The capture of the "Great Fortress" made the battlefield situation beneficial to Napoleon's side. All French commanders began to believe that the time for launching a decisive strike on the Russian central area seemed to be coming, and as long as the Russian army's last counterattack was resisted.

After conquering the "Great Fortress", Prince Eugen immediately changed his tactics. He managed to draw some cavalry reinforcements from nearby troops and deploy them on the east side of the Great Fortress. At this time, the cavalry of other friendly forces was still attacking the retreating Russian troops, making full use of the enemy's chaos, expanding the gap in their defense line, and preparing for the final fatal blow.

However, the Russian retreat was orderly and soon regained its position. At this time, the exhausted French cavalry encountered a tenacious blockade of two newly arrived Russian cavalry units, which tried to block the gap in the defense line.

Due to the Russian army's decisive advantage in numbers and the extreme fatigue of the French cavalry after the continuous attack, the French army forced to retreat to the vicinity of the "Great Fortress". Here, they received the support and cover of the Italian army led by Prince Eugen, winning a short rest.

When the Russian cavalry continued to attack, Eugen's artillery troops were already deployed in the fortress, including Desay's gift of 12 heavy mortars. Perhaps only God knew how Major Koletsky brought them over.

The dense columns of Russian infantry slowly advanced forward. When they entered the range, the French artillery fired violently, and countless shells blasted the Russian columns squeezed into groups one by one. However, the Russian soldiers, known for their tenacity and courage, still stubbornly advanced forward in the rain of bullets, but the final result was heavy losses. After paying the price of thousands of people, the Russians had to stop their pace. Subsequently, the Russian artillery also entered the battle, and the artillery on both sides began a new round of competition.

During the break of the artillery battle, Marshal Ney and Prince Eugen told Napoleon that he urgently demanded the elite Imperial Guards to be placed on the battlefield to ensure the final victory. Napoleon would never accept it, and he insisted that the time was still not ripe.

The large-scale mutual shelling of the Russian and French armies continued until the night fell before it ended. It became completely dark and a cruel bloody battle ended. The Russian army used the cover of darkness to retreat towards Moscow. Although there were great casualties, they still maintained a good formation and did not have collective escape.

In a letter to the Tsar that night, Kutuzov described the heroic Russian army as winning a great victory in the Battle of Borodino, and preserving its strength and vitality. But at the same time, the Russian marshal ordered the troops to slowly retreat eastward and retreat to Moscow, and left behind the bodies of tens of thousands of dead soldiers and more than a thousand seriously injured people who could not move to the French. In addition, there were 400 destroyed vehicles, 20,000 horse corpses, and millions of various wreckage fragments.

According to statistics, in this fierce battle, the Russian army lost more than 58,000 people, 22 generals and dozens of artillery; while the French army lost nearly 50,000 people and sacrificed 47 generals, including the younger brother of Marquis Kolangu, General Kolangu.

In the Battle of Borodino, both sides failed to decide the real victory, but it created conditions for the Russian army to consume the French army and switch to a counterattack. Although from a tactical perspective, the French army won the Battle of Borodino and the Russian army withdrew from the battlefield, the Russian army was not annihilated, and Napoleon's sole purpose of invading Russia was lost. During the battle, both sides suffered heavy casualties, but the Russian army still had reserve teams that could be put into battle at any time, and the logistics supply was safe and sound; and Napoleon's transportation line was too long to maintain the supply of his existing troops. As a result, it was the French army, not the Russian army, that was devastatingly hit a few weeks later.

Napoleon later talked about his thoughts about this bloody battle and said: "In my life's battle, the most terrifying thing was the battle under the city of Moscow. During the battle, the French army should have won the "invincible right."

Afterwards, Major Koletsky wrote a report to Desai truthfully described the situation after the battle. Major Koletsky was a guard entourage of Prince Eugen, following Napoleon.

Early in the morning, the emperor led the commander of the army and their assistants to patrol the bloody battlefield within a radius of several kilometers.

The weather was extremely bad on that day, raining constantly and the wind blew very hard. The emperor looked at the corpses of people and horses, and his face looked gloomy and terrifying. Vultures and crows pecked at the dead's internal organs in the pile of corpses, causing some wounded people who had not yet died to lift their bodies up from the ground, hoping to attract people's attention so that others could come to rescue them.

The emperor immediately heard the cry of the wounded, and was furious, loudly accusing those responsible for withdrawing the wounded of being slow. After the inspection was completed, the emperor silently turned his head and left the battlefield.

Although he showed great concern to supervise the search and transport of wounded soldiers, and to treat the wounded soldiers of the Russian army as he did to the French army, I think this belongs to unnecessary mercy!

I admit that I have never seen so many dead people on the battlefield. Around a small village where fierce battles were fought, the bodies of the Russian army were piled up like mountains. On the hill behind the small village, the remains of the two Russian Guards were spread all over the high ground, and of course, they were all killed by the fierce bombardment of our army's cannons.

