Emperor Leopold's actions were seen by the French, at least most of them, as a sign of fear of France. So the self-confidence of the little roosters exploded. As a result, Robespierre, who opposed the war, and Lafayette, who advocated a cautious approach to war, were seen as cowards.

After voluntarily withdrawing from this parliamentary election, Robespierre's reputation was good for a while. For a man like Robespierre, who did not have much power in his own right, the loss of reputation was quite heavy. In fact, after such a loss, Robespierre had no room for change, and he could only rely on the support of the lowest level.

Lafayette suffered equally heavy losses, and as a general, much of his strength and prestige were derived from his victories. Today, however, he is widely regarded as lacking guts. This is also almost intolerable for a general. Thus Lafayette was also greatly weakened. The Paris Commune, now controlled by the republicans, took the opportunity to add infiltration into the National Guard, which was theoretically under the control of the City of Paris. Of course, this problem did not exist when the Commune was in the hands of Bayi, but now, the situation is different.

Both opponents of the war were weakened, and the pace of the war naturally accelerated.

On the other hand, Emperor Leopold was not idle. He negotiated bilaterally with Prussia in an attempt to conclude an alliance against France. The Prussians, knowing the emperor's plight, were naturally happy to take the opportunity to open their mouths, and the two sides continued to bargain. But at the same time, France's belligerent tone was getting higher and higher.

In order to suppress the adventurous impulse of France, just after the New Year, Emperor Leopold issued another declaration. Intimidating France, declaring that if France is not honest, they will be crushed. At the same time, he proposed to France that France must guarantee that the king's legitimacy was not threatened, and that France should expel those extreme republicans from parliament.

This statement, of course, had only the opposite effect, and in response, the French parliament immediately proposed the formation of three corps for the war against Austria. Naturally, the royal couple who were hungry for war would not veto such a decision. What's more, this decision also means that they can kick Lafayette, who has always hated them, out of Paris.

In Lafayette's capacity, it was natural that he would be appointed commander of the army. If a year ago he would have been the commander-in-chief of the French army, but now he has been appointed commander of only one of the three corps, with troops to the border of France and Belgium. And the most important position of commander-in-chief fell into the hands of a newcomer, Di Mourieux.

Dumourier was promoted to colonel for his service in the Seven Years' War. Later, he entered the diplomatic service and engaged in some diplomatic activities. In 1790 he joined the club of "Friends of the Constitution" and was a good friend of Mirabeau. In his correspondence with the royal family, Mirabeau also recommended him to the king, praising him for his loyalty and courage to replace Lafayette.

On the night of the split of the "Friends of the Constitution", he stood firmly in opposition to Lafayette. But he was not on Robespierre's side, and soon he became a close friend of Brissot.

So at this time, apart from Lafayette, Di Mourier can get support from almost every side. At this time, it almost suddenly became a pivotal role in the entire French political arena.

Seeing that the French were coming, Emperor Leopold hastened to make concessions to Prussia, and the two sides concluded an alliance for the common protection of the Rhine region, according to which each country would send 50,000 troops to resist possible French aggression.

But Emperor Leopold still did not want to go to war with France, because the risk of war was too great. So he was still trying to solve the problem through diplomacy, and did not immediately issue a mobilization order.

It is said that the emperor said to his close ministers: "Have the French suffered in the war against the Catholic countries? ”

However, the emperor, who had never been in good health, suddenly fell ill during such exertion, and was soon summoned by God to become the first emperor. The new emperor, François II, was already very dissatisfied with the timidity of the previous emperor. As soon as he ascended the throne, he gave the mobilization order almost immediately.

Although the mobilization order has been issued, it will take time for the army to be truly mobilized. As soon as the French received news of the Austrian mobilization, they immediately passed a resolution calling for a declaration of war on Austria.

For this resolution, the king and queen have long been looking forward to it. At this time, I naturally signed it without hesitation. Then, on March 16, Louis XVI made a speech in Parliament, formally declaring war on Austria.

At this time, Prussia had not yet had time to mobilize, and only Austria was directly facing France. In order to protect itself, Austria transferred the 50,000 troops originally used to attack France to Belgium in accordance with the agreement between him and Prussia to defend against the French attack, and remobilized a group of troops for the attack on France.

