Chapter 56 006 The Unlucky Austrian Chief of Staff, General Werosser, a Skilled Officer

Chapter 56 006 The Unlucky Austrian Chief of Staff, General Werosser, a Skilled Officer

Chapter 56 006 The Unlucky Austrian Chief of Staff, General Werosser, a Skilled Officer

Among the Russian columns entering Vienna, there are now two regiments that are directly available for Suvorov to demolish, one is the Absheronsk Musket Regiment commanded by Miloradovich, and the other is the Smolensk Musket Regiment.

Talking to Miloradovich is a very troublesome thing.

The following words are said: "Monsieur, je ne comprends pas l'allemand!" (Sir, I don't understand German!)
"Sir, I don't understand Russian!"
"Since some people are speaking French, all of us sitting here should speak French, okay?"

"Alexander Vasilyevich, but General Miloradovich, although he knows German and French, but..."

Miloradovich had a forthright personality and it was true that he could understand both sides, but when he spoke any language, his toes were so embarrassing that they could wear through the soles of his boots.

"Well, at a time like this, maybe I need a translator when I speak."

After saying this, Suvorov smiled and touched his epaulettes with his marshal's baton.

"Show your bravery on the battlefield! Like a Balkan bear!"

It was very simple for Suvorov to say this. If he called Misha, the young captain beside him would quickly go on standby and wait for his orders.

After all, General Miloradovic's name was also this. Also, his ancestors were nobles who came from Bosnia and Herzegovina to follow Peter the Great.

"Yes!"

At the first joint operations meeting, the representatives of the Austrian headquarters were General Melas himself and General Kreis's chief of staff von Werosser.

This Chief of Staff is no good-for-nothing. He can communicate with generals from various countries present in three languages ​​at the same time, and there can be no obstacles at all.

In fact, he had the most dealings with General Bonaparte in the Austrian army, and served as chief of staff for several veteran generals. Veterans such as Wurmser and Alvinzi were defeated in the end, and even his battle plan was stolen by General Bonaparte's spies. The result can be imagined.

But this does not mean that his organizational ability is poor. Losing to that general is not a shameful thing, and there was indeed a lot of bad luck involved.

In order to facilitate the unified command of the Russian and Austrian armies, von Werosser came up with many ideas, especially in the area of ​​communications officers. There were many German cavalry officers in the Russian army who were familiar with Russian and German, and there were also many Germans from some settlements on the Baltic Sea and the Volga River.

If these people did not serve as the chief officers of their own troops, but served as adjutants or other minor officers, they would be placed in the middle to be responsible for the communications between the troops, and each of them would be assigned a few Austrian light cavalry or Cossacks as guards.

"General, your idea is great!"

"It can't be helped. In our Austrian army, there are people who speak all kinds of languages. Captain, are you the Marshal's 'apprentice'?"

Of course, by “apprentices” Werother meant real students.

"Ja, not only that, I also lead the Jager Company in His Excellency the Marshal's Guard. This is the best-equipped Jager unit in Russia. Even the Guards Jager Battalion is not as well equipped as this."

"Such troops will also be sent to the front line. I know the Marshal's habits. His Excellency's offensives are always bold and fierce. They look risky, but in fact they are well thought out and well-planned. I really want to learn more from this old Marshal. You, handsome little captain, must do a good job!"

Weroser is not young anymore, he is 44 years old this year, but his straightforward personality makes him look younger, and he is willing to deal with young people.

"However, His Excellency the Marshal wants me to learn some staff work first and come to serve as your assistant."

"Of course, you speak German well."

"When I was serving in Moscow, I was the flag bearer for the regiment commander, and he joked that I was a 'horseman'."

"Ah, that's interesting, but why does your accent have an Austrian accent?"

"Really? Like, say, 'I traveled all over Europe by myself and it was great?'"

"It's a little interesting. If it weren't for your green eyes, you would be easily mistaken for one of our Austrians."

Later, Solovyov was given a nickname in the Austrian army, "Russian cousin". After all, everyone could understand his accent, but he always spoke very slowly.

Something is going to happen soon. After all, it’s not good to have an accident at this moment.

And Werosser was very proficient in staff work. When he made plans for the Russian-Austrian coalition forces, he would report every plan to Suvorov himself, and the direction of the attack would also be considered.

Solovyov's main role here is to help.

It has to be said that this chief of staff had good abilities, but his luck was extremely bad. The only time in his life when he was able to win a major victory was when he worked under Suvorov.

The rest, without exception, failed, and the takeaways had to take the blame.

This may be a systemic problem in Austria!
But there is no time to think about it now. The French army had launched an attack on General Cray some time ago, but French General Scheerer did not fight very well. After the two sides faced each other, they lined up for shooting and bombardment, which caused considerable casualties to the opponent, and neither side made any progress.

But now the French wanted to attack and gain the upper hand, but their luck on the northern front was not good. Archduke Karl mobilized his troops very quickly, and Jourdan had to retreat, then turn around and flee, trying to meet up with Massena's corps.

Although General Krei's performance was mediocre, for the Austrian army, as long as they could hold the existing positions, ensure that the two sides confronted each other on the Verona River line, and wait for the arrival of subsequent Russian-Austrian coalition forces, his mission would be accomplished.

"The entire battle line is divided into two parts, one is the Austrian column, and the other is the Russian column. Now we are using a typical strategy of King Frederick the Great. If the French want to hold their positions on this line, then they can only retreat westward and rely on these rivers for defense. Remember, we must break through quickly and outflank the enemy from both wings. If the enemy chooses not to retreat, we will destroy them! Then, we will do the same thing at the Minzio River. Come and see, how about this?"

