still a big gap in organizing firepower.

Now, in the first day of fighting, the Russian army has shown the usual tenacity of their infantry.

This resulted in the French army not being able to open a small breakthrough until the afternoon, when Davout was the first to do so. If the Russian army had mobilized its reserves to plug this hole, it might have been blocked there.

Of course, Napoleon's idea was to attack the Russian army in the northeast, attract the reserve forces in Langeron's hands, and then launch a fierce attack from Soult and Ney, thus changing the situation in one fell swoop.

He even received reports that Ney's side had been fighting repeatedly with the Russian army over the outer artillery positions, and although the battle was difficult, significant progress had been made.

"The Russians are really tenacious. If it were the Austrians, we would have entered Eylau by now."

Napoleon's words were quite contemptuous, but they did illustrate something about the Austrian army's combat effectiveness.

"Your Majesty, should we?"

"Berthier, do you want us to launch an attack with cavalry? Lasalle's attack was effective, but we only took advantage of the Russians' retreat to capture a few insignificant villages. The real battle is still to come!"

And as time went on in the afternoon, the weather began to change.

This kind of weather is probably caused by a gust of cold air from Siberia, with flying sand and rocks.
Since it is winter, it is inevitable that strange things will happen.

Both Ney and Augereau encountered this problem during the offensive phase.

As for Davout, he was resting due to the retreat of the Russian army and did not catch up with the drastic change in the climate.

Langgeron witnessed the change in the weather in the church in Eylau.

"Damn it, it looks like things are going to change again."

"Sir, perhaps God cannot bear the behavior of Napoleon, the enemy of Christ, and will send down such a change."

Langeron was a Frenchman, and the French were the kind of people who could invite the Pope to come and work in Avignon. Moreover, after Langeron left France, strange priestly beliefs such as "rational religion" emerged, so it was normal for them not to believe in them.

The Russians were pious and superstitious. Alexander even thought that the fact that he and Louisa could not give birth to boys but only girls (even with external help) was a punishment from God.
At times like this, it is indeed a rare good thing for Russian officers and soldiers.

Changes in the weather always mean that God is on their side.

Langgeron could only say in his heart, you Russians should practice more feudal superstition! This actually boosted morale and even led to some reversals.

When talking about this, Langeron probably forgot that before going to the war, he had already completed the naturalization procedures and became Count Alexander Fyodorovich Langeron of Russia.

But as long as he is alive and his mind is clear, his complaining soul will not stop.

"It looks like God is on our side!"

Not only did he see snowfall, but it was also accompanied by short-term strong winds. This kind of severe convective weather would probably be a thunderstorm in the summer.

Now, it's just a pity that it's snowing now instead of hail.

Langgeron initially thought that the bad weather would only affect the plains, but he did not expect that the strong winds were on the Russian positions, while the blizzard was on the French positions, covering Augereau and Ney's armies in the wind and snow. Only a few Russian positions, probably because they were not pious or believed in some other religion - this was also circulated within the Russian army afterwards, were affected by the blizzard.

"But, sir, you don't believe in the same church as us, which is strange."

Langgeron's servant is also a person who likes to complain.

"Then what do you believe in? When I was in Paris, I believed in the Western Catholic Church. I was devout to the Lutheran Germans, or maybe you soldiers. Doesn't that explain it?"

Langgelon's explanation is really impeccable.
As for the strange weather, Napoleon could also see it, but he also saw clearly that the entire French army had to stop because of the weather.

"That won't do. Damn it! At this critical moment, the Russians have taken control of the weather. There's a blizzard in Pultusk and a strong wind in Morungen. If it weren't winter, there would be lightning and thunder!"

After what the Emperor said, the weather controller is almost out.

But this thing is Allied technology, and if someone were to interpret the subsequent comments of Langgeron, Solovyov, and the Emperor himself, they might get some misconceptions.

"Tell Augereau to stop attacking and not to move forward. I'm worried that this reckless man will make a fool of himself again."

However, in this weather, even if the messenger reached Augereau, he would not be able to stop his advance in time.

As for the Russian side, artillery has been prepared from two directions. No matter whether it is Ney or Augereau, as long as they emerge from the woods in the blizzard, they will probably be faced with a barrage of shotgun fire.

Then, Ney actually ordered to stop advancing at this time. Although he was a reckless man, his brain was sometimes online.

His current wish is to reorganize his troops and then launch an attack.

As for Augereau, he was marching in the blizzard and didn't notice where he was.

When Solovyov returned to the headquarters, he was unable to ride a horse due to the heavy snow, so he had to take a sled back to Eylau.

As for Langgeron and Bagration, they were now waiting for the French army to emerge from the blizzard.

If they don't come out, it's better. They can take this opportunity to stabilize the defense line. Even at this time, there is good news for the Russian army.

That was the Prussian army under General Lestock, which was already approaching Eylau and was expected to arrive at night.

"Come and see, Michelle, our reinforcements are finally arriving. Also, how is Sarken doing?"

"It looks like Soult will still launch an attack, but the weather is so bad right now that I can only return on a sled. In addition, placing the Somov Brigade behind Sakken can support his actions and allow the 3rd Division to withdraw safely."

