Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

In front of the Salient Redoubt's position, the French attacks became increasingly fierce, and there was also fierce fighting in the forest to the south.

For generals on the front lines, there is often no time to assess the current situation.

Solovyov was on the battlefield watching the French rushing towards him like waves, and naturally he did not pay much attention to the situation on both sides of him.

The polygonal redoubt was always called the Raevsky Battery. Since Ney's army launched an attack from between the polygonal redoubt and the salient redoubt and once captured the salient redoubt position, the fighting here was also very fierce.

Rajevsky personally supervised the battle on the artillery position and encouraged his soldiers to continue fighting bravely.

As for the Russian army, their resistance was extremely tenacious, and they even had enough strength to launch a counterattack.

With the support of follow-up troops, the Guards Chasseurs had returned to the banks of the Kolocha River and once recaptured part of Borodino, forcing Eugene to put his reserve troops into the battle.

This time, from this direction, von Bystrom also had the opportunity to destroy the bridge over the Smolensk Road.

Now the French launched a counterattack again, and the Italian Guards in the 4th Army also joined the battle. Their performance was quite good and they did not look like the Italians as rumored.

The Russian army on this side was not allowed to move along the Kolocha River, and at the same time tried to prevent the French engineers from building a bridge across the river.

But the situation here was not bad. At least Oster-Tolstoy was protecting the right wing of the battlefield, and the Cossack cavalry behind him basically did not take any action and were still in the reserve.

What is more troublesome is the new round of attack on the multi-faceted fort.

Yermolov, the chief of staff of the 1st Army, and Kutaisov, the commander of the army's artillery, rode out of the headquarters on horseback and led their troops to the back of the polygonal redoubt.

They were coming here to support Rayevsky's operation, bringing reserve troops, including part of the Guards.

Still behind the high ground, the Russian troops had already begun to suffer casualties from French grenades.

Some French artillery units apparently violated the pre-war deployment and pushed their own artillery to the front line, which also caused a certain degree of suppression of the Russian artillery fire on the high ground.

Seeing this, Yermolov took out a bunch of St. George Medals given to the soldiers and encouraged them to attack forward. He would later write about this in his notes and memoirs. It can be regarded as a famous scene in the Battle of Borodino.

Considering that soldiers who received the St. George Medal and their relatives at home would receive pensions, there was nothing wrong with doing this. At least during the reigns of Paul and Alexander I, this pension was still available. Soldiers who survived the war would also receive bonuses if they performed bravely.

But Solovyov probably thought that if his brothers died on the battlefield and he, as an officer, was still alive, he would take care of their families.

Probably the ocean in Taierzhuang.
But Russian soldiers are like this, as long as their superiors encourage them and keep them company, their morale will be high.

Yermolov was so strong that he would definitely not be like Solovyov, for whom bullets always circumvented him. He was hit by shrapnel as soon as he led his soldiers to the high ground.

Seeing him like this, Rajevsky was even a little worried, but when he saw that this agile fat man was still alive and well and leading the infantry, he was temporarily relieved.

As for young Kutaisov, he went up to the artillery position and even personally urged the artillery to fire at every target. He encouraged the cannons to fire at wherever there were more French soldiers.

The French infantry who had once rushed up to the polygonal redoubt were driven back, and several wounded officers were captured.

One of them was wearing a gorgeously embroidered military uniform, which made the soldiers very excited.

"Master, we have captured a high-ranking official. Look at this embroidery. I heard that the devil's brother-in-law Murat was wearing gorgeous clothes. Could it be that bastard?"

With speculation, that's the beauty of journalism.

After all, some of the simple Russian soldiers had not had much contact with the French before and had never captured any French generals.

Seeing the gorgeous clothes, they began to think in Murat's direction.

If it were the grenadiers of the 8th Army, they would probably complain, "They captured our master's brother-in-law." There were a lot of such dirty talk.

