Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

The French force on the most flank was the Rochambeau Division of Lauriston's 5th Corps.

Although his last name is also Rochambeau, he is the son of Rochambeau in the American War of Independence. He brutally suppressed the local people in Haiti.

Solovyov's only trip to the New World was this one. He made a deal with the Governor of Haiti and finally sent several thousand French people to Fort Ross.

If he had not really used a series of execution methods such as execution by cannon, execution by dogs and execution by sulfur, the reaction of the black people in Haiti might not have been so intense, and they would not have even massacred neutral and even friendly French whites in the end.

Retaliation always escalates in cycles. In fact, although France is an old area, the revenge is extremely vicious when it strikes.

Compared with the French Revolution, the revolution a hundred years later may seem a bit trivial in terms of killing. After all, there were battles between the red and white sides. In France, people might lose their heads over a small issue.

Although Russia's problems are not minor, they are not as crazy as France's.

Solovyov had been in Russia for a long time, so it was inevitable that he would have such thoughts.

But what will happen in the future? Perhaps the British propaganda is the most outrageous.

The French themselves remained silent about some of the bloodiest events during the French Revolution, but the British publicized a lot of them.

Similarly, in the United States, similar methods are used to promote Russia.

But even so, there are still many people in the opposing camp who believe that revolution is a noble cause, and this is something that no propaganda can conceal.

The coalition forces of the Oder River Legion were advancing rapidly along the downstream river bank at this time. The terrain here was flat and there were not so many trees on the flat ground.

If there are more woods, it would be those along the mountains.

Solovyov led his troops on a rapid advance in order to capture Rochambeau's troops and then attack them.

His actions were positive, but he also faced many problems.

Ahead of the coalition's advance, the designated battlefield was Rochambeau's base. The terrain there was not wide, and it was even very suitable for defensive operations.

There are hills on one side and a river on the other.

The advantage is probably that if the French army wants reinforcements, they can only come from this side of the river.

Solovyov actually knew that Napoleon would definitely see through this Fabian tactic.

Therefore, if there was a capable and loyal general in command, he would probably follow the emperor's instructions and follow the Prussian army after its retreat, and would not rush to cross the Katzbach River.

Looking at the river where the water level was still rising, Solovyov felt a little worried.

"Karl, our army passed through here before and after the Battle of Bautzen, right?"

"Yes, Mick, the water wasn't that high then."

"If the water level rises further, there will probably be a flood. At that time, this road will not be safe to walk on. I think we should do this. Our army must pass through quickly. It has been raining continuously these days. If the flood peak from upstream comes down and we haven't left here yet, it will be troublesome."

This is what happened. If it weren't for the need to advance quickly and capture Roshambaugh's division on the outside, Solovyov probably wouldn't have chosen such a strange path.

As for Rochambeau, as the most flanking force of the entire corps, the rest of the 5th Army and the Lagrange Division of the 11th Army were nearby, all of which were some distance away.

He believed that the terrain of this place was relatively suitable for defense, so he stationed here. He even believed that if he wanted to stop the coalition forces, he still needed to take advantage of the geographical advantages.

The coalition forces on the other side will not operate in their own area, and the same will probably be true for the coalition forces coming from the north.

This is what he thought, and after the river water rose sharply, it was very advantageous for him to build a position.

He was even on guard, but he was not aware of the organized coalition forces activities along the way.

When the light cavalry led by Manstein caught up, they only fought with the 2nd Army's hunting cavalry. Even because the French army retreated voluntarily, it was not clear whether they were simple Prussian cavalry, lower-level guerrillas, or more advanced coalition forces.

On Solovyov's side, the closer he got to the battlefield, the more intelligence he obtained.

He didn't expect that he would probably catch up with the Germans when their martial morality was at its worst, especially the Prussians.

During his march, he encountered a battalion of Prussian border guards that had been routed.
These people didn't even fire a shot. Napoleon himself turned around and headed for Dresden, but they were still on the run here.

