Fox of France

Murat led the cavalry and chased the Austrian cavalry until they reached the Austrian bastion. Murat did not stop the pursuit until the cannons on the bastion opened fire on them.

Murat and the cavalry retreated from the range of the bastion's cannons, paused again to show off, and then turned to pursue Napoleon's main force.

After catching up with Napoleon, Murat, with an air of showing off, told Napoleon the process of the battle just now in detail.

"Oh, Murat, why are you still so useless!" Napoleon said, "Why don't you run away first and lure them to pursue? It's easy to get excited, and don't notice how much their losses are. But when they notice, their casualties are already very large, and then they turn around and run away, because they are turning around and running away, instead of just rushing straight away like now Run, this is a lot slower. Although you need to turn around in pursuit, you still have a chance to catch up and kill some, and then chase back all the way, so that your losses will be smaller and their losses will be greater-isn't this better? You, really..."

Napoleon originally wanted to imitate Joseph and commented on Murat as "too young and naive", but thinking that Murat seemed to be a few years older than himself, he shut up.

Although Murat's performance in this battle was not as perfect as Napoleon expected, the performance of two hundred French cavalry defeating five times their Austrian cavalry still made the Austrians extremely nervous.

The Austrian cavalry then set off again under the order of Archduke Karl to search for Napoleon's main force, but this time, they completely dispersed the cavalry, usually in teams of ten, and went to search. And they were ordered not to take the initiative to attack unless they encountered French cavalry who were strictly alone (only one person). Once the French cavalry showed their intention to attack, they could retreat on their own.

The information received by the Austrian cavalry showed that Napoleon's army did not enter any cities, but quickly controlled a large area of ​​the countryside, where they got a lot of supplies, and gathered the villagers every day to learn the truth of the revolution.

Grand Duke Karl naturally knew that the French could not be allowed to make trouble like this, otherwise, wherever the French went, they would become rebellious areas in the future.

However, Archduke Karl did not dare to fight the French army head-on. Fortunately, the Austrian cavalry at least still has a clear numerical advantage. And the French army needs to disperse the army if it wants to stir up the vast countryside. Grand Duke Karl decided to use his superiority in the number of cavalry to attack the scattered French army and the traitors serving the French army.

So the two sides began to have various small-scale battles, and the result of the battle-naturally, everyone declared that they had won.

According to the French, they repelled the Austrian army in most of the engagements, and achieved a good exchange ratio. According to the Austrians, their cavalry was able to gather quickly and besiege the French army with superior forces, so they won more victories.

Both of these arguments are reasonable. The French army has obvious advantages in weapons, and the exchange ratio must be dominant; but tactically, the Austrians, who have more cavalry, do have the advantage of being able to quickly concentrate their superior forces. In fact, in this series of skirmishes, both sides suffered certain losses. This can also be seen from some of the performances of both parties since then.

The French began building a relatively simple type of fort on the estates they occupied. They demolished the houses of the noble gentlemen, and used the demolished building materials to build a round fortress about two to three stories high, which looked like the artillery towers of the later Nihong people in North China, but on the top of the fortress. There are more beacons to report the letter-if it hadn't been a disadvantage under the siege of superior forces, the French probably would not have done so.

And what about the Austrians? They began to emphasize that the elimination of traitors is also the attack of aggressors. If it weren't for the discovery that the aggressors couldn't be beaten, why would they attack these so-called "traitors" first?

So after a period of time, the combat mode became that the French and some "traitors" set up observation posts on commanding heights in certain areas, and if there was any trouble, they would immediately issue a warning, and then a small group of French, as well as local farmers— —whether they belong to "traitors" or not—run into fortresses or other similar places to hide, (because after the Austrian cavalry came, they would not seriously distinguish who is a good citizen and who is a traitor. It will take a long time, in order to After completing the task and returning, they just kill and kill more people) At the same time, the cavalry of the French army also began to enter the alert, ready to support the battle at any time.

