Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

The only troops assembled on the banks of the Oder River were Prince Arkady Suvorov's 9th Division, a relatively simple unit originally deployed in the Danube Corps.

They were then transferred to the Markov Column belonging to the 3rd Army, which had 4 infantry regiments, 2 chasseur regiments, 1 field artillery brigade, and the Alexander Hussar Regiment.

"Arkasha, if we don't have these cavalry units, we will probably only be able to rely on the heavy cavalry."

Solovyov said this with a joking tone.

Although there are many cavalrymen in the Russian army, only a few are assigned to each army, and the cuirassiers are all organized into heavy cavalry divisions.

"Where do all these Circassian cavalrymen come from?"

"You seem to have lost your memory, Arkasha. We reached Greece during our expedition. We captured many prisoners on the banks of the Danube, in Rumelia, and later in Greece. Just like Napoleon's Mamluks, many people were willing to serve us, and we were able to form two cavalry squadrons."

Although Solovyov knew that Arkasha's style was similar to Suvorov's when he was young, his personal ability was far inferior and he might need more experience before he could mature.

He is only 29 years old now, which is a good age for a young general.
Although one of them was the disciple of the Grand Marshal and the other was the son of the Grand Marshal, the progress of their promotion was comparable due to the latter's father's influence and the former's military exploits.

Both of them are now lieutenant generals, but the interesting thing is that Arkady still has some self-awareness, and Solovyov does have the ability to fight.

As for the follow-up troops, they are still on the way. Since it is a ceasefire period, Solovyov is not too anxious.

This is what he did. When fighting in Sweden and the Balkans, he always waited for the follow-up troops for a long time, and then pieced together the materials provided when he arrived at the scene, but he was always able to win.

"But we still have to wait for follow-up troops, including some Prussians."

Solovyov only took a look at the organizational chart given by Scharnhorst at the time, and he found that his troops were like a patchwork platter.

Napoleon said he would not eat the mezze, and in this unfavorable situation he remained arrogant.

His final failure began from here.

Solovyov felt that he was too young and might not have the chance to lead troops alone to defeat Napoleon.

However, it is only natural to join the battle. Many of the military achievements over the years came from the French.

Although his mixed forces may not be very impressive when facing Napoleon, they can always serve as a surprise force.

After waiting for a few days, the volunteer troops arrived one after another. When these soldiers from Serbia and Greece saw Solovyov riding on his horse, they all burst into cheers.

Past wars in the Balkans always ended with good results.

Four Serbian infantry regiments and one hussar regiment, in addition to two Greek regiments.

But the way Greeks dress is very different from the stereotype.

Together with the Serbs, they all looked like the new Ottoman army wearing Russian uniforms.

Many of them were hunters, which was considered a division according to the Russian army's standards.

The team was led by Peric, a friend of Solovyov's in the Balkans.

Because those heavy cavalry were so special, they had to be organized separately. They taught the French a lesson at Borodino and retreated with almost no losses, which also shocked the French army - they could still encounter such retro heavy cavalry on the battlefield in 1812.

As for the remaining Prussian troops, Solovyov felt that they could wait a while.

More importantly, it is the staff of his headquarters.

Although Clausewitz failed to become the chief of staff of the Silesian Army, because of his previous experience with Solovyov, he came here after the Oder Army was established.

Most of the staff members were German officers from the Prussian and Russian armies.

There are even veterans who say: "So many of the officers are Germans, even the general staff is full of them."

If another Prussian brigade came, it would be extremely lively.

Clausewitz was in a dilemma now, as someone was planning to arrange for the 12th Brigade of von Kleist's Corps to join Solovyov's Corps.

If he was just an ordinary Prussian general, it would be fine. Although Solovyov had some opinions about the Prussians, he had a good relationship with the royal family, so he would not have any opinions.

But the commander of the 12th Brigade was Prince August, Clausewitz's former boss.

The most interesting thing is probably that although Prince August had a different schedule from Solovyov, he also pursued Madame Récamier and always kept the portrait of her painted by Mr. Gerard.

It was just that because the prince already had a long-term and stable lover at the time, his fate with the lady ended there.

Although Solovyov had the same problem, he was very honest with his wife, and the only person around the count on weekdays was the young Countess Katya, and the two of them were good friends.

It would probably be more interesting if this prince came.

However, Clausewitz also felt that this would be troublesome.

In the end, Prince August did not come. If he had come, the strength of von Kleist's corps would have been weakened.

Similarly, it would not be appropriate to transfer troops from the York Corps or the Bülow Corps.

Then, a group of Prussian army's "reserve troops" were sent to Solovyov. They were probably workers who had just put down their tools, students who had just graduated from school, and some citizens who had applied for conscription.

There are many of these people, but their quality is not very good.

"That's all. Now we can probably count on the Duke of Brunswick's volunteers."

"Karl, there's nothing we can do about it. After all, we're not the main army. We're supporting the three armies. We can even act boldly to the enemy's flank or even behind them when necessary."

"If it were in the context of the Seven Years' War, it would probably be like this." Clausewitz was also trying to recall what he had learned before. He was not like Solovyov, who often spoke without thinking, and even if you looked it up in a book, you would find that many of his ideas were correct.

