Fox of France

After quick preparations, more than a thousand cavalrymen of the Kingdom of Sardinia rushed towards the French skirmishers.

However, when the cavalry is preparing to attack, there will always be some signs. If it is a dry and sunny day, they will raise dust. Of course, it has been rainy recently and the ground is wet, so this problem has been avoided. But the concentration of the large cavalry also requires other armies to make way for them. This sign is hard to hide. So before the cavalry of the Kingdom of Sardinia came out. Napoleon was acutely aware of this enlistment.

"Where's the shepherd dog? Where's the shepherd dog?" Napoleon said, "You take your cavalry and go to assist the skirmishers in fighting!"

"Shepherd Dog" is the nickname given to Augereau by Napoleon, and Augereau himself is very proud of this nickname. After all, not everyone has the opportunity to capture more than 300 Peggy Georges with a whip.

"Of order!" Jerome replied happily. He lowered his head, checked the four revolvers stuck in his belt, and the saber hanging on his waist, then stepped on the horse and faced the cavalry. Over there.

As for Napoleon, he continued to stand there, with one foot on a stone, holding up his binoculars to look across.

The Sardinian cavalry had already completed their preparations at this time, perhaps because they were not clear about the range of the guns in the hands of the French skirmishers in front, because they had been behind the team before. They only knew to launch an assault on the French skirmishers according to the order, but the messenger did not tell them that the guns in the hands of the French had a range of more than three or four hundred yards. Therefore, these cavalry did not disperse their formation immediately after they entered the formation, but still maintained a relatively tight formation, approaching the French with small steps.

In the usual case, it makes sense to do so. First of all, keeping a relatively tight formation helps to maintain discipline—it’s still far away from the enemy anyway, and there’s still time to spread out after getting closer—since the "little melon" has been widely used, no country’s cavalry will Use the wall-mounted charge.

As for using small steps to approach, this is because the war horses used by the Sardinian army are not nuclear-powered Mongolian horses, and they cannot keep sprinting at the highest speed all the time. Run in small steps outside the enemy's range, then gradually increase the speed, and reach the highest speed when approaching the opponent's "little melon" range. In this way, the damage to the cavalry caused by the small melons of the stragglers can be reduced as much as possible.

The straggler Daniel had just loaded the bullets when the company commander Amy shouted: "Get ready, aim at the enemy cavalry..."

Everyone raised their guns, but Captain Amy seemed to be showing off his amazing lung capacity, deliberately dragging his voice to the elders. One of the important reasons why he was able to become the company commander was because Commander Lana liked his loud voice. Even on a noisy battlefield, his shout could be heard around him. Of course, a loud voice, no matter how loud it is, cannot be heard by all the skirmishers. And at this time, his huge lung capacity came into play. He can drag out the voice for a long time, so that other company commanders can shout after hearing it, and then he can maintain the consistency of the final order as much as possible.

Amy finally finished shouting the aria-like "cavalry", he took a deep breath, counted the number in his heart, and then shouted suddenly: "Fire!"

The other company commanders also shouted to open fire at about the same time. More than two thousand skirmishers successively fired a round of salvos at the Sardinian cavalry who were still five hundred yards away.

Because the cavalry had big targets and they were still in a dense formation at this time, this round of salvo, although the distance was very far, almost reaching the limit of the range of the Mini rifle, still achieved very good results. The Sardinian cavalry fell from their horses one after another, like autumn leaves falling from their branches in the cold wind.

"Damn it! How far can their guns go!" General Corley began to think about how to explain to the king and shift the responsibility for the defeat to the incompetent military manufacturers.

This round of unexpected blows also confused the Sardinian cavalry. The cavalry in front saw the cavalry whose comrades fell to the ground one after another. Some wanted to pull the horse to stop, some began to kick the horse's stomach with spurs hard to make it gallop, and some didn't understand at all, and they still kept the horse just now. attitude.

So the one who wanted to stop collided with the one who was going forward at normal speed; the one who wanted to rush forward took a few steps and looked back to see that no one was following, and then braked urgently; The side ran away-in short, the whole cavalry team was in a mess.

Count Vivaldi, the commander of the cavalry division, tried his best to maintain the team. He shouted loudly, tried his best to straighten the team, and ordered the team to charge at full speed immediately... But at this moment, the second round of salvo gunfire rang out again. ...

This round of salvo made the Italians even more confused, but it also made many smart Italians understand: "Crowding together is attracting bullets, everyone must disperse immediately!"

So the cavalry dispersed in a panic, and the horses under the crotch of some smarter cavalry seemed to be frightened, and they ran around, and they didn't know where they went.

Although the range of the Minie rifle is much longer, when facing the enemy light cavalry, skirmishers can normally fire two rounds of salvo. Pistols and bayonets fought.

But at this time, since the Italians are willing to let the skirmishers shoot more volleys, naturally everyone can't just live up to their good intentions, right? So taking advantage of this opportunity, the stragglers fired another round of salvo.

Earl Vivaldi managed to control a part of the troops, and he ordered: "All divisions charge!" So finally some cavalry under his command moved at the fastest speed. The chaotic formation rushed towards the skirmishers.

On their way to the charge, they received another volley. However, because their speed increased, this round of salvo caused them much less damage than the previous rounds.

Count Vivaldi slowly slowed his horse so that the other cavalry could pass him. At the same time, he also saw that the Frenchman on the opposite side had already mounted his bayonet and took out a small melon.

According to the experience taught by the Austrians, the French had no bullets in their guns at this time, so as long as they rushed through their round of "little melons", the rest was to fight with sabers and bayonets. Although the French skirmishers are very brave, the saber still has a clear advantage over the bayonet.

