An envoy sent by Napoleon sent a letter to Suvorov. In this letter, Napoleon first praised the Russian army for its fearlessness in battle, and then pointed out: "There is really no problem between Russia and France that must be solved by war. It is an incomprehensible tragedy that the young people of two countries have been unnecessarily bled for the sake of some minor technical problems that could have been resolved through negotiations. ”

Napoleon proposed to Marshal Suvonov that an armistice be reached between the two sides first, and that the slightest "minor misunderstanding" or "minor problem" between France and Russia could be left to a later date and resolved through negotiation between the two governments.

Napoleon also proposed to Suvorov that the two sides choose a location to negotiate matters related to the armistice.

After sending off the French envoys, Suvorov gathered the Russian generals. He first showed his generals the letter sent by Napoleon for everyone to see. After everyone had read it and had talked about it one after another, Suvorov asked: "What do you think of this letter?" ”

"Archduke Johann of Austria has been declaring these days that the French have suffered a major setback in the north, and that Napoleon's army will soon receive orders to withdraw—and it seems entirely possible that what the Austrians say is true."

"But if you want me to say, the French are not bad. Is it really possible to give us a piece of land in Italy? Even if we fought desperately with the French and took advantage of their retreat to snatch Italy over, it would not be cheaper than the Austrians. What do we get? I think it would be better to talk to the French about the conditions, for example, that we can get some technology from the French – I think the French might be better in science and technology than the British. ”

"I agree with Antonov's later statement, I think the French are more advanced in science and technology than the British, at least in terms of army-related technology, the French are definitely the first in the world."

"If you want me to say, we should send people to France to study systematically. To ......"

"Actually, if you want me to say, there is no need for us to fight any war with France, on the contrary, we should form an alliance, so that the east is ours and the west is theirs, how good is that!"

"You think well, but the French and the Turks have always been in the same group."

"Why should the French be in league with the Turks? Isn't it just to deal with the Austrians? We are much stronger than Turkey, and to suppress the Austrians, the French can completely ......"

Everyone talked about it, and although everyone said different things, one thing was the same, and that was that everyone didn't really want to go to war with the French, at least not with the French in distant Italy.

Suvorov listened quietly from the side, knowing that this attitude was not only the attitude of these generals, but to a large extent, it was also the attitude of the vast majority of soldiers. They didn't want to continue fighting with the French.

Theoretically, if the French retreated, they might be able to win a big victory. But looking at everyone's morale and thinking about the combat effectiveness shown by the Russian army, Suvorov felt that even in the field, most of today's Russian troops could not defeat the French army. It would also seem really good if we could use the negotiations to get some good stuff from the French back.

As for Austria, Marshal Suvorov felt that the blood shed by the Russians was already very worthy of the Austrians. If the Austrians were not satisfied with the armistice, they could go and fight the French themselves. Well, we can support them spiritually.

With this understanding, the negotiations between the two sides have become quite smooth. Napoleon and Suvorov met in a certain estate, they exchanged gifts and agreed on the temporary suspension of hostilities between the parties.

Then Napoleon left a part of the army behind the palace and led his army north to fight the British.

Finding that the main force of the French army was retreating north, Archduke John found Suvorov and said that this was a good opportunity to chase after him, maybe he could take advantage of the main force of the French army to retreat north and take Italy back.

Regarding this request, Marshal Suvorov said: The French are very cunning, and if they rush to chase after them, they are likely to fall into the trap of the French, so they must be cautious in pursuing something. In addition, the Russian army had suffered heavy losses before, and now it is also unable to pursue.

What made Archduke John even more speechless was that Marshal Suvorov's attitude, at least the attitude of "the pursuit must be cautious", actually received general support on the Austrian side. The Austrian generals also said that the French were very cunning, and that it was better for us to respond to all changes without changing.

As a result, the main force of the French army swaggered north under the "cautiousness" of the Russian army and the Austrians' "responding to all changes with the same". And even though they had received very reliable information that the main force of the French army had already moved north, and there were only less than 10,000 French troops in front of them and 40,000 troops of the Northern Italian Federation assembled to "defend the free Northern Italian Federation", the Russians still looked "cautious and cautious".

