King's Landing in France

Page 121

This is mainly because the organization and morale of the army in this era is low. Losing the military flag generally means that the officer structure is broken up, and it is generally difficult for the army to be organized again.

However, because of the awakening of nationalism, the Revolutionary troops could not use this method to estimate the losses of the French army. Even if the reformation soldiers were dismantled, they would still return to the establishment under the influence of patriotism and nationalism.

But the military strategists of various European dynasties in this era did not discover this, so they wondered for a long time, why the continuous stream of reforming troops could not be defeated at all.

From the perspective of these people, the French army has long been wiped out, and revolutionary France has failed.

Yes, this is what Archduke Karl's staff think now.

The Chief of Staff came to the Grand Duke and said in a congratulatory tone: "Your Excellency, you have achieved a great military victory..."

The Grand Duke raised one hand to prevent the chief of staff from continuing: "It's not me. The commander in chief of this battle is Marshal Alvinzi."

The chief of staff was a little embarrassed, but still persisted in continuing to flatter: "But we all know that it is your excellent command..."

"I repeat, the glory of victory goes to Marshal Alvinzi."

The chief of staff curled his lips and finally accepted the statement: "You are right, the victory belongs to Marshal Alvinzi."

Grand Duke Karl nodded: "The emperor should be satisfied now. No matter how brilliant the victory Frost has achieved in Northern Italy, it is nothing compared to our victory in Lain."

The chief of staff laughed and said, "That cobbler was just lucky! But it turns out that God is still on the side of our Holy Roman Empire! The glory of Habsburg still lives on!"

Archduke Karl is also of the blood of Habsburg, so it must be true to say that the glory of Habsburg is still alive at this time.

Although this grand duke has always been considered a representative of the sick and incompetent, he became a general only by relying on his family's status.

But he is of Habsburg blood after all.

Archduke Karl was noncommittal. He looked into the distance, looking towards the direction of Paris: "Now, this war can be over. The French will definitely not be able to organize so many troops this winter. We can go straight to the capital of France." , Paris, the pearl of Europe!"

The chief of staff nodded: "Yes, this glorious victory will determine the outcome of the war in one fell swoop, and the Enlightenment is about to fail in the European continent!"

※※※

While Archduke Karl was inspecting the battlefield, Alvinzi, commander of the Austrian Legion of Rhine, was also looking into the distance from his headquarters.

"The emperor's third brother is a remarkable guy." The marshal murmured, "I'm afraid most of our opinions about him were wrong."

"What did you say?" his chief of staff asked suspiciously.

"I said the emperor's third brother is a great guy. Don't you feel it?" Alvin Qi turned to look at the chief of staff.

The chief of staff looked bewildered.

The old marshal shook his head: "It's nothing, don't worry about it."

Those who can serve as the chief of staff must belong to noble families, and the title may be a little higher than that of Alvin Qi, so the old marshal must maintain a good relationship with his chief of staff.

In France, titles may be a fart, but in the Holy Roman Empire, titles still mean many things.

The chief of staff didn't seem to think too much, and he said happily: "There are only a few French fortresses left between us and Paris. Optimistically, we can reach the city of Paris in February next year!" "

The army of this era cannot perform the operation of bypassing the fort, because the supply of the army needs to rely on the existing storage facilities in the city. If you choose to bypass the fort instead of attacking the fort, even if the enemy invades without dividing troops, the troops will soon be destroyed. There will be problems with supply.

After all, logistics in this era basically depended on mule-drawn carts, and the transportation efficiency was very low.

From the battlefield of Lain to Paris, there are mainly two strong fortifications of Petain and Verdun. The French army has established extremely powerful fortifications in these two places in accordance with the most advanced modern military engineering theory.

But the good news is that these places are basically plains. Although there is a river network as a barrier, the flow rate of the river is very low. It is relatively simple to cross the river with a floating bridge or a ferry.

It can be said that Paris is only one step away from the door wide open.

Alvinzi is confident that he will reach Paris within a few months.

At least at this point in time, it is a certainty that the coalition forces of the Holy Roman Empire and Prussia will win the war against France.

※※※

London, England.

Arthur Wellesley is sitting nervously on a chair at the Warriors House Club at 15 Fleet Avenue, where he is going to present his own sonnet to his beloved Catherine today.

For this reason, he has recited the poem in his heart many times, every syllable has been carefully considered.

