Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

The rifle bullet always makes a small hole, the artillery shell always makes a large hole, but there are more times when they miss.

Although the Russian army was "attacking", their formation was maintained very tight, which made von Essen alert. However, the development of the battle situation seemed different from what he worried about.

In the past, the Russian army would be more proactive in launching bayonet charges. During the fighting in the past two days, it is obvious that the Russian army did not maintain this habit. Instead, they fought more steadily. If it had happened in Gävle or Uppsala, the situation might have been completely different.

In this case, some commanders in the Swedish army have indeed become more proactive. Since the Russian army does not actively launch bayonet charges, the attack seems to be more advantageous for the Swedes who have a numerical advantage.

They also noticed that the firepower density of the Russian grenadiers, who usually had fierce firepower, dropped significantly today, which looked like a good opportunity.

Von Essen could sense it, and even now he was wondering: Is there really something wrong with the Russians?
This conjecture seems reliable and even close to what the Swedes want.

Although the Russian artillery fire seemed active during the battle, the infantry did not advance much, and even retreated actively after the Swedish infantry began their attack.

At this time, according to conventional combat methods, the Swedes must indeed speed up their attack.

"Sir, in which direction should we send our follow-up troops to attack?"

"It looks like the Russian grenadiers' firepower is much weaker than yesterday. Let's move forward from here."

He also let go. After all, he had to fight to the death and could not waver in his determination here.

Changing the resolution to fight again and again will only lead to doomed failure. It is better to consider taking the initiative to attack at this time and regain the initiative.

Since he thought so, he sent out all his troops.

It seems that the pressure on the front line is also relatively high for the Russian army.

Each infantry regiment felt the pressure and began to retreat one after another, but the troops' retreat was still relatively orderly, and their ultimate goal was to fall within the range of the Russian artillery support.

"Mick, don't you think this is a bad idea? Our front is being squeezed by the Swedes. Even if we really want to lure the enemy in, we should fight them for a while before moving on. If we retreat slowly like this, will the enemy see through us?"

"If he sees through it, wouldn't it be convenient for us to attack him? Karl, after all, our army has the advantage in firepower, and it's not like we're really short of ammunition."

As soon as he finished speaking, he heard an explosion coming from the Swedes' side.

"It looks like there's something wrong with the Swedish artillery position, but we'll continue with our original plan."

The Russian army was still retreating slowly, so the Swedish army continued to pursue.

But looking at Tushen at the artillery position, he felt a little anxious.

"What's going on today? Brothers, aim at the Swedish infantry and fire!"

Although the accuracy of the Russian artillery fire had declined compared to the first day, it was still much better than that of the Swedish artillery fire, not to mention that one of their ammunition trucks had exploded.

For most Swedish artillery, there is no need to worry about this.

Solovyov was still letting the Swedish infantry advance further, and at this moment he was also paying attention to the situation of the cavalry on both sides.

"Why won't they let the cavalry in?"

"You are finally getting anxious. Our cavalry are on the same side, but von Essen has not yet moved the cavalry forward."

"The strategy of luring the enemy remains the same, but it seems that we need to retreat further to leave room for the artillery to fire shotgun shells."

"I think so. Do you want me to give the order?"

Clausewitz's question soon drew Solovyov's agreement.

"Go, send a messenger to tell the troops below that our infantry will retreat to the firing line to leave room for the artillery to open fire."

When the Swedish army finally approached the Russian army's newly selected line, they were hit by shotgun shells.

Seeing that things were going smoothly before, but now there are some setbacks, von Essen finally decided to bring out the cavalry and several cavalry regiments to join the battle.

"Your Excellency, look over there, the Swedish cavalry is moving."

"He moves just right!"

After looking through the telescope, Solovyov finally made up his mind to put his first-line cavalry into battle after the Swedish cavalry came up.

"And what about the reserves?"

"Reserve Team"

Solovyov thought about it and then took out a mirror.

