Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796

Chapter 442 019 A Battle of the Flesh Mill (Ⅸ) Cavalry Army, Attack, A Little Scary

Before the second day's battle began, Napoleon had already noticed that the Russian army still did not give up its southwest position.

Originally, he hoped that the Russian army would shrink at night so that he could connect the battle lines of several armies into one, and then launch an attack. This could be considered an end.

As for being involved in such a hard battle, although he was mentally prepared, he did not expect that the battlefield situation would be so unsatisfactory. Moreover, the Russian army's resistance was extremely tenacious, and it even seemed that its troops were gathering more and more.

"We cannot continue like this, Berthier. We need both the cavalry and the Guards to be ready for battle."

Napoleon ordered in advance to use the cavalry army, which was often seen in several battles.

But the use of the Guards was the first time since the thousand soldiers of Marengo's ruling guard went into battle to resist.

"Your Majesty, are you sure you want to mobilize the Guards?"

"At this time, the only way to shake the will of the Russians is to send all our reserve troops to the battlefield. In the Ice Lake area, there is a tiny gap in the Russian defense. I have seen Augereau's staff I only found out after reporting.”

Napoleon was obviously very confident and pointed out the location of the glacial lake on the map.

"We launch an attack and tear apart the Russian defense line from this direction. But now there is still a question, can the Seventh Army still fight?"

"The situation is very bad, Your Majesty. Only half of the troops can go into battle, so we have to"

"Bertier, that's enough. I'm afraid the Russian army is also using the second line to bluff to make their own strength appear stronger. You won't know if you don't attack from their weak point."

The weakness that Napoleon perceived was also the place where Solovyov had a lot of gaps.

He would not normally use "Russian cleverness" like this, but now he had to do so. He paid attention to the horseshoes of the heavy cavalry and even destroyed part of the road surface, leaving no suitable place for the French heavy cavalry to launch an attack. .

However, in the small area south of Ice Lake and Eylau, the deployment of troops here is relatively weak, and it is also one of the few gaps in the Russian army's iron barrel array.

After the arrival of the Prussian army, the high-intensity work made Solovyov a little tired.

As for Langeron jokingly mentioning Marshal Saxophone, he was an evil spirit who had a party with eight actresses one night, and it was not surprising that he died suddenly in the end.

However, Marshal Sachs was an old man when he died. Although Solovyov was the father of one son and four daughters, he was not married yet and he himself also found that in such a high-intensity war, it was difficult for him to The physical drain is actually greater than sleeping with a good-looking girl.

Like Louisa, Her Royal Highness is still too gentle, and may even be more draining on her.

If it's a wilder one, like Polina, men might not be able to bear it.

Without good physical strength, it may be difficult to persist in any aspect.

As for this oversight, it is indeed one of the few weaknesses that can be discovered after the Iron Barrel Formation is deployed.

Moreover, if infantry is used to attack, it will be exposed quickly. Napoleon will use cavalry to attack, and it will be cuirassiers and dragoon groups, which is extremely detrimental to the Russian army.

At this time, if someone in Langeron's headquarters thought of this problem and filled Lestock's Prussian army into this position, the entire battlefield might be better.

But the Russian army, faced with pressure from Sirte and Davout, had to replace the 4th Division with the Prussian army to protect the flanks. Barclay led 2 brigades to stop Davout, and Somov led 1 brigade to respond. Saken.

This gap is still exposed.

But if Saken was withdrawn from the position on the southwest road the night before, it would not be a big deal for the Russian army.

The divided French army can then directly launch an attack and give the Russian army some color.

If the battle lines are connected together, the Russian army will be very passive.

Therefore, the Russian army will not take the initiative to retreat from Sirte even if Saken is left to act as a nail in front of Sirte.

As for the weakness on this ice lake, everyone actually neglected it due to the high-intensity command and staff work.

Murat's cavalry was going to attack from here.

There were more than 6,000 French cuirassiers and dragoons assembled, which was quite large. There had never been such a large number of cavalry units in previous battles.

So much so that when Langeron wanted to mobilize the troops commanded by Manteuffel to resist, the rolling waves of people were like the waves hitting the rocks in Galicia on the Iberian Peninsula. The Russian army rushed up through the gap created.

"What the hell. It looks like Bonaparte is going to launch a general offensive. What should we do?"

Langeron complained. Of course, when he looked at Solovyov, the kid had no idea.

After all, the "man's preparation" move could kill several French generals and heavy cavalry commanders, but it could not stop the subsequent mixed impact of French cavalry and infantry.

The only way Solovyov came up with was to set up an arc-shaped defense and have all nearby Russian troops form a square formation to resist the charge of the French cavalry.

This technique is not the same type of tactics as the original owner of the Golden Buddha on the Throne.

But only at this time, while the weather was barely clear, signal flags and optical signal machines were used to mobilize the troops.

Even with this deployment, it was already late. The French cavalry had driven a wedge around the ice lake and even disrupted the formations of several Russian infantry regiments. Several battalion squares were broken.

"Suka, this Bonaparte!"

Even Langeron could hear this. Soloviev, who was always very calm, changed his usual way of addressing Napoleon, calling him by his surname instead of his first name, and was obviously a little anxious.

Now Langeron, as the commander-in-chief, was relatively calm. He also had some dragoons and cuirassiers in his hands. Although they might be suspected of being patchwork, they were enough to hold off at this gap for a while.

As for the issuance of this order, some determination was also required.

The Russian cavalry has always been used more economically, and it is also because the Cossacks and hussars always go out and need to be adjusted when they come back.

Now, this large-scale charge of the French army did shake part of the Russian front line, but it only broke through.

This shaky defense line was still able to hold at this time, that is, the Russian soldiers, they are very resilient, so it seems that they should have performed above their level.

