Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

By the time Chichakov realized his huge mistake, Napoleon had already led the Guards to the banks of the Berezina River.

However, he did not evacuate first himself. Instead, he personally commanded the battle here and asked the Guards and part of the artillery to evacuate first.

But the bodies lying on the shore also proved one thing, that most of the engineers who saved the lives of their comrades and their emperor did not survive. Only a few officers and soldiers in shallow water escaped, and the rest died of hypothermia.

But there was no time to worry about that now, and Napoleon ordered the troops to evacuate as soon as possible.

In addition to the infantry, some light cavalry had to cross the river first. Napoleon was not clear about the movements of the Russian army on the other side, so he decided to send the Guards and part of Oudinot's 2nd Army that had already crossed the river to cover the flanks and monitor Chichakov's movements.

After crossing the river, they soon encountered the vanguard sent by Chichakov. After a round of exchange of fire, Oudinot, the ammunition magnet, actually repelled the Russian vanguard without any harm and finally opened some ferry crossings.

After that, the French army began to evacuate again. Those retreating from the infantry bridge were better off, as there were no safety hazards on the bridge. Soon, Eugene and Junot's troops also began to cross the river.

For the French, the most precious thing now is time.

At least when the soldiers were crossing the river, they could see that their emperor was still commanding the troops on the east bank. He was the rear guard for the main force, so they could regain their confidence.

Marshal Victor left General Patuno of the 12th Infantry Division and General Delet's Cavalry Brigade as the rear guard to cover the retreat of the army. The troops of these two generals were not large, but compared with the large army that had suffered heavy losses, they were already considered fresh forces.

Wittgenstein's vanguard soon caught up and a fierce battle broke out between them.

General Delet personally led his cavalry in a counterattack, but was soon hit by the chasseurs in the Russian vanguard.

As a result, he fell on the snow and was rescued by several cavalrymen around him, but the cavalrymen's counterattack also failed.

Wittgenstein then adopted a very simple tactic and just pushed forward.

What he wanted to capture was the bridge in the city, completely cutting off the French's possibility of retreating from here.

With his smart mind, it was not until the reconnaissance intelligence was sent over that he realized that the French were just using this place as a cover.

However, destroying a French division was a great temptation, not to mention that only by defeating these French could they reach the banks of the Berezina River.

General Patuno's command ability is really not satisfactory, and may even be worse than Oudinot's previous performance in Riga.

Oudinot was not very smart, but he was brave and tenacious in battle.

But Patuno did not seem to have this ability. Even after General Delet, who dared to fight back, was wounded and fell off his horse, he could only be suppressed by the Russians.

However, he did perform better than many officers who were already in chaos at this time in one respect: he even wanted to pretend to surrender.

His idea was to leave the wounded to Wittgenstein and send envoys to negotiate an armistice.

The reason he wanted to do this was because his previous counterattack had failed and even resulted in the loss of half of his troops.

He fully expected that he could use this method to pin down Wittgenstein, and then take the opportunity to lead the cavalry and the infantry who were still willing to break out to the ferry to look for the emperor.

However, Wittgenstein was simple-minded and welcomed the French surrender, but he wanted to speed up the process.

This left Patuno with no choice. He didn't even have the chance to escape and inform Napoleon, and was captured by Wittgenstein.

Even Wittgenstein was a little complacent. He was now the winner of the Battle of Riga. In addition, he was also the "patron saint of St. Petersburg". Because he protected St. Petersburg, some people even praised him.

Therefore, he could not avoid comparisons with the generals of the friendly forces, and even with Solovyov, who had just come out from the children's table.

Who made this guy force a French division to surrender?
Speaking of which, he is also an old child, even a little complacent.

Dibicki, who worked in his staff, saw that his commander had strange ideas again, so he advised him in time: "The emperor's order to us is to cut off Napoleon's retreat and destroy them. The commander-in-chief's actions are a bit slow, and we still need to find the French ferry."

Only then did he realize that after General Berger captured Patunno, he asked the 1st Army to continue moving forward.

They missed the previous fierce battle, and their troops are still generally intact, so they can naturally maintain their combat effectiveness.

What's more, he did cut off Napoleon's supply artery along the way, but he didn't have time to take a portrait as a souvenir.

But their current actions are still unlikely to stop Napoleon.

After all, Wittgenstein was blocked by French defenders on the road, so he was able to find an excuse for himself. In addition, his previous battle performance in Riga had earned him a good reputation in the aristocratic circles of the capital.

As for Chichakov, although his blocking troops arrived first, because their attention was all on the French false ferry, it still took time for them to come back and mobilize the troops.

After his initial attack was repelled, he realized his mistake.

But the mistake could not be made up for. The combat-ready troops in the French army were all crossing the river, and the unnecessary carriages were left on the other side. Only the carriages of the marshal and some generals had the privilege of crossing the bridge.

At the same time, some troops of Kutuzov's main force, which had been slacking off throughout the whole process, finally found the route along the direction of Napoleon's defeated troops' retreat.

But the main forces were all in the rear. The Grenadier Division led by Christian had only 2,000 vanguard troops, which was not enough to break the defense of Gerard's Division, as the opponent had three times as many troops as him.

The French were still using the two pontoon bridges, and even before the Russians arrived, 30,000 of them had crossed the river.

At this time, Chichakov crossed the river again to pursue. After all, he controlled the area near the shallows, and there was a part of the cavalry unit crossing the river from farther away behind him.

If it were only the cavalry, the Russian army's mobility would still be very strong and they would quickly arrive in front of the French army.