He was actually discussing this with a captain and several junior officers, obviously wanting them to imitate the French generals' thinking. "If it were me, I would probably choose a temporary strategy of avoiding battle, adopting typical Fabian tactics, retreating the troops westward, stretching the coalition's supply lines, and then waiting for support from MacDonald of the Southern Italian Corps during the maneuver, not caring about the gains and losses of a city or a place, and finally trying to find a way to merge the two corps here, and then strike at one of Marshal Suvorov's fulcrums, and then merge the two armies to seek a battle!"

"This is a good idea. If the French do this, then we will need to quickly gather forces here and there. However, this also depends on the enemy's actions."

"The enemy won't be so stupid as to attack here when they are outnumbered and our army has already begun to gather its forces, right?"

Another young adjutant said that he also saw the problem.

"If we can't win in Verona, we should consider combining the two armies and find a way to fight again when the time comes. You can't let us go to Provence!"

"Mikhail, how are you going to fight in the situation you just described?"

"I don't know how strong the French cavalry is, but we can first choose a point on the front line to attack the coalition forces, just like we Russians always like to use Cossacks and Hussars to harass."

"This is the tactic you are used to. If the French do this, their light cavalry will take the initiative to act as eyes and harass our rear."

It may be that Solovyov had not yet sorted out his thoughts. If he were the French army, he might concentrate the strength of three brigades and attack the isolated Russian units after accurate reconnaissance. There is still some distance from Venice to Turin.

Some Italians may be more supportive of France. They gained some benefits after the French army came in, and also established a lot of "XX Republics". It is inevitable that they tipped off the French. Many people are in another situation. They oppose France and Austria. Even the Mafia, an organization, had the intention of opposing the French in Sicily in the early days. This was hundreds of years ago.

Another group of people whose interests were harmed during the French occupation of northern Italy were obviously also the targets of the Russian and Austrian armies.

The situation in northern Italy is that while winning on the battlefield, they also have to win the hearts and minds of the people, as if all the feudal lords in the world have united.

If they place wards on each other, the French may have a slight advantage.

That same evening, when Suvorov's headquarters set out, a team of Cossack cavalry encountered reconnaissance cavalry sent by the French army. There was a brief exchange of fire between the two sides, but before they could fight, the French ran away.

Karpov, the squad leader of the Cossack cavalry, was unable to catch up after chasing for a while.

After coming back, he began to curse the French with a string of Russian national curses.

"Sokabulie, these French guys run really fast."

"Did you get any information?"

"All we know is that it was a French scout from the Chasseurs who killed two of them, and we wounded several of our men."

"Any useful information?"

"The bodies have been brought back. Come and see, Captain. After we searched, we only found a map that looks like the French camp deployment map."

If we encounter the French behind the front line, we cannot rule out the possibility that the other side will send out cavalry for reconnaissance or launch an attack.

But after the map was seized, it at least shows that the French are still relatively slow in their actions. After failing in the Battle of Verona, they decided to fight another battle. I don't know what they are doing, but it always gives people the impression that they are so defeated that they want to solve the problem first.

If they don't run away now, they will probably collapse when the Russian troops arrive.

That is, the battlefield where the Austrian and French armies were confronting each other was still quite far away from the two Russian armies entering Italy. Otherwise, if the situation here had really collapsed, even MacDonald, who had gone to southern Italy and driven the royal family of the Kingdom of Naples to Sicily, would have had his retreat cut off.

The Russian army moved very quickly. After Melas and Suvorov determined the order of command, several musket regiments accelerated their march, taking into account the poor road conditions and because the local Austrian government could not keep up with their speed - even if they prepared supplies, the Russian army was running too fast and they could not keep up with the local supplies.

After considering the logistical issues, Werosser wrote to Krei, hoping that his former commander could reserve warehouses in the towns ahead, and then use these warehouses to establish first-line supplies after the rear corps arrived at the banks of the Minzio River; on the other hand, he sent letters to Austrian officials along the way, asking them to carry out transportation according to the plan, even including the issue of leather boots for Russian soldiers, which should be larger and all covered with foot bindings, which should be thicker than those worn by the Austrian and French armies.

Sometimes, details are still very important. Although Werose's plan was insignificant in front of the top generals, he paid good attention to details. He even kept track of the arrival time of each legion.

If there had been a telegraph, perhaps he would have taken off, but now even an optical transmitter is scarce in many places.

However, he was also surprised by something. If his plan was carried out by the Austrian troops, it might work in a battle, but it would be impossible to accomplish such a task in a marching column!
He saw Russian soldiers, all with their boots around their necks, marching quickly on foot.

The drummer on the side was still beating the marching drum, encouraging the soldiers to speed up the pace.

"I think that in this way, we can achieve the marching goal set by His Excellency the Marshal!"

On the battlefield, as the number of troops increases, the commander actually becomes more dependent on a qualified staff who can organize the troops and supervise the completion of the plan.

Another important point is that the soldiers must be encouraged by their commander and have high morale.

There is always a need for some psychology in the military.

At this point, the Austrians actually brought out the carts. Those inefficient Austrian officials, if they failed to complete the task of requisitioning carriages, would be visited by these Austrian officers for a talk. They did not dare to disobey the orders of the Austrian emperor. After all, if they really lost their jobs, it would not be fun - their colleagues in Bohemia and Hungary actually performed better than them.

Some soldiers who fell behind finally caught up with these vehicles and were able to return to their troops during a rest stop.

Thanks to "Tianhaishan" for the book recommendation support!

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(End of this chapter)