Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Chapter 726 028 Both sides are afraid that the other side will take the initiative to take action (Part )
After learning about the failure of the 3rd Chasseurs de l'Horse, Davout's already serious expression became even uglier.

"The Russians finally showed up and showed us some color right away. In this case, we should also pay attention to the direction of their actions. Where on the Dnieper River is it more appropriate to take action?"

While looking at the report, he was also paying attention to the map on the table.

"Your Excellency Marshal, I think at this time, we should occupy the crossing on the Dnieper River to prevent the Russians from taking action easily."

"Let's go check out the terrain. It's useless to just talk big here. We need to go to the front and see. If the Russians take action, they will definitely choose a crossing that is convenient for the movement of the army."

He acted very quickly and quickly arrived in Saltanovka from Mogilev.

At this moment, he didn't know where the other French troops were exactly, but he knew that Jerome had failed to stop the Russian army in Grodno and Mir.

Further south, the Saxon Army under Reigner performed poorly. Together with the Austrian Army, which moved at a snail's pace, they not only failed to stop Tormasov, but also failed to get around Bagration's flank.

This pocket is definitely leaky. Now he wants to intercept the Russian army and prevent Bagration from easily joining up with Barclay. Naturally, he has to take action along the Dnieper River, and the direction of action of each division must also revolve around the transportation hub.

As for why his entire army did not cross the Dnieper River and chose to camp on the right bank, it was also because the Russian army had not chosen to cross the river at this time and they were so close.

Both armies were on the right bank because the Mogilev road was the only way to Orsha, and it was also the shortest route to Vitebsk.

After looking at the terrain, Dawu felt that this place was quite satisfactory.

"We need to place a reserve force behind the forest to ensure the front and rear of the troops. If our reinforcements arrive, we can naturally control this place. However, the number of troops we can directly mobilize now is only 20,000. Even if the nearby troops come together, there may only be 30,000. If we can resist the Russian attack, there should be no problem."

Davout was also very clear that it was impossible for the opponent to attack with all their strength right away. Since there was no sign of the Russian army building a pontoon bridge on the Dnieper River, there would be no problem with his actions.

However, after receiving the order, Solovyov took the engineers of the 8th Army to a lower reaches of the river so that the French could not easily detect them.

He had no intention of crossing the river near Mogilev, and he had to keep a certain distance.

However, Dawu always ignores his own disadvantages or what the enemy is going to do, and he always puts himself first.

"If we take action in this place, we can use the stream to control the front road. If the Russians attack, they will have to choose to cross the river. The cobblestones below will always cause considerable casualties if the artillery fires at the infantry crossing the river. The artillery must find a good position and hit hard when our infantry is blocking the enemy on the front line."

"Your Excellency Marshal, how do you plan to deploy the troops?"

"The Desai Division will be in the front, defending along the stream. The village of Fatovo will be behind us. The Compan Division and the Cuirassiers will be here, and the follow-up troops will be placed on the road to Mogilev."

He also ordered Morand and Friant to move closer to him, saying that it would be difficult to stop the Russian army with only two divisions.

That is to say, in the French army, a regiment at this time was often composed of 5 combat battalions and 1 supplementary battalion. This scale could make a French regiment equivalent to a brigade, and the size of the regiment-level troops often exceeded 3600 people.

Of course, the vassal state troops belonging to the 1st Army often had less than a thousand people in a regiment.

That's it. The total strength of the 1st Army reached as many as people. Even if there were considerable losses due to desertion, diarrhea, and falling behind, it was still a large-scale formation.

If he could gather his troops at Saltynovka, it would be difficult for the Russian army to break through here, and even with Davout's operational capabilities, he probably thought he could fight back if he had enough troops.

In this situation, Rajevsky had no idea about the enemy's actions, and simply let Kolyubakin and Paskevich lead their infantry divisions forward.