He also brought his own violin, which he deposited with Mr. Willie, the housekeeper of the club.If Catherine likes the poem, he can go a step further and offer to play the previous piece on the violin.

Arthur Wellesley's eyes fell on his Katherine from time to time, oh my god, she is so beautiful, so touching!

Because of this, Arthur hardly listened to what the gentlemen present were discussing, such as the great victory of the Austrians on the Rhine River, the possibility of Austria dominating Europe, and the fact that Britain wanted to correct its position Nose and France stand together... Arthur Wellesley is not listening at all.

This is also normal, he did not get a high evaluation in the cavalry school in Angers, no one would think that he would make too much achievements in the military in the future.

Instructors at Angers commented on Wellesley: "Weak constitution, inattentive to school, more time spent with my terrier than military lessons."

This is basically true.

After graduating from the military academy for more than five years, Wellesley has been focusing on serving as an assistant to the British Governor in Ireland, and has basically never worried about his military affairs in the No.18 Hussars.

The military service brought Wellesley only a meager income, which was not enough to support Wellesley's social expenses, so that he had to borrow money from his landlord.

But what does that matter.

Now Wellesley thought only of his Catherine, beautiful Catherine...

"Hey, Arthur!" At this time, the young second lieutenant at the same table poked Wellesley on the shoulder, "What do you think of the victory of the Austrians?"

Wellesley asked suspiciously: "What do you think? The victory of the Austrians? Didn't the French keep winning? Didn't that guy named Frost beat the Austrians to the ground?"

"My God, Arthur, you are already old. Frost has won many victories in Italy, but the Austrians have won a hearty victory on the key front of the Indian front! It was the marshal named Alvinzi who fought !"

Wellesley stammered in response: "It's... so, when did you hear the news?"

"We were talking about this this morning! What do you think?"

"What do I think?" Wellesley was stunned for a few seconds, "I...France has always been our opponent, hasn't it? It should be a good thing that the Austrians won, right?"

"How can it be a good thing!"

"Arthur! France, like us, is a constitutional monarchy. This is a failure of constitutional monarchy! I think we will stand with our fellow constitutional monarchies next!"

"Yes, and the Austrians have won too much, and they might restore Shinra's past glory. Prime Minister Pete will not allow a de facto power to appear in Europe."

"Isn't it? Even if the Austrians won a lot, wouldn't there still be Prussia and Russia to check and balance it?"

The young officers at the table started discussing again, only Arthur Wellesley looked at her Catherine absent-mindedly.

—Ah, I wonder if I will have a chance today to give her my sonnet...

The future British star now only has his unfinished love in his mind.

He still doesn't know what kind of intersection he will have with the cobbler named Frost.

Chapter 205 General Frost has long expected so

At this time, Paris is in chaos.

Rich businessmen are dragging their families and wanting to leave Paris with their property, but the citizens of Paris think that they are surrendering and betraying Paris, so they spontaneously organize to surround them.

Since the beginning of the Great Revolution, the masses in Paris have been armed, and almost every household and every elder has hidden more than one weapon.

As a result, gunshots continued throughout the city from morning to night, and rich people who wanted to run were hung up on lampposts in Paris every day.

Everyone is looking for the reason for the huge defeat of the French army: why is Frost in Italy invincible, but Dumourier on the Inn River lost so badly?

There must be some reason!

So a logical inference emerged: the same French army was able to win more with less in Italy, winning consecutive battles, but was defeated in the Rhine River. It must be because some traitors did not want the army to win!

Coupled with the news that the Austrians would massacre the city after they invaded Paris, the Parisians began to frantically eliminate the traitors they thought were under the pressure of fear.

The old aristocrats who corresponded with foreign countries were the first to bear the brunt, followed by wealthy merchants and bankers.

Anyway, someone must be responsible for the failure of the French army.

These accelerated the escape of the old nobles and big businessmen, and many people did not hesitate to use secret channels to escape from the city of Paris secretly.

For the people of Paris, this has become the most favorable proof that these people are traitors: If you are not a traitor, why are you running away?

As a result, the huge city of Paris was immersed in blood and terror every day.

At this time, instead of stopping the terror and stabilizing the situation, the parliament stepped forward to promote the whole situation.

Danton delivered a speech in Parliament on December 12: "This Paris has always been lurking with enemies! Those old nobles have only pretended to be on the side of the people from the beginning!

"Their general representative, the King of France, has gone to Austria! Who can guarantee that His Majesty the King has no intention of going to Austria?"

