Napoleon in 1812 - Chapter 147

Between the Coalition and the Union, the more urgent of the two was the Coalition. The fact that the Austro-Polish-French allied corps, which was stationed in Poland, was moving northward was a factor that greatly encouraged the sense of crisis in the Coalition command.

It could be seen that the power of the two armies currently gathered in the Orime wetland was almost equal. But what if reinforcements were to join only one side? Of course the tight balance would be broken.

As soon as Alexander I heard of the defeat of the Russian-Swedish army led by Tormasov, he called in forces stationed on the Baltic Sea or Crimean Peninsula.

But they were physically so far away that they simply would not be able to get to the battlefield in time,

The Austro-Polish-French corps would arrive at the Orime wetland long before them and would strike the Coalition’s side. In the end, the Coalition had to hit first before that happened.

“For the fall of Napoleon and France, and the eternal glory of Prussia.”

The health of Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher, commander-in-chief of the Prussian corps, was really bad.

After waking up from a coma, he suffered from persistent bleeding cough, fever, and shortness of breath.

Blucher, who had been struggling on the battlefields for a long time since his youth, was eventually declared unrecoverable.

Nevertheless, Blucher did not give up and took opium to improve and delay his condition. In a hazy state of mind due to opium, he sometimes went mad, He knew it himself. That his life span was really short now.

But when his country was in desperate danger from its lifelong enemy, how could he wait for his death with peace of mind?

The indomitable will to destroy Napoleon was beyond human will and reached the realm of heaven. That was the last driving force that kept Blucher alive.

“God Almighty, please do not take this old soldier’s soul before the end of this battlefield.”

After a short prayer, Blucher got up and started moving forward with the Prussian army. The goal of Blucher’s corps was to repel the Union forces that were waiting in the Pantin forest south of the Orime wetland.

There, the German troops of the Confederation of the Rhine and the French Third Corps under Michel Ney were on standby.

The results of the big and small skirmishes in the middle of the wetland could be heard in real time, but Blucher did not care and speeded up, The officers under his command expressed concern at the bold movement of the troops, which seemed hasty. But Blucher dismissed it in a word.

“According to my senses, they haven’t figured out our advance path yet. There will be no chance like this except now!”

Blucher’s unique animal sense on the battlefield was at its peak when his life was at stake. As he predicted, Michel Ney and the generals of the Confederation of the Rhine were agonizing over the question ‘Will Prussia really come right here from the beginning of the battle?’

The topography of mud and wetlands was also a problem, and the advance was very difficult because of the fog that sank at dawn. Due to the nature of the forest, it was difficult to scout the entire area.

However, Prussia was taking advantage of such an environment and boldly entering in diagonal. When Ney confirmed with his own eyes the presence of the Prussian army that was just around the corner, he uttered:

“Damn it, damn it…! If they’d only come half an hour later, we could have stopped them without any problems!”

In fact, Ney, who intended to order full-scale reconnaissance in the area, was caught off guard because he failed to meet the time difference. He urgently ordered the soldiers to continue their preparations for battle, and thus the fighting in Pantin Forest began.

Tatata! Tata! Tatatata! Tatata!

Michel Ney was the bravest among the Marshals of the French Empire. Under his strong command, the French Third Corps responded firmly to the Prussian offensive and the soldiers of the Confederation of the Rhine fought well in their own way.

Even though they did not expect the Prussians to boldly attack with so many battalions at this time and did not prepare properly, their fighting was spectacular. But no one would be able to stop Blucher today.

“Now! Send in the Pomeranian Cavalry Regiment! The target is the army of the Confederation of the Rhine!”

Blucher could smell the battlefield and ride the perfect flow of victory in it. He was a person who had the insight to pinpoint where the enemy’s weakness was and the determination to take out the cards at the most decisive moment.

Due to the nature of the forest area, it was difficult for many troops to gather in one place, and organic communication between the units was also difficult. Taking full advantage of that, Blucher delayed the fight against the French with some troops, while his main force hit the end of the army of the Confederation of the Rhine.

