The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 847 The Battle of the Three Emperors
"It was a tragedy. Although I couldn't figure out how Napoleon would turn things around, my gut told me that these brave soldiers would be sent to their doom by their ignorant emperor."

Looking at the endless marching troops before him, Mo Gongze felt a pang of bitterness.

He was very pessimistic about this campaign because the truly capable generals in the allied forces were all against it, and only two emperors who knew nothing but thought themselves very great were insisting on advancing.

"Did the Prince of Ao refuse your guards?" Shen Yao, the chief secretary of the Lu Kingdom, asked in a low voice from the side.

“A heartless and ungrateful person is nothing more than this.” Mo Gongze seemed very helpless. “If you treat him well, he thinks it is what you, as a subject, should do. But if you do something that doesn’t suit his taste, he will chase you away.”

It's as if I, Mogongze, can't survive without Franz. Sometimes I really want to just instigate Hungarian independence right now and tear this empire apart!

Seeing that Mo Gongze seemed to be thinking, "I'm tired, let's just destroy it," Chief Secretary Shen Yao quickly advised, "A small act of impatience can ruin a great plan. Dividing the Austrian Empire at this time will leave hidden dangers and be extremely detrimental to Your Highness's reputation."

Furthermore, it's not permissible from a legal or public perspective. After all, Emperor Franz hasn't reached the point of incurring the wrath of both heaven and man. We need to make the Hungarians come to you for leadership, not voluntarily become their masters.”

"Furthermore, I suggest that Your Highness try to protect the Emperor again. If the war goes as Your Highness has said, the Emperor may be in danger. We cannot allow the Emperor to be captured or forced to abdicate now."

Shen Yao's words weren't entirely direct, but Mo Gongze understood what he meant. After all, there weren't many emperors as foolish as Franz I.

It was his reckless actions that gave Moggenheim the opportunity to turn the Austrian Empire into the dual Austro-Hungarian Empire.

“Yes, my other cousins ​​are not as foolish as my eldest cousin Franz. If something happens to Franz, this empire may very well fall into the hands of Duke Karl of Tessen.”

Although Emperor Franz I had a son named Ferdinand who was already twelve years old, the prince was a mentally disabled child with a large head and short limbs, unable to take care of himself. He also suffered from epilepsy and impotence (his testicles were said to be only the size of a peanut).

In times of peace, such a prince could inherit the throne, but that was certainly not the case in this turbulent era. Therefore, the only option was to choose from among Franz I's brothers.

The second son, Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany, had an original sin: he had declared Tuscany neutrality when the Holy Roman Empire was at war with France, which made him disliked by the Holy Roman nobles and impossible for him to gain their support.

The third son was Archduke Karl. Although Archduke Karl also suffered from epilepsy, his military talent completely offset this.

As for Archduke Karl, he was adopted by his aunt Maria Christina and uncle Prince Albert of Saxony to inherit their Duchy of Tessen.

However, this is not a true adoption; it only involves changes in guardianship and inheritance rights, without any change in surname or bloodline.

As Archduke Johann, the brother of Archduke Karl, said, "My brother Karl has only the golden blood of the Habsburgs in his body; Tyson is merely a cloak that can be taken off."

This is why Franz I was always suspicious of Archduke Karl. He was afraid that if he were to die one day, the throne would fall into Karl's hands, or even that Archduke Karl, with his military power, might stage a palace coup.

"Alright," Mo Gongze sighed, suppressing his disgust, and prepared to continue his efforts to protect Franz I.

It's best to leave the empire to a foolish, pretentious, incompetent, and playful fellow like Franz I. If it falls into the hands of Archduke Karl, the difficulty of his plans will increase exponentially.

On December 2, a thick fog blanketed the area around the village of Austerlitz, and the temperature suddenly dropped to minus seven or eight degrees Celsius.

Although there was no strong wind, the humidity brought by this thick fog, combined with the low temperature, made it no easier to deal with than a snowstorm.

Tens of thousands of Russian and Austrian soldiers quickly marched to the battlefield in this weather. The fog in the air seemed to be turning into ice flowers, and you could feel a cold sensation spreading from your nasal cavity to your lungs with just a breath.

Mo Gongze especially couldn't stand this. He had more Guangdong genes, being a native of Guangdong, so his nasal cavity wasn't as long as that of northerners, and his nose hairs weren't as thick.

