Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

In fact, the estimation of Napoleon at this time was not too wrong.

Solovyov knew that he would definitely come over on his own initiative, it was just a matter of which direction to go.

It's just that he arrived at the General Staff too late, and there was always a Volkonsky there, the nephew of his old boss and a colleague in the attendant's room. The two had a good relationship. The prince's brother-in-law and cousin Sergei had also worked for him.

Of course, he might cause other trouble in the future.

Prince Peter's main goal was to present the battle plan to the Tsar. According to Wittgenstein's idea, the Russian army obviously had to guard against the French approaching Leipzig, but his approach was to divide the troops to repel the enemy.

In a joint operation, if the troops are divided, there will be a huge crisis.

In the west, there were always the troops led by Eugene who retreated from Poland to Berlin, and then from Berlin to Magdeburg. If they were pursued, at least as Clausewitz was sitting here today, he had already expressed his opinion that it would be meaningless to pursue these people.

Even others could see that if action was taken against Eugene's troops, the Russian army would probably have to continue to move westward. If the front line was stretched, the areas of Leipzig and Dresden in Saxony would be exposed, and Berlin would also be threatened.

If Kutuzov were still alive, he would probably have taken action in the Elbe River area. Torgau is located on the southwest bank of the Elbe River. If it became famous in the future, it would be because the Allied forces and the Red Army met here on April 1945, 4.

But if you ask me, Solovyov also wanted to complain to Clausewitz.

"Mick, you look a lot more haggard lately."

Clausewitz knew that he had a very good relationship with his queen, and could even be considered a lover, but out of loyalty to the queen and the prince, and out of friendship for his old friend, he would keep it a secret.

He also knew that because Mrs. Soloviev had been in Warsaw for some time, she was able to bring her wife and mistress over, and compared to others, she was quite proud of this.

But during this period, Solovyov did not have much time to accompany them. He had been patrolling around Warsaw and supervising civil affairs. Now he has to return to the front line, and the journey is bumpy.

"Official affairs seem to be much more troublesome than women now. How is your wife doing recently?"

"I sent my family to Königsberg so that at least they can fight at the front in peace. By the way, what do you think Napoleon will do?"

"Karl, you are right. If we attack Eugene's troops, our flank will be exposed. If the French want to fight now, they should actually fight near Leipzig and Dresden. Historically, there have been many wars here. You are a Prussian, so you should know what wars these places have experienced in the past 200 years."

"You don't mean Lu Cen's place, do you?"

Clausewitz learned very well. He knew that during the Thirty Years' War, King Gustav fought with Wallenstein at Lützen. Although the former won the war, he was killed in the melee.

The next more famous battle was during the Seven Years' War, when Frederick the Great defeated Prince Charles of Lorraine, the incompetent brother-in-law and uncle of the Austrian Empress, with an oblique formation at Leuthen near Lützen.

This place always sounds like: Lüzen, the place of large-scale wars throughout the ages.
Moreover, most of the battles of this anti-French alliance will probably be fought around here.

On the one hand, the locations of Dresden and Leipzig are very important, from where they can threaten Berlin, Silesia and Bohemia. Although the Austrians did not join the battle, if the battlefield is controlled in this place, it will probably be able to effectively deter them.

When in Warsaw, Solovyov wrote a letter to Archduke Karl. The two had co-authored some military textbooks in the past. The Archduke himself did not seem to have any intention of joining the war. Metternich was in power in Austria and obviously had to consider the interests of Austria. The Archduke himself was keen on family life and preferred to be with his wife and children.

If the French gained the upper hand on the battlefield and were even able to repel the coalition forces, Austria would probably not move and would continue to engage in armed mediation. They really did not dare to continue fighting.

If the coalition forces win, they will probably join. But if Austria is allowed to reap the benefits in the future, probably no one will agree. There are still many things to come.

In diplomatic occasions, these soldiers are often not needed to join in, as they still have to consider things on the battlefield.

Therefore, the battle in Saxony was still crucial.

Napoleon's last victory was in Saxony, where he achieved a decisive victory over the Prussian army, so he probably still hoped to enter the battlefield in May and achieve a glorious victory in June.

His confidence has a lot to do with the current army.

The veterans drawn from Spain, the new soldiers recruited in 1813 from the country, and the troops assembled from various vassal states now had 25 people ready to join the battle, and the number would be far more than this in the future.

The enthusiasm of the new recruits also made Napoleon feel the hope of victory.

Moreover, he has always been quite conceited, probably the typical superman type of player who believes that he will definitely win and can defeat the enemy by taking the initiative to attack.

However, the French army lacked cavalry at this time. They lost more than 90% of their horses and 80% of their cavalry in Russia. The combat effectiveness of the reorganized cavalry units was limited, and even the quality of the horses was far inferior to the past.

Even the horses requisitioned from France were far from enough in quantity and quality.

But Napoleon was sometimes too arrogant and believed that he could still win by taking the initiative to attack.

If he passed through Fulda and came to Saxony again, his attitude would be very clear. He would finally win on the plain where he had defeated the Prussian army in one fell swoop.

"It's Lutzen, but this is not a good battlefield by default. If we want to take advantage of the terrain, we always need to make some changes. He is very good at mobilizing troops. Even if we have many auxiliary measures, we will still face trouble. What does our new commander-in-chief plan to do now?"

"You haven't taken office yet, and we still think of you as someone who is better at dealing with the Turks. When we dealt with the French, your identity was still there."

“Why is it always like this here?”

After listening to Clausewitz's narration, Solovyov also felt helpless.

But there is no way around it, on the Prussian side, they always have some stubborn opinions.

