Chapter 73 023 There are many Poles on the opposite side

Chapter 73 023 There are many Poles on the opposite side

Chapter 73 There are many Poles on the other side
The Austrians had an old problem when fighting: no matter whether the friendly troops nearby were from their own country or foreign countries, if they were arranged in separate battle formations, they would easily hesitate or avoid fighting to preserve their strength.

The result is often even greater losses, and such losses on the battlefield are often unnecessary, which makes people feel that your level is probably due to the fact that Austria is a bulk monarchy?
It does take a lot of effort to stitch together Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, Moravia and part of Italy, Dalmatia and Illyria, so it is not surprising that anything happens on the battlefield.

What needs to be explained here is the Austrian emperor's various magical micro-managements. He often gave instructions to front-line commanders and interfered with personnel appointments, which always ultimately turned magic into decay.

As the saying goes, "One who does not understand the responsibilities of the three armies, yet seeks to seize their power." Whenever a critical moment comes, he would interfere with the command, and the final result can be imagined.

Suvorov was also worried about this problem, but Melas was a reliable veteran. They trusted each other and had cooperated well so far.

After they marched through Alexandria, they continued eastward, leaving Bellegarde on his way back south to monitor Moreau in the direction of Genoa and to surround the French fortress near Alexandria.

The important military intelligence was that MacDonald's corps had already moved in the east. Suvorov decided to march eastward, first defeat MacDonald who had a stronger force, and then return to deal with Moreau whose strength had been greatly reduced.

At present, the total number of troops that Moreau can mobilize is 3, but he has to maintain his troop presence in the French-occupied area and guard several fortresses, so his actual mobile force is extremely limited.

But even so, he still decided on such a high-risk combat plan while in contact with McDonald.

This might be useful against an ordinary general. If there were only Austrian veterans like Melas or Kray on the Italian battlefield, this plan might also succeed considering their troop deployment and marching speed on the battlefield.

However, Suvorov always emphasized the need for rapid advance. For him, since he knew where MacDonald had gone, he had to attack along the Po River.

The Bagration column, which was operating at the forefront of the coalition forces, was always in the vanguard during attacks and in the rear guard during retreats. The troops under his command obviously had the most opportunities to engage in combat with the enemy.

Following closely were the Guards Column and Miloradovich's Column. Suvorov had always had an idea that when concentrating the Russian troops, they should be divided into two groups and advance in a column formed by two corps.

Now, since the other marching route is full of Austrian troops, this idea has to be put on hold.

Solovyov's current marching position is at the head of the Guards column, closely following Bagration's column of 5,000 men.

Since most of the Russian cavalry that went on the expedition were Cossack cavalry, heavy cavalry was needed on the battlefield at this time, and they still relied on the Austrian dragoons. The Novgorod dragoons brought by Grand Duke Constantine were not enough.

That's why these Austrian cavalry could always be seen maneuvering quickly alongside the marching column.

As officers, they must pay special attention to the movements of these cavalrymen. On the one hand, they are observing the marching speed of the infantry columns, and on the other hand, they are going back and forth between the commander and the commander-in-chief to convey military intelligence and change the direction of the troops' movements. This is still very necessary.

Although short rests were necessary during the march, the orders given to each column now compressed the rest time as much as possible, similar to the previous all-out march towards Verona, but the speed had also slowed down slightly.

"There's no end to the journey like this!"

Some soldiers in the queue had already started to complain.

"The journey from our home to Petersburg is much longer than this, not to mention from Petersburg to Vienna and then to Italy. It's better to be a soldier than to weed and spin at home!"

I don't know how weeding and spinning got put together.

"Captain, don't you feel tired walking with us like this?"

"Yes, the other masters are riding horses, but you are leading the horse now."

Solovyov looked at the soldiers in the queue. Some were from the Jager Company he led, while others were drawn from other regiments. There were so many people talking at once in such a mixed group, so there was no harm in chatting with them.

"If you're always on the horse, you might as well try it and see if your butt can take it!"

"Yes, the master is in such a state. The butts of those Germans are all stuck to their horses. If we are to suffer, it is not our turn! We peasants walk like this, walking on muddy roads, dirt roads, and the Italian gravel roads are still the best roads. At least, they won't eat the soles of our boots!"

"If I knew which shoemaker made your shoes, I would shoot him!"

After Solovyov said this, the old soldiers continued to make a fuss.

"Sir, if you shoot that shoemaker, I'm afraid you'll have to go to Moscow again. We old soldiers of the Smolensk Regiment have our shoes made by Moscow leatherworkers."

"That's fine. My hometown is Ryazan. When I return to St. Petersburg, I can go directly to Moscow to kill the leatherworker. It will save trouble. And, have you all bought new boots for yourselves?"

Changing shoes is a daily routine for Russian soldiers on the front line.

"I've already changed my shoes. The Italians' craftsmanship is really good. As long as you wipe off the dirt, they'll be a new pair of shoes."

"Of course. Italy is like a boot on the map, and making leather shoes is their specialty."

"Captain, what about us, Russia?"

These veterans were much more talkative than the hunters he brought with him, but chatting while marching could help them relax, and at least they would feel better.

"We are Russia. Do you see my bearskin hat? It looks like a bear. But this is just a hat bought by the officers themselves. This hat is still comfortable, but it's so hot. Look, it's hung on the saddle."

"Yeah, when we have nothing to do, we can't provoke those bears. Who knows which bear might suddenly go crazy!"

“And you have to bring a shotgun!”

"Hahaha"

Just as these old soldiers were interrupting and having fun, an Austrian cavalryman brought orders for several regiments of the Guards column.

"The United Chasseurs have changed their marching formation and joined the Bagration Column. Do they want the Grand Duke Constantine's Guards to rest?"

