I Am the Crown Prince in France - Chapter 784

Chapter 780 New “Battle of Marengo”

Historically, it was not until the 1830s that European countries established general staffs and had them take full responsibility for logistics, topographic mapping, training, and combat plans.

Even in France, where Joseph led the reform of the staff system, Napoleon was still deeply affected by the inefficient bureaucracy of the old army.

Napoleon pulled the reins and asked the staff to take out the map. He stared at it and frowned for a long time, then shook his head and sighed: “I remember that the cavalry battalion of the Moulin Corps seems to be still in Nice?”

The staff nodded: “Yes, Commander. The cavalry consumed too much on the day of the attack on Vence, so they were arranged to pass through the mountain pass at the end to rest for a few more days.”

“Okay, let them rest for a while, and don’t come here for the time being.”

Napoleon said, motioning to the attendant to get paper and pen, and then he lay on the saddle and began to write a report to the crown prince tremblingly.

He considered his tone and words, blew a few breaths on his cold right hand, and saw a sharp-eyed middle-aged man standing by a rock not far away. He was holding a drawing board, looking at him from time to time, and then lowered his head to draw a few strokes.

Napoleon waved to the man and said, “Mr. David, how is your work going?”

“Thanks to you, I finally found inspiration just now.” The middle-aged man was still focused on the picture, without raising his head, “So, at most in a week, you can see your heroic figure on my scroll.”

This person is the famous classical painter Jacques-Louis David in history, who painted “The Death of Marat”.

But now Marat is still alive, and there is no great turmoil, which makes him far less noticeable than in history.

David had planned to take a boat to North Africa in Marseilles to try his luck. It happened that the Archduke of Monaco paid him to paint a picture “showing the majesty of Buonaparte” to thank Napoleon for driving away the Austrians.

He followed him to the Alps.

Napoleon smiled and nodded at him, and continued to bury his head in writing his report.

Half an hour later, he finally finished the first draft and gave it to the staff to help him proofread grammatical errors. Then he turned over and jumped off the mule, walked to David’s side, and looked at the drawing board in the painter’s hand.

At just one glance, Napoleon frowned.

In the picture, he was riding a tired mule, his clothes were covered with dust, and the guard next to him, with red cheeks from the cold, was holding the reins tightly, fearing that the animal would slip on the snow.

This was not a victory march into Italy, but a look of being defeated by the Austrian army and fleeing back home in embarrassment.

He patted David on the shoulder and sighed helplessly: “Perhaps, we should have a good chat about your masterpiece…”

…

Southern Netherlands.

Southern suburbs of Brussels.

Joseph handed Napoleon’s battle plan to Lefebvre beside him: “Colonel Buvanaba’s ideas are always unexpected. Now the original troubles have been turned into opportunities for him to take advantage of.”

The latter quickly browsed the report and said hesitantly: “Your Highness, Turin is the capital of Sardinia, and it may be difficult to break through quickly. At that time, the Montpellier Corps will fight alone in the north of Sardinia and will easily be surrounded by the reinforcements sent by Austria.

“Oh, the Austrian army in northeastern Switzerland is not far away.”

Joseph smiled: “You don’t understand Colonel Buvanaba’s intention.

“He attacked from the Great St. Bernard Pass, not necessarily to attack Turin.

“The greatest significance of this army is to pull the Austrians’ deployment.

“After that, he can choose to continue to attack Milan to the east, or go south to form a pincer attack on the Austrian army with General Dimopin.

“As long as the Montpellier Corps can successfully pass through the Bad Fortress, our army will have a great strategic initiative.”

Lefebvre pointed at Napoleon’s report in confusion and said, “Your Highness, Colonel Buvanaba only said that Turin could be attacked by surprise, and did not mention Milan or the pincer attack…”

Joseph smiled and nodded: “It is possible that he has not considered these for the time being, but you must believe that as long as the conditions are right, he will keenly think of all feasible plans and choose the best one to implement. “

The reason why Joseph dared to say this was entirely because the battle plan Napoleon gave him was very similar to the situation during the Battle of Marengo in history.

The French army also advanced from the south of the Alps to the south of Sardinia, the Austro-Sarco coalition also retreated to northern Italy, and Napoleon also decided to launch a surprise attack from the Great St. Bernard Pass on the north.

It can only be said that under similar battlefield situations, Emperor Napoleon still chose the same tactics.

Of course, there are also differences from the Battle of Marengo in history. That is, now the French navy will challenge the British in the Mediterranean, and the French army in Genoa can obtain supplies from the sea, instead of running out of ammunition and surrendering as it did in the past.

Lefebvre still said cautiously: “Your Highness, Colonel Buvanaba’s plan may face two difficulties.

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“First, his route of advance will pass through Geneva at the southern end of Switzerland, and the Swiss side will raise objections.

“Secondly, the Bad Fortress guarding the mountain pass is extremely difficult to break. The terrain there is difficult and only a few hundred soldiers are needed to hold off the Montpellier Legion for more than a month. This is enough time for Beaulieu to send reinforcements. “

“Your concerns are justified.” Joseph first affirmed his statement, but his tone was still relaxed, “But this is not an unsolvable problem.

“Geneva has almost no Swiss garrison defense, and the Swiss Parliament will certainly pretend not to see our army passing by.

“They also let the Austrian army gather in the Schwyz area, which is fair.”

For a small country like Switzerland, facing a fight between two giant neighbors, the best strategy is to play ostrich. As long as it is not in their own home, they don’t want to care, and they dare not care.

Historically, Switzerland has always swallowed its anger when facing the occupation of its western provinces by France. Now the French army is just passing through, and they should know what to do.

“As for Fort Bad,” Joseph deliberately lowered his voice, “I know there is a small path nearby that can be used to sneak around.”

Lefebvre’s eyes widened immediately: “You, how did you know? You should have never been there?”

Joseph thought that of course he heard it from the documentary about the Battle of Marengo, but he just smiled mysteriously: “Perhaps, it is a revelation from God.”

He left Lefebvre, who was devoutly making the sign of the cross, turned around and picked up the pen, signing and approving Napoleon’s seemingly extremely risky battle plan.

Since several Chap signal towers have been built in the southern part of Wallonia in the past month, Napoleon’s report took only two days to reach here from Toulon – it took the messenger a day and a half to come down from the Alps, and half a day to get from north of Mons to Joseph’s temporary command post.

The Chap signal machine only took an hour to transmit the message.