Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Although Wellington had issued the order, his understanding of the situation at the front was still unclear.

Unlike the Prussian army, which had been using campfires and scouts to monitor the movements of the French convoys from the outskirts and had gathered some intelligence, the Prussian army was different.

But poor students always have a lot of stationery and always hire a good teacher.

Blücher's command abilities were far less significant than his influence on morale.

Therefore, he needs someone to assist him, such as Gneisenau as his chief of staff.

His current instructions are that Zieten of the 1st Army should take the lead in an operation to intercept the French vanguard and seize advantageous terrain.

In particular, he needed to stop Napoleon's main force on the front lines of the Sambre River, as his side had been scouting the situation.

Napoleon, suffering from hemorrhoids, did not ride a horse throughout his military campaigns; he was now sitting in a carriage.

"Demid, if it were you, who would you strike first? Blücher or Wellington?"

Napoleon had already issued the order. The instructions he had Soult convey were that Ney lead the left wing to advance towards Four Arms, Grouchy's right wing cavalry would maneuver around, and the main force, including the Imperial Guard, would be in the center.

He was just testing his nephew to see what conclusions he had.

"I think if there are two tomatoes, you should squeeze the ripe one first."

Blücher?

"Yes, and they are threatening our flanks, which currently seems to be a greater threat. It will be difficult to deal with the British without defeating them first and completely crushing them, especially since our forces are quite limited. Although the new recruits from Vendée are highly motivated, they have always been royalists and are only joining us this time to fight the Prussians. Our number of veterans is not as high as expected, and many of our reservists are neglecting their training."

"and then?"

"By achieving a decisive victory and defeating the British and Prussian armies, we can boost morale and turn our attention to the more powerful Russian and Austrian armies. However, whether we can actually win is another matter."

Demid was young after all, and he couldn't hide his thoughts, so he told Napoleon directly.

That's true. The combined Russian and Austrian armies numbered 400,000. Even if France called up field troops from somewhere, they wouldn't have that many. Even at their peak, the largest army I've ever seen in a single direction numbered 300,000.

But Napoleon was able to accept this, and this realistic consideration was also based on the fact that although Demid was intelligent, his talent in warfare was probably only at the top level of an ordinary person, and that he lacked experience and could not judge things too far in the future.

Defeating the enemy in front of you is probably the limit.

Napoleon was also observing the current situation; he needed to make a judgment.

“Soult, issue an order to Vandam and Gérard to deploy on the Saint-Amand and Ligny side and to transfer the 7th Division from Reyer of the 2nd Army to support Vandam.”

"Yes, Your Majesty."

He wanted to deploy his forces on the Prussian front, then have his Guards sweep into the Prussian ranks, and, as always, settle the battle with cannons and bayonets.

This is not surprising, as the Allied forces had plenty of experience in being beaten in this regard during previous anti-French coalitions.

Wellington, however, did not suffer such a beating, but he was only on the Brussels side.

And what is Blücher's army doing now?

He wanted to be positive, just like he was in 1814, he had that kind of thinking.

Napoleon is nothing to fear.

All it takes is for his valiant Prussian army to launch an attack, and for the Allied forces to take action, and the French will finally collapse as they did in 1814.

However, he always overlooked certain facts, such as the fighting capacity of the French army.

Zieten's troops arrived at the battlefield first, followed by two other Prussian armies, though the latter included the Saxon Third Army, which also seemed rather restless.

Even the uprising against Prussia in Saxony made these people somewhat uneasy.

General Tillman himself was not in a good mood. Clausewitz was actually quite unhappy to be sent to such a place as chief of staff.

He somewhat missed Solovyov's headquarters, a highly efficient transit point where Solovyov rarely hesitated and always made decisions immediately.

Jomini, who had worked at the French General Headquarters, was somewhat shocked when he learned about the situation at Solovyov's place. Although the Emperor made decisions quickly, it always required Marshal Berthier and his staff to mobilize and translate the Emperor's sometimes abstract ideas into action plans on the battlefield.

Solovyov, with his beautiful handwriting, started a dual-core staff operation with Clausewitz, which greatly improved efficiency.

Here, Tillman, the cavalry general, still needed to rely on his chief of staff, and his decision-making speed was not so fast.

When the sound of artillery fire came from the front, a Prussian brigade at the forefront could not withstand the French offensive and had to retreat.

Seeing this situation, Blücher also needed to mobilize his troops to fill the existing gaps and have all three of his corps here join the battle.

Even though some of them went to Saxony to suppress the troublemakers, the Prussian army still numbered 80,000 here.

What about Napoleon?

"Your Majesty, Master Wangdai has arrived."

“Very good. They don’t need to rush into battle yet. It’s just that the Prussians are in their homeland, levying grain without paying them. We should wait until Vandam and Gérard have made some progress before asking them to join the fight.”

"Your Majesty, the enemy's forces should outnumber ours."

“I know that, but the size of the troops doesn’t necessarily mean their performance on the battlefield. If Lamarck takes all his men to Grouchy’s side, it might be quite effective.”

Now he could also hear the cannon fire from Four Arms Village. After the fighting had started there, he ordered the part of Gerard's troops that hadn't yet deployed to change positions and reposition themselves.

Although the emperor himself did not go to the front lines, the mobilization of troops continued uninterrupted.

"Your Majesty, what we need most now is time. The battle with the Prussians has started later than expected."

"Surt, now we just need to hurry. June is the month with the longest days of the year. We need to make good use of this opportunity. The battle can go on until late at night, and we can even briefly pursue the enemy at night. Just don't make the same mistake we did with the Russians."

Napoleon was referring to the story of how Bagration escaped from the French army by cleverly using French commands.

