Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796

Chapter 41 041 Russian Army Training Method

Paul visited many places during this tour, and it was also the longest tour since he ascended the throne.

After several surprise inspection tours near Gatchina, he went to Moscow with his entourage and some guards, leaving Petersburg to the imperial government officials to deal with.

Alexander and Constantine were busy with their own affairs, and the training of the Pavlovsky Grenadiers Regiment was finally back to normal.

Before Paul left, he appointed the senior battalion commander Colonel Nikolai Mukhanov as the acting commander, and the commander of the regiment is now Major General Adamovich.

Although the latter is almost idle, and the former, the colonel, is in poor physical condition.

But he still insisted that the whole regiment start training, and the grenadiers and the hunters company must be involved in the training.

At the request of Grand Duke Constantine, except for the 1st Battalion of the General Regiment guarding the Winter Palace, all other troops had to conduct live-fire drills and carry out tactical training according to the new training outline.

At this time, the officers of the Guards, Grenadiers, Jagers and Marine Infantry who participated in the exercise all appeared in front of the large sand table in the exercise field.

It was considered an assessment work in the training stage, but the Russian army had great differences in training methods for different troops.

At this time, Solovyov always followed behind the commander to avoid some language differences.

For someone like Miloradovich who spoke plastic French, at least he could be guaranteed to understand, and the old commander with a bad temper was 51 years old before he became the acting commander. He was only 2 years younger than Kutuzov and was a nobleman from Kharkov. He didn't understand any foreign language, only Russian.

In addition, his image was also more delicious. If it weren't for his legs, he would easily get lost.

Solovyov had an idea at one point. Where is the nearest place to sell donkey meat and hotpot?

The idea he gave to Count Bobulinsky was to boil donkey skin and use it to make donkey-hide gelatin. Even those with poor quality would have some effect.

When the Count heard about this, he actually did it. He managed his territory and industry. Although he was not good at managing things, he was very good at finding people.

He really asked the supplier he entrusted to get a lot of donkeys. He slaughtered, skinned and haired them to boil gelatin blocks. He also distributed donkey meat to the factory workers and the serfs in the manor.

I don't know how it went over there. He thought of this after seeing his regiment commander.

The meat distributed among the Russian army was unlikely to have donkey meat. Sometimes his brain was out of line, which was not ordinary.

Even his old superiors, when they knew that this kid would write to Marshal Suvorov on his holiday to ask questions, looked at his performance, and it was this kind of jumpy mind that could keep up with the old marshal's thinking. Although Alexander Vasilyevich was 69 years old, he was still able to provide guidance to young people.

Others were a little envious of this "handsome" captain, who could get guidance from the victorious old marshal on how to lead a company or a battalion.

In fact, this was used by Solovyov as a means. He was 17 years old and might not even grow a beard, and the soldiers and officers he had to manage were older than him. He could only write letters to the old marshal frequently and control the rifles and ammunition he could fire in his company.

Compared with other hunting companies, his company, which Paul had high hopes for, was now firing continuously on the shooting range, which made Prince Bagration, who came with him, a little envious.

He was able to use his connections to get his Jager Regiment to meet Kutuzov's basic 10-round training volume, while Soloviev's company, because of its small size and custom-made weapons, could fire 20 rounds at a time on the shooting range.

And the shooting accuracy is very high. These soldiers are carefully selected. Although their respective regiment leaders are reluctant to send away the young and strong soldiers in their hands, the Tsar's edict is there, and they have to act in accordance with the Basic Law.

It's just that Soloviev is easily labeled as a "jester". There may be rumors that are made out of nothing (such as FAKE NEWS that he has an ambiguous relationship with the Crown Princess) to prepare for him, and he will not consider the physical examination. The doctor said that this kid is quite pure.

Physical examination is also an important detection measure for the recruitment of soldiers for newly formed troops. In a place as densely populated as a military camp, it is also necessary to keep the personnel healthy. We can't expect everyone to be as healthy as the crown prince. Maybe if they get sick, they will be taken away.

The medical level of this era is obviously much worse because the level of biology and chemistry is not enough.

If you are not careful in the barracks, everyone may be taken away by various diseases. If the hygiene is not good, infectious diseases will spread. Some masters were taken away in this way.

And the combat method of the hunters is always better than that of other arms. Bagration wanted Solovyov to join his regiment, but he didn't expect that this guy would tinker with an invention and set up a company in the grenadiers regiment.

Of course, his company, in the formation training, in order to cooperate with the grenadiers, is a dual-purpose unit. When dispersed, it needs to be able to cover the march in front of the grenadiers and kill the enemy at the same time; when assembled, it is also necessary to play the advantages of line shooting and use accuracy to shoot at a longer distance.

The characteristics of their guns also make it difficult to hit their own people when standing and shooting.

Among these troops, the best chasseurs are probably the chasseur battalion formed by Paul's Gatchina chasseurs. Solovyov actually didn't understand why the Tsar chose to put his company outside the Guards Chasseurs and throw it into the Grenadiers.

Perhaps it was a test. Although Suvorov often criticized the new Russian military manual, he did not object to some new attempts at synthetic arms. He even told Solovyov when chatting on the lawn that day that if this "French trick" could be practiced well, it might have miraculous effects in the future.

However, with regard to the production of this rifle card, even if old Prince Peter Dolgorukov is a trustworthy minister, Paul may be very impatient, after all, this is also a kind of "infantry decisive battle weapon".

Of course, the marching music used by the Jager Company is also quite special.