At the beginning, the alerts that the lookout post could issue were very simple. They could only inform that Austrians were approaching, but could not explain the direction and number of enemies coming; but soon, the alert system continued to improve. More "traitors" joined in, and they rode horses to deliver messages to various estates. As a result, Austrian attacks became more and more difficult and easier to overturn.

Of course, in these series of battles, the Austrians did not gain nothing. At least they now know the secrets of the French weapons. In previous skirmishes, they had also seized some Minie rifles and revolvers.

These two weapons are not too difficult technically, and they are both of the kind that can conceive at a glance. However, it is not a short-term matter to produce these things in quantities that can be equipped with a large number of troops.

While Napoleon was turning the Austrian countryside upside down, Joubert's Army of the North launched a new offensive against the Austrians and Prussians. With the support of brand-new rifles and brand-new tactics, Joubert successfully defeated the Austrians and the Prussians who had already transferred their main force back to the country and the independent Prussians. Occupies the entire Rhine region.

Although the Austrians wanted to produce new weapons as quickly as possible, with the defeat of the Rhine region and concerns about the growing area controlled by Napoleon, the Austrians once again made a peace request to France.

Of course, the conditions of the Austrians this time will naturally make it impossible to have Lombardy anymore. They recognize France's control over Lombardy and the Rhine region. They only ask Napoleon to withdraw from Austrian land as soon as possible. .

But Napoleon opened his mouth again. He said: "The peasants in Austria are all my brothers. How can I abandon my brothers? So... I need to add money."

Everyone argued endlessly about how much money to add, and finally, the two sides finally reached an agreement. In addition to giving up the two lost lands, the Austrians also paid France ten million francs in compensation. This figure made Napoleon very dissatisfied: "Such a huge Austria has only produced such a small amount of money. Compared with the Pope, the emperor is really too stingy."

For such a price, you want Napoleon to sell his brother, how is that possible? But... but... Now that the Directorate has agreed to this agreement, Napoleon, as a soldier, must of course obey orders. As a result, Napoleon could only reluctantly prepare to leave Austria.

During this time, Napoleon continued to receive representatives of the peasants of the areas under his control. He told them that he would leave some of his arms with them when his army left. Before that, he had already helped them master the skills of using various weapons.

"My brothers, I have to leave you. After we leave, the nobles will definitely want to come back. They will definitely want to regain everything in the past, and they may even want to make things worse. But as long as your hands are tight Hold the guns and weapons firmly, and they will no longer be able to bully you as they used to.

My brothers, remember what we have taught you, and take hold of the weapons we have left you.

From now on, when those nobles find you holding weapons in your hands, they will smile at you, they will reduce your tax, and they will pretend to be good friends with you, but, my brothers , remember, they don't do it because they've been nice, or because they really like you, but because they see you with weapons in your hands. As long as you hold weapons in your hands, even black bears will behave very docilely.

Maybe they will pretend to care about you and say to you: "My friend, it's so tiring to hold this weapon. Put it down. It's safe here now. We are all friends. Why do you still hold it?" What about this heavy weapon? '

But my brothers, please remember, don't put down your arms at any time, because once you put down your arms, they will lose the sheepskin they wear on their bodies and become man-eating wolves again! They'll eat you to the bone!

Beware, my brothers, of those who tell you to lay down your arms, they are vipers, man-eating wolves in sheep's clothing. When they said these words to you, not only were their lips smeared with human oil, but their hearts were filled with the intention of cannibalism.

We brothers, how do we treat those jackals? ——When a friend comes, there will be good wine, but if the jackal comes, the only thing that greets it is a shotgun! So, my brothers, hold fast to your arms, for—arms is liberty, and arms is destiny. "

After that, Napoleon's army began to retreat gradually, but when he retreated, he left a large number of weapons to those peasants, and even helped them establish their own guilds. Napoleon believed that for a long time, this area Regions can cause headaches for Austrians.