Fox of France

Coming out of the Capitol, Lucien immediately turned on the hair dryer mode, and he found out the words that Napoleon used to criticize him one by one, so as to show Napoleon the grandeur and beauty of French. Until Napoleon became angry and said: "Lucien, I found that in this world, to solve problems, you still have to rely on force, don't you think so? Just like those buzzing flies, if you talk to them well, Instead, they jump around recklessly; at this time, you should draw out your knife, stab them, cut open their stomachs, pull out their intestines, and then wrap them around their necks three times, viciously One pull... the world is clean at once. Don't you think, Lucien?"

Lucien then fell silent. Because Lucien knew that although Napoleon would not draw a knife, it was very logical to swing his old fist.

"I'm a civilized person. I want to maintain my demeanor. I can't fight with this barbarian, and I can't be as knowledgeable as a barbarian..." Lucien said to himself, and he was very satisfied with his spiritual victory.

Seeing that Lucien had softened, Napoleon entrusted the affairs of Paris to Lucien, and then led the army to Verdun.

Just as Paris was in chaos, in Verdun, the Anglo-Prussian allied forces resumed their tentative offensive. The result of the offensive is very interesting: the French resisted extremely fiercely at the beginning. Once almost any area is lost, the French will immediately launch a counterattack and try to recover their positions. But even if the French army regained its position, when the Prussians and the British army launched an attack again, they would find that the French defense in this direction had not been effectively strengthened, but weakened to a certain extent. Even if this place has become the focus of repeated contention between the two sides.

"It really looks like a unified command has been lost. Well, General Joseph Bonaparte may not be able to continue to command, so the officers who defend each position can only organize their own defenses. Therefore, in small areas In defensive operations, the performance of the French army is not bad, but in terms of coordination in large areas and the use of reserves, because there is no longer a commander who can take care of the overall situation, it is extremely slow. Well, what do you think? ?” The Duke of Brunswick asked the other generals.

Everyone agreed. But at this time, Major George Cavendish, the liaison officer, said: "Your Excellency, Marshal, I think we should be more cautious."

"Ah, Major, do you have any opinion?" asked the Duke of Brunswick.

"One of my elders, um, is the Lord Governor of Ireland, the Duke of Norfolk. He provided me with some information he had learned about General Joseph Bonaparte."

"Continue," said the Duke of Brunswick. He is also quite in awe of the French commander who made him bruise, so he is naturally very concerned about the information related to this person.

"His Excellency the Duke of Norfolk told me that he got some tactical tutorials written by General Joseph Bonaparte in Ireland and some Irish who surrendered to us. Judging from these tutorials, General Joseph Bonaparte is A genius devil, he is insidious, cunning, and has no sense of honor. As long as he can achieve his end, he never cares what means he uses. So, the Duke of Norfolk reminds me of everything about him, must be very vigilant I think we can organize an attack, but we must leave enough reserves and prepare a retreat plan first."

"Of course. Well, Major, do you have that tactical tutorial here?" the Duke of Brunswick asked.

"That's right, such a good thing can't be hidden." Blücher and some other generals also said.

"That's no problem. I'll write to His Excellency the Duke of Norfolk later." George Cavendish agreed.

"Well, let's first discuss the retreat and cover after tomorrow's attack fails. Well, retreat and cover are the most important tasks that require the most technology. Which of you is willing to take on this important task?"

So except for Blucher, almost all the generals raised their hands.

This kind of enthusiasm did not make the Duke of Brunswick happy. In his opinion, it was an obvious display of cowardice. But at this time, he couldn't express such emotions. So he took a deep breath and said with a smile: "It's good that everyone is willing to take on such a heavy responsibility. However, this task only needs one person, um, let me designate it. Well, Blücher General Er, this task is entrusted to you."

Everyone was a little disappointed with this arrangement, but they didn't object. Because in everyone's opinion, if this task cannot be entrusted to oneself, then entrusting it to Blucher seems to be the next best choice.

Then everyone conducted in-depth research on when to retreat, how to ensure an orderly retreat, and how to cover each other during the retreat. After studying until late at night, the Duke of Brunswick said: "Ah, I didn't expect that." It's so late. Well, boys, cheer up, let's study the last question: 'How to attack tomorrow', well, let's hurry up, after the discussion, go back and arrange it, maybe we can catch up to bed Sleep."

