Fox of France

These shells, which are falling in a very high curve and are therefore almost impossible to form an effective ricochet, are the important weapons that Joseph prepared for Napoleon, which will once again change the status of artillery—shrapnel. At the beginning, Joseph had a lot of thoughts, trying to get past this thing and get a high-explosive bomb directly. But he immediately encountered several problems:

The first problem is the stability of the projectile. The high-explosive projectile must ensure that the fuze lands, which requires the best rifled gun. But rifled guns need a lot of steel, and steel needs...

However, it is not impossible, and it is not impossible to use the tail to stabilize. But then there are two problems involved. One is the reliability of triggering the fuze. It seems that this problem is not easy to solve in a short time; the other problem is an old problem, that is, the production of gunpowder and explosives is insufficient. So, shrapnel, which required less explosives, became an alternative. But even this alternative changed once again the role of artillery in warfare.

After the appearance of the Mini rifle, the artillery fell into a very embarrassing situation - attacking with solid shells could not hit the scattered skirmishers; if attacking with shotguns, the effective range of the shot fired by the cannon was not as good as that of the Mini. Rifle away. As a result, the cannon has changed from an offensive weapon that can be placed at the forefront of the battle to a supportive weapon.

However, the emergence of shrapnel brought the advantage of range back to the artillery.

Shrapnel is actually a tin bucket filled with shot. It was shot out by a cannon, and then exploded at the right height, so that the shot inside poured down. It was a winged shot, backed up by specially constructed cannons capable of firing at a forty-five-degree angle, and could travel even farther than solid shells. Coupled with the curved trajectory, it can even be used to jump over obstacles and hit targets behind obstacles.

In addition, shrapnel can also play a special role in tactics, that is, partition. When the soldiers on both sides on the front line have already started fighting at close range, normally speaking, the artillery is useless. After all, this is not a game. The artillery fire from our side is not a fireball with the ability to distinguish friend or foe dropped by the pharaohs in the game.

But at this time, the army equipped with shrapnel, with the assistance of the hot air balloon observation post, can use the shrapnel to cross the position where the fierce hand-to-hand combat is taking place, directly attack the enemies in the back row, and hinder the enemy's reinforcements. And if in the battle for key positions, our army's reinforcements continue to come up, but the enemy's reinforcements are suppressed, then the outcome of the battle will naturally lose suspense.

Shrapnel shells from the French army are hitting the heads of the Russian reinforcements. Compared with the previous broadsword mines, these things that fell from the sky are actually more like hailstones, and those Russian soldiers who were unfortunately covered are also like hailstones. The wheat was beaten into a large piece.

In such a situation, Suvonov also had to give an order to retreat, but the retreat at this time was really very difficult. Not even one-fifth of the soldiers who attacked were able to withdraw in the end.

In this battle, the Russian army lost almost 8,000 people. Although this number does not seem to be particularly large compared with the total number of the Russian army of nearly 60,000, these people are all combatants. Combatants in the army generally account for about half of the army. For the Russian army of 60,000 people, the loss of 8,000 people is not a small number.

What's more, these 8,000 people are still the most elite part of the Russian army. In a sense, this battle can be said to have completely destroyed the offensive capabilities of the Russian army. Now the Russian army has no strength to attack the French positions.

What's more terrible is that this battle broke the confidence of the Russian army. In the face of the "No. 1 in France in Europe" and possibly even "No. 1 in the world" technology, the Russian army is full of frustration from top to bottom. Even the old marshal complained in private: "Why is there such a big gap between our country's science and technology and France? How can we fight wars?" Later, the old marshal still wrote to his friend's grandson, encouraging him to learn mathematics, physics and chemistry well, and become a A letter from a scientist also stated:

"Alyosha, I know that you want to be a general more. But your grandfather and I both think that you are actually more talented in science. Moreover, learning science well and giving Russia one more scientist will help Russia more than It’s much more difficult to become a general. You have to know that science and technology are the number one combat power..."

The Russian army has lost confidence, and the Austrian army is naturally even more needless to say. They already had severe Napoleon phobia, although this time it was the Russians who were beaten - because the morale was low after facing Napoleon, the Austrian army could not undertake the offensive task at all. Even the Russians, after carefully observing the situation of the Austrian army, agreed unanimously: "These people cannot be used in the most difficult breakthrough stage of operations, otherwise they may become obvious weaknesses that can be exploited by the enemy."

