Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

However, Solovyov's 30,000 men were still left behind, and Blücher did not inform him of the current direction of action, but instead asked the Prussian king on his own to change the direction of the march to the Marne Valley.

And because of the direction of the operation, the Russian army also made personnel adjustments.

"So, I'll let you go back to the emperor?"

"I think His Majesty is worried that something might happen to me, so the 9th Division was assigned to Olsufiev."

Solovyov had no way to complain, as he now only had the Balkan Division and the Brunswick Brigade, which were even weakened. Schwerin's brigade was left in Metz to help with the siege.

Although he said he had 30,000 people, it would be good to have just over 10,000 at this time.

Fortunately, troops were transferred from the Northern Legion and the rear.

So he could really slack off here, but when he saw Arkady, he felt helpless.

"You must also explain the current situation when you are with His Majesty. This plan is presented to the Emperor, and explains the current situation. We should not rush to advance. It is clear that Marshal Blücher does not want to listen to me."

"Misha, what else can I do?"

"If I only have the Balkan Division and the Brunswick Brigade, I probably won't be able to win the battle. If I were to command Sacken with this little force, it would probably be useless and might even have some counterproductive effects."

After all, Solovyov is young. Although he is the son-in-law of a prince, his qualifications are far inferior. Even if his father is a prince, there will probably be people in the army who will hinder him in some way.

Only veterans with prestige and experience can intimidate others. If this continues, it will still be a failure when we arrive at Tannenberg a hundred years later.

Of course, Solovyov would not live that long, and it was already hard enough for him to just watch the failure before him.

"Well, I'll try to make a suggestion to the Emperor and get two divisions of support."

"It is strange now, that the Prussians are commanding only Russian troops at Brienne, and I can see not a single Russian here."

"Sir, aren't there a few of us?"

"Valodia, you are an attendant. An orderly is not a combatant. Unless a French hussar rushes in front of me and you shoot him, then it will count."

Without further explanation, Solovyov allowed Arkady to return to the Tsar.

As for Orsufiev, the troops he had were not quite in line with history, and Blücher even sent him a brigade of Prussian troops.

Solovyov's strange words were not only directed at himself, but also at the chaotic command within the Silesian Corps at that time.

Even on the side of Sacken and York, each commanding their own army, there was chaos at the moment.

After Napoleon retreated from La Rottier, Blücher demanded a pursuit and expressed his dissatisfaction with Schwarzenberg.

However, this kind of recklessness of his cannot be achieved without suffering some consequences.

Gneisenau handed Solovyov's letter to him again, but the marshal still ignored it.

"Why does this guy look like that Austrian? He was so bold in Saxony!"

"But Marshal, if the French really come."

"It's incredible that the usurper should have escaped! He fled in Leipzig!"

Blücher's idea was not wrong, but his troops had not yet been concentrated. Now Schwarzenberg had to send people to cover his flanks and concentrate his troops on the Marne River.

He still wanted to enter Paris, but the scenario of quickly passing through Paris probably wouldn't be so effective against Napoleon, even when he had an absolute advantage.

Seeing him like this, Gneisenau also gave orders.

However, the scattered marching state of the Silesian Corps soon attracted Napoleon's attention.

After returning to his home turf, Napoleon's intelligence was obviously much smoother.

And it was like not having hemorrhoids, which made Napoleon feel much better.

"What are the Russians doing?"

"Sire, Blücher is gathering his Russian troops, and we have learned from the hussars we have captured that he is marching along the Marne."

"Great, that's exactly what we want. As long as Blücher goes deep into the enemy territory alone and the other enemies don't come up, we will have the opportunity to divide and encircle the enemy continuously, just like in Italy."

Apart from his hemorrhoids, Napoleon is probably in one of the better stages of his military career.

In order to protect his achievements, he will definitely try his best.

"We want all our troops mobilized, Guards"

So he started a new round of deployment, and even had to use the 30,000 troops he currently had to deal with 50,000 Prussian troops.

The old guards who had been watching the show now finally got a chance to fight.

The Young Guards, who were usually in the second-line reserve, apparently became a front-line force.

Of the remaining armies under Napoleon, only Marmont's troops had some strength left at this time.

Oudinot's 7th Army had only men, and even under normal circumstances, it would hardly be the size of a division.

On the coalition side, there is a division with more than 2,000 people.

The troops of Orsufiev in front were now the 9th Division reinforced by Solovyov, part of the Prussian Army, but it still had a level of less than people.

There will always be losses during the march, and it is also necessary to divide troops to capture towns along the way.

Therefore, if Solovyov does not station troops along the way, he may have a lot of troops when he gathers his troops, but it may be different if it is someone else.

In the first battle, Napoleon encountered Olsufiev's army because of its marching route.

Although we attacked the Russian army directly at the beginning, and the enemy's strength was larger than expected, there were always some uncertainties.

However, Napoleon was always determined to take action to strike at the Allied forces scattered along the 72-kilometer line.

Given this scattered situation, even gods cannot save it.

Moreover, the coalition forces have another major problem, which is that their current communications are very poor. Even the Russian army, which has optical communications, had to send out adjutants and messengers due to bad weather some time ago.

Although Blücher was mobilizing the troops under his command, they were dispersed too far apart and he was anxious to enter Paris. It had been more than forty days since they entered France, and they were still dawdling on reaching the Marne River.

In his haste to achieve success, it was obvious that his troops were some distance apart.