Solovyov's self-disclosure of his affair with Polina was naturally also Russia's great victory over France so far outside the battlefield.

But it’s a different story on the battlefield. When a general is captured, it will naturally be publicized on a large scale.

Now that "Mura" had been caught and the report was given to Kutuzov, the news had already changed.

But the old man knew very well. He was sitting on the high ground behind the artillery, watching the enemy's plunder and commanding with confidence. Naturally, he knew what would happen.

Even if it is fake news, it must be spread to the brothers on the front line through loudspeakers, so that at least the officers can feel confident. If they have confidence, the soldiers will be able to follow suit and charge forward.

In response, General Dukas, who had almost caught Murat, shrugged it off, saying that if the idiot in the strange clothes hadn't run fast enough, the cuirassiers would probably have captured him across the Saddle Bridge.

But this news was really explosive, and the morale of the Russian army was greatly boosted.

It even seemed strange to the French. Although the French army seemed to have the upper hand in the battle, the Russians' resistance became more and more stubborn, and the more positions they captured from them, the more excited they became.

As for this tragedy, the Bonami Brigade of the Morand Division of the 1st Army was almost wiped out. When the entire infantry regiment withdrew, not only was the brigade commander captured by the Russians, but now the entire regiment can only stand up and continue to carry guns, not including those who can fight, with only people left.

You have to know that they have maintained considerable combat effectiveness during the long march. When the regiment arrived at Borodino, it still had more than 3,000 combat troops, but now it has become like this.

The Baden Infantry Regiment of the same brigade was directly overwhelmed, and their numbers were also very limited.

This brigade had no combat effectiveness. Colonel Bouquet, the commander of the 30th Line Infantry Regiment, was luckier. He managed to have his own people take it from the artillery position.

But it was not without its drawbacks, as he was brought back by his subordinates on a stretcher.

After seeing this situation, Morand couldn't hold back any longer. This was the toughest opponent he had ever encountered since he became a division commander.

Unfortunately, my old friend Guidan is already dead and is now lying in a coffin in Smolensk, and there is not even enough time to transport it back to France.

If they want reinforcements now, the emperor himself probably needs to make them see the situation clearly.

Murat had sent his adjutant to Shevardino before, but the reply he got was, "The game is not clear yet." As for the Guards, he always had the habit of holding them in his hands. Morand and Gerard had no choice but to continue the attack and repeatedly fight with the Russian army in the multi-faceted fort.

Seeing that the situation had improved, Yermolov prepared to go to Bagration with three cavalry artillery companies.

It was said that the situation there was more dangerous, and soon after the battle began, Saint Prix was wounded, Bagration lost his chief of staff, and several generals in front were also wounded.

When Kutuzov sent Yermolov there, he also planned to have Kutaisov command the artillery in the rear to take action and deal a devastating blow to the French marching column.

However, on the battlefield, there is not much to say.

When Yermolov and Kutaisov parted, each of them had the task of using artillery to stop the enemy, and Yermolov suggested that they should go together.

But Kutaisov, seeing the critical situation on the redoubt side, rode to the place where the fighting was most intense.

After repelling the French, the follow-up French troops came up again. An infantry regiment was defeated by the Russian army in the front, but it did not affect the follow-up troops to continue to counterattack.

"Nikitin, what should we do now?"

He asked Colonel Nikitin, who commanded the cavalry artillery, and the other party's answer was also very simple.

"According to the commander-in-chief's orders, sir, we should go to Prince Bagration."

"But now."

As he was muttering, he saw the horse that Kutaisov usually rode running towards him. The saddle was covered in blood, but the owner of the horse was gone.

The most troublesome thing at this time is probably that Kutaisov was in charge of commanding the artillery on the right wing. Now the whereabouts of the artillery commander is unknown, and it is more likely that he was killed. With the command efficiency of the Russian army, the power of the artillery will be greatly reduced.

Yermolov, who came from the artillery, was now on the front line. He saw that the 2nd Grenadier Division on his left wing had begun to move.

