Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Now that the Emperor had entered Soissons, it would have been meaningless for the Russian army to rescue its friendly forces.

But the bad thing is that Saken is relatively close and can be reached by a forced march.

When he was almost there, he saw the defeated Prussian army.

"Damn it, this is terrible. We are all defeated."

Sacken knew there was nothing he could do, so he could only take in the friendly forces and even guard against possible pursuit by Napoleon.

Having been beaten once before, he knew very well what level Napoleon was at now.

In the past, the appearance of the Guards on the battlefield was always a huge waste of human resources, as they would not be deployed into battle until the critical moment. In addition, Napoleon probably always had to control his own guards to avoid a possible conflict, or to ensure his own voice in the army.

In addition, this approach is too Roman. It can be said that Napoleon, who has always been pro-Roman, would definitely be able to do it.

"That's it, gentlemen. There's not much we can do at this moment."

Saken had no choice but to "shelter" the defeated army, and then, taking advantage of the setting sun, he hastily retreated eastward.

Napoleon did not choose to pursue. He had to stay in Soissons to find out what the Prussians were going to do.

The good news is that more than 7,000 prisoners were captured, because Blücher's orders were so outrageous that York and Kleist's armies almost collapsed, and the results of the cavalry's pursuit were also not small.

It was this poor operation that ultimately led to Napoleon's failure to completely wipe out the enemy.

All I can say is, if I make my operations incomprehensible to anyone, no one can destroy me.

Solovyov in Reims also received a letter from Sacken soon, so he asked Palen's cavalry to come back quickly.

"what happened?"

Palen did not understand the order, but Solovyov said the same thing when he saw him speak.

"It's meaningless. We have to line up in Reims now. The enemy is not easy to deal with. If Napoleon continues to chase us, we won't be able to control this place. It will be another Soissons. Speaking of which, this place is a bit weird."

After all, Soissons was a place where even though the Western Roman Empire was gone, the Roman forces still remained in northern Gaul.

But Solovyov had no interest in showing off his knowledge to these people; he was just looking at the terrain around Reims.

"If we want to defend here, we have enough troops now. Napoleon can't use tens of thousands of people to completely defeat us in a day or two in this terrain where we rely on cities and bushes."

"But you have seen the Prussians."

"I am not Blücher. I will not give strange orders, nor will I have inexplicable self-confidence. In war, we must be good at winning. If we cannot win, then we must not let ourselves fail. We must understand our own army, and at the same time, we must understand the enemy's situation as much as possible."

However, Paren still had some doubts about this matter: "But our friendly forces collapsed just like this."

"That was Marshal Blücher's own problem. When his forces were obviously larger than Napoleon's, he fled without making a full plan. Wouldn't that mean he would face failure? Even Schwarzenberg knew that he should leave a rear guard before fleeing. That's why our Austrian allies only lost less than 10,000 men. And our Prussian friends."

Think about Queen Louise. Since she married into Prussia, she has been facing such bad teammates.

Prussia probably needs to introduce foreign talents in order to become stronger, which is highly consistent with the French.

After all, the queen was a wild girl from a small clan of Mecklenburg, and Scharnhorst was simply from Hanover. Even during the time of Frederick the Great, if you count carefully, the only two capable fighters under his command were the hussars Old Zieten and Seydlitz, and none of them were of Prussian origin.

Maybe when the French were speed-passed later, it was closer to our time, so the joke was transferred.

As for anything else.
"What are you still thinking about?"

"Nothing. We must always be prepared. And we cannot obey the command of the Silesian Army now. When facing an opponent other than Napoleon, we can obey orders. But when facing Napoleon, we must always have some opinions."

What Solovyov meant was that he could not allow the Prussians to command him.

For this reason, when he was about to come to reinforce, he also asked the Tsar and the King of Prussia for the power to act independently.

There is always some reason for this, and you can act without following other people's orders.

Even this one is a specialty of Prussia, but at that time it was Frederick the Great who launched the attack on Fortress Delitz.

As long as we launch the attack, everything will be fine.

However, Seydlitz watched the show on the high ground for a long time, and only joined the battle when the opportunity came.

This is the situation Solovyov is facing now.

"It's not without reason that the late emperor liked you. You are indeed a man of many talents. It's a pity that he is only an expert in training soldiers, not in leading them."

To be honest, among those who served as guards officers around Paul in the past, the two of them were the most promising ones, one was a guards cavalry and the other was a guards infantry.

"It was so good back then. The Emperor was still the Crown Prince, and we went hunting together. We stayed in the hunting lodge at night."

"But now is not the time to reminisce, my friend. I have something to arrange for you now, which only an old cavalryman like you can do."

"Tell me, what do you want me to do?"

"What I am worried about now is that Napoleon will take swift action and launch a direct attack on Reims. What you need to do now is to bluff and spread out the cavalry. From Soissons to Reims, you patrol along the road and bluff, creating the illusion that we have a large number of cavalry moving nearby."

"What if Napoleon's cavalry comes charging? You should know the French better than I do. Sometimes they will charge when they see the enemy's cavalry."

"Ah, that's the problem. I asked the Emperor for cuirassiers, and I have armored cavalry here. If the French cavalry dares to pursue us, even if it's the cuirassiers, we will let them have a good taste of the power of this new combination of armored knights and cavalry cannons."

Solovyov was still quite courageous. Although the number of heavy cavalry he had was limited, basically those brought by Palen, but now in order to prevent the French from attacking him actively, he could only create a feeling of "I am very strong".

If Solovyov had led the Grenadiers or the Guards, he probably wouldn't have had to worry about this problem.

