The main reason for the failure is 1, and there is a great difference in personnel, 1.8 million to 300,000. The geographical situation is unfavorable to France. Leipzig, where the French side is located, has a low terrain and shows restraint in the artillery attack. 3. There is something wrong with the command and dispatch in France, and it will not change according to the situation. The material supply in France is not as smooth as that of the allied forces. Napoleon made mistakes in some judgments. 6. Allies (Austria, etc. ) betrayed.
The battle of Leipzig took place in June of 18 13, near Leipzig, Germany. Napoleon fought hard with 300,000 allies from Russia, Prussia, Austria and other countries with 6.5438+0.8 million people, and finally failed. Napoleon returned to the west bank of the Rhine and finally arrived in Paris. The following year, the Senate announced the abolition of Napoleon's throne. After the whole campaign, the anti-French alliance suffered about 54,000 casualties and the French army suffered about 37,000 casualties. The Battle of Leipzig was the fiercest battle in the Napoleonic Wars. Napoleon's failure represents that Napoleon's last hope of ruling Germany has been dashed. The anti-French allied forces entered Paris in March 18 14, and on April10/day of the same year, Napoleon declared his unconditional surrender, and Napoleon himself was exiled to an island in the Mediterranean.
Activity flow
Leipzig is a small town (now located in Germany) in the Rhine Federation, a French vassal country.
The French army won in Dresden, but other fronts where Napoleon was not present failed one after another. First of all, the First Army, which was ordered to detour to the Bohemian Legion, was surrounded by superior allied forces near Coulm. The army fought until August 30, when they ran out of ammunition and food, and the commander Van Damme led the rest to surrender, which caused the French army to lose more than 13 thousand people. Colonel Butuch Lin, the adjutant of the Tsar, once said that the battle of Coulm swept away the disappointment all over the Bohemian valley, and the whole valley was filled with cheers. As a result, the defeated Austrian army rallied.
When Napoleon returned to Dresden from Silesia, he left MacDonald more than 75,000 soldiers. As soon as he left, MacDonald immediately attacked the Silesia Legion in blucher according to his instructions, in an attempt to drive the enemy back to the east of Ivo. When blucher learned of Napoleon's departure, he immediately stopped his retreat and commanded the Silesia Legion to fight back. As a result, he drove the French army back to the west of the Baubert River. In this battle, MacDonald lost about 1.5 million men, 103 guns and a lot of ammunition and equipment.
The four armies that attacked Berlin were also defeated by the enemy's Northern Army Corps. After losing about 3000 people, Udinau was forced to evacuate from the Elbe River. The 13 Army, which started from Hamburg to coordinate the Udinau operation, also suffered setbacks. In this way, the French army was defeated on the entire eastern and northern lines and was forced to turn to defense.
In order to reverse the passive situation, Napoleon had to order the French army in the direction of Dresden in the southern line to turn to defense, and took Ney to Berlin to take over Udinau's position, because the latter took the initiative to ask for dismissal after successive defeats. Napoleon himself flew to the Eastern Front and led the French army to the west bank of the Baubert River to fight back against the invading Silesia Army. Blucher saw that the morale of the French army was obviously improved and the attack intensity was increased. Knowing that Napoleon was back, he immediately ordered the troops to retreat. This move made Napoleon furious and worried that he could not catch the enemy.
No sooner had blucher retreated than Napoleon received an urgent report from Dresden. It turns out that the southern line is tight again. The Bohemian Army turned around and returned immediately after Napoleon left, and continued to besiege the city. When Napoleon led his troops back in a hurry, the enemy retreated on its own. Napoleon had not had time to think about the allied retreat in the direction of Dresden. He couldn't tell whether it was a disaster or a blessing. It was reported that the French army on the northern line was defeated again near Tibok. In this battle, the French army lost about 22,000 people, of which 1.3 million people were captured for laying down their weapons. The enemy's North Road Army continued to push south.