“Ah, sir! The Prussian cavalry!”

“What!? Form squares right now!”

It was a standard judgment, but this battlefield was already a jungle world where it was impossible to survive with just the standard. The soldiers of the Rhine formed squares, waiting for the Pomeranian cavalry.

However, it was not the cavalry, but the Prussian artillery, fully prepared to fire, that appeared. Blucher thoroughly hid the existence and location of his artillery and had not used it since the beginning of the fight. It was just for this one moment.

Boom! Bang! Booom-l Bang!!

The army of the Confederation of the Rhine, which formed squares after seeing the cavalry, was helplessly hit by artillery fire. The force of shells and shotgun shells at a distance of about 300 meters was enough to tear them apart at once, Blood, flesh, and bone fragments scatter in all directions. A great fear struck them.

“The left side is completely destroyed, sir! The countermeasures…!”

“The soldiers have already lost their will to fight! We must retreat!”

The army of the Confederation of the Rhine, who fought a noble war under the banner of European unity and harmony, enjoyed numerous victories with Napoleon. Their fighting spirit and confidence were high, and they proudly claimed to be a vanguard unit in this battle.

From the beginning, it was an army with questionable qualitative capabilities. Moreover, it could not be compared to its opponent if it was the Prussian army.

Especially in a remote place where the French could not assist them, facing that machine-like Prussian army head-on, it was hard to resist such devastating shelling.

With a hole open with artillery, the cavalry and infantry’s devious attacks under Blucher’s command were enough to completely break their will to fight.

“The army of the Confederation of the Rhine is fleeing! If we pursue it, we can achieve great results.”

“The chase is over. Now we hit the French with all our might.”

Blucher even deliberately opened the way for the defeated soldiers of the Rhine to escape easily. They did not even make a good match anyway.

The real thing was the French army. Blucher immediately turned his army and struck the flank of the French, who were engaged with the troops that were delaying the fight on purpose,

The French line was shaken from the sudden appearance of the Prussian fire. However, the French army was also different from the one of the Confederation of the Rhine. Michel Ney and the French Third Corps were persistently holding their positions despite the Prussian onslaught.

“The French are really tough!”

Prussian officers gritted their teeth and shouted. It was the best compliment to the enemy at gunpoint.

However, it was not possible to stop ten hands with one hand, and from the beginning, Prussia had the upper hand in the overall power in the Pantin Forest. Not to mention the fact that the army of the Confederation of the Rhine was defeated and fled.

“Keep the ranks and slowly step down from the battlefield!”

“We are the proud soldiers of the Empire and of His Majesty the Emperor! A great army never shows its back to the enemy!”

Realizing that it would be hard at this rate, the French began to retreat. But they did not show such a disorderly rout like the army of the Confederation of the Rhine. The French army would be the only army in the world that could maintain its formation and retreat under pressure from the front without collapsing despite being attacked on the flank.

Even as the comrades next to them were pierced by bullets and swept away by shells, the French soldiers stood back in a steady and orderly manner, maintaining the ranks under the control of the officers.

The Prussian army, which failed to see it, tried to chase and crush the French, but they fired back with accurate gunshots and artillery fire.

The French Third Corps, under Michel Ney’s command, was able to get out of the forest, while skillfully giving up land.

With bold advances, offensives, and psychological warfare, they solidified their victorious stance from the beginning of the battle. As the tactics they had prepared fit perfectly, they easily defeated the weak link of the army of the Confederation of the Rhine. And yet, in the end, the Prussian did not defeat the French.

During the post-battle damage report, hearing that Prussia and France suffered almost equal casualties despite their victory, Blucher looked up at the sky and laugh helplessly.

“Why can’t we beat France? Oh, God! Are you really abandoning Prussia?”

Anyway, as the French retreated, the Pantin forest came under the control of the Prussian army. It was like saying that an important base for checking and counterattacking Napoleon and the Union in the center was in the hands of the Coalition. And yet the expression of Blucher and the officers never looked bright.

