Fox of France

Marshal Beaulieu dropped the cannon, and naturally ran fast. Napoleon estimated the approximate distance between the two sides at this time, as well as the speed at which the two sides were advancing, and finally came to such a conclusion: the enemy's army is advancing rapidly, and our army can't catch up.

Indeed, the French army had just made a rapid march of fifty miles across the Po River, and then another rapid march in order to reach the bridge. It was really difficult to pursue the Austrians with another rapid march, even if one had revolutionary ideas and Grosso (Venice silver coins) support, you can persist, but the horses cannot withstand such a march, and must be rested. And once the horses can't keep up, not only the cavalry and cannons can't keep up, but also many other necessary materials can't keep up.

Napoleon estimated that Marshal Beaulieu would definitely retreat to Milan. And in the case of losing so many cannons, with the strength in his hands, Milan must not be able to keep. And judging from the previous battles, Marshal Beaulieu is not a hard-headed character who knows he can't beat him but has to fight hard. So after he returned to Milan, he would at most rest for a while, and then he would continue to escape. The only thing worth worrying about is how many florins (a common gold coin in Italy, here generally referring to various gold coins) will be taken away by Marshal Beaulieu when he retreats.

Considering the state of his own army, Napoleon let the soldiers rest for a day after consideration, and then marched towards Milan, the capital of Lombardy, the next day.

In the afternoon of the second day, as soon as the scouting cavalry of the French army approached Milan, representatives of the citizens of Milan appeared in front of them. They told Augereau, who led the cavalry: the Austrians had left Milan in the early morning, and now Milan was defenseless, and all the citizens of Milan warmly welcomed the arrival of General Bonaparte.

After taking Milan without injury, Napoleon's army stopped again for a short rest. Napoleon himself delivered a speech to the Milanese in the city council of Milan, saying that he was not an invader like the Austrians. He came here not to squeeze and extort the Lombard people like the Austrians, but to give Lombards The people bring freedom and liberation.

This speech greatly relieved the Milanese who were afraid of looting and blackmail. However, it didn't take long for them to know what the French meant by freedom and liberation.

After Napoleon took a short rest, he led his army to continue to pursue the Austrian army, all the way to Mantua, Austria's most important fortress in Italy. And Marshal Beaulieu led the remaining more than 10,000 troops, relying on the strong Mantua fortress to support them, waiting for reinforcements. Napoleon, on the other hand, will station his troops near the Mantua fortress, preparing to play around and fight for aid.

At the same time, freedom and liberation were in full swing in the areas controlled by Napoleon.

In Milan, some fellows supported by the French organized an organization called the "Free Club", and they put forward a slogan that frightened the local landed nobles: Like Piedmont!

These people declared that Lombardy should adopt the same measures as Piedmont, that is, confiscate all the lands of the nobles and distribute them to the peasants without compensation.

Immediately afterwards, conflicts began to appear in the countryside. Some heavily armed mobs attacked the nobles' manors in the countryside. They burned "captured title deeds" and announced the distribution of these lands to local farmers. The nobles were terrified. They did not have enough force to protect their wealth at this time, and the French attributed these things to "contradictions among the Italians" and ignored them.

This kind of laissez-faire led to two consequences. One was that many nobles began to leave Lombardy and flee to other places, and spread the terror of the "French thugs" everywhere; Enemies of the people, such as the Austrians and the papal liaison, tried to rely on their strength to drive out the French and restore "divine order".

In fact, almost all of these moves were expected by Napoleon. While Napoleon was preparing to respond to the emergency reinforcements dispatched from the Rhine by the Austrians, he sent Augereau back to Milan, preparing to suppress the local nobles.

Meanwhile, backed by Napoleon's seizures in Italy, new weapons were being worked overtime at Joseph's arsenal, being manufactured round the clock. The weapons were loaded onto clipper ships and landed in Genoa, Italy, in neutral Italy, where they were continually delivered to Napoleon's army. When the Battle of Italy was first launched, only skirmishers in Napoleon's army were equipped with brand new rifled guns, but by now, most of the soldiers had been equipped with the latest rifled guns—Napoleon had a new rifle in his hands. An army that was completely ahead of its time.

