Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796

Chapter 415 057  Napoleon's quick route to Berlin (Part 3) The Prussian army's humiliating

Chapter 415 057 Napoleon's Quick Road to Berlin (III) The Humiliating Defeat of the Prussian Army

King Frederick William III's performance was indeed very embarrassing.

With the commander-in-chief, Duke Brunswick, seriously injured and unable to command the troops, he was now asked to command the army. Although his ability in this regard was not the worst in the Hohenzollern family, he was forced to do something when the army was defeated, and appeared at the most inappropriate time.

He was not even very confident in Eugen of Württemberg. After all, the opponent's eldest brother was a 200-kilogram German strongman, and after the French army entered southern Germany, he smoothly turned to Napoleon and was directly in the opponent's camp.

He didn't even care about that much, and left the camp of the Prince of Württemberg directly to take over the army that seemed to no longer exist.

However, this man didn't have this ability, and Queen Louise, who had been sick with the army, blocked her husband's way in a carriage.

"Your Majesty, where are you going?"

"Louise, take over my army."

"At this time, it is not wise for you to leave the only unit you can still effectively control and take over the defeated army. As your wife, Your Majesty, I can help you do anything unconditionally. But at this time, you can't make such a stupid mistake."

Louise mentioned "stupid" directly, and it was a disappointed look.

She even had some purple lips, which seemed to indicate that she was in very poor physical condition.

But even such a queen, her words were very important, but because of the royal power, as a daughter-in-law, she was just exerting influence.

Now that Frederick William III made such a mistake, she had to intervene in person.

And the carriage was blocking the road, and there were also the queen's entourage and a squadron of hussars, so the King of Prussia could only follow the advice and return to the barracks.

In fact, the Württemberg family had a long history of working in the Prussian-German army, until the commander of the No. 4 tank battalion of the Armored Training Division was killed in Normandy. This service experience lasted for more than 200 years.

Of course, there were some surprises, such as Frederick the Great was very dissatisfied with Paul's strong brother-in-law, who actually "eats inside and outside" to help improve relations between Russia and Austria. As a result, he was expelled from the Prussian army and had to go to Russia to eat food and serve as an officer.

With this experience in the past, there were still people from the Württemberg family serving in the Prussian army. On the one hand, Württemberg was a small country, and such things had always been tolerated. On the other hand, eggs should not be put in one basket. Being an officer anywhere is making money, and side branches can also obtain manors and fiefs, so this kind of thing is not shameful.

As for Eugen himself, he could also imagine what the king was thinking.

He was just a high-level worker, and it didn't matter if he lost the war. He could either go to his elder brother and live a good life in the manor, or go to Petersburg to his eldest nephew. Alexander always offered a good price.

Of course, at this time, he still had to fulfill his responsibilities and obligations to take this useless king out.

Therefore, he decided to listen to the queen.

As for the queen blocking the road with a carriage here, the squadron of cavalry was sponsored by him.

The Prussian army was now scattered everywhere, and Napoleon was not very interested in taking prisoners.

Since there were more than 10,000 people of Lüchel in Erfurt, he ordered Lannes and Ney, who were advancing from Fulda to Erfurt, to march quickly and come to encircle the Prussian army in the city.

And the French troops in Saxe-Weimar, east of Erfurt, began to adjust the marching columns and prepare to advance quickly to Berlin.

However, there are still some bumpy places in the process. The Prussians will still have some obstacles on the road between Weimar and Berlin.

But this is like a mantis trying to stop a chariot, and it can't cause any waves.

In the Russian headquarters, Marshal Kamensky finally came.

Although he is old, he is not confused. The problem is that his physical functions can't keep up with the times. It's okay for him to stay at home, but it's an embarrassing thing to go out to fight.

Langgeron and Solovyov stood here, waiting for the commander-in-chief's lecture.

Originally, they thought that according to the performance of this person in the Danube Corps that year, he would say some polite words, but he didn't, and he was directly dismissed.

"Michel, do you think our commander-in-chief is still competent?"

"You ask me?"

Solovyov was still pretending to be confused before, just to deal with Marshal Kamensky, but after coming out, since Langgeron came to ask him, he had to consider this issue.

This Frenchman would not cheat him, the problem lies in the wording.

"Yes, I'm asking you."

"If it's Mikhail Fyodorovich's own opinion, I think he would still be self-aware. But at this moment, the Prussians are afraid that they have been defeated by Bonaparte."

"Ah, you are still thinking about this problem."

"In our headquarters, we have the rusty sword of the Queen, the young officers who are eager to try, and you, who are forced to be the chief of staff of our corps, and that guy Buckholden."

"You said this about Buckholden, but be careful when you are sent to him, he will cause you trouble."

"I'm not afraid of that. He had to rely on me and Prince Bagration to cover his rear in Austerlitz. Grand Duke Constantine knows that."

Langeron also knew that Solovyov's relationship was still with the Guards, and because he no longer led the Jagers, he was directly under the Grand Duke's command.

Considering his relationship, it was obviously difficult for the old man Buckholden to make trouble for him.

"It's the rear guard again. If the Prussians had someone like Bagration who was good at rearguard battles, they wouldn't be defeated like this now."

"Even the French didn't have time to capture them. They should march to Berlin, right?"

"I think so. If you have any ideas, you can tell me now."

Langeron actually had a lot of ideas. He had the ability to be a staff officer, but he preferred to be the commander of a local garrison or lead a legion.

Therefore, he also intended to give more work to Soloviev. This guy is really useful. As long as he doesn't think about doing side jobs, he is still a very useful staff officer. He is very suitable for the position of the director of operations.

