Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Chapter 426 003 I am not a young general of the Security Command!
As for matters such as being awarded medals for meritorious service, the distance from the Russian front-line headquarters to St. Petersburg is still much closer than the long route in the past.

Because of his military achievements, Solovyov was awarded the Second Class Order of St. Anna this time. After all, he was only the acting chief of staff, and he only appeared where he should have been at the critical moment in the battle.

From this point of view, it is quite reasonable, and his performance in Pultusk was indeed not decisive.

As for the awarding of medals by Alexander, it always feels like an increase in the value, and except for the fourth-degree Order of St. George, recipients are often promoted upwards in accordance with their previous merits.

In addition, Solovyov also learned something important for him.

"Congratulations, Michel, you become a general today, but it's just medals and wine."

Let’s not talk about this for now. What Solovyov fears most is large glasses of beer and vodka.

Fortunately, this time it fell into the hands of Langeron and Wittgenstein. It is true that there was wine in the luggage cart of the old drunkard Buckholden, but we have to consider that this guy is also a German, and he would not bring a cart full of "dear little water".

"Okay, some champagne, I still need your clear head."

It took Solovyov 11 years to be promoted from second lieutenant to general. Of course, according to the normal qualifications, the promotion from colonel to major general is different from that from lieutenant colonel to colonel, or from major general to lieutenant general.

He even speculated that this backdoor was a fast-forward channel prepared for some noble children.

But for someone like him, who has some ways but seems to have none, that’s another matter.

In the Russian army, seniority is always used to rank people, and even compared with military achievements, its weight is no less.

If you have some connections, like the three Dolgorukov brothers, their value appreciates quite quickly.

Of course, Solovyov didn't know at the moment that Peter Dolgrokov had died of a sudden high fever. He was just paying attention to things at the front.

To be honest, there were still many young officers around Alexander, but as for their fighting ability, their muscles were bigger than their brains, or their brains were all muscles.

Under such circumstances, it was not easy for Solovyov, who always liked to use his brain, to be promoted.

His only experience was that he had once served as the commander of the Guards Chasseur Regiment. Although it was a small regiment, it was ranked just behind the three major Guards Regiments. Therefore, his resume was very full and no problems could be found.

If he doesn't make up for this, even if Russia and France sign a peace treaty after the war, he may not be promoted to general. The proportion of military merit must be very high.

In fact, this is all thanks to his fiancée. Katya's father and uncle are both generals, and her grandfather is the former commander-in-chief of the Russian army.

People like him seem to be living off of freeloaders.

Of course, he didn't have time to think about these questions now. After Langgelon congratulated him on his promotion to general and received the medal, he raised a question based on the intelligence.

"According to the current movements of the French army, the Sixth Army is relatively isolated and has advanced deep into the enemy territory alone. As for the First Army, it seems to be far away from the battlefield, but it is also far away from the main force of the French army."

However, when Langgeron said this, perhaps because Bookholden was still drunk, he suddenly asked a question.

"Where is the French Second Army?"

He said this without any regard for Langgeron's royalist identity, and he spoke without thinking.

But Solovyov was not without a solution, so he just said this to him directly.

"Dear General Buckholden, the question you raised has indeed been questioned by some people. The Second French Army is now in Dalmatia. They seem to have some ideas about the islands we control in the Mediterranean, so they are not in Bonaparte's army."

"Ah, that's right."

Solovyov also wanted to complain in his heart. This Buchholden would make some jokes sooner or later. At least he should let his adjutant take care of his wine bottle during the next battle. In addition, when it comes to Wittgenstein, although he also likes to drink, fortunately, although this man sometimes has more muscles than brains, he is still relatively restrained, unlike Buchholden.

It was simply Commander Lin (Deng) who passed the orders down.

Then, he didn't want to bother with the old drunkard, but turned to Langgelon and presented his idea.

"Since Ney is relatively isolated compared to other French troops, we can launch an operation at this time and prepare to strike him. If we succeed, we can weaken Napoleon's power. But Ney is from the Rhine Army, so he is not so easy to deal with."

"You are really cautious."

But Langgeron also knew that Solovyov had a lot to consider, and as chief of staff he really needed to think carefully about many things.

The more difficulties you anticipate, the more prepared you will be in subsequent operations, and you will even be able to deal with emergencies in a timely manner when they occur.

However, the isolation of Bernadotte and Ney was indeed a good opportunity. They could take action and march quickly to encircle the enemy.

"It is said that a ship sails a thousand miles in caution" comes from a Chinese proverb, and we do need to be cautious.

Of course, if you talk to Russians, you can't help but say "Khitan".

"If we take action, the French will not be unaware of it. Although the cavalry we sent out caused them a lot of trouble during the reconnaissance operations, the French cavalry will also scout our movements, but our communication efficiency is higher."

Both sides used signal machines, but although the French signal machines could be identified by their patterns, they could not be seen clearly if one was not facing the direction of the signal machine.

Those who have some understanding of the propagation path of light can also know that the communication of optical signal machines forms a fan, so that the communication range will be expanded.

In terms of efficiency, there is obviously a difference.

But the French are also paying close attention to the movements of the Russian army.

Shortly after the Russian army set out from its base, Ney, who was isolated from other armies, had not received any news, but Bernadotte had already roughly known the direction of the Russian army's movement through reconnaissance.

In this way, he could actually understand the situation clearly. If he did not take the initiative to fight, the first punch of the Russian army launching a new battle would probably fall on his head.

