Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

At the same time, the 1st Army and the 2nd Army were still retreating towards Vitebsk.

When Solovyov looked at the map, he had a sense of déjà vu. They were all retreating to places like Vitebsk and Bobruisk. If there was a counterattack in the future, they would probably take this route.

However, the enemies in Minsk are indeed more difficult to deal with.

If he ran into Davout, it would probably be in line with Napoleon's intention, and it would seem like he was walking into a trap.

However, the Russian army did not know that after the failed pursuit in the Battle of Mir and the trick played by the French vassal army in Grodno, Napoleon angrily rebuked Jerome and asked Davout to coordinate the actions of these armies.

Jerome felt humiliated and returned to Kassel.

At the same time, the commander of the Westphalian army was replaced by Junot, Napoleon's former loyal follower.

According to Napoleon's principle of employing people, it still depends on their confidants and abilities. Marmont and Junot had both followed him since Toulon. To be honest, apart from his classmates in the military academy, the one who was closest to him was probably Joubert, who was killed by the Russian army in Novi. They were in the same regiment and had known each other before the Revolution.

But Juno's ability is indeed limited. Marmont is a guy whose personality fluctuates a lot but whose ability is still there. In the end, he should be loyal but turns out to be disloyal.

But he is in Spain, and the old soldier Massena is also there.

This guy Bernadotte has now been given a sinecure and is squatting in the rear of Poland with Augereau.

His fortune always goes in different directions depending on what happens.

Recently, apart from the war between Russia and France, probably Britain and the United States have been fighting again, and it was the United States that took the initiative to declare war on Britain.

It’s just ridiculous that the Americans wanted to go to war, but they didn’t know that Britain had made concessions by lifting its trade ban on the United States a few days before the declaration of war.

This was purely a misunderstanding caused by poor communication technology. Even a transatlantic express ship could not immediately deliver the message to the United States.

It's just that the Americans' conscription progress is slow. Although there are a large number of militias, the mobilization speed of the US military is indeed very slow. This caused a headache for Moreau, who was hired as a consultant there.

He even wrote a letter to Bernadotte, saying that it was a miracle that an American ship was not intercepted by the British while crossing the Atlantic.

This is the current situation. There are actually two groups of big countries fighting each other. The Qing Dynasty is still idle at the moment. Maybe next year the Tianli Church will make a big move in the Forbidden City.

Having said that, the Russian army naturally didn't know about the personnel changes in France, and that Britain was about to start a war with the United States. They just fought the French step by step.

After Davout entered Minsk, the Russian army also moved across the board. Solovyov's troops still served as the corps' rear guard. He let Neverovsky guard the rear, Christian led the grenadiers in the second, and put Vorontsov in the front.

No matter what, we can't always let others take on the task of luring the enemy.

Moreover, Vorontsov's troops were strengthened because some militiamen joined the army along the way. The casualties and soldiers who fell behind in Grodno were compensated to a certain extent.

"Mikhail Sergeyevich, you never seem to have much interest in England."

"How should I put it? I may be somewhat hostile to Britain, unlike your father, who has some favorable feelings towards Britain."

When Vorontsov heard this, he was a smart man and quickly realized that it was not easy for Solovyov to make friends with the British. Although he knew the Prince of Wales, he was not friendly to the British House of Lords, the House of Commons, and the cabinet.

And the grudge lies with the stupid British ambassador and what happened in the past.

Coupled with Dai Ying's attribute of liking to get involved everywhere, he is indeed unlikable.

In the future, if France is defeated, Britain will probably benefit the most.

Then, once they discover that Russia's power is expanding, they will definitely make trouble. At that time, they will drag Austria into Russia's arms and naturally become its opponent.

Even if Russia fails to defeat France this time and Napoleon still maintains his power, Britain may also use Russia, which will not end well.

In short, we must find a way to seize the initiative. Even now it seems that Solovyov has already started preparing for the next European competition in his brain, but this is not the earliest preparation.

After all, there are still two powerful countries, Austria and Prussia. They are already preparing for the next anti-French alliance. Now under the command of the French army, the troops they have dispatched can be said to be doing nothing.

Schwarzenberg of Austria was born like this, but for York on the northern front, it was a different story.

They were all French vassal troops at this time, and after entering Vilno, the French army began to recruit soldiers locally, and at one time they had gathered 25,000 people.

It sounds a bit confusing. Napoleon had the leisure to prepare these things. Solovyov didn't believe it at first.

It was not until they left Minsk and continued their rapid advance across the Berezina River towards Mogilev that some changes occurred.

The 8th Army was equipped with cuirassiers, which would certainly be inconvenient to use for counter-reconnaissance, and the same problem existed when used as scouts.

Therefore, when Lieutenant General Dolokhov joined the 2nd Army with his Izyum Hussar Regiment, Solovyov specifically asked Bagration for this regiment.

The general also knew that his nephew, who was extremely bold and capable of doing whatever he wanted but still very capable, had such an acquaintance who was both a friend and not really a friend.

Solovyov tried to get close to him and also mentioned Dolokhov.

"My nephew aside, if you need an old hussar to keep an eye out for prying eyes, you've got the right man."

"Yes, we are still in the process of retreating. We just need to be careful as a rear guard to see if the enemy is following us."

“Although my group has recruited a lot of young people, they are all good guys who are willing to do anything.”

"Then I'll be thanking you for your hard work until we get to Vitebsk and return to the 4th Army."

"What's so hard about this? We are all serving the emperor. Besides, you are an acquaintance of my nephew, so I can still help him. I heard that when you were still a lieutenant, you helped him get out of trouble."

