Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Before the war broke out, Napoleon once said to Metternich.

"The more patient man will eventually triumph, and this is his destiny. We will begin the campaign by crossing the Neman River, and I will end it at Smolensk or Minsk."

His idea was obviously too optimistic. If the Russian army took the initiative to attack, they might fall into his trap. However, in the pre-war plan, the Russian army did have the option of taking the initiative to attack.

Even a conversation between Alexander and Caulaincourt in May 1811 was in fact somewhat prophetic.

At this time, the relationship between France and Russia was already very unstable. The main force of the Russian army had just returned from the Balkan Peninsula and had not yet entered the area near the western border.

The Tsar himself said that by taking advantage of depth and weather, the French would eventually fail.

Although Caulaincourt took the Tsar's words seriously, Napoleon himself probably did not.

Even now, Caulaincourt was beside Napoleon, and he made it very clear.

"Your worries are only going to happen in a long war, Mr. Caulaincourt. Our war this time will end very quickly."

Napoleon was still full of confidence and believed that he would win the war, even though the Tsar's attitude in the letter sent by Balashov was obviously very impolite.

At the same time, Prince Bagration near Grodno was having a heated argument with his junior apprentice.

"Mishka, we should move in the direction of Vilno and try to join up with the 1st Army."

"Have you considered that if we move forward from the Bialystok front, we may run into the French?"

Bagration’s offensive plan was rejected before the war, and this time his direction of action was also such that if he moved forward directly like this, his flank would still be very dangerous.

"I think you know the Frenchman Mishka very well. It may be my problem, but it is the right choice to get closer to Barclay as soon as possible."

"That's true, but this is the terrain of Belarus. We may face the same swamps and forests here as we did in Poland. If we even consider it, we should go east from Grodno and reach Minsk first, and then try to contact Barclay there."

“Mishka, you always like to take the initiative to attack, why do you look at it like this this time?”

Solovyov looked at Polozkin and Clausewitz standing beside him and also made a plan in his mind.

If he went from the direction of Lida, he would always be likely to encounter the French on the road, and from his remaining memories, he also knew that Davout would be in trouble in front of him.

If another French marshal were to command the 1st Army here, given Solovyov's character, he would probably go looking for trouble with Jerome first.

If Napoleon knew what he was thinking, he would probably sigh as well. The most reliable family member was Eugene, but the relative who looked most like him was actually this cheap nephew who had no blood relationship with him at all.

"We will not go to Lida, but advance towards Minsk from Baranovichi in the south, and try not to come into contact with the French on the way. If the enemy occupies Minsk again, we will probably have no choice but to go to Bobruisk. According to the plan made by Barclay and von Toll, if they cannot meet up with us in time, they should go east through Vitebsk."

When reporting these place names, Bagration was also a little surprised. Although Solovyov often traveled to Belarus and Ukraine, the way he reported the place names was like he was strolling in his own backyard, which was indeed quite outrageous.

He didn't know that Solovyov was very familiar with Operation Bagration in 1944. He knew all the stages of the operation, the directions of action of each army group, and how the Germans were torn apart. The same was true for Operation Barbarossa in 1941.

Therefore, he was familiar with attacking or escaping in Belarus, and he had been studying the road conditions in these places for more than ten years.

Although a lot of time was spent on women and children, the serious work was not delayed at all.

"That's it? If you keep running away, that won't do."

"So we also have to consider that we will always come into contact with the French during the march."

The marching column of the 7th Army lagged behind that of the 8th Army, so no one from Rayevsky's headquarters was present there.

Bagration himself was also thinking about the problem. If the action was slower, the French would pursue him very quickly.

It would not be good if he got entangled along the way.

"The French's goal should still be to fight a decisive battle with us and eliminate some of them before the main battle begins. In this way, they can gain an absolute advantage through their superior military strength."

Clausewitz finally spoke, but his Russian sounded awkward. Everyone in the room, even Christian from Mecklenburg, frowned. But it was still much better than the poor Russian that Langgeron spoke when he first came, so everyone could still understand him.

"Yes, Karl and I have been studying this for a long time. We have at least seven or eight combat plans. The reason why all the offensive plans were rejected is that there will always be a large number of French around Warsaw, and their direction of movement will still be directly eastward from Belarus."

Then, just run away, not even for defense, because there will always be people who have ideas at that time.

"Count, what should we do if the enemy is close?"

Saint Prix on the side also spoke up. He was Bagration's chief of staff and a royalist. He was probably one of the few French people who took frontal action at the start of the war.

"They won't get close to us. When they camp close to us, we can run away at night."

Saint-Prix didn't say much. He knew that the commander had a lot of ideas. Both the French and the Russians liked to cheat, and the Russians might be even more cunning.

Solovyov also considered ways to scare people, such as increasing troops and reducing kitchens or reducing troops and increasing kitchens. In short, it would definitely fool people in the end.

But in the end, it all depends on real ability, and discussions here always have several directions. "If we leave, we can't retreat beyond Smolensk in the end. If we have to fight, the final battle site will probably be chosen there."

Bagration still persisted in his opinion and pointed at the map with his whip.

"Emmanuel, you must now convey the order to have Rayevsky's troops turn to Baranovichi and change the marching order of the troops. The 8th Army will cover the retreat of the rest of the corps between Lida and Grodno."

For Solovyov, this was what he wanted. At least he persuaded Bagration to change the original marching route with just a few words.

