Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Chapter 891 011 The French Emperor is micromanaging a cannon!
Solovyov was very dissatisfied, but considering his qualifications and rank, he would not lose his temper immediately.

But the task of gathering the defeated troops is not an easy one.

After the defeat of the Silesian Army, the news quickly reached Schwarzenberg. Now the monarchs of the three countries are all here. The optimism that was previously on Alexander's face has solidified into the serious expression he has now.

However, the coalition forces still had an absolute advantage in military strength. No matter how each group of troops did the arithmetic, they were capable of defeating Napoleon alone.

Even at this time, the number of troops available to Napoleon never exceeded 50,000. He nominally had 80,000 troops in the main force, but he had to divide his troops to cover the transportation lines, send light cavalry for reconnaissance, send some troops to contain the enemy's main force, and leave some people to guard Paris. Even with MacDonald joining him, manpower was still stretched.

At the same time, he was transferring people from Spain and was even ready to give up Spain.

Marshal Suchet was on his way to the main battlefield with some veterans who had fought in Spain. In addition, Massena had stopped Wellington in Bayonne, and the two had been fighting back and forth. Soult was in Toulouse, preparing to return to Perpignan to block the possible invasion of the Spaniards.

Suchet returned to Spain with the wealth they had plundered in Spain over the past few years. No matter how magnificent the palace was, it could be turned into a simple appearance by the robber duo.

But putting aside what the French did in Spain, the monarchs were somewhat curious when they saw the new peace terms from France.

"What's going on?"

"Your Majesty, I think the French Emperor means that the peace talks should be conducted according to his requirements."

"That won't do. We are just one legion that was defeated, and yet he is asking for such conditions."

Alexander looked at Nesselrode and said these words without any emotion.

Of course, no matter how the Russians were beaten, as long as their monarch and commander still had the courage, they would still dare to deal with Napoleon.

But it’s different for those German guys who appear to be powerful but are actually weak.

Although there are many Germans in the Russian army, they are no longer the cowards of Peter the Great's era, the adventurers of Queen Anna's era, or the people of the Queen's era.
In short, the last German commander in the Russian army who was able to achieve brilliant results was Marshal Lacy. After the German group in Biron was driven away, his son went to Austria.

Barclay is not strictly speaking a German, his German ancestry comes from his mother's side.

And even Lacy is not one of them. Lacy was an exiled Irishman, Barclay was a Scotsman, and Marshal Keith, who was killed by Lacy's son in the Seven Years' War, was also a Celt.

If the Germans get scared, it would be hard to describe.

It is no wonder that even the Germans in the Russian army often look down on them.

Even infantry regiments like the Murom Regiment had entered Berlin twice.

The Austrian side was already very scared, and even Schwarzenberg had to send away his cavalry because of Palen. In addition, he had to provide two divisions to Solovyov, and there were also subsequent reinforcements. Schwarzenberg now had 150,000 people.

Even with this amount of troops, he didn't want to fight Napoleon now.

"Your Majesty, we should regroup now and avoid fighting the French. They are in high spirits. If we want to defeat Napoleon, we will need more troops than him, more than twice as many."

But Schwarzenberg had made some progress. At least he now had the desire to defeat Napoleon instead of just running away.

"Okay, so what should we do?"

"When you encounter the enemy, you should retreat first. Don't fight the French unless it is necessary."

Although the situation remained the same, Alexander finally heard some good news from this Austrian marshal who was afraid of the enemy.

But he was still worried, so after Schwarzenberg left, he called Radetzky.

"You are the Chief of Staff of the Bohemian Army, General. I trust you more than the Prince, and you have always performed well. You have contributed to our victory in Leipzig."

"But our forces were much larger than the French and we suffered far greater losses."

Radetzky's attitude was also very clear. After hearing it, Alexander knew that the other party's confidence was not that strong.

"But we still have to win in the end. If we can't enter Paris and overthrow Napoleon, or choose to make him surrender, this will never end."

But Alexander would not discuss too many political issues with an Austrian general at this time. He still had to pull the British to attack Austria. He had to hold his nose and endure the scandal of Metternich getting his cousin pregnant, and join forces with him to deal with the British.

This involves the Bourbon Restoration. Alexander doesn't care who sits in Paris, but he still has an instinctive aversion to things that benefit the British.

At the beginning, he played too big a game and ruined his father, but it was always the British who fanned the flames behind the scenes.

If you look at history, Alexander's dissatisfaction with the British was often written on his face. On the Austrian side, every time he lost his temper, it was related to Metternich. In essence, he was not so averse to Austria.

Now, naturally, he didn't want the British to do anything and wanted to invade Paris. In the end, the ones who could solve the problem would still be the monarchs of Russia, Prussia and Austria. In the future, it would be best if the monarchs of these three countries and the monarch of France had the final say in Europe and the damn British must be excluded.

Obviously, Alexander has a lot to do in the future.

The biggest thing he and Solovyov have in common since 1813 is that they are always the first to prepare for the next interrupted event, and they will perform better on this battlefield now.

But Alexander himself knew that he was only able to make minor adjustments at critical moments, and when it came to fighting, he was not as reliable as his second brother.

Grand Duke Constantine is a very brave cavalry officer. As the current commander of the Russian Guards Cavalry, he is also a brave general in charging into battle. It can be said that he has raised the average value of the Luo family's poor military capabilities.

Now Schwarzenberg and Radetzky both advocated running away, and he had no objection.

"Your Majesty, I think the commander-in-chief still needs me at this time. The movement of troops always has to go through the General Staff."

"Yes, if it were peaceful, we would have more time to talk. Your and the commander-in-chief's opinions are correct, at least for now. We should indeed avoid a major defeat, but it would not be surprising if there were some failures in the battle after contact. Even a small force will sometimes be defeated."

