Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Golitsyn, who led the troops, was the son of "Lady Moustache" and the brother of Countess Stroganova. He was also an old acquaintance in the social circle.

Let’s not talk about his ability to lead troops for now. There may be a more interesting thing. On July 1789, 7, Prince Dmitry Golitsyn claimed that he was unintentionally forced to do so, but in fact no one can tell whether he participated in the capture of the Bastille as a tourist actively or passively.

Considering that his brother-in-law was able to register at the Jacobin Club, no one would believe it if he didn't do it on purpose.

Russian nobles who returned from abroad usually had to justify their behavior abroad.

Every time Solovyov went abroad, he had a mission. If he went abroad as a personal matter, that was another matter.

What Golitsyn said was said in 1839 to Butulin, who was suspected of being a member of the Decembrists, and there are indeed some doubts about it.

But when it came to fighting the French, he played a role in almost every battle, especially being directly responsible for commanding the Guards Cuirassiers. After many battles, he was also appointed by Kutuzov to lead a detachment to participate in the operation.

The 15,000 men under his command were thrown into the battlefield of Uvarovo without even having time to deploy, and the organization of the infantry's actions was very chaotic.

Seeing that this was not working, the prince decided to lead the cuirassiers himself in another attack.

Although this attack failed to break the formation of the Young Guards, it did break the phalanxes of the two outer vault soldiers.

The Young Guards' combat effectiveness was actually very strong at this time, because they were all carefully selected soldiers. Although they did not have as much combat experience as the Old Guards, they were all experienced young and middle-aged soldiers with both physical strength and courage.

As for later separating the Middle-aged Guards and putting them into the Old Guards, and then not recognizing these people's identity as Old Guards when they failed, Napoleon was somewhat double-standard.

Now the consequences of the French lack of cavalry have become apparent. It is already difficult to recruit ordinary cavalry units, let alone the Guards Cavalry, which has very high requirements.

Even the most powerful Guards Grenadiers in the French Army suffered heavy losses in the war and had to replace several batches of personnel. The same was true this time, and there are not many people left.

Although this cavalry team is known to be "invincible", it also depends on the situation.

For a while, the French could only accept the repeated attacks of the Russian army until the Old Guard opened the road and drove away the Russian detachment that attempted to cut off the connection between the French troops on the road. Only then did Davout's 1st Army advance along the road towards Krasnay.

The fire in Uvarovo village could be seen clearly even at night.

The French are still launching counterattacks, and this resilience can only be guaranteed by the well-supplied Guards.

For a while, Golitsyn was caught in a tough battle here, but his troops were only driven out of the village of Uvarovo, and the two sides were still fighting repeatedly.

This was the toughest battle the Guards had encountered since Eylau. The French paid a high price and could only ensure that the road was passable under the threat of Russian artillery fire.

Until now, Napoleon still believed that he could open up the way and was very confident.

Even though Russian cavalry was already active on his retreat route and Eugene reported everything that happened, he remained confident.

However, as more and more Russian cavalry appeared on the road to Orsha, Napoleon now began to hesitate.

At first it was only cavalry, and when some infantry appeared later, even those who had no sense of crisis at the moment probably knew that their retreat was under serious threat.

So Napoleon chose to retreat, asking the Old Guard to withdraw from the road, and at the same time asking the Young Guard to withdraw from the village of Uvarovo and reorganize.

The Russian army did not enter Uvarovo either. After the village was burned, it was no longer suitable to spend the night there, and some troops chose to retreat. The fighting at night would only continue to consume the physical strength of both sides, and it was even a question whether they could continue the fight in the future.

Therefore, each of them chose to withdraw from the battle cautiously. When Napoleon took the initiative to withdraw from the battle, he was not caught up because of the combat effectiveness shown by his guards.

He himself seemed very confident that he could complete the retreat and continue westward from Krasnoyarsk to Minsk.

But the battle situation was not always as good as expected. After this night, Napoleon asked Davout to regroup in Krasnoy. He finally took to the main road with the Old Guard and prepared to continue retreating westwards.

As for Ney, whether he can escape depends on luck.

Solovyov's march this time was the longest, and his marching column entered through the woods and was not able to deploy in time.

The Kiev Grenadier Regiment and the Moscow Grenadier Regiment, which were at the front, had already seen the flags of the French Guards, but these two regiments had no artillery support and fewer troops than their opponents, so they did not take the initiative to attack.

Solovyov also told Shatilov not to rush to attack at this time and to wait for follow-up troops.

There was no other way. It was really difficult to move cannons here. If we only had rifles, it would probably be difficult to stop Napoleon's actions.

What's more, when they saw the bear-skin hats, the Russian army also knew what they had encountered.

Colonel Shatilov did not choose to attack, but sent out some veterans of the Moscow Regiment to harass the French army with sniper guns.

However, at this distance, the damage caused is relatively limited. If the French army chooses to attack, the Russian army can only retreat.

After all, the grenadiers today are not as fully equipped as they were when the war broke out, and the losses during winter marches are also great.

When Solovyov arrived from the rear, he could only watch the old guards retreating from afar.

This was the closest he had ever been to Napoleon on the battlefield.

However, he was not in a hurry to launch an attack and sent a message to Kutuzov.

"The Earl is being very cautious at this time. If it were an ordinary army, he would probably take the initiative to attack."

The commander-in-chief himself was trying to exonerate Solovyov, and when the generals of the general staff heard this, they nodded in agreement.

"It's just a pity that we had the chance to catch such a tough opponent of ours."

Konovnitsyn said that as the general on duty, he had now replaced Bennigsen's position.

"But that's not the case. You have to know that even if he only has a few troops with him, he is still Napoleon. The only problem is that he can probably go back and pull out hundreds of thousands of troops."