The three allied army groups gradually approached Dresden, and the situation became more and more serious for the French army. The French army ran back and forth on the battlefield, exhausted, and the supplies of the troops were getting worse and worse. Each soldier can only get half a pound of bread every day, and there is no meat supply. In this way, the attrition of troops is very serious, and it is said that the number of patients has reached more than 50 thousand. At the same time, the enemy's reserve soldiers are constantly investing in the battlefield. The harassment of Russian Cossack cavalry behind the French army is becoming more and more active. However, Napoleon was very calm at this time. According to Saint-Cyr, when he talks about the recent losses suffered by the French army, he is just like talking about what happened in China. A grim fact is that the encirclement of the Coalition forces in three directions continues to shrink. Napoleon's reserves, except for the ninth army commanded by Oglaud, have all been used.
It seems to be getting closer. Because Dresden was difficult to conquer for a while, at the suggestion of blucher, the allies decided to take a bold plan: give up attacking Dresden, and the Bohemian army in the south bypassed Dresden and captured Leipzig behind the French army; The Silesia army in the east crossed the Elbe River in the west, joined forces with the North Road Army, and advanced from the north to Leipzig. Both roads aimed at Leipzig and carried out pincer attacks, then cut off the rear road of the French army and surrounded it.
In order to carry out this plan, Pu Jun veteran blucher left a small number of troops to keep in touch with the French army face to face, while the main force quietly moved to wittenberg. 10 On October 3rd, Pu Jun defeated the French army guarding the Elbe River, built two pontoons in the upper reaches of Vittenburg 10, and crossed to the south bank of the Elbe River. 104, Bernardote also led the Northern Route Army Corps to cross the Elbe River, thus realizing the meeting of the two armies. After they met, there were about160,000 troops. They coordinated with each other and put pressure on Leipzig from the north.
At that time, Napoleon could concentrate more than 250 thousand troops. In order to deal with the pincer attack of the allied forces, he is determined to make full use of the favorable position of interior-line operations and continue to adopt the method of divide-and-conquer His deployment is: advance to the south of Leipzig with some troops, stop the Bohemian army of/kloc-0.8 million people, concentrate the main force to advance northward, first defeat the Silesia army, and then annihilate the North Road army. When making this plan, Napoleon decided to give up Dresden because he wanted to concentrate his forces to the maximum extent. He told Saint-Cyr, who was defending Dresden, that there was expected to be a battle, and all the troops should be in his own hands, otherwise he would feel sorry. He said that leaving Saint-Cyr and his troops in Dresden would not make any contribution to his battle. However, he later gave up the idea and ordered Saint-Cyr's army to stay in Dresden. What is this for? It is very likely that Saxony will soon fall into the hands of the allies once the French army withdraws from the city.
On October 2nd, 65438/Kloc-0, Napoleon ordered Miao La to lead the Second Army (16000), the Fifth Army (14000), the Eighth Army (7000) and the Fifth Cavalry Division to the south of Leipzig. Its task is to stop the enemy Bohemian army and ensure Napoleon's attack on the enemy in the north road.
654381October 9, Napoleon personally led150,000 people to the north to find the enemy Silesia army. At that time, blucher had entered the vicinity of Dessau, south of the Elbe River. When he learned that Napoleon was leading the French army to fight, he immediately left with the troops. Napoleon was annoyed that the Allies continued to play such tricks, but he dared not pursue them, because the enemy in the city center was approaching Leipzig, and he was not sure how long the sniper troops under the command of Miao La could last. If Li attacks the enemy in the city now, it may slip away at once. Therefore, Napoleon decided to stay in the army for the time being, waiting for the enemy in the south road to get entangled with the French sniper forces, and then quickly moved south, detoured the enemy from the two wings, and annihilated it at the gates of Leipzig. Soon, Miao La sent a report that he was leading troops to wage a fierce battle with the Bohemian legion.
At this time, a Russian follow-up unit consisting of 50,000 people began to arrive at the front line, and tens of thousands of reinforcements were also on their way to Leipzig. 10/3, blucher suggested to the tsar; Let three legions attack Napoleon in a concentrated way, because the allies are close and have advantages in strength, and it is possible to defeat the enemy at once and notify the commander-in-chief of the allied forces in Schwarzenburg, but the Bohemian legion is advancing slowly. The tsar took blucher's advice and immediately negotiated to prepare for the final siege.