As soon as Anton finished speaking, Mr. Philip Equality below stood up and objected loudly: "No! My son is not an enemy of the people! Neither am I! I have always stood on the side of the people! You see, I even changed my name to Got Philip Equality!

"No one is more pro-tricolor, no one is more revolutionary than me!"

Dandong stared at the Duke and snorted unceremoniously: "Who knows! If changing your name can prove your loyalty, then everyone would have changed their name a long time ago!

"And think about it, the series of bills proposed by the parliament these days are aimed at promoting the Konta model to the whole law. As a result, these bills are all stuck with the king!

"In my opinion, the king is the biggest traitor! We must immediately search the king's palace, confiscate all documents and letters, and set up a special committee to review these!"

Immediately, a representative of the Pingyuan faction stood up and objected loudly: "I object! How could anyone be so unreasonable to His Majesty the King?"

Danton: "You actually object! I think you are also a traitor! France is already in danger. At this time, only terror, complete terror can completely crush all kinds of traitors entrenched in the country and save France!"

"You are a bloody mouth!" Someone immediately stood up and said angrily, "I think you are the enemy of France. After suppressing it with blood, a clean France will be dedicated to the Austrians!"

Danton was about to retort when Marat stood up: "We are friends of General Frost! It is the General who is behind the parliament! The General has been winning victories for France! Imagine if it was the General who was on the front line at Lyon in the first place." , how could there be such a failure?

"Then the question is, who pushed the general to the Conta! Who is it? Whoever pushes the general away is the enemy of France!"

As soon as Mara finished speaking, someone stood up slowly: "Mr. Mara, you are not an official committee member, and you have no right to speak here."

Because members of parliament cannot be re-elected under the bill proposed by Robespierre, Mara, who was a member of the previous term, cannot be elected in this term.

However, the Jacobins, who hold the power of the parliament, established an observer system. Because of the great reputation of the People's Friend among the people, Marat returned to the parliamentary venue as an observer.

For this reason, the opposition in the parliament did not take this matter lightly and attacked the Jacobins in power.

Some of the former Girondins also took the opportunity to attack, and also sought to attend the meeting as observers.

This has always been a contradiction in the parliament, but now it has been intensified in the context of the emergency on the front line.

Marat: "I'm here, isn't it just to tell you what the people think?"

Marat turned to the Parisian people who were listening in the stands on both sides of the parliament. These days, because of the emergency on the front line, anxious people flocked to watch the parliamentary meeting, and the stands had already been packed.

Not only the stands, but every window of the parliament venue was filled with anxious people.

Marat shouted to the crowd: "The French want General Frost back, and want to punish those traitors who pushed out the general! The Parisians want to see the blood of their enemies!"

The crowd burst into cheers.

Sometimes it is like this, and whoever gets the cheers of the audience is right.

Amid the cheers, Robespierre stood up.

The Incorruptible is still wearing his trademark green overcoat, though he's wearing a new wig, making him look even more dignified than before.

Robespierre walked to the podium, and Danton immediately made room for him.

He glanced at the auditorium, and said loudly: "Now, there are two top priorities: first, to liquidate the traitors! And the hidden traitors! Second, to welcome General Frost back to Paris and let him preside over the Parisian affairs. defense!

"In addition, Frost has long described the source of the strength of the Revolutionary Army! He believes that the self-awareness of citizens is the source of the strength of our army after the revolution! Do you understand? Citizens are our strongest And a powerful weapon!

"So in order to deal with this terrible situation, I believe that a conscription law should be passed, and every citizen should go to the front and defend France! I calculated that if this law is passed, it should allow us to quickly recruit 30 people. Above new force!"

The whole auditorium was in an uproar.

Members of Parliament, as well as the onlookers in the stands and on the window sills, talked a lot.

Robespierre asked sharply: "Why, are you unwilling to defend France?"

The people looked at each other in blank dismay.

Robespierre said to himself: "Yes, of course you don't want to, because France is the king's France, not the France of all citizens!

"I think it's time. First, the king is the general representative of the traitors, and all forces against France are gathered around the king!

"Second, in order to arouse the citizens' desire to fight, France should become France for all French people! For this reason, we must let the king become eternal history! France should become a republic!"

Robert Spil paused, and added: "General Frost, I have long expected it!"

Chapter 206 The King Must Die, France Must Live

After Robespierre finished speaking, the venue was once again in an uproar.

"No king?"