After all, this is the French army, and it is not the point where you would rather die than sacrifice your own friends as in some armies. Even someone as selfish as Bernadotte began to move closer to Ney and tried to get in touch with him.

As for the Russian army, although they noticed that the French light cavalry were also acting as scouts nearby, they did not give up their plan to march to the mouth of the Vistula River.

This time the action was no longer carried out by Wittgenstein's army, but by Buckholden's army. The advance team led by General Markov, including a large number of cavalry, quickly advanced towards the target.

Solovyov, who was in Langgeron's headquarters, also looked at the reports at hand. He also found that in addition to Markov's marching column, there were two old acquaintances in the reconnaissance team. One was Mikhail Dolgorukov, his old friend and partner; the other was Count Palen Jr. Although his father was hanged for regicide, he was a loyal minister and was not implicated.

These two men, each leading their cavalry, are now at the forefront of the Russian column, ready to join the attack on the French army.

As they advanced, they also received the latest orders from messengers riding on Pegasus from behind.

"What orders could that be?"

"We are to follow the command of the headquarters and search and advance with the hussars in the lead."

"This place is close to the French transportation line. If we go over there, can't we attack their convoy?"

"That's it, big man. How should I put it? We will each lead a cavalry regiment and go behind the enemy's communication line."

"What if we meet the French?"

"The old way. If you have some patience, you don't have to change your wife."

"But you still don't have a wife."

The two of them are quite familiar with each other, but they both speak in a very sarcastic way, which hurts each other.

It was indeed absurd that Count Palen's wife left him with a daughter who might have been born to her stepfather; and as for Prince Mikhail, he did not have a marriage arranged because of his ambiguous relationship with Grand Duchess Catherine.

After they each set off with their cavalry, Markov, with his follow-up troops, approached Morungen.

Bernadotte had now also noticed the Russian army's movements. He was also near Morungen and gave orders to Dupont because of the situation on the front line.

The division commanded by Dupont now stood in front of the Russian army.

The troops of both sides also formed their own battle arrays, and the exchange of fire was quite intense.

Bernadotte was still on the way, and he was also surprised when he learned that DuPont was now fighting the Russian army.

But what surprised him even more was the two bad friends who were approaching with the cavalry.

Count Palen was observing the movements of the French army with the newly issued binoculars. Even with his big beard, he couldn't hide his pride.

"Look, Misha, it's such a long convoy, there must be a lot of good stuff!"

"Don't be anxious. We have to wait until the fight over there in Markov gets more intense before we take action."

"How come you, the dragoon commander, are even more cunning than us hussars?"

"The reason why you and I are brothers is that I also served in the Hussars, but now I am the commander of the Dragoons."

Then they each returned to their own regiments and began to gather the cavalry who were hiding in the background.

These cavalrymen came from the Sumy Hussar Regiment and the Courland Dragoon Regiment. When assembled, they could launch an attack at this time. There were a total of 6 hussar squadrons and 3 dragoon squadrons.

"Brothers, do you see that? There are French convoys down there. They must have gotten a lot of good things from the Germans, maybe even some delicious food. It's just that the French are too enthusiastic. These are all prepared for us. Brothers, raise your sabers, follow me, your captain, and rush down to teach these Frenchmen a lesson!"

When Count Palen said this, some of his Ukrainian officers could not help but complain: "But General, you are also a 'German'."

Obviously, in order to distinguish it, the tone was emphasized.

But Count Palen was not angry. He smiled and continued, "We are all officers and soldiers serving the emperor. Even if your father is over there, we will still ride over there on horseback!"

Speaking of which, he is speaking from personal experience.

The father was a regicide, and the son killed his own father for the sake of justice and caught the traitor without knowing it. We can't say that the father was kind and the son was filial, but loyalty is beyond doubt.

It is precisely because of this that Count Palen's men are willing to follow him through life and death.

The hussars moved faster than the dragoons, and Count Palen was closer, so he launched the attack before the dragoons were ready.

This was a bad thing. Although the French convoy was protected by some soldiers, it was still unable to withstand the attack of the Hussars without the infantry forming a formation. So the situation was changed back.

It was a common occurrence in that era when cavalry were galloping freely.

The Russian hussars rushed into the French convoy, killing the French soldiers who dared to resist and looting the supplies.

Some officers and soldiers jumped out of some carriages. It was obvious that there were quite a few people in the French carriages.

Some people wanted to relax in their cars because of the cold weather, but they didn't expect that Russian cavalry would rush out.

In this situation, without being fully armed, the only option was to raise your hands in surrender. In this era, this could not be called a French military salute. After all, the French did not surrender as many times as the Prussians and Austrians.

As for Dolgorukov, his dragoons blocked the road ahead. Many French troops wanted to run along the main road towards Morungen.

Seeing this situation, in order to avoid being captured, they all wrapped themselves in their coats and ran into the bushes.

It was common for the cavalry to capture people in the woods, but the bushes were so dense that it was not suitable for continued capture.

Therefore, after Palen and Dolgorukov captured more than a hundred soldiers and four officers, they decided to stop while they were ahead and drove all the carts in the direction they came from.

As for what was inside, they didn't care at first. As for these captives, if they left the main road and went to a safer place, they might be able to get some rewards.

We don’t know what’s going on now, so who knows what we’ll find out after investigating?

At this time in Morungen, the battle between the Russian and French armies was about to break out.

(End of this chapter)