Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

No matter how Blücher acted, Solovyov's position was in Reims, and the movement along this axis was relatively convenient. No matter how far it was from the front of the Prussian army, it was only a day and a half of forced march.

However, the disadvantage for the Allied forces was the one and a half day march and the chaotic staff organization on Blücher's side.

Sometimes, Solovyov was also skeptical. Was Gneisenau really as great as some people boasted?

In other words, the Prussian army was originally rubbish, and the Russian army simply had too many generals when it went to war, and the front line was always losing excellent commanders, so they were sent in later.

Well, it makes sense anyway. After Solovyov arrived in France, he did not send his troops too far away. Instead, he preserved one-third of the strength under his command.

The front two-thirds, led by Blücher, were now south of Soissons.

To the north were French soldiers and civilians defending towns and strongholds, who had clearly used artillery to fight back against the Allied attacks.

To the south was Napoleon, who had only 50,000 men, but the Allied forces they were pursuing were nearly twice as many as his own.

Fighting on French soil, if the previous cities had not surrendered so quickly, it would probably not have been so easy for the coalition forces to enter, and they might even have to leave a lot of troops in each place to strengthen law and order.

The problem is, no.

This time, it was purely an accident, which can invalidate the history we know. Soissons should have surrendered without a fight, but at this time the French organized troops in the city.

That's another matter. Blücher, who would not panic even if his army was crushed, is now a little panicked.

After all, they had been able to escape in the past, and Napoleon would just chase them relentlessly. As long as he could let the vanguard cross the river, no one could stop him.

What's more, this place is not far from Reims, and you can still return to Reims after crossing the river.

He was unwilling to turn around directly because of the terrain here and the fact that the army could not be fully deployed.

This gave Napoleon a great opportunity, the best opportunity in 1814, and he only had to seize this opportunity to win on the battlefield.

At this time, Blücher also thought of Solovyov in Reims and Sacken between the two armies, hoping that they could provide support.

Sacken was relatively close to Blücher, and while Napoleon was pursuing Blücher, he had already reached the main road between Reims and Soissons and controlled several villages.

However, his military strength was limited, and the military envoy he sent to Blücher only explained one thing, which was to ask Blücher to withdraw as soon as possible.

Solovyov's wording was very strange. Although he had assembled all the available cavalry at hand and the Balkan Division stationed outside the city since Reims, there was always something missing.

"Is that how your superior writes letters?"

It was obvious that Blücher was very dissatisfied. Solovyov actually used words like "sheltered", which was obviously disrespectful to a Prussian marshal like him.

"That's what the count wrote, Marshal. But now we must find a way to leave Soissons. Napoleon is right behind you. If he catches up with you, everything will be over!"

"That's what he said?"

"That's it!"

Blücher knew that Solovyov was employing a Prussian Chief of Staff, and he couldn't get angry for the moment, but what the other party said was not wrong.

If it were someone else, they might even forget about running away and just run across the river to the north of Soissons, get stuck in the mud, and not even need support from a green-eyed boy like you.

This marshal was thick-skinned, not afraid of failure, and able to let go of things. Therefore, even if the army was defeated by the French, he was able to reorganize it.

Now, seeing the situation in Soissons, he had to turn around and ask York and Chleist to resist the French attack.

When they were deployed on the battlefield, Crest felt something was wrong.

"See over there? The French seem to have fewer troops than we do. Their battle line is narrowing, and the ranks are thin."

Prince August beside him also nodded in agreement, but it was a little too late for him to realize all this. The soldiers below might not be like them and could not find a place to see the formation clearly.

But it was a different story with Napoleon.

"Your Majesty, our ranks are a little thin."

"But, Caulaincourt. That's only what you'll be taught in military school. The ranks are a little thin. That's what we need now. The enemy will attack, and when they see we have fewer soldiers, they'll definitely attack us. As soon as they come over, we'll use our cavalry to attack their flanks and drive them all to the river."

But Napoleon somewhat underestimated the Prussian troops on the front line and the commanders of the two armies, but overestimated Blücher.

Kleist saw that the French army should be smaller than his own, so he attacked more cautiously, just pushing forward and slowly approaching the French army.

Instead, they took advantage of their large numbers and the artillery of their two armies, which was more numerous than the artillery Napoleon had brought but had not yet been deployed, and began to bombard the French ranks.

"It seems they are still very cautious!"

Napoleon rode on his horse, watching the battle in the distance.

"Your Majesty, at a time like this, you should let the guards charge forward and get closer."

"Don't be in a hurry, our artillery has just started to warm up. Berthier, send someone to Drouot and ask him to increase the artillery fire and fire at the Prussian troops on the left wing!"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

As for what Napoleon was going to do, it was still the same old thing, which was to use artillery to open the way and defeat the Prussians.

It's not like he didn't count how many shells he had, but he had enough.

So the French artillery, although it opened fire later than the Prussian artillery, quickly seized the initiative.

It was just that Crest's position was better, causing many shells to fly over their heads.

"It looks like they're going to use the reverse slope! So we can try another approach!"

Drouot noticed that the ground was relatively dry today, which was suitable for the use of grenades. If it were muddy weather, he probably wouldn't do anything.

If the ground was wet, it might be something else. In short, Drouot's professionalism in artillery was so great that even the emperor himself could not doubt his expertise.

However, the Prussian infantry today were quite resilient. Because of their position, they were not dispersed by the artillery. Instead, they needed the French infantry to rush forward and teach them a lesson.