So this time the Austrians were not beaten, but they watched the whole process of how the Russians were beaten. In this battle, the tactical level and fighting will shown by the Russians were significantly higher than those of the Austrians, and the Austrians could see this very clearly. The results of it? Russian A went up, and the Russian came back lying down. After watching the performance of the French beating the Russians, the Austrians became more and more frightened, and their morale dropped even worse than that of the Russians.

Although the Russians no longer had the courage to continue to attack, they still had the courage to continue to confront the French army and conduct defensive operations, but the Austrians did not even have the courage to conduct defensive operations. For several days in a row, Austrian generals approached Archduke John, hoping that he would propose to withdraw their troops as soon as possible.

Although Archduke John is not good at military tactics (in fact, the main reason is that he lacks the ability to respond on the spot), he still knows the basic truth. He is very clear that with the current state of the coalition forces, it is impossible to retreat safely in front of the enemy. If they really retreat, they will be chased all the way by the French, and the whole army will probably collapse.

He also knows that it is impossible for his generals not to understand these principles, and even these generals have made such demands that are not in line with military principles, which shows how far the morale of the Austrians has collapsed.

"Grand Duke, we can propose to the Russians that we divide the general camp into two, and our army moves to the northeast to set up another camp. In this way, if the French come to attack, we can support each other from different angles. Then, while the Russians are not paying attention , let's run first..." Some shameless guys even thought of this kind of trick.

In order to appease everyone, Archduke John had to say to them: "Now that the British and Prussians have won major victories in the north, the French will probably transfer Napoleon's army back to defend Paris. We can only retreat. And if we run first, the Russians will definitely not run? Then everyone will run, and no one will be able to escape in the end!"

Archduke John's assessment of the situation was still very accurate. On the same day that Napoleon repelled the Russian army's general offensive, the Anglo-Prussian coalition forces also launched a general offensive against Liege. Although the French army resisted bravely, their attack still made significant progress and captured several important positions. The French army's defense in Liege was close to collapse, and the fall of Liege was almost certain.

Once Liege falls, all the way to Verdun, there is no danger to defend. And once Verdun can't hold it, Paris will be directly exposed to the enemy's attack.

Under such circumstances, the Directorate desperately gave Napoleon an order to return to defend Paris; at the same time, it called on the people of Paris to rise up and organize a volunteer army just like in 1792 to defend the motherland.

But the people of Paris did not stand up as they did in 1992-this time is different from the past. In the words of Aunt Sophie, a maid hired by Joseph, it is: "Before the revolution, I had no bread to eat; after the revolution, I still had no bread to eat—isn't the revolution white leather?"

Members of the Directory, members of Parliament, and decent people, many of them got rich. But for the common people, they didn't get many real benefits. For them, the revolution that made them shed their blood was really nothing. That being the case, why should the people shed blood and sacrifice for it again?

Moreover, in 1992, the Duke of Brunswick issued a very untimely threat to massacre the city in Paris. This threat agitated the people of Paris and became the best mobilization order for the revolutionary government at that time. But these days, well-educated Englishmen and Prussians no longer say such things. Without their assistance, the Directory really couldn't mobilize the people.

Fortunately, the conscription and mobilization mechanism that Kano had worked so hard to establish over the years has gradually improved a lot. Relying on the conscription, the Governorate has produced more than 100,000 troops. However, the ebb tide of the Great Revolution has also begun to show the consequences of its arrival-although these soldiers are much better than the Volunteer Army in 1992 in terms of military skills. But their morale is far from comparable to that of the Volunteer Army in 1992.

In this regard, Paris is indeed at stake.

This afternoon, Napoleon received a new letter from Joseph, which told him bad news for France but good news for the Bonaparte family: "The British-Prussian coalition conquered the At Liege, the French suffered heavy losses, and General Joubert retreated to Verdun."

Napoleon was overjoyed when he received the letter, and sent envoys to the Russian-Prussian coalition forces, returned the wounded to the Russian army, and asked the Russians for an armistice and peace talks.