Late June 1800, Marengo, northern Italy.
"Ah tired! Ah tired! Ah tired. Beautiful, what a dog!"
In the San Guiliano area east of the Marengo battlefield, French shouts like a mountain roar and a tsunami suddenly sounded. Translated into Chinese, it probably means "Charge! Charge! Forward!".
Following this wave of earth-shaking cheers, nearly 10,000 French infantry and cavalry suddenly rushed out from behind a hill. Like a tide, they marched towards the front, playing military music, holding military flags, and lining up. The ancient rows and columns, the Austrian army that was slowly advancing happily launched a fierce charge!
Before the French army suddenly launched a large counterattack, the Austrian army seemed to be winning this crucial battle - in fact, they had just caught Napoleon off guard. Napoleon mistakenly thought that they were about to retreat and divided his troops to cover it. When they were trapped, they concentrated all their forces to attack the troops led by Napoleon himself.
Because the Austrian army had a greater numerical advantage and occupied a more favorable terrain, they launched a fierce attack at the beginning of the day's battle and easily gained the upper hand. In the following hours, the Austrian army continued to attack Being at an advantage, Napoleon's army was pushed back step by step, and even the village of Marengo, where the French army's main position was located, was captured by the Austrian army.
If the terrain around the village of Marengo was not relatively complex, with villages, farmhouses, vineyards, and hills dotted all over, which was very conducive to the French army's constant resistance, Napoleon's legend might have ended here.
However, even though the terrain around the village of Marengo was very favorable to the defenders, Napoleon's army was still on the verge of collapse when it persisted until around 5 p.m., and was forced back step by step by the Austrian army, and even suffered rout in many places. Case. So much so that the commander-in-chief of the Austrian army felt that victory had been achieved, so he handed over the command to the chief of staff and went back to the camp to "open champagne at half time" to celebrate the victory.
And just when the Austrians were about to win and Napoleon was about to be defeated, Kangxi, who was working as an adjutant beside Napoleon, was ready to abandon Napoleon and take Natasha with him to escape if necessary. The goddess of victory once again favored the future French emperor. The troops that had been sent out by Napoleon to outflank the enemy rushed to the battlefield - this kind of thing actually happened a lot in Napoleon's military career. This great military emperor liked to use military strength. He divided his troops when he did not have an advantage, so on several occasions he was forced to fight decisive battles with the enemy's main force with part of his troops, which was full of dangers.
In history, the last time he did this was at Waterloo. However, Marengo was not Waterloo, so Napoleon got the reinforcements he desperately needed before the defeat was imminent, and ambushed them behind a hill, and then ordered the defeated army to attack the Austrians. Lured over, and then caught the Austrians off guard.
The Austrian army, who had previously thought that victory had been achieved, was immediately stunned. They may have thought that they had fallen into the trick of the cunning Napoleon. The French's previous retreats were all fake, just to lure them into a trap! In addition, they did not receive effective command from their commander for a while (their commander was drinking champagne to celebrate the victory), so the Austrian army, which fell into panic, soon collapsed across the board!
The Austrian vanguard troops walking in front collapsed first, turned around and ran away, and the Austrian troops following behind did not know what happened? I heard French shouts getting louder and louder, and then they fled away.
The cavalry under Napoleon reacted very quickly. Seeing the chaos in the Austrian army, they immediately launched a fierce attack on the flank of the Austrian army. In the blink of an eye, they cut them into two pieces, thus plunging the Austrians into greater chaos. .
So a magical scene soon appeared in front of Kangxi's eyes. The originally well-organized Austrian army suddenly turned into a rabble. Looking from Kangxi's side, he could only see the Austrian soldiers panicking and fleeing in confusion. The troops were completely disintegrated and completely disorganized.
In this chaos, the French's "lifting breech gun" began to show its power!
The rising breech gun is somewhat similar to a mother-and-son gun. The rear section of the barrel of a mother-child gun is separated from other parts and can be taken out and replaced. The last section of the barrel of the rising breech gun is also separated from the rest of the barrel. However, it is not necessary to take it out and replace it. Instead, you can pull a wrench and lift up this section of the barrel so that one end faces upward. In this way, the gunner can load the paper-cased fixed-loading ammunition into this section of the barrel that can be lifted upward, and then turn the wrench to press down and lock this section of the barrel.
