Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

The biggest problem of the Russian army is always insufficient manpower.

This is also determined by the current situation in Europe. France has confirmed its hegemony in Europe and is imposing a continental blockade on Britain.

As long as any country does not obey the "Continental Blockade" in the end, war is inevitable. This is what happened in Portugal. Sweden was beaten by Russia, and Napoleon's own brother Louis, the King of the Netherlands, eventually lost the throne because of disagreements with his brother.

He was so inflated that in his opinion, maybe the Russian Tsar was his brother-in-law, so he could be more considerate and not treat him like his younger brother.

However, Alexander had his own ideas, and the summer smuggling in Arkhangelsk never stopped.

After all, that place is the real home of the Solovyov family and the place where they made their fortune. Sergei knows this place very well.

Now the French also know that the maritime trade between Russia and Britain, although not in the Baltic Sea, there will definitely be activities in some less noticed places, such as the Barents Sea route.

Therefore, he repeatedly asked Alexander to solve this problem and offered some benefits.

However, Alexander ignored all this and continued to do his own thing, not delaying what he was supposed to do.

Under such circumstances, the relationship between France and Russia began to become tense, and Alexander's thoughts were often unguessable even by those around him.

However, in order to strengthen the defense on the western border, three armies had been deployed on a broad front extending from the Baltic coast to Moldavia, and troops were still being mobilized.

We need to hurry on the Danube River side, and both Kamensky Jr. and Solovyov are aware of this. Therefore, one of them is struggling with the main force to gnaw on the bones, while the other one, after making a detour, will infiltrate Greece even if he does not have enough troops.

In this battle as well, Solovyov naturally hoped to win.

However, due to his qualifications, it would be impossible for him to exchange the title of Grand Prince for a beautiful battle like Katya's grandfather did.

After all, his father is still alive, and he is only a lieutenant general now.

There will be plenty of opportunities in the future, and it would be great if I could get a big medal through this war.

The Russian army gained a slight advantage on the battlefield, but it was not enough to push the enemy back.

After holding off the Turkish offensive, Trubetskoy and Arkady drove them eastward along the foot of the mountain, but there were too many enemies and they were unable to gain a stalemate for a while.

For Solovyov, the last reserve troops he had were two combined grenadier battalions, both of which were drawn from the infantry regiment.

With this amount of troops, plus a few guards, and they have to be at the headquarters, his troops are being used to the limit.

Although he knew that the Serbs would come, he did not hold out much hope. After all, there were many examples of reinforcements not arriving on the battlefield, even if he saw some reinforcements.

Who knows what abstract orders and commands will come next. Although Peric was also an adjutant of Karageorge, he is still relatively reliable in this respect.

On the Grenadier Division's position, when the fire was almost over, the Russian army finally left their position and advanced towards the Turkish position with bayonets in hand.

The air in this burning place is indeed hot, and the earth is indeed burning, but is there a storm?
Because they had been burned, the Turkish army's resistance here was not so active. As the five Russian grenadier regiments attacked together, they formed a W formation with three in front and two in the back.

And there were still some gaps. When the Russian army approached the Turkish army, some enemies started firing.

However, due to tension and other factors, not many Russian soldiers were knocked down. Instead, this stimulated the Russians. When they were within ten steps with their bayonets pointed, they finally began to shout "Ura" and rushed forward.

The Turks were one of the few opponents the Russian army encountered who were not afraid of hand-to-hand combat with the Russian army, although they often lost.

The situation today is even worse. After all, after being set on fire once, the impact on morale is too great.

In addition, the Russian army continued to charge forward even after being hit by volleys of gunfire at such a close distance, unlike soldiers of other countries who would exchange fire for a while. This indeed shook the Turks, who were always brave but easily defeated.

Some teams that relied entirely on cold weapons to fight the Russian army could no longer hold on, and were driven back by the Russian grenadiers.

However, it was also because they had a large number of people and their formation was dense that they were able to ensure that they would not be defeated by the Russian army. Of course, the formation was also chaotic enough.

When Solovyov saw the situation of the grenadiers, he could only feel pity.

If it had been the previous two battles, I'm afraid they would have achieved brilliant victories. But today we are indeed short of manpower. In fact, the Russian army's strength is less than half of the Turkish army.

According to the experience of fighting against the Turkish army in this era, it is generally difficult to achieve a complete victory when the force is outnumbered by more than 1 to 2. In Solovyov's impression, probably only his mentor, Marshal Suvorov, has done this.

From several Russo-Turkish wars to the later when Muhammad Ali led his army from Egypt to fight against the Ottoman Empire, the minimum standard was 1 to 2. Muhammad Ali's son defeated the 3 troops led by the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire with 6 troops.

It's not because of anything else, it's just that there are too many restrictive factors here, and there are too many Turkish soldiers. Once they regroup, there will be a lot of trouble.

The grenadiers just swept their own side, and by the time Uvarov's division connected from the middle and continued to drive away the Turkish army, the three sides had reached the limit of the attack.

It seemed that today's battle was about to end with a small victory, and there was no sign that the enemy was driven out of the valley.

Solovyov also had a headache. He really couldn't provide any reinforcements. All he had to wait for was the Serbs to finally arrive at the battlefield.

This kind of waiting was somewhat torturous. Even though we had seen the marching columns of the Serbs and their iconic hats on their heads, we were still some distance away from the battlefield.

As for which side to deploy, it is now a difficult problem for Solovyov. In short, he gave up the idea of ​​launching an attack from the Grenadier Division.

The reason is simple. If they want to do it, because the grenadiers will attack first, the Turkish reinforcements are likely to be drawn over, making the Turkish left wing relatively weak.

