King's Landing in France

Page 141

An Ning: "People?"

"Yeah, when I was wandering around the enemy-occupied area, the people were very supportive of me. I was provided everywhere I went, and I had a place to live. Many people wanted to come with us.

"So I don't think it's too strange that they took action and set fire to the Austrian camp."

An Ning raised her eyebrows, suddenly feeling that this was a possibility.

After all, An Ning has already seen people's war.

At this time, Berthier heard the voice, and the chief of staff looked at An Ning seriously: "Did you do something? Why didn't you notify me in advance?"

An Ning: "Don't, I really didn't do this. But, don't miss this opportunity, organize a death squad, and go across the river to see what's going on!"

Chapter 241

The French army who had just returned to camp was shouted by the messengers galloping on horseback.

In this situation, to ensure the smooth flow of command, in fact, it depends very much on the ability of the chief of staff. The chief of staff with a little less ability will be in chaos before the troops cross the river.

But Berthier may be the strongest chief of staff in Europe during the French Revolution era. He can dismantle the action of "crossing the river at night" into countless subdivided orders at once, and then let the messengers issue the order to implement it.

In addition to the messengers who called people out of the tent at the beginning, Berthier also sent many messengers to send specific instructions to each unit.

The troops who received the order began to move towards the river.

The river crossing point chosen by Berthier is the location where the coalition forces cross the river today. The coalition forces have already proved with practical actions that the river water in these areas is relatively shallow and can be waded across the river.

Berthier also arranged for a caller to shout loudly by the river: "Throw down the backpack, and raise the gun and powder pack above your head!"

The firearms and bullets of this era are not waterproof, let alone soaked in the river for a period of time, even if it rains, they will lose their effectiveness.

So if you want to swim, you have to hold your rifle, ammunition backpack, and gunpowder gourd high together.

The knapsack is full of paper bags that put the projectiles and propellant together. When loading, you only need to tear a hole in the paper bag, and you can pour the propellant and projectiles into the barrel together.

The horn gourd is mainly used to hold gunpowder to be poured into the ignition powder pool.

Both of these are things that should never be wet.

So a large number of French troops held their rifles, ammunition packs, and gourds, and entered the water mightily.

Because of the darkness, the scene still looked a bit creepy, as if the zombie army had learned something new.

Especially the fire on the other side turned half of the sky red, making the scene even more weird.

An Ning was watching this scene by the river.

He originally wanted to cross the river first, but Berthier stopped him with all his strength, thinking that the coach should not be put in danger at this time.

If it was only Berthier who blocked her, An Ning might just ignore it and go across the river to kill her, but Fanny also came back from Paris.

One word from the little maid made An Ning give up crossing the river herself.

She said, "Madam told me to take good care of you and not let you take any risks."

So An Ning could only give up and watched his French army cross the river from the river bank.

Looking at An Ning, he suddenly thought of something, and asked Berthier: "After crossing the river, won't you miss something because of night blindness? When I attacked Lafayette at night a few years ago, I sent the night attack troops a few days in advance. Eating carrots solved the problem of night blindness."

Berthier replied with some helplessness: "Night blindness does not mean that you can't see at night, but you can't see when there is no light. It is impossible to see such a big fire on the opposite side. I am really afraid of not being able to see, so I picked up some burning It would be good to use the firewood as a torch.”

An Ning: "That's right. I didn't suffer from night blindness, I don't know."

After he crossed, except for the first few days when he didn't eat very well, he ate well at other times. After all, he was a guest of the Duke of Orleans.

So he hadn't tasted night blindness.

But logically speaking, there is no reason why cobblers in this era should not suffer from night blindness.

In this era, night blindness is a common disease among civilians.

An Ning didn't notice this, so she just said that casually.But Berthier obviously noticed this, but he didn't say anything, but had an inscrutable expression on his face.

I don't know how many thousands of words of secrets he has made up in his brain.

At this time, the first wave of swimming troops had already crossed the river, and shouts of killing came from the other side of the river.

