Fox of France

Dombrowski's people continued to stay in Toulon to receive technical training, while Verbitsky's people left France after completing certain theoretical studies and reconnaissance and anti-reconnaissance training, and went to Italy for internships.

Napoleon had already gained a foothold in Italy, and began to attack Lombardy, Austria's territory in Italy. Relying on his sharp Bonaparte rifles and captured Italian cannons, Napoleon beat Marshal Beaulieu back steadily. In negotiations with the Kingdom of Sardinia, Napoleon forced the Kingdom of Sardinia to open the Valencia ferry on the Po River. And this condition was also disclosed to the Austrians by the Kingdom of Sardinia-after all, the Kingdom of Sardinia has no self-confidence at all in terms of whether it can regain lost ground, but only "Thaksin power". They had realized that unless the Austrians were victorious, Piedmont would say farewell to them forever.

After Marshal Beaulieu got the news, he didn't dare to neglect, and hurriedly gathered all the troops that could be gathered near the Valencia ferry. In the previous small-scale battles, he had already realized how big the gap between his army and Napoleon's army was. Therefore, the Po River became his only hope to stop Napoleon.

Napoleon also brought the army near the Valencia ferry, and continued to send small groups of troops across the river for reconnaissance. Pretending to be ready to forcibly cross the Po River from here, the skirmishes between the two sides have almost never stopped.

These small-scale conflicts caused the morale of the Austrians to plummet even further. First of all, the difference in weapons between the two sides is too great. The rifled guns in the hands of the French shoot fast and have high precision, which makes the Austrians almost unable to lift their heads. After defeating the Kingdom of Sardinia, the shortcomings of the cavalry in Napoleon's hands were also made up for. These French scout cavalry, equipped with revolvers, beat the Austrian cavalry into doubt in small-scale battles.

And since entering Italy, the morale of the army has also greatly improved. This is not only because of victory, but also because half of the military salary can be paid in silver coins instead of coupons. Considering that over the years, the army's military salary has been paid with index coupons, and the index coupons have fallen into a mess due to inflation, but if you only look at the numbers, the soldiers' military salaries have increased many times in numbers. Now half of the military pay is suddenly paid in silver coins. It feels like suddenly the legal currency can be exchanged for Yuan Datou at a ratio of two to one. The soldiers received so much military pay, and their morale naturally went up somersaults. Many soldiers couldn't help writing letters home, encouraging their brothers to come to Italy as volunteers to assist the French army in fighting for the country. The content of the letter is of course various, but there is almost no difference in one sentence, that is:

"The enemy army here is very stupid, and the army pays a lot, hurry up!"

Under such pressure, in order to hold the river bank, Marshal Beaulieu had to transfer all the troops he could find here, so that he could use the terrain to withstand the French. On the other hand, he continued to send envoys to Vienna to ask for help at home.

However, Napoleon had no intention at all to strengthen the Po River at the Valenza ferry. Just after Marshal Beaulieu transferred almost all other troops here, he led the army and marched fifty miles at an alarming speed. downriver to Piacenza. and crossed the Po River directly there.

Naturally, such a big move by the French army as a whole could not be concealed from the Austrians, but Marshal Beaulieu had almost nothing to do, because his troops could not keep up with the speed of the French army. They first tried to keep up with the French , Blocked the French in Piacenza, but after realizing that he could not keep up with the French, Marshal Beaulieu immediately made the decision to withdraw across the Adda River and use the Adda River to block the French.

The soldiers under him all agree with the Marshal's decision very much. These days, through a series of small-scale battles with the French, all of them have realized one thing: No.

Moreover, the Adda River is more conducive to defense than the Po River in terms of natural conditions, because this river has many rapids and dangerous shoals, and there are almost no ferries that are really suitable for the army. There is only one bridge that is most suitable for the passage of the army. , and then blew up the bridge. Although the retreat lost a large area of ​​land, at least they temporarily kept most of Lombardy.

Naturally, Napoleon also knew the importance of the bridge, so as soon as he crossed the Po River, he immediately sent Davout to take a team of mounted infantry to seize the bridge. Napoleon originally thought that Marshal Beaulieu would rush up to fight him directly. In his plan, the French army first defeated the Austrian army head-on, and then Davout interspersed past and blocked their retreat. Naturally, the Austrian army could be wiped out in one fell swoop. . But he didn't expect Marshal Beaulieu to retreat so decisively.

So when Davout rushed to the bridge with the mounted infantry, he found that the Austrians were already crossing the bridge from a distance.

