Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Chapter 470 Don't be too greedy after winning a battle
The river where the two sides were fighting was not wide in itself, but it was wider due to recent rainfall.

What is disadvantageous to the Russian army is probably that the riverbed is relatively soft, which will affect the speed of the army's advance.

But it is not without benefits. When shells hit such places, their lethality will be weakened, especially when they fall into the water.

The French artillery was originally smaller than that of the Russian army. If their shells fell on the riverbed, they could often only kill a few Russian soldiers because the kinetic energy had been offset. This was unlike the Russian bombardment of the French army at this time, which often caused considerable casualties on the riverbank.

Because of this, it is no wonder that the French army on the front also sought support from Bernadotte.

"We need to send the Dupont Division to the battle on the left wing. I think the Russians will use it. If they want to achieve a complete victory, they will definitely attack here at this time."

Bernadotte now felt the same as MacDonald during the Battle of the Trebbia. After a morning of fighting, although the French front line was still there, there were already signs of wavering.

The most terrible thing was that the terrain in this area was flat, and both sides did not hide their troops. He could clearly see that there were still a large number of troops behind the Russian army who had not joined the battle. If the battle continued like this, there would be no victory.

He even planned to retreat from Dabstein, as this damn place was becoming too difficult to stay in.

The problem is that during a war, the most difficult thing is to retreat safely from the battlefield.

Therefore, in this situation, Bernadotte gritted his teeth and persevered in order to avoid defeat.

You have to know that the Battle of the Trebia River, although it lasted four days including the outpost battle, the last day and a half was completely one-sided, and the last day was even a direct defeat.

As for the fact that he could not withstand the firepower of the Russian army in one day, it was not entirely due to the poor combat preparedness of the French army. They even replenished the new recruits that were prepared for 1808 in the winter, and even had sufficient training and replenishment.

The problem is that on the Russian side, the density of infantry fire is ridiculously high in a few places.

In fact, this level of precision was a familiar experience to him.

This is how it felt after crossing the Pratzen Heights at Austerlitz.

The Pavlovsk Grenadiers were equipped with breech-loading rifles, and they were at the outermost position, forcing the French army to retreat all the way.

Even before they could exert their full strength, they were only asked to shoot from behind the trenches on the side of the road.

This is different from the previous situation of the Guards. After all, they are still wearing bishop's hats on their heads, so it makes people feel confused.

They couldn't win in hand-to-hand combat or with shooting, which was simply because the Russian army marched slowly, otherwise there would be no chance of winning.

"It's time to decide the winner. Let the cuirassiers join the battle."

Bagration decided to go to the cavalry himself.

The two Palen brothers both led heavy cavalry. When they saw Bagration coming, they knew that a general attack was about to be launched.

The French army can no longer resist, and if they were rushed by such a group of people, the effect would indeed be very obvious.

The First Army did not attend the Battle of Eylau, and naturally they did not see the attack of their own cuirassiers.

Now that the Russian heavy cavalry has charged like this, it is like a hot knife cutting butter, the effect is beyond doubt.

At this time, Bernadotte had to order Dupont's Division to turn around and resist these Russian cavalry.

Since the heavy cavalry were concentrated here, and most of the French heavy cavalry had always been in Murat's cavalry, it would be difficult to stop the hussars and chasseurs who came to meet the attack. Even if they shot at close range, they could not penetrate the breastplate from the front.

There is no way. The power of these muskets is really limited. We have to wait until technology advances before we can have some confidence in penetrating them.

As for how to deal with these cavalry now, we can either use cavalry to resist them or use artillery bombardment.

Because the French army also found it difficult to form a formation, Dupont only fought for a while before the phalanxes of his two regiments were broken.

"Well done, now we can give chase."

But he couldn't always get what he wanted. The Russian cavalry was in pursuit and had just defeated three divisions of the First Army, and Davout's follow-up troops had already arrived.

However, seeing the fleeing friendly forces, Friant once again played the role of an emergency response officer. He found a position and used his advantageous formation to shoot at the pursuing Russian cavalry, while also taking in the fleeing soldiers.

