Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

In Solovyov's view, Marshal Augereau was a man of courage but no wisdom.

His younger brother was promoted in the French army entirely because of his older brother's status. Even during the French Revolution, this was still based on nepotism.

Of course, if your mother was Louis XVIII’s nanny, you’d better keep a low profile - that’s Berthier.

After discovering the French movement, Solovyov was not in a hurry to enter Yelnya. If he went in now, the French flank would probably be able to kill the vanguard brigade of Augereau the Younger. After the enemy behind became alert, they obviously would not fall into the trap.

So he decided to try something a little bigger.

The total number of their own grenadiers and heavy cavalry was no more than 20,000, and a French reinforcement division would probably not reach 10,000 people. It would not be easy to wipe them out completely.

Moreover, his troops looked a little tired after going through the blizzard.

He went to ask Count Stroganov and Christian, and they both said that their troops were in good condition at the moment. Although they were tired, they were still able to fight.

The cuirassiers led by Duka and the Cossacks who came with them also expressed their willingness to fight again.

"But if you rush in now, we can probably only wipe out one brigade of the enemy, which is not enough to cooperate with General Miloradovich who is chasing Napoleon. If we are several guerrillas fighting separately, annihilating a brigade will be of great help to our friendly forces. What we need to do now is to kill more enemies."

"So what are you going to do?"

"Let the troops stay in the woods first. We will move at night, light torches, and mark two points at a distance of one verst, just like the Greeks did when they surveyed the Nile River in Egypt."

Judging from the average cultural level of the Russian army, one of them is the son of a famous encyclopedia scholar and aristocrat, and he has received a strict education; the other one can be imagined as the tutoring of those German nobles since childhood. Although Christian's grades are not good, his performance is better than that of many native Russian nobles. At least he has few spelling mistakes and has basic knowledge of arithmetic.

Then, several artillery officers sitting here quickly understood what Solovyov meant.

"You want to use the campfire to guide our troops' movements?"

"That's it. We will launch a night attack. The enemy was outnumbered before, and although we are exhausted, there will inevitably be some accidents if we rush in, and our troops will suffer losses. Although the enemy has not participated in the previous battle, the loss is not serious, but we can still have a good fight with them. What's more, the French army here does not have any capable generals, so there is no need to worry."

He said so, but he was also well prepared.

In order to ensure that the soldiers had time to rest, the troops were even assembled in batches in the villages surrounding Yelnya, and they kept quiet so that the French army would not be able to detect the movements of the large army.

Moreover, many Cossacks will be sent out as decoys, so that the French army will not dare to act alone or in small groups, as that would mean they would be directly wiped out by the Cossacks who suddenly appear.

But the Russian artillery and infantry seemed non-existent, so there seemed to be no danger.

But what is hidden is behind.

The troops led by General Augereau the Younger entered Yelnya so carelessly, thinking that they had nothing to worry about at the moment.

Even the French troops following behind were moving on the main road and did not dare to come down.

Therefore, it is probably impossible for them to carry out counter-reconnaissance operations.

Solovyov also knew that if he didn't make some noise and wipe out an entire French division, there would be no value in this attack.

Moreover, a large area on the French flank was cleared. The French troops retreating westward from Dorogobuzh would have faced a catastrophic situation with such a large area exposed.

By then, the Russian army would not have to pursue the French army so hard, as the French army would probably be in disarray.

His plan was that after learning that the French army was approaching the village of Liakhovo, he would take action.

"Now it's just the Augereau Brigade at the vanguard. When the larger group behind catches up, we'll still use our old method."

Some of the cuirassiers and grenadiers had participated in Soloviev's first independent command, a battle in which nearly 10,000 Polish troops were annihilated in the Polish forests. The only difference was that the cavalry lured the enemy deep into their territory, cut off their retreat route from behind, and completely destroyed the enemy in one fell swoop.

The situation this time is a little different.

Because the Russian army did not take any actions to lure the enemy in advance, if they came out, the French might run away instead.

The commander of this French division was Louis Baraguet d'Hilliers. His son, Achille Baraguet d'Hilliers, may be more famous than him, but relatively less popular. He was a French marshal during the reign of Napoleon III. He started his career as a cavalry officer during the Napoleonic Wars, played a role in the Crimean War, and even chaired a committee to investigate the causes of the defeat during the Third Republic.
The father of the future French Marshal, now a divisional general, led a division forward without much resistance on the road. It seemed that the French had no obstacles.
Well, that's the situation now, even the guerrillas nearby seem to be just harassing us.

When Solovyov parted with several guerrilla leaders, he separately instructed Davydov to bluff on the north side of the road so that the French could not send scouts out for reconnaissance, and Figner also made a commotion on the east side. Then they went with Orlov-Denisov to intercept Napoleon's main force.

This action indeed restricted the French's range of activities, forcing them to move along the main road. They were lucky enough to find a place to stay in the forests and villages.

The general received an order from Napoleon, asking him to cover the main force of the Grand Army's retreat to Smolensk and monitor the movements of the Russian army in the direction of Yelnya.

Although the two tasks were simple, for the French army at this stage, the main force had lost its combat effectiveness in large numbers, except for the Guards, and its organization no longer existed.

The force that an army commander can effectively command at this time is only the size of one or two regiments before departure, but it is truly a "legion".

After learning that Augereau the Younger had arrived, Dillier followed up. When the vanguard approached Yelnya, he had already arrived at the previously "confirmed safe" village of Liakhovo and set up camp here.

Because they were troops coming from the rear, although they were also affected by the failure in the front and their morale was not very high, these troops had not experienced too many battles at this time and generally maintained their combat effectiveness.

