Napoleon II Reborn Chapter 40

On the morning of September 25, 1805, Field Marshal Lanner's Fifth Army crossed the Rhine at Karl and camped between Rastad and Ettlingen. Prince Murat's cavalry corps followed at Strasbourg with reserve cavalry, cavalry and dragoons... Marshal Soult's 7th Corps crossed the Rhine at Speyer...Marshal Lie's 1st The Sixth Army crosses the Rhine at Durrach...Marshal Renz's Third Army takes Mannheim....

Marmont's 2nd Army crossed the Rhine at Mainz, and Bernadotte's 1st Army, now occupying British Hanover, marched towards southern Germany to join the main army. Finally, Augereau's Seventh Army arrived from Brest after a 29-day forced march. "Due to the relative lack of supplies, the Marshals have been authorized to collect the rations and supplies needed by their troops from their respective occupying countries. This has increased the burden on the people of the occupying countries and caused the country's goodwill towards France to decline sharply. Even hostile...".

The battle plan was both grandiose and desperate. Except for the 30,000 people of the Fourth Army of Marshal Brunet who stayed in France to guard the English Channel, Napoleon transferred almost all the troops out of France, whether it was the era of Louis XVI, Louis XV or Louis XIV. Never before has such a bold move been made. With just a few divisions, the British could easily capture Paris, France without encountering any resistance. But, thanks to Napoleon's strict censorship, the newspapers did not reveal any such information, nor did they publish any articles critical of the government.

In the temporary headquarters of Ettlingen in the Duchy of Baden, Xiao Jie watched as Napoleon stood in front of a huge military map, marking the troops he dispatched on the military map through the news from the various legions. The location of thousands of troops.

Napoleon actually made his plan for this battle shortly before leaving Paris. Loyal and under strong pressure from Napoleon, Berthier was instrumental in executing the complex deployments for this massive campaign. Napoleon made many adjustments to the army, including putting all the cavalry under the command of Murat alone and the artillery under Domartin's command.

The various legions of the army marched to the battlefield from different paths to avoid road blockages and logistical support problems. Cannons, ammunition, and rations traveled with the army. Napoleon, who originally planned to attack Britain, ignored the logistical preparations necessary for fighting on the European continent, and paid the price from the beginning: the army lacked large carriages and had to temporarily requisition 3,500 carriages and 14, 1,000 horses to pull the carts, and Berthier was responsible for an emergency supplement to the lack of weapons and equipment in the army. The winter clothes are long overdue, and the old-fashioned firearms that are worn out due to excessive use are in urgent need of replacement with new equipment. Food in the army was often scarce, resulting in a large number of stragglers and deserters along the route in the first few weeks. Cold, hunger and lack of pay remained obstacles to the campaign.

This campaign, like the Egyptian expedition and all of Napoleon's subsequent campaigns, was entirely unnecessary and could have been avoided had Napoleon withdrawn the French troops from Holland, Germany, Switzerland and Italy Yes, no one will die in battle. However, Napoleon was a conqueror, which meant war, and his ambition was to bring the whole of Europe and even the world under his rule, and this had only just begun. This war will lead to new wars, which will continue for years. "It is said that a genius is often destroyed by his own hands." A famous historian once said. Right now, Napoleon was forcing Austria and its Russian allies to attack him, especially after he became king in Italy.

Although Napoleon cultivated a well-trained army in the Straits, he still felt a little caught off guard when faced with an avalanche of troops and had to fight across the European battlefield to defend France from the invasion of the Allied forces. In order to break the encirclement gradually formed by the enemy against the French army, he even did not hesitate to let his deputy, General Bertrand and Prince Murat, the Imperial Marshal, take on the most dangerous task of crossing the Rhine and penetrating into the enemy's hinterland. Many people are in charge. Only Napoleon would have made such a bold decision.

Napoleon's first objective was to strike at the strong but dispersed Austrian army, but first to hold his own rear. Therefore, he forced the Duke of Baden to sign a defense treaty on October 1. In exchange, Napoleon promised not to destroy and rob Heidelberg University and to compensate the Duke himself in the future. Four days later, he wrote to the electors of Bavaria and Württemberg, asking them to form an alliance with France. These small princes had to accept Napoleon's request in trembling. Especially Bavaria, not only signed a treaty with France, but also Italian governor Eugene Beauharne married the eldest daughter of the Bavarian king. The Russian Emperor Alexander I tried his best to win over Prussian King Friedrich William III and encouraged him to join the third anti-French alliance. As a result, on November 3, Prussia signed the Treaty of Potsdam with Russia and Austria. It made the situation in France even worse.

Facing the approaching troops from various countries, the morale of the French army has become unstable, and even a few soldiers have begun to flee. Napoleon urgently needs a victory to boost the morale of the army, otherwise he will not be able to face the increasingly severe situation. situation. Similarly, due to the pessimism about the war, UU Reading www.uukanshu.com France's financial market at this time has been shaken, a large number of stocks have begun to fall violently, people commit suicide by jumping off buildings every day, prices are soaring, and people's lives are miserable . Especially after the news of the French Navy's fiasco at Trafalgar reached Paris, it caused a new round of panic. “The crowds in front of the banks are growing. There is no order to be maintained there. . . Cash, which was already very scarce, has become scarcer, and the value of government bonds has plummeted.” Prime Minister Cambáceres wrote in his diary. “The situation in Paris Disturbing."

So, after careful consideration, Napoleon set his sights on General Kienmaier's 36,000 men at Nuremberg. They originally formed a pincer attack on Napoleon with Archduke Ferdinand's main Austrian army of 150,000 people across the Danube and Iller rivers. The Austrian army still has 120,000 people from Munich to Ingolstadt, which are used to prevent the French army from attacking the Austrian mainland. At this time, nearly 200,000 Russian troops are still nearly a thousand kilometers away. Because the distance between them is too large, Napoleon can take advantage of it.

Napoleon's army was like a huge scatter net, and the encirclement movement began behind the enemy. On October 6, it was closed in Munster and cut off 36,000 of the 36,000 soldiers of General Keenmeier in Nuremberg. This strategy was so successful because of the link between the people and the main body of the Austrian army of Archduke Ferdinand across the Danube and Iller. Three days later, General Keenmeier's army was completely defeated. Tens of thousands of people died in battle, and nearly 10,000 people were captured by the French army. Erstadt's frantic rout.

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