Like Prussia, after Napoleon's defeat, Austria quickly negotiated with Russia, cease-fire with the Russians, and sought to conclude agreements with Saxony, Bavaria, and even with Napoleon's brother, King Jérôme of Westphalia. He then withdrew his troops to Austria and explained to Napoleon that this was to accumulate strength for Napoleon's next expedition.

Austria was as afraid of Napoleon as Prussia, and while trying to preserve its own power, it was also afraid of Napoleon's retaliation, and deliberately fabricated reasons.

Moreover, Austria is not like Prussia, although Austria has failed again and again, but Austria is a big country, and Austria's strength does not depend on the militarism of Prussia, which is a soldier of all people, but on a strong comprehensive national strength. The Habsburg family, which ruled Austria, was more prominent than any monarch family in history, and once ruled Spain, the Netherlands, Italy and other places at its peak, and almost unified Europe.

Despite the removal of the title of Holy Roman Emperor by France and the loss of the flag that commanded the German states, Austria was a powerful state in its own right, not a small landlocked Austria of later generations, but a large empire that included Hungary, Czechoslovakia, part of Poland, part of Ukraine, and Yugoslavia.

In Europe, the population is the first is Russia, which is more than 30 million, France ranks second with more than 20 million, and Austria, which has a population of more than 20 million, is actually about the same as France, ranking third. It was precisely because of the large population that Austria was able to recover its forces again and again under the blows of Napoleon.

Therefore Napoleon should not offend Austria, and even when Austria was still afraid of him, there was hope that Austria would be drawn to his side.

Austria did want to be on Napoleon's side, because they always felt that Napoleon had a better chance of winning, as if the name Napoleon had been equated with victory.

It is a pity that Napoleon did not make enough efforts to win over Austria as a great power, and he seems to have become accustomed to fighting on his own.

Prussia was forced by Russia to join the anti-French alliance, and when the troops were approaching the city, the Russians were willing to return East Prussia to Prussia in order to win Prussia into the war, in exchange for Prussia to provide 80,000 troops, but Napoleon was very disdainful of Austria.

Of course, Napoleon has his confidence, the reason why Prussia, Austria and the German Confederation are still desperately trying to curry favor with Napoleon, who retreated from Russia, because France's military system has not been broken, France has been fighting abroad all these years, France's production system remains intact, France has a large population, and has enough strength to form a new army, at least more than Prussia and other small countries can withstand defeat.

Napoleon's build-up of an army of 500,000 in a matter of weeks proved the small nations right.

But in fact, Napoleon still overestimated his own strength, he lost too many veterans, France has a large population, but France has been consumed with Europe for more than 20 years, and human resources have actually been exhausted.

Upon his return to Paris, Napoleon tried to form a new corps while blocking news of his defeat. He opened the French population register and found that there were only 140,000 suitable soldiers for 1813, where did the rest of the numbers go?

Napoleon recruited soldiers in a variety of ways, first announcing the formation of an age-free National Guard, organizing and then recruiting 80,000 soldiers from the French possessions (conquered Italy, Holland, etc.), and an additional 100,000 soldiers with the maximum length of service, while recruiting young people of next year's school age a year in advance.

He also tried his best to recruit troops from elsewhere, forcing Murat, who was superstitious about Napoleon's victory, to side with him and co-opting the Italian army under the command of King Murat of Naples.

He also fooled the Pope, who was imprisoned in France by him for opposing the continental blockade, and invited the Pope to Fontainebleau, so that the bishops who were loyal to him actively lobbied, and then fought for it himself. Napoleon painted a beautiful picture of the aging Pope as to how great the power of the Church would be once he re-Catholicized the whole of Germany! By promising to support the church's re-entry into Germany, Napoleon and the Pope eventually concluded a new church-state agreement. This allowed him to recruit Catholic soldiers in all Catholic territories.

By all means, he raised an army of 500,000 men, which allowed Napoleon to regain his confidence and once again show contempt for the enemy he had defeated in the past.

But what was the state of these soldiers, Napoleon's elite veterans were almost all destroyed in Russia, there were only 400 people in the Old Guards, and only 800 hundred people in the cavalry of the Guards broke through the enemy line and returned to Königsberg.