Prussia immediately protested against Austria's diversion of troops and declared that Prussia would not mobilize for war until Austria's 50,000 troops were in place. After consultations with Austria, Prussia lowered its demands and began a military mobilization on 4 May. However, by the time they are ready, it is estimated that it will be at least July. After all, the army of this era does not have the ability to "cold start", "barracks attack", and "rapid response".

On the other hand, Austria also wants Sweden to pull in. However, this time God was on the side of France again, and the assassination of the King of Sweden caused chaos in Sweden, and it no longer bothered to interfere in French affairs.

This series of events actually gave the French three months to perfect their military preparations. However, in these three months, the French did not do anything decent.

There was a particularly high shortage in the French field units, and morale was low. As for the National Guard, although there are no above two problems, it has another problem, that is, the National Guard is a militia in various places, and they are established to defend their hometowns, so they are not willing to leave their hometowns to fight.

And now France intends to launch a preemptive attack, but the National Guard is useless, and the remaining French field army, a total of more than 60,000 people, began to invade Belgium. Although the French were outnumbered by the Austrian defenders, the French army was disorganized and hoped that the Belgians would take the opportunity to launch an uprising against feudalism. And what about those revolutionaries in Belgium? They hoped to rely on the French army to defeat the Austrians before launching an uprising.

Everyone was counting on each other, and the result was naturally tragic. On April 29, the French and Austrian troops met, and as soon as the two sides came into contact, the French discovered that the Belgians, who had been scheduled to meet them, did not know where to go. The French army noticed that the Austrian defense was strong and thought that the attack was hopeless, so the commander ordered a retreat, but because of the confusion in command, the retreat turned into a rout. The Austrians were stunned and stunned as the superior French army suddenly collapsed. The French army was in disarray, the battlefield was littered with weapons and the white fleur-de-lis banner of the Kingdom of France, and the commander Dyon died inexplicably in the rout.

When the news came, the French general Calle who was nearby immediately led his troops to retreat. As soon as Kalle retreated, Lafayette's flank was exposed. Then, Lafayette had to retreat as well.

This defeat made France lose face, and the reputation of those commanders on the front line was completely ruined. If in the past people thought of Lafayette the heroes of the North American war, now when they mention him, they will say in a dismissive tone: "Oh, the coward who has not yet had time to see the Austrians, and has come back like a rabbit with an arrow!" ”

In fact, Kalle ran ahead of Lafayette, but everyone concentrated their fire on Lafayette. Who made him more famous?

In order to save the situation, the French government began to print money on a frenzy, and staggering inflation ensued. Inflation is making life harder for the citizens of the city. (By the way, Clavière seized the opportunity to play the previous trick again, and it was successful again.) It can be seen that there is no essential difference between the level of human memory and that of fish. Of course, Joseph and Kano took the opportunity to take another free train ride. Robespierre knew his chance had come.

Robespierre, along with his friends Danton (who had been hunted down after Brissot's rise to power) and Marat, began to create public opinion, claiming that the defeat of the French army at the front was caused by the collusion of domestic saboteurs, royalists, and the enemy. and directly accused the king of being the chief leader of these people, demanded that the king be judged, and that France be turned into a republic.

Lafayette knew that the situation had reached its most dangerous time, and he decided to fight to the death. He sent an envoy to negotiate an armistice with the Austrian general Mersey, so that he could return to Paris with this army to carry out a military coup d'état, rescue the king, and save the constitutional monarchy. However, one of Mersey's orders from the Austrian emperor was to hold Lafayette in tow. He knew that the last person the king of France believed in was Lafayette. As a result, Lafayette's request for an armistice was naturally ignored.

Lafayette left his troops behind and secretly returned to Paris alone in an attempt to mobilize the National Guard in the affluent areas west of the city to stage a mutiny. However, the king objected to his approach, and without the cooperation of the court, he did not use the methods of this army. In the end, I can only go away.

Leaving Paris at about the same time as him was also Di Mourieux, who, knowing that revolution was imminent, resigned from his post as Minister of War and left Paris to take up the post of commander-in-chief of the front in the north. But before leaving, he made this request:

"I want Joseph Bonaparte, the former commander-in-chief of the Red Army, and his brother Napoleon Bonaparte to go with me to the north and serve as my staff officers."