Chapter 4 Chapter Four

Bennigsen's submission that an attack must be launched and the Cossack's report on the undefended French left flank were only the last indications that the order to attack was necessary, and it was decided to start the attack on October 5th. . On the morning of October 4, Kutuzov signed the operational order.Thor read the battle order to Ermolov, asking him to make further deployments. "Yes, yes, I don't have time now," said Ermolov, and left the cottage.The battle orders drafted by Thor were beautifully written, as were those written at Austerlitz, but this time they were not in German.

"Dieerste Colonnemarschiert ① is going to so-and-so and such-and-such, dirzweite Colonnemarschiert ② is going to so-and-so and such-and-such," etc.On paper, all of these columns arrive at the designated location at the designated time and destroy the enemy.As with all battle plans, there is a book series on All Things Thinking Well. , as in the execution of all battle plans, no column arrived at the appointed place at the appointed time. -------- ①French: First Column. ②French: Second Column. When the due number of copies of the battle plan had been prepared, an officer was called and sent to Ermolov to carry it out.Satisfied with the importance of the task entrusted to him, the young cavalry officer, Kutuzov's herald, galloped at once to Ermolov's lodgings.

"Out," replied Ermolov's orderly. The cavalry officer went again to a general with whom Shrmolov frequented. "No, the general is not here." The cavalry officer mounted his horse and went to another man. "No, they're all out." "Don't make me responsible for this delay! How annoying!" thought the officer.He rode all over the camp.Some said that they saw Ermolov and some other generals going somewhere, others that he probably went home.The officer didn't even eat lunch until six o'clock in the afternoon.Ermolov was nowhere, and no one knew where he was.The officer had a quick bite to eat at the place of a colleague, and then went to the front to find Miloradovich.Miloradovich was not at home either, and he was told there that Miloradovich was going to a ball given by General Fund, and Ermolov was probably there.

"Where is the ball?" "Hey, where is it? In Yechkin," said a Cossack officer, pointing to a landowner's house in the distance. "Why is it there, outside the line of defense?" "They sent two regiments to defend, and it's frightening to have such fun there! Two bands, and three choruses." The officer galloped beyond the lines to look for Yechkin.He drove towards the house, and he heard the harmonious and joyful soldiers' dance music from a long distance. "On the meadow...on the meadow! . . . " The sound of the flute and the torban accompanies the dance music, and is sometimes drowned out by shouts, and the officer is also pleased to hear these sounds, but at the same time he is a little Afraid, lest the important order entrusted to him has not been delivered for so long, and he will be convicted because of it.It was past eight o'clock.He dismounted and entered the porch of the still-preserved landowner's house between the Russians and the French. Outside.The officer was let in, and at once he saw all the important generals of the army, among them Ermolov's tall and distinguished figure.All the generals stood in a semicircle, with their coats unbuttoned, flushed, jubilant, and laughing loudly.In the middle of the hall, a flush-faced, short, handsome general danced the trepak with alacrity.

"Ha, ha, ha! Well done, Nikolai Ivanovich! Ha, ha, ha! ..." -------- ① Torban is a double-necked plucked stringed instrument from Poland and Ukraine in old times. The officer felt that at this moment he would be doubly reproached for coming in with important orders, so he preferred to wait; but one of the generals, seeing him and learning why he had come, told Ye Ermolov.Ermolov grimly approached the officer, took the papers from him, and said nothing to him. "Do you think he went away by chance?" a colleague on the staff had said to the cavalry officer that evening, referring to Ermolov. "It's a trick. It's all on purpose. Konovnitsyn's trouble. Just look at what's going to happen tomorrow!"