As for the Russian army in the front, the Guards had not yet joined the battle, which meant that the enemy fell without any effort.

This was not surprising, because even though the Russian army had already deployed more troops to the front, it was not a rare thing at this time.

But Bernadotte couldn't stop both sides. If this continued, Napoleon would definitely have to think about it in the future.

Since the battle with the Prussian Army, only the First Army has often suffered defeats, and this time it was even more outrageous that it was defeated by the Russian Army within a day.

Even though he is the emperor's brother-in-law, he still feels good about it.

Davout had not caught up yet, and Friant could only shake his head when he saw this. The Third Army had been undergoing intensive training throughout the winter, and his division was in particular. After all, in every battle, the Third Army always had to run the longest distances and the battles were often quite difficult.

They were still able to resist the Russian attack, but the First Army, except for the Dupont Division, which occupied one corner of the battlefield against the Russians, was completely chased away.

If we calculate it all, I'm afraid the defeat was as tragic as the Battle of the Trebia River.

Many of these people had not experienced Italy's humiliating defeat in 1799. Even Grouchy, who was captured in Novi, had never encountered such a thing, and he was on the cavalry side.

The Russian pursuing troops did not act rashly after being blocked by someone.

Bagration, on the other hand, still had some doubts.

This is different from his usual behavior. If it were any other time, he would have called me long ago.

"I didn't expect the French reinforcements to arrive so quickly."

"Let's quit while we're ahead."

Sarkhen is here too, he's just slacking off a bit.
This is not surprising. For example, a thief who wants to steal something has to consider his escape route after running into the house.

"But if that's the case, we still have a chance to attack the Third Army."

Solovyov was unwilling to give up. He wanted to expand his victory. After attacking the First Army, he would go on to defeat the Third Army. The entire left wing of the French army would be severely damaged.

"You are still young and energetic, Misha. We have such a long march. If someone attacks the transportation line, won't we be intercepted here? Although your plan is good and we have defeated the enemy, we should also consider retaining the main force."

Grand Duke Constantine nodded and said, "It is indeed dangerous. We can only cut off the French transportation line, but it is difficult for us to cut off the road in Silesia."

"Yes, Your Highness, what you said does make some sense. But it would be a pity for us to turn back now." "Misha, I think we should retreat. Don't insist."

Since these two have said so, we should indeed retreat.

But they all knew that this guy had such a good appetite that he actually wanted to attack the most difficult army in the French army.

Given the current strength of the Russian army, it is not impossible to defeat the enemy by concentrating these divisions, but the logistics of the entire army will be cut off.

With such a large area of ​​Poland occupied by Prussia, even the Polish Lancer Regiment would find it difficult to collect food locally.

In fact, on the west bank of the Vistula River, the Poles there might be more welcoming to the Russian army.

In this case, they had no choice but to withdraw their troops.

As for Napoleon, after hearing about Bernadotte's defeat, he directly ordered that since Bernadotte was injured, he should go to the rear to recuperate.

After all, this humiliating defeat was indeed embarrassing enough.

No other deployments were made because he was busy attacking Dokhturov's division and exploring the transportation lines behind the Russian army. So many things were not his concern.

"Bernadot, he dared to fight like this."

"Your Majesty, should we return to support the Third Army and strike at the main force of the Russian army?"

"That's not necessary. We just need to find the Russian lines of communication. After all, the lines of communication are the lifeblood of the Russian army. Even if they completely devour the First Army and we cut off their supplies, this should be called Caulaincourt. What's the point of catching turtles in the middle?"

"Your Majesty, you are catching a turtle in a jar."

"That's the truth, Caulaincourt. You can read, but you're not very good at fighting. You're not as good as your brother."

"Yes, but your majesty still needs diplomatic work and soldiers who understand diplomacy."

"Yes. I think we should prepare to write a letter to the Tsar and ask him to accept a peace agreement."

If others open champagne at halftime, they might have to explain themselves.

But Napoleon seemed to be in no condition to lose, to have champagne popped at half-time, or to be three-to-zero ahead of the game.

