Marshal Bolieu threw down the cannon, and naturally ran as fast as he could. Napoleon estimated the approximate distance between the two sides at this time, and the speed at which they were marching, and finally came to the conclusion that the enemy army was thousands of miles in a day, and our army could not reach it.

It is true that the French had just made a fifty-mile march on the Po River, and then another rapid march to reach the bridge, and then a rapid march to catch up with the Austrians, which was a little difficult, and even if one could hold on with the support of revolutionary ideas and Grosso (Venetian silver coins), the war horses could not withstand such a march and had to rest. And once the horses could not keep up, not only the cavalry and artillery could not keep up, but also many other necessary supplies could not keep up.

Napoleon estimated that Marshal Bolieu would definitely retreat to Milan. And in the case of losing so many cannons, with the power in his hands, he will definitely not be able to keep Milan. And judging from these previous engagements, Marshal Bolieu is not a character who has to fight hard knowing that he can't fight. So when he returned to Milan, he would rest at most and then run away. The only thing to worry about is how many florins (gold coins are common in Italy, here referred to as various gold coins) that Marshal Bolieu will take with him when he retreats.

Considering the state of his army, Napoleon, after considering it, simply let his soldiers rest in place for a day, and only marched to Milan, the capital of Lombardy, the next day.

In the afternoon of the next day, as soon as the French scouts approached Milan, representatives of the citizens of Milan appeared before them, and told Augereau, who was leading the cavalry, that the Austrians had left Milan in the early morning, that Milan was now defenseless, and that the citizens of Milan warmly welcomed the arrival of General Bonaparte.

After the unwoundt-free occupation of Milan, Napoleon's army stopped again to recuperate. Napoleon himself, for his part, addressed the Milanese in the city council of Milan, stating that he was not an aggressor like the Austrians, and that he had not come here to extort the Lombard people, as the Austrians had done, but to bring freedom and emancipation to the Lombard people.

This speech was a great relief to the Milanese, who feared looting and blackmail, but it was not long before they learned what the French meant by freedom and emancipation.

After a short rest, Napoleon's army continued to pursue the Austrians until they reached Mantua, the most important Austrian fortress in Italy. Marshal Bolieux led the remnants of more than 10,000 troops, relying on the strong fortress of Mantua, struggling to support and waiting for reinforcements. Napoleon, on the other hand, will garrison near the fortress of Mantua, ready to play around the point to send reinforcements.

At the same time, freedom and liberation were in full swing in the areas controlled by Napoleon.

In Milan, some guys supported by the French organized an organization called the "Liberty Club", and they came up with a slogan that frightened the local landowning aristocracy: like Piedmont!

These people declared that Lombardy should adopt the same measures as Piedmontese, that is, confiscate all the land of the nobles and distribute them to the peasants without compensation.

Immediately after that, in the countryside, clashes began to arise, and some heavily armed thugs attacked the estates of the nobles in the countryside. They burned the "seized title deeds", announced the distribution of these lands to local peasants. The aristocracy was horrified, they did not have enough force to protect their wealth at this time, and the French dismissed these things as "contradictions within the Italians".

This laissez-faire led to two consequences: one was that many nobles began to leave Lombardy and flee to other places, and spread the terror of the "French thugs" everywhere; Another consequence was that some nobles began to secretly liaise with the enemies of the French, such as the Austrians and the Papal States, in an attempt to rely on their power to drive out the French and restore the "holy order".

In fact, almost all of these moves were expected by Napoleon. While Napoleon prepared for the Austrians' urgent transfer of reinforcements from the Rhine line, he sent Augereau back to Milan to prepare to suppress the local nobility.

At the same time, supported by Napoleon's seizures in Italy, new weapons were being manufactured in Joseph's arsenal working overtime, twenty-four hours a day. The weapons were loaded onto clippers and disembarked in Genoa, a neutral state in Italy, where they were constantly transported to Napoleon's army. At the time of the Italian War, only the skirmishers in Napoleon's army were equipped with the new rifled guns, but by now, most of the soldiers were equipped with the latest rifled guns, and in Napoleon's hands he had an army completely ahead of his time.

On the night of April 10, 1796, Augero suddenly led his troops to break into the home of Count Leonard de Patri, a well-known local nobleman in Milan, arrested the count's family, and searched his home for a large number of letters of collaborators.

