Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

But this strange weather always unexpectedly helps Napoleon.

Towards noon, the first wind blew from the south, bringing the mixed smell of gunpowder and burning corpses to the French positions on the other side of the Luza River.

But in the afternoon, the wind direction began to change again. Although the French army suffered during the rest, the wind turned into a north wind after the two sides resumed fighting.

In this case, when the battle resumed in the afternoon and the Russian army was preparing to attack, the unfavorable conditions returned to their side.

And so, the Russian soldiers continued to move forward under the French artillery fire, and the town changed hands for the sixth time.

Napoleon was still annoyed by Eugene's unauthorized actions, but given the current situation, he had no choice but to continue fighting today.

Without control of the town, there was no hope of advancing south to Kaluga.

But if we take control of this place, it’s hard to say what will happen next.

But we have to take it. The battle has already begun, and we have to keep the initiative to end the battle in our own hands.

This is what Napoleon was thinking at the time, and he was also preparing to mobilize the army later and bring the troops of the 1st Army, the 3rd Army and the Guards that he could currently command here.

As for Murat, we can only leave him alone for now. He and the Poles are probably retreating towards Mozhaysk. He suffered heavy losses in Tarutino.

In the encounter, it was obvious that there was no such "ideal battle" as the battlefield preset by both sides, and the French were about to launch an attack again.

By this time, the forces assembled by both sides were far from the scale of more than a thousand people when the battle started. If the fighting continued like this, I am afraid that Napoleon and Kutuzov would have to pull up all the available troops.

The grenadiers had just started to move forward. Christian was personally with the 1st Brigade. Shatilov had returned, but his successor on the battlefield, Mokhnagin, had died of his wounds after the fall of Moscow.

But the script looked strange. Shatilov saw that their division commander was once again standing in the front row and attacking with the grenadiers.

Then once again he was only handsome for a quarter of an hour, this time he was injured by an exploding grenade.

Seeing how unlucky this person was, Shatilov felt a little sympathy for him.

"Prince, you should go down and heal your wounds, right?"

It seems that the fall from the horse was not a light injury. If it caused a concussion or a brain injury, it would be no joke.

So Christian was wounded for the third time in the War of 1812, and coupled with his failure in Smolensk, it seems that his luck is not good today.

"Your Excellency, the Prince of Mecklenburg is wounded again."

"I know that, but what should we do now? Ask Shatilov to take temporary command of the battle and tell the brothers that the follow-up troops will arrive soon."

Because the division commander was often injured for unknown reasons, the 2nd Grenadier Division was not like other troops that would fall into chaos when their commanders were injured, and it would take some time to recover.

They continued to fight, and saw from the flank a group of men wearing bishops' hats. The Pavlovsk Grenadiers appeared on the battlefield, just to the left of the Moscow Regiment.

Solovyov had his considerations for this arrangement. If he attacked from the flank and defeated one side of the French army, he could also assist the troops guarding the town.

However, he was not the one responsible for the main attack. Dokhturov captured the town and attempted to counterattack the ferry, but the French were unambiguous. They even changed their habit of retreating and reorganizing after bayonet fighting with the Russian army in the past, waiting for the Russian army to become a little confused before counterattacking. Today, they would fight here without giving up an inch of ground.

These tall Russian grenadiers encountered a group of short French vaulters.

This name is quite appropriate, although Solovyov always believed that the fierceness of the Gauls and Parthian cavalry in the Battle of Carrhae earned them a similar name.
But they are really not tall. In front of the tall Russian grenadiers, this is like Guo Xiaosi jumping up to hit Yao Ming.
Just like in Poland, when the French launched an attack, the Russians did not necessarily fight back with bayonets. Instead, they used their height and long arms to hit the French with rifle butts after a round of shooting.

The vaulters can test their courage on the battlefield, but when it comes to fighting, they also have to figure out the level of their opponents on the battle line.

Therefore, the French counterattack from one side was quickly beaten back.

Seeing this, Eugene ordered the Italian division that would join the battlefield later to come here to stop the Russian army's actions.

The 13th Division, which had fought hard and suffered heavy losses, was replaced by these Italian infantrymen.

Although they were from Italy, their fighting ability was not as vague as the Italians were rumored to be, and they even resisted the grenadiers' charge.

On Solovyov's side, the troops in front had already reached the bank of the Luza River and were about to drive the French back to the other side of the river.

However, the subsequent addition of reinforcements made the battle on this side futile.

The French switched to column attack, which forced the Russian army to retreat. It was obvious that the other side was planning to charge and attack.

Solovyov himself was in some danger on the battlefield. Bullets kept flying past him. Although these stray bullets were not accurate, it would still be very unlucky to be hit by them.

"I think it's time now."

Just as he was about to say something, he saw the French army rushing in from the front.

"This is great. Everything we have done here is probably in vain."

As for Dokhturov's command ability, we can only say that he is very resilient. Since Bagration left the army, the intensity of the Russian army's tug-of-war and defensive battles has declined.

This may be a "loss of confidence", but there is no way to solve it. The Russian army still has a serious psychological dependence on generals with higher prestige.

He could only shake his head, send out all his adjutants, and let the troops retreat to the next front.

If it weren't for the fact that Rajevsky's side was stronger and resisted the French counterattack, the French would have been able to continue the pursuit for a while.

It looked like the day's battle was about to end. "Sir, why are you retreating?"

"Petya, you only saw our side, but didn't notice the flanks. No wonder, you have been in the army for even longer than I have been on guard duty in the palace. You joined the army out of patriotism, unlike your brother who took the initiative to serve in the Hussars. Your experience is different."

