The position where Augereau arrived was a little far from Napoleon's main forces, and the amount of grain they collected was rather limited. Ogereau knew he had to act quickly enough to prevent more nobles from burning the grain in the granary. Therefore, he immediately divided his cavalry into teams of fifty men, and under the guidance of his guide, pounced on several surrounding estates.

However, most of these estates had seen the smoke rise from the area, and some of them had begun to burn their granaries, in which several Austrian soldiers were stationed, whose task was not to protect the estates, but to oversee the managers of the estates, burning them in the event of the danger of approaching French troops.

But not all Austrian soldiers were loyal to their guards, and many of them, as soon as they saw the smoke, shouted to the guards of the manor: "Go and burn the granary!" Then he got on his horse and ran. As soon as they run away, who else can afford to burn the granary with those who are left of the manor? Those who have a closer relationship with the nobles who have already run into the city hurriedly follow those soldiers, and of course the matter of burning the granary is handed over to the people below.

But the people above all ran away, and the people below saw the grain in the granary, and their first reaction was: before burning, move a little to their own homes. After moving a little, they understand more - what to burn? What are the benefits of burning? So, naturally, it was not burned.

In this way, Ogero quickly got a lot of food. He sent back to Napoleon to suggest that it would be disadvantageous for the army to be too far away from the area where it would be convenient to collect grain. It would be better to move the army over, first control the nearby countryside, get enough supplies, and leave Austria with enough trouble, even as if it was going to Italianize Austria. Look at the reaction of the Austrians.

Napoleon gathered the rest of his generals for a meeting to discuss the opinion of Augereau. In closing, Napoleon noted with great foresight:

"Austria actually has a huge weakness, that is, it has too many nationalities, too many languages, and it is full of all kinds of contradictions, and even when there is nothing to do, it often has all kinds of rebellions within it - it is completely a forcibly pinched country, and there is no real centripetal force. Their army is the most important and almost the only means of maintaining the country. So as long as we prove to the Austrian people the cowardice of this army, the foundations of the country will be constantly shaken. ”

"How can we prove the weakness of the Austrian army?" Napoleon continued, "Attacking those bastions directly will only expose our weaknesses, but we must mobilize them and let them come out to fight us in the field." From now on, forget about Vienna for a moment, and let us first go to the Austrian countryside and mobilize and arm the peasants there.

As long as the Austrians still have a little bit of political acumen, they will understand that they cannot let us do this, and I reckon that there will be a series of small cavalry and infantry battles thereafter. This will allow us to deal a continuous blow to the Austrians in such battles. The Austrians could not help but give in to us. ”

Napoleon's speech was generally supported by the generals, and the French troops began to leave the camp early the next morning. Archduke Karl immediately put all his soldiers into a state of readiness to resist the French attack.

But the French did not launch any offensive operations, leaving the avenue to Vienna and turning directly to the north.

"Grand Duke, do you want to let the cavalry chase after you?" An officer named Fritz asked.

"Let the cavalry follow, but don't attack the enemy lightly." Grand Duke Karl replied, "Well, you take a thousand hussars and follow them." ”

So Fritz followed with a thousand hussars.

Napoleon, of course, also noticed the thousand Austrian cavalry, and he said to Murat, who was next to him: "I will give you two hundred cavalry, can you drive them back?" ”

Murat looked at the Austrian cavalry, pouted, and said, "No problem. ”

With that, Murat took two hundred cavalry and went to the rear.

Murat stopped at a small high ground with two hundred cavalry. The Austrian cavalry approached. Karl did not let Fritz take the initiative to attack the French army, to be honest, he relied on a thousand light cavalry to attack the French army of tens of thousands, and the Austrian army did not have such morale. But there are only two hundred French cavalry in front of him, so what is there to be afraid of? Besides, if you don't expel these cavalry first, how can you continue to follow the French brigade?

Fritz observed the French cavalry, a group of light cavalry like them, armed with sabers, pistols, and so on. He remembered that the cavalrymen who had been defeated in previous battles had mentioned that the French could fire their pistols in bursts, without reloading at all, and could fight until the end of the world.

