Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Solovyov himself did not expect that von Tillmann, who was transferred here, had probably met the "Black Duke" on some battlefield in Spain or Germany, and the relationship between the two had not been good from the beginning.

This lieutenant-general of cavalry, who had been a member of Napoleon's army the year before, commanding the Saxon cavalry in Reynier's VIIth Corps, had gone over to the Russian side from the Torgau fortress in February 7, and now went over to the Prussian side.

At that time he was only the commander of two cavalry regiments. Solovyov did not know much about the battlefield outside Waterloo. At least he did not know that von Tillmann led the Prussian 3rd Army to fight against Grouchy, and Clausewitz was his chief of staff.

Now that everyone is at the same level, internal conflicts emerge.

Solovyov himself wanted to say that the person in charge of personnel arrangements in the coalition forces was probably a mole.

For someone like Schwarzenberg, arranging him the position of commander-in-chief of the Bohemian Army in order to win over the Austrians was already a political consideration.

His problem is probably that he always issues a series of orders without knowing why, and it is still unclear now.

The problem that can be known at present is that this person is too cautious, even a little cowardly.

As for his problem of giving orders at random, no one except Radetzky knew that he often took action without thinking clearly. The Tsar appointed Schwarzenberg to this position because he had the qualifications and some abilities in the past.

If he can't even lead a legion of 20 people and is going to lose the battle, he is indeed a rare general in the world.

Moreover, the coalition forces are all distributed in this patchwork style.

There were also generals who had conflicts with each other, and some of them were quite serious.

The conflicts within the Russian army could at least be resolved by reporting to the Tsar, attacking each other during meetings, and forming cliques, in an effort to seek some progress.

As for the Allied forces, the commanders of the Austro-Prussian and Austrian armies probably had no way to report them, and the Russian army could not deal with the Austrian generals.

Because of the two joint operations they had carried out with the Prussian army before, they had some tacit understanding. At least the Austrians would be shaken if they were defeated, while the Prussians could still fight a few more battles even if they had lost all their territory from the Rhine to Memel.

Napoleon's view was wrong. If he had captured Vienna at this moment, Austria would probably have surrendered, but Prussia would not.

The Prussian officer corps also seemed to have relatively few problems, because Blücher was only reckless and a little mentally ill.

But if he had a general like Gneisenau who had a straightforward personality as his chief of staff, the two of them would get along very well, and Gneisenau would only have to be on guard against his superior getting carried away at all times.

Moreover, he only arranged the troops of Russia and Prussia along that route, so there were relatively few problems.

It was replaced by the Northern Army. Fortunately, Langeron had a good relationship with the Prussians. Sweden sent Count von Fersen, a diplomat who was a military man and had also been in the French court for a long time. Even though there were conflicts between Russia and Sweden, and between Prussia and Sweden, the situation was better with a genuine Frenchman above them.

Now it's Solovyov's turn. He thinks there are French spies within the coalition forces, which is not unreasonable.

The 9th Division of the Russian Army was commanded by Prince Arkady Suvorov, the son of Solovyov's mentor and his junior fellow apprentice. In addition, he himself was considered a relatively capable young general in the Russian Army and was always able to hold the enemy back.

The Serbs and Greeks simply came for his own and his father-in-law's family's face, so there was some guarantee of cohesion.

But there was the language barrier. Even with the brothers Peric and Karadzic who knew German and French, as well as the few Greek nobles who knew Russian, and even some Greek nobles who had defected to Tsarist Russia were called in from the Guards, there were still considerable difficulties in delivering the message.

Solovyov also experienced that working in the Austrian army, it would probably take more than a good soldier like Schweik to go crazy, as the officers would probably go crazy first.

The language barrier is a big problem.

In addition, he also has to mediate conflicts between commanders.

Because his corps, the 9th Division and the Balkan Volunteer Division are considered to be the Russian military system. If Arkady is allowed to command Peritch, the latter will not have any objection. If they act as a group, it will only be a language problem.

