Although the Slavs are known as a fighting people and one of the three major barbarian tribes in Europe, there are many records of submission to the Slavs in history, and even the Polish wing cavalry has captured Moscow. Why was Alexander able to defeat Napoleon, the "god of europe", in the Russo-French War of 1812? Is it a scorched-earth policy, or is it a military god? If it were not for the "macule wound", Tsarist Russia would have been conquered long ago, and Alexander had been beaten by Napoleon in the previous anti-French wars.
(1) Rise of kings
Napoleon, the founder and emperor of the First French Empire, is known as the most powerful military man in Europe, Churchill called him the "greatest emperor" in the world, and our great Man Mao Zedong read "Napoleon" 6 times. This small man from Corsica, from 1799 to 1812, made France from a fallen aristocratic regime to the no. 1 power in Europe and the world in just 13 years, shorter than Hitler let Germany rise.
After the Battle of Toulon in 1793, Napoleon was promoted to brigadier general, and after the suppression of the royalists in 1795, he became commander of the Paris garrison, and at the age of 26, he was the commander of the Capital Military District. A few months later he was promoted to Commander-in-Chief of the Italian Front of the French Republic, defeating the Austrian army in a row. In 1797, he was expelled by the Governor's Government to serve as commander-in-chief (marshal) of the Eastern Army, inhibiting British expansion in North Africa, Arabia, and India. In two years, he swept through the Mediterranean And fought all over the Continent.
In 1799, the 29-year-old Napoleon launched the "Misty Moon Coup", which won the support of the people and became the Emperor of the First Empire of France.
What is the concept of a son of a foreign peasant with no background (whose ancestral home is Italy) to become emperor of a great power in only a few years? This was followed by the reform of the Napoleonic Code, which influenced later generations, and struck hard, conquering one country after another and ending the Holy Roman Empire.
In 1805, he suffered three major defeats against the French forces
In the 1806 War of Jena, the Prussian army was completely destroyed and Germany was occupied.
In 1807, the Battle of Eyraux and the Battle of Fried fought the Russian army full of teeth.
At this time, Napoleon was not only the Emperor of France, but also the CEO of Italy, the Rhine Federation and the Swiss Confederation, and his brothers Joseph, Louis and Rebaum were appointed Kings of Spain, the Netherlands and Westphalia.
In 1809, the 4th and 5th Anti-French Campaign continued to beat Austria violently, forcing the Habs to cut off the land and pay reparations. Look at the record, the European, West Asian, North African powers hammered one by one, can be called unprecedented.
Napoleon—whoever dared to laugh at my height, I would cut off his head to bridge the gap between us.
(2) Life and death, alliance of interests
After conquering most of Europe, he began to set his sights on the British Isles, where the God of War was invincible on the mainland, but at sea he was the domain of the Commonwealth Royal Fleet. As a result, all the conquered countries of the Naxate Alliance imposed a blockade on Britain and cut off British trade.
The frightened Tsar Paul I was busy making overtures, threatening Sweden, and Denmark joined him in imposing a blockade on Britain.
However, Russia is an agrarian country and is highly dependent on Britain, the largest financier of grain and other agricultural exports is Britain, advanced military equipment such as weapons and guns depends on Britain, and even sugar and spirits also rely on British colonial imports. The bundle of interests led to the blockade of England and the collapse of the economy, and the people were extremely dissatisfied, and the reactionaries bought off the king's attendants and suffocated Paul alive in his sleep.
Immediately after Alexander I succeeded to the throne, he revised national policy, reopened trade with Britain, and repeatedly violated the ban. Annoyed, Napoleon wrote a calm but threatening letter, which is now on display at the Museum of Russian History: "Peace between France and Russia depends entirely on His Majesty..."
But Alexander replied even more, declaring "preferential tariffs on british goods imported by sea and a 50% tariff increase on overland trade with France and its minions". Napoleon beat Alexander twice, did not demand reparations for the cession of land, and allowed Russia to continue to fulfill the blockade agreement against Britain. However, Alexander's dead pig was not afraid of boiling water, and the emperor was completely on fire, and decided to mobilize heavy troops to forcibly incorporate Tsarist Russia into the mainland blockade system.
(3) The outbreak of war and the spread of plague,
On June 12, 1812, Napoleon's 600,000 expeditionary force was assembled in Germany, entered Poland, and marched towards Moscow, also beginning a journey to hell and its own doom.