The Russians, of course, were cautious, but the Austrians were active. They felt that although it was dangerous to fight the French themselves, even if it was the French Royal Highness troops, they were still confident in fighting the Italians. Italians, who hasn't seen them?

So the Austrians went up to the position they thought were guarded by the Italians, and they played the GG. The defeated Austrians said to the Russians: "We are met by French people dressed in Italian clothes!" ”

So the Russians naturally said: "We have long said that the French are very cunning, and we must act with great caution." You don't listen, you see, you've been fooled, right? The French are so cunning. ”

"Yes, the French are so cunning!" The Austrians agreed.

Napoleon, with more than 60,000 elite French troops, crossed the Alps again and returned to France. As soon as he returned home, news came that the Anglo-Prussian forces were approaching Verdun.

The French army, which was defeated from Liège, retreated to Versailles with the loss of armor all the way, and joined forces with more than 100,000 supplementary troops in Versailles to defend Versailles. At this time, there was a strange error in the French information system.

In order to be able to transmit information quickly, the French have established a special system that uses optical signals to transmit information. Here's how the system works:

The French built towers at intervals on the main city's road to Paris, like beacons built by countries in the Far East.

But the information that this system can convey is much more complex than that of a beacon, because it uses flashes of different lengths to convey information like a telegraph. The party that sends the message turns the message into a long and short flash, and then sends it out at a fixed time, and the tower on that side sees it, records the flash, and then sends it to the next station repeatedly, so that the more complex information can be transmitted to a distant place relatively quickly.

In Alexandre Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo, Edmond Dantès bribed a signalman to deliberately send false information through the system, which led to an economic turmoil and used it to bankrupt his enemy Tangral.

Almost as in China, a certain signalman, bribed by the royal party, changed the message "General Bonaparte has won a major victory in Italy and has led the army north and returned to France" to "General Napoleon suffered a major defeat in Italy, and Marshal Suvorov led a large army across the Alps to attack France".

The news sent the Directory members in Paris into a mess. Some of the guys even got into the wagon and prepared to flee immediately. Several high-ranking officials who fled were recognized by inspectors on the road, and then pulled back by the angry crowd.

This exodus almost completely bankrupted the prestige of the Directory. Had it not been for the new, corrected news that followed, the people of Paris would have almost revolted.

The newspaper Scientific Pravda issued a special issue with the news that General Bonaparte had won a decisive victory in Italy and had returned to France with his army, and that he was on his way to the north. The shouts of "Long live General Bonaparte" rang out everywhere in Paris.

But just as the people of Paris were rejoicing at the good news, Joseph was urgently summoned by Carnot.

"Lazar, what's going on?" As soon as Joseph saw Kano's face, he knew that something terrible must have happened.

"Joseph, there's one thing I have to leave to you." Kano said.

"What's the matter?" Joseph asked.

"Rubert is injured again, and is still unconscious...... Cano replied.

It turned out that not long ago, in a small tentative battle near Verdun, the commander General Rubert, who always liked to run to the front, was wounded by a bullet and could no longer command the army to fight. His deputy, General Moreau, was still on the Cato front, and because of the hostility and distance in the area, he could not make it to Verdun to replace Joubert. So the French army at Verdun was temporarily left without a commander.

"Hell yes!" Joseph said, "Lazar, what are you going to do?" ”

"Now I can only let you go and replace Rubert first, and temporarily serve as the commander-in-chief of the French army in Verdun." "Now, I don't have a better fit here than you." ”

"What?" Joseph was taken aback, "Me? What the hell...... I've never commanded an army to fight! ”

"No, Joseph, you commanded. You have commanded the Red Army, and you have lectured our other generals many times during the exercises. Besides, we don't have any guys with the rank of general here. If Berthier had been here, maybe I could have let him go up and top it, but now, it's just you. ”

"I've actually been out of command of the army for a long time."

"But there are still legends about you in the army. And over the years, in fact, you have led the technological and tactical changes in the military. ”

"But you say I'm a technician, why ......?"

"Don't be, if there's someone more suitable, I don't want you to go. But, no one, including me, is better suited to this position than you. Okay Joseph, don't be modest, the Ministry of War has decided, and this commander-in-chief will let you be the ......"