Obviously, Bagration was under great pressure and had to send six grenadier regiments together to try to drive the French away from the bastion.

The situation on his side was not good either. After Nikitin's cavalry artillery had set up and fired for a while, they suffered considerable losses, and the infantry on the front line also suffered heavy casualties.

Paskevich's position was also extremely dangerous. The French soldiers rushed up several times and his horse was killed. He could only walk in front of the position and urge the soldiers to launch a counterattack while avoiding being targeted by the French.

Not only were the Russians capturing high-ranking French officials, the other side was doing the same. Faced with this moving medal of honor, the French soldiers were naturally excited. After all, capturing a general or colonel alive was a great honor, and they usually had some good stuff on them.

This is not the first time. When Prince Ferdinand of Prussia died in battle, the French cavalry looted all the valuables on his body.

While Paskevich was barely holding off the enemy, the losses in the Russian front forced him to bring up troops from the rear to replace them.

Yermolov is here, and this is what he has to do now.

Kutuzov saw the dire situation at the front and knew that part of Raevsky's troops seemed to be unable to hold on.

But he did nothing at this time. Barclay had already sent Likhachev's 24th Division to replace Raevsky's troops.

The Russian army suffered too great losses at the front. There were French corpses in front of the artillery, and Russian corpses on top and behind the artillery. It was clear enough to tell them apart without even looking at the color of their clothes.

Even the hand-to-hand combat on the high ground was very different from previous battles.

In previous hand-to-hand combat, one side would probably retreat voluntarily. However, looking at the current situation on the Borodino battlefield, both sides often stabbed each other with bayonets in hand-to-hand combat, and had forgotten the dangerous situations they were facing in the fight.

At this time, even the bayonet skills and various tactical movements practiced in the past have become muscle memory. There is only some reaction time, and the result of being slower may be fatal.

The entire battlefield is now in chaos.

It's not just the polygonal forts, but also the salient forts.

Konovnitsyn's division was mobilized to prepare for a counterattack, to attack the French flank and force back their attacking forces.

However, the battle was not going smoothly. The battlefield in front of the Salient Redoubt turned into a killing field. Soldiers from both sides were just killing, using their rifles and bayonets to teach their opponents a lesson they would never forget.

The troops sent by Nikolai Tuchkov included his younger brothers. All five brothers were generals, and his youngest brother, Alexander, was always with him in his troops.

When he was sent away from the battlefield, he was still worried about his younger brother. After all, the battlefield on the other side of the Salient Fort was even more dangerous than here.

Perhaps he was just unlucky, but before Alexander Tuchkov could show his talent, he was knocked down by the French rifle.

Due to the fierce fighting in front of the salient redoubt, the soldiers did not even have time to snatch the commander's body.

The infantry led by Konovnitsyn was also forced to retreat to the front of the three bastions and suffered heavy losses at the edge of the trenches.

At this time, Bagration had no choice but to give the order to dispatch the Grenadier Division.

Moreover, six regiments moved together, and Bagration himself followed the grenadiers.

The same went for Solovyov and Christian. The three of them led a brigade respectively. However, this time Solovyov led not the 1st Brigade, which he was most familiar with, but the 3rd Brigade, whose commander was still Colonel de Damas, the nephew of Duke Richelieu.

This was the last reserve force that Bagration could directly command, although he knew that Bagowut appeared behind him and that at least two guards regiments were coming to him.

He was personally with the 2nd Brigade, while Christian was with the 1st Brigade, and they each seemed to have a commander.

But when they were about to reach this position, the next round of French attack was about to begin.

Napoleon now concentrated 400 cannons, and in addition to the cannons, there were also men, all of which were pressed onto the position of the Salient.

After all, this was still his main attack direction. After taking down the salient fort and breaking through the Semyonovskoye Creek, the canyon and the village, it seemed that this battle could be won. (End of this chapter)