At that time, Tsarist Russia only had 200,000 troops, and there was no doubt that the hard bar would be defeated, so it adopted the method of clearing the field and retreating step by step, luring the enemy to go deeper, lengthening the French transportation line, and at the same time, a small group of troops continuously attacked and harassed, slowing down the speed of the French advance.
This long stretch short hanging tactic Napoleon will not see? After his precise calculations, the French army had 300,000 livestock invested in logistics support at that time, and the logistical consumption accounted for only 1/3, and the remaining 70% was enough for the army to feed. And the war was fought in the summer, and in 1812 it was warm summer and warm winter, and there was no climate therefore. Therefore, small units were also divided to deal with the invading Russians, and the large troops did not stop until Moscow, and the two sides did not engage in large-scale confrontation.
But man is not as good as heaven, and the genius will never expect that it will not be the enemy army that will eventually destroy him, but the plague.
After entering Poland, the epidemic typhus disease (Priksia Przewalski's) began to erupt in the barracks, this infectious disease is caused by lice rat fleas, the incubation period is 10 to 12 days, after the onset of high fever, severe headache, cornea facial hyperemia, 4 to 6 days later 80% of patients will have a systemic rash, necrosis of the cardiovascular system, mortality rate of up to 40%, hunger and fatigue or not get timely medical treatment, mortality rate is higher, at that time medical skills, 5000 military doctors are helpless.
In 2021, in a mass burial site of 3,000 people in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, archaeologists analyzed and identified napoleon's crusade army as having no external injuries. Documentary Humanities Channel - Anthropologist Gullit found a large number of dead soldiers' skeletons all the way from Poland to Moscow, and their teeth were tested, all caused by macules.
How many deaths did the plague spread throughout the barracks? After a three-month long march, the 600,000-strong army entered Moscow with fewer than 100,000 men. The fires in Moscow were so wide that the Russians set fire to the entire city, leaving not a single grain of food for the French. Napoleon chose to withdraw his troops, and the tired division was blocked by the Russian army all the way, and only 37,000 people eventually returned to France, and the veterans and elites were lost.
The Russian army took the opportunity to invade Paris, and in the Russian History Museum, the carriage of Napoleon's expedition, the emblem of the Imperial Eagle and other objects are vividly remembered, recording the helplessness of this war.
There is no doubt that the emperor, who had never been defeated, lost in the 6th War of the Anti-French Alliance, and lost very badly, not to weapons or tactics, but fell under the virus.
Napoleon was forced to abdicate and Bourbon Louis XVIII took the throne. On 1 March 1815, he returned to France, where he was unanimously supported by the workers and peasants, the king ran away, and Napoleon returned to the throne with his bare hands.
The European countries panicked and formed the Seventh Coalition. At the Battle of Waterloo, the French singled out the combined forces of Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Nassau, Brunswick, Hanover, and the British German Legion, and was ultimately defeated.
On 22 June, the most powerful emperor in European history was exiled to St. Helena and poisoned at the age of 52.
Strictly speaking, Napoleon's defeat only once in his life is an insurmountable peak, and his "infantry and artillery coordination" tactics are still used in modern warfare today.
If hypothetical, there is hardly any doubt that Napoleon could have knocked Alexander out of the shi, and the two were not of the same rank. Napoleon's defeat of the main reason is not supplies, if we say supplies, the volunteer army in the Korean War to supply more difficult, the same victory over the United Nations army, the European steppe is not the Middle East and North Africa desert, there are countless villages rivers and wild animals, can only say that the supply is difficult, how can it destroy the French army? Napoleon's expedition to Tsarist Russia, the two sides did not have a large-scale battle, and had nothing to do with strategy and tactics.
Historically, the armies that were completely destroyed by the plague were not one or two:
In the Athens-Spartan War in 430 BC, both sides were destroyed by the Davidian virus, accompanied by a large number of civilian deaths.
When attila, the Hun king, attacked Rome, his army contracted malaria and was completely destroyed.
The army of King Frederick I of Germany had died of plague by 80%.
When the Spaniards conquered the Aztecs, the last civilization of South American Indians, the number of people who died of smallpox in the Asteq army made normal walking problematic.
Napoleon's high status in the hearts of the world is the evaluation made by history after measuring his merits.
Reference: The Complete Biography of Napoleon
The Epilogue of Napoleon
Documentary Humanities
The Plague of the Russo-French War of 1812
Napoleon the Great, Crushed by the Plague