Chapter 315: Save strength

"What should I do now?" Kutuzov asked himself. Damn Ivanovic and Pratov, I must send them to the military court. Kutuzov secretly swore. If they hadn't obeyed his previous orders, the Russian army would not have fallen to this point. Everything was their fault, but it would have been too late to say more. The most important thing now is how to overcome this difficulty.

"Marson, come to report from the front line. The French team's attack is very fierce. They can't stand it anymore. Please make a decision early." A staff officer hurriedly ran into Kutuzov's command center and reported to him.

"Now that it's like this, how can there be any decisions to make?" Kutuzov thought helplessly. "Tell the front line and let them support it for a while. Notify a unit and prepare to retreat immediately." In the end, Kutuzov decided to retreat. Although he had planned so before, the current situation was completely different. He had planned to retreat actively, but now he was retreating helplessly.

Two hours later, Kutuzov led his troops to retreat, and his 150,000 troops also lost about 30,000 troops of two divisions. These were the injuries caused to the Russian army by the relentless French 2nd Army. After Dawu's attack order was issued, the French 2nd Army launched a fierce attack on the Russian army after full preparation, and their opponent was the 150,000 army led by Kutuzov himself. Although the 2nd Army had already drawn a division of troops to support Dawu, even so, Kutuzov's army was still not their opponent, and under their attack, they could only retreat step by step.

Kutuzov did not intend to go to Poznan to join the 200,000 reinforcements, because he knew that the area would be hit by three French legions, and if he went there, he could only die. So while ordering his troops to retreat east along the Notec River, he sent people to Poznan to send orders to start retreating immediately and retreat to eastern Poland.

The worst was Minoradovich. His army had the worst combat power, so he took the initiative to garrison the Oder River south of Poznan to prevent the French army from attacking the Russian flanks in the Saxony Kingdom. This was originally a strategy he had thought of to preserve his strength, but it did not expect it to come true in the end. It even exceeded his expectations, because it was not only the French 3rd Army that launched an attack on his troops, but also the French 4th Army. The two of them launched a fierce attack on Minoradovich's troops, from south to west.

One army was not an opponent in combat, let alone dealing with the attacks of two French corps at the same time. After resisting for only two hours, Minoradovic's defense line collapsed, and he himself had to lead more than 60,000 remaining troops to retreat to Poznan. On the way to retreat, Minoradovic learned why they were attacked by two French corps. "Damn Ivanovic and Pratov, are their troops all stupid? Why were they defeated by the French army so quickly?" Minoradovic cursed. If it weren't for the two of them, his troops wouldn't have been so miserable.

Barclay, the commander of the Russian reinforcements of 200,000 reinforcements who arrived in Poznan, was also very depressed. Why did he encounter a defeat when he arrived at the battlefield? That night, Ivanovic and Pratov led more than 30,000 remaining troops to Poznan and he knew that something was wrong. Two hours later, the French pursuers came to 20 kilometers west of Poznan, with only two divisions of about 30,000 people. It should be the vanguard of the French army, right? Barclay and his subordinates thought of this. It was precisely because of their thought that they lost another heavy blow.

The opportunity for the French army. Dawu's 1st Legion fought fiercely for a day, so how could he have the strength to pursue it? So the pursuit of Ivanovic and Pratov was only the two divisions drawn from the 2nd and 3rd Legion of France. If Barclay ordered an attack at that time, the 30,000 French troops would not be able to stop the attack of more than 200,000 Russian troops. And on the morning of the second day, when Barclay understood that it was too late. Dawu had already led the main force of the 1st Legion to meet the two divisions. It would be impossible for Barclay to defeat the 1st Legion of France again.

On the morning of April 5, not only the 1st French Army, but also the remnants of Minoradovic, as well as the 3rd French Army and the 4th French Army following behind them. Barclays fully understood how critical the situation was. Before, Ivanovic and Prato both advised him to retreat overnight, but Barclay thought it was the two of them who deliberately exaggerated their words, so he did not adopt their opinions. Now, he regretted it. At this time, Kutuzov's order to retreat to eastern Poland also came over. Without any hesitation, Barclay immediately ordered the entire army to retreat. However, now the French army has arrived at the city of Poznan. Although Barclay's troops retreated very quickly, almost 450,000 people were intercepted. Under the heavy siege of the French army, their fate can be imagined.

The subsequent war completely evolved into the escape of the Russian army and the pursuit of the French army. This situation continued until April 8. The reason was that due to the pursuit in recent days, the French army's front line was too long and the supply was not reached at all. As a last resort, Dawu ordered the legions to garrison on the spot and wait for supply. At this time, the French army had arrived in the areas of Vowocwavek and Rhodes. The Russian army also gathered in the Warsaw area. At this time, Kutuzov had about 380,000 people, losing a total of 220,000 people, while the French army had 340,000 people lost only 40,000 people. The war loss rate of the two sides reached 1 to 5.5. As the current ratio of troops, the two sides confronted each other again. But no one suspected that once the French army had sufficient supplies, Kutuzov and his army would not be able to stop the French army from advancing.

The result of the French and Russian battle shocked European countries. First of all, France and Russia. Xiao Jie has always believed that France would win, but he did not expect it to be so smooth. He had always planned to send the 2nd Iberian Army to support north, and for this he had to stop the attack on Austria. However, the result of the battle was greatly beyond his expectations. He now fully believed that the strength of the four legions alone was enough to maintain the advantage in the north. Of course, the premise was that the Russian army did not send more reinforcements, and the French army did not attack Russia's homeland. Dawu and other four marshals won such a great victory, and Xiao Jie praised them. At the same time, the enthusiasm of the French people for war was once again aroused. The repeated victories gave them reason to believe that the glory of the French Empire would be presented again. And Russia

The country was in a bleak state. Alexander never expected that his 600,000 army would be defeated by the French army within a few days. The failure came so quickly. The angry Alexander sent people to scold Kutuzov, questioning why he ordered his retreat while still mastering enough troops to fight with the French army? But Kutuzov only replied one sentence, which made Alexander no longer scold him. That sentence was that he did not want the encounter in 1807 to repeat. Alexander also understood Kutuzov's intentions and knew that he was to retain strength for Russia. It gave Russia enough troops to defend its homeland, unlike the French army in 1807 and was forced to sign an unequal treaty. In this case, although the Russian army failed on the battlefield, the Russian army also had enough troops to defend their homeland.

The other shocked were Britain, Prussia and Austria. Britain had always hoped that the anti-French alliance army could defeat the French army and relieve the pressure on Britain. But to their disappointment, the anti-French alliance countries failed one after another under the attack of the French army. First Prussia, then the Rhine Alliance, then Austria, and finally even Russia failed. Britain's hope was completely shattered now. Now, in order to resist the upcoming large-scale invasion of the French army, Britain began to accumulate a lot of strength and turn the target of help from other countries to itself.

The Prussian king and government were very depressed. They were in exile in Russia, thinking that the Russian army could defeat the French army, and that would have a chance to restore the country. Now that even the Russian army has been defeated, their restoration will be endless.
Chapter completed!