But he didn't know what he would encounter. It was obviously not a good idea to encounter the vigorous Davout. If he wanted to take action in the early stages of the war, he would have to choose to avoid it. There were too many French people, and their number was almost catching up with the Turks.

That's how it is. For any commander of the Russian army, as long as he still has his sanity, he will naturally choose to run away.

But the Russian officers and soldiers will definitely complain if they retreat without any action.

When the order reached the 2nd Grenadier Division, these veterans took the lead in blowing up the temple.

In their view, Bagration, who is brave and good at fighting and has a solid defense like a rock, and Solovyov, who is cunning and moves as fast as the wind, are a combination of brothers who can attack or defend. The average quality of the generals of the 2nd Army is also stronger than that of the friendly forces on both wings.

It is indeed unreasonable to move eastward without firing a single shot. It would be good even if we could proactively find the enemy in some places and fight a rearguard battle.

Then, on his way to the garrison on horseback, Solovyov was stopped by some veteran grenadiers.

"Sir, we have to tell you the truth from the bottom of our hearts. Since the French are coming, we old soldiers will fight bravely for the emperor and Russia. But what suggestions do you have? You want to retreat eastward without firing a shot. This is not like you. When we were fighting with Sweden and the Turks, you always took the initiative to attack, and you acted as quickly as the generalissimo himself. We defeated 10 Swedes and 20 Turks. It's not good to do this now!"

"Brothers, I understand your thoughts."

When Solovyov saw these old soldiers coming over to complain to him, he also stopped riding his horse, but dismounted and walked among the soldiers.

Although these soldiers were still resting at this time, they always maintained a certain formation, leaving some space for Solovyov, at least allowing him to speak here more smoothly.

"Brothers, you have seen that the French claim to have 60 people, and they may really have this number. But have you ever thought about it? How many poods of food will so many people eat, and how many poods of grass will the horses eat? Facing an enemy that far outnumbers us, we naturally cannot take the initiative to attack. The quality of the enemy this time is much better than those rubbish soldiers we encountered before, and may even be as good as the French we encountered in 1806. We have fought with them in Pultusk, in Eylau, and on the banks of the Neman River, and we know how powerful they are. Since this enemy is so difficult to deal with, brothers, we should be like hunting, catching an old wolf, we must consume its strength, and it will be easier to catch it in the end."

The atmosphere among the veterans listening to him was obviously no longer the same as before.

Seeing some effect, Solovyov continued speaking.

"Brothers, we must go inland and let the Turks kill the horses for meat, as Kutuzov did, and drive the exhausted enemies down the mountain like sheep, just as we did in Greece. How can we do this? We must take away all the people along the way who are willing to go with us, and leave no food for the French. If they have too much water, they can drink muddy water in the swamps until they are full. Such enemies, even if they seem invincible at first, will eventually become weak. Then, it will be time for us to defeat them."

He continued to speak, and it was obvious that these veterans were still willing to listen to him, which was always good.

If the action continues, there may still be calls for a decisive battle among the Russian army, and they will still need to be appeased in the future.

Now it is these soldiers, and in the future they may be replaced by officers and generals.

Anyway, it's not an easy life. The Russian 2nd Army also began its journey of retreating eastwards.

This disappointed Davout, who had initially understood the situation. After he led the 1st Army to set out, his goal was to deal with the 2nd Army which was closer to him.

After all, he also knew that Jerome was unreliable and was always slow on the march. His team was not entirely made up of regular French troops but also a large number of miscellaneous ones.

He was entrusted with such an important task only because he was the only obedient brother of Napoleon who was still in the army.

The French vanguard cavalry had to constantly be harassed by the Russian light cavalry, while also having to pay attention to the poor terrain here.

When they arrived in Grodno, they saw the burning camp, which was empty except for cans, glass bottles, and some broken bones.

It was obvious that the Russians retreated very quickly, and the direction of their movement was not what Davout had hoped for.

But he couldn't care less. The French army had to continue advancing eastward and try to catch up with the Russians.

When the news reached Napoleon, he had no expression. Since even the Russian 2nd Army, whose generals fought more actively, had fled, it was obvious that in order to defeat the main force of the Russian army, they had to go deeper inland, into the heart of Russia.

Now he was going to enter Vilno. Only the Guards and some heavy cavalry were allowed to enter the city. The local Lithuanian nobles also presented the keys to the city, so the French entered here without any effort.

But the Russian troops had all fled, and even though the war had just begun, there were almost no Russian soldiers left behind. There were, however, Cossacks and Hussars who constantly roamed around the French marching columns, and might launch a surprise attack from time to time.

This form of warfare is obviously the type of action that the French army hates the most.

As for Napoleon himself, the four pontoon bridges he had built across the Neman River were still crossed by a steady stream of French marching columns.

Since he had chosen to reject Alexander's request, a large-scale war was inevitable.

An army of 60 marched into Russia in a mighty force, chasing after the 25 Russian troops who were on the retreat. They were about to go deep into the unknown Russian land which had always been mysterious to Western European countries. The war that awaited them was very different from previous wars. A war that went against the original intention of mankind and human nature broke out on Russian soil.

At this time, it was the summer of 1812, when Napoleon's -strong army invaded Russia.
Solovyov even had the military band play the drums of "French invaders" during the march, and the drum beats sounded like the French invasion. (End of this chapter)