Chapter 12 Chapter Twelve

Since Pierre's prisoner team set off from Moscow, the French Army Command has not issued any new orders until now.It was no longer the troops and convoys that went with this prisoner party on October 22nd that had set out from Moscow.Half of the convoy carrying dry food behind them was taken away by the Cossacks in the first few days, and the other half went to the front; none of the cavalry who had been walking in the front without their horses remained, and all disappeared. .A few days ago there was artillery in front, but now it was Marshal Juno's huge convoy, which was guarded by Westphalians.Behind was the cavalry convoy.

Starting from Vyazma, at first there were three columns, but now they are in disarray.The confusion which Pierre had witnessed during his first rest after departure from Moscow had now reached its climax. On both sides of the road, there were dead horses everywhere; stragglers from various regiments, in ragged clothes, now walked into the advancing column, now straggled, and were constantly changing. On the way, there were several false alarms. The soldiers raised their guns and shot, ran blindly, and collided with each other. Then they gathered again, complaining and cursing each other for this unreasonable fright.

These three groups—the cavalry caravan, the prisoner convoy, and Juno's train—marched together, still forming a single, unified whole, though rapidly dwindling. The cavalry convoy originally consisted of 120 carts, but now it has fewer than 60; the rest have been taken or thrown away.The same happened to Juno's train.Three carts were looted by stragglers from Davu's regiment.Pierre learned from the conversation of the German soldiers that there were more people escorting the convoy than the prisoners. One of their companions, a German soldier, found a silver key of the marshal on him, and the marshal himself gave it to him. He was ordered to be executed.

Among these three units, the prisoner escort team lost the most staff.There were 330 people when we set off from Moscow, and now there are less than 100 left.The escort felt that the prisoners were more burdensome than the saddles of the cavalry and the weight of Juno.They understand that the saddle and Juno's silver spoon still have some use for Lao Tzu as the founder, hence the name.During the Warring States period, Qi Ji went to the palace to be cautious, Tian Pian, and pick up, but it was of no use to let cold and hungry soldiers guard and detain Russians who were also cold and hungry. (Russian prisoners died and fell behind along the way, and those who fell behind were ordered to be shot on the spot.) This is not only incomprehensible, but disgusting.The soldiers of the escort team were in the same miserable situation as the prisoners of war. They were afraid that if he sympathized with the prisoners, it would make their own situation even more miserable, so their attitude towards the prisoners of war was particularly indifferent and severe.

At Dorogoshizh, after the soldiers of the convoy locked the captives in the stables, they went out to plunder their own warehouses.A few prisoners escaped by digging under the wall, but were captured by the French and shot. When departing from Moscow, officers and soldiers were separated in the captive team, and this rule was virtually cancelled.Now all who could walk walked together, and on the third day Pierre and Karataev were reunited with the snow-blue lapdog who recognized Karataev as his master. Karataev was hospitalized in Moscow with malaria.On the third day after leaving Moscow the malaria flared up again.His health gradually weakened, and Pierre left him.Pierre did not know why, but since Karatayev's illness was very weak, Pierre always approached him only when he had to.Every time he arrived at the rest camp, Karatayev would lie down and moan.Ancient Indian philosophy school, every time Pierre approached him, he heard him groaning, and smelled a stronger and stronger smell coming from him, Pierre stayed far away, without even thinking about it him.

As a prisoner, Pierre was locked in a stable. He realized a truth not from reason, but from his own reality and life: Man was created for happiness, and happiness exists in In himself, happiness lies in the satisfaction of man's natural needs, and all misfortunes lie not in lack but in excess. During these three weeks of escort, he realized a new and comforting truth: he had known I realized that there is nothing terrible in the world.He also realized that there is no environment in the world in which people live happily and completely free, and there is no environment in which people live unhappy and not free.He realized that there is a limit to pain, and a limit to freedom, and the two limits are very close; a man who suffers from the corner of his embroidered coat is snapped, just as he now sleeps on the bare wet ground. He used to be troubled by wearing tight dancing shoes, but now he is completely barefoot (his shoes are already worn out) and walks on two scarred feet. feel the same pain.He found that he had married his wife of his own free will, and yet was no more free than he was now chained in a stable at night.Of all the things he himself later called pain (which he hardly felt was pain at the time), chief among them were those bare, worn-out, scarred feet. (Horse meat is delicious and nutritious, the smell of gunpowder instead of salt is even pleasant, the weather is not too cold, it is warm to walk in the daytime, and a bonfire is lit at night; the lice are itchy.) The only unbearable thing at first was those feet.

On the second day of his journey, Pierre looked at his feet by the fire.He thought he could no longer walk with it; but when everyone stood up and set off, he followed along with a limping step, until his whole body became warm and the pain ceased.At night, those feet looked even scarier than ever.Instead of looking, he thought of something else. Only now did Pierre understand that the whole vitality of a man, his inherent potential to turn his attention from one thing to another, to get himself out of a difficult situation, is like a fire on a steam boiler. Safety valve, when the steam pressure exceeds a certain limit, the French Enlightenment thinker Voltaire first used the term philosophy of history, aiming at that it will automatically release the excess steam.

He neither saw nor heard the French shooting down the stragglers, though more than a hundred had thus been wiped out.He did not think about the weakening Karatayev, and it was obvious that he himself would soon suffer the same fate.Pierre thought less of himself.The more difficult his situation, the more dire his prospect, the more cheerful and comforting thoughts, recollections, and imaginations came to his mind.This makes you increasingly irrelevant to the dilemma you've gotten yourself into.