As for the scene inside the huge Russian fortress, the fierce battle made this earthen fortification a morgue. The bodies of people and horses were piled up with trenches outside and the earth walls of the fortress. Because the battle inside the fortress was the most tragic, the ground was covered with incomplete corpses of soldiers from both sides, and even stacked onto 8 floors, which was creepy.

The emperor carefully inspected various parts of the battlefield, the positions of each legion, their offensive routes, and the obstacles they overcome. In every place, he stopped to inquire about every detail of the battle, and praised and encouraged the brave behavior and achievements of the soldiers. Everywhere the emperor went, he was warmly welcomed by the officers and soldiers.

The emperor also observed the abandoned positions of the Russian army. When I walked along the positions dyed with General Kolangu's blood, I paid attention to the indescribable sorrow of Marquis Kolangu. Although the whole army gave him high evaluation and warm praise to commemorate the warrior, I believe his heart still could not calm down...

On a position in the "Great Fortress", the emperor saw more than fifty soldiers in ragged uniforms surrounded the two officers, and seemed to be idle. The more he looked, he became more annoyed, and accused one of the officers of asking: "What are you doing here?"

A captain in his 30s walked silently to the emperor. He looked sad and said nothing.

"Which team do you belong to?"

"The 72nd Infantry Regiment."

"Why stop here?"

"Order us to stop here."

"Whose order?"

"The Colonel's Order."

"Where is your leader?"

"Behind me, there," the captain stretched out his only intact finger with his left hand and pointed at the tunnels and trenches around the fortress.

"Catch your group!" the emperor ordered.

The captain cried, "There are also there, except us! All of them, 29 officers and 756 soldiers were there, lying with our colonel!"

...

After inspecting the position, the emperor rode a horse to chase the forefront troops.

According to the report sent by the King of Naples in the morning, there was no trace of the Russian army ahead except the Cossacks. In addition to capturing a few Russian soldiers who were left behind, our army abandoned less than a carriage.

Marshal Mura originally planned to command the army to cross Moriesk and asked the emperor to set up his command there at night. However, when he chased the city of Moriesk, he found that the city was defended by a Russian army composed of infantry and powerful cavalry.

When I followed Prince Eugen there, it was almost dusk. Since we had no position to reconnaissance, we had to stop the attack. At night, the emperor camped in a village outside the city of Morieske. The enemy abandoned the city at night and fled. At dawn the next day, our army entered the city without a single shot.

If we put aside this victory that is far from satisfactory, the current situation of the French army that the emperor saw was very sad, and the combat effectiveness was generally greatly reduced. His victory cost him a heavy price. He was already convinced that there would be no result in a bloody battle with this enemy who was not in a retreat, except to seize some more land.

However, the prospect of occupying Moscow was still tempting him. If the Russian army was not crushed, it would not solve the problem. Everyone noticed that the emperor was pondering and anxious, although he later announced that peace would be in Moscow. Once our army successfully occupied their capital, it would force my brother Alexander to see the situation clearly, and at the same time force the great Russian nobles to face up to the reality. They would reconsider whether to continue the war. If I liberate the Russian serfs, it would destroy Russia's huge wealth!

...

The next day, in order to encourage some decadent military morale and morale, after issuing the order to continue attacking Moscow, Napoleon made a loud shout at his senior generals and the old guard soldiers at the scene:

"The war on the expedition to Russia was originally the most famous war in modern times, because it was wise, war for the real benefit, war for the appeasement and security of all mankind; it was purely a safe war with a love for peace.

This war is for a great purpose, for the end of unexpected events, for the beginning of stability. A new realm, a new cause is emerging, and the peace, happiness and prosperity of all mankind are emerging. The European system has been laid, and the remaining problems are only further established.

After all these big problems were resolved satisfactorily and were at peace everywhere, I had my parliament and the divine alliance. These views were stolen from me. In this great meeting of monarchs of all nations, we should discuss our interests like a family, and report to the people of all nations as the lords did to the master.

By doing this, Europe will soon become a unified nation, and no matter where a person travels, it will be like entering a common motherland. I call on all rivers for everyone to sail, and the public ownership of the ocean, and the huge standing army will be reduced into the guards of the monarchs of various countries.

Returning to France, back to the great, powerful, magnificent, peaceful and glorious motherland, I want to declare that her national borders will never change; all wars in the future will be defensive; any expansion will run contrary to national interests; I want to work with my son to control imperial politics, my dictatorship is about to end, and his constitutionalism will begin...

Paris is about to become the capital of the world, and the French are about to become the object of admiration by the people of all nations!

… By that time, I will use my leisure and old age, accompanied by the Queen, and during my son's royal education, like a real rural couple, driving his own carriage, traveling around the corner of the empire, accepting complaints, restoring injustice, spreading knowledge and giving favors everywhere."
Chapter completed!