Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

French troops appeared near Minsk. They arrived so quickly that it was somewhat unexpected.

But considering that Dawu has always been quick in action, and the soldiers scolded him, but he still did his own thing, it is not surprising that he came here.

But no one knew how many men he had, and when Bagration called a meeting of his generals, young Paskevich and Christian proposed an attack.

The former is indeed the youngest of the main division commanders at present, and has the ruthlessness of a newborn calf that is not afraid of a tiger; the latter is not only a royal relative, but also Solovyov's brother-in-law. The two have fought together many times, so naturally they also have some spirit of taking the initiative to attack.

Even when Christian put forward his opinion, he was still looking at Solovyov, hoping that he could provide some support.

But Solovyov did not say anything. He was studying the map and comparing the distances. He seemed to be oblivious to his brother-in-law's request for help.

Laevsky, who was sitting next to him, had already noticed that Solovyov, such a bellicosity guy, had, contrary to his usual practice, not adopted an offensive strategy since the stage of formulating the battle plan for the war against France.

"Misha, what's wrong with you?"

"I'm paying attention to the distance on the map. If we turn from Mogilev to Vitebsk, we may be able to take advantage of the forest terrain in Orsha and take the initiative to fight the French."

"You still want to fight?"

When Laevsky heard what he said, he always felt that there was something interesting. At least this was Suvorov's last disciple, a young famous general who had repeatedly defeated the enemy with fewer troops.

But Solovyov was not happy and continued to mark the picture with red and blue pencils.

He completely ignored the main generals and Bagration on the other side of the map table. He just wanted to estimate his own marching route.

"Why are you so unhappy?"

At this moment, Layevsky was possessed by a lawless gangster and was almost turning into Mr. Zhang Sanye.

"Nikolai Nikolayevich, I think it's better not to fight."

"what?"

Bagration knew that Solovyov's idea was a fantasy to lure the enemy deep into his territory and let the French in to destroy them, but his idea was too outrageous, and in the end they had to retreat to Mozhaysk to fight again.

Although he did give a premise, he just pointed out many places on the road to Smolensk and Minsk, and Mozhaysk was just the last line of defense.

Those who have heard him talk about this theory, or who have met Suvorov himself and are relatively familiar with him, would probably think that this disciple of his has begun to abstract himself madly by learning from his master.

"If we just rush into an attack for the sake of temporary gains, our divisions will have to gather together, and even passing on messages will take time. If the divisions, brigades, and regiments are not well coordinated, something bad will happen."

After hearing this, Laevsky nodded. Although there were many brave generals in the Russian army, everyone had some brains. If Bagration did not show his ID card, with his tricks, people might think he was a relative of the old Khan near Tieling.

After hearing this, the people nearby naturally felt that this guy with a good brain might be able to come up with some truth.

"What are you going to do?"

"If we come up with a plan, let's just call it a plan, we should march to Mogilev. We may even need to abandon this axis. If we really want to take action, we should go between Smolensk and Vitebsk. The French will definitely catch up with us."

"What if they stop?"

"We only stopped to rest temporarily. Nikolai Nikolayevich, Napoleon is my uncle. I have met him many times. I was also in the wedding procession of Her Highness Catherine. He also invited me to dinner at the Palace of Versailles. I may know more about him in this regard."

From a psychological point of view, naturally the Tsar himself may have had a deeper understanding during the two negotiations.

But from the perspective of soldiers and relatives, it is another matter.

Besides, Solovyov also slept with Napoleon's favorite sister and had two children with her, which can be said to be the biggest victory over the Bonaparte family so far.
But this matter is not something that can be mentioned, although everyone knows that Solovyov is "moderately proud" when it comes to women, and there are even people who know more, such as Clausewitz.

"What will happen?"

"He always pursues brilliant military victories. Even if they are not, he may brag about them through the Grand Army Bulletin. Otherwise, we would not often see strange things."

Everyone nodded in agreement with this point.

"Now, he wants to defeat the main force of our army through a major battle, so that the emperor can sit down at the negotiation table with him again. However, this time, we Russians, from top to bottom, are still united in hatred of the enemy. Since the Poles entered Moscow to support the False Dimitri, it has been a long time since the enemy broke in like this. We naturally have to fight them to the end. We can't be like the Austrians, who are ready to ask for peace when they are beaten to Vienna."

Although this statement also took into consideration many officers from Prussia, thinking about Napoleon's performance in Europe in the past few years, they were indeed a little scared, which led to many people having no confidence to fight against Napoleon.

"We can't negotiate with them. Since they have come to our home, we can't negotiate with the French unless we drive them out."

Paskevich said this because his home is relatively close and if he is not careful he might be harmed.

This is not only true for the 2nd Army, but also for the 1st Army. Their hometowns and industries will be more or less threatened by the French army.

Unlike previous wars in which people went abroad to help allies, this time everyone was involved, even those whose homes were in more distant Ryazan and Simbirsk, or even farther away, and whose interests seemed to be relatively distant from the war. They would not know whether the French would directly attack their hometown in the future, or how they would be affected by the war.

Therefore, Russian soldiers fought hard when they went abroad, and even more so at this time.

"Yes, Vanya, but we have to fight now, and we still have to consider how to defeat the enemy in the end. You know, Hannibal even won a brilliant victory like the Battle of Cannae, but he was defeated in the Battle of Zama in the end, and ended up fleeing to a foreign country and committing suicide by falling on his sword."

"How can we win?" Paskevich asked on behalf of the generals who advocated war. Solovyov was not in a hurry and just said slowly: "Have you read the Gallic Wars carefully?"