"It's better than bringing in a bunch of prisoners. When recruiting soldiers in Russia, if a serf from the manor is tall and strong, his character will be questioned. On the contrary, if a skinny serf comes, it can be considered that he has a certain moral guarantee."

This was indeed something the Prussians often did in the past. Deserters and prisoners could be drafted into the army, and they could even be friendly or enemy soldiers. As long as you could fire a gun and had good teeth, you could naturally join the army.

In that case, it would probably be no different from conscripting men. Solovyov even wanted to complain that some people might not have learned all of these two tricks.

At least the able-bodied men in the Prussian army still have some fighting power if they are deployed.

Some of the able-bodied men are really miserable.

"Well then, we should arrange the training of the army next."

"Fortunately, I had suggested to His Majesty that you recruit the Kazakh cavalry. Fortunately, they are too far away. If they were here, I would not be able to imagine what would happen."

Kazakhs are generally considered descendants of various Mongolian tribes, and many of them are descendants of the Khan of the Kereyid tribe, who had a 100-member band.
However, according to the report of the Governor-General of Orenburg, the situation there was not quite the same as what St. Petersburg had imagined. The Kazakh tribes were even more loose than in the past when they were independent, and some of them were dependent on the Qing Dynasty, while the rest were dependent on Tsarist Russia.

Some of their cavalry still have heavy armor, and if they were also pulled over, it would probably be a spectacle in the war.

If the cavalry of both sides were too close, they would probably just start hacking at each other as a group.

"In that case, our staff officers will need to know one more language."

"So it's better for everyone to speak German or French. Karl, you've been with me for a few years, so your Russian still has a slight accent."

"You can't expect everyone to be like you."

Solovyov also nodded in agreement. Now his legion was complete except for the "Black Duke" which was still on the way.

As for training subjects, Solovyov organized the German-speaking Prussians into a separate group, which even lacked officers.

Since he is to be the commander of the small legions responsible for supporting the troops, he should at least be equipped with officers.

However, there is a shortage of officers now. Solovyov does not have any German officers to be assigned, and there is only one position for each person in the 9th Division.

Therefore, he could only hope that when the "Black Duke" arrived, he would bring his team of veterans with practical experience to train this strange army.

On this basis, Solovyov waited for another four days and finally saw the Brunswick Volunteer Army.

The "Black Duke" wore a black cavalry uniform, rode a black horse, and had a black beard.
He probably has little similarity with his father, the old Duke, and is a complete image of a fierce general.

"Well, Michael, now you are also a legion commander."

"This legion is too small and cannot be compared with the main force. But it is not without benefits. I still have some new recruits who need to be trained from scratch. You veterans have combat experience in Spain and may be able to use it."

"Yes, but when we were in Spain, we were with the Spanish army, and things were always not going well. When Napoleon withdrew troops from Spain, the situation got better. But at this time, we didn't need to be stationed near Porto, so we took the British ship directly here."

"Isn't that closer to home?"

"Yes, but how is Mary?"

It seems that this "rough guy" still can't let go of his wife, or to be more exact, his ex-wife.

"She had a serious illness when she was in Petersburg, but she is in better health now. Your daughter is still often in the palace. After all, Her Majesty the Queen is her aunt, and she is treated the same as the other princes."

"Ah, I really owe them both a lot. My two sons are now being fostered by relatives and I don't know how they are doing now."

"I don't think there's anything to worry about. Your family should be reunited when the war is over. Also, Mary is still the same, but she looks prettier now."

The "Black Duke" liked his wife like this, and he was promised that the Duchy of Brunswick would be re-established after the war.

But if we restore history, the situation will be very delicate.

The eldest son of the "Black Duke" was a G, and because of intermarriage between nobles and commoners, the second son's descendants had no right of inheritance to the territory, resulting in no one to inherit the two duchies of Brunswick. In the end, Prussia sent people to supervise the regency - in fact, it became a directly governed territory of Prussia.

Speaking of it, there were quite a few freeloaders during Prussia's rise.

"Oh, Mary, but what will she do when she sees me like this?"

"Everything will be fine, and we will probably be able to defeat Napoleon in the end. Apart from this, you should send officers to those 'reserve troops', especially some experienced sergeants. I really don't want to send an army that has not received sufficient training to the battlefield like this."

"That's a very vivid description. I can send some experienced veterans."

"But you have to choose carefully, don't be like Field Marshal Suvorov when he talked about the Prussian army column, like setting up a stall with a pile of cabbages."

When the "Black Duke" was still commanding a regiment in the old Prussian Army, he discussed this issue with Solovyov.

He was very familiar with this "vegetable vendor" theory.

Moreover, that Prussian army had a considerable number of troops. After being assembled from several groups, there were a total of 35,000 people.

This size would probably have been a fairly large corps in the early days of the Napoleonic Wars, and Suvorov's troops were often of this size.

But it has only been more than a decade. In today's military, perhaps 50,000 people make up an army, and the strength of a corps often reaches 100,000 or even more.

While the Allied forces were gearing up for war, the French were also not idle.

In addition to continuing to increase troops on the German battlefield, Napoleon further exploited the manpower of his vassal states, and the countries of the Rhine Confederation were all recruiting troops.

It was obvious that both sides were going to have a big fight, and they would have to fight on the main battlefield of Germany to see who was stronger. (End of this chapter)