In fact, Kutuzov understood, but he thought that he was only responsible for achieving victory in Russia, and those Germans...
"Then what should we do next?" "Don't worry. Although we cannot destroy the enemy's main force in Krasne, they have also suffered a huge blow. The French 1st Army suffered a heavy blow, and there is also a 3rd Army behind it. It will be a huge achievement to be able to destroy these enemies."

Kutuzov actually knew very well that what needed to be eliminated now were mainly these French veterans and experienced senior officers. These people were the backbone of the army. If these people were gone in the future, it would be difficult for the French army to reorganize and restore its combat effectiveness.

Perhaps only by drawing veterans from Spain and the rear can these shortcomings be made up.

In addition, there was something that made Kutuzov very happy. Golitsyn's men captured a flag of the Dutch grenadiers.

Although it was not a regimental flag, it was also a major victory. The Dutch grenadiers suffered heavy losses in Uvarovo, which also meant that the Dutch troops in the French army were probably completely wiped out.

"That's good. The prince should be commended. This victory is even more successful than the one in Vyazma."

"Should we continue to pursue?"

"Let's deal with the enemies behind first. As for Napoleon, he needs to cross the Berezina River. I think it will take some time. Let Tormasov lead the troops to advance there, and let Miloradovich and Golitsyn deal with Ney."

Kutuzov's decision was a very wise one. Although he did not intend to destroy Napoleon, he wanted to inflict as much damage on him as possible.

With the large-scale battle in Krasne not yet over, the 1st Army, which had barely managed to maintain discipline, completely collapsed and became a group of guerrillas.

With only a few days left, perhaps Napoleon and Davout had time to reorganize their troops. However, bad news was waiting for them on the road ahead. Not only was Vitebsk occupied by the Russian army, but if Victor had not been active near the Berezina River, he had at least preserved a route of retreat for the French army. The French might have really been wiped out here.

The situation in Europe might be quite different.

Alexander also considered the problem of France. Although Napoleon's successor was his nephew, the rule of Paris would only be unstable.

That might put his sister in danger, and only if the Russian army entered Europe could they share the fruits of victory, otherwise it would be a waste for Austria and Britain.

The elite Russian grenadiers finally made it to the highway, and Solovyov almost missed the battle in Krasnoy, but he knew that the road he took was the most troublesome.

Soon, Admiral Tormasov's adjutant arrived.

"Sir, the general wants you to be the vanguard of the left column and pursue Napoleon on the Orsha Road."

"Okay, I see."

It always takes some time to prepare after coming out of the woods. He wanted the 2nd Grenadier Division to set off first, with the 1st Grenadier Division following behind. The artillery was still on its way here from the woods. He was unwilling to engage in battle without artillery.

And now, the best thing for him would probably be to put all the Tatar and Kalmyk cavalry in the Cossack Corps under his command.

While in Sweden, Solovyov had become very familiar with the Battelle.

Although it may be a different group of people, my performance always makes me a warrior among them.

The mission of pursuing Napoleon was a good one, but whether he could be stopped at the Berezina River was still a question.

Although from the perspective of pursuing honor, defeating Napoleon on the battlefield is a great temptation, it would be best to capture him alive.

However, although Kutuzov never made it clear, Solovyov was very clear about his attitude.

If you want him to chase, then you should hit hard when you need to, and let go when you need to.

This is interesting, but if you really want to fight, it may be another matter.

The Young Guards also retreated. Tormasov also understood Kutuzov's intention, which was to send his troops to intercept the French convoy and fight against the French rear guard for a while.

If someone had said something like the casualty rate would lead to the collapse of the army, the French and Russian generals present would probably have sneered.

The Young Guards deployed 6000 troops to the battlefield. Except for the Polish Vistula Corps that came in front to support them, most of them participated in the battle. They completely lost half of their men in the battle. Although the remaining half could still form a formation, many of them were injured. Moreover, after continuous marching and this fierce battle, they suffered great losses.

However, the Young Guards actually held off the Russian army and even successfully counterattacked. Their performance was also outstanding.

Compared with Borodino, at least the entire army won the opportunity to retreat, which was different from the time when it gained nothing.

Now the Russian army has taken control of Krasny, but Ney knows nothing about it.

He was still confident that Davout was still waiting for him in Krasnoy. After the 3rd Army completely abandoned Smolensk, the entire army finally recovered some of its strength and seemed to be marching more vigorously.

But their retreat had been cut off, and Ney was actually in a desperate situation.

Miloradovich also changed his deployment, but he was also curious about one thing.

There’s something very strange that Kutuzov once said: “Without me, it all falls apart.”

Some people would accuse Kutuzov of being "cowardly", but the generals commanding on the front line did not see it that way. The Russian army also suffered heavy losses in Krasnoy, especially in the battle of Uvarovo.

If you overuse the army, it might be ok in summer, but if you do it in winter, you are somewhat asking for trouble.

He set up his troops on the road, waiting for Ney's troops to arrive.

At the same time, the Cossack regiments and guerrillas on the flanks also began to become active, continuing to monitor the actions of the French and even launching direct attacks.

And Ney had just seen the situation ahead.

But he didn't know who belonged to Krasnoy, because the French army set a fire in the city when they retreated, and he thought there was a fierce battle there.

Therefore, he also issued an order to his troops to prepare to use bayonet charges to break through the Russian army's front line of defense and kill their way out along the road to Orsha.

Although this idea is good and his courage is unquestionable, we must also consider the course of history and his personal contribution. There are at least four Russian armies operating on the roads on both sides of Krasnoyarsk. His strength is only 4, even if we add up the French troops who have fallen behind but are still willing to join the battle. (End of this chapter)