10 14 At noon, Napoleon arrived in Washaw town in the south of Leipzig, which is the headquarters of Miao La. On this day, the Allies concentrated a large number of cavalry and launched a tentative attack on Miao La's defensive positions. There was a large-scale cavalry battle between the two sides, and the result was regardless of victory or defeat.
The atmosphere of war around Leipzig is getting more and more tense. This commercial city with only about 30,000 residents at that time had the elster River in the west, the Palta River in the north and the Praze River in the south. The last two rivers meet in the north of Leipzig and flow into the elster River. Therefore, Leipzig is located in the east of the intersection of three rivers, with relatively low terrain, and some swamps have formed where the rivers pass. In the east, south and north, there are seven roads connected, and a main road in the east leads to Dresden. There are two bridges in the west of the city, which are built on the elster River and the Prussian River respectively. This is the only way to Leipzig. There is a continuous hilly area about five kilometers south of the city.
10 On June 4th, the French army still had about190,000 men, who were compressed by the allied forces in a narrow area surrounded by rivers on three sides near Leipzig and were forced to take defensive measures. Seven roads leading to the east, south and north of Leipzig were blocked by the Allies, and two bridges across the Preze River and the elster River in the west of the city were still under the control of the French army, from which they could retreat to the Rhine River and the French mainland. At that time, the deployment of the French army was as follows: Miao La commanded the 2nd, 5th, 8th, 9th, 1 1 2 army and the 5th, 5th 1, 4th and 2nd cavalry divisions to stop the enemy Bohemian army in the south and southeast of Leipzig, and Ney commanded the 6th and 2nd. Napoleon's guards and some cavalry are the general reserves, located near the east of Leipzig.
After 10 and 15, the attack plan of the allied forces was formulated by Schwarzenburg, but it was finally decided after being revised by the czar. According to the plan, the Coalition forces are divided into four attack groups and attack from four directions. Blucher led a team of about 54,000 people and compressed it from the northwest to Leipzig; The Bohemian Legion was divided into three groups: General Gray led 19000 men to attack Lindenau, west of the elster River. Its task was to seize the only passage to the west of Leipzig and cut off the rear traffic lines and retreat of the French army. General Merwert led 28,000 men to attack Leipzig from Zivikao, and Marshal Wittgenstein led 96,000 men to undertake the main task in the southeast of Leipzig and seize Leipzig.
Napoleon made some mistakes in judging the deployment of the above-mentioned Coalition forces. 10 15 in the afternoon, he made a conclusion based on inaccurate information, saying that blucher and Bernardote did not dare to attack along the highway from harrell, thinking that they would join forces from the west of Leipzig to the south. Based on this judgment, Napoleon hastily ordered at 7: 00 a.m. on1October 16 that the Sixth Army stationed in Radifield and Lindensha in the northwest of Leipzig be withdrawn from the defensive positions and transferred to the southwest of Leipzig as a reserve. He predicted that after such adjustments, he could support Lindenau's western and southern troops in the south. At that time, the army commander Marmond was observing in the church in Lindensha, and he clearly saw a series of campfires in his north. It is estimated that blucher's army has arrived, but after receiving Napoleon's orders, he ignored the enemy's situation face to face and reluctantly carried out the orders.
18131June 16 at 9: 00 am, the allied forces fired three shots, and the battle of Leipzig, known as the "national battle", officially started. Subsequently, the two sides continued to carry out intense shelling for more than five hours. It's freezing, it's raining, and the smoke is rolling on the ground. The four allied attack groups were gradually compressed into Leipzig.
On the northern line, Marmond was attacked by blucher's army as soon as he started to move south. Marmond saw that he could not carry out Napoleon's orders, so he retreated to Merck and Warren on the banks of the elster River, continued to defend, and at the same time commanded Ney to advance northward. Ney ordered Bay Tang De to lead the Fourth Army to reinforce, but Bay Tang De got the news of Lindenau's emergency during the March. Bei Tang De knew that Lindenau Bridge was the only retreat of the French army, and he could never lose it, so he decisively changed direction and rushed to Lindenau for reinforcements. Knowing the above situation, Ney immediately ordered the Third Army, which had just assembled, to send a division to support Marmond, and the other two divisions occupied the original defensive positions of the Fourth Army. The situation of the Sixth Army once again became very critical, and Marmond begged Ney to transfer the other two divisions of the Third Army to his command. In this way, about 1.5 thousand soldiers ran on the battlefield all day without firing a shot. People think this is the greatest misfortune of that day. After fierce fighting, the French army on the northern line was forced to retreat to the Golis and Ortiz lines in the north of Leipzig.