Immediately afterwards, the French began a major manhunt in the city of Milan according to the list they had collected from the Count of Patri. In this operation, on the night of April 10 alone, more than 100 people were arrested by the French army. Later, some sympathizers for these nobles called the night "Night of Terror".

Then the revolutionary tribunal, which was urgently set up, tried the case with French efficiency and speed, and then, a week later, all the more than 100 nobles were hanged on the gallows. And their property, naturally, was also confiscated. All of this confiscated wealth was distributed to the landless peasants and the urban poor. Of course, it is also said that the French also took a large number of works of art and gold and silver coins from these nobles, but did not register them.

After more than twenty days of siege of the fortress of Mantua, Marshal Beaulieux finally got the reinforcements sent to him by the Austrian Emperor. An army of forty thousand under Marshal Wirmze.

Although Marshal Beaulieux repeatedly emphasized the amazing combat effectiveness of the French army and the weapons of the leading era in his letters for help to the emperor. But these warnings were all seen by the emperor as a clumsy excuse for his own series of failures. This view of the emperor was also widely supported by some of the other generals who were at war with the French in the Rhine. For example, after reading Marshal Beaulieu's warnings that "the French army is elite in cavalry, and the wilderness is in waves, it must not be allowed" and "the French army is not satisfied with 10,000 troops, and it is invincible when it is full of 10,000", he was so angry that he almost suggested that Marshal Beaulieu should be allowed to come back for a military tribunal first. And the old marshal Wilmzer even threatened: "After Lao Tzu frees this coward, he must whip his ass out of the flower in public!" ”

Even so, the Austrians showed a certain amount of caution, and the 40,000 troops were elite, plus more than 10,000 troops surrounded in the fortress of Mantua, they had a numerical advantage even against Napoleon's entire army. Moreover, after occupying large tracts of land, Napoleon had to leave a large number of troops as an occupying force in these occupied areas to maintain order. So at this time, he can concentrate and the number of troops used for the battle will not exceed 30,000. So in terms of numbers, the Austrians have a clear advantage. This battle should still be very certain.

In the original history, Napoleon relied on the astonishing rapid marching ability of the French army, taking advantage of an innegligent division of troops by the old marshal, to break the Austrian army individually. But on this occasion, Napoleon decided that his army had overwhelmed the Austrians in absolute strength, and that there was no need to play these tricks at all, and it was enough to destroy the enemy in a hard-fought battle.

On 2 May, Napoleon's French and Austrian armies fought a general battle at Castillion, not far from the fortress of Mantua. As a result, relying on rifles with a range of three or four times that of the Austrian army and mobile and flexible skirmish tactics, Napoleon with less than 20,000 troops defeated the Austrian reinforcements led by Field Marshal Wirmzer in only half a day, Marshal Wirmzer fled from the battlefield with only his own guard of more than 100 people, and the rest of the Austrians were either killed, captured, or scattered, while the French casualties were not even 2,000.

On the morning of 3 May, Napoleon sent an envoy to deliver more than 50 Austrian military flags captured in the previous day's battle to the fortress of Mantua, which was guarded by Marshal Bolieu. Early the next morning, Marshal Beaulieu sent an envoy to Napoleon's barracks to discuss surrender.

After Napoleon's victory, he was unusually gentle towards Marshal Beaulieux, and he offered Marshal Beaulieu quite lenient. Napoleon allowed the Austrians to keep their personal belongings, and even allowed them to leave the fortress with a small number of weapons for self-defense and return to Austria along the route set by the French. In return, of course, Marshal Beaulieux's army was not allowed to damage fortified facilities, artillery, and all kinds of materials that had been accumulated.

Davout privately objected to Napoleon's leniency, believing that Napoleon's move was a bit of a reluctance.

"After all, this is more than 10,000 trained troops, and letting them go back will strengthen Austria's power."

But Napoleon replied disapprehantly: "They have been frightened by our army, and if they let them go back, they will only blow us like gods and blow us badly to the morale of the Austrians." That's not a bad thing for us. ”

Napoleon's generous conditions naturally overjoyed the Austrian defenders in the fortress of Mantua. They immediately agreed to Napoleon's terms, surrendered to the French and surrendered the fortress.