(The second chapter is here! This chapter is mainly about Napoleon, which may be a bit boring)
Kutuzov's army was mainly divided into Barclay's First Army, Bagration's Second Army, Tomasov's Third Army, Minoradovich's Fourth Army, Osterman's Sixth Army The Legion and the formidable Cossack cavalry regiment commanded by Keen? Matif? Ivanovich? Platov, and a number of other units including the Imperial Guard. Kutuzov was well aware of his serious shortage of troops, so he deployed the main troops in important strongholds that could be supported by fortresses.
"The whole object of our operation is to concentrate 400,000 men on one point," Napoleon instructed his marshals and generals. Napoleon didn't have much choice as to the way forward, because there were dense forests, rivers with countless tributaries, and endless swampy depressions, including the swamps from the Pripyat River Basin to the east of Warsaw. A 200-mile-long expanse—there are hardly any roads to speak of here. The offensive line of the three main armies included Kovno in the extreme north of the Neman River, Grodno about 100 miles south of the Neman River, and finally Blesk-Litovsk east of Warsaw.
Kovno leads to Vilna, where the tsar has concentrated his main force, then to Vitebsk, Smolensk, Borodino, and finally Moscow. Grodno goes south through Minsk and joins Vitebsk Avenue. From Blesk-Litovsk, Napoleon could pass through the southern part of the Pripyat Marsh to Kiev in Ukraine, from where he continued southward and finally took the road to Moscow. This is the estimation of the marshals and generals of Tsarist Russia. Due to the extremely difficult and long journey to reach the Russian mainland, Napoleon would choose the shortest and most direct route, via Kovno and Vilna. Therefore, on the Russian side, about 27,000 of the main Russian army led by General Nikoli can lie in ambush here. The rest of the army could be scattered over a vast area stretching 250 miles from Rosetente in the north to Grodno in the south. This part of the army consisted of several regular troops, including Archiduk? Constantine's Imperial Guard and 3 cavalry regiments. To the south and northeast of Warsaw was stationed the Second Army, about 48,000 men, led by General Bagration. Since Bagration was a difficult person and he could not tolerate Barclay, it would not be a bad idea to split the troops led by the two men. The other detachment was the Second Army led by General Tomasov, about 43,000 men, stationed near Lutsk, south of the Pripyat Marsh.
After crossing the Niemen on June 24, Marshal Lunet's Fourth Army joined Napoleon from the north. To the south were Davout's Guards, Lannes' 5th Army, and Lie's 6th Army, along with Soult's 7th Army and the Italian Front under Prince Eugene to the south, passed Corfe promise. As usual, Murat's cavalry led the way ahead and was now east of Kovno and was the first to reach Vilna on the 28th.
If it is said that Napoleon's original idea was to attract Bagration's Second Army to Vistula, catch up with Jerome and Eugene's troops that had already advanced north, so that he could encircle and attack Barclay on three sides. As a result, his plan fell through, and the commander-in-chief of the tsarist army retreated before the arrival of the French army - two of the three major geographical factors of Russia played a crucial role in completely destroying Napoleon's overall plan , that is time and distance.
It takes time for soldiers to reach the designated location, and exhausted soldiers who have traveled hundreds of miles are still rushing desperately to reach the designated location as scheduled. The armies led by Eugene and Jerome did not arrive at their designated places as originally planned. As for how long the distance between the two locations is, this point is not marked on even the best maps. The ignorance of the situation on foreign battlefields put the French army in an extremely passive situation.