As soon as the handwriting was looked at, it was known that the order was written by an Austrian. Suvorov's oral orders always talked about the old numbers and the "combined forces", and the orders with the new numbers were all issued by Werosser to the various regiments.

At this time, he also had to wait for specific instructions from Major von Bystrom, and the march could not be stopped. If the marching formation was changed, when the Bagration column stopped in front, the joint regiment would need to follow it for a few more steps.

To be honest, I'm afraid a new formation will have to be formed, with the jägers in front, the musketeers and grenadiers behind, and the artillery assigned to the column at the end.

The dragoons, hussars, and Cossacks were on one side of the column, and if there had been a hot air balloon in the air now, one could have seen the clouds of dust as the infantry columns marched.

In summer in Italy, many places have a Mediterranean climate with dryness and little rain, so marching at this time is really torturous.

After that, you need to walk to the town of Stradello and continue on from there.

Bagration was indeed waiting for the arrival of follow-up troops in the town. The marching order was changed to two chasseur regiments advancing in parallel on the front line, the rest of the infantry followed behind, and the cavalry was deployed on the flanks.

He was also waiting for the hunters to be sent out from the Guards. After adjusting the deployment, he could set up a cordon in the villages on the front line and advance faster.

"Misha, you guys are moving very quickly. What we need to do now is to search and move forward. The scouts have reported that there are Polish troops active here?"

"Poles? Whose side are they on?"

"It's our old friend General Dabrowski. He has now gone to the French to form a legion. We can see a lot of Poles in Italy. According to our Austrian allies, there are at least 10,000 Poles in the French army."

"My goodness, why did you do so much?"

"They want to restore their country. How easy is that! It's totally different from my hometown Tbilisi."

Over in Georgia, we are now eagerly hoping that the Russian army will arrive soon, otherwise we will be robbed by the Turks and Persians all day long.

The reason why Dombrovsky was an "old friend" was that a few years ago, when Marshal Suvorov led his troops to suppress the Warsaw Uprising, the troops that Bagration was in finally broke through the general's defense line, and the final result was the surrender of the Polish insurgents.

One can sympathize with them from the perspective of their national spirit, but as soon as the Poles become a little richer, they will take advantage of all the surrounding countries, big and small, one by one. This is hard to explain in a few words.

Even Prince Czartoryski, while being by the side of the Crown Prince, wanted to secretly have an intimate relationship with the Crown Princess. It was not acceptable for a Russian diplomat to consider Poland's interests at all times.

Solovyov, a young man who had not experienced the suppression of the Polish uprising, had a bad impression of the Poles, which was caused by the suicidal behavior of the Poles in the two dimensions.

Especially Prince Czartoryski, he had to defeat him resolutely.

Although this guy did not establish a deep friendship with the Crown Princess, he made the Polish Prince seem like his "rival in love". Fortunately, not many outsiders knew about it.

When he was in the palace, he actually learned what happened that day from the maidservants around the Crown Princess. Anyway, the Polish prince was much more excessive than Count Zubov. The count's formal pursuit of the girl was based on the favor of the Queen, while this one was completely driven by hormonal impulse.

It was no wonder that Crown Princess Elizabeth said that when he accidentally talked about Poland that day. After all, Prince Czartoryski had been slapped in the face before.

Fortunately, Louisa was too weak to give Osman a big slap in the face, otherwise she would have to lie down and be carried out by the guards.

What Gryazev said is even more interesting. Poland is not good in any way except for the country girls and war horses there.

Solovyov didn't know that the grenadiers' captain's marching diary also included the story of his relationship with a local girl when he was stationed in Poland. In fact, this paragraph was not much less important than the account of this expedition.

The change in the marching column was that the hunters formed a formation in the front to search, especially the scouts on the front line of defense.

Bagration assigned Solovyov the task of leading his company at the forefront of all the troops.

This is a good thing. Solovyov can take only two companies with him in the temporary formation. The company separated from Miloradovich will be handed over to Bagration's Jager Regiment, and behind them is the Guards Jager Battalion.

The way of fighting has become different from the standard battles of this era.

Normally, the French army should not have any stationed troops in the village of Sant Jovano, and even the report of the Austrian cavalry after returning was such.

But during the march, the hunting company discovered a bonfire in the middle of the village, surrounded by a group of people dressed as Ulan cavalry.

"Damn, it's really a Pole!"

"Captain, should we fight?"

"Don't be hasty. We only have two companies, and we don't know how many enemies there are. However, we need the Bishop to go around to the east and block their retreat. Then you can fire a volley of gunfire and then launch a bayonet charge. These Poles will definitely not be prepared!"

The reason they did this was because this company was separated from the Smolensk Regiment. Their weapons had a really low firing rate, so they adopted this method.

Solovyov was more familiar with his basic troops. He made a detour and waited for the Poles to break out. At dusk, he turned the road east of the village into a shooting range.

We also need to capture some prisoners and find out which legion these Poles belong to, whether they are the remnants of the defeated army that escaped from Mantua, or the vanguard of Macdonald's Naples Legion.

When the veterans heard about this arrangement, they thought it was correct. They just liked to fight with bayonets. Although "bayonet makes a hero" is a characteristic of the Russian army, Suvorov's training still emphasizes the need to shoot accurately.

Even these veterans, under the command of their company commander, who were not numerous enough to form a battalion formation, directly launched a bayonet charge.

At this time, Solovyov set up an ambush on the eastern road, and he discovered that there were also a large number of Poles.

"Wow, infantry, cavalry, and artillery are all available! This means we have caught a big fish!"

He then sent a messenger on horseback to find Bagration and seek support from the column commander.

(End of this chapter)