Napoleon destroy the Russian Army at Smolensk

There are many talks about Borodino and what could had happened if Napoleon attained a crushing victory there.

But there is few talk about Smolensk.

At Smolensk Napoleon could had destroyed the Russian Army if hr played his cards right, he didnt and instead got a relatively minir battle while the army managed to escape.

So what if Napoleon managed to get a decisive victory and destroy the army at Smolensk? Could Napoleon had defeated Russia in this scenario?
 
My new TL focusses on a victory at Vitebsk instead of Smolensk, but I think the same outcome is certainly possible. Destroy the bridges, trap the army, force the Russians to the negotiating table.

The only difficulty with this (and the reason I chose Vitebsk over Smolensk) is the fact that the longer the war goes on, the more difficult Napoleon's position gets and the less likely that the Russians would make peace. Russia was never going to be 100% defeated by Napoleon - it is simply too vast for that, so he needs a decisive victory quickly for this to work. Otherwise the tsar would just pull a new army out of somewhere. Smolensk is certainly the latest point that that could happen (Borodino was too late to have any real effect on the outcome of the war).

- BNC
 
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