On the western front, the situation in Lindenau is quite good. After the emergency reinforcements of the Fourth Army, the bridges and roads were still in the hands of the French army.
On the southern line, from 9 am to 1 1, the fighting was extremely fierce. The French army repelled the allied attack at every point and firmly held its ground. The Eighth Army, under the command of Polish Prince poniatowski, stuck to the front line of Macclesburg, Doritz and Konevitz. Oglaud's ninth army is still in Tucson, ready to support the eighth army. Victor's second army is in Washaw. Lauriston's fifth army is in Libert Urkovich and Zach Hausen. Mortiere and Oudineau each commanded two divisions, the Young Guards and the Old Guards, as reserves, which were located in the east of Leipzig and the northwest of Washaw. Macdonald's 1 1 Army is located in Holzhausen and its vicinity. In addition, in the face of the central position of the downtown Coalition forces, that is, between Washaw and Liebert Urkovich, the French army also concentrated 150 artillery pieces.
According to the situation at that time, Napoleon decided to concentrate about12,000 cavalry under the command of Miao La, and under the cover of 150 guns, he broke through the center of the allied southern front. Other troops followed closely, using the breakthrough effect of cavalry and artillery to split the enemy in two. At the same time, the Eleventh Army and the Third Army attacked the enemy's right wing in the direction of Holzhausen and Sajiefeite, and the Sixth Army attacked the enemy's left wing from west to east to coordinate the actions of the Eleventh Army and the Third Army. However, the Sixth Army and the Third Army were entangled by the enemy in the west and north of Leipzig at that time, so Napoleon waited until about two o'clock in the afternoon to decide not to wait and attack immediately.
Under the cover of artillery fire, Miao La led 12000 cavalry and followed by infantry galloped from behind the ridge and rushed to the center of the other side in dense formation. As always, the King of Naples was brave. He rushed ahead with a knife, followed by 12000 combat knives. The army washed away and was invincible. He broke up two enemy infantry battalions and seized 26 artillery pieces. The monarchs of the three allies were frightened and hurried back to avoid being captured. At the same time, MacDonald's army also launched an attack on the enemy's right. Miao La's cavalry and subsequent infantry successively entered the defense lines south of R0 Wa and Ornham in Goolden; MacDonald's army also approached Sajeft. Miao La's cavalry was soon exhausted after a violent gallop. At this time, the Coalition forces transferred 13 squadron cavalry reserves from the south of Zanhe River. This powerful force, mainly Cossack cavalry, countered the attacking French cavalry. After fierce fighting, the Coalition forces drove the attacking French army back to its original starting position. Merwert Group, the left wing of the allied forces, also launched an attack on the French army in Doritz, but the attack was frustrated and Merwert himself was captured.
Blucher once again launched an attack on northern Leipzig. Therefore, Napoleon had to temporarily put down the southern line of victory and defeat, and rode to the north of Leipzig. The French army lost the battle on the northern front, losing 53 guns, but the enemy's York army also lost about 8,000 men. In this way, the allied encirclement of Leipzig was further narrowed.
Both sides lost about 20,000 people (nearly 30,000 French troops and nearly 40,000 allied troops), and the outcome was regardless. Some war historians believe that Napoleon should and can retreat to the west at this time in order to make a comeback, but instead of doing so, he is determined to continue fighting, which is a fatal mistake made by Napoleon.
After the battle that night, Napoleon moved his base camp to Sto Tritz in the southeast of Leipzig. Traditionally, he was surrounded by his old guards. Here, Napoleon summoned and released General Merwert who was captured in the battle that day. Napoleon and he are old friends. After the Battle of Austerlitz, he proposed a truce to Napoleon. This time, Napoleon asked him to convey his suggestions for armistice negotiations.
