After hearing the news that the Archduke Karl had sent an envoy, Napoleon said to Brigadier General Soul, who was with him: "General Sirte, what do you think the Austrian envoy is here for?" ”

"Presumably to reach a peace deal." Soult thought for a moment and replied.

"Go on." Napoleon said. The experience of dealing with Soirte these days has made him quite satisfied with this new subordinate. He felt that this new subordinate had a solid tactical foundation and a good brain, so he also took this opportunity to test him.

"Your Excellency, we will surely be able to defeat the Austrians, and I am sure that Archduke Karl must understand this. But he certainly understands how precious time is to us these days. He definitely wanted to use this time to bargain with us. ”

"So what do you think we should do?" Napoleon asked.

"Your Excellency, it depends on what conditions they propose. Isn't it? Soult replied.

"Good." Napoleon nodded, "You bring that messenger over and show him the cannons we have captured." ”

In Verdun, when the Anglo-Prussian army fled into the barracks, they left behind a large number of artillery, especially the British army, and even more abandoned a lot of large and thick naval guns. Although it was a matter of discipline that the firing doors should be nailed when these cannons were discarded, (so that the cannons could not be used without major repairs), because the number of cannons was too large, the workload was too large, and the working hours were not long enough, almost half of the captured artillery guns were not nailed to the firing doors.

Because it has not rained these days, coupled with the fact that Napoleon now has a lot of German mercenary labor, and a lot of horses have been captured (almost all the horses of the British artillery have been captured, and under the premise that about half of the cannons are useless, these horses even have a surplus), so these cannons can barely keep up with the speed of Napoleon's march. However, under the premise of today's shortage of ammunition, the existence of these cannons, in a sense, has further exacerbated the logistical tension.

However, these cannons were very good for scaring people, and the Austrians must not have known that Napoleon had limited ammunition in his hands. (Of course, before the technology of synthetic ammonia, there were few countries that did not lack gunpowder)

Soult went to Napoleon with an envoy from Archduke Karl.

Although the Austrian envoy had been left there to cool for a long time, he did not look anxious at all. After meeting Sirte, he still seemed polite and calm. This made Sirter have a bit of a liking for him.

Soult told him: "Your Excellency General Bonaparte is not here. But I have been commanded to take you to him. We're sorry, but we don't have a suitable carriage here, so you'll have to ride with us to the General's side. ”

"That's not a problem, when can we go?" The young Austrian envoy said.

"Right now, sir, you know, we don't have any time to waste." Soult replied.

The messenger mounted his horse with Soul, and left the small French-held village with a troop of cavalry, and marched along the road towards another village under French control.

This section of the road was not easy to walk, because the road was full of French troops, and the roads were clogged with men, horses, and vehicles. At one intersection, they were stopped by an artillery squad that was passing through the intersection. The artillery team is passing through the junction, and the team of heavy artillery is dragging it, because of the huge inertia of the artillery, it is easy not to stop, and it is not even easy to slow down. Otherwise, it can easily lead to all kinds of troubles and even accidents.

In particular, this artillery corps was armed with 24-pounder guns of the naval type of the captured British. The army would not have been equipped with such heavy artillery, and even if it was, it would generally only be used as a fortress gun. The artillery used by the army in field warfare generally did not exceed 8 pounds in this era, and they were all relatively lighter bronze cannons. But these cannons were all heavy iron cannons, each of which was pulled by sixteen horses, and the thick and long blue-black barrels pointed obliquely to the sky, and there were too many gun carriages to count.

Soult took his horse and waited with the cavalry for the artillery to pass by, and the Austrian envoy looked at the artillery while Soule observed the messenger's performance. Sadly, he didn't see much change in the emissary's face.

Along the way, Soult was carefully observing the messenger, judging from his movements in controlling the horses, and his slender and white hands, this man should not have much experience in the army, and perhaps because of this, he did not understand what it meant to be able to drag so many heavy cannons here in such a short time.

The two men waited for a long time on their horses before the artillery team slowly crossed the intersection. Soult walked a little further with the messenger to another village.

