Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

To consider this issue seriously, Clausewitz raised a question from the previous battle between the two armies in Smolensk.

"If Napoleon had moved from the north during the offensive, they would probably have come right behind us."

"But then his flank might be exposed to our counterattack. Wait."

Speaking of which, Solovyov's most skilled skill over the years is measuring distances on maps. Apart from that, he handles various miscellaneous tasks as the chief of staff and the general's adjutant.

What was now running through his mind were possible directions of advance. No matter where Napoleon went, his strategy of ambush from all sides would work.

For the Russian army, a lot of their infantry fell behind along the way. There were 10 troops in Tarutino, and more than 3 of them fell behind along the way. The casualties were not very serious, with the total number of casualties in several battles being no more than .

However, Napoleon's army suffered losses so great that they even exceeded the Russian army's estimates.

Kutuzov obviously overestimated how many people his opponent could mobilize, so he acted cautiously. There might be inconsistent attitudes on other issues, but here no one dared to underestimate Napoleon, even though only the Russians had caused him huge trouble in person.

On the contrary, Napoleon made a huge mistake because he was in a hurry to travel and once again underestimated the state of the Russian army.

Speaking of which, Suvorov had a very high opinion of him, but Napoleon's comments on many Russian generals, except Bagration, were really outrageous, which also showed his arrogance.

Arrogance always leads to failure, and sometimes it is natural.

Once again, Napoleon underestimated his enemy, for he now believed that Kutuzov, fatigued from the pursuit, would not have the strength to sustain the pursuit even on a parallel route.

Especially in Yelnya, Kutuzov's caution allowed the main force of the Russian army and the French army to once again break away from the contact stage.

It seemed that the Russian army had done nothing in the southeast of Yelnya, just resting there, or just guarding against Napoleon going south and destroying some areas where there were still large amounts of food stored.

An army that wants to sweep across Europe will probably always have to be good at making use of captured goods.

Napoleon had previously defeated Prussia and Austria and made full use of their resources.

Therefore, when they arrived in Eylau, they were still using Prussian winter clothes. This time, because the fighting was more intense than expected, many supplies were left behind.

Moreover, it has never been easy to obtain spoils from the Russian army. This time, the French even lost a lot of their spoils on the way out of Moscow.

Now that things are like this, it is naturally very difficult.

The French soldiers who had been captured before now looked like an army of beggars. Apart from the old guards and some elite troops who could still maintain their formation, there was probably nothing left.

The first half of this winter was very kind to Napoleon. It was not until he was halfway through his journey that it started to snow heavily, and the temperature dropped sharply later than usual.

Camping was now out of the question for the French, and the sudden drop in temperature on the way west from Vyazma had disastrous consequences.

During the days that Napoleon was resting in Smolensk, he was still issuing orders to France, in addition to his deployment of troops.

Junot was to lead the remnants of the 8th Army to clear the way for the entire army, followed by the Polish Army, then the Polish division of the Young Guards, and then Napoleon himself and the main force of the Guards.

Eugene, who had previously led the way to Dorogobuzh, now needed Ney's cover because his troops were in disarray. Davout supported him in Smolensk, which ensured that the 4th Army was finally able to arrive here.

Then these troops moved in one after another. It was impossible to camp on the road. They had to go into the settlement and find a house where they could stay. If the soldiers who fell behind were not caught by the Cossacks, they would probably freeze to death on the road.

Kutuzov was a little hesitant at this time, but the two sides were moving in and out at random. The French were on the road from Junot's pioneering troops to Ney's rear guard. After the Cossacks' reconnaissance and drawing of this shape on the map, it felt somewhat familiar.

What was that? The deployment for this battle was indeed the Changshan Snake.
In addition, the timing of the French retreat was not very good. If Solovyov temporarily lost his memory, he might still think that he was outside Chenguanzhuang.

After receiving the news that the French army continued to flee, Miloradovich hurriedly reported it to Kutuzov.

For this reason, the Russian army temporarily stopped waiting for the soldiers who fell behind. At least there were places for them to live in the villages along the way. It would be inappropriate to wait until they missed the opportunity to fight.

Therefore, after reading the report, Kutuzov quickly asked Konovnitsyn to pass on his latest instructions.

The 2nd and 4th Corps, as well as the Cossack troops, were still following behind the French, while the 3rd and 7th Corps were flanking, and the 6th Corps and the Guards followed.

For this reason, the Russian army also embarked on a pursuit, but they only knew the general situation of the French and did not get close to see.

Even the troops leading the way on Juno's side left early, and he had already passed through the forest of Orsha, thus escaping the disaster.

Although Wittgenstein was active over there, he had not had time to close the gap. After all, it was only a few days since he destroyed the French logistics base in Vitebsk.

The situation on Chichakov's side was similar. He was even entangled by Reynier for a while, and the blocking troops left behind were defeated. However, there was no one to block his troops on the road, but it was also a few days late.

If you really seal it, something will always be missed, and Juno is the first one to be missed.

The Cossack troops behind them now discovered the movements of the French, and the guerrillas from various groups also approached.

Kutuzov's stragglers were all behind him, and now the forces he could mobilize were 6 main forces and nearly 2 Cossack troops and guerrillas.

It was actually not easy to pursue them. Even when he detected the movements of the Russian army, Napoleon was somewhat disdainful.

"Kutuzov has finally made a move, but can he catch up? His troops must have suffered a huge loss. As long as we cross the Dnieper River in time, we will win this time."

"Your Majesty, this is probably not the time to underestimate the Russians. Their forces have surpassed ours, and since the defeat at Vyazma, many people are worried about our defeat."

