Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

The French are talkative, but there are different degrees of them.

Solovyov already liked to talk a lot, but compared with the French, he was quite taciturn.

Before he went to the battlefield, he could still think of his daughter Clara. The little girl was chattering as soon as she could speak, a little Parisian chatterbox. Her aunt Adela was also so talkative when disciplining her children.

I hope her and Speransky's child can be more stable.
The reason he thought so was that when he came to the 3rd Brigade, he would have to face Mr. de Damas's chatterbox. His chatterbox was not as sharp as Langgeron's, but he simply talked too much.

Sometimes he would think that if an Italian were in front of him, he would probably dance with joy.

Speaking of this, I also thought of the children in France.

But when you think like this, it's usually just a revolving lantern.

But he is in good condition now and doesn't look like he will die. When he went to the edge of the position to take a look, a shell passed by him and smashed the head of an unlucky soldier. Blood spurted all over the officer next to him, and his own uniform was also covered with the soldier's blood.

Now on the battlefield, he had no chance to change his clothes.

Moreover, the shirt inside was new. Many of Katya's relatives were still near Moscow. Her mother-in-law and sister-in-law probably left the estate near Moscow just in the past two days. If they were not still here, the shirt Katya sent to her might not arrive on time.

After my wife gave birth to the child, she was still worried about me, but there was only so much I could do.

All he could do was probably lead his brothers to the position of the salient fort.

"Sir, there's still a quarter of an hour."

"A quarter of an hour, a quarter of an hour. I don't think it will take that long, Colonel. You know, these are all your fellow Frenchmen."

"You are willing to talk like that at this hour, but we have been in France for a long time."

"Because your uncle is the Duke of Richelieu, he is different from other French people. If Napoleon, my aunt's former husband, is defeated one day, you French people will probably go back. Of course, General Langgeron is probably not like that. He married a Russian wife and also kept a beautiful mistress."

"You just said I talk too much, but now you are chattering too. Maybe Madame Recamier lives with you, so you talk like a Frenchman."

"what!"

But they didn't need to say anything more, the Grenadier Division had already started the action.

In response to the dangerous situation on the Russian left wing, Kutuzov has mobilized troops here. The two grenadier divisions are on the leftmost position, which makes the firepower here look stronger.

Since the Russian infantry and artillery firepower are so strong, Napoleon obviously cannot fall behind. He has decided to take action and mobilize more troops.

It is said that the number of troops on both sides in the Borodino battlefield exceeded 25, but when it comes to the place with the most concentrated troops, perhaps Laevsky's side is a little behind. There, there was only fierce hand-to-hand combat between the two sides, unlike here in the Salient, where there are people standing in front, and a few artillery shells would probably cause serious casualties.

However, both sides still had some echelons, and when the Russian grenadiers came up, the situation ahead was indeed very bad.

Konovnitsyn was commanding here and found that his generals were either dead or wounded, and even most of the officers were lost. If Polozkin had not been behind the position and managed to organize the Combined Grenadiers and the 27th Division and hold on to the position, he would probably have no idea where the French had rushed them to.

Another strange thing to say is that, although a lot of senior officers were lost here, the two leaders were fine. In fact, the bullets took a detour when they encountered them.

But this was not a good thing. Seeing more French people coming forward, Konovnitsyn realized that the situation was not good.

The grenadiers were coming up from behind with drums beating, and even amid the constant French fire their march could be heard, and when the artillery fire paused briefly the Russian footsteps could be heard.

There was even a certain uniformity to them. The 2nd Grenadier Division, marching forward with their rifles in hand, was truly an eye-opener.

"Count, you look like a target. Your general's uniform is a bit conspicuous."

Even as he was setting up his position, de Damas continued to chatter.

Of course, if the restoration was successful and history was restored, he would probably still have a lot of weight in the Bourbon court, and even serve as foreign minister like his uncle.

With such a good mouth, it should be no problem for him to become a diplomat in the future.

Solovyov was unwilling to say two more words now. He just looked at the position in front of him. After the French artillery bombardment, the position of the bastion was shrouded in smoke again.

Although it may not seem like a big deal at first glance, this place will also claim many lives. Many people from both sides have died here before, and the same will be true in the future. If today is not enough to end the battle, then the same will happen tomorrow at the Salient Fort.

What Solovyov wanted was to determine who was superior and inferior here. If there were too many brutal battles, people might become more numb.

Generals who grew up in favorable battles always perform worse than those who have experienced severe tests. If they fail, they change their faces quickly.

Solovyov thought about himself. He had encountered almost all situations since the Italian expedition until now, except for the battles that brought him closer to death. It seemed that Borodino was such a place.

The reason he thought so was that Nikolai Tuchkov had been seriously injured in the battle in the forest, and the number of generals and officers lost in this battle was also astonishing.

The troops of the 2nd Army that have already been deployed have suffered staggering losses. They are fighting here with incredible courage. Even if their brothers beside them have fallen, the remaining soldiers are still fighting.

After the grenadiers came up, they replaced some of the troops that had suffered heavy losses.

As soon as they arrived at the position, the French felt the pressure with just the first volley.

The French soldiers in the front fell one after another, and the French generals knew very well what this meant.

The French response was naturally fierce. They used hundreds of artillery pieces to attack the positions in front of the entire bastion.

The fighting here was fierce. If you came to this place after the war, you would definitely not be able to recognize what the original terrain looked like.

The original buildings and the hastily constructed fortresses were severely damaged by artillery shells. If it weren't for the gun emplacements built on top of the salient redoubt, it would be difficult to tell that this was a position.