But the problem now is that these elite troops are all in Schwarzenberg's army.

The 9th Division under his command was still in the front battle and was defeated by Blücher.

In other words, Solovyov was no longer childish, otherwise he would have shouted "Give me back my legion".

There was only one Balkan Division and one Brunswick Brigade, which were the forces he regularly used.

In addition, there are newly transferred troops, one of which has just over 3,000 people. If Solovyov hadn't been so skilled in mobilizing troops and holding onto Sakken, his army would have inevitably encountered some troubles when it was moving.

As for the strange configuration he came up with, Count Palen didn't care.

But then I thought, this kid always has some clever ideas, I started earlier than him, and now we are at the same level, maybe I can be of some use.

So he was still willing to listen to Solovyov. After all, this man had always followed certain rules in doing things. With his clever ideas, he might be able to win the Battle of Pultusk or Eylau, or even the counterattack in the spring of 1807.

Bagration's surprise attack at that time directly knocked Bernadotte out of the first echelon of French marshals. Although the Russian army suffered losses overall, it always achieved some local victories.

As for the Russian army, although they were often defeated by Napoleon, they did get their revenge. The most prominent feature was their unwillingness to submit.

Moreover, this kid Solovyov has done many things to make the French suffer.

Although he was a relative of the French emperor and his sister gave birth to a pair of children (although they were illegitimate), he was very clear about the fight.

Palen then led the cavalry from Reims and began to bluff on the road near Soissons, causing a lot of dust.

The French cavalry that arrived the next day actually mistakenly believed that the Russian army was large in number.

Paren also stopped on the road with a team of his most elite cavalry guards, apparently to demonstrate to the French.

However, the noise seemed so loud that the French cavalry chasing in front did not dare to pursue.

The deception part had already been figured out, but when Nansouty and Grouchy arrived, they discovered something was wrong.

After all, the two were veterans in cavalry, and Nansuti was a professional, so they immediately ordered a pursuit.

However, the way Solovyov acted was that of "false but real, real but false". He was bluffing on the outside, but he was not without preparation afterwards.

The French light cavalry leading the way began to approach.

When Palen saw this situation, he did not plan to fight. He knew that the flaw that Solovyov deliberately exposed had now been exposed. He would probably have to wait and see what happened to those fully armored knights and the cavalry artillery company.

The cavalry sent out by Nansouty and Grouchy to pursue them actually encountered these heavily armored knights.

Although they had seen them many times before, considering that many veterans who had joined the cavalry before 1812 had been lost, few people in the French army had seen these guys in full armor.

These hussars rushed forward quickly and soon came close, and then were beaten unilaterally.

Although the Circassians had always been treated well, they had not seen much fighting since they were captured alive by Soloviev, and only fought a few battles in 1813. They had not been able to use any strength when they finally arrived in Leipzig.

This time, they encountered an enemy that seemed to have more people than them, but they had no armor or helmets, so they were naturally very excited.

Of course, the Circassians, the Mamluks of Egypt, and the Barbary pirates of North Africa are all important links in the talent trading market. When they fight the enemy, they don't like to cut off heads.

Instead, they used blunt weapons and always captured the enemies alive. Since they were all wearing armor, it would probably be easier to deal with them.

As for capturing them alive, it was probably a professional skill. In addition, there were bonuses for capturing French officers, and even if there were no bonuses, they would be awarded medals. If these Circassians became officers, they would also become masters, and this would be linked to their pensions.

Even if you die, marry a wife and have children, this money can still be sent to your family.

Thinking of this, these Circassian heavy cavalry fought even harder.

The French hussars rushed in the front and were defeated. After all, light cavalry could not naturally defeat the heavy cavalry who were well-rested and waiting for the opportunity.

Although the number of Circassians did not exceed 300 from beginning to end, there were still some cuirassiers behind them. These heavy cavalrymen fought on the road, forcing the French cavalry to retreat.

When Nansuti saw this situation, he did not want to fight but chose to retreat.

Solovyov just felt regretful that no one had ever fully embraced his tactics.

After achieving his current goal, he still left some Cossacks on guard outside to observe the movements of the French in Soissons.

At the same time, Sacken also gathered a lot of Prussian troops.

Seeing Blücher in such a miserable state, Solovyov didn't know what to say.

Anyway, this is not the first time, and probably won’t be the last.

There were indeed a lot of troubles on the way to Paris.

"Sir, you should go and rest. Also, I will take over the command here for the time being."

In his letter to Blücher, Solovyov had already stated his position and the endorsement of the two monarchs.

Blücher has fought the war into this state. It is no longer the situation like last year when he swept MacDonald and was back to his own way.

Although he was crazy, he was also aware of the situation.

Solovyov asked for independent command because he was afraid that something might go wrong.

In addition, he also gathered the Russian troops that were scattered in the Silesian Army, separated them from this army and put them under his command.

For a moment, the Silesian Legion seemed to be disbanded.

There's nothing we can do about it, this battle was fought so badly.

Solovyov also had something to say. He used to lead elite troops, and this kind of team is not easy to lead.

Moreover, his reinforcements had just left Reims when news of defeat came from the front line.

Under such circumstances, they had no choice but to keep on guard in Reims to prevent Napoleon from taking advantage of his victory to take over Reims as well.

However, Solovyov did not expect that Napoleon was really coming.

Although Solovyov had long since stopped being a fan of Napoleon's uncle because of his stingy behavior and past aggressive attitudes that destroyed his friends' homes.

But now, the fan behavior is more or less rising to the level of idol, and Napoleon has a real fight on the battlefield. (End of this chapter)