The Art of Strategic Deception — War and Peace

On November 1 a spy tells Kutuzov his forty thousand exhausted men face Napoleon's hundred and fifty thousand with every route a trap: stay at Krems like Mack at Ulm, wander the Bohemian mountains and lose Buxhowden, or race the French to Znaim while baggage slows the march. The French, having crossed the Vienna bridge, are already on forced marches toward Znaim, sixty-six miles off on the line of retreat. He chooses the road to Olmutz and sends Bagration's four thousand on a stormy night march to Hollabrunn to block the shorter Vienna-Znaim route.

Bagration arrives ahead of Murat, who mistakes the detachment for Kutuzov's whole army and offers a three-day truce while peace talks are rumored. Kutuzov seizes the chance: Wintzingerode negotiates even toward capitulation while the army's wagons creep toward Znaim. Bagration's starving men must hold an enemy eight times their size without moving.

Napoleon at Schonbrunn reads Murat's dispatch, calls the armistice a trick, says the Russian Emperor's aide-de-camp is an impostor, and orders an immediate attack: march on, destroy the Russian army. He does not trust his generals; he moves with all the Guards himself. Bagration's soldiers light fires, dry out, and cook porridge for the first time in three days, not knowing Bonaparte is already racing toward them.