[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-life-of-being-a-crown-prince-in-france":3,"chapter-life-of-being-a-crown-prince-in-france-life-of-being-a-crown-prince-in-france-chapter-1567":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Life of Being a Crown Prince in France",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":20,"prevChapterSlug":21,"totalChapters":22,"novelImage":23},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":16,"volume":17,"translator":18,"content_hash":19},386796,646,"Chapter 1566 - 1472: Struggle Against the Cold · Part 1","life-of-being-a-crown-prince-in-france-chapter-1567",1567,"\u003Cp>North of Smolensk, Smolensk Town.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Prince Bagration wiped the ice from his beard and shouted to the commander of the Cossack Cavalry Battalion: \"Have you found them?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The latter’s voice came through the swirling snowflakes: \"Not yet, General. This damn snow has covered up the Poles’ tracks.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Expand the search area! With so much snow, they can’t have gone far!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The prince from Georgia looked at the snowy world in front of him, his brows furrowed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Polish rearguard had suddenly left the Yartsevo Ferry, putting him in a dilemma—according to the information from headquarters, the Polish vanguard had already retreated, so their rearguard was probably heading east to meet them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, it’s also likely the Poles noticed they were in a disadvantaged position and fled directly west to Orsha.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>General Kutuzov had ordered him to stay close and harass the Polish Army to deplete their supplies.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And yet, a day and a half had passed, and he had still not found any trace of the Polish rearguard.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just as Bagration was hesitating whether to send out the elite Hussars for reconnaissance, two Cossack cavalrymen suddenly burst through the heavy snow, shouting towards them: \"The Poles! Alarm, it’s the Poles!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bagration instinctively ignored the word \"alarm\" and asked excitedly, \"Where are they?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A Hussar, seeing his banner, ran straight over: \"Just 5 kilometers to the south, General! They are forming up, about 15,000 men!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bagration couldn’t help but feel a chill in his heart.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although he had 20,000 troops, they were in a state of preparing to pursue. Luckily, it was snowing now, and the Poles couldn’t launch an attack, otherwise he would have been caught off guard.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He quickly calmed down, looked at the order officer, and shouted, \"Order the entire army to retreat north and set up a defensive line at Vera Village.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As long as the whereabouts of the Polish Army were discovered, the initiative was back in their hands.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He didn’t have to fight the Poles head-on, as long as he could delay them, within a month, they would starve or freeze to death.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He turned his horse and said to the aide nearby, \"Send a report to General Kutuzov that we’ve found the Polish rearguard!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Yes, General!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The heavy snow gradually stopped by noon the next day, and the Polish cavalry launched an assault on Smolensk, only to find that the Russian Army had already left.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In Vera Village, several officers surrounding Prince Bagration, who was gnawing on black bread, burst into laughter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A cavalryman continued to report: \"The Poles found nothing, so they burned that town in a fit of anger. Now they’re regrouping, looking as though they intend to continue pursuing us.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bagration nodded, pondering whether to continue retreating north, when he saw his aide approach with an order officer: \"General, an order from headquarters has arrived.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bagration opened the wax-sealed tube and unfolded the paper inside, immediately furrowing his brow.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>General Kutuzov’s letter informed him to beware of the Poles going mad and suddenly charging north towards Toropets.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though it was still over 400 li from Saint Petersburg, no one could predict what might happen next. After all, the Poles had previously risked their entire army to launch a long-distance raid on the Crimea.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So he must intercept the Polish Army on the south bank of the West Dvina River.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>General Kutuzov had also allocated two Guard Cavalry Camps to reinforce him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bagration quickly gathered his officers to lay out a detailed battle plan to block the Poles in the woods just over ten li to the north.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, he waited until the afternoon of the next day, but the \"desperate\" Polish Army never appeared.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before dusk, a Cossack cavalryman finally returned to report that the Polish troops in Smolensk Town had fled south.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the other side, near the strategic town of Dorogobuzh, over a hundred kilometers east of Smolensk, Vitgenstein’s corps finally caught up with the Polish vanguard.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"The enemy is moving very quickly, General,\" the aide said as he reviewed the gathered information, \"the Cossack cavalry judged from the tracks there are over 4,000 cavalrymen alone.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Vitgenstein glanced at the soldiers around him, shivering in the cold, and frowned: \"They haven’t run out of fodder yet?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"We can’t delay any longer, or it’ll be trouble if they reach Yartsevo.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Order all the cavalry, at all costs, intercept the Poles before nightfall today.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Also, get in touch with General Tolmasov as soon as possible, I want to launch an attack simultaneously with him.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tolmasov’s corps was stationed on the north side of Dorogobuzh, responsible for encircling the Madarinsky Corps with him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With the order sent to the Russian cavalry commander several miles away, nearly two thousand Russian cavalrymen began to speed westward regardless of the horses’ strength.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, the Polish Army, like frightened rabbits, ran extraordinarily fast.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Russian cavalry pursued until four in the afternoon when the horses almost started to froth at the mouth before they finally caught sight of the Poles’ silhouettes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Cavalry commander Gorishin raised his binoculars and saw a vast area of gray and red wings swaying in the wind ahead. He took a deep breath and drew his horse saber, shouting, \"Form up! Cut in from the south!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Doing so indeed posed a significant risk. Battling the Polish Winged Cavalry head-on would definitely result in heavy casualties. But Vitgenstein’s order was at all costs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Another half hour passed before hundreds of Cossack cavalrymen first charged at the Polish column with wild yells.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To their surprise, the Polish Winged Cavalry did not react, continuing to run westward stupidly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Cossack cavalrymen were overjoyed. If the other side didn’t form ranks to fight, they would surely be butchered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But as they entered the carabinier range, they all froze in place.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the Polish warhorses, there were no riders at all. Tree branches were strapped to the horses’ sides, carrying the signature wings of the Winged Cavalry.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They unwillingly passed through the herd but only saw the horses scatter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the front of the Polish \"Winged Cavalry formation,\" more than two hundred Polish cavalrymen, hearing the commotion behind them, immediately turned and ran southwest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Their mission was to take these more than 4,000 warhorses and head to Smolensk, drawing the Russian army’s attention.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After dawn, General Vitgenstein looked at the dense mass of horses, twitching involuntarily at the corners of his eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Under normal circumstances, so much loot would have made him ecstatic, but now even his own cavalry camp was lacking fodder, how could they feed these horses?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But to just give up, he couldn’t bear it—so many good horses, selling at least tens of thousands of rubles if transported back to Moscow.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yes, in this minus 15 degrees cold, with occasional heavy snowfalls, the Russian Army’s logistical supply wasn’t easy either.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Russian Quartermaster Department had also scoured all the surrounding areas of Kaluga, Tula, and Ryazan to barely maintain the consumption of Kutuzov’s hundreds of thousands of troops.\u003C\u002Fp>",1166,"2026-05-30T06:21:49.775Z","2026-06-01T04:30:32.127Z",1,"novelbin.me","ae62ef8f56e8b73299c3026f4ca32c00d19e5f0d47bd89a13a1b217fa704cb5a","life-of-being-a-crown-prince-in-france-chapter-1568","life-of-being-a-crown-prince-in-france-chapter-1566",1568,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Flife-of-being-a-crown-prince-in-france-cover.jpg"]