"It always takes time to change. Many of us here are actually old antiques from the past. People like General Blücher may have a better impression of you." After hearing this, the old guy Solovyov smiled helplessly.

But Clausewitz then explained a new situation: "But you are related to the French emperor, which will make people hostile."

"It is not the case in Russia. Even if there were people in Moscow who opposed the French, your Majesty would still respect the French who served and lived in Russia for a long time."

"You also need to know what the French have done here over the years."

"That reminds me of when you escaped from a prisoner-of-war camp in France and disguised yourself as a refugee, you talked about the chaos in Prussia."

"Yes, that was the case at that time. We still have to fight in Saxony now, but according to the current requirements, you can't command the troops immediately."

"I know, and he's the deputy chief of staff, which doesn't allow me to do anything. Although I'm the son-in-law of Prince Dolgorukov, at a time like this, if I don't have some real skills, I probably won't be promoted so quickly."

Besides, he needs some time to adapt after coming back, so he can probably only sit here and chat with a group of Prussian military staff.

In fact, Solovyov still had some popularity among the young people of the Prussian army. After all, the most difficult battles in the Russian army were fought by Prince Bagration, and the pursuit was carried out by Miloradovich. Solovyov was a very skillful maneuver. The series of moves made by him and Langeron in early 1807 forced the French to enter Eylau from another direction. In the end, the French failed, and although the Russian army was a failure, it finally retreated safely. In fact, from the time the French army began to pursue, it caused great trouble to the Russian army.

"If we can still be in an independent corps on the flank like we were in the Balkans, maybe we can perform better."

"But if we are on the flank, what kind of enemy will we face?"

Solovyov is now aware that with the current size of the force, it is not possible to separate several main corps and form their own coalition forces to join the operation.

Even with the current poor communication conditions of the coalition forces and the technical bonuses, there are always some problems in the marching of several columns.

After Wittgenstein set out from Berlin, he sent the Prussian detachment led by von Kleist to take the lead, and he led the main force in the rear, aiming to intercept Napoleon in the area south of Leipzig.

But at the same time, the troops had to be divided in other places, which meant that although the coalition was actually two, there was also Sweden on the flank in the north, which allowed more Prussian troops to join the battlefield. In addition, Napoleon had previously sent Davout to command the joint French and Danish army to Hamburg and surrounding cities to suppress the local citizens' resistance to the French.

After sending out a marshal who could act independently, Napoleon now had Marmont, who had followed him since the Toulon period, who had some ability to lead troops independently. MacDonald had this ability, but his actions were always unsuccessful.

At this moment, the old rogue soldier Massena and another robber Soult are still in Spain. The situation on the battlefield is not very true to history, but it is still an ulcer.

The French will definitely move from the direction of Naumburg, and if they want to take action against Saxony from the west and north, it will always be in this direction.

Two predecessors had already done this, and Napoleon, who was familiar with his experiences in past wars, would naturally mobilize his troops.

But he probably didn't know that his whereabouts had been exposed. The Russian army had heard about the French actions, but their estimate of the troop strength was wrong.

Wittgenstein soon led his troops to the area south of Leipzig, where he sought to take action and defeat what he believed to be Napoleon's "detachment" or vanguard.

However, during this period, he also had conflicts within the army with Tormasov and Miloradovich. These two were generals who played important roles in Kutuzov's headquarters in the past. Tormasov was actually the acting commander before.

When Wittgenstein mobilized the troops, he put Miloradovich's troops at the back, which made the latter think that there was some personal grudge involved in this personnel arrangement.

At the same time, after crossing the Elbe River, the Allied forces did not follow the original plan of Kutuzov and Scharnhorst.

Yermolov, who opposed Wittgenstein's plan, was also sent to directly command the Guards and no longer had a part-time job in the headquarters.

Considering that among the generals in the War of 1812, the commanders of various armies were either dead, injured, or not at the front line, the fact that the former commander of the 1st Army is here seems to represent that he can take action.

If we look at it this way, it seems that if we count the generals below, except for Raevsky in the Grenadiers, many of them are the generals who chased from the north with Wittgenstein, and the rest are Prussians.

And the cooperation between the two companies at this time is actually not as good as that of Eylau.

As the conversation continued, Solovyov could also detect some problems. The Prussians were probably still eager for revenge and had a strong desire for war.

However, their enthusiasm is one thing, and how to fight may be another issue.

As for the troops on the front line, after asking for instructions, Wittgenstein decided to use the areas southwest of Leipzig, where there are still some high ground in terms of terrain, which would be beneficial for relying on a position in the battle.

Although he did not participate in the battle of Borodino, building positions or relying on favorable terrain were also common features of these Russian generals.

"So if it were you, what would you choose?"

"We need to organize our artillery well. In every war, we have more artillery than the enemy. Unfortunately, the organization is always poor, and this has happened more than once. In addition, we need to use the numerical advantage of our cavalry and the veterans among the infantry who have experienced war. We should not fight on a battlefield where there is a precedent."

But when the Prussians heard his idea of ​​letting the French go to Leipzig, they all shook their heads.

After all, doing so would appear to be retreating without a fight, and might even have some impact on morale.

Solovyov himself saw their performance and realized that after all, he was not the one commanding the army.

And to be honest, if the Russian and Prussian armies were put together, there would always be some incompatibility.
Map near Leipzig, with Lützen in the southwest and the French coming from the west.

The direction of action of both sides from the Battle of Lützen to the Battle of Bautzen. Due to the death of Kutuzov, the coalition forces on the southern front were now commanded by Blücher, while Wittgenstein and Kleist came from the north. (End of this chapter)