Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796

Only after the battle, you may realize what the battlefield is like for a person.

A guy who brags before the war may become a coward on the battlefield; and a person who treats everything cautiously may be afraid on the battlefield, but he may also be a brave person.

After the Russian army reached their destination at this stage on April 1st, the subsequent lagging soldiers were still catching up.

The situation in front is still unclear. According to General Kray's letter, he will fight against General Scherer of France in a new battlefield. If the enemy can be contained, the subsequent Russian-Austrian coalition forces, the vanguards of these troops, the Cossacks and Hussars, will arrive at the battlefield and begin to attack the French transportation lines.

At the same time, the enemy may also launch such actions.

"Misha, take this letter and go find General Krei, and also go and see how the general performs."

"Marshal, if General Krei asks, what is our route of action?"

"According to the previous reports of the Miloradovich and Rosenberg columns, General Melas will send a separate messenger. Child, the important thing is to deliver the letter, and be careful of the French hounds in the middle."

"Yes, be careful of the French hounds! Don't worry about that!"

Soloviev has a much shorter carbine named after him, and the ammunition used is the same. In addition, he is well prepared on his waist and saddle.

Soloviev set off with several Austrian cavalrymen. He still didn't want to expose the movements of the Russian army. He also learned to dress like some young officers and changed himself into a white military uniform and a gray coat.

"You're right, Captain. You're really our Austrian's little Russian cousin. If you dress like this, there will be girls in Vienna who will go crazy for young officers!"

When leaving Suvorov's station, an Austrian major who was not young said this.

But he had a strange and unpleasant Saxon accent. There were many officers from all over the Austrian army. Fortunately, there was not much difference in German. Being able to understand, speak, and give orders was enough for an Austrian officer.

Probably because Solovyov had a higher level of education, he always liked to complain about others.

There were only five riders in his group. They went forward to find the direction of General Krei. They probably had to go southwest for a while and then pass by the main road.

On the way, no one came out of the village. There were some Italians saying something. Although Solovyov learned something by himself when he had nothing to do, these villagers spoke like pouring beans, and he couldn't hear them clearly at all.

The only thing he could hear clearly was the word "francese" in Italian. Anyway, when people mentioned the French, they would say "franc" first.

"Be careful, there may be French scouts nearby."

He was still a little cautious, but Suvorov's order was clear. He was now asked to go to Kray and report the situation when he came back to see if Kray was planning to fight the French again near Verona, or if he had any other ideas.

It was indeed unfortunate. When they left the village, they saw a group of French cavalry.

"Damn it, get ready for battle!"

Solovyov gave a pistol to the Austrian cavalry beside him. He had two more. When encountering such an emergency, both sides were very vigilant.

"Captain, there are only seven or eight people. We can still fight."

This was indeed very troublesome. It was definitely not possible to turn around and run. The road they were taking now was still some distance away from other roads that could lead to General Kray's residence.

The only choice was to charge hard, but Solovyov was not a professional cavalryman, which was a little troublesome.

If they had to fight the opponent head-on, they actually had a little advantage, that is, if they used pistols and lances, the French would not be able to take advantage.

Especially at this distance, Solovyov loaded the bullets into the carbine, and fired directly on horseback in this place where it was not easy to shoot accurately.

The French did not expect that there would be such a thing, and they shot down one of them directly at a distance where the Austrian light cavalry would not fire in the past.

To deal with this kind of "unfair martial arts" and long-range props, those riding skills may not be better than the Austrians, but the French cavalry, who have always been desperate, rushed over on horseback.

But they were not very lucky, that is, these Austrian soldiers all carried guns, and they all chose to fire.

The French also approached some shooting, and Solovyov's hat was blown away. This time he was lucky not to be hit, and an Austrian cavalryman had a wound on his arm.

But the French were in a bad situation. Several of them were hit and fell off their horses. The rest saw that the Austrians they met today were not easy to deal with, so they turned around and ran away.

"Captain, how should we deal with these French guys?"

"See how they are. If they are too seriously injured, find a nearby village and leave them there to fate. It's not a big deal. You can ask for some information!"

However, the first thing he said when he came up was: "Hey, French guy, I'm looking for a lady, my stepmother's cousin!"

Several French people looked at each other, and they were all confused. They all thought that this Austrian guy had a problem with his brain. After all, he was wearing an Austrian uniform.

"The name of the lady you are talking about is Marie Rose Joseph. We in France have so many women with this name. Where can I find her for you?"

I was really helpless about this matter, but I captured three French soldiers at once, killed two of them, and got five horses along the way. This kind of encounter that made a small profit, if they didn't tell the story Wu De, the firepower has exceeded the standard equipment at the time, and it will not catch the French light cavalry off guard.

For the two guys who were killed, Solovyov told the nearby villagers to find the bodies, dig a hole and bury them. As for the belongings of the French soldiers, he took away the belongings of these people anyway. Documents, maps, and personal belongings are immovable.

He didn't know what the locals would do. The most important thing now was to get on their way.

Through these three French cavalry, Solovyov also knew that they were not far from the Austrian army's station near Verona. By dusk, they could enter General Krei's camp with prisoners.

When we arrived at the Austrian camp east of Verona, we could see a large number of wounded soldiers, as well as people digging pits outside to dispose of corpses.

"Captain, it looks like we had a solid fight with the French!"

"But this is good. At least it proves that the enemy must have been consumed a lot."

