After forcing Braunschweig's army to surrender, Napoleon pounced with his army on the next target, the Austrian army under Archduke Karl, who was now stationed in Longvi.

In this war, Austria's first target was always directed towards Italy. So the main forces of Austria were also thrown into the Italian battlefield. Even after the defeat of the Russian-Prussian coalition in Italy and the Russians betrayed the alliance and withdrew from the war, the Austrians still placed their main forces in Italy. Especially after receiving the main force of the Italian army led by Napoleon to return to France and go north to resist the British, the Austrians immediately devoted most of their energy to Italy.

Although the Russians are gone, most of the French are also gone, and the rest are just some Italian servant troops or something, which should be easy to fight, right? Although the Austrians had not previously taken advantage of the war with the armies of the Republic of Northern Italy. However, the Austrians believe, it was because those Italians were pretended to be French.

The performance of the Italian army also convinced the Austrians more and more that they had encountered the French in Italian clothes.

Because France has already devoted almost all of its military production capacity to supporting the northern theater. And on the Italian battlefield, the Northern Italian army could barely rely on stocks. It's just that Joseph's style of play is good for everything, but the material consumption is too great. It is said that later, when Napoleon was bored with the foreign military strategists, he was asked what to say of his brother Joseph. Napoleon said: "Where will Joseph fight?" He will only play money! ”

So the Italians did a few good battles at first, but then, as the stocks were depleted, the Italians' combat effectiveness began to plummet. It soon fell to a level similar to that of the Austrians, and began to be gradually overwhelmed by the more well-supplied Austrians.

So the Austrians, seeing the hope of retaking northern Italy, naturally wanted to invest more in northern Italy. Therefore, His Majesty the Emperor left all the letters written back by Archduke Karl asking for additional supplies, and then sent the supply of weapons and personnel to Italy. If it weren't for the fact that the change of commander was an insult to Archduke John, His Majesty the Emperor would almost want to intercept Archduke Karl and embezzle it to Italy.

In this way, the army in the hands of Grand Duke Karl was not elite in the first place, and it lacked supplies, so its combat effectiveness was naturally a pit. Archduke Karl himself knew the situation of the army, so in the previous battles, he did not go to the place where he had to carry the line desperately, but only led the army to follow behind the British and Prussians to grab some territory and take advantage of it.

When the Anglo-Prussian army was blocked under Verdun, it also made a request to Archduke Karl for reinforcements. But Archduke Karl was keenly aware of the ominous smell of Marshal Braunschweig's letters, so he found a great deal of reasons to delay it, and then when Napoleon had already sent a letter of surrender to Marshal Braunschweig, Archduke Karl arrived at Longvi.

Although the movement of the large army of the Grand Duke Karl was slow, his scout cavalry was far away, and he even sent people to the area of Verdun to keep an eye on it. So not long after Napoleon annihilated the main forces of the Anglo-Prussian army at Verdun, Archduke Karl learned the news.

Now Archduke Karl understood that after the defeat of Marshal Brunswick's coalition army, this army in his hands must have become a thorn in Napoleon's side. For if his army was not destroyed, Napoleon's army, whether he planned to go to Hanover or Austria next, would be in a position to threaten his flank.

Archduke Karl was now faced with a choice of retreating immediately, out of Longvi, all the way to Kaiserslautern, to make way for Napoleon to Hanover and Berlin, and to have a "dead dervishes immortal parish priest". Or retreat to Luxembourg, taking advantage of Luxembourg's easily defensible terrain to delay Napoleon and gain time for the allies to react, or at least for peace negotiations.

"After the Battle of Verdun, the French had already won the war. The only suspense now is how this war will end. If the French managed to take Hanover or even defeat Prussia, then Austria would be really very dangerous. At that time, even if we negotiate with the French, it will not be possible to get any good terms. So, even if we want to negotiate peace, we must be the first country to reach a peace agreement with the French. And to do that, we must have a quid pro quo that will allow the French to make peace with us quickly. "Archduke Karl said to General Nostitz," said Archduke Karl, "in order to obtain such conditions, I intend to retreat to Luxembourg at once." What are your opinions on this? ”

Luxembourg is strategically located on the main route from France to the German states. In addition, the terrain is complex, easy to defend and difficult to attack, so it has been a battleground for soldiers since ancient times. In a small area, at different times, a large number of forts were built, so much so that it was called the "Land of a Thousand Forts" and the "Northern Gibraltar".