There was a decent manor house in the village, probably the property of a nobleman. However, it has now been requisitioned by the French army and has become Napoleon's temporary headquarters.

Napoleon received the young messenger in the small living room of the estate. The envoy introduced himself to Napoleon. His name was Clemens Wentzel von Metternich.

Little did Napoleon know that the young man standing in front of him would in history become the prime minister of Austria, the creator of the Metternich system that influenced Europe for decades, and the mogul of women's clothing.

Napoleon invited Metternich to sit down, and then asked slowly, "I heard that you are the messenger of the Archduke Karl." Our two countries are now at war, and I wonder what Archduke Karl has sent you for at this time. ”

"For the peace of Europe, of course." Metternich returned to the Tao.

"Peace in Europe? Isn't peace in Europe your country? Napoleon said in a mocking tone, "Last time we agreed with your country on the question of peace, but not long ago it was your country that took the lead in tearing up the peace agreement and starting a war. Now, your country has come to call for peace again? ”

In the face of Napoleon's accusations, Metternich was not flustered, he smiled and said: "General Bonaparte, I don't think the point is that the question of whose responsibility was for the destruction of the peace last time. Because each country will have a different view on this from its own standpoint. If we need to have a discussion on this issue, we can do it until the end of the world. But this debate doesn't really make sense for today's issues, right? ”

"Okay then." Napoleon said, "I don't want to waste time on such boring things." First of all, I would like to know, you seem to be just an emissary to Archduke Karl. Do you think that your status, in the negotiations between us, can discuss the issue of peace between countries? ”

Metternich smiled and nodded, "His Majesty the Emperor of our country has always been a benevolent king who loves peace, so when the war first broke out, he considered that the dispute between us and France must be resolved peacefully through negotiation in the final analysis......"

"It's just that the place of negotiation that your emperor wants is in Paris, isn't it?" Napoleon couldn't help but sarcastically.

"It doesn't matter, Your Excellency." "With this in mind," said Metternich, "at the beginning of the war, His Majesty the Emperor gave His Royal Highness the Archduke a mandate to negotiate peace with France. I have brought here a power of attorney from His Majesty the Emperor of our country, which can prove my negotiating qualifications. ”

As he spoke, Metternich picked up the briefcase that was next to him. The briefcase had been inspected by Napoleon's guards before that, in case he might have carried various gadgets in the briefcase to act as an assassin. Although such things were rare, Joseph was always worried, so the guards around Napoleon were specially trained by Joseph's organization.

Metternich opened the briefcase, took out a document and handed it to Napoleon. Napoleon glanced at it, and it was indeed a legally valid power of attorney. It seems that before starting the war, the Austrian emperor really had already made a plan to preemptively sue for peace if the situation was not right. Unlike the Russians, who negotiated the terms before, they still had to wait for nearly a month before they could wait for a formal emissary who could sign a peace agreement.

"Good." Napoleon nodded, "I don't have full authorization, though. But now that I am one of the rulers of the French Republic, I think I can decide on behalf of France the question of war and peace with your country. Now, Mr. Metternich, under what conditions do your country hope for peace? ”

"We hope that we will be able to return to the state of affairs before peace was destroyed. And this peace should also include peace between my country and the Republic of Northern Italy. Metternich said.

Napoleon laughed: "Did your country take the initiative to tear up the peace agreement, and then hope to restore peace without paying any price?" ”

"We can help you." Metternich said.

"Oh, so what can your country do to help us?" Napoleon asked.

"We can give up Luxembourg and save the most precious time for you to go west." Metternich said.

"We can take it down ourselves." At Napoleon's side, Murat spoke.

"But it will take time." Metternich responded, "General, although I have no experience of serving in the army, but when I came here, His Excellency the Grand Duke told me that your army is indeed capable of taking Luxembourg, but His Excellency feels that he can resist for at least two months. After the glorious victory of the General at Verdun, both Hanover and Prussia have become very vulnerable at this time, but if the General does not take advantage of this weakness in time, then the value of your victory at Verdun will also decrease. Your Excellency, every second of your time is precious right now. If our country can help the general save such precious time, why can't the general be more generous and merciful to our country? ”