At the same time as the news of defeat was constantly coming from the north, in the south, on the Italian battlefield, Napoleon began to meet the challenge of the Austrians and Russians.

Unlike Napoleon's attack on Italy, and from Italy on Austria, it was necessary to cross the Alps, because of the combined fleet of Great Britain and Austria, the combined forces of Austria and Russia could land directly in Italy from the sea.

In March 1798, Russian-Austrian troops landed in the Ravenna region. Napoleon, having received news of the landing of the Russian-Austrian army, ordered to abandon Ravenna, which was inconvenient to defend, and shrink his forces to the north. After completing the landing, the Russian-Austrian army rested at Ravenna for a while, and then also marched north, aiming directly at Modena.

In the original history, Suvonov beat almost all the French generals except Napoleon in Italy, and snatched back all the territories Napoleon had obtained in Italy in one go. If it weren't for the Austrians and the British, he might have been killed in France.

However, in this time and space, Napoleon did not run away to Egypt to die, so Suvonov finally met Napoleon in Moderna.

Suvonov did not immediately attack, he set up camp and prepared the defense, and then personally led a group of cavalry to reconnoiter in front of the French position.

Suvonov had not fought with the French army after the revolution, but the old marshal was very attentive to the previous battles. As early as the time of the First Anti-French Alliance, while destroying the Polish army, he kept his eyes open and followed the war in France and learned about the performance of the French army and other armies in the war.

Later, when Napoleon crossed the Alps and swept through Italy, he immediately sent people to Italy and Austria to learn in detail about the whole situation from those who had participated in the relevant battles. For the French army, the old marshal had this to say:

"There is one of the most important characteristics of the French army that has not attracted everyone's attention, so what is this characteristic? This feature is not high morale, advanced weapons - these characteristics are noticed by others. This characteristic is that the tactics of the French army have changed a lot. Every once in a while, there was a new change in the way the French army was fighting. General Napoleon, in particular, led a revolution in the tactical approach almost every time. It would be very dangerous if our expectations of the French army were still in the impression of the last war, and if we thought that we would only be able to deal with the French army last time. ”

Even though the British and Prussians had won quite a few victories over the French on the Northern Front in the past few months, and the French had not been able to show any new tactics in this series of battles, the old marshal did not change his opinion. He said to others: "The British and the Prussians are not against Napoleon. ”

The old marshal came to a small mound not far from the French position and looked out at the French defensive position.

"Peter, look at the defense on the other side, what do you think?" The old marshal put down the telescope in his hand and asked a young general who was also riding a horse and following him.

"Very special," the young general added, after a moment's thought, "very vicious." ”

"Tell me about it?" The old marshal asked, his tone full of the smell of the school.

The young general obviously understood this, so he did not answer immediately, but raised his binoculars and looked around for a moment before saying:

"Marshal, you see, the enemy must have dug a trench in the ground, and the excavated earth was piled up in front of the trench, forming a breastwork. This was a good cover for firing, and considering that the new rifle had a range of almost five hundred yards when firing a salvo, the average infantry would have to take at least three or five rounds of salvo fire in the process, and because the enemy target was small, even if it was approached within a hundred yards, it was not always possible to shoot the target accurately. So such a defense is really troublesome.

In addition, the movement of the enemy's troops in the trenches, which we basically cannot see, is also conducive to the enemy's mobilization of forces and launching a counterattack.

In addition, hiding in such a trench, our artillery will be able to inflict much less damage on them. In terms of anti-artillery point of view, it is even better than a fortress. And it must be much easier for the French to build such a position than to build a fortress, even one of the kind of Archduke Karl. As for the effect, I don't think it's at all worse than a bastion before rushing up for a bayonet battle.

However, it is not easy to rush to the distance of the bayonet battle. We know that the French gave those Poles something called mines. I don't believe that there is no front in front of the French position. And, the other day, I heard the British mention that the French had provided the Irish with a mine capable of firing shotguns, which was said to be more insidious and vicious, and that a single detonation was like a heavy artillery shot at point-blank range with a shotgun. I believe that there is no shortage of such things in their positions either. If our infantry, or cavalry, falls into a trap made of such a thing, I am afraid that the results will be very unpromising.