The Allies did not answer Napoleon's suggestion. The next day, that is,1October 17, the two sides only fought sporadically, and there was no further big move. Both sides realized that it was time to decide their fate, and they were actively preparing for the final blow.
Also on the evening of 16, Napoleon adjusted the defense deployment of the French army, withdrew from the defensive positions on the southern and eastern fronts, and shrank the French army backward to rosny, Zhoukelhausen, Holzhausen, Ba Fen Dove and Golis. The French army has no reinforcements to count on. Saint-Cyr leads 27,000 people in Dresden, which is too far away for him to protect himself. The Daudi 13 army was besieged in Hamburg and could not get away. Only when the Seventh Army in Diben, the northeast of Leipzig, is transferred back, will the French army increase by about10.5 million, but most of them are foreigners. After adjusting the deployment, the total strength of the French army in Leipzig is about150,000. /kloc-On the morning of 0/7, Napoleon visited the battlefield accompanied by Miao La. Miao La said that since Borodino, we have never seen so many people killed in the battle. The French army is surrounded by allies on three sides, and its area is getting smaller and smaller. The city is full of wounded soldiers. In the continuous rain, complaints from foreign soldiers can be heard everywhere.
On 17, only one day, 1 1 10,000 reinforcements arrived, including 4. 1 10,000 Russian troops led by Benigue Sen, about 60,000 Swedish troops led by Bernardote Legion and an Austrian army led by Kolorey. At this time, there were more than 300,000 allied troops, and ammunition and various materials were sufficient.
The allied forces plan to launch a general attack on the morning of 18, when they will be divided into six attack groups and besieged the city of Leipzig on all sides. Blucher attacked the northeast, Gray still attacked Lindenau in the west, and Bernardote attacked the north. The other three roads point to rosny, ProVector and Zuckerhausen respectively. At this time, Napoleon's stronghold moved to a tobacco factory in Stowe Tritz.
/kloc-at 0800 hours on 0/8, the allied forces began to attack. By 2 o'clock in the afternoon, except that the left wing made some progress and captured rosny and Dusen, most of the positions were still in the hands of the French army. Among them, Buckley's department, which attacked Probjetta, suffered heavy losses due to heavy bombardment by French artillery, and was forced to temporarily take the defensive. The attack on Gretel in Lindenau was completely defeated by Bertrand Germans. Subsequently, Bertrand launched a counterattack and pushed it westward for more than ten kilometers, thus ensuring the smooth retreat of the French army.
Faced with the attack of allied superior forces, Napoleon ordered the French army to take the initiative to evacuate some positions that were difficult to continue to hold. At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, when the French army was shrinking and the Allies were advancing step by step, about 3,000 people from two Saxon brigades and an artillery company surrendered to the Allies with 19 guns in the seventh group army defending Prentov in the northeast of Leipzig. When Napoleon heard the news, he immediately led some guards to gallop to reinforce and stabilize the defensive position. However, the French army was outnumbered and the situation became more and more serious. Worst of all, the shells were almost finished, so that Napoleon kept saying that if he had 30,000 shells, he would become the master of the world.
In the evening, all positions except Koenigwitz, Probida and Stowe Tritz were abandoned, and the French army was compressed and squeezed into Leipzig and its suburbs. Nye and another army commander were also injured.
It is getting dark. Napoleon realized that the tide was over, so he instructed Bertil, the chief of staff, to order the troops to retreat. According to the order, MacDonald ordered his first 1 1 army and the seventh army to continue to stick to Konjevic, Probekeda, Stowe Tritz, Rudney and Leipzig to cover the main retreat. At the same time, the Saint-Cyr army ordered to stick to Dresden to organize its own breakthrough. After giving the order, Napoleon fell on the bench in the base camp and fell asleep immediately. The generals sat around and looked at him silently. It was dark around, and the shouts of the last battle, the groans of the wounded and the sound of the retreating wheels of the army were mixed together and introduced into Napoleon's broken water mill. A quarter of an hour later, he suddenly woke up and rushed to Leipzig. He didn't leave the city until after nine o'clock the next morning.