Fritz, of course, did not believe such a fancy statement, and he felt that the so-called repeating pistol should be a double-barreled or even three-barreled pistol made by the French. This makes it possible to fire two or three shots in a row. It's just that such a pistol is too bulky and may not be easy to use. Besides, now that there are 1,000 people on his side and a maximum of 200 people, if he still doesn't dare to fight, then how will he fight in the future?

Thinking so, Fritz aggrieved with his cavalry. Out of prudence, Fritz sent all a thousand men on board, instead of splitting his forces in half, half to attack the two hundred cavalry, and half to continue to follow the main French army. Anyway, the main force of the French army is infantry, and it is only a moment of time, and it will not be able to go far.

Seeing the Austrian cavalry rushing towards him with sabers in hand, Murat did not show weakness and led his cavalry to rush over. However, unlike the Austrian light cavalry, who held a saber in their right hand and a pistol in their left hand, Murat's cavalry held a revolver in each hand.

There is still a slight difference between the revolver used by the cavalry and the civilian version. First of all, they are a little larger, not only with a longer barrel, but also with a longer nest, and they are rifled. Anyway, the revolver is also a one-time reload on the battlefield, and with Mini rounds, it is not more troublesome to reload.

A longer nest holds more propellant, while a longer rifled barrel with more propellant ensures a higher muzzle velocity and better trajectory. Compared with the single-shot, unrifled pistol in the hands of the Austrian cavalry, (this kind of pistol is not very sure of the hit rate when the two sides are only a few steps apart in a gladiatorial fight, and it can only bluff people in cavalry combat) The revolver of the French cavalry is already a real killing weapon.

The hussars were relatively loose in formation when hedging, which allowed each rider to control their horses more freely. Murat rushed to the front, and opposite him, an Austrian swooped down on him with a saber brandish. Murat pointed his revolver at the Austrian cavalryman and fired two shots when the two sides were only about three meters away.

This practice has been proven to be the most efficient tactic after many exercises on the exercise ground, but it is not recommended in the cavalry manual. This distance, both out of reach of the enemy's sabre, and at the relatively accurate firing range of the revolver. And firing two shots in a row can also effectively improve the efficiency of killing. But it won't be easy to do that, and he has to have a very good judgment of the speed and distance of both sides. If you are not careful, you will make a mistake in judgment, and you will be unlucky.

Therefore, in the cavalry manual, it is recommended that when hedging, you can shoot at a distance of fifteen meters, and the first two shots will hit the horse, and then hit the person when the distance is closer. Anyway, there are more bullets, so it's safer.

The Austrian cavalryman was struck by Murat and fell headlong from his horse. But Murat had no time to pay any more attention to him, and another Austrian cavalry pounced on him. Murat calmly judged the distance between the two sides, and the moment the other man raised his saber in the air, he fired two shots at the Austrian.

The cavalry of both sides rushed past. Fritz reined in his horse and turned around, he found that at least a hundred corpses of more than a hundred people had fallen on the battlefield just now, as well as a considerable number of corpses of war horses, but looking at the opposite side, it seemed that there were still two hundred people.

This is, of course, an illusion, that the French cavalry was not without losses, but in terms of the number of losses, it was definitely much more than the Austrians. And just now he really saw that the guns in the hands of the French were really shooting non-stop.

"It feels like we're holding a saber and hedging against a lancer with a spear. And it's the kind that has a spear in your hand at any time, and you don't need to pull it out if you stab a person! "For the first time, Fritz felt that the French cavalry was really terrifying.

Murat organized his team and took the initiative to rush towards Fritz and them. Fritz had hesitated so much that he had lost the chance to slip away, and at this time he had to hedge against the French again.

In a barrage of gunfire, Murat and his cavalry again staggered with the Austrians' cavalry. Many bodies were left in the staggered places between the two sides. This time, Fritz did not stay to check the results, but simply turned around and ran back. Murat followed him from behind with his cavalry......

Everyone is a light cavalry, no one is much faster than the other, and Fritz fled directly and did not need to turn a corner, but Murat had to turn around and chase after him, so he could not catch up with Fritz at all. But Murat was still in hot pursuit, and his aim was not really to catch up and destroy the Austrian cavalry - this could not be done, and Murat knew it well. His purpose was actually very simple: to use the much smaller cavalry in his hands to chase the more numerous Austrian cavalry all the way to the vicinity of their fortress, so that the Austrians who were watching the battle would have a correct understanding of their own strength.