Among the French heavy cavalry attacks, the attack of the cuirassiers was the most fierce. The cuirassiers led by Dopple broke through the first line of the Russian army along the way, but also encountered trouble in the second line.

When the Russian army formed a phalanx, many phalanxes were not arranged in a square, which was indeed conducive to the use of firepower. In addition, the reserve troops were placed inside, which made the French cavalry often face huge troubles when breaking through the Russian formation.

It was this wider front, round after round of shooting, which also led to the continuous increase in casualties of the French cavalry. The cuirassiers also had breastplates on the front and back, but the dragoons were obviously not like this. For a time, many cavalry just passed through the Russian phalanx, not directly launching an attack.

As for those cavalrymen who dared to directly attack the phalanx, the impact force was also very large. Some battalions and companies of the Russian army that did not complete the phalanx were also dispersed, resulting in many fleeing soldiers scattered on the battlefield.

Now these people have nowhere to run, and some soldiers can only form a back-to-back formation, which may be able to withstand the cavalry's charge.

The battle was so fierce that after the French cavalry began to attack, the main commanders of both sides focused their attention here.

Napoleon now saw that the front was successful, but he was not without hidden worries. The Russian army was so tenacious that if it was replaced by the Prussian or Austrian army, it would have killed the infantry on the two lines of defense.

But now the French cuirassiers launched a fierce attack, and only a few cavalry squadrons rushed over. After breaking through the Russian defense line, they posed a threat to the rear of the Russian army.

This also forced Langgeron to take out the Moscow Grenadiers and Smolensk Regiments that had retreated and rested, and desperately resisted the attack of the French cavalry.

But there were only a few cavalrymen. Seeing this situation, Napoleon gave an order to Marshal Bessières.

"Let the 'gods' act! Bessières, I expect you to defeat the Russians!"

When he said this, Langgeron was indeed mobilizing two infantry regiments to block the gap. He was also pulling out the Russian dragoon regiments and the Guards Cuirassiers, preparing to block the gap with all his strength and counterattack to kill the French troops.

Napoleon's mobilization was very timely. At this time, he used the Guards Grenadiers and let these most elite heavy cavalry launch an attack to support the French heavy cavalry at the front. On the one hand, he completed the support, and on the other hand, he reopened the defense of a battalion of the Smolensk Regiment.

On this front, the victory achieved by the French army only made a dent in the Russian iron barrel formation.

Both sides found that their combat effectiveness was at an unexpected level on this battlefield.

Langgeron found that the Russian army could actually withstand the attack of the French army. As for the French army, they did not expect that their cuirassiers could actually kill through the two layers of the Russian front line, and even the third layer of infantry and cavalry combined to plug the leaks, which were almost penetrated.

In the end, it was the Russian artillery that barely stopped the enemy with shotgun fire at the attacking French army.

"What a strong cavalry, I don't want this kind of thing to happen again in the future!"

Soloviev said this because he had witnessed the power of the French cavalry's charge.

If the best hussars are the original Hungarians, the best lancers are the Poles, and the best among the multi-functional light cavalry are undoubtedly the Cossacks who are proficient in using lances and sabers, then the French cuirassiers and the German dragoons.

These are all heavy cavalry, and their impact is too strong. It is too difficult to stop them.

Now on the battlefield, it is noon.

When Soloviev, as a representative of the headquarters, appeared in front of the ice lake, he saw that there were corpses everywhere and it was a mess.

"The smell of blood and rotten flesh will soon attract crows."

The bodies of the cavalry and infantry killed by both sides were facing all directions, and it was obvious that they had experienced a tough melee.

The Selenge Regiment had better luck. When the French attacked the last line of defense, they mainly attacked the front of the Moscow Grenadiers. It can be said that the Grenadiers took more damage for the neighboring regiments.

However, Solovyov did not feel excited, as the tougher battles were still ahead.

Although Augereau's Seventh Army had suffered heavy losses after the night attack and two days of fighting, the old guards in bearskin hats had appeared behind him.

At this time, it seemed that Napoleon might use his last trump card during the French cavalry attack, the Russian counterattack, and the Russian counterattack after the French offensive stagnated.

At this time, it was obvious that the generals of the Russian army, even Bagration and Kamensky the Younger, who were the most capable of fighting hard, were considering fighting in the rear guard.

Kamensky's frontline position was finally occupied by the French army in the afternoon of the second day of the battle, and Ney now controlled the first outer line of defense.

Now the young count finally received an order from Langeron to retreat to the northeast of Eylau, forming a line of defense with Essen here to cover Tuchkov and Dokhturov, who had been passively beaten.

Afterwards, the two brigades led by Barclay went to support Dokhturov.

Unfortunately, Barclay was shot and wounded right at the beginning. He was slightly injured at the front line but insisted on commanding the battle after a simple bandage.

Next, he was shot in the arm again. The accompanying staff were worried that the general would be further seriously injured, so they sent him to the rear.

This time, the reinforcements came, but the organization was not good during the battle. Without Somov and Barclay, two generals who could act as division commanders, the 4th Division was now leaderless.

The original division commander, Prince Golitsyn, was now leading the cavalry to fill the huge hole caused by Murat's attack, and could not be in place here.

Therefore, the reinforcements could only go directly to face Davout under the command of Major General Alexeev, commander of the 2nd Brigade.

But Davout's attack was too fierce, causing several Russian infantry regiments to be compressed in a very small area and passively beaten all the time.

Seeing this situation, even if they were fully prepared, they could not change the generals on the Russian side. They were brave enough, but lacked command ability and strategy. They were only slightly better than the French army because of their cleverness when they were in battle.

And overall, it was not good enough.

Moreover, Napoleon finally decided to resolve the battle before dark after seeing the considerable progress made in the front.