Chapter 19 Chapter Nineteen

When people act, they always have a purpose.If you have to walk a thousand miles, you will think that there are good things thousands of miles away.In order to gain momentum, one must think of the Promised Land ahead. The French had Moscow in their attack, and the Fatherland in their retreat.But the motherland is too far away.A person who travels thousands of miles will forget the ultimate goal. He will say to himself that he will travel forty miles today and rest and spend the night there. Therefore, the campsite on the first journey conceals the ultimate goal and gathers all wishes and hopes. .The intentions of individual people are often diffused in the crowd.

For the French who retreated along the old Smolensk road, the motherland as the ultimate goal was too far away.The nearest destination was Smolensk, and the wish and hope to go there were greatly strengthened in the crowd.Not because they knew that there was plenty of food and fresh troops there, or because they said so (on the contrary, both the senior officers of the army and Napoleon knew that there was not much food and grass there), but because this alone gave action its power. strength and to endure the suffering of the present.Whether they knew it or not, they equally deceived themselves and rushed to Smolensk as a paradise.

The French took to the road, and fled towards their imaginary target with astonishing perseverance and unprecedented speed.Besides the common will which unites and empowers them, another cause is their numbers.Just like the law of gravity in physics, their huge size itself attracts atoms like people.They move forward as a nation of millions collectively. Each of them has but one wish - to be a prisoner, free from all horror and misfortune.However, on the one hand, the common desire to go to the destination of Smolensk drew everyone in the same direction; on the other hand, it was impossible for a regiment to surrender to a company. Excuses don't come often.The density of numbers and the rapidity of the movement made it impossible for them, and made it difficult for the Russians to stop the all-out movement of the French.Up to a certain point, any mechanical fracture of the object cannot hasten the process of decay.

A pile of snow cannot melt in one go.There is a certain time limit before which no heat can melt it.On the contrary, the higher the temperature, the stronger the residual snow. None of the Russian generals understood this except Kutuzov.Konovnitsyn's prediction of October 11 came true when it became clear that the French had fled along the Smolensk road.The generals want to make meritorious service, want to cut off, intercept, capture, and annihilate the French, and they all want to attack. Only Kutuzov alone (the strength of each commander-in-chief was small) opposed the attack. He could not say to them what we say now: "Why fight? Why block the roads? Injure our own, brutally massacre those unfortunate wretches? Since from Moscow to Vyazma there is no fighting. Lost a third of the army, why bother now? He expounded from his old age wisdom to make them understand, he told them about the "golden bridge", but they laughed at him and slandered him, they Throwing tantrums, majestic before the slain beast.

-------- ① Jinqiao: It means to leave a way of escape for the defeated army. Near Viezyma, Ermolov, Miloradovich, Platov, etc., were very close to the French, and they could not resist cutting off and annihilating two French corps in order to send to the Kurdish Tuzov reported their intentions, and they sent Kutuzov a letter, but inside the envelope was not a report but a blank sheet of paper. Although Kutuzov restrained the army as much as possible, our men struck out and tried to intercept.It is said that some regiments of infantry charged forward with music and drums beating, killing thousands and losing thousands themselves.

But cutting off -- doesn't cut off and annihilate anyone.The French army hugged the danger even tighter, and the French army continued to flee along the doomed road to Smolensk, being melted away along the way.