Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

The coalition's attack was not like previous battles, where the Prussian army stood still and fired continuously, sometimes even ruthlessly, and even pulled ammunition carts to throw ammunition from a distance. The Russian army's habit was probably to fire a row of guns or even go up to fight with bayonets without firing a single shot, giving the enemy a little shock of hand-to-hand combat.

A few months ago, the Allied Forces would have probably done the same thing, but because the Prussian and Russian armies were deployed to the battlefield in batches, there were no major problems.

Fortunately, on this day, the coalition forces had been suffering from heavy rain for several days and their gunpowder was damp, so even if they had a lot of shells, they would not be able to explode, so they directly chose the impact tactic.

Instead, it unified the coalition forces on the battlefield in their actions, and they did not fight each other when facing the French like they had done a few days ago.

It’s actually right to rush over together.

The French had high morale and had not suffered any defeats before - of course, the French did not know at this time that Oudinot was defeated by Langeron at the Grand-Bérôme and that Rochambeau was defeated by Solovyov in the heavy rain.

Napoleon's French army was quite good at blocking information.

Therefore, they were able to maintain high morale and even dared to fight back during battle.

Among them there were even some "temporary half-brigades", which, although recruited from the vassal states of Westphalia and Naples, fought very bravely.

Although the Prussian veterans had practiced hand-to-hand combat, their training was still inferior to that of the Russian Army. In addition, the French preferred this kind of group-fighting type of combat, lining up in columns with bayonets at point-blank range to launch a counterattack, which put the Allied forces in a tough fight.

York saw the current battle situation behind his legion and could only worry.

After all, he was a commander, not a cavalry general.

And now he saw that the French 2nd Cavalry Corps, which had crossed the river, was rushing towards him.

It would be troublesome if the French were allowed to go around to our flank.

Although it seemed that the Allied forces still had the advantage on the battlefield, York did not dare to be careless. He asked Blücher to send out reserve cavalry to launch a counterattack.

Blücher had a cavalry reserve at his disposal, which included two dragoon regiments and one light cavalry regiment, in addition to some Cossacks who were at his disposal.

Seeing this situation, Gneisenau had not yet made any suggestions. As an old cavalryman, Blücher had already sent his adjutant to issue an order, asking the three cavalry regiments to detour to the flank to cover York and find a way to drive back the French cavalry.

As a result, before the French cavalry reached the flank of the Allied cavalry, a cavalry duel broke out between the two sides.

Unlike previous battles, due to the humid environment, both sides, except for the artillery, gave up the idea of ​​shooting. Even the cavalry on both sides liked to bring their own weapons, and they might even have pistols on their waists and carbines hanging on their saddles.

At this time, because the cavalry of both sides were arranged in a relatively loose formation, it was also to avoid the situation where the cavalry collided at too close a distance and caused people and horses to fall to the ground, and finally both the people and the horses would be killed. Probably, everyone would die.

Therefore, the formation will not be as dense as in some games. Dense formations are probably only found in infantry.

That's how it was. During the battle between the two sides, it turned into a desperate hacking and stabbing.

The French prefer to use stabbing, while the Allied forces use all kinds of methods.

Although from the perspective of cold weapons, if you are stabbed to death or chopped, as long as you don't encounter the kind of person like Guan Erye in the novel, and your neck is not chopped, you can always live for a while.

There were even some reckless cavalrymen who hacked at each other's heads on horseback, but failed to kill anyone after several attempts.

This is not without empirical evidence. During the Indian uprising, the Queen of Jhansi was chopped several times and even had her head chopped off, but she managed to hold on for a while before she died.

Therefore, in this kind of melee, if you chop down the opponent's head, it is not necessarily possible to make it roll into the field and use the blood to irrigate the farmland here.

What's more, the area where the two sides fought was an open area.

However, the French cavalry's attack was quickly beaten back by the Prussian army.

There were Russian Cossacks and dragoons coming to support from behind. Faced with more and more Allied cavalry, the French gendarmes had to choose to retreat.

At this time, York also asked his hussars to join the battle, and it would take time to move them to the other side.

However, the effect is still obvious, and the French have now begun to retreat.

As for the battlefield outside Katzbach, the counterattack launched by the Russian army also forced the French army to retreat and now they are being driven to the river.

But the French were numerous and were now fighting a battle with their backs to the river, so there was nothing we could do to them for the time being.

But it can also be seen that MacDonald, the French Marshal and a senior commander who had even led a legion alone in 1799, was probably not very good at crossing the river.

Although he had some wisdom in the past, in this environment, not taking the geographical conditions into consideration and the continuous rainfall always made these mistakes seem very low-level and ridiculous.

The French army that crossed the river was not destroyed because the soldiers under his command also fought desperately, so that the Allied Forces were unable to completely defeat the French army even though they had a local advantage.

At the same time, Solovyov was coming here from the battlefield where he had won before.

The scouts ahead reported that there was a lot of French activity ahead.

Even according to the description of the situation on the scene by Major Manstein's messenger, the enemy's size was comparable to that of the Oder Army.

"what?"

Solovyov was still some distance away from the battlefield, but during the march, he could hear the sound of artillery in the distance, but it was relatively weak.

If there was an enemy in front of him, he would probably have to get ready for another fight.

But because of this damn weather, when the weather gets better, some people's flintlock rifles may still not fire.

This was even when the troops he led had already turned to the main road and paid attention to protecting the gunpowder.

