The main reason for the failure is 1, and the personnel difference is large, 18000 to 300000. 2. The geographical situation is unfavorable to France. Leipzig, where the French side is located, has a low terrain and is more restrained in artillery attacks. 3. There is something wrong with the French command and dispatch, which 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 struggled with 300,000 allies from Russia, Prussia, Austria and other countries with 6.5438+0.8 million people, and finally lost. Napoleon returned to the west bank of the Rhine and finally to 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 shows 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.
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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 in which Napoleon was absent 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 all the ammunition and food were used up. Commander Van Damme led the rest to surrender, resulting in the loss of more than 13,000 French troops. Colonel Butuc Ryan, the tsar's adjutant, once said that the battle of Coulm swept away the disappointment that had spread 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 back to the west of Baubert River. In this battle, MacDonald lost about 1.5 million men, 103 guns, and a lot of ammunition and equipment.
The fourth army that attacked Berlin was also defeated by the enemy's North Road Army Corps. After losing about 3000 people, Oudineau was forced to retreat from the Elbe River. The 13 army, which started from Hamburg to coordinate the operation of Oudineau, also suffered setbacks. In this way, the French army was defeated on the eastern and northern fronts 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 on the southern line to turn from defensive to offensive, 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 enemy Silesia Legion. 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 legion turned back immediately after Napoleon left and continued to attack the city. When Napoleon led the army to retreat sharply, the enemy retreated on his own. Napoleon hasn't had time to reflect on the allied forces' retreat in the direction of Dresden, and he can't tell whether it is a curse or a blessing, and there is news that the French army on the northern line has been defeated again near Tibok. In this battle, the French army lost about 22,000 people, of whom13,000 people were captured by laying down their weapons. The enemy north road army is continuing to advance south.
The allied forces are gradually approaching Dresden, and the situation is getting more and more serious for the French army. The French army moved back and forth on the battlefield, exhausted, and the supply of troops was 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 reserves are constantly on 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 moment. According to Saint-Cyr, when he talked about the recent losses suffered by the French army, he seemed to be talking about what happened in China. A grim fact is that the encirclement of the Coalition forces in three directions is shrinking. And Napoleon's reserves, except the ninth army under the command of 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 to Leipzig from the north. Both roads aim at Leipzig, carry out a pincer attack, and then cut off the French rear road and surround it.
In order to carry out this plan, Pu Jun veteran blucher left a small number of troops in face-to-face contact with the French army, and the main force quietly moved to wittenberg. 10/3, Pu Jun defeated the French army guarding the Elbe River, set up two pontoons more than ten kilometers upstream of Vittenburg, and crossed to the south bank of the Elbe River. 10. On 4th, Bernardote also led the Northern Road Army Corps to cross the Elbe River, and the two armies joined forces. After they joined forces, their strength was about160,000 people, and they cooperated with each other and pressed from the north to Leipzig.
At that time, Napoleon could concentrate more than 250 thousand troops. In order to deal with the attack of allied forces, he was determined to make full use of the advantageous position of interior-line operations and continue to take the method of divide-and-conquer one by one. His deployment was to block the Bohemian army of180,000 people to the south of Leipzig with part of his troops, concentrate his main force on the north, defeat the Silesia army first, and then annihilate the North Road army. When making this plan, Napoleon decided to give up Dresden in consideration of concentrating 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 had no 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 once the French army withdraws from the city, Saxony will soon fall into the hands of the allies.
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.
On October 9th, 65438/KLOC-0, 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 led the army away. Napoleon was annoyed that the Allies continued to play this trick, but he dared not pursue them, because the enemy on the southern line 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 on the southern line now, it may slip away at once. Therefore, Napoleon decided to stay in the army for the time being, waiting for the enemy of the South Road to get entangled with the French sniper forces, and then quickly went 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 moment, a 50,000-strong Russian follow-up unit 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 inform the commander-in-chief of the allies, 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 made 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 City is located in the east of the intersection of three rivers, and the terrain is relatively low, forming some swamps 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 Praz 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 near Leipzig and were in a narrow zone surrounded by rivers on three sides, and were forced to take defensive measures. Seven roads to Leipzig in the east, south and north were blocked by the Allies, and two bridges across the Praz 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 French army deployed as follows: Miao La commanded the 2nd, 5th, 8th, 9th, 1, 12 and the 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, 7th, 3rd and 4th. Napoleon's guards and some cavalry are the general reserves, located in Leipzig, near the east of the city.
After 10 and 15, the attack plan of the allied forces was formulated by Schwarzenburg, but it was finally finalized 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 group of about 54,000 people, compressed 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. The task was to seize the only passage to the west of Leipzig and cut off the rear traffic line and retreat of the French army. General Merwert led 28,000 men to attack Leipzig from Zwickau, and Marshal Wittgenstein led 96,000 men to undertake the main task in the southeast of Leipzig and seize Leipzig.
