Chapter 77 027 Four Days of the Battle of Trebia

Chapter 77 027 Four Days of the Battle of Trebia

Chapter 77 027 Four Days of the Battle of Trebia (Day )
When Suvorov decided to fight again the next day, there was already a heated debate on MacDonald's side.

There were already a large number of wounded soldiers in the city of Piacenza. After repeated statistics, the French army now had no idea how much they had lost. The field force of more than 30,000 people seemed to have lost more than 10,000 people. Moreover, their losses were already extremely huge since the Allied forces were fighting with the First Battalion of the Polish Legion on the opposite bank.

Now MacDonald knew that Moreau would not arrive within two days. If the French army fought against the Allied forces under such circumstances, it was unclear whether the Allied forces would have any reinforcements later, or whether reinforcements would come from Cremona east of Piacenza, or even from the farther fortress of Mantua.

If they were to fight like this, the French army would be shaken, and no officer who could still stand up was willing to continue fighting on such a battlefield.

But retreating meant abandoning the wounded. There were more than 7,000 people lying in the city alone, many of whom were senior officers.

After making a choice, the Russian sentry on the river bank saw many campfires in the French camp, but few people moving around, which meant something was fishy.

The Russian troops were all sleeping at this moment because they were too tired.

The French fled extremely quickly. MacDonald gritted his teeth and finally decided to abandon the baggage and wounded. He even overturned the cannons that were out of ammunition and threw them on the side of the road.

On the morning of the last day of the battle, when the early Austrian cavalry on the battlefield scoured the field, they entered the city of Piacenza without seeing a single French soldier standing.

There were only the seriously injured soldiers wailing continuously, and many of them were now on the verge of death.

The Austrian cavalry could only do two things now. One was to go back and report to the two commanders of the Allied Forces, and the other was to call all the "Iron Towers of Sani".

It is impossible not to deal with so many wounded people. If they were on the battlefield, they might have to use bayonets to finish off the wounded to prevent people from faking their death or shooting them secretly.

At this time, Melas was not as slow as usual. According to the tradition of the Austrian army when he followed Marshal Daun, they were very active in the pursuit.

At this time, it is easy to obtain spoils and capture prisoners.

When friendly forces were in trouble, the Austrian army had a problem of being unmovable to a certain extent, but it was true that Melas kept a reserve force to fight against the French army for two days in the middle of the battle, because it would be difficult for the Austrian army to stop the French army on the battlefield with less than 10,000 troops.

His deployment was correct and he also informed Suvorov.

Now, those lightly armed hunters, with a shortage of ammunition, had to cross the river with an average of ten bullets each.

Solovyov led the horse again. When he crossed the river, he found that the cunning French had opened the gates of the dam upstream, causing the water level of the Trebia River to surge. Now it was high enough to cover his boots. If he rode on a horse, his boots were well sealed and no water would get in.

But it was not so easy for ordinary soldiers when crossing the river. In order to ensure that the ammunition was dry, they put the bags of bullets and dry food in their hats or carried them on the barrels of their rifles when crossing the river, like a cunning country peddler.

Then when Solovyov saw this scene, he actually sang "The Peddler". After all, this song is in Tetris.
"Look at our captain, he's singing again, and the tune is pretty good!"

But this time, Solovyov stopped and shouted, "Chase them and use bayonets to kill those Frenchmen!"

Then he rode on his horse and set out in pursuit with the hunters in the front.

There were no tents in the French camp. They rarely used tents. In order to facilitate the transportation of baggage, they preferred to requisition tents on the spot.

In fact, if there were more baggage carts, they should have been abandoned on the road directly, which would have slowed down the speed of the coalition forces chasing them.

Since there were not many of them, it would save the Russian troops coming from the countryside from looting the French soldiers' baggage and spoils of war on the road.

But at this moment, anyone who stopped to snatch the abandoned baggage would be whipped by the usually kind officers!

Suvorov's order was to pursue the enemy across the Nur River and not let them escape.

The Austrians were getting closer to the city, their infantry entering Piacenza, while their cavalry now joined the Russian Cossack pursuit force.

While pursuing, the cavalry had to control the stone bridge over the Nur River. They galloped on their horses and caught up with some French troops at the bridgehead. These French soldiers were now anxious to retreat from the stone bridge. When the familiar sound of horse hooves came from afar, they also saw the Allied cavalry waving sabers and lances and surrounding them.

It is better to capture them alive at this time. If the Turks were chasing, they would prefer to cut off the heads of the defeated soldiers.

Hundreds of people were captured at once, along with the spoils they had seized from Italy.

In the Russian pursuit column, the infantrymen swam across the river. Even the wounded Prince Bagration, with a bandage on his head, led his entourage in the pursuit, trying to capture all the French soldiers.

At this time of summer, if you could still see the melting snow at the foot of the peaks of the Alps and the Caucasus, the defeat of the French looked like this.

During the pursuit, Solovyov kept riding his horse and keeping pace with the infantry. If he ran too fast, he would be alone, and this was not the time to be a hero.

"Brothers, catch up with those Frenchmen, seize their cannons, baggage and flags, and it would be best if we could capture the French officers alive!"

For some veteran soldiers, this kind of achievement can earn them a reward at the very least. If they are lucky, they can be promoted from a soldier or sergeant to a second lieutenant, which means they will become the lowest-ranking "master". If they no longer fight in the future, they can apply for early retirement a year later and go home with medals and rewards awarded by the emperor. How proud they are!

That's how the Cossack cavalry captured the bridge and threw the French baggage wagons on both sides of the road, making way for the pursuing infantry brothers and cavalry artillery.

If there are still some French troops who can form a formation to resist, we must bring out these small cannons and make more transparent holes in them!