In the German group, the cavalry commander von Tillmann and the "Black Duke" seemed to have a bad relationship.

Even von Tillmann was somewhat dissatisfied with Solovyov. After all, because of his personal relationship with the Duke of Brunswick's family, he was somewhat biased towards the "Black Duke".

It was Clausewitz who came from the Prussian army who coordinated here through this relationship, and nothing serious happened.

These two fierce generals both have explosive tempers, which is not like the usual atmosphere of Solovyov's army.

In the past, when fighting in Sweden and the Balkans, Solovyov could more or less use Grand Duke Constantine to suppress his subordinates, and everyone still listened to him because of his achievements in the Polish campaign.

Once you get here, it’s probably a different story.

The army was about to set out, but an internal conflict arose, precisely between the infantry commander and the cavalry commander.

Even the "Black Duke" had a hot temper and was unwilling to let von Tillmann command the Brunswick Light Cavalry Regiment he brought with him, but instead planned to organize it separately in the Brunswick Brigade.

A sense of déjà vu of Tannenberg in 1914, Solovyov learned that Samsonov was defeated and committed suicide, destroying the Russian 2nd Army.

But he didn't know that the other two Russian commanders had been invited by the Red Army to eat peanuts.

If these two were to fall out, and if von Tillman were to take his anger out on himself, even a hard-working, semi-talented player like him would not be able to lead the Oder River Legion.

Therefore, he also felt that they should have a good chat.

Before that, we still have to find Clausewitz and have a good talk with him.

"They have fought each other in the past, so their relationship is not good. In particular, the Brunswick Volunteer Army suffered considerable losses. In addition to this, the Duke's estate was once requisitioned by the French, and General von Tillmann was a Saxon soldier in the past."

"I know all this. What about Arkady and I?"

"The Duke was able to recruit volunteers, and it was the Duchess Sagan who helped raise the start-up funds. Can you imagine who the Prince's original fiancée was?"

Considering Solovyov's personal relationship with these two people, it would be strange if von Tillmann liked him.

This trouble was not obvious at first.

Both Arkady and the "Black Duke" were of high status, and the Duke was planning to remarry Mary, so that he would still be the Tsar's brother-in-law.

I myself was somewhat involved in trouble because of my junior fellow apprentice's ex-fiancée, the Tsar's brother-in-law, and the bad relations between Saxony and Brunswick.

"It seems that before the battle, we still need to get along well, get to know each other, and not hold any grudges." "Mick, I think so too. Now it's me who is negotiating between the parties, and everyone is still listening to me, and you are just using the old relationship to make the infantry listen to you."

"This is inevitable!"

As for relationships, we are all in the same camp now, so we should always put aside our past grudges.

Von Tillmann was probably not the kind of person who couldn't understand. He finally left the Saxon army after a series of very complicated relationships, where he had served for 32 years.

Moreover, the generals of this small legion were relatively young. Arkady was less than 30 years old, and Solovyov was 32 years old. The cavalry generals were quite old.

At a time like this, Solovyov had to think of some way, but his alcohol tolerance was very poor, and he might not even be able to drink more than his wife when he got home.

Therefore, if the relationship is to be improved, hunting may be necessary.

He organized the main officers, except for the duty personnel arranged by Clausewitz, to go hunting in the forest near the station.

Solovyov still remembered that for the officers who served as attendants to the Tsar, building good relationships was not a daily routine, but rather going hunting and having dinner together.

At that time, everyone took care of him because he couldn't drink much - but he always brought back more prey, so they got along well.

For these nobles, there seemed to be no problem going out hunting in late summer.

Think about the season when all things grow, which is not suitable for hunting. In summer and autumn, the prey is fat and strong, so this time is very suitable.

"We shouldn't go hunting wild boars today. They don't taste good. If we want to hunt, we should go hunting deer."