"I think the Wittgenstein Corps should set off in advance. No matter what happens to the Prussians, they must first reach the Vistula River and control Warsaw. Then pull up the Wittgenstein Corps and the Buchholden Corps to meet the remnants of the Prussian army. It would be better to let the Swedes leave only a few people in Pomerania and put all the coalition forces that can be concentrated on this line."

Soloviev still likes to talk on the map, and he also pointed out several key points.

"You can see here that Count Danzig must be controlled. Even if he is surrounded by the French, he must be prepared to defend it for a long time. If it doesn't work, let the British navy come to deliver goods. We must ensure that the port can be used during the thawing period. Now there should be some food reserves. If the reserves are sufficient, we can bury a nail in the back of the French. In addition, our army should be able to control Warsaw. The nobles there suffered more than a decade ago and will not easily raise the banner of rebellion."

"Do you want to fight Bonaparte with the Vistula River?"

Soloviev looked at Langgeron. Although he was a Frenchman, he seemed to have no such idea in his subconscious mind.

It's no wonder. Among these people from the royalist party, he had seen that the Duke of Richelieu and the Duke of Enghien were more concerned about their French identity, and then the noble title.

Those royalists were more concerned about their noble titles, and some people might be proud to serve His Majesty the King.

"I have this idea, but what will happen to our commander-in-chief and two corps commanders?"

"You can't let me replace Wittgenstein and let him be the chief of staff, right?"

"The only cavalry general who can be the chief of staff is Bennigsen, and he is also a speculator."

Soloviev said so, and Langeron agreed. One of them is a small troll and the other is a big troll. They have made many sharp comments on various phenomena in the current Russian army, but they did not sneer.

After all, one of them is a general and the other is a colonel. They are both masters and are in it.

"It seems that we can only start with the current situation. There is another bad problem, that is, the reality is very serious. If Bonaparte goes to Berlin like this, the war may end before we set off."

"This is a distance problem. St. Petersburg is even closer than Moscow. At least the sea route news provided by the British comes quickly."

There is a key point in the issue they discussed, that is, if the Prussian royal family did not stay in Berlin but chose to flee, there are obviously some things that can be discussed.

But they couldn't take any action and had to wait for instructions from Petersburg.

The news of the Prussian defeat spread quickly. When Marshal Kamensky came to Jelgava, the messenger sent from Berlin had passed by here for a few days, which was enough for Alexander to issue a new order.

Unfortunately, Prussia did not make any request.

So Alexander had only one way, to send someone to pick up his sister Maria in Berlin, or at least to meet her on the way.

Originally, he wanted to send a court attendant, but these people were unreliable, and Alexander was still frightened.

When Maria and Catherine were in the palace before, Alexander found that the court attendants assigned to them were really noble masters, who could skip work more than those maids who could take turns to rest. Such work still needed to be handed over to people with adjutant experience in the Guards.

Although Peter Dolgorukov was fooled in Austerlitz, it should be considered that he was reliable.

But after he came back, he immediately fell ill, and his condition was critical.

If his brother Mikhail was there, it might be suitable, and he was in the East Prussian Army.

So Alexander issued an order to Mikhail Dolgorukov, who was in Jelgava, to go to Berlin to bring Maria and her son back.

As for other royal relatives, when the Austrians were defeated last time, many of them had consciously returned to Russia. Everyone knew that there would be no peace in Europe in the next few years, especially in places with relations with the French.

As for the army in front, Marshal Kamensky was now in place, but Alexander was worried.

After all, this old marshal is not like Marshal Suvorov, who gets more and more powerful as he gets older. It is simply because there are no generals available, and other veterans are even less qualified. As for why Russia has such a magical matching mechanism, it is probably a system problem inherited from ancestors.

When Paul was still there, he had already realized that he wanted to update, but the young people had not caught up, and the people he promoted, such as Korsakov, were embarrassing, so he could only select according to the list of marshals and generals left by the empress.

Alexander himself is very optimistic about Bagration, but he also has to consider the issue of qualifications. This time, letting Langeron, a Frenchman, be the chief of staff is already an exception.

After all, some generals from Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands are not suitable for the staff business of such a large army. The only suitable one, Van Suchteren, is still the director of military supplies and chief of staff, and it is impossible for him to go to the front line.

But Langeron himself did not like to do staff work, so Soloviev found that he came to the East Prussian Corps as the director of operations, just like Paul had expected, a colonel could serve as the chief of staff, and really connected with Prussia.

But he had to consider a lot of issues. In this position, he actually became the chief of staff of the Russian army, and if Marshal Kamensky did not take care of things, Langeron might become the commander-in-chief of the Russian army according to the command order.

You know, when Potemkin died of illness in the Danube Corps, according to the rank, Marshal Kamensky should have taken over, but Potemkin left the commission to let Kakhovsky take over the corps.

This also seems to be a cycle.

As for what level Marshal Kamensky is, his resume was still very strong in the past, and he had already frightened the Russian soldiers as soon as he took office.

Suvorov was able to make the soldiers respect him, Kutuzov also had similar skills, and Kamensky was a believer in the Prussian way.

If we want to win this battle, we may need to let this old marshal choose to sleep during the battle.

As for the two corps commanders, Wittgenstein has relatively little experience, and Buchholden is a problem.

Considering that the Russian army will go to East Prussia next, Solovyov's mind is full of Tannenberg and Max Hoffmann, as well as the discord between the two Russian army group commanders.

This is really a bit troublesome.

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