Chapter 58 008 Encountering French Soldiers

Chapter 58 008 Encountering French Soldiers

Chapter 58 008 Encountering French Soldiers
Only after the fighting begins will you realize what the battlefield is like for a person.

A guy who brags before the war may become a coward on the battlefield; a person who is cautious about everything may be afraid on the battlefield, but he may also be a brave man.

After the Russian army reached their destination on this stage of the forced march on April 4, the subsequent lagging soldiers were still catching up.

The situation at the front was still unclear. According to a letter from General Kray, he would fight against French General Scherer on a new battlefield. If the enemy could be tied down, the subsequent Russian-Austrian coalition forces, the vanguard of these troops, the Cossacks and Hussars, would 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 is doing."

"Your Excellency Marshal, if General Kray asks, what is our course of action?"

"According to the previous reports on the Miloradovich and Rosenberg columns, General Melas will send a separate courier. Child, the important thing is to deliver the letter, but be careful of the French hounds along the way."

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

Solovyov had a shortened carbine named after him, using the same ammunition, and he was well prepared with weapons at his waist and on his saddle.

Solovyov set out with a few Austrian cavalrymen. Still not wanting to expose the movements of the Russian army, he also imitated the dress of some young officers and changed himself into a white military uniform and a gray coat.

"You know what, Captain, you are really our little Russian cousin of the Austrians. If you dress like this, there will be girls in Vienna who will go crazy for the young officer!"

This is what an elderly Austrian major said when leaving Suvorov's station.

But he spoke with a strange and unpleasant Saxon accent. There were many officers in the Austrian army who came from all over the country. Fortunately, there was not much difference in German. For an Austrian officer, being able to understand, speak and give orders was enough.

Perhaps it is because Solovyov has a relatively high level of education that he always likes to complain about others.

There were only five riders in his group, and they were going forward to look for General Cray. They would probably have to go a distance to the southwest and then pass by along the main road.

Along the way, no one appeared in the village, but there were some Italians talking about something. Although Solovyov taught himself something when he had nothing to do, the villagers spoke like pouring beans, and he couldn't hear clearly at all.

The only word I heard clearly was "francese" in Italian. Anyway, when people mention the French, they always 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 to go to Krei and report the situation when he came back to see whether Krei planned to fight another battle with the French near Verona or had any other ideas.

It was indeed a coincidence that when they left the village, they saw a group of French cavalry.

"Damn it, get ready to fight!"

Solovyov gave a pistol to the Austrian cavalryman beside him, and he had two more of his own. Even when encountering such an emergency, both sides were very vigilant.

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

This is indeed very troublesome. Turning around and running is definitely not an option. The road they are taking now is still some distance away from other roads that can lead to General Kray's base.

The only option was to charge head-on, but Solovyov was not a professional cavalryman, so this was a little troublesome.

If they had to fight their opponents head-on, they actually had a slight advantage, that is, if they used pistols and lances, the French would not be able to gain any advantage.

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

The French had not expected such a thing to happen. They actually shot one of them down with one shot at a distance where the Austrian light cavalry would not normally fire.

To deal with these "unsportsmanlike" people who used long-range props, the French cavalry, whose riding skills were not necessarily better than those of the Austrians, but who had always been desperate, rode their horses and rushed over.

But they were unlucky because these Austrian soldiers all carried guns and they all chose to open fire.

Some Frenchmen also came close to shoot, and Solovyov's hat was blown off. This time he was lucky not to be hit. An Austrian cavalryman also had an arm injury.

But the French were in a very 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, what should we do with these Frenchmen?"

"See how they are doing. If they are too badly injured, find a nearby village and leave them there to their fate. It's not serious, but we can get some information from them!"

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

Several Frenchmen looked at each other in bewilderment. They all thought that this Austrian guy had something wrong with his brain. After all, he was wearing an Austrian military uniform.

"The lady you are talking about is called Marie Rose Joseph. There are so many women with this name in France. Where can you find her?"

They were indeed a bit helpless about this matter, but they captured three French soldiers at once, killed two of them, and got five horses. This was a small profit in this encounter. If they had not been unethical and their firepower had exceeded the standard at the time, they would not have caught the French light cavalry off guard.

Solovyov told the nearby villagers about the two guys he killed, asking them to find the bodies, dig a hole and bury them. As for the property of the French soldiers, he only took away their documents and maps, and left their personal belongings untouched.

He didn't know what the locals would do, and the most important thing now was to hurry on.

Through these three French cavalrymen, Solovyov also knew that they were not far from the Austrian army's base near Verona, and by dusk, they would be able to enter General Krei's camp with the prisoners.