65438+ 10 On June 9, 65438+ French troops retreated from all directions, all assembled in Leipzig, and retreated to the only Lindenau ferry in the west. Every street is crowded. Pu Jun and Sweden are invading the northern suburbs, and Austrian troops are approaching the city from the south. Ammunition vehicles, cavalry, artillery, cattle and sheep, wounded soldiers and embedded vendors, etc. , all people crowded together, scrambling to escape. Every time the enemy shells fall, you can hear the cries of many injured people. Napoleon remained calm as always, as if the scene of destruction around him had nothing to do with him. Accompanied by several attendants, he crossed the Lindenau Bridge with the chaotic crowd. After crossing the bridge, he fell asleep peacefully in a mill near Lindenau. He will wait for the French army to cross the river, and then continue to retreat westward with the army.
Battle result
19 At 9: 00 a.m. on June 9, the czar demanded that the French defenders in Leipzig surrender to save the city, but they flatly refused.
During the retreat of the French army, there was an accident: an engineer squad leader who was responsible for protecting the bridge was ordered to blow up the bridge as soon as the enemy pursuers arrived. When several cavalry in blucher circuitous in the direction of Lindenau along the river, the monitor of the construction team was frightened by gunfire. They mistakenly thought that the enemy brigade was a pursuer, detonated the explosives placed in advance, blew up the only stone bridge where the French army retreated, and prevented about 28,000 guards from crossing the river, including Lauriston, Renault, Army Commander MacDonald and Polish Prince poniatowski, who had just been promoted to Marshal on 16. MacDonald jumped into the river and swam to the other side luckily. Poniatowski was drowned and all the French troops were captured. The battle of Leipzig, which shocked Europe, ended like this.
In this battle, the French army lost more than 65 thousand people. In addition to the dead, 36 famous officers and more than 30,000 people were captured. Another 28 military flags, 900 ammunition trucks, more than 300 guns and more than 40,000 rifles were captured by the Coalition forces. Napoleon led the retreating French army to retreat while fighting, and arrived in the Rhine at the beginning of 1 1 month. He left Malmond, led three armies as defenders in Mainz, and then returned to Paris by himself. 1October 1 1 day, Saint-Cyr led his troops to surrender in Dresden. Although the Allies won, the casualties were far greater than those of the French army, and 54,000 officers and men became the ghost of the French army, nearly 20,000 more than the French army.
On the battlefield along the elster River, corpses were everywhere and rivers of blood flowed, and modern Europe emerged from the molting in the Middle Ages. From then on, the first empire of France was strangled and collapsed, and the French people, like 1793, faced the invasion of powerful external enemies.
Activity evaluation
Napoleon was defeated in Leipzig after winning successive victories in Lutzen, Baozen and Dresden. There are of course many reasons.
First of all, politically, the nature of war has changed.
In the early days of Napoleon's rule, although there were elements of expanding territory for his empire and fighting for hegemony for himself, objectively speaking, it still had certain progressive significance, because the main goal at that time was the feudal royal families of various countries and the feudal system on which they depended, which was welcomed by the oppressed people. In the later period of his administration, when he became the conqueror and hegemon of Europe, the decisive war launched by France was no longer to release the shackles of feudal system, but brought them heavy war burden and suffering. Therefore, the people who have been partially liberated do not want France to oppress them again and oppose Napoleon's war against them. Therefore, Napoleon's later wars were against the interests and wishes of most people. At the same time, in order to maintain their own rule, the rulers of various countries took advantage of the people's dissatisfaction with France's squeezing of wealth to encourage some people to rise up against the French uprising and were forced to implement some reforms. In this way, the French army was forced to fight in hostile countries, lacking the help of the people, unable to obtain information in time, and scattered personnel were often attacked, making it more and more difficult to supply logistics. Some foreign soldiers in the French army defected many times before the battle. All these have had a bad influence on the morale of the French army.
Secondly, the emperor's high centralization constrained the initiative of the marshal.
