While the 10th Legion was fighting with the Russians face to face, the Baltic Navy of Desay was shouldering the important mission of appeaseing the place, guarding the rear of friendly forces to replenish supplies, and clearing out the Russian guerrilla forces.

At this time, Napoleon's reckless army had already left the rear base and continued to march for a long distance. Due to the inability to keep up with transportation, the troops lacked supplies and supplies. Hundreds of thousands of French soldiers had been hungry for a long time and had no meal after eating.

As a result, every rural town along the way became a food and fodder collection site for the French army. The soldiers privately broke into the Russians' houses without the permission of the superiors. After the residents left under the threat of bayonets, the French stuffed all the things that could fill their stomachs into their bags and lunch boxes. Afterwards, the officers and military police rarely punished soldiers who violated their discipline, and did not give farmers any compensation for any cash.

In order to calm the dissatisfaction of the looted Russian people, when they were stationed in Smolensk, Marshal Victor and Marshal Mura made a farce ingeniously. They found a printing workshop abandoned by the Russians in the city, so they organized military painters, craftsmen and engineers to randomly print a large number of fake ruble banknotes, specifically used to fool the illiterate Russian peasants. But soon, after being exposed, it aroused a larger-scale resistance of the Russian people.

At this time, on the battlefields in central and northern Lithuania, both the Prussian soldiers and the Polish army had never had any worries about food and grass. Thanks to the convenient (sea) channels in the Baltic Sea and the Neman River Basin, the quarantine officers were able to sign and collect various flours, meat, sugar, canned food, brandy, and even good-tasting vodka spirits. As for the non-combat reduction caused by the disease, the number of people also dropped greatly under the rescue of Count Kava and the Battlefield Hospital.

Some Jewish, Polish and Catalan merchants who obtained franchise rights from the military police provided various special military supplies to the regiment camps of the above troops for a fee. On the pavilions near the military camps, there were a wide range of goods, even nearly luxurious. Coffee and cocoa tea produced from Cape Verde, authentic champagne wine from France, high-quality ham from Prussia, seasonal fruits from Poland and Lithuania, etc., all of them were all, including prostitutes organized by the madams - girls' groups.

Of course, these special supplies are usually expensive, 3 to 5 times higher than Danze and Warsaw. In addition to the price increase caused by long-distance transportation, merchants and madams also need to pay a large amount of tax to the gendarmerie as protection fees. However, when soldiers on the front line are unable to pay for goods, merchants also accept "equivalent exchange" with various spoils.

At this time, Smolensk had severe insufficient transportation capacity and repeated harassment by the Cossatt cavalry and guerrillas, which led to extremely poor materials on the front line, which made the French army endure the pain of hunger from time to time. Even officers often had to sit helplessly in the bonfire of soldiers, forcing them to chew a few slices of black bread and wild vegetable soup.

In contrast, the soldiers of Desai and MacDonald could surround the fire, hugging the big butt prostitute, comfortable roasting the fragrant chicken, duck and lamb, and ham mixed in the eggs and squeaking; as for the officers, even in the fierce battle, they could still take a break and enjoy the wonderful time of afternoon tea.

...

The day after Marshal Macdonald led his troops to the expedition, the main force of the Eastern Expedition Legion also left Klaipeda. In addition to leaving two infantry regiments to cooperate with the navy to continue to station the Baltic port, General Hugo's third army was ordered to use the city of Tershia as the base, and then head northward toward the south coast of the Ilbe Strait to clear out a small number of remaining Russian-army in the area;

At the same time, the Second Army commanded by General Barbanegel went to the city of Panevez, 180 kilometers away, and relied on the city to "recover" the eastern part of Lithuania and restore the rule of the Polish Kingdom in the region;

As for the Guards Division, it continued to act as the general reserve of the legion and followed the legion headquarters. On July 31, Desai arrived between the Second Army and the Third Army. Siorie, known for leather making, personally took charge of the command.

For Desai and his expeditionary army, the main task of 7 and 8 months was not to find and eliminate the remaining Russian-army, but to conquer Lithuania and Latvia as soon as possible and strive to gain support from local people.

On the second day after the war broke out, the brother-in-law of Tsar Alexander, the husband of the Grand Duke of Ekadrina, and the governor of Lithuania, the Duke of Oldenburg, was ordered by St. Petersburg to force the people along the way to the Riga Fortress in the lower reaches of the Neman River to unconditionally burn the granary, take away the livestock, leave their homes, migrate in the northeast, and hide in the city of Riga.

Because Lithuania is too close to the first battlefield, under the rapid attack of the French army's undeclared war, this policy of strengthening the walls and clearing the fields was not firmly implemented. Only Russian immigrants and Lithuanian nobles who were loyal to St. Petersburg obeyed the tsar's edict; while most Lithuanian farmers refused to comply with the retreat orders of St. Petersburg. They were not willing to leave their hard-working land and homes here for generations, nor were they willing to burn the food for their family for more than half a year, and massacre the only livestock they depend on for their survival.