But Olsufiev knew more or less about the possible actions of the French army before Arkady left, because the prince often received letters from Count Solovyov, which had emphasized how to fight. "Try to avoid a battle in which we are isolated and the enemy's main forces are concentrated. That would only lead to our own destruction, and our army would be easily defeated one by one."

Although the notes left by Arkady were all written in Russian, they did look rather strange.

Orsufiev was still somewhat vigilant. On his way to Chamborbel, he tried to contact Seslavan, a guerrilla leader who had been very active in 1812. However, within a few days, this brave guerrilla leader seemed to have disappeared.

"No, Sasha is a responsible cavalry commander and shouldn't act like this."

"Maybe he received some order to move forward or relocate? Your Excellency, this kind of thing happens all the time. We often receive two contradictory orders at the same time."

After listening to what his adjutant said, Olsufiev also fell into deep thought.

He could not have imagined that the commanders-in-chief of the Russian, Prussian and Austrian coalition forces would act so strangely at this time.

Even that coward Schwarzenberg was the most reliable one this time. He at least told Blücher that he was going to go behind Napoleon.

Blücher was displeased with the Austrians' slow movement, so he led the Silesian Army to speed up the march.

But the most outrageous thing was done by Barclays.

Barclay, who was always reliable, moved Seslavan's cavalry unit from the right wing to the left wing of the Austrian army, but only told Schwarzenberg and did not inform Blücher.

So Blücher wanted to use friendly cavalry to place an eye on his left wing, but he couldn't do it.

Of course he didn't realize it, after all, he was still lagging behind.

As for Napoleon, he only sent Grouchy to contain Schwarzenberg, while he led the Guards towards Chamberbert.

On the Russian side, Olsufiev only guessed about the problems that might arise on his side, but he did not make any arrangements.

"What exactly is going on? Where are our friendly forces?"

Olsufiev only knew where the headquarters was and that York and Sacken were advancing along the Marne towards Paris.

But their own isolation is another matter.

"Perhaps the commander-in-chief will give new instructions. Our forces are sparsely populated. If we are too far away from the headquarters, we will probably be isolated."

Olsufiev also knew that if he chose to march westward, his transportation lines might be threatened.

If he covered his flank to the south, he would be threatened again.

In fact, Russian generals have always had the problem that Langgeron mentioned: they are brave, but they are somewhat brainless, and if their superiors have enough prestige, they will faithfully carry out orders.

So after Blücher's latest order arrived, Olsufiev chose to wait where he was.

For no other reason than that Blücher received a report from York that MacDonald's troops had appeared near Paris.

Before Blücher and Schwarzenberg divided their forces, the Allied forces judged that Napoleon might have gone to Montargis or Troyes, so Schwarzenberg's slow march was also in this direction.

However, the Austrians were in vain, and in the meantime Napoleon had reached Cezanne, threatening Blücher's flank.

Before the battle at Orsufiev, Gneisenau received new intelligence that Napoleon had appeared at Cezanne.

But the order was still for York and Sacken to pursue MacDonald westward, while Kleist and Kapzevich remained with Blücher.

Solovyov was still in Chalons-sur-Marne, preparing to cross the river. He was even farther away, so he was probably included in Blücher's battle sequence at this time.

Thus, Blücher had at his disposal a Russian-Prussian army of more than 50,000 men, believed to be approaching 60,000.

The number of troops Napoleon had who could join the battle barely exceeded 30,000.

"Sire, there is a Russian detachment at Chambébert, and MacDonald's messenger reports that Russian troops are moving in their direction."

"Very good, the cavalry is still very fast. They must have crossed the enemy's communication line and came from behind."

"His Majesty."

"Berthier, you just give the order. We are going to have an appetizer now, but it's not a small platter. We have to eat it all in one bite!"

So, in the early morning of February 2, he prepared to take action against Olsufiev.

The Russian army did not guard the bridge over the Little Moran River at this time, so it fell intact into the hands of Nansuti's cavalry.

And the real exchange of fire began very soon.

Because Olsufiev was criticized at Brienne and allowed a French infantry unit to enter, which almost destroyed the corps headquarters, he chose to fight here.

He had a good idea. If he could get entangled with the French army here, he could ask Blücher for help.

If that were the case, once Blücher, who was not too far away, arrived, it would be considered a centerpiece.

However, he underestimated the size of the French army. In addition, the Old Guards did not wear their iconic bearskin hats during the march, but instead wore caps, which led to a misjudgment by the reconnaissance Russian cavalry.

But after the battle began, the Russian army discovered something was wrong.

It was obvious that the French firepower was very fierce, and they were supported by 12-pound cannons.

The messenger sent before the battle began quickly reached Blücher.

However, Blücher did not believe this and replied to Olsufiev.

"Order, General, you must withstand Chamberbert! The enemy is only a guerrilla force of two thousand men!"

Whether this order came from Gneisenau or not, Olsufiev did not know.

But all he knew was one thing: to hold on to his current position.

But the French guerrillas? Blucher, the old madman, obviously overlooked that the French never organized any cavalry "flying squadrons", which were a feature of the Russian army. The National Guards were all guarding various cities and only joined the battle when necessary.

Blücher's approach was really confusing, and no matter how tenacious the Russian army was, it could not hold on now.

So Olsufiev convened a military meeting at this time, but the officers all expressed their desire to retreat to Etozh.

"But I received an order to hold on here."

He made this decision despite clear opposition from others.

However, he was not resolute in carrying out the order. (End of this chapter)