Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Napoleon had been preparing all along. He was simply stalling for time, and reaching a peace agreement with the Tsar was just a side plan.

However, even so, there was a big gap in strength between the French army and the Allied forces.

This is inevitable. After all, the manpower gap between Russia and Austria is huge.

When Napoleon learned that Jomini had defected to the Russian army, he was not angry. After all, Jomini was a Swiss, and even if he could not understand clearly what had happened recently, he knew roughly what had happened.

Moreover, Jomini is a very trustworthy person because of his work experience in the stock exchange. He probably won't reveal the French army's plan directly.

Even though the other party knew something about him, Napoleon was still quite confident in his ability to command the army.

If he really focuses on military affairs, others probably still cannot be his match, provided that the power gap has not reached an irreparable point.

But this kind of confidence may eventually lead to problems.

When he saw the coalition's appointment, he even laughed wildly with disdain.

"Hahahaha, Schwarzenberg? Schwarzenberg as commander-in-chief? I promoted him to field marshal!"

It was obvious that he despised the military ability of the Austrian marshal. As for other aspects, he did not make any further comments.

It's just that some French troops are now required to keep an eye on the direction of Berlin on the north side. The Northern Corps and the Silesian Corps were deployed on the front line during the armistice, and they can see it quite clearly. Even the stationing situation of the corps of both sides is very clear at this time, and they don't have any secrets.

It was no secret that Napoleon was preparing to act on two fronts, concentrating his forces first to defeat one side of the Silesian Army.

He was not worried at all. Even if the coalition forces attacked from the flank, he would mobilize the troops back.

The battle plan is not to make the other side act according to one's own trap. There should also be some emergency plans. If any coalition force advances rashly, he will give it a head-on blow.

If the coalition forces' actions are slow, he will give priority to defeating a certain direction so as to gain an advantage on the battlefield.

As for other scenarios, it depends on the changes on the battlefield.

At the same time, after arriving in Prague, Jomini's position beside Alexander soon made people around him jealous.

Jomini's problem was that he had predicted the general direction of the French army's actions and advised the coalition forces to act cautiously, but this view did not have much support within the coalition forces.

Radetzky did agree with one opinion, which was public information known to both parties: Napoleon's logistics base was in Dresden.

Even without Moreau's suggestion, everyone knows that in Saxony, Weimar, Dresden and Leipzig are all important places.

Napoleon even said that he would not lose Dresden even if traffic on the Rhine was cut off.

It can be seen that this place is very important, so he also arranged for Marshal Saint-Cyr to lead a legion of 30,000 people to guard this place.

However, Dresden is a city, not a fortress, so the difficulty of defending it is not the same.

There are still tens of thousands of civilians in the city. Even during the war, many local people are unwilling to leave. It is impossible for France to abandon its ally Saxony at this time. If so, it will no longer be the arbitrator of the Rhine Confederation in the future.

And the facts have also proved that if countries like Saxony and Bavaria give them enough face, they can at least delay their defection.

Metternich's letter, which was equivalent to an ultimatum, had already been handed over to Napoleon.

The emperor himself was well aware of the situation at this time. The French army had been active behind the battlefield long before the end of the armistice, and the same was true for the Allied forces.

The autumn campaign of 1813 began during this late summer period.

The coalition headquarters was still discussing a grand plan. There was no problem with Radetzky's previous plan in the general direction, but the problem was that the commander-in-chief was Schwarzenberg.

Letting an Austrian be the commander-in-chief of the Bohemian Corps was also to win over the Austrians. As for when it was time to take action, the Allied command system was unable to coordinate in a unified manner and could only try its best to coordinate.

"If we want to attack Dresden, we have to do it before the main force of the French returns. The overall plan of the battle is this: the Silesian Corps will attack first to attract Napoleon's attention. When the French army approaches, they will change their marching route to avoid direct combat with the French. The Northern Corps will take action next. They have to entangle the French troops monitoring the flanks before they can move, and prevent them from turning around easily."

Radetzky was still patiently explaining that he had been trying to coordinate the actions of the four corps on the front line, three large and one small.

After explaining all this, the focus should still return to the direction of the Bohemian Legion's actions.

"What should we do? Radetzky, you are only referring to the actions of other legions."

Of course, everyone knows that the Oder River Corps is a mobile force and will join the battlefield according to the situation.

"Your Excellency, you mean."

"Where should our Bohemian Legion's movement direction be? Dresden, or somewhere else?"

Radetzky looked at his superior, not knowing whether he did it on purpose, was really slow to react, or if there was some other problem.

"Our main goal is Dresden. But there is a necessary prerequisite, that is, when the main force of the French approaches Dresden, we should not fight there, and should even avoid fighting."

"Is it?"

When Radetzky heard this question, he knew that something was going to go wrong.

It was fine for Schwarzenberg to make a plan according to the strategic guidelines in the past, but Radetzky had no hope that he could come up with anything on his own.
If he could preserve his strength, he would have no problem commanding tens of thousands of people, but if the number of people was too large, his brain probably wouldn't be able to accept so much information.

"Sir, we should avoid fighting the French in Dresden when their main force is approaching. If it's just Saint-Cyr's 3 men, our legion only needs half of them to launch a siege, and we have to solve the problem before the French return."

He was sweating a little when he said this. After all, he was a direct subordinate of the Austrian army. If the commander-in-chief was Barclay, he could probably use his position as the chief of staff of the coalition forces to dissuade the other party from behaving like this. Just like Schmidt and Kutuzov, Veroser and Suvorov in the past.
Werosser had died of illness seven years ago. Although he was a little weak, his personal business ability was still a problem because he was a reference to Napoleon. To be honest, the Austrian army was too weak at that time.