This rising breech gun has an extremely fast rate of fire, reaching eight to ten rounds per minute! Moreover, the gunner does not have to remain in a standing or half-kneeling position to facilitate loading. He can load in a lying position, and the cavalry can also easily load on horseback. Therefore, once it was launched, it was quickly adopted by various countries.
In addition, since the rising breech guns are rifled guns and use high-quality Mini bullets, and the processing accuracy is also high, the effective range generally reaches four to five hundred meters, and some can even reach 1000 meters!
Therefore, this kind of rising breech-loading gun is now absolutely dominant on the battlefield. In a battle, more than 90% of casualties are caused by this weapon. The importance of the front-loaded smoothbore cannon has been greatly reduced due to its short range and poor accuracy. Among them, the 3-pound and 6-pound light smoothbore cannons have almost withdrawn from the battlefield.
With the support of powerful lifting breech guns, this wave of French counterattacks achieved amazing results! The Austrian troops who fled in panic suffered heavy losses. Some of them were killed on the spot by the French infantry with precise marksmanship; some were cut down by the sabers of the French cavalry; and some were killed by 18 concealed troops who deployed secretly and opened fire suddenly. The pound cannon shot to pieces with blood and flesh flying everywhere! But more often than not, groups of people knelt on the ground and raised their hands in surrender.
The sudden failure of the Austrian vanguard immediately led to the retreat of the entire front. They were defeated steadily and were forced to abandon the two key villages of Marengo and Castelcelliolo they had just captured, and then rushed across the Bormida River through three pontoon bridges, scrambling for their lives.
Seeing the scene of great victory in front of him, Napoleon, who had been tensing up and relying on strict orders to prevent the army from collapsing, finally breathed a sigh of relief when his own reinforcements arrived. Kangxi, who had been preparing to escape just now, immediately sent He said a compliment: "My commander-in-chief, this is really a thrilling victory. The situation just now was so critical, it almost scared me to death!"
Napoleon smiled proudly and asked: "Didn't you serve as the adjutant of Generalissimo Suvorov? You also served as a cavalry company commander under him. Have you never encountered such a fierce battle?"
Kangxi shook his head: "No, don't say I haven't. Even Marshal Suvorov himself has probably never encountered a battle as fierce as today, right? If so, the Rakshasa army will definitely not be able to hold on!" "
Napoleon's expression became a little serious: "You are right, only French soldiers can persevere in such adversity on the battlefield. Many times, if they persevere to the end, they can win!"
"Stick to the end. What a simple truth!" Kangxi deeply agreed with Napoleon's words. He nodded and said, "But it is too difficult to do this!"
In his previous life, he tried his best and failed to defeat Li Zhongshan, but he just missed it!
He couldn't last on the battlefield! Because his Eight Banners soldiers cannot afford to suffer too high casualties. And his opponents, whether it is the Ming Dynasty or Wu Zhou, can suffer more casualties than the Eight Banners soldiers, so they can persist more.
Today, Napoleon's French army, like the Ming Dynasty's army, thinks they are fighting for a bright future for themselves and their descendants, so they are particularly able to suffer casualties. Moreover, their numbers are large (there are many French people), so they are particularly capable. Persisted.
The stronger the troops' ability to withstand losses and the more they can persevere in adversity, the less the commander will have to worry about using troops, and the easier it will be to achieve a classic victory!
Nowadays, although the Constantine Army in Eastern Rome is well-trained and well-equipped, its number is limited after all, and most of the soldiers are Rakshasa mercenaries (in Eastern Rome, of course, they have to use barbarian mercenaries) - They were originally Cossacks, Rakshasa serfs, Tatars or from Transcaucasus, but one thing is certain, their number depended on the financial resources of the Eastern Roman regency.
Without money, there would be no army. Without the army, there would be no East Roman regency. And the East Roman regency didn't seem to have much money!
Therefore, if Kangxi wanted to achieve an imperial career in this life, the key was to make money!
But where to get money?
For more than half a year after the victory in the Battle of Marengo, Kangxi has been thinking about this big problem that has troubled most of the world's mankind! While thinking about the number one problem in life, he also stayed with Napoleon Bonaparte, France's First Consul, learning military affairs from the latter, and sometimes made some very helpful suggestions to Napoleon.
For example, he suggested that Napoleon write to Emperor Paul and Crown Prince Alexander of the Rakshasa Kingdom to sell them the plan of "East and West Rome co-governing Europe" - Kangxi knew that the Rakshasa Kingdom's dream was to become Eastern Rome!
