Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Now no one in the coalition forces is considering continuing to fight. Even the King of Prussia and General Scharnhorst, who advocated continuing the fight, have realized the problem.

Schwarzenberg did not conduct any analysis at all, but simply demanded the entire army to retreat based on the current failure.

This typical defeatist strategist finally decided to give up after a series of chaotic actions by the coalition forces.

If it weren't for the attempt to win over the Austrians, I'm afraid the position of commander-in-chief of the Allied Forces would have to be replaced.

Before the anti-French alliance made any substantial progress, it seemed that the position of commander-in-chief would always be uneasy.

Alexander and Jomini were traveling together, and after leaving the front they came to the station of the Russian Guards.

What the Tsar himself saw here were the Guards Infantry whose morale was high and had not yet been put into battle. They could be said to be the most loyal armed force to the Tsar himself.

Alexander also saw Ermolov, now commander of the Guards.

"Your Majesty, the Royal Guards are ready to join the battle at any time."

"Don't be so anxious, Yermolov, what are you going to do? It seems that none of our soldiers are heading in the direction of Dresden."

When Yermolov heard the Tsar’s question, he had no choice but to answer: “Your Majesty, we are assembling according to General Barclay’s instructions and awaiting new orders.”

Alexander also knew that Barclay was arranging a retreat for the coalition forces this time. For the Russian and Prussian armies, their main forces were still there, and if they chose to retreat the next day, they could still preserve their strength.

On the Austrian side, one key position after another was captured by the French. The only remaining position on the two fronts of the Allied Forces was a Russian force deployed near the village church. The rest of the starting positions had fallen into the hands of the French army.

"Well, once we receive the new order, we must act quickly."

The Tsar acquiesced to Barclay's actions and even went along with Yermolov's opinions.

Both sides understood each other tacitly. As for the Tsar's entourage, when he was still walking on the road, he saw Kutuzov's son-in-law, Prince Kudashev.

This was also one of his aide-generals, who had just returned from Schwarzenberg.

"Your Majesty, the Austrians began to retreat at night, but the troops were extremely chaotic. If they were to move, they would go in the direction of the Wald Valley. Which way should we go?"

"It is up to Barclay to arrange the operation. I now leave the fate of the Russian army in his hands."

Alexander directly asked Kudashev to give the order, while he hurried to meet Constantine.

The mood on the Allied side was naturally low, but morale on the French side was high.

Napoleon's bicorne hat looked a little deformed because it was wet by the rain.

"These damn profiteers, the materials they sell seem to have shrunk in value!"

"Your Majesty, this material shrinks easily. And the new boots also seem to lose their shape easily."

His servant Constantine joked at this time, after all, it was always he who helped to make the hat bigger in the past.

"Ah, it would be nice to have a bowl of hot soup at this time."

But seeing the high morale of the French army, Napoleon became complacent and put many problems behind him.

The French army withstood the Allied attack on the first day, and the counterattack on the second day almost captured all the Allied front-line positions and defeated the Austrian army.

But the Russian and Prussian armies were still there. Although Napoleon was confident of winning the battle, he still had to consider whether he could defeat the remaining opponents.

However, although this is the wish, the Russian army has already begun to prepare for retreat.

The Prussian Guards and the Russian Gorchakov Corps were the rear guard, while the rest of the troops began to break camp.

The Russian Guards and Grenadiers were on the second line, ready to alternately provide cover with the rear guard. The coalition forces now had only one goal, which was to retreat to a safe area.

The French had only one attitude towards this. Napoleon saw that the weather had improved and ordered a pursuit.

"Your Majesty, the Russians are retreating towards the Ternitz road."

"Tell Mortier to hurry up and chase them. He must catch up with them."

Napoleon looked confident when he spoke one second ago, but the next second he was suffering from abdominal pain.

It's not the stomach cancer or any other problem that runs in their family. As for the current condition, it's more like stomach cramps or biliary colic.

Considering his poor eating habits and other problems, it is not surprising that he fell ill in such a harsh environment.

"His Majesty."

"We need troops to pursue them. We can't let the Russians get too far away. As long as they get far away and can recover, they will come back to trouble us again."

Although Napoleon himself was still quite confident, he also had to consider the situation on the battlefield.

He did not realize at this moment that this was his last decisive victory, and that the goddess of victory, who had protected him in the past, was about to leave him.

The Russian army was retreating on the road to Ternitz. Their situation was not optimistic. Not only were the French chasing them closely behind, but Vandamme, who was preparing to cross the river in Konigstein, was advancing behind the Russian and Prussian armies in accordance with Napoleon's instructions before the division of troops, and might even have approached Kulm.

However, on the main battlefield, neither side knew where Vandamme was at this time. Although Napoleon probably knew about this arrangement, because of the situation in Dresden, the main battlefield, and he was always waiting for the latest news from MacDonald and Oudinot, he did not pay too much attention to Vandamme.

But there is one sentence that Napoleon did say.

If he had to go to hell, hopefully Vandamme would lead the vanguard.

However, like Juno, Vandamme was unlucky enough not to obtain the marshal's staff because of the subsequent battle.

The situation at this time was disastrous for the coalition's rear guard.

The French were still in pursuit, but because of the muddy terrain and the clever blocking of the Russian Guards and Grenadiers by the terrain, they could not get close for a while. The road was extremely chaotic, and the coalition forces abandoned a large amount of baggage on the road, even including some officers' private carriages, which were blocked here.

Because of the congested roads and the fact that the French army had its own artillery and various vehicles following behind, the pursuit was now very slow.

It would be unfair to blame everything on Napoleon having a stomachache and turning into a jet warrior, as the army does not always depend on one person.