Previously, the French had controlled the area for a time, but due to a series of defeats by the Northern Army, the Luxembourg area was abandoned by the French army. The Anglo-Prussian army could not take care of it for the time being, and as a result, this treasure land temporarily fell into the hands of the Austrians who led the team to paddle and fight.

The occupation of Luxembourg and the forcing of the French to offer more favorable terms in exchange for Austria's withdrawal from the war were in fact the reason why Archduke Karl rushed to the vicinity of Verón with the main force of his army after discovering the ominous smell in the letters of Marshal Braunschweig.

As soon as Archduke Karl had set up his position in Luxembourg with a large army, General Blucher arrived with several hundred cavalry. From General Blucher, Archduke Karl learned more about what was happening at Verdun. He kept General Blucher for a few more days to learn more about the new techniques of the French defense.

However, Blucher could not stay here for long, so he left several of his subordinate officers with the Archduke Karl, and then left in a hurry.

Three days after Blucher's departure, French cavalry began to appear near Luxembourg, and by the afternoon the vanguard of the French army had arrived in Luxembourg under Davout.

By this time, Napoleon's army had reached 120,000 men. These included more than 60,000 elite Italian legions, more than 40,000 French soldiers who had been tested in battle at Verdun, and more than 10,000 German mercenaries that the British had not yet had time to use. They all surrendered with the coalition forces. Napoleon took into account the lack of manpower in many places, especially the lack of people who knew the terrain and customs of the German region. He asked their leader, Balboa, if he would accept his employment in order to pay the ransom for their freedom.

Balboa was keenly aware that this would be his chance to climb up and get into real high society, and he immediately agreed. So these mercenaries, who were almost put to one-time use, turned around and became Napoleon's subordinates.

Of course, Napoleon did not think that these mercenaries would be of much use on the battlefield. He didn't feel that he would have the same need for a disposable army as the British. These mercenaries were basically scattered and used for things like leading the way. By the way, they were also taught a little about revolutionary ideas in the French army.

"If we want to really gain a foothold in Germany, we must carry out the policy of the agrarian revolution that we carried out in Italy." This was one of Joseph's nagging explanations when Napoleon left Verdun. Napoleon felt that these mercenaries who could speak German could also be of great use at that time.

Napoleon had thought that the Grand Guild of Karl would get out of the way and retreat in the direction of Kaiserslautern. If that were the case, Napoleon intended to leave only a partial division in Luxembourg, and the main force of the army would go in the direction of Prussia. Taking advantage of the fact that Prussia had just suffered a major defeat and had not had time to recover, Prussia was defeated in one fell swoop.

Who knew that Archduke Karl was such a head iron, and he insisted on blocking Luxembourg with his army to make trouble for him.

Napoleon was confident of defeating Archduke Karl, and his army was larger in number, better equipped, more morale, and better trained. There were only about 60,000 men in the hands of the Grand Duke Karl, and they were mainly recruits, not even many cavalry. They are also relatively backward in terms of equipment - at least half of their rifles are still old smoothbore guns. In addition, the number of cannons was insufficient.

With such a balance of power, Napoleon felt that even if Archduke Karl occupied the precarious Luxembourg, he would be able to defeat him head-on.

It's just that Luxembourg is difficult to defend after all, and even Napoleon must admit that it will take a lot of time to take Luxembourg from the Archduke Karl. What's more, Napoleon was now also facing logistical supply problems.

The main blame for this problem is Joseph, the coward! On the battlefield of Verdun, Joseph unnecessarily spent too much weapons and ammunition, which made Napoleon's ammunition shortage now. And the battle of fortification is an extraordinarily ammunition-consuming mode of warfare. The ammunition in Napoleon's hands is no problem to support field battles, but if it is used for continuous attacks, I am afraid it is somewhat insufficient.

Of course, in France, military factories are also working overtime, and more weapons and ammunition are constantly being produced, but today, even in France, the production of weapons has clearly not kept up with the needs of the war. We had to wait for these things to be produced and then transported over, but I am afraid that Prussia would have mobilized an army of hundreds of thousands again.

Just when Napoleon was worried about this, someone came to tell him that the Austrians had sent an emissary.