Napoleon misjudged the above-mentioned deployment of the Coalition forces. 10 15 in the afternoon, he made a conclusion based on inaccurate information, saying that blucher and Bernardote dared not attack along the highway from Halle, thinking that they would meet each other from the west of Leipzig to the south. Based on this judgment, Napoleon hastily ordered at 7: 00 a.m. on 10/6 that the 6th Army stationed in Radifeld 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 in the west and support the southern troops in the south. At that time, the commander of the army, 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 reluctantly carried out the orders regardless of the enemy's situation face to face.
18 13 16 at 9: 00 am, the allied forces fired three shots in succession, and the battle of Leipzig, known as the "national war", officially began. Then, 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 attack groups of the Allied Forces gradually compressed into Leipzig.
On the Northern Line, Marmond just started to go south, and was immediately attacked by blucher troops. 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 commanded Ney to go north at the same time. Ney ordered Bei Tang De to lead the 4th Army to reinforce, but Bei 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. Nye learned of the above situation, and immediately ordered the 3rd Army, which had just gathered back, to send a division to support Marmond, and the other two divisions occupied the original defensive positions of the 4th Army. The situation of the Sixth Army became very critical again, and Marmond begged Ney to transfer the other two divisions of the Third Army to his command. In this way, about 15 thousand troops ran around 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 every attack of the allied forces and held their positions firmly. The Eighth Army, under the command of Polish Prince poniatowski, stuck to the front lines of Macclesburg, Doritz and Konevitz. Ogrod'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 Liebert Urkovich and Zach Hausen. Mortiere and Oudineau respectively command the young guards and the old guards of the two divisions, and as reserves, they are located on the east side of Leipzig and the northwest side of Washaw respectively. 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 about 12000 cavalry under the command of Miao La, and under the cover of 150 cannons, he broke through the center of the southern allied front. Other armies followed suit, 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 Sajfet, and the Sixth Army attacked the enemy's left wing from west to east, cooperating with the Eleventh Army and the Third Army. But the 6th and 3rd armies were entangled by the enemy in the west and north of Leipzig at that time, so Napoleon waited until around two o'clock in the afternoon before deciding to attack immediately.
Under the cover of artillery fire, Miao La led 12000 cavalry and the infantry followed by them galloped up from behind the ridge and rushed to the other side's central position in dense formation. As always, the King of Naples was brave and rushed ahead with a knife, followed by 12000 combat knives. The army rushed away and was invincible, breaking up two enemy infantry battalions in a row and seizing 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 right side of the enemy. Miao La's cavalry and subsequent infantry successively entered the defense lines south of R0 Wa and Orhan in Goolden; MacDonald's army also approached Sajefort. 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 on the left of the coalition 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. As a result, Napoleon had to temporarily put down the southern line of victory and defeat, and rode north to Leipzig. The French army lost in the battle of the northern line, losing 53 guns, but the enemy York army also lost about 8 thousand people. In this way, the allied siege of Leipzig was further reduced.
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 could retreat to the west at this time in order to make a comeback, but he did not do so, but was determined to continue fighting, which was a fatal mistake made by Napoleon.
After the battle that night, Napoleon moved his base camp to Sto Tritz, 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 gave Napoleon's allies a truce proposal. This time, Napoleon asked him to convey his suggestions for armistice negotiations.
The Allies did not accept Napoleon's advice. The next day,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 were actively preparing for the final blow.
Also on the night of 16, Napoleon adjusted the defense deployment of the French army, retreated from the defensive positions on the southern and eastern fronts, and shrank the French army backward to rosny, Zhoukelhausen, Holzhausen, Ba Fen, Dolph and Golis. The French army has no reinforcements to rely on. Saint-Cyr led 27,000 people in Dresden, which was 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 area in the northeast of Leipzig is transferred back will the French army increase by about 15000, 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. Complaints from foreign soldiers can be heard everywhere in the drizzle.
Only one day on 17,110,000 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 Kololey. So far, the allied forces have more than 300,000 people, with sufficient ammunition and various supplies.
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.
At 8 o'clock on the 18th, the allied forces began to attack. By 2 o'clock in the afternoon, except 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, Barkley's department, which attacked Probjeda, was forced to temporarily take the defensive because of the heavy bombardment of French artillery. 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 about 3 pm, the French army was shrinking and the Allies were advancing. At a critical moment, two Saxon brigades of the Seventh Army and an artillery company of about 3,000 people who defended Punenstorf in the northeast of Leipzig surrendered to the Allies with 19 guns. 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 be the master of the world.