An Ning: "Can I cross the river?"

"After the engineers have set up the pontoon bridge, you can go there," Berthier replied.

An Ning: "You still let engineers build floating bridges?"

"Of course, you can't let all the troops swim like this? Although you can raise your guns and ammunition above your head, it's hard to guarantee that there will be no accidents. And not everyone can swim. The troops I ordered to cross the river are all from the seaside area Troops, they are less afraid of water."

An Ning said in a convincing tone, "As expected of my chief of staff, you are really thoughtful."

What he actually wanted to say was "he deserves to be the strongest chief of staff in Europe", but after thinking about it, he still didn't give Berthier this high hat.

While talking, a messenger ran over and reported loudly: "Your Excellency, the pontoon bridge has been erected!"

An Ning: "Is that it? I saw it."

While speaking, there were torches moving towards the middle of the Marne, apparently on a pontoon bridge.

An Ning: "Let's go."

After that, without waiting for Berthier's reaction, he kicked the horse in the belly, causing the horse to run at a small pace, and went straight to the pontoon bridge outlined by the torches in the night.

Berthier immediately followed.

When the engineering officer guarding the pontoon bridge saw An Ning approaching, he shouted loudly: "Long live Your Excellency, General!"

An Ning nodded, and rode onto the pontoon.

The iron plates on the horseshoes collided with the floating bridge, making a crisp sound.

On the pontoon bridge stood some distance away with sappers holding torches, illuminating the bridge deck brightly.

Every time An Ning passed by a soldier, he would shout "Long live the general".

After crossing the river, An Ning observed the Prussian-Austrian Allied Army's barracks at close range: "The fire is really raging, order the troops, and those who can capture the enemy leader, Prince Schwarzenberg, will be rewarded with twenty gold crowns!"

Berthier: "It's probably useless, the prince should have already taken advantage of it and ran away."

As soon as the words fell, a group of French soldiers came over surrounded by a man dressed as an aristocrat.

"Your Excellency, this nobleman wants to see you!" The escorting soldier said loudly, staring at the nobleman with wary eyes as he spoke.

It was no wonder that the soldiers were so vigilant. The nobles were basically enemies now. Even the nobles who were not hostile to the revolution had become opponents of the revolution because of the massacre of the nobles by the Jacobins in recent months.

The nobleman immediately shouted: "I am not a nobleman! I am a disguise prepared to deceive the coalition forces! I am a barber! This wig is something sold in my shop!"

When An Ning heard the words barber, she remembered the hard-core ruthless "John Fatto" that John Khan had mentioned. Yes, he was the ruthless man who faked kidnapping in order not to be extradited to the UK.

An Ning pressed down the memories before time travel that suddenly surged up, and asked the barber in front of him: "Did you light this fire?"

"No, it should be said that my companions and I lit it up! We are patriots from Epernay!"

An Ning: "You are real heroes! Without your fire, we might spend many days here fighting the coalition forces!"

The barber was overjoyed: "You actually praised us as real heroes! To get the praise of a hero like you, all our actions are worth it! I'm going to tell my colleagues about your praise!"

An Ning: "Go, give everyone a treat for me!"

After the barber left excitedly, An Ning said to Berthier: "See, this is the cohesion of the nation-state. This is something that the European nobles have never seen! They thought they were just with the National Assembly in Paris. They are their enemies, but in fact, the whole of France is their enemy!

"They will be caught in the ocean of people's war!"

Chapter 242 The Glory of Victory Belongs to Your Excellency the General

Beethoven's troops crossed the river relatively late.

He vaguely knew that the troops were singing when they crossed the pontoon bridge, but the singing seemed to be coming from far away, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't hear it clearly.

A moment of despondency engulfed him again.

But Frost's encouragement is like a guiding light, dispelling all the haze.

Strangling the throat of fate, what an inspiring words!

Beethoven silently strengthened his determination and beat the drums harder.

