2, Napoleon confidently replied: "I have undertaken great preparations, and my forces are three times greater than yours. At this time with the whole of Europe behind me, how do you expect to stop me?" (Schom 585). His objective was straightforward, to bring Russia's Imperial Army into a decisive battle and to destroy it.
Napoleon's preparations were extensive, yet they were inadequate for the struggle which lay ahead. As early as 1811, Napoleon issued directives to his Minister of War and to Marshall Louis Davout in Germany for the creation of a large multi-national army. Taxes were raised throughout the Empire to finance this force. Advance contingents were sent first to the Rhine and Prussia and later to Poland. That force, the largest of its kind up that time in Europe, numbered about 513,000 with soldiers from every nation on the Continent and included 98,000 cavalry and over 1250 artillery pieces and siege guns (Schom 595). Even including reserves, the Grand Armee outnumbered the Russian Army in being which had 409,000 effectives, but only 211,000 frontline troops
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