Clausewitz didn't expect that he could do this. He actually looked in the mirror on the battlefield and asked.

"Mick, what are you looking in the mirror for?"

"It's okay like this, my eyebrows are not thick enough."

Clausewitz had not expected him to say this, so he asked, "What does this have to do with eyebrows?"

"It really doesn't matter. The reserve troops won't move. Let's see what results our cavalry can achieve."

Therefore, the regular cavalry of the Russian army had already begun to take action at this time. They had to wait for the Swedish cavalry to approach the flank of the Russian infantry regiment before they could deploy.

This was a bait on the battlefield. In fact, the grenadiers had sufficient firepower. When the Swedish cavalry approached, they also formed a hollow square formation, but it was a modified version.

When the Swedish cavalry rushed forward, they would also be subjected to fierce fire from the long sides of the hollow square.

At this time, von Essen immediately realized that this was a huge trap and the Russians were indeed extremely cunning.

He was the one who was most on guard against Russia's "tricks" on the battlefield, but he didn't expect that he was so hard to guard against here and there were actually hidden tricks.

The intensive firepower quickly knocked the Swedish cavalry that rushed up to the front off their horses. Even the Russian artillery only had time to deal with the infantry and failed to turn their guns around.

After the Swedish cavalry was severely damaged, the Russian cavalry and several light cavalry regiments were mobilized, chasing and killing the defeated Swedish cavalry while trying to cut off the Swedish army's retreat and attack the infantry guns and command organs behind them. This time, they hit the pain point. When von Essen saw the Russian cavalry coming from the flank, he had to move his command closer to the infantry in front.

At the same time, Solovyov, who was rather stingy in using his reserve troops, finally gave orders to the Tatars.

"Menglik, Mahamu, each of you leads your cavalry to pass between our infantry formations and attack the Swedish infantry. But remember, once the Swedish infantry form an infantry square, do not fight to the death. Just use bows and muskets to kill them and try to protect yourself!"

When the two heard this, they led their respective regiments to join the battle.

As for the Tatars and Kalmyks joining the battle, although it looked strange, their bows and arrows still had a certain killing effect on ordinary infantry without armor at medium and long distances.

So the Swedish infantry felt how the Hungarian cavalry and the Russian principalities were crushed by the Mongolian cavalry.

Although this was just a typical miniature version, after two rounds of arrow rain, many Swedish infantrymen were shot and fell.

As for the Crimean Tatars who were firing muskets, they dared to get closer and attack with the pistols they carried during the breaks in the Swedish infantry's firing.

After a fierce exchange of fire, although there were more Swedish infantry, their movements were compressed into a not-so-wide area.

The Russian army had regular cavalry behind them, Russian infantry in front, and in between were harassments from Tatar cavalry and constant bombardment from Russian artillery.

Under such circumstances, the Swedish infantry phalanxes were broken one by one. The situation was relatively stalemate in the morning, but in the afternoon the Swedish army began to collapse.

It is impossible to completely annihilate the enemy. After all, there are tens of thousands of enemies on the battlefield. Even if you put them in a sheepfold, you can never catch them all.

The scattered Swedish soldiers soon filled the road to Linköping, and the Russian army now began to pursue them.

Until the end, the Semenovsky Regiment was unable to be deployed to the battlefield, and the Russian army achieved a great victory while still having reserves on hand.

Von Essen was lucky enough to escape from the fleeing soldiers. As for the regimental commanders who actively sought to fight, many of them were captured by the Russian army because they had no time to escape in the infantry formation.

What was even more unfortunate was that his head was cut off by the Kalmyk cavalry and brought directly to Solovyov.

This included Amfelt, who had been defeated before. Solovyov did not expect that he would die in this way.

"Monlik Bater, what's going on?"

"One of my battalions saw a man wearing a general's uniform and shot him in the eye with a wolf-tooth arrow. Because he was afraid he wouldn't be found in the chaos, he brought him to you."