His operational goal was also simple. Paskevich commanded his division to pass through the forest and attack the village of Fatovo behind the French army, while he himself launched an attack from the front of Saltnovka.

The more troublesome thing is that the French are always good at getting stuck in terrain.

Some veterans of the Smolensk Regiment recalled their exchanges of fire with the French at the Gotthard Pass.

"See? These French guys put their artillery in the back again. When we were in Switzerland, we followed the Field Marshal. It was the same when we rushed over from the mountain road. This time."

Some veterans are just talkative. After seeing the terrain, Rajevsky did feel a headache. The key to this battle was whether he could cross the stream and drive out the French. If a large force could enter the village, he could use the Russian army's advantage in hand-to-hand combat to create huge trouble for the French.

Not to mention, every Russian soldier carries several grenades. Although these things have limited power, they are enough for use at this time.

The night before, Rajevsky had secretly sent his troops here.

The French, who were stuck in the terrain, also made use of the woods and the narrow front. There was a swamp between the two passages, which prevented the Russian troops on both sides from responding to each other.

The French army can take advantage of this terrain. Although they are in Russia, it seems that the home and away positions are reversed.

On Laevsky's side, he asked Kolyubakin to take the lead in launching the attack.

The Russian army hid so well the day before that when they launched the attack, if the French army had not deployed in advance, they might have been caught off guard.

When they launched their attack, they were also accompanied by artillery fire.

Rayevsky only held the Smolensk Regiment in his hands temporarily, while he himself was going to launch the attack in the sequence of the 12th Division.

The New Ingmann Regiment, which took the lead, launched the attack in neat formation under the leadership of its commander, Lieutenant Colonel Zhukov.

The French artillery bombardment did not cause much shake in the Russian army.

"Damn it, it's probably easier to kill these Russians than to drive them away."

Under the bombardment of artillery, even when solid bullets fell in the ranks, blowing their comrades around them into pieces, they still charged forward with bayonets in hand.

After learning of the Russian army's movements, Davout quickly arrived in Fatovo with his entourage from the rear.

After the Desaix Division in front fought with the Russian army, just by hearing the sound of artillery fire, one could tell that the battle was very fierce.

And this was certainly not an effect that could be achieved unilaterally by the French army's own firepower. Both sides were continuously shooting at each other with cannons, which sounded like continuous thunder.

"It seems that the Russians are still very fierce."

From the riverbank near Fatovo, Davout could already see what was happening ahead. The battle was so fierce that the Russians rushed forward in neat rows and attacked the French positions.

"It's hard for our cavalry to play a role in this kind of place."

General Compan, who was beside him, complained, but Davout didn't care.

After all, if a fight really breaks out in a wide area, the French army's disadvantageous frontline forces might actually become a huge problem.

Fortunately, the width of this battlefield is so narrow that neither side can play to their strengths, but the side with seemingly fewer troops may have some advantages.

Davout's advantage was probably that he had a cuirassiers regiment in good condition and with complete manpower.

The size of his regiment is even larger than that of the Russian army, and there will be a steady stream of troops arriving in a day or two.

In this way, the advantage may really be on his side.

Meanwhile, Paskevich was making the difficult march through the woods to Fatovo.

The fighting had already begun on the front line, so naturally his side would not fall behind. Soon after the artillery fire sounded, the two vanguard regiments of his division had already emerged from the woods.

But there were already French here, and an exchange of fire was inevitable.

When Paskevich saw this situation, he couldn't help but want to curse. After all, his ancestors were also Zaporizhia Cossacks, and he must have many ways to curse.

He personally acted with the Poltava Infantry Regiment. After the attack was launched here, the French relied on their positions and had no intention of retreating in such a narrow space.

After all, their marshal also came here, and Davout himself was behind the position encouraging the soldiers to continue fighting, while at the same time he sent his adjutant to seek support.

Regardless of the three, Morand, Friant and Guidan, any division commanded by one of them would have a local advantage over the French army if it arrived in this vicinity.