When Solovyov led his troops to charge forward, the Cossacks ran further forward. Some French soldiers who were left behind were now running around, and many of them hid in the ditches on the side of the road to save their lives.

"Misha, are you going to catch them?"

"Major, please go ahead. They are just French soldiers. I don't have time to capture them!"

These stragglers were not of much value. Among the Guards, the Guards Regiment of Grand Duke Constantine did not join the battle until the third day. They were in good physical condition and had high morale, but now they were only concerned with capturing the French soldiers on the road.

The Guards Jagers, who were in the Bagration Column, continued to move forward to hunt down those high-value targets.

In particular, Solovyov saw what he had always wanted, a French flag on the shoulder of a soldier. In the previous battle, the United Chasseurs had captured two Polish army flags, but they had not yet been able to get the authentic French flag.

And these Russians were still shouting: "Lève les mains!" (Hands up!)
If he had said in French "surrender your weapons and you will not be killed, treat prisoners well", it would have been too wordy. Solovyov approached the French soldier holding the flag and chopped him to the ground with the back of his knife.

At times like this, it’s better to catch them alive.

"Look at our captain, he's really a good guy, he captured a flag himself!"

"We should catch up and grab the cannons and baggage! Our 'father' wants to give chase, and there will be rewards for merit!"

They pursued faster and faster, and the Russian soldiers, encouraged by their officers' "merits", continued to chase the French soldiers.

At this time, if the flag-bearing soldier had a clear mind, he should hide the flag in his arms so that it would not be easily seen.

But the Russians did the same thing. They tore open the French soldiers' coats, and if there was a military flag inside, they would have seen it directly.

By the time they chased to a large number of villages with "Piacentino", some of the French could not run anymore. Together with the wounded and those killed, at least 17,000 of the more than 30,000 French troops were wiped out.

In other words, half of the troops were wiped out in the four-day battle, and a large number of military flags were captured. There were dozens of cannons abandoned on the roadside. MacDonald's army was on the verge of collapse.

He himself said afterwards that this battle was a tragic defeat and we paid a high price. If he had not met Suvorov in the Battle of the Trebia River, he should have returned to the country to be court-martialed.

Well, it’s not too shameful to be defeated by an old comrade who is very martial.

He could only lead his remnants to the south of the Apennine Mountains to join Moreau's army.

Moreau was unable to break through Bellegarde's blockade. Although the Austrian army fought with him on June 6 and then fled to the north of Alexandria, he soon received news of the defeat.

In MacDonald's defeat, a large number of officers were captured, and eight generals were killed or captured. General Dombrovski, who had been captured in Warsaw before, was captured again this time.

In fact, Bagration also achieved great results on this day. He led his column to pursue the Guards Chasseurs. The 17 men of the 1100th Demi-Brigade, who served as the rear guard, laid down their arms in St. George and obtained 6 cannons and 3 military flags.

Suvorov was extremely happy because so much was captured that day. He was in a good spirit, which offset the fatigue he had suffered during that period.

Moreover, he chatted and laughed with the Austrian generals along the way, and the Austrian generals also came to congratulate him.

"Congratulations, Marshal, for achieving a great victory at such a time on a battlefield where General Hannibal once won. But I don't quite understand why Hannibal didn't march directly to Rome at that time?"

Hearing this, Suvorov laughed: "Maybe in Carthage, there is also a 'Military Committee' in the court!"

The joke wasn't funny, but it hit the nail on the head and even the veteran Melas laughed.

After all, their Austrian emperor also had this kind of organization, which made it difficult for the Austrian army to fight battles successfully.

You have to know that during the "Three Skirts" Alliance, the Austrian Queen was in charge of political issues and taking care of children at home, and did not interfere in military issues.

It is rumored that the French army was defeated at that time because the "Madame Fish", Madame Pompadour, actually interfered in French politics and military affairs?
Paul's committee was indeed a problem, but this time Suvorov had Paul's full support and was not harassed during the entire war. Grand Duke Constantine was also sent to accompany the army.

While he was here, because of the defeat in the battle of the Po River, he completely obeyed the orders of the old marshal and admired him very much.

And in the letter to his brother, Crown Prince Alexander, the marshal's calm command and the brave fighting of the soldiers on the front line were also mentioned.

I also wrote to Paul. After all, the traditional art of the court in St. Petersburg was for the favorites to attack each other, so there were not many words of praise.

The good news from Italy also made the conspiracy group against Paul begin to be vigilant.

One of Count Zubov's brothers married the old marshal's daughter, so their conspiracy is still kept secret.

Also, considering that Britain is now allied with Russia, the conspiring organization is now slowing down their conspiracy.

Without material support from the British, any conspiracy and alliance on the European continent would be difficult to carry out.

Now the victory achieved by the Russian army has made Austria and Britain alert.

It was a small matter for the British to withdraw their fleet from Genoa and temporarily lift the blockade there.

After hearing the news of the great victory at Trebia, the Austrian emperor saw that the situation on the front line was now settled, and he began his magical micro-management.

"To demand the Austrian troops to go to the fortress of Mantua and capture it?"

"Yes, Marshal, send an Austrian column there."

"It's like General Melas. I think this 'military committee' worked."

Melas also shook his head helplessly. He also thought that they should take advantage of the moment to let the 4 assembled Russian troops pass in front of the Alexandria Fortress and advance directly to the Mediterranean coast regardless of whether Genoa was blockaded or not.

However, the Austrian army must execute orders from the Austrian emperor, and the Russian army on the Italian battlefield must also follow orders from Vienna.

In this situation, the best opportunity for battle has been lost, and the French now have a chance to catch their breath and even further deploy troops and take action in the northwest of Italy.

(End of this chapter)