The imperial troops remained several months in Szolnok, during which time they had raised strong fortifications.
An extensive redoubt guarded the tête de pont on the opposite side of the Theiss. Palisades were constructed to screen the tirailleurs between the entrenchments, before which a little willow thicket concealed a battery of field-pieces.
Within the fortifications was the pontoon bridge, which the imperial army had formed after having burnt the great bridge in January.
Before the bridge could be taken, the enemy had first to drive the troops from their strong entrenchments, and should they even effect this, they would still be exposed to the cross fire of the redoubt and the battery concealed in the thicket, and it was impossible to make a circuit, for the Theiss surrounds two-thirds of the place.
Szolnok is built on the opposite side, and was protected on one side by the river Zagyva and the impassable morasses of the Theiss, and on the other by strong ramparts and entrenchments. Within the tête de pont there were three half-moon bastions, well fortified, and protecting each other.
The terminus, which lay within gun-shot of a bastion running along the Theiss, was also strongly fortified by moats and artillery, whose guns commanded all the defiles leading to it; to the west stood a chapel, built on a knoll—the only elevated position near the place.
An assault from this side was almost impracticable, according to the rules of tactics, for these bastions could only be taken by a large force, with guns of great calibre; and, in case of a repulse, the besiegers would be cut off from all retreat, and exposed to the whole concentrated main body of the imperial forces in Pesth.
The Zagyva morasses alone remained partly unprotected, an attack from that side being considered impracticable.
Patrols were stationed along the right bank of the Theiss, as far as Czibakhaza, which served as a point of passage to the Hungarians, though, according to the information of spies, there were no forces there at present, excepting a few reserve corps, the two Hungarian corps d'armée having united at Torokszentmiklos, under Vecsey and Damjanics.