Little did Solovyov know that if he led his army closer, he would probably think he was witnessing a rehearsal for Waterloo, except that the French had fewer troops and a high concentration of their elite Guards.

It was a waste to keep it in your hands before.

If they were to use them now, there would be an excess of firepower. Even some of the older troops in the Young Guards did not open fire, but instead started bayonet attacks directly after the French artillery bombardment.

It would be difficult for Kleist to resist at this time. After all, the military quality of the Prussian army was probably at its lowest point since the establishment of the Kingdom of Prussia.

If he and York did not have some veterans under their command, they probably would not have been able to hold on and would have been overwhelmed immediately.

At this time, Gneisenau, who was behind, saw this situation and couldn't help but feel a little confused, and gave Blücher some suggestions.

"Your Excellency Marshal, given the current situation, we should provide support to Kleist's troops. We should send out some cavalry!"

"No, not yet! We seem to have more men than the French, and the usurper may be thinking of some scheme to transfer our army to Kleist's side, and then he can attack York."

Although Napoleon had this idea, the Old Guards were often kept in the back, and he still had the final say on how to take action.

What if he changes course?
In short, the initiative on the battlefield is now in his hands.

Napoleon now had only to wave his baton, but his old problems remained.

The old guard stood behind him and did not move again.

However, compared to the French army that had fought earlier, the Prussians showed good resilience today.

Crest even felt that if he could hold on a little longer, he could launch a counterattack.

However, he received an order that surprised him.

"What! You want us to retreat? Sunshier!"

Even if we are all old Junkers, it is impossible to always remain elegant and easy-going.

What's more, soldiers often have no affinity with these four words, so when Kleist received the order, he felt it was weird.

Even Gneisenau, who was now beside Blücher, still insisted on his opinion.

"Your Excellency Marshal, you should consider the current battlefield situation. It is not suitable to organize a retreat before nightfall."

The chief of staff was still fulfilling his responsibilities, but Blücher probably thought that Napoleon must be cheating by using only these people to fight the enemy.

Therefore, he gave the order to retreat.

At this time, the two reinforcements of Sacken and Solovyov were still on the way, and Blücher's actions were obviously inappropriate.

Even Gneisenau felt that if the commander-in-chief had been drunk this morning, it might have been more beneficial to the command. At least the troops could have been transferred according to the original plan without having to fight another battle here.

But it cannot be proved that he is crazy. At least there is no Dr. Jung in Prussia now, so his condition cannot be identified.

Then, he had no choice but to do as he was told.

So the Prussians began to retreat in the afternoon, which was also beyond Napoleon's expectations.

He originally planned to attack from the center in Soissons, trap the Prussian troops there, compress the terrain, and drive them all into the river. This plan was copied by him from his cheap nephew who lived 48 kilometers away.

However, the Prussians actually ran away, so they had to be chased again.

It was like the previous "Six Days' Battle", but this time the Prussians had learned their lesson, their forces were more concentrated, and they ran very fast.

Despite receiving the order to retreat, these Prussian soldiers actually dispersed their ranks again.

So it became a traditional drama, with the French chasing the Prussians all over the mountains.

Unfortunately, the Prussian troops who were still besieging Soissons had their rear exposed.

However, since Napoleon's manpower was always limited, when he was short of manpower, he even used only cavalry to pursue the fleeing Prussians. At the same time, he sent people to Soissons to relieve the siege there and annihilate the Prussian army besieging the city.

Then, these Prussians smoothly abandoned their baggage and artillery, bypassed Soissons and ran to the other side.

But some people were unlucky because the ferry was too narrow and they were caught by the French who caught up with them.

"It looks like we caught a lot. Today is another great victory and worth promoting."

However, Napoleon's victory was only 90 kilometers away from Paris, which was still a little too close.

"Your Majesty, if we can defeat the Prussians now, we will have to deal with Schwarzenberg later."

"Yes, and there are too many people on this road. It's not easy to just drive them out."

Napoleon was also thinking about this problem seriously when he rode to the edge of the city of Soissons.

"I say, old man, you've already retired, why are you still wearing a bandage on your head? Don't you want people to see that you've lost both ears?"

And the old soldier, Arbois of Pont-Oise, although he respected the emperor, he had to say something else.

"My two ears are gone, but they are buried underground. I told you at that time that they were still shouting 'Long live the emperor' in the morning, and they were lying in mass graves at night. Your Majesty, if you still listen to me, an old soldier who has followed you for more than ten years and has been a soldier for nearly thirty years, let's defeat these bastards one or two more times, and then we can negotiate! What I say may not sound good, but you should listen to me, not like I didn't listen to you in the past."

Even the old soldiers who were unconditionally loyal to him, who brought their own dry food and hanged the garrison commander and organized the militia and garrison to resist, could not help but say such words.

Moreover, this old soldier with a gray beard, who could not even hear clearly, had already told the Emperor himself nine years ago.

Napoleon knew that these upright old guys were truly loyal to him, but the Allied forces did not accept his conditions, and he did not accept any ultimatum before the Allied forces crossed the Rhine.

Now, we have no choice but to fight on.

"You old soldier, now the enemy won't give us a chance."

Of course, Napoleon was also a bit stubborn.

But there are still rewards for their die-hard supporters.

"I'll give you the medal, and you can live well in Soissons. I may not listen to you now, but you have to live well. You are an old man, but you can still live for another twelve years, right?"

"Your Majesty, but we also want to see you win, not like two years ago."

The old soldier also knew that the emperor probably wouldn't listen to him. (End of this chapter)