"Which team are you from?"

"Sir, we originally belonged to Prince Wuerttemberg's 1st Army."

"Who asked you to come here?"

When Solovyov saw these people, his words were still very impolite, and the Prussian cavalrymen beside him also frowned.

Those who dare to fight on horseback will only choose to flee unless there is an extreme disparity in strength or they are left alone.

If it were these infantrymen, who might even be considered rookies, they would be running all over the mountains and plains.

These Prussian deserters all lowered their heads and remained silent.

Many of them were even in a state of abandoning their weapons and armor, and anything that could hinder their escape was thrown on the roadside.

As a Russian general, these Prussians were not under his jurisdiction, and he could not interfere in the affairs of the country and deal with them directly according to military law.

He didn't know that on Blücher's side, Sacken had already expressed his protest, and even Blücher himself was ready to remove Gneisenau from his post.

It's just that the problem is that these Prussian army recruits are so bad that they even have patriotic enthusiasm when they join the army, but when the real battle comes, they just run away in fear.

"Go away. I don't want to see you running away again. We Russians are here to defeat Napoleon."

There was no need to say anything extra. The Prussian soldiers in the Oder Legion were mainly recruits. The troops of the "Black Duke" had to be counted separately. After all, this team of his was recruited by himself and had fought in Silesia and Spain.

Although there was some negotiation with the British during which these troops came under British command, the "Black Duke" lived as a guest at Brunswick Palace in London for two years.

Although Crown Prince George was dissatisfied with his wife, he had nothing to say to his cousin and brother-in-law. He even arranged some activities for him in London, which added expenses to the Crown Prince who was already heavily in debt.

That's right, the Brunswick Volunteer Army and the Guards Battalion directly under the Duke's family are still performing very well at this time.

They continued to move forward and approached Rochambeau's camp.

The distance from the woodland to the river on the east side of the battlefield was not very wide, only a few kilometers. While the coalition forces were marching along this road, MacDonald was also preparing to continue the pursuit. He had already ignored the instructions left by Napoleon and wanted to pursue further.

This act, which was comparable to an undercover operation by the Allied Forces, was not to be avoided, as Napoleon, knowing the Marshal's own loyalty, would have to make a joke about it.

"If he heard a Scotch ditty, he'd probably be shaken."

Now MacDonald ordered the vanguard to prepare to cross the river and attack Blücher's troops on this side of the Katzbach River.

He didn't even bother to check the weather forecast before taking such a rash step.

Many of the troops on the flanks had not yet crossed the river.

The current state of the French army is indeed very strange, but for the party preparing to launch a counterattack, they only need to see the opportunity in their own hands.

"Mick, there is good news. Although the French are prepared, they have not set up defenses at the northern intersection. There are only a few scouts there."

Clausewitz was relaying the latest report from the Prussian light cavalry in charge of reconnaissance. After hearing this, Solovyov felt relieved and spoke while wiping the telescope.

"That's good, but are there other enemies nearby? I don't want to use the more than 30,000 people I have to fight the enemy head-on at this time."

"We encountered a lot of deserters today, and we roughly know that the French are heading for General Blücher."

"Go there. All right, but don't let too many reinforcements come. If the situation gets unfavorable, we'll have to withdraw from the battle. Go and make the arrangements first. In the afternoon, when we deploy at the edge of the woods, we'll have to give those French guys a good beating."

At the same time, Rochambeau was completely unaware that the coalition forces were active in the north.

As for the new orders MacDonald gave to the various troops, they had no choice but to follow them. After all, it was this Scotsman who was left behind by Napoleon to command.

He felt it was very strange that he rarely saw Russian prisoners when the Prussian army was defeated.

The number of Prussians deserting was staggering, and they were defending their country and fighting Napoleon.

The performance of these people was indeed quite poor. There were also problems within the Prussian regular army, but they were not as serious as these.