"Failure? When we reach Poland, we will reorganize a large army. We still have 300,000 troops in Spain. In addition, some of our allies have not yet joined the battle, such as the Danes."

He might have been comforting himself by saying this, but it was not too wrong. After all, the Saxon troops remaining in the southern front were still largely intact. The only troops from Bavaria and Württemberg who suffered heavy losses were those who followed the French army deep into the heart of Russia. There were still some troops in the rear.

Many of the military flags of these armies also became trophies of the Russian army.

He was still very confident and didn't care how fragile the long snake formation he had already set up was.

And the Russian army's pursuit will soon arrive.

As for the subsequent French troops on the retreat, among the three armies, they are mainly French, and many of them are veterans who have experienced many wars.

But after the defeat at Vyazma, they had lost their former spirit and energy. In the icy and snowy conditions, the order of the army had been completely destroyed.

Sergeant Martial, the unfortunate old soldier of the 3rd Army, now had even his last subordinate fall here. He was completely alone with the main force. Even when he met Marshal Ney, the marshal expressed his sympathy when he heard about his tragic experience and praised his tenacity.

If he could leave Russia safely, he would be made an officer directly.

But for Martial, what he wants now is to run away. Whoever wants to be an officer can be one, even if it means going back to the brick factory in his hometown to carry bricks. He will not work here anymore.

With this thought in mind, he walked in the marching column with his rifle on his back. Because he was wearing a leather coat, he was somewhat better off than those beggar-like soldiers. Some officers could no longer maintain their dignity.

The soles of their beautiful boots began to fall off, and some even imitated the Russian overshoes.
Just then, someone heard gunshots.

It wasn't that any officer couldn't bear it and committed suicide, but a group of Cossacks approached them.

Several soldiers who wanted to take shelter in an abandoned carriage on the side of the road discovered the Cossacks' actions and chose to open fire.

At this distance, he was able to hit the target and knock down a Cossack along with his horse. This was all due to his good practice.

But afterwards, no one cared about the soldier who opened fire.

At most, someone looked at him, and finally he was nailed to the snow by the Cossacks' lances.

Martial was even further away and could only see vaguely, so he just sighed.

"Ugh!"

Another unlucky guy. I think it would be a relief if he died now. For the living, this torture is even more severe.

But these were just a small group of Cossacks that passed by. Because Ney's troops were walking at the end, they were also targeted by the patrolling Cossacks.

Napoleon, who was walking in front, was the key person that the Cossacks cared about, and he might even be treated as a VIP.

Davydov was also famous among Napoleon, as his house in Borodino was destroyed, so his revenge on the French was the most brutal.

Napoleon didn't even bother with those decent issues and said that if Davydov was caught, he would be shot on the spot.

In fact, Napoleon and Denis Davydov's brother knew each other at Austerlitz, when the unfortunate colonel, now a general, was wounded and captured in the battle.

Even their attitudes were different, and Napoleon was really broken by Davydov's elusive surprise attacks.

Now, after handing Dillier over to Solovyov to take advantage of him, Davydov and several of his old guerrilla companions set their sights on Napoleon's main force.

But now they don’t have enough manpower, and facing the old guards wearing bearskin hats, they dare not go forward easily.

After seeing the Russian cavalry, the Guards formed into a square formation, ready to teach the cavalry a lesson if they dared to come over.

Davydov, Seslavan, Figner, Orlov-Denisov and others also knew that these people were not easy to deal with, so they were not in a hurry to chase them.

Even some Cossacks who had occupied the road were driven out of the villages along the way by the guards and had no choice but to leave.

"Hell, we all saw Napoleon."

"Did you see him?"

Figner also found it incredible after hearing this.

"Davydov, we just saw a bunch of bearskin hats. These Frenchmen are the Guards. They are all veterans. I'm afraid they are not easy to mess with."

"We didn't mean to provoke them, but now we have seen our final target. This person's invasion destroyed my home. It is something I will remember for the rest of my life."

"But there are no infantry now, and the main force is in the back. These are not the people we dealt with before. Some of them dismounted and 'pretended' to be infantry, and we could disperse them by firing a few shots with the cavalry guns."

"then what should we do?"

"We can still let him go now, but when we have to cross the river, they will be in trouble."

As Figner spoke, he pulled out the dagger from his waist and rubbed it on his coat.

"It's not that easy to catch him. I heard that the British trapped him in Egypt and he managed to escape on a boat."

"It's not easy, but we can't let them get away."

"There will be more Frenchmen coming. Yesterday, I rode on the road to Minsk and saw some Frenchmen passing through Smolensk. They were in low spirits and looked disheveled."

"Ah, are you going to arrest these people? Figner, arrest them."

The guerrilla leaders also knew that if they did not have infantry following them, they would probably just be the weak ones.

"If we destroy them, maybe we can capture a few generals among them."

What they thought was not wrong. These three armies were the main force of the French army. Because the soldiers below suffered heavy losses, there were only a few senior officers left.

If it were on the battlefield, the officers at the front might have suffered even greater losses.

However, if the army were to march here, it would obviously be the soldiers who would suffer the greater losses. After all, the officers are more senior and have some privileges in terms of supplies.

But there would not be several officers to command one soldier, and there would always be some remnants of the defeated soldiers under the command of a company commander.

These people now walk on the road like zombies.

If the Cossacks were to take action, it would be easier to deal with these people with the cooperation of friendly forces.

As for Napoleon himself, he was still far from the border, and there would be opportunities to deal with him later. (End of this chapter)