"That's true, but it happened a long time ago, so it's not worth mentioning." Solovyov thought about it. Dolokhov was really a person. He would remember things that were good for him, but he would hold grudges for some trivial things, and he was also very good at making trouble. He was even more troublesome than that kid Fyodor Tolstoy.

After all, Fyodor would go through thick and thin for his friends, causing trouble but not holding a grudge, which is still a good thing.

General Dolokhov quickly assigned tasks to his hussars.

The Russian army's advance along the way was indeed far ahead of the French, but there were always some strange things behind the scenes.

After Lieutenant General Dolokhov arranged for scouts to go down, they soon discovered something was wrong.

"Sir, there are a few friendly troops who claim to be stragglers. They claim to be from the 12th Division, but the clothes they wear and the logo do not look like they are from the 2nd Army. They look like they are from the 1st Army."

The words of these hussars immediately made the experienced old Dolokhov alert.

"Call them all over here and we'll see what's going on."

The Hussars were usually quite bold, and they were quite careless at this moment. It was strange that they could get mixed up with these people.

Lieutenant General Dolokhov also discovered something fishy when he saw it.

After all, the 1st Army was retreating quickly from Vilna, and there were always some people who fell behind.

These guys don't look like French people in makeup, their Russian accents are very interesting, and their armbands seem to come from several different infantry and cavalry regiments, including chasseurs, ordinary infantry, and even hussars and dragoons.

"Tell me, you guys should be moving from the north of Minsk, how come you are here, and you have horses. If it were someone else, they would have been paralyzed, but you are unlucky to have met me, Ivan Dolokhov. All of my hussars are good scouts and are familiar with the insignia of each regiment. Even if we can't recognize them, there are still some people in the 8th Army who are familiar with these operations. You are really making a wrong calculation if you want to sneak in."

Seeing that they were found out, these people immediately became timid.

"Sir, we are really soldiers who have fallen behind. We were just caught by the French, and they gave us money to find out the movements of various armies."

"For two dollars, you sold your dignity? Even the poorest serfs in the countryside know which masters are good and which are bad. They can distinguish right from wrong. If the master treats them badly, can they run away? You guys don't look like peasants captured from the countryside to serve as soldiers. You're not as good as the peasants who grow crops!"

At this point, Lieutenant General Dolokhov was still a little angry, and began to whip these people with a whip.

Mrs. Soloviev was nearby and heard the wailing and screaming, so she rode over with a few followers and saw Lieutenant General Dolokhov's imitation of the outlaw.

"What are you doing?"

"Misha, you're here just in time. Take a look at these guys. They are from the 1st Army Group. They claim that they were captured and left behind, and the French sent them here to be spies."

When Solovyov heard this, he couldn't quite believe his ears.

Although there were countries that recruited foreigners to serve in their own armies during this era, these were generally third-party armies when two sides were at war.

Considering its nature, the royalist army is not a puppet army.

This is something we have never seen before. Solovyov actually encountered an advanced version of the puppet army in Tsarist Russia.

After asking carefully, I found out that after Napoleon established the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, he began to recruit soldiers locally, and many people were willing to join at one time.

What was somewhat unexpected was that some Russian soldiers who fell behind along the way, either under duress or voluntarily surrendered to the enemy, had already fallen into the hands of the French. They were considered an army of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania under the command of the current large French army.

After listening to their words, Solovyov still looked friendly, unlike Lieutenant General Dolokhov who was so vicious.

This made these people seem a little relaxed. They even knew the name of this young general. He was famous for his tolerance and sometimes treated enemy prisoners with kindness, even releasing them when there was not enough food on the battlefield.

They even had some expectations. After all, there was still a lenient general in the Russian army. If all of them were like Dolokhov, even a hundred lives would not be enough to be whipped by his whip.

"I know everything about you. Being captured is inevitable. My good friend Davydov's brother was also captured by the French emperor. After all, this emperor is my uncle. Some relatives are inevitable. I also have friends in France. This is all normal, but..."

At first, these people were still somewhat expectant, thinking that they might receive some other treatment, and that Solovyov's tone was a little too gentle.

But his eyes were narrowed and even his eyelids were drooping, so it was impossible to see what his expression was like.

But then, the subject suddenly changed.

"If they were just captured, it would be fine. They would inevitably recruit the prisoners into their own army to replenish their troops like the Prussians did. This is understandable. But for those of you who volunteered to serve as scouts for the French, don't blame me for being ruthless. Bao Hong! What should we do with these people according to the old method used by Zaporizhia?"

"Of course, I cut their throats with a knife and bled them out."

"That's a good treatment method. It can cure their osteomalacia. You have some good knives among your men, so you can certainly deal with them."

After hearing this, these guys’ faces changed drastically and they even began to kowtow and beg for mercy.

"General, please be kind. I have an old mother at home."

"Ha, you still remember that you have a mother? It's a waste of bullets to reward you with a bullet. Cossack brothers, you can practice with them. No, you should put a cross on them, or hang them, and then hang a sign and let them rot here."

After listening to Solovyov's statement, Lieutenant General Dolokhov felt that although this guy was usually a good person, he was a bit cruel and ruthless in treating traitors. However, he also liked this approach.

As for these unfortunate traitors, in the environment of 1812, they served as puppet soldiers and took the initiative to scout the situation of the Russian army. Naturally, their end was miserable.

By the time he was hung up, if it weren't for the skeleton supporting him, it would be hard to tell that he was still a living person.

That's right, when the Cossacks finally took action, they decided not to let these guys get away with it, so they nailed them to a tree and let them die slowly, as Solovyov said. But they were also very ruthless when using knives, and their skills were comparable to those of the Turkish eunuchs who castrated them. (End of this chapter)