Also, Your Excellency, did you notice those rope nets in front of the French positions? As an obstacle, it may be easy to destroy, but in any case, it will retard our troops a little, which will give them more opportunities to shoot. Also, where are their cannons, I don't see at all. But they can't even have artillery. I've heard you mention that from the very beginning, Napoleon's generals were known for their ability to use artillery. ”

"It's good that you can observe so many things, Peter, that I don't have anything to add for the time being." Marshal Suvorov smiled, "Then Peter, do you have any plans for an attack?" ”

"Not yet." The young general replied, "I think we had better force the French to leave their heavily fortified positions and fight us in the field, or else it would be a tingling to attack such a position directly." It would be nice if we could threaten the French from the rear, force them to retreat to avoid being surrounded, as the British played in Most, and then crush them in pursuit. ”

Suvorov smiled and was about to speak, when he suddenly heard Semyon, the captain of the guard beside him, say: "Marshal, the French cavalry is coming." Suvorov looked over there and saw a line of French cavalry approaching.

"People don't welcome us, so let's go, don't make people annoying here anymore." Suvorov laughed, and took the lead in turning the horse's head and descending the small mound.

Back in the barracks, Suvorov first instructed his staff officers to compile the information obtained, and then summoned all the generals of the Russian-Austrian army to a meeting.

There were some disputes between Russia and Austria over who should be the commander-in-chief of the coalition forces. The Russians, of course, wanted Marshal Suvorov to be the commander of the coalition forces; As for the Austrians, naturally, they wanted Archduke Karl to be the commander of the coalition forces.

The final result of the dispute between the two sides was that Suvorov was the commander of the Russian-Austrian forces, and the deputy commander was the Austrian Archduke Johann, that is, the younger brother of the Archduke Karl. As for the Austrian Archduke Karl, who was recognized as the strongest commander, His Majesty the Emperor felt that the northern part seemed to have a advantage to be taken advantage of, so he asked Archduke Karl to take the army in the direction of the Rhine to see if he could take the opportunity to take back the Rhine region. As for Italy, the Russians and Italy do not share a border, and in terms of the sea power of the Russians, it will not be able to keep Italy even if it has conquered it, and in the end Italy will not have to be Austrian?

Archduke John was very prestigious in Austria and was very popular with all classes of the people, but when it came to fighting, he was far inferior to his brother Karl. In addition, the number of troops he brought was not as good as that of the Russian army, so he, the deputy commander, had almost no say in front of Marshal Suvorov.

When everyone was in place, Suvorov asked the staff officers to unfold the sketch of the French defensive positions that had just been drawn.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is a sketch that we have just drawn based on all the information we have obtained. The real situation may be different from the picture. I think everybody understands that. Now, let's talk about how to ......"

In the course of some discussions, the generals made a number of different proposals. Some people felt that they could make a posture that bypassed the French defense line and approached Milan to lure the French army out of the defensive position. Then crush the French army in a field battle.

But this proposal immediately drew a rebuttal - if the French army just didn't come out, would you really dare to go to Milan? Once Milan cannot be taken in a short time, the French army here will in turn cut off the supply lines of the coalition army, and what will the coalition army do at that time?

"Supply, I suppose, can't we use the port of Genoa?" A Russian officer suddenly spoke.

"Genoa is a neutral country. Our ships do have access to Genoa, but Genoa's ports are not ours, and the supply capacity it can provide us with is quite limited. Archduke John said, "We can't just take a neutral country militarily, can we?" ”

So the plan was shot. Of course, the main reason is not that "it is not possible to directly occupy a neutral country militarily", but that Genoa's military strength is actually good, and it cannot be taken in a short time.

Since it is not feasible to bypass, you can only attack and give it a try.

So everyone around the map carefully studied what might be the weakness of the defense, and after some research, the final conclusion was: it is not practical to fight, just relying on such a map drawn in a short period of time, there is really not much to see.

So in the end, the old marshal personally made the decision, prepared today, and launched a tentative attack tomorrow.