Davout looked at the army around him, the number was only five hundred, but there were at least 20,000 Austrians over there (including the Italian mercenaries), and Marshal Beaulieu arranged the retreat very well, and the rear guard was well arranged. Well—obviously a direct attack would not work, and even the brave Davout knew that there would be no good results if he rushed directly.

So Davout dismounted the soldiers and hid behind a grove, while he himself took a telescope and climbed to a nearby hill to look over there.

The retreat of the Austrians was organized fairly well, the army crossed the bridge in an orderly manner, and the rearguard troops began to retreat across the bridge one after another. However, most of the last defenders were Italian mercenaries, and their retreat seemed a bit chaotic.

Davout knew that this was his last chance. If the Italians had all crossed the bridge, the Austrians might blow it up. At that time, if you want to cross the river again, there will be many more twists and turns. So he quietly came down from the hill, gathered the soldiers, and ordered them to attack the enemy army on the opposite side immediately in the formation of skirmishers.

The French army immediately launched an attack on the Italian mercenaries. As soon as the gunshots rang out, something unexpected happened to Davout: the Italians persisted for a while at first, but suddenly, the Italians were in chaos. A row of guns was fired, and then the Italian mercenaries became a mess. They didn't resist at all, but swarmed to the bridge, rushing to cross the bridge.

"This... these Italians are too cute, aren't they?" Facing this scene, Davout was almost dumbfounded, and finally said such a sentence.

The Italians pushed each other on the bridge, cursed, and even shot into the sky inexplicably. Taking advantage of the confusion, Davout's men rushed forward and reached the bridge head almost without any obstacles.

The Italians guarding the bridge either escaped across the bridge or surrendered. Davout asked an Italian mercenary officer who could speak French, and found out that there was a reason why the Italians were like this.

"The Austrians installed explosives on the bridge, and they ordered us to blow it up as soon as we crossed the bridge. We were supposed to do the lighting. But after the gunshot just now, a group of Austrian cavalry suddenly came towards the bridge. ——They didn't come to help us guard the bridge, those damned Judas, they came to blow up the bridge, they wanted to blow up the bridge directly, they didn't care whether we passed or not... These damned Judas!"

The first team of Austrians who came to blow up the bridge was spotted by the Italians guarding the bridge and were driven back. But the Austrians obviously didn't give up. They quickly organized a team of cavalry to rush over to blow up the bridge, but the French army who had already reached the bridge immediately shot them back with dense rifle bullets and small melons.

Marshal Beaulieu almost fainted after receiving the report that the French army occupied the bridge. But he reacted immediately. He noticed that his artillery had just fallen behind, so he ordered the artillery to be pushed up immediately, and fired violently at the bridge with solid shells to cover other troops to blow up the bridge.

The accuracy of solid shells is of course tragic, but the Austrians have a lot of cannons. Marshal Beaulieu gathered more than 50 cannons at once, and beat them on the bridge. After staying, he retreated to the bridge again. But the French's rifled guns were too sharp, and the death squads sent by the Austrians rushed several times, but they didn't rush up.

Davout commanded the soldiers to seal off the area around the bridge with rifle fire, and at the same time selected death squads from the ranks to go down to dismantle the explosives under the bridge. The Austrians wanted to rush over to stop them, but were shot back by a volley of guns.

Just when Marshal Beaulieu made up his mind and planned to push forward regardless of casualties and relying on the superiority of numbers, another French army arrived.

The cavalry brought by Augereau who just arrived this time. As soon as Napoleon discovered that the Austrians had retreated, he immediately worried about whether Davout would be in danger, so he asked Augereau to rush over with the newly formed cavalry division. Reinforced by the new force, Davout successfully consolidated his position on the west bank of the river, and the death squad he sent also successfully dismantled the explosives placed under the bridge by the Austrians. But because of the blockade of enemy artillery, it was very difficult to rush to the other side of the bridge.

In the evening, Napoleon's main force finally reached the bridge. At this time, it was almost dark, and the two armies faced off across the river.

That night, Napoleon called several of his officers together and assigned the next day's combat mission, preparing to break through the enemy's defense line in one fell swoop. After all, the bridge was basically in the hands of the French army, and Napoleon was full of confidence in breaking through the 20,000 Austrian defense line on the opposite side. However, when the French army launched an attack on the Austrian position as planned the next morning, Napoleon was surprised to find that Marshal Beaulieu was in front of him again—he was crucified in the middle of the night. He shot through the fire door of the cannon, then dropped the fifty cannons and withdrew with the army.