That evening, all positions except Koenigwitz, Probida and Stowe Tritz were abandoned, and the French army was compressed and squeezed into Leipzig and its suburbs. Ney 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 Konevitz, Probekeda, Stowe Tritz, Rudney and Leipzig to cover the main retreat. At the same time, Saint-Cyr army ordered to stick to its own breakthrough in Dresden. After giving the order, Napoleon fell on the bench in the base camp and fell asleep at once. 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.
On June 9th, 65438+ 10/October, 65438+French troops retreated from all directions, all of which met 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, while Austrian troops are approaching the city from the south. Ammunition vehicles, cavalry, artillery, cattle and sheep, wounded soldiers and embedded vendors, etc. , all crowded together, scrambling to escape. Every time the enemy shells fall, you can hear the cries of many injured people. Napoleon remained as calm as ever, 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 who were sticking to Leipzig surrender to save the city, but they flatly refused.
During the retreat of the French army, an accident happened: an engineer squad leader in charge of 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 panicked by gunfire. They mistakenly thought that the enemy's brigade was chasing troops, detonated the pre-placed explosives, blew up the only stone bridge that 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 by luck. Poniatowski drowned and all the French troops were captured. This is how the Battle of Leipzig, which shocked Europe, ended.
The battle, the French * * * lost more than sixty-five thousand people, in addition to the dead, there are thirty-six generals and more than thirty thousand people made prisoners. 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 fight and retreat, and reached the Rhine at the beginning of 1 1 month. He left Malmond, led three armies as defenders in Mainz and returned to Paris 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 beside the elster River, corpses were everywhere, and rivers of blood flowed. Modern Europe emerged from the molting of the Middle Ages. Since then, the first empire of France has been killed and collapsed, and the French people, like 1793, are facing a powerful foreign invasion.
Activity evaluation
Napoleon was defeated in Leipzig after winning Lien Chan in Luzon, 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 striving for hegemony for himself, objectively speaking, it still had certain progressive significance, because the main targets at that time were 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, rulers of various countries took advantage of people's dissatisfaction with France's squeezing of wealth, encouraged some people to rise up against the French uprising, and were forced to implement some reforms after the failure of the previous war against Napoleon. 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, scattered personnel were often attacked, and logistics supply became more and more difficult. 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 restricted the enthusiasm of the marshals.
In the later period of the Napoleonic Wars, the battle area was expanding and the number of troops participating in the war was 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. If we want to command hundreds of thousands of troops on a vast battlefield, we should not only have an effective staff team, but also have an effective general who can independently undertake the heavy responsibility of battlefield command. However, Napoleon's demands on the marshals were nothing more than Nuo Nuo's obedience and the accurate execution of orders like clockwork. Over the years, I have gradually formed a habit: everything is alive and kicking with Napoleon present, and the command system can play a very high role. Once Napoleon is away, his marshals, including chiefs of staff, often can't take the initiative to attack 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 multiple ways. In this complicated situation, Napoleon could not cope with the changeable situation alone, let alone his marshal. Although Napoleon ran around and issued various instructions, 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, so that only one stone bridge could pass when the French army retreated, which caused serious losses. Another example is the Battle of Bautzen, in which Ney led an army to detour and arrived behind enemy lines one hour earlier than Napoleon, but he stayed there passively because he didn't get further instructions. When the new order came, he had delayed the fighter plane and formed a passive situation.
In operational principle, it is taboo to disperse troops.
Ignoring the traditional tactics of maneuvering to wipe out the enemy. 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. As a result, even in the case of initial victory, it is impossible to completely defeat or annihilate the enemy. For example, in the battles of 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 final 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, and it was meaningless for Saint-Cyr to lead tens of thousands of troops to guard Dresden.
In the war of 18 13, Napoleon violated the principle of destroying the enemy's effective forces by maneuver and paid too much attention to the capture of geographical targets. Keeping an eye on Berlin and trying to seize its 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. For example, after the victory in Dresden, if the initial plan is carried out and the Bohemian army, the main annihilation force, continues to be pursued, aiming at Prague and Vienna, then the initiative of 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 Sun Tzu's Art of War: "If Napoleon pursued victory in Dresden and marched into Bohemia, then he might have avoided the fiasco in Coulm and even threatened Prague, thus disintegrating the Allies."
Coupled with Napoleon's lack of cavalry, he could not get the information of the enemy in time on the vast battlefield and expand the results. The large proportion of French recruits also had an important influence 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 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, blucher, a veteran of Pu Jun Army, 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 contained the overly cautious Bernardote, but also cooperated with the Bohemian army in the South Road, resulting in the favorable situation of attacking and besieging the French army, thus firmly winning the initiative on the battlefield.