Northerners find the cold air less icy after inhaling half of it, but Mo Gongze feels the chill go straight into his lungs with a single breath.

Fortunately, his mission was not to go out and fight the French, but to protect Franz I.

Franz I accepted Mogongze's protection for a simple reason: the three thousand soldiers of the Lu army were all equipped with horses, consisting of a small number of light cavalry and dragoons. In case of trouble, their mobility was unmatched by other armies.

Franz I had made quite a few mistakes and exposed his shortcomings over the years, so he was not as confident as Tsar Alexander I. He was still afraid that he would not be able to escape if he was defeated, and he was still very concerned about his safety.

At 6:00 a.m., the Russian-Austrian allied forces crossed the frozen Lake Zaqian and began to advance on the French positions.

Outside the village of Austerlitz, the French army divided the battlefield into north and south sides.

To the north were 18,000 men from Rana and Murat, responsible for guarding Mount Thornton.

To the south lay Napoleon's deliberately exposed right flank, which was also the main direction of the Allied forces' attack across Lake Zaqian. It was defended by only 12,000 men from a reinforced division of Marshal Soult's Fourth Army, led by Major General Krogh Legrand.

As for the remaining two divisions, totaling 12,000 men, they had already infiltrated the Pratzen Heights, which the French had voluntarily abandoned.

Finally, there was Napoleon's reserve force, consisting of 5,500 Royal Guards led by Marshal Bessier and 5,700 Guards Grenadiers led by Lieutenant General Udino.

In other words, Napoleon's entire force numbered only slightly over 52,000 men, roughly the same as the number detected by the Russo-Austrian coalition.

This is also why Alexander I was so confident. The Russo-Austrian allied forces numbered nearly 90,000, while the French army numbered only over 50,000. Moreover, they were fighting in a foreign land and had even abandoned the crucial Pratzen Heights due to low morale.

I'm just asking you, how can we lose this battle? How can we possibly lose this battle?

But in reality, not far from the battlefield, the French army still had 20,000 men under Marshals Jean Bernardot and Louis Davout.

They kept their whereabouts strictly hidden, and would appear when the war started, bringing a great surprise to the Russian-Austrian coalition forces.

At 7:00 a.m., the battle first broke out on the southern front. General Michael Kinmayr of the Austrian army, who had broken out of the encirclement of the Ulm Campaign, led 5,000 vanguard troops to attack Tarlitz, one of the two villages on the southern front.

The Austrian army, fresh from its defeat, was still somewhat hesitant and timid in the face of the French army, and was thus quickly driven back.

But then 14,000 Russian troops from the First Column arrived and, led by Lieutenant General Dmitry Doktolov, launched an exceptionally fierce attack.

The message brought back by Prince Dolgorukov was useful; at least it convinced a large part of the Russian army that the French army feared them and were afraid to fight them.

Therefore, the Russian army was in high spirits and extremely confident. As soon as they engaged in battle, they launched a very brave and fierce attack. Marshal Soult's French army was indeed unable to withstand the attack at first.

Encouraged by the drumbeats, the Russian troops charged forward like pigs as soon as the artillery fire stopped. After firing a volley of gunfire, they immediately began hand-to-hand combat, howling like bears, and scattering the French lines.

Upon seeing this, Marshal Soult quickly ordered his troops to make simple defenses using the village houses and fortifications before withdrawing to avoid being drawn into a melee by the large number of Russian troops and suffering heavy casualties.

Fortunately, just as Marshal Soult was about to give up while fighting and retreating, Louis Davout personally led 3,000 vanguard troops to the scene. The two armies joined forces and drove the Russian army, which had just captured Tashen and had not yet had time to set up defenses, out of the village.

Dramatically, just as the French army had recaptured the village of Tas and was taking a short rest to prepare for setting up their positions, the Allied forces launched another attack, with more than 20,000 Russian and Austrian troops once again overwhelming the enemy with sheer numbers.

The French army fought desperately to resist, but the combined Russian and Austrian forces outnumbered them by almost three times and launched an exceptionally fierce offensive. The French army was once again driven out of Tars and left to be occupied by the allied forces.

Meanwhile, the battle for Solliz, one of the two villages on the southern defense line, also began and quickly escalated into a fierce contest.

