Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796

Chapter 87 037 Blood Battle at the St. Gotthard Pass

Claude Jacques Lecourbe may not be very famous, but he still has some real skills.

He was Moreau's close friend. When Moreau was involved in the "conspiracy" to overthrow the First Consul, he defended his friend and angered Napoleon. He was ordered to retire in 1805 and missed all the wars from 1805 to 1814.

But in 1815, he was used by the restored Bourbon dynasty. As a republican general, he finally responded to the returning emperor, and in Jura, when Waterloo had finally failed, he commanded the battle despite his illness, and with 8,000 troops, he held back Archduke Ferdinand's 40,000 Austrian troops for 15 days, and even at this time the entire war was over!

This was the last glory of the French army in this war. Napoleon also commented on him in St. Helena: "Very brave, should have become a French marshal!"

It is indeed very rare for this emperor who has always been stubborn to give such an evaluation. He always likes to belittle his opponents at home and abroad. Many of Moreau's confidants and friends were demoted or even sent to guard islands in the Indian Ocean during his reign, but these people were not ambiguous at all on the battlefield, and their performance was sometimes better than some of Napoleon's confidants.

The general is now standing at the highest point of the St. Gotthard Pass, looking at the dense Russian soldiers below with a telescope.

"This is the army of Marshal Suvorov, the most famous veteran of Russia. It's interesting. They came faster than we expected! The Guding Brigade must be prepared for battle. We must delay them as much as possible. In addition, the artillery must pay attention to the flag signals from the top of the mountain!"

That is, the St. Gotthard Pass is too three-dimensional, which gave Le Gub the opportunity to play. He should have studied the firepower configuration in this three-dimensional defense with Moreau before, so he arranged a lot of artillery positions from the top of the mountain to the foot of the mountain.

Although he only deployed more than 1,800 people in the Gudin Brigade on the front line, which was insufficient and seemed difficult to defend, the firepower configuration of this artillery was indeed unique and caused great trouble to the Russian army.

Bagration wanted to switch back to his hometown dialect to curse, but soon he switched back to the Russian channel: "Damn, the French bombarded the mountains in Novi, and the French bombarded the mountains in Switzerland. This is all taught in the same military academy, right?"

Moreover, the French artillery, whether it was grapeshot or solid bullets, could bloom among the Russian crowd.

This forced Bagration's vanguard to disperse the formation and then launch an attack.

The Russian army had a great psychological advantage in the previous battle with the French army in Italy, especially this time the old marshal was behind them, and the morale was even higher.

But like the battle in Novi, the French artillery delayed the Russian attack, and they were blocked on the first bridge of the St. Gotthard Pass for an hour.

This forced Bagration to change his strategy. During the interval of the French shooting, he used the chasseurs to attack the French soldiers on the opposite bank, and then launched an attack from the front of the bridge with the grenadier battalion.

In this way, the first French blocking position was opened. After several rounds of fighting, the French soldiers did not guard the bridge, and even abandoned everything they carried and ran away.

After seeing this scene, the Georgian prince found something wrong. The "cow backpacks" and various pendants that the French had to carry in the battle in the past were almost not seen on these French soldiers.

He had a lot of experience in the army over the years, and he immediately judged that the French army still had blocking positions behind.

Especially the two small cannons dragged to the middle of the mountain. Although the damage was not great no matter what ammunition they fired, it was also a headache to keep firing there.

But the Russian army had to climb up the mountain, and it was obvious that they had to climb for a while. When they got close, the French soldiers could not run away. If they surrendered, they had to push all the artillery into the mountain stream and leave nothing for the Russian army.

Such a disgusting fighting style is indeed rarely seen before. They are not trying to win the battle at all, but to delay time here.

On the mountain peaks nearby, because the distance is not too far, some French light infantry are also firing. They may not be able to shoot accurately, but the harassment of the Russian army is uneasy.

In other words, in mountain warfare, carrying equipment consumes too much physical energy. These French soldiers can only fire 10 shots at most and then escape. Otherwise, the Russian army will be harassed all the time during the march.

After passing the first position of the St. Gotthard Pass, the French army behind them also blocked the road as Bagration expected.

The Russian vanguard troops, which were harassed by this kind of fragmented skirmishes and crossfire, were also greatly delayed in their march.

The lightly-armed French continued to retreat, and even though the Russians had Cossack horses carrying a lot of baggage, they still had to move forward with difficulty in the mountains. For ordinary climbers, this section of the road would take two and a half hours. Now they had to walk until the sun set, and then they controlled the first village behind the St. Gotthard Pass.

Due to the congestion of the troops in front, Suvorov did not get any news from Bagration for a while, and being stuck in the mountains was actually quite disadvantageous.

"Damn it, we met a cunning circus monkey in the mountains! If it was an eagle, it could fly over!"

The nearby Reuss River flows by the road, but these rivers are turbulent and the banks are extremely steep, so the Russian army cannot use roundabout tactics.

Suvorov can only hope that Rosenberg's troops can break through the mountains on the flank, and judging from his usual habit of pretending to be crazy, his performance is about to begin.

When the Russian army repeatedly suffered setbacks in attacking the hillside, the old marshal got off his horse and saw a depression that was just right for him to lie down in, and then lay there.

"Marshal, what are you doing?"

"Misha, bury me alive! You are no longer my children, and I am no longer your father. I have no choice but to die!"

"Uncle Proshka, what's going on?"

"When the master encounters an emergency situation in the battle, sometimes it will be like this, and the drama is different every time!"

But it really works. Bagration is not far away from Suvorov. After seeing his master's performance of performance art, he began to shout to his men.

"Brothers, don't disappoint the marshal's expectations, follow me, Hurrah!"

