Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Chapter 552 064 It is not easy to create a ghost of honor drowned in the battle of Ice Lake (Part )

When fighting, you always need to pay attention to the terrain. Due to the terrain on the Swedish side, there are always lakes and swamps mixed in with the woods. For both armies, the road from Linköping to Norrköping is more suitable for troop deployment.

However, von Essen's troops on the Swedish side still have a lot of men. If they do not focus on attacking one wing, they will not be able to win easily even if they have a great advantage in manpower.

Even if we fight like this, it will be difficult to end the battle within a day.

For the Russian army, the more troublesome thing may be that, except for the Finnish Division and the Guards that arrived here, the rest of the troops are relatively far away, and the Russian troops in Nykoping are also garrison troops.

Therefore, they had no choice but to fight here. So Solovyov concentrated the grenadiers and guards on the right wing, trying to use his firepower advantage to attack the enemy. At the same time, two infantry regiments were concentrated on the front to fight the enemy, and the cavalry was concentrated on the left wing.

His deployment was obviously a hammer and anvil tactic, with the infantry attacking from the front and hitting one side, while the cavalry made a detour.

There was nothing he could do about it. Now he had fewer troops, and he could only use his own organizational and firepower advantages to attack the Swedes.

At the same time, he also issued orders to the troops already in Söderköping, leaving only a few people to garrison in the city (Swedish towns themselves are not large), and reinforcements quickly went to the battlefield in Norrköping to support them.

According to estimates, reinforcements will always arrive at the battlefield in the afternoon, and even if the battle is not going well, it can always be delayed for a while.

Although this deployment looks good, it is not easy to predict what will happen on the battlefield.

At least the first round of Russian artillery fire did not cause much chaos to the Swedish army.

"These Swedes don't even have the right uniforms, but the first round of artillery fire failed to disrupt their formation. I have to say that this von Essen has some talent."

Solovyov saw through the telescope the scene of artillery shells passing through the Swedish army's line, often with a bloody mess, and then the line shortened, as if the gap was swallowed up.

"So what should we do in this battle?"

"It looks like I need to personally instruct the infantry in their shooting. I can't just sit here and wait on horseback."

Although he gave the command of the Guards side to the commander of the Semenovsky Regiment, as the commander-in-chief here, he still had the right to command in person at the front, and sitting in the back was not his style.

As the Swedish army approached, their artillery continued to fire.

However, this artillery fire did not cause much damage to the Russian army. The main problem was that their artillery training was very poor. The number of local artillery was small and it was divided into several regiments. Many 6-pound artillery shells flew over the heads of the crowd, or simply drilled into the snow and created craters in the frozen soil.

"That's not bad. I'll go check out the artillery."

But when he arrived at the artillery, he saw a familiar yet somewhat unfamiliar person.

"Tushin, what is your current military rank?"

"Major of Artillery, sir."

"It was only promoted one level. Considering your performance in Shenglaben, it shouldn't be."

"My lord, you say so, but it's still good to be alive, and I can still be in the regiment and be with my brothers."

He was obviously more talkative than before, but he didn't look very good.

When Solovyov saw him, he felt more confident about this artillery position. After all, a reliable officer was commanding these artillery positions here, so he got to the point.

"Major, your artillery company must use the cannons to concentrate firepower and continuously attack the Swedish troops coming from the intersection to distract their attention. I will mobilize the infantry to find a battalion to cover you. Your artillery position is very good, just right for suppressing in two directions. Unless you receive new orders, your artillery only needs to attack the intersection and ignore the rest."

"And what about the Swedish artillerymen in the rear, sir?"

"They can't shoot accurately, and they want you to suppress them. The shells are not that accurate, and it's hard to reach there from this distance."

"Okay, I'll follow your instructions."

"You did well. I'm going to apply for a medal for you this time. You did a great job in Shengraben. I heard from Prince Bagration and Prince Andrei. As for Dürenstein, we also beat the enemy hard back then."

"Yes, but the situations in those two battles were different from now."

"I see. As the saying goes, boots. Now that you've put them on, don't take them off in this cold weather."

After saying this, he rode away from the artillery position on horseback and met at least a familiar grassroots officer.

However, with Russia's bizarre officer system, although he was considered an officer, his career was not very good. When he was noticed by important figures, although he performed very well, there was no follow-up. Over the years, he was only promoted one level.

Such an artillery officer, who is very brave in battle, should not have only one artillery company - although his current company is not bad, with powerful 12-pound cannons.

Tushin's artillery company was indeed very accurate in its shooting. Solid bullets continuously bombarded the Swedish army at a long distance. The carefully selected artillery positions came in handy at this time.

Because von Essen had weak soldiers, his choice was to attack from the front and push forward in a straight line. However, the artillery fire from the Russian army still caused considerable casualties to his troops at the intersection which served as the central axis of the entire front line.

When the Swedish army came into contact with the Russian infantry, they also discovered the problem.

"Damn it, it looks like the Russians are using their elite troops. This doesn't look good for us."

"What shall we do, sir?"

"The battle line needs to turn now. I can feel that the Russians are going to attack one side of us, which is beneficial to them. However, this turn always requires ensuring the safety of the weak side."

He saw through the Russian army's strategy and had to make adjustments. As for the next battle, at least he had more infantry, so he had some guarantee to maintain the width of the front line and the depth of the infantry's attack.

But he wanted to transform into a column, and then into a horizontal formation when engaging in battle, which was exactly what Solovyov wanted.

"Very good, that's what we'll do, and they can go further if they want."

"What are you going to do, Mick?"

Clausewitz himself had some guesses, but he thought it would be better to ask first.

"If the Swedes shorten their front, our cavalry can outflank them and destroy their cavalry reserves, then..."