Twelve thousand men from the Russian Second Column and ten thousand men from the Third Column, led by Lieutenant General Louis Langeron and Lieutenant General Presby, attacked the village of So from two directions.

The second column was particularly fierce, because Lieutenant General Louis-Longeron was an exiled nobleman among the French royalists, and there were dozens of officers in the army with similar backgrounds to him.

These people deeply hated the French Revolutionary government, and therefore their will to fight was extremely firm.

The 8,000 French troops in Sauté were among the most elite units of the entire southern army. Moreover, with the fall of Tassé, if Sauté were to fall as well, the entire southern front would be doomed. The Russo-Austrian coalition could then outflank and encircle the French forces in the north, and this battle would be lost.

Napoleon urgently transferred some of his reserve artillery and guards grenadiers to Marshal Soult in Sauvignon, and ordered that Sauvignon should not be lost unless Marshal Soult himself was killed in battle, leading to the collapse of the southern front.

With the support of reserve artillery and guards grenadiers, Major General Claude Legrand, who was in charge of defending the village of Sau, fought with all his might to repel the Russo-Austrian forces, but soon the next wave of attacks from the Russo-Austrian forces arrived.

This time, Lieutenant General Louis Langeron, the commander of the Russo-Austrian allied forces, learned his lesson. He also brought over his artillery and bombarded the village indiscriminately. The Russo-Austrian allied forces gathered more than one hundred cannons and bombarded the village for about thirty minutes before finally charging into the village in one fell swoop.

Inside the village of Sauternes, the French army suffered heavy casualties from the bombing, with at least two hundred killed and more than a thousand wounded. They were no match for the combined Russian and Austrian forces and were quickly driven out.

Since Emperor Napoleon invented and concentrated the use of artillery tactics in Toulon, European countries have begun to evolve towards training elite artillerymen and concentrating the use of cannons.

This time, the French army finally tasted the bitter fruit of being bombarded by more than a hundred cannons.

Although the French army was driven out of Saussure, it did not collapse. Major General Claude Legrand frantically called for reinforcements, and Marshal Soult and Marshal Louis Davout, who had lost Tassure, arrived. They first bombarded the village with artillery, and then rushed in for hand-to-hand combat.

The French artillery, with its long-standing tradition of military expertise, was far superior to that of the Russo-Austrian coalition. This fierce bombardment nearly blew the coalition forces out of the city, and unsurprisingly, the French army recaptured Sauternes.

But the Russian-Austrian coalition forces did not collapse; they continued to bombard the village of Solo and then charged in for hand-to-hand combat.

Thus began a protracted battle between 15,000 French troops and 36,000 Russo-Austrian allied troops.
Suocun, located on a small mound on the southern front, endured nearly 10,000 shells in just a few hours and changed hands repeatedly, turning into a meat grinder where it was a battleground where one side would be unable to withstand the onslaught first.

On the northern front at Mount Thornton, the battle took place between French Marshal Bernadotte and the renowned Russian general Prince Bagration.

The two sides had roughly equal numbers of troops, but the French army had a geographical advantage. Prince Bagration repeatedly broke into the French positions, but was repelled by the French artillery on the northern slopes, making the battle extremely tense.

Meanwhile, in the central region, the Russo-Austrian allied forces occupied the Prazen Heights, which had been abandoned by the French. This was the highest point in the entire village of Austerlitz, from which one could basically overlook the entire battlefield.

Taking control of the Pratsen Heights means that half the battle has already been won. Although the fog is currently obscuring the view, it will eventually clear up.

Moreover, in terms of the overall situation, whether it was the northern front at Sandton Mountain or the southern front at Tal and So, the Russian-Austrian allied forces had a numerical advantage and also held the initiative in the offensive.

An excited Alexander I and Franz I moved their command headquarters directly to the Pratzen Heights.

The two emperors jointly decided to order Austrian General Johann Clorat to lead 20,000 elite Russo-Austrian troops to directly attack Napoleon's forces not far below the mountain, thereby defeating the French command and achieving victory.

Napoleon, who was also watching the movements of the Russo-Austrian allied forces on the Pratzen Heights through his telescope on the mountain, slapped his thigh excitedly and exclaimed, "The enemy is doomed! Order Soult to the Pratzen Heights to command the raid!"

