Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Bertrand should ask God if he had done anything bad in the past to provoke a coalition column that was marching towards Leipzig.

But he was also lucky. Solovyov always left the Prussian Army's new brigade behind to defend the heavy artillery. The 9th Division and the Balkan Division were placed in the front. The marching column was stretched too long because it had to march quickly on this road that was almost a public road for both sides.

A long snake formation, this time it was me.

But it is not without advantages. For this team, because the French army is walking on the road and the Russian army is advancing in the fields, if they want to turn, they don't need to change their formation.

The Russian army turned left and the French army turned right. The 6-pound artillery accompanying the army opened fire, and then the infantry deployed and fired at each other from a distance.

The rising smoke made it difficult to see clearly on both sides.

"Damn it, we're almost at the battlefield."

He was in a hurry to complete the emperor's instructions, but it seemed that he had done it ahead of schedule.

After all, Napoleon wanted him to stop possible reinforcements of the Allied forces here on the road northeast of Leipzig.

The ideal situation is that they control Allenburg and use the terrain and town to block the advance of the coalition forces.

However, this place was just ahead, and the Russian army was preparing to sneak in under the cover of the woods, but unfortunately they encountered the French army that was preparing to enter the city from the main road.

Solovyov did not even have a troop advantage at this time. Although he had 30,000 men who could join the battle, the Russian army and the Balkan Division were in the front, and he did not have much time to care about the follow-up of the marching columns behind him.

"Petya, go to the Duke and order the Brunswick Brigade to move forward. As for Schwerincar, should I also give orders that his infantry escort the artillery to the battlefield as soon as possible?"

"It seems necessary, and we can't see the French army's formation clearly now, and there is a firefight ahead."

Clausewitz had been observing the situation ahead. Outside the woods was shrouded in the smoke of black powder caused by the exchange of fire between the two sides.

It just changed to a breech-loading rifle, which was the case in the black powder era.

"If the French had deployed at Doberschulz and Mokrena in the front and controlled Streling in the back, even if we had the advantage in manpower, we would probably have been stopped here today."

The dark humor is that the task assigned by Napoleon to Bertrand can probably be accomplished ahead of time.

But the problem is that unlike the other fronts where the Allied forces first deployed their battle formations and launched attacks on the French outer forces, here it was completely an encounter battle.

The reason was that after Solovyov saw the road here in Eilenberg, he decided to come over the fields, through the forest road, take a shortcut to control the road the French were taking.

However, when he was reconnaissance, he paid more attention to his right side. As soon as his left wing emerged from the woods, he saw the French.

Bertrand's 4th Army was a patchwork platoon, with only one French division, and it had suffered heavy losses in Württemberg. Although the Italian division had some combat effectiveness, it was still lagging behind.

Fortunately, the 38th Division composed of Württemberg soldiers had not yet defected, otherwise he would not be able to fight this battle.

The advantage on his side was probably that the Russian troops were all in the woods at the moment, the vanguard had encountered his own, and the follow-up troops still needed to be reorganized.

Therefore, he had some time to deploy his defenses. By the time Solovyov pulled out both divisions, the three French divisions had already controlled three villages one after another, forming a situation of two in front and one in the back.

There is nothing left to hide for either side.

This happened early in the morning when they just started marching, which ignited the Battle of Leipzig ahead of time.

Although the current situation is that Blücher is confronting Ney, and Napoleon is facing Schwarzenberg, Solovyov and Bertrand do not seem to be the main course.

But because Bertrand was on the main road and controlled the village, the Russian army could do nothing to them here.

At the same time, in Leipzig, the two sides had already started a fierce battle.

When the overall strategic plan was to be confirmed before the war, it was confirmed by Colonel von Kniesebeck, the Prussian king's adjutant and personal military adviser, Prince Volkonsky, the Tsar's chief of staff, and General Radetzky, Prince Schwarzenberg's chief of staff.

Although the Tsar has changed his old habit of micro-management, he can't help but worry that Schwarzenberg has messed up an operation in Dresden and what problems will arise this time.

Therefore, he always hopes to have a backup plan in case any problems arise next.

After all, Schwarzenberg's plan seemed to be to advance slowly, to drive the French out of the battlefield, and probably to call Nikolai back from Solovyov. He could come up with such a combat plan, which was nothing more than taking advantage of his own military strength and taking action with nearly double the force advantage.

"We have fought the French so many times, and the commander-in-chief has more experience of being defeated by the French. However, this time's plan can only prove that, apart from our advantage in military strength, we have never had any other advantages against the French!"

He said this with absolute certainty, and Volkonsky saw it from the side.

"Your Majesty, but this is still a plan."

"What if Napoleon, he was going to hit one side hard?"

Surprisingly, the Tsar probably concentrated all his military talents in the first half of his life on this point.

As an old Russian artilleryman, he was able to connect with Napoleon, who was also an artilleryman, sometimes.

"Your Majesty, if that is the case, we will still face the problem of Dresden."

"Yeah, even just the river changing direction."

However, what is not true is that Napoleon placed Bertrand's troops in the east, while Claude Lecourbe's division, which came to support from the Rhine River, was arranged on the road to the west.

This division had never been involved in combat before, but it was still a fully staffed unit.

But for Le Gubu, rejoining the battlefield at a time when he was already in danger was also a feeling of time passing.

At the Gotthard Pass, it was he who blocked Suvorov's march, resulting in the Russian army's failure to cross the Alps in time, and also leading to Massena's great victory in Zurich.