"We started with an oblique formation. Are you planning to replicate the Battle of Cannae here?" Soloviev said proudly after hearing what the chief of staff said. "But neither of us has that many people. It would be best if we could do this. But I'm worried that today's battle will be inconclusive. For example, if we fight until the afternoon and it gets dark, a night battle will be impossible. We can only try to set up camp on the front line that night and fight the next day."

"It's just that your enemy won't necessarily be fooled now. Moreover, our firepower looks strong. A volley of infantry fire is enough to cause huge damage to the enemy."

"Yes, but they should also know that we are marching on Swedish territory. Have we captured any prisoners?"

"Not yet, what are you going to do?"

"If we catch an officer who knows German, we need to let him know that we don't have enough ammunition, understand?"

"Ah, you and Prince Bagration were taught by the same teacher."

"But it's not quite the same. We really lack some special types of shells, such as grenades for the Unicorn Cannon."

"Is the battle going to be just two days?"

"It will take at least two days to fight. There will be no outpost battle. If we just set up our positions like this, the more enemies there are, the more trouble we will have. I also don't know what the Swedish army is doing in other directions."

In his heart, Solovyov also sent his regards to the hussars who were reconnoitring in the west, at least "to their families".

After all, he missed such a large group of enemies near Linköping. He had never encountered such a reconnaissance mistake before.

That is to say, the Swedish army encountered this time, their combat effectiveness is always relatively weak. If it were the French or British army, he might have to shrink in Norrkoping and wait for follow-up troops to support him.

Moreover, if the scouts sent to scout in other directions also slack off, that would be the most troublesome thing.

Fortunately, what he worried about did not happen. The two infantry regiments stationed in Söderköping finally marched quickly and arrived behind the main force of the Russian army in the afternoon.

"You came at the right time. The Swedes wanted to attack us, but it didn't seem to be going well. Our artillery fire at least played a big role."

"Sir, our soldiers are tired from the fast march, and it's not as easy to find accommodation here as in East Prussia and Poland."

This problem was equally bad for both sides. Fortunately, Solovyov always attached great importance to logistics and always asked the engineers and baggage troops in Norrkoping to bring all the tents here. At least the Russian army had to spend the night here.

"What are you going to do?"

"We don't set up campfires in vain to make the enemy feel that we are numerous. Carl, is it possible to gather the soldiers in fewer places to warm themselves by the fire?"

"What are you doing?"

"You should have noticed the battle example and the story in it that I translated some time ago, right?"

"You mean General Tian and his advisers adopted the method of increasing troops and reducing fortifications to make the pursuing enemy mistakenly believe that their own forces were reduced, right?"

"Besides, during the Battle of the Trebbia, when we were fighting the French, MacDonald set up a fake campfire in an attempt to scare the people when he was escaping."

"But the Grand Marshal discovered his problem and launched a pursuit. It was indeed a glorious victory."

"McDonald did make things worse, but we must be true and false when deploying troops, and we must not let the enemy guess our true intentions. But..."

"We can all cooperate in the performance for the captured Swedish officers."

"Not only the chief of staff, but also our regiment commanders can act with you. After all, it seems that none of us can speak Russian well."

But in fact, the Russian proficiency of these German infantry commanders varied, but it was more convenient to speak German in daily communication.

"Okay, I'll treat you well tonight. Let the kitchen prepare the stew."

"No canned beef, fresh beef."

Heidenreich also negotiated on behalf of several regimental commanders, and Solovyov agreed. "Of course, we have to provide you officers with good supplies, otherwise how can you lead the battle when you return?"

As for the soldiers, they had no objection to using canned meat as the main ingredient for stew. It is indeed rare to find an army like the Russian army that has plenty of pickles, pickled fat and canned beef.

The first day of fighting was indeed anticlimactic. The Swedish army initially prepared to push forward on the front line, but was badly beaten by the Russian artillery fire and the infantry concentrated on one side.

However, because the Swedish army had more infantry, and the wind direction on the battlefield was in favor of the Swedish army after the exchange of fire, if the smoke did not dissipate, even the Russian Guards, who were very accurate in shooting, would be affected.

At the end of the day's battle, Solovyov's idea was to lure the Swedes into a trap the next day.

It turned out that he was considering pushing the Swedes onto the frozen lake, forcing them to learn from the Teutonic Knights and feed the fish in the lake.

However, the Swedish army was crowded together, and it was difficult to drive them onto the ice as planned, whether by outflanking or charging with cavalry. As for blasting open the frozen lake of Austerlitz with artillery, that was just good propaganda. In fact, the place where the French army inflicted the greatest losses on the Russian army that day was not at the frozen lake. It was just that more baggage was lost there.

Now, he had to consider the combat situation of the next day. As for what would happen to the Swedish officers here, he didn't care.

After spending a long time in the Petersburg court, even the most indifferent person would be familiar with the self-cultivation of an actor.

Now, it's his turn to act.

However, whether it can be effective this time depends on how well these team leaders cooperate with him and whether the Swedes will believe it.

At least now the smaller campfires and the denser number of soldiers around them cannot be seen from a distance.

Von Essen just vaguely felt that the Russian troops might have been bluffing during the day.

Although as a relatively talented general in Sweden, he instinctively judged that the Russians would cheat, but the current situation would always affect his judgment.

As for the most important thing, I am afraid that Solovyov’s conspiracy that night was to have a "cease-fire negotiation" with the Swedes and at the same time let both sides withdraw.

He knew very well that von Essen would not agree with this opinion, but in order to make him feel that although the Russian army looks strong at the moment, it is actually "weak", and to make him really believe that this will happen, his acting skills still need to be good.

(End of this chapter)