Now he is about to launch an even fiercer attack, and Saint Armand is also a focus of attention on the battlefield.

Drouot is now in charge of artillery command, and he skillfully directs the artillery to strike the enemy, just as he has in the past.

The denser the Prussian soldiers' formation, the easier it was for them to be attacked. Although Napoleon was quite far from the front, he could still see that the Prussian army was being bombarded by artillery and their formation was becoming somewhat loose.

In terms of artillery deployment, the only force that has posed a threat to the French army in recent years has probably been the Russian army.

Even after the Prussian infantry's formation was broken by artillery fire, they continued to fight. Although Napoleon appeared unhurried, he also wanted to end the battle quickly.

Time is the most precious thing for him right now.

There is a main road connecting Four Arms Village and Lini, and both places are on major transportation routes, which is why the British and Prussian armies chose to launch simultaneous attacks from these two directions.

Ney only deployed Reye, whose forces were insufficient, and did not take any further action.

Meanwhile, Dalvay and Davu, on his side, were positioned between the two armies.

At this point, Napoleon also needed to issue orders to Ney, while simultaneously accelerating his own progress, as he required reinforcements to outflank the Prussian army.

If he can apply pressure from both sides simultaneously, he can probably achieve a victory, the kind of glorious victory he needs.

After that, he could deal with the British.

Although his physical strength had declined and he had gained some weight, Napoleon was still able to effectively command his army.

Moreover, there are now new things on the battlefield. In addition to his adjutant riding a horse to the front to deliver orders, his communications officer can also utilize optical communications.

It was Demid's first time doing this on the battlefield, so he was inevitably a little nervous, but as the battle continued, he seemed to have relaxed.

"This order is to be relayed to General Grouchy's cavalry, instructing them to flank Prussia from the side."

After conveying the order, Demid and several staff officers began to keep an eye on the situation in Vanda and Gérard's territory.

Although he was young, only just over seventeen years old, and the emperor's nephew, people still took his orders seriously.

After all, what he did before was quite effective.

However, the battlefield is now filled with smoke, making it difficult to see what's ahead.

In other words, the lighting conditions are better in the afternoon, especially around 3 p.m., which is also the best time for communication.

But the feedback didn't look good either.

Although the Prussians initially retreated during the initial skirmishes.

But Blücher saw that the situation was not good, so he went to the front line himself.

Although he might not be very good at fighting, and cavalry was his only strength, he was still a source of reassurance for the Prussian army.

Even though they were constantly losing battles, the Prussian soldiers were still able to accept the old marshal's command.

Thanks to Blücher's personal intervention, the Prussian army, with its high morale, managed to hold off the French advance at the Saint-Amand position. The two sides repeatedly fought for control of the front lines, and several hand-to-hand battles ensued.

Meanwhile, a fierce battle began on Lini's front line.

Both sides continued to bombard Lini, and many houses were hit.

There are still quite a few residents in the town, because there are still French-speaking people in this part of Belgium.

Therefore, when Napoleon's army attacked, although artillery would fire, they rarely used incendiary materials.

Even before the war, when countries like the Russians were issued Molotov cocktails and grenades, their use was not as frequent as expected.

The Prussians, on the other hand, didn't have as many concerns, but they did see some civilians unwilling to leave, and they could see the dejected expressions on the faces of the elderly.

This might have had some impact on the few Prussian soldiers who witnessed it, but the French attacked quickly, and they didn't have time to think about it.

Because the Prussian army refused to yield an inch of ground in Ligny, Napoleon had no choice but to issue orders to use 12-pound cannons to fire at close range and to fight house to house.

Finally, the soldiers of the 4th Army, after discovering that some houses were uninhabited and that the people had probably hidden in cellars or run away, decided to use Molotov cocktails.

It's difficult to expect discipline from the French military. The fact that they managed to restrain themselves for a while and not immediately throw out Molotov cocktails and grenades is already considered quite restrained.

More and more places were burning, and the Prussians were now being choked by the thick smoke and had to evacuate from those houses.

Such Prussian soldiers could only be shot at in the street by the French army or driven away with bayonets.

The situation gradually began to turn in the French's favor.

Napoleon himself was behind the battlefield, and he was even standing in front of the entire Imperial Guard.

"Your Majesty, it is very dangerous here."

“I know, but the Prussians are retreating, and their artillery is starting to miss.”

Soult had this problem, probably because when he and Massena were robbing in Genoa, they were defeated by the Austrian Marshal Melas. Soult accidentally charged ahead and ended up being wounded and taken prisoner.

Since then, he has rarely put himself on the front lines.

When it was Napoleon, even though he had faced the danger of being captured by the enemy several times before, he always stood there.

He always made the soldiers believe that their emperor was a "god".

Although it is no longer as invincible as it once was, it is still a symbol of power.

The Prussians are now retreating; the battle has been going on for almost three hours.

"Be prepared. If the 1st Army can reach us, we can completely defeat the Prussians here, and they probably won't have much of a chance to launch a counterattack afterward."

At the same time, he was also keeping an eye on the situation in Four Arms Village and sent his adjutant to inquire about Ney.

But this also takes time. Traveling back and forth between these two places, it would be good if we could get there now and be back by seven o'clock.

Belgium may seem like a warm place, but in reality, Europe is at a relatively high latitude.

Sunsets are also later in the Low Countries, so Napoleon always had more time.

He was still waiting for the right moment to deploy the Imperial Guard into battle.

Now he needs the old guard, not the old battlefield sightseeing group; the French army no longer has that many troops to keep in the rear.

For him, what he needs is a quick victory.

A breakthrough is coming soon. (End of Chapter)