Now he especially missed the two grenadier divisions he had commanded before. As long as their ammunition packs were not soaked by water, they could still fire - after all, these were rifles designed by him personally, and if the ammunition structure had not been changed to paper shell bullets to save costs, they would probably be more waterproof.

Of course, the ammunition boxes always needed a new raincoat to cover them. Solovyov didn't want his troops to use wet and ineffective ammunition.

He also has a headache about logistical issues.

Although there was enough ammunition during the pursuit, food rations were already running low.

Even he himself was now eating bread crackers and bacon, so he was always wondering about one thing, which was where was the French logistics convoy now?
Although the French supplies were tight, they were still able to mobilize supplies to Dresden, while also receiving a steady supply from the Rhine Confederation. In addition, the French army always levied large amounts of supplies wherever it went.

If they could capture their convoy, they could stay away from these damn breads. But the soldiers liked him because their superiors ate the same bread as them, and they also complained that these things tasted bad, which made them miss the black bread they had eaten during the pursuit.

"Mick, but this is the situation now. If you want supplies from the French, you have to attack these enemies. According to the deployment, these French troops should still be the ones protecting the flanks."

"Ah, isn't that the same enemy we encountered before? Maybe there are French reinforcements that we haven't caught yet."

"That's right, but should we attack? The brothers are not in a good condition right now."

"But if we don't attack, we'll have to keep eating rusks, and this kind of ration will affect morale. Can we..."

Solovyov was getting a little impatient because of the damn rusks. If he hadn't brought pickles and pickled fat, he would probably have run out of meat and vegetables - these were not regular supplies, but were brought from home.

There were more Tatars in Solovyov's army, but there was only one Cossack regiment, and the supplies they carried were just their own.

However, the Tatars did not bring their cattle and sheep with them during the march. After all, not all Tatars were like that, and they were not recruited from the herdsmen. Although there were still some conscripted troops, they were much more regular than before.

Clausewitz didn't want to continue eating sauerkraut and fatty meat. Although they were useful for filling his stomach, the commander was right to complain.

He even began to miss the time when he was fighting in Sweden. Every time he arrived in a Swedish city, the food provided was very good, except for the damn pickled herring.

In his desire for supplies, Solovyov planned to send out personnel for reconnaissance again.

Only this time it was the Crimean Tatars who went. They were very convinced of Solovyov's abilities during the battles in Sweden, so they were willing to follow his instructions.

First, conduct reconnaissance, and do not rush to engage the French.

This was a good idea for the Tatars. Once they captured a lone enemy, they would soon be able to figure out the situation.

The action was very swift, and the Tatars quickly captured several prisoners.

But after seeing it, Solovyov felt helpless.

"Why are you still working for Napoleon?"

"Sir, what do you think we should do? We also need to eat. At home, our food would be confiscated by the French. At least serving as a soldier here will ensure that we don't have to worry about our next meal."

"How can you still eat good food if you follow the French?"

"Yes, sir. We are all the baggage train of the French soldiers. Although we are all from Hesse, at least we are a guard battalion, so there is no problem with the treatment."

"Who is your commander then?"

"That French guy is Marchand."

"Yes, it's Marchand."

"Damn it, I'm here to fight the French and Poles again, right?"

Solovyov himself could not help cursing, and before that, Marchand had led the Württemberg Division and caused considerable trouble to the 2nd Army in Borodino.

And even earlier, there was this person in Novi.

Apart from Marchand's division, the captured Hessian prisoners were quite happy and quickly reported the situation of other French troops.

It sounds good. In addition to Marchand, there are Rochambeau and Gerard who escaped here. The opponents are two complete divisions and the remnants of a division.

As for whether there were other enemies nearby, Solovyov was not sure at this time, but one thing was very important.

Where Marchand's division is, there are a lot of supplies here.

Although these supplies were only a small part of the French army's supplies, Napoleon had stockpiled a lot of them because he had planned to attack Blücher directly.

If they could take over this place, Solovyov would not even think about supporting friendly forces, he just wanted to rob the grain transport team.

Clausewitz had the same attitude. Everyone was resentful of the biscuits. Their own people (the Germans) used these things to fool their brothers, and the supplies were often not enough.

At this time, Solovyov also knew that although McDonald liked to cheat, he was just clever. When it came to a real battle of wits, the battlefield would not be full of country bumpkins, and not so many people would use treacherous schemes.

After all, some novels are just something written by writers with brilliant pens. How can they predict so many things like God?

Although prediction is important, one must always be able to adapt to circumstances on the battlefield.

People like MacDonald, who left all the supplies behind, deserved to be beaten.

Solovyov didn't know what the battle situation was like on Blücher's side. After all, there wasn't even a suitable ferry near the river where he was operating.

There is no way. When a flood breaks out, the effect is two-sided and the impact is also an indiscriminate attack.

The water was able to break the pontoon bridges, flood the roads, and defeat the French.

The same is true for the coalition forces. At least communications are now very difficult.

As a flanking legion, in addition to considering one's own side, the most important thing is to support friendly forces.

Although Solovyov's troops were a mixed bag, they were decisive when it came to fighting.

So he also adjusted his deployment, and the cavalry would circle around to the rear of the French, while he would lead the infantry to attack from the front.

And while the French haven't noticed yet, this time he can finally take out all the savings he has saved.

Those Circassian cavalry, who had not caught up in the previous battles, also put in their best efforts.

Although they were provided with some supplies, they are still eating bread crackers now.

For the brothers, the resentment for the rusks may be stronger than the spirit of destroying the enemy.

When launching a frontal attack, fighting will also take place on the flanks and rear. (End of this chapter)