"He was a relatively high-ranking figure in the Swedish court, and he was a baron. His great-grandfather had followed Charles XII to fight against Peter the Great, and he died just like that?"

"This is also what happens on the battlefield. The Battelle here rarely cut off the heads of the enemy."

"It's alright, I'll kill him, and you can do with his head as well."

Anyway, Solovyov's command had relatively few troops left because the infantry and cavalry had gone out to pursue the Swedish army.

No one would pay attention to the head of an enemy general, so they just turned the page on this article.

It was only because of the Kalmyk people's beliefs that Solovyov didn't know for a long time what kind of strange thing Amfelt's head had become.

He was not as cautious as before, because there were more enemies on the battlefield this time, so he chose to focus on the attack and pursue them quickly. However, the Swedes could not resist and collapsed directly.

We can't even worry about what happens in Stockholm. At least we have to quickly control Linköping and block the intersection here.

The British troops and some scattered Swedish troops who were originally planned to provide support would soon learn that von Essen had been defeated this time.

This was considered a relatively good battle among the Swedish army. After the expansion of its forces, the Swedish army, whose quality became worse, fought for at least two days before it collapsed. Moreover, with more than 30,000 people, even after counting the final number, Solovyov only killed half of the enemy on the edge of the forest near Linköping.

The strategic initiative is in the hands of the Russian army, and now Solovyov can choose the next target of attack according to his own wishes.

However, after defeating the enemy and repelling a large group of Swedish troops, he chose to send cavalry to Jönköping and Västergötland to conduct reconnaissance and see what the Swedish army was doing there.

At the same time, the victory was reported to Stockholm. Bennigsen had already set out for the Swedish capital. He also had to gather a large army and prepare to move south when the ice and snow gradually melted to attack the remaining forces of Sweden and Britain.

After all, the Swedes were only half destroyed in this battle. If they regroup, unite with the British army, and sign a formal armistice agreement with Denmark, they will still be able to fight.

But it’s hard to say how the fight will turn out in the end.

After receiving the news of the failure on the front line, Gustav IV was now stunned. He had originally expected von Essen to win a victory, but the result was another failure.

If it weren't for the average quality of the Swedish soldiers that allowed them to run faster, I'm afraid the Russian army would have launched a large-scale annihilation war that was rare in the era of line warfare.

More than 30,000 people fled to the vicinity of Jönköping. In the end, von Essen only took in more than 14,000 people, whose morale was low and most of them had abandoned their weapons.

If the fight continues like this, I'm afraid the Swedish army will have to change to the fighting style of the era of Gustav II, using spear phalanxes in front of the infantry to fight the enemy.

Under such circumstances, Gustav IV could only hope to temporarily place the command in the hands of Sir Moore. Although this man had always been at odds with him, what he said now seemed to be correct.

At this time, the British and Swedish coalition forces finally avoided interference from the monarch and had unified command. At the same time, the British continued to provide funds and weapons and equipment to Sweden.

At least the weapons used by the Swedish army now are no different from the British "Brown Bess", which can be regarded as standardization of weapons.

The British Army itself had a huge stockpile of weapons at home because of the large number of colonial troops stationed outside, which were usually stored in warehouses. This way there was no problem in supplying their allies or arming their own troops.

In the end, the Swedish army became a force armed with British weapons, but it also looked weird.

As the British artillery can only provide relatively few heavy guns, the Swedish army can only make do with 6-pound guns.

But the loss of cavalry was too great, and it was not realistic for the British to unload another batch of cavalry in Gothenburg.

You know, Napoleon's campaign in Spain has been going on, and the British are also going to send troops to Portugal, commanded by Arthur Wellesley, also known as Wellington.

Unable to spare more cavalry, they could only rely on Moore's troops, the relatively high-quality King of England's German Legion.

We can’t send any more reinforcements. Otherwise, we’ll have to send several Scottish regiments and Coldstream Guards, and then the Boy Scouts will be the only ones left in the UK. (End of this chapter)