Even Alexander had no intention of punishing a defeated general like Orsufiev. He also wanted to show tolerance towards his subordinates, especially since the general was now captured by the French.

"Schwarzenberg and other Austrians always put their most capable generals aside, and then they lose battles inexplicably."

What Alexander saw was probably that Archduke Karl and his wife were having children at home, and the Austrian army was losing battles, and this farce seemed to be not over yet.

If he knew that the Austrian troops sent to Italy were still blocked in the mountains by Eugene and could not march to the Po Plain, he would probably continue to laugh at the incompetence of the Austrians.

"Your Majesty, what should we do then?"

Volkonsky asked questions on the side. After all, he was the Tsar’s most trusted military adviser and chief of staff.

"That's all. As for Schwarzenberg, he must retreat now to avoid fighting Napoleon, even if it means giving the Silesian Army time to reorganize." The Tsar trusted that side more. Solovyov and Sacken were both very loyal generals, and the former was also very smart and should be able to think of some solutions.

But in person.
Schwarzenberg was indeed outrageous. His military strength far exceeded that of Napoleon, but he kept choosing to retreat.

Napoleon was unable to catch up with his main force, and it is hard to say what would have happened if he had encountered the main force.

But they always encountered part of the Austrian army, the Württemberg army that came to assist the Allied forces, and some Bavarian troops.

The Bavarians were at a greater distance, and only some cavalry were fighting on both sides.

Here in Montero, Napoleon himself encountered the Austrian and Württemberg armies, which obviously had more troops.

These Württemberg people were on his side in last year's war. In fact, when Württemberg chose to defect, it was not until some time after the defeat in Leipzig that the Württemberg army chose to support their 200-kilogram strongman king.

But after returning there, how strong is this combat capability?
Montereaux is an important intersection on the banks of the Seine. If Schwarzenberg had not met Napoleon, he would probably have sneaked through this road all the way to Paris.

After all, if you go downstream along the Seine, you can see Paris anyway. This is the upper reaches of the Seine.

"Your Majesty, this place is too dangerous."

Some adjutants had already begun to advise, but Napoleon still stood next to the cannon and personally observed the effect of the artillery bombardment.

"This won't work. Damn it, who fired the cannon? The grenade went astray!"

The emperor was a little angry. He saw an artillery shell exploded in front of the Württemberg people and was obviously very dissatisfied.

At this time, the only cannon that fired grenades came from the artillery position next to him, and these cannons were right next to him.

"Your Majesty, that can only be our artillery position."

Drouot wanted to defend the artillerymen, but when he saw the emperor, he had a different vision.

"How long have you artillerymen been doing this?"

"Your Majesty, we joined the artillery unit last year."

"At this time, not only is your cannon not stable, but the angle needs to be lowered by 5 degrees, and then adjusted to the right. Our next target is on the right, and you are using a cannon! Adjust it 15 degrees to the right, and then shoot!"

Even the emperor himself not only micro-operated the cannon, he also personally helped the artillerymen load ammunition.

After confirming that there was no problem, Napoleon gave a further demonstration to the artillery officers.

"This is how you should fire the cannon. Do you understand?"

Relief on the Arc de Triomphe showing Napoleon maneuvering a cannon at Montereau.

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

"Then fire!"

Then the cannon fired a shell.

With Napoleon's personal micro-control, the cannon fired very accurately, and the grenades exploded directly among the Württemberg soldiers.

The artillerymen also saw how accurate the shooting was, so everyone on the artillery positions shouted "Long live the emperor."

"Don't shout so quickly, just keep fighting like this, we have to let the Austrians know who is more powerful!"

Of course, Napoleon probably didn't expect that Schwarzenberg had been on the run and had no intention of actively fighting him.

The Austrian troops in Montero were also the rear guard and had no intention of fighting a big battle with him.

Schwarzenberg wanted his troops to block the French army here. If they could still stop the French army's actions at night, it would be a victory.

Although he was running away, it was always useful to preserve the main force.

The French are now at their peak. If they are attacked continuously, even an army of 200,000 will be defeated by 60,000 to 70,000 French.

In the past in Western history, there was such a classic battle. The defeated party was the Persian King Darius III. He strategically trapped Alexander the Great in a dead end several times, and then staged the anti-Persian drama of "tearing the Persians apart with bare hands".

That was a group of tens of thousands of people defeating an enemy that far outnumbered them, and it was clear that the Austrians had no confidence.

They were actually unable to resist at night. The odd thing was that the playboy Crown Prince of Württemberg was surprisingly reliable. He held on until late at night and only withdrew the next morning.

The losses of the Württemberg army were also less than expected, but the situation on the Austrian side was not good.

The French lost two thousand men, while the Allied forces lost more than six thousand.

If the fighting continues like this, although the coalition forces may still be able to reach Paris, by then both sides will have suffered almost the same losses.

Napoleon was actually still winning, and in this high-stakes battle, he had won consecutive victories, and even repelled the two enemies that threatened Paris.

At the same time, their own losses were not great, but the number of enemies destroyed was increasing.

In this way, it seems that the advantage is returning to his side.

If the French army could wait for the veterans brought by Suchet and the new soldiers recruited and trained from the country, it would still be able to fight.

Even Napoleon fantasized that although the goddess of victory did not favor him in Leipzig, when he was about to win, it was the resilience of the Russians that reversed the situation.

But that was only temporary, and now the French army began to win victory after victory.

"Just a few more victories and the enemy will probably be finished!"

This man is so confident, even in a desperate situation, even if he is a defeated general, as long as he doesn't look like he just came back from Russia, people always have confidence in him.

However, the huge strategic gap and the disadvantage in military strength cannot be compensated by his extraordinary abilities alone.

(End of this chapter)