Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

When Lauriston was sent to Kutuzov's headquarters, he brought with him the French Emperor's handwriting of Napoleon, which was so ugly that it was probably dictated by him and copied by his secretary.

As for the message he was going to bring and his request to meet with the Tsar, it was probably another waste of effort.

At the Russian headquarters in Tarutino, Kutuzov also invited Lauriston to sit down. The two sides did not reach an agreement on anything, but instead had huge differences.

As in Berthier's letter, Lauriston, now meeting Kutuzov himself, also protested against the "barbarity of the Russian peasantry."

Even a calm and experienced diplomat like Kutuzov's answer reflected his consistent position, which was even a bit cunning.

"What you said is only your opinion. But, Monsieur, you also have to consider what the Russian peasants would say about those who invaded their homes. Two hundred years ago, it was the Poles, a hundred years ago it was the Swedes, and there were also the Tatars who came here to plunder. Of course, many of the Tatars are now Russian subjects, and they also don't like uninvited 'guests'."

After hearing this, Lauriston knew that he would basically fail this time.

"Sir, you should also know that these barbaric acts are indeed beyond the level that should be seen in war."

The one sitting here is Kutuzov, and he will speak more politely.

If it were someone else, it might be a different story. For example, someone like Solovyov would probably even be involved in the Spanish affairs.

That is to say, there is always some room for courtesy in diplomatic rhetoric.

It was indeed in vain for Lauriston to come here like this.

With Kutuzov's experience, he also knew that Napoleon sometimes liked to use peace talks as a cover. If sending letters to St. Petersburg failed several times and there was no effect next time, he would probably take direct action.

There is not much to say about the battle between the two sides, but it is not clear what actions Napoleon will take next on the front line.

Are they here to find out the location of the main Russian army? Or are they here to withdraw directly from Moscow? Or are they here to find a warehouse for Russian supplies?

What Kutuzov didn't even know was that Napoleon was sitting in Moscow at this moment, also watching the situation.

If they continue to stay in Moscow, where it will be extremely difficult to seek supplies from the surrounding areas, the army will probably have no choice but to withdraw.

But given his situation, he is definitely unwilling to accept this.

If he simply retreated along the Smolensk Road, it would not satisfy his goal.

He even wanted to attack St. Petersburg at one point, but the remaining time was not enough to mobilize the army. They might reach Tver, and frost would come before they reached Novgorod. Moreover, the supply situation of the French army was so poor at this time that the marshals and generals said that the emperor's idea was simply crazy.

As for actions in other directions, they were more in favor of returning along the original route of the Smolensk Road. Although there were a large number of Cossack activities along this line, they also had to consider that it would be difficult for the Russian army to deal with such a large mass even if they sent their main force, and there was even the risk of being defeated themselves.

But Napoleon's plan was to move south. If the French army, which was short of supplies, could obtain materials from Kaluga and move south, they would be able to continue fighting.

His ideas were good, but he always underestimated the situation in Russia.

To put it bluntly, if a person is like this now, great men and clowns are always switching between extremes, and even his ideas are probably of the voluntarist kind. If Nietzsche, who advocates the philosophy of superman, came, they might have some common language.

In Russia, probably few people believe this now.

After learning the situation, Kutuzov ordered all troops to withdraw and prepare to deal a blow to the French.

He even wanted to give one-third of Bennigsen's troops to attack the French troops in the front.

But in Russia, even if a task is assigned, sometimes the results obtained are very strange.

At the same time, Russian troops coming from the rear were also gathering one after another. Even Solovyov, who was relatively far away among the main force, also received corresponding orders. He maneuvered from the Tula direction to between the two battlefields of Tarutino and Maloyaroslavets.

He was a little confused after reading the order Kutuzov gave him.

"Sasha, what does the commander-in-chief mean?"

"I think you are to lead the troops to protect the flank. When I received the order, I only explained the content. If the letter is lost on the way, the main content is this."

As for Durova, she just wants to hide the fact that she is a woman. Some people can guess that, like Davydov, she is one of them.

Solovyov had known her for a long time and knew what was going on.

"It's too late to ask. Looks like I have no choice but to take action."

He then wrote back to Durova, stating his own opinions.

"As for the contents, the commander-in-chief can understand what I mean."

Although Durova is a female physically, she is not inferior to men in a real fight.

She was now dressed in the uniform of a Lancer, but was still armed with the saber and pistol she had used in the Hussars.

After all, she was also an officer, and now even a cavalry captain. If she had not been sent to Kutuzov, she would probably have been a squadron leader.

Besides, she was smart enough. She would be much better than those hot-blooded hussars if she was sent out to do anything.

All that remained was for the Russian troops to move closer to Kutuzov's main force.

After staying in Moscow for a long time, it was inevitable that Napoleon would have some ideas and want to come out to relax.

He did not even relax his vigilance and sent Murat out to monitor Miloradovich's movements.

But at this time, he always made another mistake. With Murat's brain, if Lana was still there, the two of them would be fine. But this guy would always have some accidents every time he acted alone.

For example, this time when he wanted to move his position, something went wrong with the deployment.

When conducting reconnaissance forward, the French troops seemed particularly isolated from each other, which gave Kutuzov an excellent opportunity to strike.

But after Kutuzov gave the order, he also discovered some strange situations on his side.

Bennigsen's men had gone to the front and finally got a chance to take the initiative in attacking, but some troops on the flanks had not received any orders yet.

Kutuzov was very annoyed, but he also thought of something, that is, the set of signals left by Solovyov. So he sent a contact using optical signals and soon received a response.