Hundreds of cannons from both sides also fired repeatedly around this place. The French even pushed some 6-pound cannons to the front, and there were cannons in the back that kept firing grenades.

De Damas was hit by grapeshot fragments just after the battle began. Although his arm was not torn apart by the shell, he was seriously injured. This guy was actually grimacing in pain, while looking at Solovyov and said slowly: "This is a small matter. It doesn't look like I will be killed."

At this moment, you still have time to talk about this. Solovyov asked his adjutant to take him away.

Young people nowadays are really naughty.

When Solovyov thought this, he completely ignored the fact that de Damas was only 27 years old, actually only four years younger than him.

As for the French's overwhelming artillery fire, it did cause considerable losses to the grenadiers.

However, they could not retreat here. The position of the Salient Redoubt was too important. If it was lost and the entire left wing was broken through by the French, Napoleon would finally succeed.

Therefore, Bagration, as the commander of the 2nd Army, also came to the front line to personally supervise a brigade.

For this reason, the headquarters personnel of the 2nd Army and the 8th Army also joined the battlefield. Retreat is always impossible, and they have to boost the morale of their brothers.

Bagration himself, still on his horse, saw the 1st Grenadier Brigade, and Christian fell off his horse.

The battle had just begun. Although Christian came to Russia to join the army with connections, and even his father and brothers were in the Rhine Confederation, he was still very brave in the war.

"Go and see how the Prince of Mecklenburg is doing!"

As Bagration spoke, he was riding in front of the grenadiers, without any cover or cover.

A solid bullet flew past him and over the heads of the grenadiers.

That doesn't look scary, thought Bagration.

In his opinion, Christian and de Damas, who commanded the 3rd Brigade, were lucky to be wounded at the beginning of the battle.

Christian fell off his horse. Although his injuries were not serious, he fainted due to the impact on his head, so he had to be taken off the battlefield.

When he was in Poland before, he was injured but he didn't know how to hide, and he stayed with the grenadiers, which was very impressive.

The old soldiers of the Moscow Regiment all looked serious when they saw their commander being carried away.

"Brothers, today's battle is not only for the motherland and the emperor, but also for ourselves! Ura!"

When Shatilov saw the division commander being carried away, he had no choice but to command the battle.

When the French rushed forward, they also hated the grenadiers, who could shoot at long range, fight in close combat, and throw a few small Russian grenades from time to time.

If the two sides met on the battlefield during such a fierce battle, unless they wanted to capture an officer, both sides would probably show no mercy and it would be common to use bayonets to finish off the opponent.

To the French soldiers, the Russian grenadiers killed their comrades.

For the Russian soldiers, these French soldiers were the murderers who caused them to lose their homes - after all, many military regiments with place names were only stationed there, and many of the soldiers among them still lived on the road from the border to Moscow.

Coupled with the destruction of their own villages along the way and the atrocities of the French, the fact that each side had no way to retreat made the battle even more brutal.

Even shortly after Shatilov gave the order, he himself was hit by a bullet.

"Colonel, you are wounded."

"Don't worry about that. Bring me the bandage and wrap it around me!"

The brigade commander knew that he couldn't be without a backbone now. He was the regiment commander and brigade commander at the same time. If he was injured again, he would probably have to find an officer from the Guards to replace him, which made him feel uneasy.

After wrapping himself up in this hasty way with a bandage, he felt himself in good condition, so he took off his hat and stood beside the first row of grenadiers, pointing his sword at the French marching formation and directing his fire.

There were also more veterans in the Moscow Grenadiers. After they stood still, they took turns firing at the French soldiers in front of them.

Even for such shooting, although they are required to be "free shooting", because the loading speed is roughly the same, the effect is still a volley.

The French cavalry that charged forward were in bad luck. After the Russian cuirassiers withdrew, the French saw that their own cuirassiers and infantry cooperated very well, so they increased their investment. The cuirassiers of Nansouty and Montbrun continued to attack forward.

And this time, not only ordinary cuirassiers, but also the elite carbine cuirassiers regiment joined the battle.

However, the situation of the Russian infantry is rather special. They are the grenadiers veterans with the most combat experience.

After the shooting, it looked like a massacre.

The cuirassiers in front were beaten to the ground and had to temporarily leave the battlefield after losing more than a hundred cavalrymen, allowing the infantry to go up and consume these Russian soldiers for a while so that they could launch another attack from the flank.

Soon the next round of artillery fire came, and the unlucky Shatilov was wounded again in a short time. Fortunately, he was not injured in the vital parts this time. However, he could not hold on and had to withdraw from the battle.

Even so, while he was being carried away, he did not forget to loudly encourage his men: "Brothers, beat these French guys hard and make these sons of bitches roll back to their homes in Paris!"

Fortunately, this was not said in front of de Damas, otherwise the two of them might have fought on the stretcher.

At the beginning of the battle, the Grenadier Division lost a division commander and two brigade commanders. As the commander of the 8th Army, Solovyov was personally a little overwhelmed.

The three division commanders under his command were all wounded and carried away, and the loss rate of officers was also alarming. Moreover, the battle had only lasted until 11 o'clock, and the fourth wave of French attack had just begun.

It seems that he will soon be left alone on the battlefield.

Not to mention the headquarters of the 2nd Army. After fighting for a morning, Polozkin broke his leg because his mount was killed, and Saint Prix was also carried away wounded. Only his senior brother General Bagration and several adjutants were left.

From this point of view, their fellow disciples are also in danger. (End of this chapter)