But the Russian attack was indeed fierce. Generals Raevsky, Kolyubakin and Paskevich each walked in front of their own troops.

It would have been fine if Paskevich was just a bachelor, but Rajevsky even brought his two sons to participate in the operation.

The Russian army was naturally in high spirits, with generals personally leading their troops to launch attacks, and they became more and more courageous as the battle went on.

If it weren't for the French army's effective artillery organization, the Russian army would have already rushed over the dike, and this battle would have been difficult to fight.

Their grapeshot hit the Russian infantry, and Laevsky himself was wounded in many places, but he still encouraged the soldiers to continue the attack with the support of his youngest son.

The fact that they were able to charge forward despite suffering casualties also gave the French army a great spiritual shock.

They had often fought with the Russian army in the past. These guys were difficult to deal with in the past, so perhaps the French were mentally prepared.

But this time the Russians showed no signs of retreating at all. They had already caused considerable losses to the French troops in front of them. They themselves suffered heavy losses under artillery fire, but they still continued to attack.

As a result, the French army was somewhat shaken on the front.

Desaix had already sent his adjutant to ask Davout for help.

However, in Fatovo, the Russian army had already launched an attack, resulting in the Compan Division being unable to provide any support for the time being.

It's just that Paskevich's luck was very bad. The place where he launched the attack just exposed his flank to the firepower of several French infantry battalions. Their continuous shooting caused considerable losses to the Russian side.

Even though Paskevich and his brothers launched a heroic attack, they could not make any progress under the crossfire and had to retreat back into the forest.

But Compan did not dare to provide support to Desaix easily. In order to drive Paskevich back, he mobilized four battalions to launch a direct counterattack against the Russian army.

Desai could only rely on himself. He used the 85th Regiment to launch an attack from Rayevsky's flank, which was considered to have delayed the Smolensk Regiment.

They even achieved further results. Rajevsky was shot in the chest, but fortunately, it was not a fatal wound.

The general then fought more and more bravely, leading the Smolensk Regiment to attack the counterattacking French, and even drove the French back.

But this was all the result of the battle that day. The Russian army ultimately did not make much progress in either direction, as the terrain here was favorable to the French.

Bagration, who was watching the battle situation at the front, couldn't help but curse: "Damn it! This terrain is too favorable for the French. We can't deploy all our troops!"

"What are you going to do, sir?"

"Don't rush to attack, we can still bring up the artillery from behind to provide cover."

But there are some things that will always cause people to misjudge.

The soldiers of the Smolensk Regiment captured a French officer, who was a chatterbox and quickly told us about the strength of the 1st Army.

However, what he was talking about was not the current situation of Davut’s troops near Mogilev.

Davout only had two divisions and a cuirassiers regiment here. One of his two chasseurs was sent to the flank, and the other was severely damaged by the Cossacks and could not participate in the battle at the moment.

However, this French prisoner told Saint-Prix, who was in charge of the interrogation, about the situation of the five divisions of the 1st Army. Saint-Prix, the chief of staff from the French royalist party, was completely confused.

"Sir, it doesn't look good. If Davout's five divisions are nearby, we will be in danger of being surrounded by the enemy if we don't cross the Dnieper River. Even the enemy that we had previously shaken off with the 5th Army and the Cossacks will come close in a day or two."

"There is indeed such a risk. The terrain here is narrow. Rajevsky broke through the front line, but the enemy was fighting and retreating. It is really like what the veterans said. We are at the St. Gotthard Pass again."

Bagration was also familiar with the veterans of the Smolensk Regiment, so he naturally knew about it.

Now he had to consider, or to ensure that the 2nd Army could safely leave the battlefield, go to the left bank of the Dnieper River, and then join the 1st Army. It was not that he lacked courage, as the commander of the army, he had to consider the overall situation.

(End of this chapter)