There are already two divisions there, and with the Serbian reinforcements, it should be enough.

He was relieved only when he saw Radovan Karadzic, who was sent to contact Peric. "Sir, the Serbian 1st Division has arrived. Peric asked you which battlefield you want to deploy to?"

"From the right wing of our army, on the flank of Arkady Suvorov's 9th Division, throw yourself into battle and attack the Turkish troops there."

Although it is a mountain road, this kind of hillside terrain is most suitable for the Serbs to perform. Among the Serbian hunters walking in the front, many are former Pandur skirmishers. These old soldiers may have poor discipline, but they have superb archery skills, and for the enemy, the more damage they can cause at this moment, the more effective it will be.

When Peric received the order, he only had time to assemble two regiments, but they also joined the battle. The three regiments behind were still changing formations from marching columns, but it was only a matter of time.

In this way, the Turks were finally driven out of the valley.

For Aziz Ahmed Pasha, it was quite a pity on the battlefield today. After all, this was the first time that the Russian army failed to drive them out completely. However, the combat effectiveness of these bad soldiers of his own was really limited, and that was what happened today.

He and Haji Mustafa Bey had done their best, but facing the battlefield carefully selected by the Russian army, this was all they could do.

The fact that they did not completely collapse like the Turkish army before can be considered an improvement. After all, the troops they have mobilized cannot be said to have very high combat effectiveness.

As for the Russian army, after the Serbs joined the battle, they continued to advance, and finally pushed the Turks to the middle of the valley when the sun set.

In this situation where the two armies were facing each other, the Turks knew in their hearts that they had lost the battle again.

For Aziz Ahmed Pasha, what he has to consider now is not to give up here. After the Russian reinforcements arrive, they will definitely organize another attack if he does not find a way to retreat tonight.

Probably tomorrow they will be torn to pieces like their friendly forces in Lom and Philippopolis.

He also played a trick at night, but he did not bluff to show that he had more soldiers. Instead, he reduced the number of bonfires, clearly telling the Russian army that grandpa would not play with them anymore.

Solovyov did not rest at all. He went to the front in person and saw the posture of these Turkish troops.

He simply did not intend to pursue. For the Russian army, a series of fierce battles might be more disadvantageous to them. Now the right thing to do was to go back and take Thessaloniki.

And he also knew that the Turkish army’s successive defeats should have made Sultan Mahmud more aware of his current situation.

Since everyone understands it, the negotiations should not be too far away.

However, Solovyov somewhat underestimated the young and energetic Sultan Mahmoud. How could a young man not be energetic?

Even if it fails now, the Ottoman Empire will probably still continue to fight.

However, on the plains of Macedonia, the Turks would not fight the Russian army in the wilderness or in the mountains because they would not be able to defeat them.

On the morning of the next day, Solovyov finally got the result he wanted. The Turks ran away, leaving behind only a messy camp. A large amount of supplies that could not be taken away were burned.

Although this time we did not achieve as glorious a victory as before, it was also a decisive battle.

Solovyov was always cautious, and he only reported the victory news after he was sure that the enemy had escaped.

After all, his situation was different from Melas's. He didn't need to pop champagne at halftime and could send the victory news to Vienna when the French army was retreating. St. Petersburg was too far away and the news would be delayed.

Even with such a high Ping, after the victory, the news to Kamensky the Younger still needed to be delivered by express. As for later, there was no fear that it would be too late to report the victory to the Tsar.

It seems that this was just a minor defeat in a series of defeats for the Turks compared to the previous major defeats. Perhaps after returning, Aziz Ahmed Pasha lost the opportunity to become the Grand Vizier and was exiled to an island to be a governor.

This was good for Ahmed Pasha, but after he became the Grand Vizier, he would have to sign the peace treaty of defeat, which did not seem to be a good thing either.

In short, the two Pashas, ​​who were supposed to become Grand Viziers one after another, were no longer happy after being beaten by Solovyov.

On the other hand, in Thessaloniki, the Turkish army quickly raised the white flag after learning that reinforcements would not arrive and that the Russian army was returning again.

At this time, it was only the end of November 1810. The Russian Macedonian Corps, starting from Craiova as the flank of the Danube Front, passed through Vidin, Lom, Sofia, Philippopolis, Skopje, Phanarion and Thessaloniki, and now finally temporarily ended their military operations.

With the surrender of Thessaloniki, the entire Macedonia region, except for a part in the east which was still under the control of Aziz Ahmed Pasha, was occupied by the Russian army.

Next, the Macedonian legions would move south to Greece, as their name had often indicated in classical times.

But in ancient Greece, Philip One-Eyed went to Greece to become the overlord.

Solovyov just wanted to ensure that the Russian army could enter Athens smoothly.

As long as they entered Athens, and then some vanguard troops passed through the Isthmus of Corinth to reach the Peloponnese, the Turks would basically be defeated, and their rule would actually end here.

Next, it will probably be about whether the Greeks can decide their own destiny, whether Serbia and Greece are independent or autonomous, or some other issues.

For the Ottoman Empire, their rule in Europe was on the verge of collapse under such circumstances.

The situation was not good for Britain and France either. The war was not over yet, but their plan to use the Ottoman Empire and the Persian Empire to contain Russia had failed no matter what.

The remaining time of the war would probably be garbage time, with the main forces of both sides confronting each other along the main mountain passes and passes. Unless something unexpected happened in the diplomatic negotiations, the war should have ended like this.

Solovyov was also in a good mood. After settling down in Thessaloniki, he wanted to bring Madame Recamier and Clara over. As for Katya and the children, he would also bring them over.

He would probably spend the winter of this year in Greece, and he even hoped to go to Athens. (End of this chapter)