Even against a single corps of the French army, and after defeating it by fighting with all their might, their struggles were not over.

How would they be able to overcome Napoleon with the other French corps gathered in the wetland? Blucher’s mind went blank. And it was not because of opium.

The Coalition command was able to grasp the formation of the Union from intelligence that came through various channels.

France – 127,000 troops

Confederation of the Rhine – 48,000 troops

Italy – 15,000 troops

Naples – 11,000 troops

Including soldiers from the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Denmark, the total was about 225,000 to 240,000.

Since the number of troops on the Coalition’s side was 280,000, it was safe to say that its overall strength was equal or superior to the Union’s. In fact, at the time of the expedition to Russia, France had twice more soldiers,

And at that time, troops from various countries had formed a mixed multinational coalition with France and had invaded Russia. And yet Arthur Wellesley was many times more frightened of the Union today than how it was then.

The reason why only 127,000 French soldiers were in this battle was because they felt the frighteningly cold rationality and efficiency underlying it.

‘Mobilizing a large army is one thing, but it’s another matter to bring it into battle without problems. In the past, Napoleon mobilized 420,000 people on his expedition to Russia, but tens of thousands died from non-combat losses.’

Even a steam locomotive invented by George Stephenson four years ago could be commercialized across Europe. Napoleon at that time mobilized an unreasonable large army without considering the circumstances of the times and national conditions.

‘But now none of that has happened. The Union forces are receiving abundant supplies and refraining from excessive military operations. The soldiers are preparing for the battle in their best condition.’

All of this was because Napoleon calculated and composed the maximum power without a leak, thoroughly even before the start of the war.

As a result, the Union forces, which were the essence and maximum power of the Union members, were born and could stand in the Orime wetland without any loss of power.

Alexander I and other Coalition commanders laughed at Napoleon’s arrogance, saying that only 127,000 of France’s 300,000-strong army were here. Wellesley did not think so at all.

The 127,000 French soldiers here were the finest ones that Napoleon had chosen in his Great Army. Their power would be beyond imagination.

“The Prussian army, led by the Count of Wahlstatt, has taken over the Pantin Forest, The Count requested the continuation of the operation.”

Wellesley nodded as he was briefed by his officer. His gaze was directed at the map of the great battlefield, which stretched around the Orime wetland. Napoleon had divided the Union forces into three major groups.

Part of the army of the Confederation of the Rhine and Michel Ney’s corps were the Right Army, tasked with protecting the Pantin forest, and Eugene, Jerome Bonaparte, and Joachim Murat formed the Left Army, tasked with keeping the Russian army in check.

And Napoleon himself was directly leading the Imperial Guard and overseeing the command of the Central Army.

The Coalition’s strategy was simple: defeat the relatively weak Left and Right Armies, isolate the Central army, and then annihilate it by striking it from three sides.

90,000 British troops and some Russian troops were tasked with holding the Central Army while forces on the left and right were defeated.

The Pantin forest was captured by the Prussians and the left was soon to be defeated by the Russian onslaught. Napoleon would certainly respond to this.

‘If Napoleon divides his Central Army to supports the left and right ones, we strike it. If Napoleon strikes us without sending troops, we draw a front line and hold out.’

In this process, faithfully trained British troops and ‘mercenaries’ hired in the East at a considerable cost would play a big role.

There was a reason why the battlefield was decided to be a wetland and a forest area. Not as good as Napoleon, but Wellesley had assembled a strategy in his own calculations,

Indeed, not long afterwards, the Central Army of the Union forces moved. Claude Victor-Perrin’s corps was detached to support the Left Army, which was shaken by the Russian onslaught. It was approximately 20,000 people. In other words, the power of the Central Army had fallen that much.

The defeated Right Army with the troops from the Confederation of the Rhine would take some time to regroup. This was the most vulnerable time for the Central Army, Arthur Wellesley did not hesitate to raise the flag of attack. The British army began to move.