Although he couldn't hear his own drum, he could infer the general melody from the singing of the soldiers, and then adjust the beat of the drum to match the melody.

The long pontoon bridge came to an end, and Beethoven stepped onto the land on the other side, and then he saw a group of people riding horses standing by the river from a distance.

Although Beethoven couldn't see the rider's face clearly because of the darkness, he guessed that it was probably General Frost.

His mood suddenly rose.

The generals have scored another victory!Sure enough, he is the symbol of victory, the contemporary Caesar!He will definitely bring changes to France, no, to the whole of Europe!

In this high-pitched mood, a melody suddenly appeared in Beethoven's mind.It's a song of praise, no doubt about it.

At this moment, Beethoven decided on the name of this new song that had not yet been born: Eroica Symphony!

This is a tribute to heroes all over Europe!

※※※

An Ning suddenly sneezed.

Berthier immediately became alert: "Your Excellency? Why don't you go back to the tent, it's not good to be cold..."

An Ning: "Nothing, I bet some Austrian is scolding me. It may be Prince Schwarzenberg."

After speaking, he laughed.

He smiled, and all the staff, including Berthier, laughed.

Amidst the laughter, La Salle galloped over on horseback and saluted An Ning: "I asked my boys to add fire to the Austrians. We set fire to the Allied camps on the river bank, and now the enemy is running around Woolen cloth!"

An Ning: "You did a good job! But the night is too dark, and the cavalry is prone to wear and tear. We should wait until dawn before chasing and annihilating the enemy."

The cavalry moved at night, and the horse was prone to tripping over things. Once tripping, the horse might be useless.

There is a shortage of horses in France now, because most of the horse breeders in the past were aristocrats, but now the aristocrats are killed and run away, and there are not many decent horse farms in the whole of France.

Therefore, the cavalry troops in the hands of the Republic are all non-renewable consumables, and if they are lost, they will be gone.

This lack of horses also occurred in the original history. It was precisely because of the lack of cavalry that the Republic Army had to use a large number of skirmishers to perform reconnaissance tasks that should have been performed by cavalry.

Therefore, the French army's tradition of using skirmishers in the era of the Great Revolution is also related to the lack of horses.

It turns out that in history, the shortage of horses did not improve until 1796.

As for the history here, An Ning doesn't know when there will be enough horses.In short, it is correct to use cavalry units carefully.

La Salle was a little dissatisfied with An Ning's order: "Your Excellency, now is the time to capture prisoners and make achievements. Are you letting my boys let go of the achievements that are about to be obtained?"

An Ning: "Yes, that's what I mean. In order to gain merit, breaking the horse's leg is not worth the loss. Now we are very short of horses!"

La Salle sighed: "Okay, I'm going to give orders to my boys now, and give the credit to the infantry brothers."

After speaking, La Salle turned his horse's head and ran away on the horse.

Berthier: "That's how you can order him."

An Ning: "When I'm not around, you should order him. Your rank is higher than him, and your position in the chain of command is higher than him. You can't change your position in the chain of command just because of your personal relationship with me. "

Berthier: "I'm afraid you'll have to remind him."

An Ning: "I will remind him!"

※※※

When it was almost dawn, the chaos that lasted all night finally came to an end.

Berthier reported last night's results to An Ning: "Our army completely defeated the Austrian Fourth Army last night. The enemy's commander is Prince Schwarzenberg, and no one knows the whereabouts of the Prince.

"Our army captured a total of 7000 Austrian soldiers, including about 800 officers..."

An Ning: "There are a little few officers."

Berthier: "Most of the senior officers have horses, and they should all run away. We don't count officers like non-commissioned officers."

An Ning: "Understood, do you still plan to deal with these captives in the original way?"

Berthier frowned and looked at An Ning suspiciously.

In this era, the enemy soldiers were captured, and they were usually sent back after turning around.

That's why it happened in the past, Napoleon won many victories and won many battles, but when he turned around, the enemy grew out of the ground again.