Langgeron also came to participate in the exercise today. His regiment did not come, but the masters of the regiments came from their respective garrisons to see the new exercise in Gatchina.

As for the 6th Jager Regiment, the Guards Jager Battalion and the Pavlovsky Grenadiers Regiment, which are currently adjacent in the queue, he can see very clearly that these three troops are in a strict formation.

"I really didn't expect that the Grenadiers Regiment could train the troops so well even though they have been lacking a regiment master and a commander!"

The closest to the hill where he is is the Jager Company of Solovyov, and their drums and marching music also make Langgeron a little confused.

"Doesn't our emperor advocate the Prussian military system? How come the grenadiers he personally ordered to form also play 'French songs'?"

"That's why you don't understand, monsieur. That company was specially formed by the emperor himself. They all use new guns and are the only new corps that don't use the Prussian drill code."

"Ah, that's what happened! I know that 'handsome' little company commander. No wonder he came up with this. The emperor allowed him to do whatever he wanted within the scope of permission. After all, the guns in the hands of the hunters were all made by him."

Then, no one would notice that although this song has a French flavor, it is still a bit wrong.

For example, "I am a government soldier and the enemy is a thief. Heaven and earth cannot tolerate rebels. The enemy general is a great hero who is unparalleled in heaven and earth."

Just this lyrics, if translated, it seems that there is nothing wrong with dealing with the French republican government from the perspective of a group of autocratic monarchies.

I don't know if General Bonaparte, who is preparing to cross the sea to Egypt, is sneezing.

Of course, no one knew the meaning of this song, but after seeing the translated score, Langgeron thought it was pretty good. It should be suitable for the exiled army of the royalists and his good friend to use as the small army of Duke Gan.

No one noticed Solovyov's prank, and everyone thought it was great. His shooting accuracy and speed were ridiculously high. Some veterans from the Queen's era who came to observe on site found that there were still many legacy of Suvorov in the company training.

"General Langeron, what do you think? Not only does it have the characteristics of your French royal army, but it also has the training principles of Alexander Vasilyevich. What a good kid, everyone in St. Petersburg has heard that he writes to His Excellency the Marshal every week to ask questions. Young people nowadays are addicted to pleasure. No wonder the emperor doesn't like them and wants to kick them back to the barracks, and no wonder the old marshal no longer teaches his entourage anything."

These old guys are still lamenting that the performance of young people in the Russian army has been getting worse and worse in recent years. Langeron also wrote this kind of complaint in his notes. Of course, as a "guest", he can also complain mercilessly that the Tsar is messing around. If it is just to rectify the Guards, it will be fine. Even some troops with rich combat experience deployed on the border have also encountered many problems.

This is why Suvorov has always expressed opposition to Paul's military reform after it went deep.

Although all the problems of the Empress era were cleared up in one breath, Paul had never led troops before and could only practice in Gatchina according to the Prussian drill manual he had obtained. In fact, although he was an expert in training troops, he made many mistakes.

However, the performance of the Jagers and Grenadiers this time was somewhat bright, at least Paul was not completely messing around.

Especially in the simulated shooting on the march, he did not copy all the Prussian stuff. The traditional bayonet assault of the Russian army was still retained, including the reorganized various Jager regiments/battalions/companies.

After the bayonet assault was launched, from the side where Langgeron and his team were, the "Red Side" representing the Russian army, composed of the Xie Regiment, the Pavlovsky Regiment, the 6th Jager Regiment and the Guards Jager Battalion, pushed back the "Blue Side" representing the French army with a bayonet assault.

Although it was a bit of a performance, it was rare for the two sides to directly collide with a bayonet battle on the battlefield. After one side launched a bayonet assault, the attacked side would generally choose to retreat or reorganize and fight again.

Generally speaking, few of these nearby countries can withstand the Russian army's "Ulla Ulla" charge, but before the exchange of fire, they often choose to shoot.

In the era of line warfare, due to the change of new tactics, it has changed to light infantry engagement, then line infantry shooting, and finally bayonet attack.

Although there are scenes of direct bayonet attack, they are not many.

After the exercise, a group of "Germans" were there, which made Colonel Mukhanov have to bring Solovyov as an interpreter all the time. This is not in vain. The commander still appreciates his training and said that you can continue to do so in the future.

Although there may be some losses in training, the formation training under the Suvorov principle is actually very useful. At least when facing cavalry, Russian infantry has never been timid, and even dares to launch a direct attack.

As for the anti-cavalry operation, after the training, it happened that the "Red Side" had three hunter combat units of different sizes, so they stayed and demonstrated the anti-cavalry formation and tactics to the officers.

From two people with bayonets back to back to hollow square formations, what light infantry can do now is actually no different from line infantry.

In the future, there will probably be a more difficult to penetrate solid square formation, but it is not so easy to encounter cavalry on the battlefield. Although horses will be afraid, there are also fearless or frightened horses that rush directly. If they are too crazy, even if the defense is well organized, the defensive formation is easy to break.

This point is also clearly stated by some old cavalry officers from German states. Some of them have trained with Prussian veterans such as Seydlitz and Zieten, and there are still many things that can happen on the battlefield.

However, with the poor level of the Prussian cavalry, it seems that there is still a little gap compared with the French and Austrian armies.

The Russian army itself is actually very complete in terms of cavalry configuration.

In the army, the combined combat of various arms can still exert greater power.

This is very obvious in the army, but Paul is now touring the countryside, and the serfs still love him very much. What happened at the training ground in Gatchina will have to wait until he returns for a report from the senior Russian generals and Grand Duke Constantine.

I don't know what attitude he will take towards this "new military reform".