So everyone quickly completed the arrangement for tomorrow's offensive operation, and then went back to arrange tomorrow's retreat and attack. Then, because some officers were too responsible, they explained the retreat arrangement too carefully, and it took another A lot of time, so there is no need to think about sleeping.

The next day, the Anglo-Prussian allied forces attacked the Verdun position again. The way of attack at the beginning was still the same as before, and the performance of the French was the same as the previous two days, with a firm counterattack and slow mobilization.

The British-Prussian army took advantage of the "weakness" of the slow mobilization of the French army, quickly mobilized more troops in key areas, and launched an attack in a simple and rude way such as continuous assault. But the effect of the attack was astonishingly good. Although every time they broke through a trench, they had to pay huge casualties, but they actually broke through four full trenches on this day, and were finally blocked by the French before the fifth trench. Compared with some time ago, today's battle can be said to be very successful. This time, that distant highland is really close in front of us.

Encouraged by such victories, almost everyone believed that God was indeed on their side, and that despicable, evil, and terrible defensive war lord Joseph Bonaparte must have been killed by bullets up. If it weren't for the fact that there was no moon for most of the night, the British and Prussian officers with high morale (and they were the only ones with high morale) would have even wished to launch an attack overnight. Because, no matter how dull the French are, they will definitely transfer the army over this night to strengthen the defense of this highland.

At that evening's meeting, General Blücher made a proposal for an offensive. He believes that the French army will definitely concentrate on strengthening the defense of the highlands and concentrate all attention here. Therefore, it is best not to attack the high ground directly from the front, but to detour from both sides.

"Tomorrow, we will place the main direction of attack on both sides of the high ground, first launch a feint attack on the high ground, and wait for the attention of the French to be attracted to the front. Then we will quickly turn the main direction of attack to the two wings. From the two wings to kill In the past, the connection between the target high ground and other positions of the French army was cut off. As long as this was done, there would be an isolated high ground, which would be easy to attack.”

This suggestion was endorsed by the majority of officers. But their discussion was interrupted by a counterattack launched by the French overnight.

The counterattack launched by the French at night was not small, but it was not very well organized. In fact, such a moonless night is not suitable for large-scale military operations, so the French counterattack quickly failed. Regarding the anticlimactic and chaotic night attack of the French, the Duke of Brunswick commented in this sentence: "Our French friends are in a hurry."

Early the next morning, the British-Prussian coalition launched an attack on the high ground according to General Blücher's plan. The situation was just as General Blücher had predicted. The defense of the highland itself was very strong, and the feint attack at the beginning was defeated by a very well-configured defense force. At ten o'clock in the morning, the Anglo-Prussian allied forces observed that the French forces on the high ground had further strengthened. They believed that the feint attack had had an effect, and they began to launch a large-scale attack on the two wings according to the plan.

In order to cut off the connection between the high ground and other positions before the French reacted, the British-Prussian allied forces adopted a continuous wave attack regardless of casualties.

Encouraged by the supervisory team, the British-Prussian coalition forces finally joined forces from the left and right flanks before sunset, successfully cutting off the connection between the highlands and other areas. Now the remaining thing is how to seize the high ground. Once this high ground is taken and the British cannons are dragged up, most of the battlefield will be covered by British artillery fire. The gates of Verdun were opened. And considering the blow to the morale of the French army by the fall of such an important position, it is estimated that the following battles will become easier.

In the evening of the same day, the Anglo-Prussian allied forces sent envoys to the French army still standing on the high ground to persuade the French army to surrender. After all, if you want to fight hard, even if you fight hard under the conditions that you have already taken advantage of now, without paying thousands of casualties, you may still not be able to win this high ground.

In the letter brought by the military envoy, the Duke of Brunswick expressed his admiration for the heroic fighting of the French army. At the same time, he advised the French defenders that they had done everything they could and were worthy of France. So surrender is not something humiliating.

He also assured the French defenders on the high ground that if they surrendered, he would ensure that their lives, property, and dignity would not be violated in any way. In order to guarantee their dignity, he did not even intend to ask the French army to surrender their weapons, banners and command swords. All they have to do is surrender their positions.

However, the commander guarding the high ground—Captain Firma responded to the Duke of Brunswick's persuasion to surrender with one word. The word is: "Bah!"