Moreover, Napoleon's deployment was also in place. He was not distracted by the changes in the war situation in the north. The French armies were still pursuing at a very fast speed. Except for the Old Guards who were still in Dresden, the rest of the troops had already pursued forward.

Murat achieved even greater results on this day. All his previous boasting was probably fulfilled in the process of pursuing the Austrian army, and a large number of Austrians in white clothes were captured.

However, it was rare to see prisoners of war from the Russian and Prussian armies. However, on the battlefield near Dresden, a large number of corpses of Russian officers and soldiers could be seen.

During the battle, the Russian army lost two generals and a large number of experienced officers, but no one was a coward at this time. Everyone fought to the last moment and either died on the battlefield, was captured due to exhaustion, or retreated after receiving orders.

Major General Lukov, a capable general under Wittgenstein's command, had experienced all the battles from October 1812 to the present and was killed on the battlefield of Dresden.

Another general of Greek descent, Melissino, led his Lubni Hussar Regiment in fighting for two days and repeatedly broke through the phalanxes of the French light infantry and Young Guards. Finally, when defeat was inevitable, he charged towards the phalanx of the Young Guards and was killed.

Compared with the battle between the Russian and Prussian armies, the Austrian army was obviously still a little hesitant, which was also determined by the attitude of the Austrians.

This always makes people feel that Schwarzenberg might be an undercover agent.

During the retreat, the coalition forces were dissatisfied with the commander-in-chief, but because of the damn political factors, his position would obviously not be shaken for the time being.

At this time, light cavalry crossed the Elbe River and passed through the French-controlled area, bringing news of the battles of Katzbach and Großbeeren.

At this time, Alexander was still discussing with his accompanying generals what to do next. Even the Russian generals had agreed that if they experienced a few more failures, the Austrians would probably run back to Vienna and withdraw from this war.

However, Alexander was somewhat surprised to see the Hussars in front of him. As soon as he saw the uniform, he knew they were from Solovyov's regiment.

"Your Majesty, I bring you news of Katzbach's battle with the French."

The young man was even a little excited at this time, and his subsequent speech was a little incoherent.

In order to convey the message accurately, he took the letter out of the pocket of his hussar uniform.

But it looked more like a package, because in addition to writing the letter, Solovyov also asked the hussar who was responsible for the messenger to bring a map of the battlefield.

Even though he was unfortunately captured by the French, it actually helped to shake the French. After all, the battles on several battlefields in the north were all won.

"Young man, you look tired. You should take a good rest. Arrange a carriage for him. We still have to continue retreating."

After taking the young hussar away, Alexander asked an adjutant to unfold the map, and the rest was the letter.

The above trends are already very clear. On the secondary battlefields, the French suffered a series of defeats. On the battlefield between the Katzbach River and the Neisse River, although Solovyov was far away from there, he was able to understand the situation through the intelligence obtained by the scouts led by Major Manstein on the night of the battle.

The French suffered such a disastrous defeat in the north that the Hussars sent to the Tsar's residence were able to move freely in the French-controlled area.

It’s also very interesting to say that the Saxons hated the Prussians, disliked the Austrians, and their attitude towards the French became increasingly worse. It seemed that Napoleon was the devil who sent their relatives to be cannon fodder.

However, their ill will towards the Russians is not great for the time being. After all, even if the secret agreement between Russia and Prussia is revealed, only a few high-ranking officials know about it.

There were even some Saxons and other Germans in the Russian army, so there were no obstacles.

Now that Alexander learned about the war situation in the north, he was overjoyed.

It’s just that Blücher’s victory happened on the same day as the defeat of the main force of the Allied forces, which highlighted the incompetence of the Austrians.

Another critical issue is that the Russian and Prussian armies must at least ensure that they can withdraw from the battlefield safely, find a new camp in the mountains of Bohemia, and then reorganize and return to the battlefield.

If we had been caught up by the French before, it would have been a repetition of past failed battles.

Therefore, it is now necessary for the Russian and Prussian armies to move to a safe place.

The combat plan drawn up by the chiefs of staff of the Allied Forces before the war had to be implemented no matter how you looked at it.

The battle has to continue, so the coalition forces are also moving as quickly as possible.

The news would soon reach Napoleon, probably causing him to give up his pursuit.

After all, the battle reports at this time did not need to be reviewed and published in the army bulletin. They were only for the emperor himself and the staff team to understand the battle situation.

After his sharp criticism of Oudinot's brain, Napoleon would undoubtedly be outraged by MacDonald's actions.

"How dare he disobey my orders?"

His current appearance can be described as a "defeated fat chicken". Although he is a Gallic rooster, the emperor has become fat.

"MacDonald was defeated by Blücher and lost most of his baggage! If this continues, we will not need to keep these corps in the north!"

Even if the situation is even worse, Napoleon may have to rush to transfer veterans from Spain and other places, and he would be thankful if some of them could arrive at the battlefield in two months.

Therefore, he still needs to seize the time to defeat the main force of the coalition forces and finally strive for a peace negotiation condition for himself, instead of being the winner as in the past.
This is already a very bad situation, even for Napoleon, who used to lead the French army to sweep across the European continent. If he encounters a decisive defeat in the future, the Allied forces will probably reach the French border.

Even the less optimistic French may now consider Paris
"Your Majesty, what should we do now?"

Berthier was still waiting for instructions from the emperor himself. If he only considered dealing with the coalition forces, he should pursue the Bohemian Corps into the mountains and give them no time to reorganize.

However, this road happened to be inside the mountains, and in such heavy rain, the French army had no way to pursue quickly and win the battle.

Heavy rain can help the French, and naturally it can also save the coalition forces to a certain extent. This is always a two-sided effect. (End of this chapter)