In order to bluff, General Dracotri declared that he had an army of up to 100,000 men under his command. He hoped to use this number to intimidate the enemy opposite him, or at least to demoralize them. However, Napoleon was not such a person who was easily frightened, on the contrary, when he heard this number and saw his subordinates change in horror one by one, Napoleon laughed.

"Commander, what are you laughing at?" A slightly bowed young officer asked.

The young officer, Louis Nicolas Davout, was a year younger than Napoleon, but by this time he was already a battalion commander by virtue of his bravery in battle. He was also one of the "stronger" mid-level commanders that Joseph and Carnot had specially equipped Napoleon.

Napoleon replied with a smile: "Davout, the Vendée is one of the poorest places in all of France. Where can you support a conquest of 100,000 troops? If Drakot really had 100,000 troops under his command, then we wouldn't have to be so nervous about preparing for battle. Everyone went back to sleep. Because before his army comes before us, they will starve to death because they have nothing to eat. ”

Although this answer did not completely relax the officers under him, the tension dissipated a lot.

"So Commander, how many rebels do you think Drattery has?" Davout asked again.

"Ah, that's a good question." Napoleon clasped his hands to his chest, held his head high, and as he paced, he replied, "If I were Dratri, I would take out twenty thousand men at most—this is already the limit of what the Vendée can bear." If it's more, then a short time might be okay, a little longer, and their logistics won't be able to hold up; Go a little further and their logistics will have problems. But as far as I can tell, that stupid hat brought 40,000 men. ”

"Forty thousand? Commander, we only have 5,000 men. And, judging by the previous battles, the combat effectiveness of the rebels was quite good. Another lieutenant, Charles Ogereau, spoke.

"Ogereau, you're right. At least in the Vendée, the rebels were fighting well. They are like volunteers on our side, and they are extremely brave when they fight in their hometown. However, if they leave their homeland, it will be a different matter. What's more, they have some weaknesses that are very obvious and difficult to overcome. ”

Speaking of this, Napoleon glanced at everyone and continued: "The level of training of the rebels is actually far inferior to ours, as can be seen from the fact that in the previous battles, most of them could only engage in ambush warfare and skirmishment warfare. And their level of equipment is also limited, they lack artillery, and even more so qualified artillery. This means that their ability to attack the fortifications is quite limited. Their logistical supplies are not good enough, so it is only a matter of time before we hold the key points and keep attacking their supply lines to defeat the rebels. ”

"What if the British support them?" Ogereo asked again.

"It was also difficult for the British to help them, because the Vendée, although close to the sea, did not have a decent port. With the small fishing ports of the Vendée that could only dock at small sampans, how many things could the British get ashore? Of course, the army can go ashore, but the more the army comes up, the less supplies will be enough. So, we'll be able to stop them here, at Angers. ”

This analysis boosted the morale of the officers. Napoleon arranged the defense again, and then the meeting was adjourned.

When the meeting was dismissed, the officers each went to their own units to prepare for a defensive battle, but Napoleon left Davout and Augereau behind.

"Davout, Ogereau, you did well today." Napoleon said with a grin. Obviously, today's conversation has already been discussed by the three of them.

"The division commander, the people of the Constitutional Friends Club, said that there was a lot of activity among the royal party elements in the city. In order to confront external enemies, it is necessary to ensure internal stability. Now that the enemy army is approaching, should we first clean up the royal party elements in the city? Davout said something else.

"This kind of thing, let the city council handle it itself, we are combat troops, don't get involved in these things." Napoleon shook his head.

Davout frowned slightly, and he thought, "If the people of the Friends of the Constitution can control the city council and solve this matter, why should they find the army?" I'm afraid that in this city of Angers, there are not many people who support the royal party behind their backs. However, with the wisdom of the division commander, he should not be unable to understand this, what is he doing this for? ”

Davout was young after all, and when he thought about it, his face changed unconsciously.

Although Napoleon was young, he was a good man, and when he saw Davout's face, he knew that Davout was suspicious, so he smiled and said, "Davout, Augereau, you come and see the map." ”

Napoleon led the two men to the map, pointed to it, and asked them: "Do you think, if you think only from a military point of view, where do you think that the greatest blow to the enemy army can be defeated?" ”

Davout and Ogero were stunned for a moment. This...... What does that mean? Didn't you say you were going to fight at Angers?