On the night of April 10, 1796, Augereau suddenly led his troops into the home of Count Leonard de Patric, a well-known local nobleman in Milan, arrested the whole family of the Count, and searched a large number of collaborators from his home. letter.

Immediately afterwards, the French began a large-scale raid in the city of Milan according to the list selected from Earl Patric. In this operation, more than one hundred people were arrested by the French army on the night of April 10 alone. Later, some people who sympathized with these nobles called this night "the night of terror".

Then the revolutionary tribunal established urgently tried the case quickly with French-style efficiency, and after a week, all the more than one hundred nobles were hanged on the gallows. And their property was naturally confiscated. All of this confiscated wealth was distributed to the landless peasants and the urban poor. Of course, some people say that the French also took away a large amount of artwork and gold and silver coins from these nobles at that time, but they did not register these things.

After the Mantua fortress was besieged for more than 20 days, Marshal Beaulieu finally hoped for the reinforcements sent to him by the Emperor of Austria. Forty thousand troops led by Marshal Wilmser.

Although Marshal Beaulieu repeatedly emphasized the amazing combat effectiveness of the French army and the weapons ahead of the times in his distress letter to the emperor. But these warnings were regarded by the emperor as poor excuses for his series of failures. And the emperor's view was also generally supported by other generals who fought against the French in the Rhine area. For example, after seeing Marshal Beaulieu's warnings that "the French army is elite in cavalry and fighting in the wild", and "the French army is not full of ten thousand, it is invincible", he was so angry that he almost suggested that Marshal Beaulieu should first Come back for a court martial. And the old Marshal Wilmser even threatened: "After I get rid of this coward, I must whip his ass with a horsewhip in public!"

But even so, the Austrians still showed a certain degree of caution. These 40,000 troops are elite troops, and together with the more than 10,000 troops besieged in the Mantua fortress, even in the face of Napoleon's entire army, they would Has the advantage of numbers. What's more, after occupying a large area of ​​land, Napoleon had to keep a lot of troops as occupying forces in these occupied areas to maintain order. Therefore, at this time, he can concentrate, and the number of troops used for the battle will not exceed 30,000. Therefore, in terms of numbers, the Austrians have a clear advantage. This battle should still be very sure.

In the original history, Napoleon relied on the amazing fast marching ability of the French army and took advantage of a negligent division of troops by the old marshal to defeat the Austrian army one by one. But this time, Napoleon decided that his army had already overwhelmed the Austrians in absolute strength, and there was no need to play these tricks at all. It was enough to destroy the enemy in a head-to-head battle.

On May 2, Napoleon's French and Austrian troops fought a major battle in Castillen, not far from the Mantua fortress. As a result, relying on rifles with a range three or four times that of the Austrian army and flexible skirmish tactics, Napoleon led an army of less than 20,000, and it took only half a day to defeat the Austrian reinforcements led by Marshal Wilmser. Marshal Muze escaped from the battlefield with only his guard of more than 100 people. The other Austrians were either killed in battle, captured, or fled, and the casualties of the French army were even less than 2,000.

On the morning of May 3, Napoleon sent envoys to send more than fifty Austrian military flags captured in the previous day's battle to the Mantua fortress guarded by Marshal Beaulieu. Early the next morning, Marshal Beaulieu sent envoys to Napoleon's barracks to discuss surrender.

After Napoleon won the victory, he was extremely gentle towards Marshal Beaulieu, and he gave Marshal Beaulieu quite generous conditions. Napoleon allowed the Austrians to keep their personal belongings, and even allowed them to leave the fortress with a small amount of weapons for self-defense and return to Austria according to the route prescribed by the French. Of course, in return, the army under Marshal Beaulieu must not damage the fortress facilities, cannons, and various materials accumulated.

Davout privately raised objections to Napoleon's leniency, thinking that Napoleon's move was a bit of a let-down.

"After all, this is more than 10,000 trained troops. Letting them go back will strengthen Austria's power."

But Napoleon replied indifferently: "They have been frightened by our army. Let them go back. They will only blow us up like gods and seriously damage the morale of the Austrians. This is also true for us. Not a bad thing."

Napoleon's generous conditions naturally overjoyed the Austrian defenders in the Mantua Fortress. They immediately agreed to Napoleon's terms, surrendered to the French and handed over the fortress.