It is no wonder that there was dissatisfaction within the Silesian Legion after suffering such losses without even fighting.

On the contrary, the Russian army, which was often ridiculed during the Seven Years' War for being able to disintegrate on the march, is now in high spirits and is ready to join the counterattack.

Moreover, the French actually crossed the river and chased them, which made Blücher and Sacken think that they should fight back.

But before they could take action, Solovyov took the lead in launching the offensive.

The weather was indeed very bad, and when Solovyov led his troops to the north of the French position, it even began to rain heavily.

However, there was no thunder and lightning, and the uniforms of many coalition soldiers were wet, making them look like a group of drowned rats.

Although there are raincoats, judging from the current situation, there will probably be a lot of people who will catch a cold after the war.

"We should take a hot shower at this time, but we still have to keep fighting."

Solovyov was rarely injured, so he had nothing to worry about. He had encountered this kind of weather before, but he had never fought in the rain.

"How do I issue an order?"

"Our troops are deployed, with Schwerin's Brigade on the far left, Brunswick's Brigade and the Balkan Division in the middle, the 9th Division on the right, and the cavalry on the outermost side. This is the formation we will deploy. The 9th Division will take the lead and directly attack the enemy, fighting only with bayonets!"

He also took into account the weather conditions. Moreover, the 9th Division had experienced few battles before and had many well-trained veterans. In addition, they had fought in the Balkans and were therefore very experienced.

Solovyov was also fortunate that he still had a division he had commanded before, otherwise the battle would have been difficult to fight.

As for the French, they were lax in their vigilance in the heavy rain and did not expect that a Russian army would appear from their side at this time.

After receiving the order, Arkady also saw the deployment of French troops in several nearby villages, so he decided to attack the village on the high ground at the intersection and control the nearby roads.

When the Russian army appeared here shouting "Ura", the French army was once again thrown into panic.

Unlike the situation when Ney was ambushed at Gros Gerschen, this time Rochambeau was in the army as a division commander.

However, the French army still fell into great chaos in the face of this sudden attack launched by the Russian army.

In a short time, the two battalions deployed in the village were driven out, and some people were so miserable that they didn't even have time to put on their boots.

Fortunately, there are not many veterans in the Italian Legion now, otherwise some people would recall the time when His Majesty the Emperor had not yet become the commander-in-chief, when the dragoons had to kill horses to fill their stomachs when they had no food, the infantry did not even have shoes, and the artillery's cannons were all supplied to the Rhine Legion.

The Russian advance in the rain was so rapid that Rochambeau had to abandon the village on the front road and regroup in a village to the south.

He quickly sent an adjutant and a messenger to ask for help from General Lauriston.

Lauriston was now organizing the vanguard of the 5th Army to cross the Katzbach River and reach the other side with MacDonald.

He was also surprised when he received Rochambeau's request for help.

A Russian army suddenly appeared on the north side, and Rochambeau was caught off guard, and he had no idea about the battle situation.

In this situation, he sent someone to MacDonald again.

The marshal responded by ordering the nearby troops of the 11th Army and part of the 2nd Cavalry Army to provide support, while the rest of the troops would proceed as originally planned.

He didn't believe that there would be too many Russian troops here. Previous intelligence also showed that most of the troops in the Silesian Corps were still Russians.

Are there Russian troops here?

He even suspected that it was Langgeron who divided his troops, but he didn't expect that Solovyov would appear again when covering the flank and appear at the end of their large team.

According to the intelligence previously obtained by the French army, Solovyov was probably the Russian general with the fewest bad habits. Apart from problems with women, there was probably nothing else to blame. He almost never drank and had no interest in playing cards or gambling.

The biggest problem is probably being "too cautious", but "acting very quickly once making up one's mind".

This time, the troops arrived very quickly. Lauriston had no time to send reinforcements, so he had to ask the 11th Army. (End of this chapter)