The reason why the fighting at Ta and So villages on the southern front was so difficult was that Marshal Soult's elite Fourth Army Corps—the Van Dam Division and the Saint Heidel Division—had already taken advantage of the thick fog and quietly ambushed the area around the Pratzen Heights before 6:00 AM.

These two divisions, totaling 12,000 elite French soldiers, would lie in ambush for four or five hours at a time in temperatures around minus ten degrees Celsius.

Unable to light a fire for warmth, they could only huddle together to barely ward off the cold. Many of them were so cold that they could not even hold their rifles, and the flints used to fire bullets were essentially rendered useless.

But in order to defend the land they had gained during the Great Revolution and relied on for survival, no one complained or groaned; they persevered with tremendous willpower.

Finally, at 10 a.m., the fog dissipated, and Marshal Soult secretly left the village of So on the southern front and came to the foot of the Pratsen Heights to take command.

At 10:15, General John Clolatt's 20,000-strong Russo-Austrian army reached their designated positions and began their attack on Napoleon's command post. Alexander I and Franz I, along with a large group of beaming nobles, cheered, but many were even beginning to celebrate the impending victory.

The rising sun pierced through the clouds, dispelling the thick fog over the Pratsen Heights. Suddenly, the nobles on the mountain discovered a group of warriors who appeared motionless, like wooden or clay sculptures, and who exuded a chilling indifference.

"For France, charge!" Marshal Soult drew his sword and pointed it toward the Prazen Heights.

The military band beat out an inspiring drumbeat, and twelve thousand elite French infantrymen, keeping time with the rhythm, charged up the mountain in formation.

"My God, how did these Frenchmen get here?!"

"Almighty God, why do you protect a usurper!"

The nobles on the Pratzen Heights were shocked; many thought the French soldiers had used some kind of magic to suddenly appear there.

The situation immediately became chaotic because the vast majority of the Russian-Austrian coalition forces had already been deployed.

There were only five hundred men from Tsar Alexander I’s Preobrazhensky Guards Regiment, five hundred men from the Tsar’s Personal Guards Infantry Regiment, and two thousand men from Mogongze’s Lu Fan Army Reinforced Guards Regiment on the mountain.

The only remaining reserve force that could be mobilized was behind the mountain, consisting of 5,000 Rus' Royal Guards and 1,000 Lu troops, commanded by Grand Duke Constantine, brother of Tsar Alexander I.

"Run! Run! Retreat!" someone shouted.

Among the three thousand troops on the hillside, the Tsar's Preobrazhensky Guard Regiment, although one of the Tsar's two guards, had gradually become a hostage regiment in recent years, and its combat effectiveness was highly questionable.

Mo Gongze's Belgian Guard Reinforcement Regiment, also known as the Lu Fan Army, had always given the impression of avoiding battle, except for their early performance in the Battle of Hornlinden. Therefore, to outsiders, their combat strength was not strong.

Therefore, it would be impossible for Emperor Franz I of Austria to withstand the fierce attack of more than 10,000 Frenchmen with only 500 men in his personal guard regiment.

Of all the things I fear, this is the one I'm most afraid of.

The Tsar of Russia and the Tsar of Austria were not panicked at first, but when they heard the shouting on the road, they immediately became frightened.

Alexander I's Preobrazhensky Guard was even more brain-dead; these hostages actually grabbed the Tsar and retreated down the mountain at the first opportunity.

That seems reasonable; their primary responsibility is to protect the Tsar's personal safety. But you also have to consider the timing. How could they leave so quickly at this point?

As the Tsar fled, Emperor Franz I of Austria also became frightened. Amidst the deafening shouts of the French soldiers, he looked at Mogenze in terror.

The French army arrived so quickly that the Tsar had already fled. The area behind the hill was in chaos, with the ground covered in ice and snow and the roads becoming congested. One mistake could easily lead to being caught by the French army.

"Di Feihu!" At the critical moment, Liu Rongqing, the captain of the reinforced regiment, shouted, "Protect the prince to leave, I will hold off the French army."

“This is our duty. How can we let the captain cover the rear? Please take the prince away quickly.” As a fellow townsman of Zhao Zilong of Changshan, Di Feihu, who was a martial arts champion in history, did not hesitate at all. He gently pushed Liu Rongqing.

"First Battalion, Second Battalion, and Grenadier Company, follow me! Cover Chitose's retreat!"

Liu Rongqing didn't argue anymore; there was no time for him to do that now. He only struggled a little in his heart.