"You want to give Surt an empty camp, right?"

"If that's the case, the situation is not favorable for our army. We can only let Soult and Sacken fight to consume each other, so that we can pin down the French army with the largest number of troops."

"Well, that's the only way."

Langeron then sat down at the table and said to the generals present: "We should all eat some bread and drink some coffee while Bonaparte's army is blocked by General Blizzard."

The French are the kind of people who never change, but everyone is hungry.

However, Solovyov, the youngest person at the table, went back to look at the map with his staff after eating a few bites. He needed to understand the current battle situation.

The French army made considerable progress, especially along the line of Davout.

"If Davout continues his attack and advances towards Eylau, our entire left wing, as well as Count Kamensky in the front, will be in danger of being surrounded. This way."

"General, we should suggest to the commander-in-chief that we send reinforcements to stop the French at the horse farm."

"It's a good idea, but Somov has to be left as a reserve force in Sakken. If Lestock doesn't get here, it will be difficult for us to act!"

Moreover, except for artillery, it is best not to mix the Prussian army with the Russian army, especially the mechanized infantry.

What Solovyov was most worried about was probably that when a group of Russian troops launched a bayonet charge, the Prussian troops next to them were still pulling up their gun barrels.

However, thinking of this, after the Prussian army was defeated, many officers and soldiers were released, but currently they cannot return to the battlefield due to the constraints of the treaty between the two sides.

After the battle, if the Prussian army could not defeat France, there was a high probability that some people in the Prussian army would come to Russia to serve, whether they were soldiers or officers.

By then, he could make some money. Solovyov had already thought of the structure of the new "Russian Imperial Prussian Corps" in the future.
As for his abacus, there are still many people in Prussia who are still unclear about his strange methods.

As for now, of course, the most important thing is the front line.

Augereau finally managed to emerge from the snowstorm and have his two divisions appear in front of the Russian position in a horizontal formation.

But the very bad thing for him was that no matter who commanded the Russian army, they had prepared a large number of artillery at the most important positions on the front line.

The entire front line of the French Seventh Army was hit by a mixture of grenade and shotgun fire. For a moment, the Russian generals thought they had seen it wrong.

You know, after this burst of shooting and explosion, not only was there blood and flesh flying everywhere, but you could even see a blood mist being blown out by the wind.

It's true, blood turns to wind, and sand turns to rain. They are all a bit confusing.

The French army is now suffering heavy losses from the bombardment.

Augereau's horse was killed and his officers also suffered heavy casualties.

In fact, this was the first time in a normal war that an army suffered from such a high intensity of artillery fire.

Moreover, the Russian army was still bombarding. Even the French army would soon be unable to withstand this level of attack.

As for after the bombardment, Langgeron also sent out cavalry, not to reap the rewards, but to drive the French troops away from the positions in front of them, taking advantage of their chaos to expand the results of the battle.

Although Augereau and the wounded generals were rescued, this wave of Russian cavalry counterattack was indeed difficult for them to stop.

Seeing this situation, Napoleon had to use Murat's heavy cavalry to support the Seventh Army's retreat and reorganization, but the series of victories that had been achieved before were lost.

But Langgeron did not pursue, and he issued an order at this time to break contact after following the pursuit.
This move seems familiar, but the Russian army is currently in a tense situation on several fronts and has no choice but to resort to this approach.

At night, the Russian army finally held a new round of military meetings.

"We do need to discuss this issue now, which is to withdraw our troops to the vicinity of Eylau and ask the French to merge their forces together. Although this is disadvantageous to our army, it is not without other benefits."

What Langgeron proposed this time was very clear. In fact, it was to withdraw the position while the French army was in chaos. The next step was to find an opportunity to escape in time from the north.

As for the battle in Eylau, it was already a huge loss for the French army. As long as the French army could not achieve their goal, it could be considered a victory.

In addition, Langgeron discovered that this kid Solovyov was not only good at defense, but also quite black-hearted.

This battle also made the Russian generals realize that even without the emperor's micro-management, it would be difficult for them to repel the French army commanded by Napoleon head-on if they performed normally.

At the very least, military reforms must be carried out to further strengthen the Russian army's combat effectiveness, and there may be a chance for a competition in the future.

Perhaps the biggest achievement of this winter was that it disrupted Napoleon's plan to take advantage of the opportunity to rest around Warsaw and use Poland as a rear base to replenish troops.

The French army maintains its combat effectiveness to a large extent in this way. Veterans lead new recruits, and they can quickly make the new recruits familiar with the weapons in their hands. After they are added to various units, they also go through the process of becoming familiar with military regulations.

As it is now, except for the Eighth and Ninth Armies in the rear, the French troops here, from Germany to Poland and East Prussia, have no chance to complete their winter training. Instead, they are seized by the Russian army and will not let go, and are even attracted to places close to the Russian border.

If the French army had been given sufficient time to recover its combat effectiveness, the trouble would have been even greater. After all, at the beginning of 1807, the armies of both sides had to struggle in Poland and East Prussia for a while.

Since it's a battle, even if there's no winner, there should be a result, right?

(End of this chapter)