It would be foolish to go deep into the heart of Russia under the conditions of waging a war on such a vast scale. This is simply a replica of the Egyptian expedition, and it seems that Napoleon has not learned the lesson of the previous defeat. To launch a large-scale campaign, Napoleon needed good roads, not to mention sufficient food, drinking water, and ammunition supplies. At present, none of these prerequisites are possessed by Napoleon's army. Instead, Napoleon ordered his two legions to share a single main road. As a result, the two legions failed to reach their designated places according to Napoleon's plan, not to mention delays, and some even lost their way. The third of Russia's three major geographical factors is the harsh climate, which makes the current chaotic situation even worse. First, soldiers fell ill. In the subtropical climate, tens of thousands of soldiers marched under heavy loads, and the miles of dust kicked up by 300,000 horses suffocated both soldiers and livestock; The road that was originally difficult to walk became muddy and potholed, making it even more difficult to walk; in a blink of an eye, the sun was shining brightly again, and the ground became rough. The ruts of 32,000 war horses and carriages are clearly visible: the rough road not only hinders the speed of the supply of munitions and food, but also seriously damages the feet of soldiers and horses, causing a large number of carriages to be destroyed and scrapped. Since the French army crossed the Nieman River, scrapped equipment piled up along the way blocked the passage. Thousands of engineers worked day and night to repair the vehicles, but the situation continued to deteriorate. Due to the heavy load, unbearable hunger, and homesickness, the exhausted infantry units had their morale plummeted before engaging the enemy, and began to discard the food and even ammunition they carried with them.
For Napoleon, the first serious moral shock came not from the Russians but from his brother Jerome, King of Westphalia. "Tell him, don't want to make a fool of yourself like an inexperienced idiot like last time." Napoleon told Clark. As usual, Jerome still did not obey the order and forgot to deploy his troops properly. To be precise, he did not follow the "established" combat plan and march schedule at all. In fact, Jerome remained in Grodno until July 3, when he should have attacked Bagration's forces in the south and stuck them there. "Tell him," Napoleon continued, "because of his incompetence in combat, he has disrupted my original battle plan and made me miss the opportunity!" In fact, Napoleon had long understood Jerome's incompetence. Jerome was very angry, but he did not get angry with Napoleon himself, but quarreled with the stubborn Marshal Davout-if Davout could not bear Napoleon's insult, he would certainly not be able to endure arrogance The insult of Jerome. A week later, on July 14, the angry Jerome abandoned the entire Westphalian army and stationed in Kassel, which had favorable conditions in the west, leaving the angry Davout alone to pack up the team he left behind. , until General Juno took over. For the Russians, despite Davout's intimidation, thank God Jerome's naive behavior allowed Bagration's army to escape the French encirclement.
While Davout continued to pursue Bagration's II Corps, fleeing in the direction of Orsha, Napoleon had turned his attention to pursuing Barclay's I Corps, with the result that Barclay's Corps was forced to retreat to the defensive The forts of Dries and Dunaburg are extremely capable and located near the Dvina River. Having left Murat's cavalry regiment with Ney's and Oudinot's infantry regiments to encircle the fortresses, Napoleon sent part of the main body of the French army north to cut off Barclay's corps from Russian reinforcements and their logistics. , Implementing a flanking encirclement of Barclay's army.
Davout finally caught up with Bagration at Moshilev on July 23 and severely damaged thousands of Russian troops; but the remaining Russian troops escaped smoothly and soon joined the main Russian forces. Although Napoleon expected to bite Barclay's army at Polotsk, it was not until July 27 that the French were able to surround the elusive Barclay at Vitebsk. When Napoleon entered Vitebsk on the 28th, he was extremely disappointed to find that what he had captured was just another empty city; Barclay's army had already retreated eastward under the cover of night.
Afterwards, Napoleon led part of the main force of the French army to start a fierce battle in Smolensk with the main force of the Russian army led by Barclay and Bagration in August. UU Reading www.uukanshu.com In the end, after paying a price of more than 50,000 people, Napoleon finally occupied this place. The door to Moscow was now open to him.
At this time, due to the heavy losses, Kutuzov suggested to Alexander to withdraw from Moscow and retreat to St. Petersburg in the north, so as to pull the logistics supply line of the Russian army. At the same time, the "scorched earth" policy was implemented, leaving no grain or well for the French army. When the long winter rolls around, it's time to fight back.
After repeated consideration, Alexander finally accepted Kutuzov's suggestion and led the Russian people to evacuate Moscow. Napoleon also led an army to occupy Moscow, which was already an empty city, at the end of September.
The good news was immediately spread back to Paris, and the whole of France was jubilant, and another big country was defeated by them, but what Napoleon didn't notice was that his logistics supply line was about to collapse.
Xiao Jie also learned the news of Napoleon's occupation of Moscow in early October, but he did not show any joy. He only said to Eck, "The disaster is about to begin."
(To be continued, if you want to know what will happen next, please log in to .FU., more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!)