With the war at this point, French Emperor Napoleon had already unleashed his trump card.

He must have relied on the thick fog to hide more than 10,000 people in the pine forests of the Pratsen Heights, which were shrouded in dense fog, at three or four in the morning.

Once the Russian and Austrian allied forces have launched their attack, the Russian and Austrian emperors, now unprotected, will launch a surprise attack and decisively defeat the allied forces.

However, if we send our two thousand men now, there is a chance we can withstand the French counterattack.

If we can hold out for more than half an hour, there are still 5,000 of the Tsar's guards behind the hill, and if we can gather the rest, we can probably get another 3,000 or 4,000 men, and perhaps we can take back the high ground.

But this thought only flashed through Liu Rongqing's mind for a moment before being immediately suppressed.

There's no other reason than that Mo Gongze is far too important to them!
If anything were to happen to Mo Gongze, their nearly twenty years of perseverance would become worthless.

Even if His Majesty sends someone to take over this matter, such as Prince Mozhou of Liao, who is also the son-in-law of Emperor Franz I.

But His Highness the Prince of Liao has his own trusted confidants, so why should he use these stray dogs who couldn't even protect their lord?

Mo Gongze had the same idea. Instead of retreating, he advanced and was about to order his own banner to be raised to rally the soldiers when Liu Rongqing came over and knelt down with a thud.

"Your Highness, the empire and the well-being of tens of thousands of men in Lu Prefecture that His Majesty the Emperor has arranged for you rest entirely on your shoulders. Do not take any risks!"

Mo Gongze immediately fell silent. Seeing this, Liu Rongqing quickly got up and called over a thousand Lu soldiers and the Austrian Emperor's personal guard infantry regiment to escort this large group of Austrian nobles down the mountain.

On the hillside, in just over ten minutes, 12,000 French soldiers from Van Damme and Saint-Heidal divisions stormed the high ground, and then they were suddenly met with fierce attacks.

Nine hundred Doru soldiers occupied a small section of the Pratzen Heights. From their elevated position, they used volleys of gunfire and bombs to inflict heavy casualties on a battalion of Van Dam's division at the forefront.

Upon seeing this, French Marshal Soult immediately mobilized several thousand more men to launch another attack.

But the French soldiers had been lying in ambush in the snow and ice for hours. Not only were their bodies frozen stiff, but most of the flintlocks in their flintlock muskets were also frozen and damaged, reducing their firing success rate from 80% to only half.

In this situation, they were no match for the Lu army, who, from their elevated position, unleashed a barrage of gunfire, a volley of bombs, and then charged down in hand-to-hand combat.

Di Feihu and his men were especially brave. This martial arts champion, holding a bayonet, personally charged to the front line. He could kill a French soldier with a single blow. With five or six hundred brothers following him, he actually forced the French army of several thousand to retreat.

Moreover, Di Feihu did not charge blindly. While stabbing and killing enemy soldiers, he counted in his mind. When he counted to more than three hundred, he called his soldiers to retreat to avoid rushing into the French army in a moment of impulsiveness.

Napoleon saw it all clearly from below the mountain, and cold sweat immediately broke out on his forehead.

The Van Dam and Saint Hedal divisions were sent to ambush, so they had very few artillery pieces. If they failed to capture the Pratzen Heights, the Rus' guards would counterattack, which would be dangerous.

"Nikolai, send your grenadiers up there. They must wipe out everyone on the Pratzen Heights!"

Upon hearing Napoleon's order, General Nicolas Udino was stunned. "Your Majesty, 20,000 enemy troops are besieging you. I cannot leave now."

Napoleon laughed three times. "The enemy is already afraid. If they weren't, they should prove themselves with more aggressive actions now, instead of being so indecisive."

General John Clolatt, the commander of the Russian-Austrian allied forces that came to attack, was indeed panicked, because the flags of the Russian and Austrian emperors had disappeared from the Pratzen Heights, and the soldiers below had even begun to suspect that the two emperors had been murdered.

On the Prazen Heights, with the arrival of Udino's grenadiers, Di Feihu's pressure is increasing.

Because Udino was a former grenadier, known for his fierce and reckless fighting, his more than three thousand grenadiers, under the command of their officers, recklessly threw bombs up the mountain, while more than a hundred rifled snipers sniped from below. The casualties of the Lu army increased dramatically.