"Nicholas wouldn't understand that. I know my brother better than you do."

"As for you two brothers, I've heard Pierre say that you all look alike, except for your eldest sister Vera."

Petya nodded. Her elder sister, who had been married for a long time, and her brother-in-law did not seem to be "compatible".

The count really knew his family well, and no wonder, he was another friend of Pierre in the army, and he left faster because of his military achievements.

"But Monsieur Pierre, we have had no news of him."

"There will always be news. He is a man of great fortune, but unfortunately such luck always comes with trials and tribulations. Petya, you have to grow up, too. I heard that you like my wife's sister Sonya?"

"You also know this?"

Petya blushed a little now, and was somewhat embarrassed when someone mentioned who he liked.

"I know a lot of things, but there aren't many sons-in-law who always go to their mother-in-law's house, right?"

Hearing this, Petya also laughed. His brother-in-law was indeed seldom seen at home. Logically speaking, he was not as busy as Solovyov. Solovyov would stay with his mother-in-law for a while after returning from St. Petersburg and the front.

It is probably very rare to find such a son-in-law in Russia.
It was not surprising that he knew about what was happening in Moscow, especially since his sister-in-law hadn't even talked about marriage yet. Not only was she young, but she also happened to be caught up in the war.

Petya's mind was very simple. He just thought that Sonya liked him and he liked her too. He didn't even think about the issue of property.

"Okay, let's get back to the point. On the battlefield, you always have to have a global perspective. As a general, you don't just have to focus on your own area. Killing with pleasure is one thing, but winning a war is another."

"Then how do we win? Like today?"

"To defeat Napoleon, we must exhaust his strength and prevent him from achieving his goal. The commander-in-chief's intention is to stop them, so the longer we delay here, the better. Old Prince Nicholas always said that if the enemy comes, either their artillery vehicles will get stuck in the mud when the snow melts, or the enemy will not be able to find a place to rely on in the cold winter and will eventually freeze to death on the snow."

"You mean Prince Andrew's father?"

"Yes, I also heard that your brother is familiar with the old duke's daughter. That girl is a kind-hearted old maid, but it's a pity that people always covet her wealth and beauty and fail to see her better side."

Speaking of which, from Solovyov's perspective, Princess Maria was not ugly, but because her father was around and because of the rules of their family, she looked a little lifeless, but everything else was fine. It was no wonder that Anatoly thought of the old duke's family before he secretly married the Polish woman.
"But you are digressing again."

"Yes, Petya. But I have already said the more important things. This is what the battle looks like today, a tragic one. In warfare, one must avoid adding fuel to the fire."

Petya didn't look like he had any talent as a general. He was just a lively and happy young man, unlike himself, who was his age and spent all day thinking about improving his skills.

After the war, the best place for him to go is probably to return home. According to the tradition of Russian aristocracy, one of the sons can be exempted from military service or can retire early when the term of service is reached, even the son-in-law.

Not all of Kutuzov's sons-in-law are soldiers, there is also a civilian among them. Recently, I heard that he was involved in a case and got into trouble. If it weren't for his father-in-law's great ability and high prestige, he would have had to go to Siberia to dig potatoes.

The commander-in-chief himself could not say that he was satisfied with the current situation, but there was one good thing after all, that is, the main force of the French finally appeared in front of his eyes.

But he was not in a hurry to attack and wanted to withdraw his troops for a distance.

Konovnitsyn was somewhat puzzled by this and tried to ask Kutuzov.

"But it's better now. As long as we keep the French under our surveillance, we can decide when to launch an attack. The grenadiers fought well today, and the 6th Army was also very good, but Dokhturov was obviously hesitant in front of the ferry. This kind of hesitation should be a problem for an old guy like me, but he is like this now."

"But it seems more advantageous to fight if we get closer."

"That's what you think. What we need to do first is to be invincible. If everyone has the tenacity of Prince Bagration and the optimism of Miloradovich, and some suitable generals, then it will be much easier for us. Now everyone wants to defeat Napoleon, but they have to know how difficult this man is to deal with. If you want to take on greater responsibilities, you must first have the ability."

Kutuzov finally issued an order to the entire army to open up the battle line. Miloradovich was leading two corps to turn to the Kaluga Road, and if he arrived, it would be at night.

At the front line of Maloyaroslavetsis, the French army had more than 20,000 soldiers, while the Russian army had more than 30,000 soldiers. Both sides suffered more than 5,000 casualties in the battle that day, but the area of ​​​​the battle was limited to the small town, and no victory or defeat could be determined.

It seemed that both sides were preparing for a major battle at night, as could be seen from the bright lights in the camps on both sides, which were about 3 versts apart.

But Kutuzov seemed more confident, and he even went to bed early.

It is not surprising that he is prone to this at his age, and the distance between the troops can more or less ensure that the Russian army remains invincible.

The French had a lot more to consider. Napoleon had to pay the price for a series of mistakes he made after leaving Moscow.

He wanted to go to Kaluga, but it now seemed that it would be impossible to obtain supplies from Kaluga without defeating the Russian army and driving them out like he did in Borodino.

Moreover, judging from the information provided by captured local militiamen and some local minor civil servants, the Russian army is still approaching, which can also be verified through the French army's own cavalry reconnaissance.

So, for Napoleon, it was now up to him to take the ball, and Kutuzov had thrown the problem to him.

That's it. He decided to go to the front line early the next morning to inspect the situation ahead and then decide on the next course of action.

At this time he was still full of confidence. At least the French controlled the position, and this was only the first day of the battle. It was not uncommon for battles in wars to last two or even three days.

Even the area ahead that he was going to inspect did not seem to be dangerous. (End of this chapter)