Now, Radetzky himself did not want to say more. It would be great if Archduke Karl was in the army now, but because of Austria’s internal problems and his personal wishes, he would not come out at this moment.

If something happened on the battlefield, his protest would probably have limited effect, and in the end everything would have to be done according to the wishes of Marshal Schwarzenberg.

And advancing towards Dresden is indeed the most important goal of the Bohemian Army.

Just let him know the goal, Radetzky didn't say much.

Alexander and Barclay were also whispering to each other.

After all, he is the Tsar. When he is here, Austria obviously cannot say anything.

Barclays also took the opportunity to express its concerns about the current situation.

He is also a cautious general who always conserves his strength, but he is definitely not like Mr. Schwarzenberg.

I don't know who in the Total War series gave him several stars. This kind of person initially got three stars. His cautious actions reduced morale, which is worse than a blank slate. No more stars are allowed.

Alexander also understood this at this time, but considering the political issues, in order to win over Austria, he had to let them serve as the commander of a corps. He also could not have three of the four corps commanded by Russian generals and the remaining one be from Prussia.

To Austria, it would seem that they were just being scapegoated for bringing their own soldiers to boost their morale.

As for Napoleon, his goal was clear.

"The ultimatum issued by Metternich on August 8th seemed to be trying to drive us into a quagmire. However, we must also prove that it is not so easy to defeat the French on the battlefield. We have won victories in Lützen and Bautzen, and the same will be true in the upcoming autumn operations. In the spring, we were unable to destroy the main force of the coalition forces due to some problems, especially the Russian army. Now we must first defeat the Silesian Corps on their side, and then the Bohemian Corps. In this way, we can also make the arrogant Tsar return to the negotiation table."

"Your Majesty, but I think we should concentrate our forces now. After the armistice date is over, we will start the war."

"Yes, Mortier. You know, Caulaincourt is in Prague. He is making a final diplomatic effort. This is also to buy us time. What we lack most is time."

When he said this, he also felt that this year was really unlucky.

After returning from the battlefield in 1812, the French army lost all of Poland before the ice and snow melted. Prussia soon turned against the French and launched a counterattack, but lost Marshal Bessières at the beginning, followed by the Grand Marshal Duroc, who died in the bombardment at the Battle of Bautzen.

The battles at Lützen and Bautzen did not completely defeat the coalition forces. Although the morale of the new army was high, he no longer had the ease with which he had commanded his own arms.

But the army was soon trained, and these few months also gave the French more time to prepare.

But that's just not enough.

He still needs time, but the French army's losses in 1812 were so great that even by transferring troops from Spain, it was difficult to fill the gap in combat effectiveness.

"Your Majesty, what should we do next?"

"We will ask Oudinot to go to Berlin, and our main force will go to deal with Blücher. As for Schwarzenberg, if he moves, he will be very slow. We don't have to worry about how fast the army he commands moves. Even the Russians, who usually march very fast, will slow down when they are with the Austrian infantry."

The subtext is that if the Bohemian Legion dares to move, he will come back to beat them up. This may even be more effective. The monarchs of Russia and Prussia are accompanying the army at this time, and the Austrian will serve as the commander-in-chief.

There are some problems with the arrangements of both sides, which anyone with a discerning eye can see.

The problem with Napoleon was that he overestimated his enemy. He even arrogantly believed that if Oudinot could enter Berlin, Prussia would not continue the war. The queen was far away in Königsberg, and the king himself had never had his own opinion.

However, he underestimated the Prussians' determination to fight a battle of revenge. Even a coward like King FW was eager for a battle of revenge. Although Lützen failed, it also let the Prussians know that they could still defeat the French army locally, but failed because of the final deployment.

Moreover, he always underestimated the strength of the Russian and Austrian armies.

This was also caused by his usual arrogance. He always underestimated his enemies and seemed to not take them seriously enough.

As for the coalition forces, there were more problems. Apart from the large number of people, there were also many embarrassing aspects.

The coalition army's corps are composed of troops from various fields.

Even except for the reserve corps led by Bennigsen in Warsaw, the troops here are all Russian troops. In the other directions, even in the Silesian Corps, it is a mix of Russian and Prussian armies. This is still the group with the simplest troop composition.

The Bohemian Army was composed of the armies of Russia, Prussia and Austria, but it was the smallest Oder Army. Its composition was so complex that the Austrians would find it difficult to see.

Another problem is that the coalition forces were on the outside, while the French army was on the inside in Saxony. If Napoleon wanted to, he could indeed concentrate his superior forces, launch an attack on one side, defeat a main army first, and then actively look for the next opponent to fight.

The coalition forces are on three or four battlefields, and communication between them is a big problem, even if communication technology has improved.

The most terrible thing is probably the commanders of the coalition forces, who all seem to have some problems.

The situation of the Northern Army was even worse. Langgeron simply replaced a team of staff officers. After Solovyov went solo, he reorganized his staff, which was mainly composed of exiled French people.

The two commanders-in-chief, the Bohemian Army and the Silesian Army, one is cautious to the point of being a coward, and the other is brave to the point of being reckless. The chiefs of staff of both armies would probably have a headache.

Scharnhorst fell ill in Prague, but his condition was not bad and he was not killed.

But when he saw the reports sent to him by Gneisenau and Clausewitz, as well as the letter from Radetzky in the sanatorium prepared for him alone, he could no longer hold back his expression.

"If that's the case, we have to suffer a tragic defeat before we can learn our lesson!" (End of this chapter)