However, the Rakshasa Kingdom, which had long since recaptured Constantinople, has been reluctant to merge with the Eastern Roman Empire that they had supported, and even turned the Eastern Roman Empire into a relatively independent vassal state, just to avoid going Stimulate the Holy Roman Empire and France to prevent them from joining forces with the Ottoman Empire, which retreated to Asia Minor and occupied most of West Asia (the Ottomans received joint support from the Ming Dynasty and France after losing their territory in the Balkans) to fight against Russia.
If the French government can lead France to turn around on the issue of uniting Turkey with Russia, then Rakshasa will definitely remain neutral even if he will not turn to France.
And without the support of Rakshasa, there is no way to defeat France with the two German brothers Austria and Prussia!
For another example, Kangxi suggested that Napoleon look for "pragmatists" in the court in Vienna. Based on Kangxi's understanding of court politics, weak elements who are willing to negotiate peace with France to protect their wealth will definitely become more pragmatic in the Vienna court with Napoleon's victory. Got more and more.
If Napoleon could provide these pragmatic Austrian dignitaries with a future that could preserve their wealth, then these people would definitely try their best to promote peace and even undermine the efforts of the Austrian war faction!
As Napoleon's army approaches Vienna, the voices of the peace faction in Vienna will become louder, and Emperor Franz II will eventually have to negotiate peace with France. In this regard, Kangxi can be said to be rich in experience!
Kangxi's two suggestions were not very clever, but they were mentioned in Napoleon's heart. Kangxi, who had been emperor for more than 20 years, knew very well the advice an emperor needed most. What is it?
What the emperor needs is not correct advice, but "just what I want"!
Now Napoleon's "my intention" is to be the emperor, not to implement a republican system in Europe!
Since he wants to be emperor, he will not kill all the European monarchies. If Germany changes from the Holy Roman Empire to the German Republic, and the Rakshasa Empire becomes the Rakshasa Republic, then the power of European republicans will be strengthened. The monarchy declined. How can Napoleon still be emperor like this?
Therefore, Napoleon, Emperor Franz and Emperor Paul are no longer life-and-death enemies. It is Napoleon's "own will" to coexist with them and for everyone to become emperor together.
And in February 1801, Napoleon's efforts to force Austria to surrender and stabilize the Rakshasa Kingdom finally succeeded!
After the Army of the Rhine led by General Jean-Victor Moreau defeated Archduke John of Austria in southern Germany, General Macdonald led another French army through the Sprugen Pass in the severe winter, cutting off Austria from Italy. After the connection between the fortress of Mantua and Austria, the most important stronghold. Emperor Franz of Vienna finally gave in, signed a peace treaty with the French, accepted France's establishment of a "sister republic" in northern Italy, and withdrew from the second anti-French alliance.
The successive withdrawal of Austria and Rakshasa does not mean France's complete victory, because the British-Dutch United Kingdom and the Ming Dynasty behind it are still against Napoleon!
Kangxi, who had already established a profound fighting friendship with Napoleon and knew Napoleon's "my will", made another suggestion that Napoleon could not refuse - that he should serve as Napoleon's special envoy to go to the Ming Dynasty and contact the Ming Dynasty. The top officials of the Emperor Zun Party and the Tiandihui tried to make Ming Dynasty give up its anti-French stance.
"Xuanye, do you really have a way to make Ming change his position?" Napoleon, who had returned to the Tuleil Palace, was a little tempted after hearing Zhu Xuanye's suggestion, but he was not convinced by the ability of the young Prince of the Castle. Still a little skeptical.
"Consul," Kangxi put forward his reasons following Napoleon's "I will", "you don't have to doubt my ability, because I don't have the ability to change Ming's position. The one who can really change Ming's position is you. You have achieved great success in Europe Victories one after another will make the emperor-loving faction and republicans of the Ming Dynasty see your value, and will also make them realize that the Ming Dynasty cannot help the British-Dutch United Kingdom, Austria, and Prussia reverse the situation in Europe with a little funding. Moreover, your real idea, which is to re-establish the monarchy in France, is also in line with the interests of the Ming Dynasty emperor-honoring faction and the republican faction.
What they really oppose is not a French empire, but the whole of Europe being swept by radical republicans, and all European monarchies turning into countries like the Aztec Republic, the Inca Republic, and the United States of America."
(End of chapter)