Langgeron used this method when he was in Poland. At that time, the Russian generals were happy for a while because they had a "gadget" that could quickly communicate, transmit intelligence and issue orders.

However, this system requires a dedicated communications officer, adjutant or staff officer to deliver messages.

The Russian troops in Poland were limited in size at the time and had a higher cultural quality, so their communication efficiency was quite good.

But in the Russian army, things became more troublesome after the expansion.

Considering the cultural level of Russian aristocrats, many newly recruited officers are always replaced by foreigners in senior officer positions. Even in many elite troops, if you look at the national composition of these people.

Even the Greeks appeared in the Putin regiment and died in Borodino as a temporary regimental commander.

On the contrary, it was the Russians who were always in the local troops or cavalry. Many of the commanders of the core Guards and Grenadiers were called "Germans" by the soldiers.

In addition, after the Germans arrived in Russia, they intermarried with local nobles and commoners, so this kind of thing is not surprising.

In fact, Solovyov had thought that if those Kazakh tribes wanted a German as a son-in-law, there might be some German adventurers willing to go.

Now that the army has been expanded, the majority of Russian officers are still not educated enough to use Morse code.

There were some artillery officers who were capable of handling the situation, but because there was a personnel conflict between communications officers and artillery officers, Arakcheev only gave vacancies to a few communications officers.

It's not that he is petty, but he is making things difficult for Solovyov because he is in the same party as the reformists and is related to Speransky by marriage.

In fact, he admired Speransky very much. He agreed with Balashov's request, but it was also his behind-the-scenes manipulation that ensured that Speransky's going to the countryside always ended in a decent manner.

There are really not enough officers, otherwise this indicator would not be stuck.

Now Kutuzov was forced into a corner when his orders could not be passed on, and he kept sending out signals.

The orders to some places had not been conveyed, and everyone was still calming down. Why did the commander-in-chief suddenly want to send orders using optical signals?

But all this could not be done in time. While Murat was moving, many Russian troops had already been delayed.

Bennigsen might have led his troops there, but the troops on the flank could only receive limited information.

Miloradovich, who was closest to Murat's troops, launched an operation from the flank. After more than a month of reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance by both sides, as well as the French's attempts at peace talks, the enemy's troop movements were swift and decisive.

It seems that the battle is inevitable to start in Tarutino.

Of course, Napoleon himself finally made up his mind in Moscow.

Even if Murat had not encountered the Russian army here, he would have pulled his troops out of Moscow.

After all, supply difficulties are always a big problem.

As for Mr. Caulaincourt, he also took the opportunity to raise the question again.

"Your Majesty, I think we should consider the issue of logistics when we retreat from Moscow. And you said before that we want to destroy this city, but we also have to consider the feelings of Her Majesty the Queen. After all, this is her homeland."

Speaking of this, Caulaincourt actually expressed his opinion very tactfully, which is that things should not be done too drastically.

But Napoleon initially rejected his idea, apparently because Caulaincourt had objected when he had previously asked him to go as a courier to Kutuzov or Alexander.

If he did not have a good reputation among the military, he would probably be on his way to becoming a tyrant and a traitor to the people.

Napoleon in Moscow was no longer willing to listen to other people's opinions at this time.

Since entering Moscow, Caulaincourt had told him at least twice what to pay attention to when spending the winter in Russia, but the emperor himself obviously ignored it, especially the most important horseshoes and winter clothes.

Not long ago, Caulaincourt was replaced by Lauriston to carry out this task because Napoleon was dissatisfied with him.

"But this means leaving a city to the Russians. Should we do this?"

"We shouldn't use this method to anger the Russians. Even if we have no in-laws with them, we should still maintain basic decency."

For this matter, Caulaincourt was still very cautious. He saw that Napoleon did not even care about Catherine's feelings. The queen was a Russian, and before marrying him, her stance against France was more resolute than that of another candidate, the Austrian princess, and her temper was really quite fierce.

And angering the Tsar would not have any good consequences.

So he went to find Eugene, the commander of the engineers of the Grand Army, and Marshal Berthier and explained his opinions.

"We can't let the emperor go crazy at this time. We can retreat according to his majesty's instructions and go anywhere, but there is no need to use more drastic measures against Moscow, which has been severely damaged. The Russians have already set the fire too much, and there is no need for us to do so either."

"Don't say so much, Armand. I know what you mean."

Berthier obviously looked a little tired. He had always been Napoleon's mouthpiece and was visibly tired during his time in Russia.

"If that's the case, we can destroy some places at will. Also, when we retreat, our engineers will probably be afraid that the Russian Cossacks will chase us from behind."

General de Chapselou-Laupart also agreed with Berthier's opinion that if they wanted to sabotage Moscow now, it would just be a show and not take things too far.

While the French had not done anything yet, the Russians were already fighting desperately with a common hatred of the enemy. If this continued, they might have experienced the Russians' "barbarity" even more.

In fact, the French may have behaved even more barbarically. They were so badly blackened by the British after the Revolution because they were not only breaking the shackles, but also actively robbing, and only loved their sisters.
It's natural to give the British some negative information, but if it were the British, I'm afraid they would go even further.

Before the battle of Tarutino began, the French had already decided to take action.

This did not happen overnight. Everyone could see that staying in Moscow was not a long-term solution, but Napoleon had always wanted to seize what he called the initiative.

But the more stubborn he is, the more trouble he will cause, and his army will fall into the abyss. (End of this chapter)