cavalry and allowed the safe retreat of two Russian regiments trapped between advancing French columns. Temporary loss of contact between Murat and the Russian rearguard allowed Kutuzov to make a westward turn: Murat kept on advancing south-east towards Bronnitsy while Kutuzov marched in the opposite direction. On , Kutuzov took defensive positions at Podolsk and dispatched Miloradovich to take position in front of the advancing French, 12 kilometers to the east. Four days later, Murat engaged Miloradovich and forced him to fall back to Krasnaya Pakhra (deliberately setting a trap, according to Glinka). Miloradovich barely escaped death or captivity when his headquarters were raided by French cavalry scouts on . On , Miloradovich successfully counterattacked Murat's corps at Chirikovo, taking one general de brigade prisoner. At this point, Kutuzov preferred to retreat further south; the main army marched to Tarutino, while Miloradovich, now having Ostermann-Tolstoy's corps under his command, retreated to a fallback position on the Chernishnya River, 8 kilometers north of Tarutino. Glinka wrote that from to Miloradovich was continuously fighting the French, including four significant battles, and lamented that few of his deeds reached the public eye: "He is not a hero of the Vedomosti, but a hero of history and of the future." During the standoff on the Chernishnya, Miloradovich had another person-to-person negotiation with Murat, while his own camp was filled with masses of French stragglers taken prisoner. Modern Russian historians criticized as indecisive his actions in the Battle of Tarutino (), when poor coordination of Russian columns met its match in poor discipline of the French camp, but to contemporaries like Glinka and William Cathcart the battle was a clear success. After the Battle of Maloyaroslavets, Russian troops split into three pursuit columns, led by Miloradovich, Matvey Platov and Kutuzov himself. Miloradovich marched directly on Vyazma, occupied by four French corps (Beauharnais, Davout, Ney, Poniatowski), while Platov closed in on it from the north. On Miloradovich and Platov agreed to storm Vyazma. The Battle of Vyazma began at dawn of . Miloradovich quickly deployed front-line artillery that withstood Beauharnais's counterstrike and forced Davout's troops to take cover in the forest. Davout lost two hours taking a detour to reunite with Ney in Vyazma; at 2 p.m., when Miloradovich ordered a general assault, the French were already unable to resist. By 5 p.m. Miloradovich took control of the city, capturing French supply trains (but only three