Solovyov was not too worried when he came to see General Krei. After all, he had personal letters from Suvorov and Veloser, and he came with a mission.

"Captain, you are so lucky. The scouts we sent before were always attacked by the French, and the contact with the Marshal and General Melas was not smooth. And you, you killed two and captured He killed three prisoners and only injured one person. It’s all God’s blessing!”

"But God can't control whether the opponent's bullets are accurate or not. Do you have a spare hat here? My head should be a standard size for wearing a hat."

"It really is, Captain."

Clay also discovered that the captain who came here was indeed too young. He only became the company commander of the grenadiers when he was almost 30 years old. This guy was probably not even 20 years old yet.

Are there all these little guys in Russia who have not faded their milky smell to be officers?

Not to mention other places, there are indeed many in the Guards. General Krai's estimate is not wrong.

And another thing is that Solovyov's performance is really outstanding.

After getting the hat, General Klay also wanted to ask Marshal Suvorov about the situation there.

"Currently, the two columns of our army are resting and recuperating. They will continue to set off tomorrow morning and march towards Verona. Based on the march speed of the previous two days, they will arrive here on April 7."

"Then I can only say that the French will launch an attack in the next few days. Don't rush back when you come here. I will send two more teams of messengers to find the Marshal."

"General, do you want us to stay here and watch the battle?"

"Yes, Captain, let's see how the French perform. General Scherer may have been sitting in the office of the Minister of War for a long time. After two consecutive attacks were frustrated, he should send his 40,000 troops to Retreat later, not here.”

"If they also run to the fortress of Mantua, then the Austrian army will have a chance to wash away the shame of the past."

"That's exactly what I want. Captain, you go to the tent to rest first. Although we are on the front line here, we can have some Italian food to satisfy the stomachs of you young officers!"

Not to mention, these Austrian gentlemen had good food at the front. Italy is rich in products and is a very prosperous place in agriculture. The locals can even make pizza, lasagna, and even smoked fish. , ham and cheese

"Your Majesty General, we can still have these good things on the front line."

"Yeah, it's a pity that I'm 64 years old, and two of my teeth have become loose recently. Without that blessing, young people like you can still enjoy the joy of delicious food. I admire your old marshal and our Mei very much. General Russ, both of them are 140 years old together, and they are still so active. I don’t know if I will be like them when I am 70 years old.”

Note: General Crane lived to be 69 years old and died in 1804.

He couldn't enjoy the delicacies himself, but he had some delicious fish soup and a glass of Hungarian liqueur.

"Your Excellency General, what do you think of the joint operation against the French?"

"It's easy. Your Majesty the Marshal has made it very clear. Our Austrian soldiers are more numerous and can be used to hold back the French army. Among their divisions, there is also the army led by General Bonaparte that entered Italy. ”

"Is it the Serulier division you mentioned in your last letter? However, General Bonaparte and the main generals he commanded at the time are all in Egypt and Syria. In addition, there are others on other battlefields. For example, General Massena, this person seems to be active in the Swiss battlefield. "

"Even with this force, we also want to defeat them and capture the military flag. However, the existing strength seems to be insufficient to deal with the French."

"If it's 40,000 versus 40,000, we'd better win."

"Yes, it is best to win, but what we want to do now is to hold off the French. We need to wait for the next few marching columns to arrive on the battlefield. If we are in an advantageous situation and seize the enemy's main force, we can Achieve complete victory.”

The idea was good, but General Crane's actions were relatively slow, and when he finally decided to fight, he also had to wait for the French to take action.

Of course, when Solovyov saw the deployment of the Austrian army, he instinctively thought of a question.

"Your Majesty General, I think the biggest advantage of the French lies in their artillery. The French do not produce cannons themselves, but they captured a lot of them during the battle. I'm sorry, but I use this statement."

"It doesn't matter, go on, you can speak freely here. There are only my attachés and orderlies in the tent."

"Your Excellency, General, I think the French may have some advantages in the number of artillery, and we must take this into consideration when arranging the formation. For example, we can take advantage of the terrain and form the formation on the reverse slope, on the nearby hillside. There is artillery cover, which can offset the enemy's firepower advantage."

"You can do this, but you need to have a suitable position. The Butapietra area is suitable for setting up a formation. Moreover, the weather has been bad these days, and the French cannot even ask for a fight."

"Yeah, it hasn't rained on the way we came here, but it's starting to rain now. If we meet the French in this kind of weather, the ammunition may not fire. Of course, after it rains, the solid bullets fall on the ground , the power will also be weakened.”

In fact, if you talk to these experienced veterans more about the actual situation, they will quickly understand it. The anti-slope tactic is not the patent of those British guys who are experts in squatting.

General Clay had already taken into account weather factors in weakening the power of French artillery. As for the remaining problem, it was how to deal with the French on the battlefield.

While he is eating now, he is also asking his quartermaster to mark on the map.

After thinking about it, he finally decided on the location of the battle. If there were no problems, he would start the operation at Magnano near Butapietra.

"This is it. It looks like a very Magno (big) place."

Obviously General Krei played a homophonic joke. The battlefield he chose was not so conducive to the activities of the French army, but he could also take advantage of General Scherer's current eagerness to attack.

Speaking of which, before the Napoleonic Wars, the experience of the old commanders who were common in the Anti-French Alliance War is worth mentioning. In the Austrian army, the older the generals are, the more experienced they are, but they belong to them. The era of war will soon pass. Maybe these wars are the last chance for these veterans to have fun.