"They will not form a hollow phalanx. How can they fight against cavalry with individual bayonets? Of course, they cannot form a hollow phalanx, because we also have 'little melons'." This is what an Austrian friend said at the time.

The cavalry were close to the shooting range of the "little melon", and a group of little melons flew over from the opposite side. In previous exercises, the cavalry were also very familiar with this situation. He lowered his head, pressed his body against the horse's neck, and rushed over in the blink of an eye, didn't he? But that was acting—no, a drill. At that time, the "little melon" thrown over would not be fried! So some people who ran in front couldn't help but want to turn, and some people who ran behind couldn't help but want to slow down (they wanted to wait for the little melon to explode before rushing over). Then, many smart people bumped into Together... Immediately afterwards, the "little melons" exploded one after another, taking away another wave of cavalry.

However, Count Vivaldi was not injured. This is not because there is a rule in this world that bullets and shrapnel will avoid senior officers, but because he is the smartest of all the cavalrymen who charged, and he has slowed down long ago. His speed made him fall far behind the team, and even when the cavalry approached the opponent's "little melon" range, he deliberately opened a certain distance from the team.

"The rest is saber versus bayonet! We can do it!" Count Vivaldi looked at the cavalry in front, assessed the losses along the way, and then made such a judgment.

However, there was no bayonet-to-saber hand-to-hand battle in front of him as he had imagined, but a dense gunshot sounded.

Colonel Jean Lana also dropped the rifle in his hand, pulled out the revolver from his waist, pointed the muzzle at an Italian cavalryman who was rushing towards him, and fired two shots in a row. He fell down; he pointed his gun at another Italian cavalry, and fired two shots in a row of "pa, pa", and the Italian cavalry also fell; he pointed his gun at another Italian cavalry, and "pa, pa" He fired two shots, and the Italian cavalry also fell; he pointed his gun at the last Italian cavalry again, "Dah...", out of bullets, he quickly pulled out another revolver, and looking again, the Italian Already fell off the horse...

The revolver that can shoot continuously completely confused the Italians. At this time, someone saw the French cavalry rushing over, so a smart man first understood it, turned the horse's head and ran away, and then everyone made a mess together Of course, the clever Count Vivaldi was also running away, and he ran the fastest.

Jerome led the cavalry over the stragglers and gave chase, trying to drive the enemy directly into their position. It would be ideal if the Italians' own cavalry could disrupt the formation of their own infantry.

However, Jerome's expectations did not become a reality. The Italians have always been cautious. After the cavalry attacked, they cautiously resumed their rejection of horses in front of the position. So the Italian cavalry could only turn in front of their formation, while Jerome bit their tails tightly, and with less than two hundred cavalry, drove an enemy cavalry division from the battlefield.

Colonel Jean Lanner, the commander of the skirmishers, stood on tiptoe watching the pursuit of the cavalry over there. When he saw that the Italian cavalry did not break the line, he shouted happily: "Brothers, I have already said Now, don't look at the majestic cavalry, but to solve the battle, we still need to look at our skirmishers! Now, go forward, let us defeat their private soldiers!"

Skirmishers equipped with Mini rifles are almost bullying against Italian privates. Relying on a longer range, they are like peeling onion skins. Every round of shooting can peel off a layer of Italians' formation. This kind of situation where it was hard to fight back despite being beaten quickly broke down the morale of the Italians.

What's more terrible is that the cannons placed in front of the position are now under the control of the French. When the Italians abandoned those cannons, they didn't bother to destroy them at all. So the French just turned the cannons around, and then—before they had time to fire, the Italians completely collapsed. The soldiers disregarded the orders of the officers and fled in all directions; the officers at first shouted and threatened to maintain the ranks, but they soon joined the fleeing ranks and ran faster than the soldiers.

More than 50,000 Italians fled in all directions, and it was not easy for the French to catch them. In addition, the Italians were more familiar with the terrain, so after this battle, Napoleon did not capture too many prisoners. But General Corley, who retreated to Turin, also failed to gather many fleeing soldiers. About half of the soldiers were neither killed, captured, nor returned to Jian, but went directly to their respective homes.

After obtaining more than a hundred cannons, the French army took advantage of the victory and approached Turin, and the city of Turin was shocked overnight. There are rumors in the city that if the French enter Turin, all the nobles will be beheaded; there are also vivid stories about the French "robbing the rich and giving to the poor" in other places. Some people were afraid of the French and trembled in fear; others were looking forward to the French entering the city so they could divide things.

The nobles in the city of Turin packed the valuables they could take with them, loaded them into carriages and fled eastward. There was a serious traffic jam on the road from Turin to Genoa and Milan, full of carriages with various coats of arms. Even the king's family fled to Cagliari on Sardinia.

Under the unanimous request of the nobles, the king announced his withdrawal from the war and sent envoys to negotiate with the French. Facing the envoy of the Kingdom of Sardinia, Napoleon first put on an air of indifference, and then made various threats. In the end, under the threat of the French army, the Kingdom of Sardinia had to accept the following conditions:

The Kingdom of Sardinia withdrew from the Anti-French Alliance, and promised not to allow anyone or any force to use the territory of the Kingdom of Sardinia to carry out any actions against France. The Sardinian army must hand over the three fortresses of Coni, Cheva and Tortona; temporarily hand over Alexandria before Tortona is handed over to the French army; the people in the area controlled by the French army have complete autonomy, they The right to establish an autonomous government and implement a revolutionary policy without interference from the Kingdom of Sardinia; the French army can move freely in Piedmont and has the right to cross the Po River in Valencia; all local police in Piedmont must be disarmed The Sardinian regular army must be stationed in various places as a garrison. Their strongholds must be approved by the French army, and the army must not be equipped with any heavy weapons. In addition, the Kingdom of Sardinia had to hand over a large sum of money as war compensation.