However, this victory was the most glorious experience in General Lecourbe's military career. Later, when Moreau was involved in a case against the First Consul, as Moreau's close friend and staunch supporter, he decided to defend Moreau, but this provoked Napoleon.

Therefore, in 1805, he was forced to retire from active service, and this kind of retirement was not as good as the pension that Alexandre Dumas the Elder received.

He was effectively exiled, missing out on the French army's most glorious period on the battlefield.

Now, when France is in a critical situation, as an important general of the Moreau Rhine Corps in the past, he resumed active service as a divisional general, with less salary and no bonus, but had to bear greater responsibilities.

Even his health was not very good and he had been suffering from urinary system diseases.

But even in a place like Leipzig, Napoleon dared to arrange for him to come here.

He probably knew that if he replaced him with other generals, he wouldn't know what would happen. However, General Le Gubu, who was good at defense, could always protect his retreat.

This is probably because other battlefields tied up more French troops, and many troops were stranded on the front battlefield.

Otherwise, Le Courbe would probably have been summoned by Napoleon only during the Hundred Days period and would have resumed active service along with the two-faced royalist Bourmont.

However, fate is both fair and unfair.

Bourmont would defect on the eve of Waterloo and reveal to the British the French deployment on the battlefield.

Le Courbe dragged his long-ill body to fight against the Austrians, leading 8,000 men to hold back 40,000 Austrian troops for half a month. Even when Davout had laid down his arms, he was still fighting.

Napoleon, a stubborn man, finally acknowledged Lecourbe's talents in his memoirs, instead of his usual harsh comments about others.

Now, letting such a loyal person defend the French army's rear can actually reflect trust.

To the general, these soldiers were obviously strangers.

This was probably his first time commanding an army during the imperial period, but he arrived at a time when the army was on the verge of collapse.

In the past, those old soldiers with untidy beards, swearing, and who needed to be restrained by a general like him to avoid looting, were in any case experienced and courageous, and were able to repeatedly defeat the enemy's battle-hardened armies.

As for these young people now, even when he was in the Royal Army of the Aquitaine Legion, there was probably no possibility of letting these kids come to the front line.

But now he led such an army, which was worse than when he led the National Guard in Jura.

All unfavorable situations were surrounding him, and now he could see the Austrians coming from the flank.

Barclay's Russian army was the first to take action among the Bohemian Corps in the south, but Schwarzenberg's flat deployment made Le Courbe, who was left behind by the French on this side of the river, the first to enter combat.

"General, look there."

"It's those Austrians in white again. They never learn their lessons."

When Le Gourbe saw his opponent coming, he quickly became alert, unlike the sickly state he was in exile in Jura.

"Soldiers, the emperor asked me to go to the Jura countryside to dig apples, but the Austrians were not very good at that time. They sent a commander-in-chief who was about your age, and a quartermaster general who was inflexible to help command, and then they were defeated by us. Your fathers and uncles should have been in the French army at that time. Apart from anything else, soldiers, although we are in Leipzig, France is in crisis. If we fail this time, it will be like the time of Valmy, a group of Germans, and this time there will be Russians, they will fight to our doorstep, to Paris! Can we let them do this?"

"Non!"

When these young soldiers saw this veteran in his fifties struggling to get on his horse to boost their morale, even the hardest-hearted ones would be moved.

The emperor's attitude towards him was unfair, but at this time, the veteran generals from the Republic period were still needed to step in.

"Well, soldiers, let these damn Austrians have a good taste of the power of our cannons and bayonets! We must hold our positions here, don't let any Austrians pass, and of course don't let them eat onion rings!"

However, for these young people, they probably had fewer opportunities to sing the "Onion Song" in the past. Legub was an unlucky guy who always brought volunteer-level recruits into the battle, just like when he and Moreau first met.

Ney was still in a standoff with Blücher, and they were constantly firing cannons at each other.

However, he also heard the sound of artillery fire behind him. It was Le Courbeau of the Rhine Army who missed the most glorious period of the French Army.

"Claude, may God bless you, the emperor did not give you the honor you deserve, but pulled you up at this time"

These old bones of the Rhine Legion, even including double-dealers like Bernadotte, are a powerful force when they gather together.

Napoleon, who was in Wachau, commanding the troops on the southern front and coordinating the overall situation, never expected that although the Russian army had already begun to act and come to trouble MacDonald and Lauriston, the first to open fire on the entire battlefield were actually the troops left west of the river.

But for Napoleon, the current deployment makes him more confident.

Although the emperor himself had many faults, he was very accurate in employing people, except for a few exceptions.

Although Le Gub was a staunch republican and had obtained the status of an imperial noble when the Hundred Days were almost over, if he were to go to the battlefield, the stubborn men under Moreau would fight more desperately than the others.

Ney's characteristic is bravery, but Le Gourbe's situation is rather special. When the strength of his troops is similar, he can always defeat the enemy. He used to be one of the most useful division commanders under Moreau.

However, his greatest characteristic probably lies in his defensive ability, and he is particularly good at using various terrains and positions for defense.

Letting him replace Lindenau to guard this place also shows that the petty-minded emperor is good at using people.

What he had to face was the Austrian column led by the Hungarian general Gyula.

If Jiulai's operation could succeed, Napoleon would probably need to mobilize a troop to Hexi to weaken the French forces in the two main battlefields.

But Bertrand, as a mobile force, did catch a small fish in the east, causing the Solovyov "Esperance Team" that was originally preparing to rush over from the northeast road of Leipzig to be entangled in the forest several kilometers away.

Overall, the difference in military strength between the two sides was not large at this time, and it was always necessary to see how much more power Napoleon could display. (End of this chapter)