In the later period of the Napoleonic Wars, the battle area was constantly expanding, and the number of troops participating in the war was constantly increasing. In this way, the command system, which combines the responsibilities of the supreme commander and the front-line command, has not adapted to the requirements of combat. In order to command hundreds of thousands of troops on a vast battlefield, we need not only an effective staff team, but also an effective general who can independently undertake the heavy responsibility of battlefield command. However, Napoleon's request to the marshals was nothing more than Nuo Nuo's obedience and the accurate execution of orders such as clocks and watches. Over the years, I have gradually formed a habit: everything is alive and kicking when Napoleon is present, and the command system can play a very high role. Once Napoleon is away, his marshals, including the chief of staff, often can't take the initiative or even dare to make even a small decision.
In the war of 18 13, the strength of the allied forces increased dramatically, and they often fought in various ways. In this complicated situation, Napoleon could not cope with the changeable situation alone, let alone his marshals. Although Napoleon ran around and constantly issued various instructions, after all, he could not grasp and deal with all aspects in time, so that the French army was often passive. For example, during the Battle of Leipzig, Napoleon verbally instructed to build a bridge on the elster River to ensure the retreat of the French army. However, Bertil, the chief of staff, followed the principle that he could not act rashly without Napoleon's written order. Therefore, he did not actively carry out Napoleon's instructions to build a bridge, which made the French army have only one stone bridge to pass when retreating, thus causing serious losses. Another example is that in the Battle of Bautzen, Ney led the army to make a detour and reached the enemy's rear one hour ahead of Napoleon's time, but because he didn't get further instructions, he passively stayed there. When the new order arrived, he had delayed the fighter and formed a passive situation.
In operational principle, it is taboo to disperse troops.
Ignore the traditional mobile enemy annihilation tactics. Originally, the highly concentrated use of troops was Napoleon's consistent feature and advantage in commanding operations. In the war of 18 13, he dispersed his forces many times. Therefore, even in the case of initial victory, he could not achieve the goal of completely defeating or annihilating the enemy. For example, in the battle between Luzen and Dresden, he divided his troops and attacked Berlin many times, so that at the decisive moment, the victory was affected by the lack of troops. In fact, as long as the Russian army was annihilated at that time, Berlin naturally became the bag of the French army. In the last battle in Leipzig, he did not put the Dau army in Hamburg and the Saint-Cyr department in Dresden together. Strangely, before the war, he changed his determination to transfer Saint-Cyr's army to Leipzig in the north, making it meaningless for Saint-Cyr to lead tens of thousands of troops to guard the emptiness in Dresden.
In the war of 18 13, Napoleon violated the principle of maneuvering and annihilating the enemy's effective forces, and paid too much attention to the capture of geographical goals. Staring at Berlin and trying to occupy the city is an obvious example. As far as the situation at that time was concerned, the capture of Berlin was only of secondary significance for the purpose of war, but Napoleon repeatedly pursued the goal of capturing Berlin. Another example is that after the victory in Dresden, if the initial plan is carried out and the Bohemian army, the main enemy-destroying force, continues to be pursued, pointing directly at Prague and Vienna, then the initiative in the battlefield may be completely transferred to the French army. Unfortunately, Napoleon did not dare to give up the defense lines of Dresden and Elbe River, which led to the planned abortion. Jomini later commented in his book The Art of War: "If Napoleon pursued his victory in Dresden and marched into Bohemia, then he might have avoided the fiasco in Coulm and even threatened Prague, thus disintegrating the Allies."
In addition, Napoleon lacked cavalry, so he could not get the information of the enemy in time and expand the results in the vast battlefield. A large number of recruits in the French army also had an important impact on Napoleon's failure.
The allied forces won because of their absolute superiority in strength and flexible tactics. The Allies decided to attack the troops under the command of French Marshal to avoid a direct conflict with Napoleon himself, which was precisely the fatal weakness of Napoleon's command system. Judging from the whole war process, the allied forces acted cautiously and slowly, which made them suffer less losses in the past. In the coalition camp, Pu Jun Army veteran blucher took active and bold actions and played a leading role in the whole coalition. He boldly crossed the Elbe River and joined forces with the North Road Army, and inserted into the rear of the French army from the northwest, which not only led to Bernardote who was too cautious, but also cooperated with the Bohemian army in the South Road, resulting in a favorable offensive and defensive situation for the French army, thus firmly winning the initiative in the battlefield.