After all, they had to hunt them down to eat, and considering the problems with pigs and wild boars, which were probably much more serious than those with deer, Solovyov never acted like a Gaul and often had to hunt wild boars.

He does have a special hobby for deer hunting.

In addition to medicinal materials, there is also meat.

If there are more prey, not only can the officers enjoy it, but even the soldiers can improve their food. If it is just canned food, it will also have an impact on the morale of the soldiers.

As for von Tillmann and the "Black Duke", they were both good riders and keen on hunting. The latter was an old noble of the Holy Roman Empire with many generations of family ties and had relatives with the royal families of Prussia, Britain and Russia. If you really count, he had relatives everywhere.

This kind of contradiction is still the resentment accumulated on the battlefield.

For this purpose, Solovyov specially found the "Black Duke".

"Why should I give him a leg up?"

"Your Highness, you should know that the old cavalrymen are always competitive. If you let him have a hand, you can also show your magnanimity. Besides, at a time like this, we must also consider the overall situation. Although we are only a small legion, we must unite and always face the enemy in unison. You should also be very clear about this. Besides, this general joined our army because of the King of Saxony, so you should also be considerate of him."

In short, Solovyov said a lot, and he didn't even avoid others.

He did this to send a signal of reconciliation, preferably one that von Tillman could hear.

The other party should not be a complete idiot and should understand these principles.

But Solovyov himself was not sure whether he could achieve this effect.

When they arrived at the hunting ground, Solovyov, who was usually a sharpshooter, still carried his hunting rifle with him, but he rarely took the initiative to shoot in front of others. He always rode his horse with his rifle on the saddle, watching his officers go hunting.

The catch was still quite a lot, but von Tillmann also noticed that everyone was actively performing, but the young commander rarely fired.

"Sir, why don't you join us?"

Since he asked, Solovyov naturally answered: "Today's hunting, everyone should enjoy themselves. I can't join the competition. There will be a war in a few days. We must make everyone happy and not dwell on the past. You know, the French are still difficult to deal with."

"You also want to have fun, so you naturally have to join in the hunt."

"That's not the case. If you all have a good time, and no one has these troubles in their hearts, then the problem will be solved."

As he spoke, he also looked at the generals.

It was just a matter of saying it clearly that we must unite in the face of a powerful enemy, but Solovyov knew very well that he could not say this himself. He had to let these generals and senior officers who had experienced many wars say it themselves. This way, the effect would be better.

"We must unite, Count, is that what you mean?"

"Yes, in the past you and His Highness Frederick served in your respective armies, but that is all in the past. Although recalling the past may be like peeling an onion, it will be a different matter when you eat onions in the future. Of course, I am not referring to the French fried onion rings, they just don't allow the Austrians to eat them."

This is meant to interrupt, but it also makes the point clear.

Solovyov had previously talked to the "Black Duke" alone. After all, the other party was also the ruler of the principality, and he also had to show some attitude towards General von Tillmann.

The other party was a big shot, and the corps commander also gave him a way out. Seeing that the other party also wanted to take the initiative to reconcile, von Tillman somewhat let go of his prejudice.

The two sides have had experience in fighting each other in Germany and Spain.

But this was all due to some inevitable situations during the Napoleonic Wars, and the German princes joined one side based on their respective positions.

The Germans probably didn't get excited about this either, and no wonder they always promoted the "War of Liberation of 1813" but rarely mentioned what happened before that.

If all the accounts were to be reconciled, then the problems within Germany would be quite serious.

This temporary unity must always be reflected within the legion.

Clausewitz, who could speak on both sides, also provided assistance whenever possible.

This was considered to have let the two sides put aside their grudges. The "Black Duke" forgave von Tillman's past "offense", and the general was not a person who didn't know the big picture. He didn't blame these people for their "prejudice" or the commander's past "partiality". It was a united hunting activity after all. (End of this chapter)