The historical facts are more shocking than Toon's novels? Tell us about a small episode from 1805

The French artillery was hastily loading shells again. Infantry in blue uniforms ran toward the bridge. There was another puff of smoke, but the interval of time was different, and the shotgun shell fell on the bridge and made a crackling sound. But this time, Neswitsky could not see clearly what was happening on the bridge. Thick smoke rose from the bridge. The hussars had burned the bridge, and the French artillery was no longer firing at them to stop them from burning the bridge, but because the cannons were already aimed and there was a target to shoot.

Before the Hussars could return to the grooms, the French fired three shotgun shells. Two shots did not hit, the shotgun bounced too far, and the last shot fell into a pile of hussars, knocking down three men.

- Tolstoy, War and Peace

Readers familiar with the novel know that it was Nikolai Rostov's first combat experience in 1805. However, in terms of this small battle alone, the imagination of the writer is much more bland than the historical reality.

The 1805 war in the Soviet film War and Peace

The reason why the Russian army burned the bridge was, of course, that the French army was in hot pursuit. On the evening of 1 November, about a hundred pursuing French dragoons arrived on the other side of Enns with only 1 cannon, but they did not hesitate to rush to the bridge, hoping to take the city in one fell swoop! A squadron of the Russian Pavlograd Hussar Regiment immediately dismounted and ignited the bridge, and the French military historian Colin pointed out that "you can see that all the enemy troops are on the right bank, and [the French] cannot stop the fire from burning the part above the waterline of the bridge", and the efforts of the French follow-up infantry to cross the river were thwarted by the fierce fire of the Austrian border guards and Russian hunters. Lieutenant Fyodor Glinka (Фёдор Глинка), who was in Kutuzov's army at the time, left a moving letter:

The earth is trembling, the mountains are trembling, and the groans of arousal are repeated in the deep valleys of nature. The ignition was already piled up on the bridge. Due to unexpected coincidences, our side burned first. The French rushed over to put out the fire, but General Kutuzov also came to the riverside, and he sent only one signal, and several brave soldiers rushed in with artillery fire, drove away the French, and burned the bridge on their side...

The fire on the bridge grew stronger and stronger. The whole sky turned red, and the turbulent currents of the Ense Looked like they were on fire. Incendiary bombs and grenades fired landed on the spark-filled river. If we had added to the terrible sound of drumming, the fierce firing of two thousand Croatian soldiers in the trenches of the toilets, the roar of two artillery pieces and the shouts of the participants, it would have been possible to imagine this little battle on the Ens River.

Sometimes you don't have to look for excerpts from a novel to read thrilling passages.