It was only because of the chaotic situation that the French army relied on the bridge to wait for battle after crossing the river, and because it was approaching night, Chichakov did not launch an attack.

But the crossing point had been exposed, and Napoleon knew that the situation would be very bad at this time.

So in addition to the main force of Oudinot's 2nd Army, he also assembled 4000 men from the Guards and those troops that could still fight and handed them over to him, and arranged for Ney to assist him in his work. This was a habit, and Napoleon knew very well that Oudinot, this unlucky guy, would be injured at any time, but after a while he would appear on the battlefield alive and kicking.

He probably won't die no matter how hard he's beaten, and he's very resilient. He can perform well in tough battles, but he's not that good in ordinary battles. He often loses when he leads troops alone or in a favorable battle.

"Your Majesty, now it is like this."

"Oudinot, I leave the safety of the entire legion to you and Victor. He is responsible for the retreat of the follow-up troops, and you are here to stop the Russian guy coming down from the pile of planks."

"Your Majesty, don't worry about this."

Oudinot was very confident, but
Napoleon finally chose to cross the river. He could still see a large number of people on the other side, including Gerard's rear guard.

In this case, he would have to send one of Victor's divisions to the other side and hold out longer tomorrow.

The crossing point was exposed and Wittgenstein would soon catch up.

If Kutuzov's troops also chased after them, the French troops on the other side would probably be completely wiped out.

But at this time, the only army that Victor could mobilize to cross the river was the 26th Division commanded by Dutch Marshal Denders, and they even had more than 8000 troops available for battle.

Napoleon looked at the soldiers and decided to stay on the river bank for the time being to see as many troops as possible cross the river successfully.

The current situation is still very bad. The Russian troops that can join the battle on both sides far exceed the French troops. If we are not careful, we will probably die here.

Juno, who had already retreated in front, was still trying to find a way to retreat to Vilna, north of Minsk. At the same time, there were a large number of people waiting to retreat on the other side.

It can be said that the situation is critical. For Napoleon, the only thing that was not very friendly to him was the rising water level of the Berezina River due to the warming climate in recent days.

However, because the snow melted in some places, the Russian troops pursuing on the main road suffered bad luck.

The grenadiers led by Christian had not yet crossed the river in front of them to launch an attack, and the main force was left behind.

Kutuzov was not very active in pursuing Napoleon. In his opinion, the victory in Krasnoy was enough. Next, Napoleon could escape at the Berezina River as long as there was a pontoon bridge there or the French controlled any bridge.

At this time, a fierce battle would probably only waste the physical strength of Russian officers and soldiers, and many people might even die here.

Regardless of whether we fight or not, we must always maintain our military strength.

Therefore, he was not very active, and the pursuit speed of the main Russian army slowed down.

The French were now rushing to retreat, even at night, and those vehicles that were slow to move on the pontoon bridge would be pushed into the river.

Now, the only thing on many people's minds is to escape.

As long as the troops that have crossed the river can still maintain some combat effectiveness, they can still continue to move.

As for Dunders, who turned back to cross the river, he was able to maintain a passage at the beginning. When the remnants of the defeated troops on the other side were retreating this way, he was always able to ensure that his own troops could cross the river.

However, as they lost their combat effectiveness, more and more people who only wanted to escape came here, and they almost blocked the movement of the French troops on the pontoon bridge who were preparing to cross the river.

This forced Dunders to give orders, and the French army used bayonets to open a gap in the fleeing crowd, which allowed this division to cross the river in time.

But this was all on the night of November 11, and the test of the next day had not yet arrived.

Wittgenstein's action on the east side is now to block the ferry and stop the French troops that have not yet retreated here. It would be best to destroy the two pontoon bridges and seize as much ordnance as possible.

He didn't know how many French troops had passed by, he just kept trying his best to intercept them.

Napoleon finally moved a little on the other side of the river, but he would not continue to retreat for the time being. He wanted to stay here and watch the situation of the battle under the protection of the Old Guard.

In fact, he already had the idea in his mind, which was to return to Paris from Russia.

The political situation there was unstable, and he could go back to stabilize the order. In addition, he had to recruit 200,000 new soldiers, and also mobilize troops from Spain, especially experienced veterans who had fought there for many years.

The good news was that during his retreat, he received news that Britain and the United States were at war on the North American continent, and even news that his political enemy, General Moreau, had won several battles there.

I really don't know how to comment on this, but a lot of British forces are still tied up on the American side, and the rear seems to be safe. Even the Spanish regular army has been compressed into a small area in the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula, and the British only control the area around Lisbon. The situation seems to be very favorable.

Massena, the old soldier, was still very useful. Facing the old soldier who had not lost an eye and whose physical decline was not that serious, Wellington had no way to defeat him for a while.

With Soult and Suchet, it seems that the French can still fight there. Even in some Spanish places near France, the French rule there is more stable. At least Napoleon still has capital, and after paying it out, he can even deal a huge blow to the possible coalition forces in the future.

But in Russia, this failure will definitely become a topic of discussion.

No one can predict what will happen in Europe.

For the Russians, victory seemed just around the corner if they could drive the French out of their territory.

The large-scale battle at the ferry crossing of the Berezina River has not yet begun, but everyone knows that this battle will begin tomorrow.

The Russians wanted to deal a fatal blow to the French, but the French just wanted to escape, so they continued to move to the other side of the river.

There were still a large number of people waiting to cross the pontoon bridge. Because Denders and Gerard used bayonets to maintain order, the chaos was finally calmed down.

It seems that no matter who they are, if they are invaders, they will always face some trouble in the Berezina River. (End of this chapter)