If it were the retreating main force, even the soldiers who were not injured at this time would have felt dizzy and headache due to hunger and cold. That is to say, the weather was not always sunny during these days, and there was no widespread snow blindness.

In that case, the army would be doomed.

Of course, the experience for French soldiers on duty at night is quite different.

At first, nothing could be seen in the forest in the first half of the night. In this dark environment, the Russians showed sporadic torches. If we could hear the sound of horses' hooves trampling the snow, we could probably figure out the scale of the enemy attacking.

But what if the mode of action is changed?

The Russian army approached the village at night, taking advantage of the wind outside, but this would also cause some losses to the Russian army itself. Only by taking anti-cold measures in advance could they avoid any major trouble.

Solovyov was in the Pavlovsk Regiment himself and came to check on the soldiers. If the important parts of the rifle were frozen, the only option would be to launch a bayonet charge to drive the enemy away, which would be more costly than gain.

Therefore, the method adopted by some veterans is to at least prevent the valves of these rifles from freezing, but because they are in a latent state, they cannot fire a few shots in advance to "preheat" them.

They had no choice but to keep the rifles in their arms warm by wrapping them in their coats.

At the same time, the French naturally could not see anything in the first half of the night, and the Russian army would not attack at this time.

Solovyov also went to bed at this time, leaving his adjutants to monitor in front and wake him up when it was time to take action in the second half of the night.

This preset battlefield was also noticed by the Cossacks in advance, but it changed from a few cavalry units surrounding the French army to the 3rd Army arriving here as the main vanguard of the Russian army.

With more than 10,000 people on the battlefield, it was impossible for there to be no movement at all. Therefore, the French did not fail to notice some movements when they were on guard at night.

Especially the fire behind the woods. The temperature always drops after a heavy snowfall. The French were shivering with cold at their posts and naturally could not concentrate on looking ahead.

At this moment, the Russian army has basically completed its deployment.

"It's time. We just need to see the situation ahead. How is the French deployment?"

"We can see the bonfires of these Frenchmen. They are concentrated near the village, and unlike the previous French troops, they set up tents."

"After all, this is a village ahead, not a town. How are the brigades preparing?"

"Sir, according to your deployment, the 1st Division will attack from the flank, and the 2nd Division will attack from the rear. We will drive them towards Yelnya."

"Then we must hurry. If we rush them directly into the city, they probably won't be able to find a suitable place to live."

As for when he personally went to the front to observe the French deployment, it was already late at night. He looked at his pocket watch under the torch and it was exactly four o'clock in the morning. It was still early for dawn. If it were 45° north latitude, it might not be dawn until seven o'clock, and even six o'clock would seem like the dead of night.

If we change to Russia, which is at a higher latitude, the nights will only be longer, so it would be unethical to start stealing at this time.

And it’s not even the time near the winter solstice in December. It’s the second half of the night, which is always the most relaxed time.

"We can launch the attack now. I don't know if the flare will work."

Solovyov's flares are fireworks. If they are fired into the air, they can be seen very clearly.

As for the effect after the explosion, you have to pay attention and see. After three fireworks are fired, it means the action is about to begin.

When the first shot was fired, a French soldier saw something flying into the sky, followed by the sound of an explosion.

Although it is far away and does not sound very loud, the visual effect is there.

"Someone is setting off fireworks this late at night?"

Some French soldiers who came to the city also recalled the fireworks that were set off during the city’s celebrations during festivals, which looked beautiful.

But at this moment, the veterans' minds will become alert.

This is not on the banks of the Seine, but in Russia. This kind of noise in the woods probably means that the Russians are coming.

They immediately became alert and saw some bonfires being lit in the distance.

After a while, there was a nearby bonfire again. In the firelight, one could see people walking slowly towards them in neatly arranged skirmish lines.

This kind of advance in a skirmish line is different from normal operations.

However, considering that almost all the grenadiers had been equipped with new weapons, and the French cavalry had suffered losses in battle, even a unit like the Dillières Division coming from the rear did not have many cavalrymen to support the operation.

Therefore, the Russian army was not arranged in a horizontal column, but in a skirmish line, and they were able to keep some distance between each other.

The French soldiers were attacked at night, and it took them time to crawl out of their sleeping places and enter their positions.

It is indeed surprising that someone would launch a night attack at this time.

The Dilliers Division had no time to rebuke Augereau for letting in such a large Russian force and could only fight back hastily.

Little Augereau, who arrived at the village in front, had no idea what was happening behind the scenes.

After surveying the terrain, Solovyov also said that there was no need to worry about the enemy's vanguard, as they did not dare to move into the woods.

In addition to the regular army and guerrillas operating openly nearby, there are also a large number of militiamen in the woods. If the French troops fall behind, the pitchforks will probably be their best fate.

After the Russian attack began, the artillery was quickly ready. After pushing forward, it directly launched an artillery attack on the village where the French army lived.

This made it impossible for the French to shoot in peace in the wooden house, and many people were driven out.

The Russian army even resorted to traditional tactics and set fire to the villages to drive the French out.

Solovyov still remembered that when he was a company commander thirteen years ago, he set fire to the Poles and drove them out, and then was wiped out by friendly forces.

But this time his choice was different. When the enemies gathered together, he naturally had room to maneuver.

To annihilate the enemy, you must do it beautifully. Perhaps this kind of battle, like herding sheep, is the most comfortable way.

After suffering a defeat, Dillier found that his retreat was cut off, so he had no choice but to gather his forces and move towards Augereau the Younger in front. (End of this chapter)