He drew out his sword and led the charge, and the Russian soldiers on the front line also rushed forward with bayonets.

This recklessness actually broke through two French lines of defense. General Le Gub did not want his division to fight the Russian army, but to delay time and consume the Russian army at the same time, so as to lead the Russian army into a desperate situation.

The battlefield he carefully designed was surrounded by a series of mountains, and the French could lure the enemy deep into the mountains.

This trick was seen through by Suvorov, but he had to accept it.

"A cunning French hunter is trying to lure us into a trap!"

"Are you not lying in the pit?"

"Misha, help me up."

Soloviev slid down quickly. He entered the pit and helped Suvorov up, but he was not idle: "This French hunter probably thinks we are foxes!"

"Then have you, the Ryazan fox, thought of a solution?"

"There is no brain-powered solution, but you hand over the Guards Chasseur Battalion to me, and I will take down the hill in front!"

The old marshal laughed. The usually brave Bagration, Kamensky the Younger, and Miloradovich all started to use their brains now. It was Solovyov who loved to use his brains that was going to attack today.

The commander of the Guards Chasseur Battalion, von Bystrom, had not returned to the team because of his injury, and the battalion now had more than 300 people after replenishment. Although the ammunition was not sufficient, it could still fight.

"Go, kid, I know what you are up to! Take the Guards Jäger Battalion to Bagration's column and obey his orders from now on!"

After receiving the order, Solovyov came to the middle of the Guards Jäger Battalion.

"Hey, Captain, you came from the old marshal. Are we going to fight a tough battle?"

"Yes, brothers, the French are blocking the way ahead. Now our 'old father' needs brothers to go up and break through that damn mountain pass!"

The battle is now at its most intense. The French army is defending the village of Hospental, and Bagration's troops are blocked outside. It is the time when fresh troops are needed.

Now Solovyov, as an accompanying adjutant, has taken over the command of the Guards Jäger Battalion. This is also a temporary arrangement on the battlefield. Sometimes the adjutant also has to execute the commander's order, take over the troops and then put them into battle.

There were two French battalions holding out in the village, and Andermatt behind them had four cannons and three grenadier companies. The French used their firepower and placed three cannons across the road to fire grapeshot, making the Russian attack extremely difficult.

But at this time, the guards chasseurs behind were advancing lightly, throwing their bags to the joint chasseur battalion in the rear, and only brought ammunition and bandages to the front.

They first took advantage of the French firepower window to snipe the artillery at a long distance, which finally suppressed the guns in front of the French soldiers, allowing the Russian column to continue to advance.

As long as the French poked their heads out, they would be hit by these guards chasseurs from a farther distance, and the ordinary chasseurs in front of them were the same, and they shot very accurately, and finally suppressed the French army on this road.

Bagration now saw the right opportunity and launched a bayonet charge.

Although the French troops of the Swiss Legion were more durable, they would not rush to fight when they saw the bayonet charge. They first fought a few times relying on the village, and then chose to retreat under the order of General Gudin.

The French also like to use routines, but these high ground and firepower points along the way, when the Russian army launched a frontal attack, there were also many Russian and Austrian troops on the side of the mountain trying to find a secret road to pass.

A small team sent by Baranovsky actually climbed up the steep hill and had a posture of outflanking the French army.

It was almost night, and the French did not dare to fight. When the grenadiers counterattacked from Andermatt without success, they finally chose to retreat.

However, they still guarded many important roads on the winding mountain road, especially a very dangerous bridge, which was the "Devil's Bridge" that the Russians would always remember in the future.

After the battle of this day, the French army's losses were not great. After losing more than 400 people on the two mountain passes, they retreated to the rear front. Three lines of defense were opened in front of them. This was the result of the Russian army's charge being too hard, and several Russian and Austrian troops that were good at climbing mountains repeatedly infiltrating.

General Le Gub can feel satisfied. His military career is not glorious, but the technical content is still very high. In this battle to block Suvorov, Massena actually asked him to block for two days to complete the task. Now he has completed the first day of the operation, dragging the Russian army into the mountains, crossing the first pass of the St. Gotthard Pass, and there are still winding mountain roads waiting for them.

When Solovyov came down with the guards, he was so angry that he almost laughed when he saw the battle report written by Verosa!

After all, the report written by Werosser was: 187 of our soldiers were killed, XX people fell to their deaths in the mountain stream, XX people were swept away by the rapids, XX people were injured by mules, and several others were missing.

You are wearing such a white suit, and you are also a translator for nothing?

What is even more ironic is that this shitty battle report he wrote is still a fact, that is, the result of the French army's blocking of the Russian army that day! The losses of the French were not actually that great, and the 10 abandoned cannons were all pushed down in the valley, and the military flags were taken away. There was no valuable material left for the Russian army, and nothing to boast about.

He came back too late. Werosser was just there scolding his Austrian staff for marking a non-existent road in Andermatt. There are only mountain roads here.

This led to a bad result. Although the Russian and Austrian armies were moving fast in the mountains, they were unlikely to reach General Korsakov's station on the scheduled time of September 30 in the face of the French army's obstruction and the long and winding road.

However, from the east side of Mount Blisten in the hands of the Austrian army, they could see the French's series of actions clearly the next morning, which was the only compensation.

Although Suvorov was not satisfied with the situation on the battlefield, he encouraged the soldiers as always and looked forward to their victory in the next battle.

The old general actually deliberately ignored one point, that is, the French army may have already launched an attack on Korsakov in Zurich. He only had to open the mountain pass first and know the situation on the northern battlefield. There was not much he could do in other aspects.

And the old soldier Massena was sharpening his knife at this time, ready to attack Korsakov's series of stupid arrangements.