Bagration wanted to laugh when he looked at his junior fellow apprentice, because at the critical moment he would start to show off his knowledge and use his rich knowledge to defeat the enemy.

"We are not like you, reading when we have nothing to do."

Of course, he also likes women, although sometimes he is not proactive.
"I noticed in Caesar's Gallic Wars that he often had to send in more troops to make up for past mistakes after local failures due to the rebellion of the Gauls. What we need to do is to mobilize the French and wear down their strength, or weaken them to the point where we have a chance to defeat them head-on. If Napoleon fails to achieve his strategic goal, he will probably pursue us quickly. As our army moves deeper into the inland, we will probably have a chance to defeat them."

If this goal could not be achieved, Napoleon would definitely pursue it. This probably shows that Napoleon's psychology was fully understood.

Fighting a war is not necessarily all about strategic and tactical skills, you also have to figure out the opponent's mentality. It's not just about strength, but also about intelligence.

"What now?"

"If we don't engage in a fight with the enemy in Minsk, even if we defeat Davout, it won't do us much good. It's just the elimination of a part of the enemy. You have to know that Davout was a marshal under Napoleon who had independent command capabilities. Although he didn't achieve any brilliant victories in the battle against Prussia, he also dealt a heavy blow to the Prussian army in the pursuit. We have also experienced his strength in Poland and East Prussia. If it weren't for him in Eylau, we might have had a chance to really frustrate Napoleon instead of eventually withdrawing to this side of the Neman River."

"Mishka, you mean no fight?"

"Yes, Peter Ivanovich, we will retreat according to the plan, but the Minsk route is no longer feasible. We will head towards Mogilev next. If a small group of enemies pursues us, we can bite them back. If there are too many enemies, we will continue to retreat. In short, our goal is to merge with the 1st Army. As long as the main force is still there, we can still fight the enemy. Don't be hasty. Some people in our army have started to get sick, and the French should be the same, or even worse."

In short, Solovyov's analysis was quite logical, and he had already begun to talk about the current situation of the 8th Army.

Few soldiers fell behind or fled, but non-combat casualties due to draftees did begin to increase. Even in some places that were exposed, there were still some shortages due to the young nobles, civilians, and serfs who voluntarily joined the army.

But the situation is not serious yet. The situation on the French side is probably still not optimistic.

He said this to give the 2nd Army some confidence that they would definitely fight in the future and the ultimate goal was to win.

But in order to win, you always have to prepare in advance.

If we pursue temporary gains now and take action just because an isolated enemy unit is approaching without considering the situation on the battlefield, we may end up in even greater trouble.

After Davout entered Minsk, he could rely on this city. Even though he already had heavy artillery at that time, sieges or battles near cities were always a big problem for the armies of various countries.

Moreover, due to the previous scorched earth tactics, the Russian army took away the supplies from the towns along the French army's march, and if they return to attack the French army, they may also face supply difficulties.

What is more fatal is that the time advantage they had gained by leaving the French behind might be lost due to a moment of carelessness.

This is absolutely unacceptable. A "Little Zhuge" named Bai thought that he had successfully stolen a chicken at Qingshuping and could do it again next time. However, the final result was that the center of the army was destroyed and the entire army was eaten up by Pac-Man.

It is worth remembering that Solovyov was not the kind of player who liked to steal the enemy's territory. In his previous battles, he would only take action when he had gained a local advantage. This way, he was able to defeat the larger force with a smaller one at least twice.

In this battle against France, he was obviously much more cautious and put forward his own opinions.

".In short, the purpose of the Second Army's operations must still be subject to the overall strategic plan. We cannot just go to Minsk or wherever there is an enemy and attack. The army must still maintain mobility, which will give it some advantages."

As for the location of the battle, if it really has to be fought, it will have to be on the axis from Moscow to Smolensk.

After hearing this, Bagration finally made up his mind.

"We are not fighting in Minsk. Now we are trying to find a way to get to Vitebsk. There is always a chance to join forces."

He then wrote a letter to Yermolov, who was acting as Chief of Staff of the 1st Army, to express his attitude, and soon sent a messenger.

Grand Duke Constantine was accompanying Alexander at this time, and the Guards were commanded by Lieutenant General Lavrov. When they arrived near the Drissa camp, they also discovered the problem.

Apparently, what General von Thor did was to cut corners, which was consistent with what Bennigsen said.

As a result, they could not use the field fortifications in this place to fight the French army, and even the strategic plan had to be changed. Barclay, who accompanied the Tsar here, was not in a good mood.

He still maintained command of the 1st Army. Since Drissa was no longer capable, he had to choose to continue retreating. It seemed that it was a good option to join up with the 2nd Army in Vitebsk or some other area.

Especially at this time, the French actually dropped the ball.

The French army, which had always been in hot pursuit of Napoleon, began to suffer from a large number of soldiers falling behind and deserting in front of Napoleon due to various problems, and some even starved to death due to lack of supplies.

The biggest feature of Russia is that it has a vast territory and a sparse population. It would be fine to obtain supplies here if the locals were still in their own villages.

In fact, once these people were hidden in camps in the woods, it would have been a worse place for the French than East Prussia or Poland.

If the French army were in Central Europe, it might not have such difficulty in supply. Even when they were in Italy, there were abundant resources and they were often served with good wine and meat.

Now they are marching into the interior of Russia. This place is indeed vast and rich in resources, but it is also a bit desolate. There are only a few things they need, and it is unlikely that food can grow in the black soil now.

Because of this, the French army, which had always moved quickly, even slowed down its march in some areas, so that Napoleon had to consider slowing down the march or even resting on the spot in some places.

At times like this, it is indeed helpful to escape. (End of this chapter)