When we arrived at the Austrian camp east of Verona, we could see a large number of wounded soldiers, and some were digging pits outside to dispose of the bodies. "Captain, it looks like we had a tough fight with the French!"

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

Solovyov was not too worried about coming to see General Krei. After all, he had handwritten letters from Suvorov and Verose, and he came with a mission.

"Captain, you are so lucky. The scouts we sent out before were always attacked by the French, and even the communication with the Marshal and General Melas was not very smooth. And you killed two, captured three prisoners, and only injured one person. You are blessed by God!"

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

"Yes, Captain."

Krei also discovered that the captain who came was indeed too young. He became the company commander of the grenadiers when he was almost 30 years old. This guy was probably less than 20 years old.

Are all the officers in Russia these little guys with the milk smell still lingering?
Not to mention other places, there are indeed quite a few among the Guards, so General Krey's estimate is not off the mark.

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

After bringing the hat, General Krei also wanted to ask about the situation on Marshal Suvorov's side.

"At present, our two columns are resting and will set out again tomorrow morning for a forced march to Verona. According to the marching speed of the past two days, they will arrive here on April 4."

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

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

"Yes, Captain, let's see how the French are doing. General Scherer may have been sitting in the office of the Minister of War for too long. After two consecutive setbacks in his offensive, he should have retreated his 4 troops instead of here."

"If they also go 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 wanted. Captain, go to the tent and rest first. Although we are at the front line, we can still satisfy the stomachs of young officers like you. We can order some Italian food!"

Don't mention it, these Austrian masters had a good meal in the front. Italy is rich in resources and is a very prosperous place in agriculture. The locals can even make pizza and lasagna, and even smoked fish, ham and cheese.
"General, we can still have these good things on the front line."

"Yes, it's a pity that I'm 64 years old. Recently, two of my teeth have started to loosen. I'm not as lucky as you young people who can still enjoy the joy of delicious food. I really admire your old marshal and our General Melas. The two of them are 140 years old in total, and they can still be so active. I don't know if I can be like them when I'm 70 years old."

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

He himself was unable to enjoy the delicacies, but only had some delicious fish soup and a glass of Hungarian liqueur.

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

"This is also simple. His Excellency the Marshal has made it very clear. We Austrians have more soldiers and can be used to delay the French army. Among their divisions, there are also troops led by General Bonaparte who have entered Italy."

"Is it the division of Sérurier which you mentioned in your last letter? But General Bonaparte and the chief officers of his former command are in Egypt and Syria; others are in other fields, for instance, General Masséna, who seems to be in Switzerland."

"We also want to defeat this army and seize its flag. However, the current strength seems insufficient to deal with the French."

"At 4 against 4, we'd better win."

"Yes, it would be best to win, but what we want to do now is to delay the French. We need to wait for the next few marching columns to arrive at the battlefield. If we are in an advantageous position, we can capture the enemy's main force and achieve a complete victory."

The idea was good, but General Cray was slow to act, and his final decision to engage in a battle was to wait for the French to act.

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

"General, I think the French's biggest advantage is their artillery. The French don't 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 attendants and orderly in the tent."

"General, I think the French may have some advantages in the number of artillery, and we must take this into consideration when deploying our troops. For example, we can take advantage of the terrain and deploy our troops on the reverse slope. We can also use artillery cover on the nearby hillside to offset the enemy's firepower advantage."

"You can do this, but you need a suitable position. This area of ​​Butapietra is suitable for setting up a battle. Besides, the weather has been bad these days, so the French can't fight even if they want to."

"Yes, it didn't rain on the way here, but it's raining now. If we meet the French in this kind of weather, our ammunition may not work. Of course, after the rain, the solid bullets will fall to the ground and their power will be weakened."

In fact, if we talk more about the actual situation with these experienced veterans, they will quickly understand that the reverse slope tactic is not the exclusive domain of the British experts in squatting.

General Cray had already taken weather factors into consideration in order to weaken the power of the French artillery. The remaining problem was how to deal with the French on the battlefield.

While he was eating, he also asked his quartermaster to mark on the map.

After careful consideration, he finally decided on the location of the battle. If there were no problems, the action would be launched at Magnano near Butapietra.

"This is it. It looks like a very large place."

Obviously General Kray was making a pun; the battlefield he chose was not very conducive to the French army's activities, but he could also take advantage of General Scherer's current eagerness to attack.

Speaking of which, the experience of the old commanders who were common in the anti-French coalition wars before the Napoleonic Wars is still worth mentioning. In the Austrian army, the older the generals are, the more experienced they are. However, their era will soon be over, and perhaps the current wars are the last chance for these veterans to enjoy some "old man fun".

(End of this chapter)