However, due to the fear of the French military's cruel propaganda of the French army, when local residents learned about the arrival of the Eastern Expedition Army, some people took their wives and children, and then hid deep in the forest or on the edge of the swamp; as for those who bravely stayed, they also held old-fashioned melee or machete in the closed rooms around, holding old-fashioned melee or machete, and tremblingly guarded their homes.

When the Expedition Legion left Klaipeda, Desai issued a clear order to the troops. "For those Lithuanian residents who are willing to cooperate, the army shall not infringe on their interests, rob their livestock and women, and rob their personal property. When it is necessary to collect food, fodder and military supplies from the residents, the zloty silver coins must be paid in full according to the reference price list issued by the military police."

In Desai's view, the so-called national justice is inspiring, which is not suitable for Lithuania (including Latvia) region, which has been successfully ruled by the Russians for more than 20 years. After experiencing the conquest war between Hruna, Catalonia and Portugal, the travelers knew the simple view left in the hearts of the people in the occupied areas, that is, the army that is not strong in food and women, and a good army with strict discipline!

On August 5, the Polish king issued an edict, promising to give the Lithuanian people the following just rights:

First, to protect the relevant rights and interests of law-abiding people, the gendarmerie will handle various legal disputes fairly; second, to preserve the ethnic living customs of local people, and church sacrifices and religious freedom are not interfered with. Most of the residents of Lithuania and Latvia believe in Lutheran Protestantism; third, the private land of law-abiding citizens is sacred and inviolable; fourth, the Polish army has the obligation to resettle subjects who have sworn allegiance to His Majesty Desai, and provide land and necessities of life so that they can live safely.

But in the same way, Desai and his army also have two faces: kindness and cruelty.

Once the situation deteriorates, soldiers can complete this transformation in an instant. If a village is found to shelter or contact Russian guerrillas, they can mercilessly loot the village and hang the rebels; if someone in a village shoots the soldiers on duty, they will cruelly execute the entire village, and the farmland and its crops will be completely burned.

In the 20 days from mid-July to early August, the Second Army, the Third Army and the Guards Division plundered and set fire to 35 towns in the area for violating appeasement policy and escorting the Russian army; in addition, armed villagers in eight villages were massacred; for those 378 towns that were willing to surrender and be loyal to the Polish king and maintain friendly exchanges with the occupying army, the soldiers of Desai basically achieved peaceful coexistence and did not violate the law under the close supervision of the military police.

Desai knew that this seemingly harmonious situation was obtained under the threat of bayonets, but it was not very reliable. Once Napoleon was forced to evacuate Moscow, the emperor's army suffered a crushing defeat. After the situation turned sharply, the Russian army would make a comeback. The Lithuanian people who showed their surrender or allegiance to Desai would naturally raise their flags and jump out to welcome St. Petersburg.

Therefore, some radical measures must be taken to tie more than two million people in the occupied areas, central and northern Lithuania, and southern Latvia to the chariots of Desai, forcing them to cooperate in all aspects with the Polish army and counterattack the upcoming Russian attack. Therefore, 90% of the landless or small land serfs in the territory became the target of Desai.

In late August, Napoleon led the Guards to leave Smolensk and set off on the long road to Moscow.

Twelve days later, on September 5, when Napoleon led his troops to the battle with Tukuzov, Desay, despite Marshal Macdonald's opposition, insisted on formally issuing an edict to the Lithuanians and Latvians in the occupied areas, and the "Release of Serfs" and "Reform Plan" will be implemented on the day of the day.

The "Serf Release Plan" is similar to Poland's reforms, which directly abolished agricultural slavery and all trade monopoly, military service tax, exclusive rights, buyback rights, judicial rights and other feudal privileges, and allowed aristocrats and civilians to marry each other.

The Land Reform Law, unlike the land redemption policy in Poland, is a land revolution that is supported by force, and wants to deprive the original rights and interests of the fugitive nobles and serf owners, and based on political tendencies, rations to serfs or farmers for free.

In mid-July, when releasing serfs throughout Poland and implementing land policies, some Polish Jacobin radicals who complained about the moderate improvement measures taken by the Warsaw cabinet but did not oppose King Desay were secretly summoned by the Military Intelligence Bureau led by Colonel Jacques and concentrated in the Danze area for "business training". In early September, these people rushed to Lithuania and Latvia occupied by the Polish army, and received support from the Military Intelligence Bureau and the military police to organize the "Liberation Serfs Management Committee" locally.

According to the provisions of the Land Act, these more than 20 "Agriculture Commissions" with real power can confiscate all production materials and tools such as Lithuanian, Latvian nobles (serf owners) who voluntarily followed the Russian army to flee, as well as Russian officials, non-Lithuanian or Latvian immigrants, forest farms, lakes, canals, houses, livestock, agricultural tools and other production materials and tools.

The "Commission of Agriculture" registered all these production resources, and then distributed half of the land and forest farms to subjects who were willing to swear allegiance to His Majesty Desay. Of course, those Baltic people who voluntarily joined the Polish army or organized self-defense forces could not only obtain the best location, the largest and the most fertile land, but also enjoy the policy of tax reduction and exemption.
Chapter completed!