He was also very confident and prepared to issue a declaration of war, ready to have a decisive battle with the Russians.

He even judged that the road connecting Königsberg and the Russian transportation lines were now the lifeline of the Russian army.

Even if the main force of the Russian army could cause a huge upheaval and disrupt the French rear, they could only cut off the supply line in the north.

Therefore, after winning, they would break away from contact with the French army and return to the vicinity of Königsberg.

"Give Davout an order to assemble the Third Army and Dupont's Division. If the Russians attack, hold them back. If the Russians retreat to Königsberg or move in other directions, stick to them and don't let them get out of contact easily."

Now that he has given the order, it is obvious that he is going to do something big.

As for the Russian army, they quickly returned to the east bank of the Pasague River, but Davout chasing them from behind was indeed a headache.

"It looks like we'll have to destroy all these roads on the way of retreat."

Therefore, in order to avoid being pursued and harassed by the bald guy Davout along the way, Bagration ordered the burning of the pontoon bridge and the destruction of roads along the way, just to prevent this guy from following him all the way.

It is actually not convenient to turn around and attack him, and we might end up following Napoleon's path.

"We can't help it. This bald guy is the most difficult to deal with. Hasn't he been causing trouble every time we fought?"

This statement does make sense. Since the Third Anti-French Coalition, the output of Davout and the Third Army has been ridiculously high.

Moreover, with the troops he has recruited, although the French army is currently at a disadvantage in terms of manpower, under the special battlefield environment, the Russian army will still be chased by them.

But these roads are not easy to travel on. Roads like Solovyov, which are filled with wood, are burned and destroyed in some places, which will indeed cause headaches for the French.

If it had been on normal terrain, Davout might have caught up with the Russian army, or with the cooperation of reliable friendly forces, he might have been able to stop the enemy.

But the road was narrow inside the swamp, and if it was damaged, he would have nowhere to go.

When the report got back to Napoleon, he was surprised.

"The Russians are getting more and more cunning. Previously they only used some small tricks, but this time they used a disguised officer with a Parisian accent to seize the bridge and open a road in the swamp. It really broadens our horizons."

"Your Majesty, I'm afraid Davout won't be able to catch up with the Russians."

"Let them take that route and run away. We can find a place to wait for them. We can't let them get away this time."

As he spoke, he looked at the map and saw that the Russian army had indeed assembled the remaining troops near Heilsberg.

However, since the main force of these troops had been withdrawn, with only Langeron and Barclay commanding this part of the force, it was still a bit difficult for them to face Napoleon.

Fortunately, Bagration's attack across the swamp defeated the First Army and took away the Third Army, so the pressure on Heilsberg in the front could be reduced.

However, Lana did not dare to attack easily.

After all, in the winter at Pultusk, the Russian firepower organization, although not as good as the French artillery, was still quite cunning in its actions, especially when approaching.

The Russian artillerymen squatting in the pits were even more unethical than the infantrymen who kept bullets in the barrels of their guns, and they often launched sneak attacks.

So he launched a tentative attack and found that the Russian artillery fire was extremely fierce, even when dozens of artillery pieces were concentrated in a small area, he did not let the Fifth Army and the Reserve Army act rashly.

Moreover, Oudinot, who had not been shot enough, wanted to lead the grenadiers to launch a fierce attack.
This guy was indeed brave enough to be a grenadier. It was true that he was not afraid of death, but it was also true that he was knocked down in almost every major battle.

Without encountering the main force of the Russian army, Lana could not bear to let him be seriously injured at this time. At least he had to wait until the main force of the Russian army gathered before sacrificing him.

But because of this fierce shooting, the Russian army was able to quickly move from Heilsberg at night.

Afterwards, Lannes and Oudinot realized that they had been deceived, because before the Russian army retreated, Yermolov specially concentrated a division's artillery and fired fiercely at the French army, without caring whether these cannons would be lost.

But this was not a trick. After all, the Russian army retreated to the banks of the Aare River along the old winter route with a large amount of baggage and artillery carts, and the French were still able to catch up with them.

(End of this chapter)