Chapter 16 Chapter Sixteen

It was a warm and dark autumn night.It has been raining for more than three days.After changing horses twice, in an hour and a half, he covered thirty versts on a muddy road, and at one o'clock in the night, Borkhovitinov arrived at Letashevka.He dismounted in front of a farmhouse with the sign "General Headquarters" on the fence, and he left the horse and walked into the dim hall of the farmhouse. "I want to see the general on duty immediately! Very important!" he said in the dark to a sniffing man who was getting up. "My lord has been very unwell since last night, and he hasn't slept for three nights in a row," the orderly begged in a low voice. "You'd better wake up the captain first."

"It's very important, I'm from General Dokhturov," Borhovitinov said, feeling his way through the open door.The orderly went ahead of him to wake someone up. "My lord, my lord, here comes a messenger." "What? What? Who sent it?" came the voice of a sleepy man. "From Dokhturov and Alexei Petrovich. Napoleon is in Fominsk," said Borkhovitinov, who could not see his questioner in the darkness, but judging by the voice , not Konovnitsyn. The awakened person yawned and stretched. "I don't want to wake him," he said, touching something. "He's very ill! Maybe, that's a rumor."

"Here is the written report," said Borhovidinov, "tell me to hand it over to the general on duty immediately." "Wait a minute, I'll light the lamp. Damn it, where did you put it?" said the Stretchman to the orderly.This man was Konovnitsyn's adjutant Shcherbinin. "Found it, found it," he added. The orderly lit the fire, and Shcherbynin touched the candlesticks. -------- ① Use flint and fire sickle to make fire. "Ah, nasty guy." He said disgustedly. By the light of Mars, Borhovitinov saw the youthful face of Shcherbinin holding a candle, and in the front corner a man was sleeping.This man is Konovnitsyn.

As soon as the sulfur match got close to the tinder, it first emitted a blue and then a red flame, and it started to burn. Shcherbynin lit the candle, and the cockroaches that had been nibbling on the candle ran away one after another. He looked at the messenger.Bolkhovittinov was covered in mud, and when he wiped his face with his sleeve, he wiped the mud off his face again. "Who reported it?" Shcherbinin asked, picking up an official document. "The information is reliable," said Borhovitinov. "The reports of the captives, the Cossacks, the scouts, all agree."

"It can't be helped, he should be woken up," Shcherbinin said, getting up and going to the man in the nightcap and overcoat. "Peter, Petrovitch!" he said.Konovnitsyn did not move. "To General Headquarters!" He smiled, for he knew the words would probably wake him up.Sure enough, the head in the nightcap immediately looked up.Konovnitsyn's handsome and resolute face, with flushed cheeks, remained for a moment in a dream far removed from reality, but then suddenly shuddered; That calm and determined expression. "Oh, what's the matter? Who sent it?" he asked immediately, unhurriedly, blinking his eyes at the bright light.Konovnitsyn read the official document while listening to the officer's report.As soon as he finished reading, he put his feet in wool socks on the ground, began to put on his boots, brushed his temples, and put on his military cap.

"Are you there quickly? Let's go see the chief seat." Konovnitsyn immediately understood that this information was too important to delay.Whether this information was good or bad, he didn't think about it, and he didn't ask himself.He looked at everything in war not with intellect or reason, but with something else.In the back of his mind was a hidden belief that everything would be alright, but one should not rely on it, especially one should not talk about it, one should only do one's job.And he is doing his job wholeheartedly. Pyotr Petrovich, like Dohturov, is only included in Barclays, Raevsky, Ermolov, Platov, Miloradovich, etc. out of courtesy The so-called list of heroes of 1812.Like Dohturov, he was known for his shallow knowledge and limited abilities, and like Dohturov, he never had a battle plan.But he is always where the most difficult place is; since he was appointed as the general on duty, he always sleeps with the door open and tells everyone to wake him up.Kutuzov had reproached him for always being at the forefront under the fire of the guns in battle, and was afraid to send him.Like Dokhturov, he was a silent, often overlooked cog, but this cog was the most important part of the machine.

Konovnitsyn stepped out of the hut into the damp night, frowning—partly from a worsening headache, partly from an unpleasant scene in his mind: after receiving this information At that time, the staff, the whole nest of this powerful man must be stirred into chaos, especially after the battle of Tarutino and Bennigsen who pointedly pointed at Kutuzov: to make suggestions , quarrel, give orders, cancel orders.This presentiment made him extremely unpleasant, although he knew it was inevitable. Sure enough, when he stopped by Thor to inform him of this new information, Thor at once related his opinion to a general who lived with him, and Konovnitsyn silently and lazily Listen, he reminded him that it's time to see His Excellency the President.