Chapter 10 chapter Ten

Barclay informed Bolkonsky at dinner that the Emperor himself wanted to see Prince Andrew and ask him about Turkey.At six o'clock in the afternoon, when Prince Andrew was due to arrive at Bennigsen's apartment, the letter had not yet been delivered to the Emperor. On this day, the Emperor Xingyuan received a news that Napoleon's new actions might endanger our army. This news turned out to be inaccurate. Also on this morning, Colonel Michaux accompanied the Emperor to inspect the fortifications of Dresa. , and proved to the emperor that this fortified position, conceived by Pfuel as the chef-d'oeuvre of unprecedented tacticians, could have put Napoleon to death--this position meant nothing, but the Russian army grave.

-------- ① French: masterpiece. Prince Andrei came to General Bennigsen's apartment, which was situated in a small landed estate near the river, where there was neither Bennigsen nor the Emperor, but Chernesau, the emperor's aide-de-camp. The husband received Bolkonski and explained to him that the emperor took General Bennigsen and the Marquis Paulsi to inspect the fortifications of the Drissa camp for the second time today, and they began to have great feelings about the applicability of the fortifications of the camp. Big doubt. Chernyshev was sitting with a French novel by the window of the first room, which probably used to be the hall; The camp bed of Mori's adjutant.The adjutant was there, evidently exhausted from the banquet or business, dozing on the rolled-up quilt. There were two doors in the hall: one led directly to the original drawing room, and the other led to the study on the right.From the first door came voices speaking in German and occasionally in French.There, in the former drawing room, a non-military meeting was being held according to the emperor's will (the emperor liked to be vague), and he wanted to know the opinions of several people in the current predicament.This is not a military meeting, it seems to be a special meeting held for the emperor to clarify certain issues personally.Invited to this informal meeting were the Swedish general Amfeld, the aide-de-camp Worzogen, Winzengerode, whom Napoleon called a French fugitive, Michaud, Thor, Shih, who was not at all a soldier. The Count of Thine, and finally Pfuel himself, was, as Prince Andrew had heard, the lacheville ouvriere of all things.Prince Andrey had an opportunity to look him over carefully, because Pfuel, who had arrived shortly after Andrey's arrival, stopped to talk to Chernyshev on the way to the drawing-room.

-------- ①French: main brain. At first glance, Pfuel was wearing a poorly tailored uniform of a Russian general, as if he had been disguised and did not fit. Teer, Mark, Schmidt, and many other German military theorists whom Prince Andrew met in 1805; but he was more typical than all others, and Prince Andrei had never I have seen a German military theorist who so combined those German characteristics. Pfuel was short and thin, but broad-boned and fit, with broad hips and angular shoulder blades.His face is wrinkled, his eye sockets are deeply recessed, the temple hair on his forehead has obviously been combed hastily, but the hairs on the back of his head are curled up in bunches, which looks childish and ridiculous.As he entered the room he looked about him restlessly and indignantly, as if he feared everything in the great room into which he had entered.Holding his saber clumsily, he asked Chernyshov in German where the emperor was.Evidently he wanted to get across the room as quickly as possible, finish the ceremony and greetings, and sit down to work by the map, which he found to be the most comfortable place, while he heard from Chernyshov that the emperor was visiting him. Nodding his head hastily, smiling ironically, he muttered something to himself, as if complaining about Dummkopf in the low, hasty way of all self-confident Germans... ① or: ZuGrundedieganzeGeschichte ... ②Or: S'wirdwasgescheitesd'rauswerden... ③Prince Andrei did not hear what he was saying and wanted to go over, but Chernyshev introduced Prince Andrei to Pfuel and said that Andrey Prince Lie had just returned from Turkey, where the fighting was fortunately over, and Pfuel glanced at Prince Andrei, rather than at him, and said with a laugh: "Da Musseinscho Cnertactischer Kriegwesensein." ④ Then, with a contemptuous smile, he walked towards the room where the conversation came from.

-------- ① German: Stupid. ②French: The whole thing is going to be over. ③French: Huh, there is a good show to watch! ④French: That's right, that battle must have been tactically used correctly. Pfuel obviously had a penchant for sarcasm, especially now that someone was inspecting his positions behind his back and making judgments, which irritated him even more.Prince Andrei's brief meeting with Pfuel, together with his memories of the battle of Austerlitz, gave him a vivid image.Pfuel is one of those men who are so self-confident and immutable that they would rather be martyred. Such people can only be Germans, because only Germans rely on ideas that are far from reality-science, that is, imaginary perfection. An unbroken knowledge of the truth builds such confidence.The Frenchman is confident because he considers himself irresistibly attractive, both mentally and physically, for men and women; the Englishman is confident because he is a citizen of the best organized country in the world, because As an Englishman, he always knows what to do and knows that what he does as an Englishman is undoubtedly right. The Italian is confident because he is always excited and forgets himself and others, but the Russian is confident. Because he knows nothing, and will not know, because he does not believe that anything can be fully understood, the German self-confidence is worse than all others, more obstinate and more annoying, because he imagines that he knows Truth, knowing science, which he invented himself, and which he regarded as absolute truth—that is evidently the case with Pfuel, he had a science—he learned from the history of Frederick the Great’s wars. everything he encountered in the history of modern warfare, he had come across as meaningless, savage, chaotic conflicts in which so many mistakes had been made by both sides that those wars could not Called wars, they do not conform to theory and cannot be the object of scientific study.

In 1806 Pfuel was one of the planners of the war that ended at Jena and Auerstedt; but he saw no error in his theory in the outcome of that war.Instead, he believes that the only reason for all failure is not doing according to his theory."Ichsagteja, dassdieganze Geschichtezum Teufelgehenwerde," he says, with his characteristic schadenfreude sarcasm. Pfuel is one of those theorists who are so attached to their theories that they forget their purpose—the application of In reality, they hate all reality because they prefer theory, and they are unwilling to even understand it.He even rejoices in the failure, because the fact is that the failure is caused by a departure from the theory, and for him this failure can only prove the correctness of his theory.

-------- ① German: As I said earlier, the whole thing is going to be over. He spoke a few words to Prince Andrei and Chernyshev about the present war, with a look that seemed to say, I knew all along that everything was going to go wrong, and I even took pride in it, and the back of my head The upturned locks and hastily brushed sideburns speak for it. He went into another room, where his low, indignant voice was at once heard.