Fortunately, at this moment, the Russo-Austrian allied forces at the foot of the mountain launched a final counterattack. Duke Constantine, the brother of Alexander I, led 5,000 Russo-Austrian Royal Guards and 1,500 Austrian Infantry Regiment to launch the counterattack.

Because everyone knows that if this war is lost, Russia and Austria will be severely damaged, if not completely destroyed.

But the French were even more determined. They set up cannons on the Pratzen Heights and bombarded the Russian and Austrian Royal Guards who were trying to rush up with grapeshot from their high vantage point.

Blood and flesh flew everywhere on the hillside. Many royal guards, wearing black and yellow sashes and bearskin hats, were blown to pieces before they could even fire.

The more recklessly they attacked, the more excited Marshal Soult became, because he didn't even have time to remove his sash or his expensive bearskin hat, which showed how flustered and worried the enemy was.

Meanwhile, Di Feihu's side had dwindled to just over six hundred men, who were being continuously reduced in size until they retreated to a very small hill, where they held their ground by relying on the trenches dug by the French army a few days earlier.

The Lu army was indeed brave, and Di Feihu was able to organize a counterattack amidst a hail of bombs. Unfortunately, they were outnumbered. Although they were almost able to support the Russian and Austrian Royal Guards in their counterattack at least three times, they were ultimately thwarted.

It was already 2 p.m., and the sun was blocked by dark clouds, the sky began to darken, the cold wind howled, and the smell of blood rose from the severed limbs. The three sides were fighting fiercely on the Pratsen Heights, with blood flowing like a river.

In the final battle, the Imperial Guards, led by Emperor Franz I of Austria and guided by the Black Eagle Banner, launched a desperate charge. Despite suffering more than half its casualties, they did not retreat.

Unfortunately, their heroism came too late.

At 3:30 p.m., Marshal Bernadotte, who was more than an hour late, arrived with 14,000 men from the First Army Corps, along with Marshal Louis Davout. Meanwhile, the Russo-Austrian coalition forces had no troops available.

The newly added fresh troops crushed the Russian and Austrian Royal Guards, who were barely holding on, with a single charge, and the army collapsed in an instant.

In the chaos, Grand Duke Constantine, the commander, was almost captured alive. A French army even scattered the Tsar's Preobrazhensky Guards, and the Tsar himself disappeared without a trace.

Mo Gongze personally led more than 2,000 Lu soldiers to fight desperately to hold off the French army's more than 5,000 hussars, thus protecting Emperor Franz I of Austria as he left the frozen Lake Zach.

An hour later, heavy snow began to fall. The Tsar was found by the Russian troops searching for him in a civilian house at the last moment. He narrowly escaped and was almost captured.

On the Pratsen Heights, Marshal Soult looked at the Flying Tigers of the Lu Fan Army, who were still fighting, and a sense of helplessness welled up in his heart.

Those who claimed to be Belgian soldiers, but were actually Serres Guards, were still desperately trying to stop the French army from pursuing the Austrian Emperor.

Suddenly, a cheer erupted. It turned out that Napoleon himself had led his Imperial Guard to defeat General Louis Clolatte's 20,000-strong Russo-Austrian army and arrived at the Pratzen Heights.

With the Emperor's arrival, the morale of the Imperial Guard soared. Napoleon divided his forces to support the battlefields in the north and south, while also ordering his men to pursue the retreating Russo-Austrian coalition. However, he sighed slightly.

These Seres are despicable. If they hadn't occupied this prime position, they could have bombarded the frozen surface of Lake Zaqian, cutting off the escape route of the fleeing Russian troops. Now, they can only engage in a more arduous pursuit.

At 4:30 p.m., the Russian-Austrian allied forces in the south collapsed first, surrendering en masse to the French army.

Subsequently, Prince Bagration in the north could not hold out any longer and was repelled by the French counterattack, suffering heavy casualties.

However, thanks to the presence of Di Feihu and others, the ice on Zhaqian Lake was not shattered by French artillery fire, and it was still passable.

Unlike in history, most of Prince Bagration's more than 10,000 elite Russian troops were captured, and many were able to escape.

With the collapse of Prince Bagration's northern forces, the Battle of Austerlitz was essentially over. The only remaining resistance came from the lone 400 Doru soldiers on the Pratzen Heights.

(End of this chapter)