However, Davout reacted quickly, and then this sentence came out of his head: "This dwarf is really bold, and ...... Black, real TMD black! ”

Angers is still too close to Vendée, and even if the enemy is held back here, it is still possible for the enemy to retreat safely if the enemy army is well organized. If the enemy were allowed to continue north, stop them in the area of Le Mans, and defeat them, it would be almost impossible for them to return to the Vendée safely. If it is not done well, under the pursuit all the way, it is difficult to say whether there will be a few people left in the 40,000 army.

But to lure the rebels north to Le Mans, it was necessary to abandon Angers, the capital of the Loire department. This is almost politically unacceptable. Davout immediately understood Napoleon's reasons for allowing the royal party in Angers to act.

"Commander, do you want to give up Angers?" Davout, who had thought it through, asked.

Napoleon did not answer, but said to himself: "Our army is still in the city, and the royal party will not dare to make trouble easily." We'll rely on the city's defenses for a while, and then we'll run out of supplies in the city. We handed over the defense of the entire city to the National Guard, and we moved outside the city to prepare for a counterattack. At this time, maybe something will happen......

Then our army turned to Le Mans. The enemy army will also get little supply in the city, but they will get some artillery. These cannons will give them the illusion that 'we have the ability to attack the fortifications', and just taking Angers is not enough to stir up the whole situation, and they will inevitably continue to go north.

Then we can defeat them here, and then chase them all the way so that they can't run back! ”

"Division commander, the above, will the above agree to such a battle plan?" Ogereau's eyes widened.

"This plan was personally approved by General Kano, but it needs to be kept strictly secret. Besides, there are so many royal parties in Angers City, let them jump out on their own first, isn't it? In the city of Angers, there are so many guys who are full of illusions about the royal party, do you think about it, what will those logistically tight royal rebels do when they enter the city? Wouldn't it be nice to let them receive the education of the royal party and feel the love from the Bourbon family? So General Kano was very much in favor of this plan. Napoleon's eyes widened and he said a string of nonsense.

If Cano knew about Napoleon's move, he was afraid that he would have to change horses overnight and rush over, and then reason with Napoleon with his fists. Even Joseph, in fact, did not know that Napoleon would play such a move, otherwise he would have sighed: "You are no longer a staff officer, how can you be more Showa than I am still a staff officer?" ”

However, both Davout and Ogereau were only mid- and low-ranking officers, and they did not know that Napoleon was pretending to be a holy decree. On the contrary, from this arrangement, I felt the firm determination of Paris to completely solve the Vendée rebellion. At the same time, a strange sense of satisfaction and happiness called "I am relieved to see my superiors like this" suddenly filled their hearts.

A few days later, General Dracotri's army approached Angers, and fighting broke out. In the contact battle outside the city, Dracotri's rebels repelled Napoleon's defenses and pushed the battle line under the city of Angers.

Although the rebels' losses in those battles outside the city were significantly greater, General Dracotri learned that the government forces numbered only more than 5,000 and that the city's material reserves were not large enough to support it for long. So although he suffered a small loss in the battle outside the city, General Dracotri didn't care too much.

However, the siege that followed was a headache for General Dracotri. Some of the defenders were stationed in the city, and some were stationed on the hills outside the city. Both strongholds are quite strong and can support each other. The presence of these troops outside the city made it impossible for him to completely besiege the city of Angers, which meant that even if his attack was successful, the enemy would most likely be able to escape without any problems. And given the marching ability of his army, if the enemy army fled lightly, they would probably not be able to catch up with these guys.

"These rebellions are really courageless, and they haven't fought much, so they have prepared the back road to escape so well!" General Dracotri couldn't help but say this. However, he also understands that under the condition that the enemy's number exceeds his own by several times, no matter who it is, he will see the retreat point firmly.

The second headache is that the ability of his army to attack is really terrible. He didn't have much artillery, and his soldiers lacked training to attack fortifications (in fact, not only did they lack training to assault fortifications, they had little decent training) while the cannons in the hands of the defending Blues (the Republic had unified their uniforms in blue) fought like gunpowder and didn't need money. Therefore, although the hit rate of the enemy's artillery bombardment was quite low, in the offensive of these days, the losses of his army were still not small, but the progress was very limited.

Fortunately, the royal party in the city was always able to send some crucial information, so that General Dracotri knew that the situation on the side of the Republican army was actually very bad, and the supply was getting more and more tight.

"After a few more days like this, their gunpowder should be nervous. Hehe, the army that lacks training often fires indiscriminately, hehe, maybe when I complain that our soldiers are too poorly trained, their little division commander is also complaining that his soldier training level is too low, right? ”

Inexplicably, General Dracotri had a little sympathy for Napoleon.