By calling up the new armies of 1814 and 1815 in advance, Napoleon quickly concentrated a fresh force of 300,000 men. Due to the extreme shortage of junior officers, 200 candidates in the military academy were immediately promoted to officers, and 100 non-commissioned officers with more than 10 years of service were also promoted to second lieutenants. The remaining soldiers are still far away in Italy, the Netherlands and other places, and they will not be able to concentrate for a while and a half.

In this situation, Napoleon decided to hurry up and act quickly before the Russians concentrated on the Prussian border.

At this time, the situation in Europe still did not show signs of Napoleon's defeat, because Napoleon's army still controlled most of Prussia, and the king of Napoleon Prussia joined the anti-French alliance led by Russia under the turbulent anti-French tide at home, and armed tens of thousands of troops with British weapons through conscription in East Prussia, but Berlin and other western Prussia were still occupied by the French army.

Napoleon told Prince Eugène to "stay in Berlin as long as possible, and you are to maintain discipline by example." Any Prussian village or town that showed signs of rebellion should be burned, even Berlin. If you are being forced to retreat towards the Elbe, you should not take a step back. …… France is massively reorganizing the cavalry, but we still need the whole of April. By May I will be able to concentrate 3 corps, plus my Guards and a large number of artillery cavalry, and I will be able to drive the Russians back up the Neman. “

However, Prince Eugène was driven to the rear of the Elbe line, and the Russian army drove straight into Berlin.

Napoleon immediately put his army of 220,000 men armed together and sent them into battle.

The combined Russian and Prussian forces of 64,000 infantry, 24,000 cavalry, and 552 artillery pieces concentrated in the southern Czewinkao and Aldenburg areas of Leipzig, preparing to advance westward. Napoleon arrived to intercept the two sides, and the French army, which had suffered heavy losses at Lützen, 12 miles from Leipzig, miraculously won the victory.

Napoleon addressed his recruits, and he was so fond of using them to boost morale: "Soldiers, I like you very much! You live up to my expectations! Because you have obeyed orders and fought valiantly, everything has been accomplished. On the 2nd of May, you defeated the coalition under the personal command of the Emperor of Russia and the King of Pu. You have added a new splendor to my eagle banner. The position of the Battle of Lüzen should be higher than that of Austerlitz, Jena, Moscow, etc...... We will drive those Tatars back to their homeland, and let them stay forever in the snow and ice, living a life of slavery, barbarism, and corruption. ”

After the Battle of Lüzen, Napoleon occupied Leipzig, and he did not care that his army suffered almost the same casualties as the enemy, and his troops were twice as large as those of the enemy who had not yet had time to assemble, and many of the shortcomings were exposed, which Napoleon himself discovered.

For example, his cheap son, Prince Eugène, had no military talent at all, and Eugène, who led half of Napoleon's army, was slow to march and had no organizational ability at all, which provoked Napoleon to tell Prince Eugène that his march was too slow, and that the space occupied by his column was too large, which hindered the movement of the entire legion. There were too many vehicles in his troops, there was no discipline, and he had to strictly enforce the rules that the leading divisions were not allowed to carry luggage while marching. ”

Eventually, Napoleon finally couldn't stand Eugène's way of leading his army, and he disbanded the Elbe legion and sent Eugène back to Italy.

In addition, the quality of Napoleon's cannons declined greatly, mainly due to the rush of work, especially the very poor quality of the shells. Napoleon even wrote directly to his Minister of War and Administration: "In the recent battles, more than half of our shells did not explode, and this greatly irritates me. This is a very important event,...... An artillery superintendent brought such unusable ammunition to the battlefield; Execution should be carried out in accordance with military law. ”

But Napoleon, despite discovering these shortcomings, was still extremely difficult for his victory, and as for Russia, he felt that he had given the weather in vain, that Murat had commanded unfavorably, and that all the mistakes were someone else's, not his.

Due to the rush of time, the army was not fully equipped, and the best artillery was either lost in Russia or Spain. The staff has been greatly reduced, and the rescue and management system is riddled with loopholes.

The emperor saw these flaws, but instead of calculating the combat effectiveness of his army based on them, he recalled the past glory from this crippled army.

He recalled that he had just taken over an army that was starved and poorly clothed, and that the French Revolutionary Government had asked him to go on an expedition to Italy to accomplish the impossible, but he led this army of beggars over the mountains, won the victory, occupied the rich northern Italy, and improved his armament from there.

Now, 17 years later, he suddenly burst into high spirits and said heroically: "I will command this war as General Bonaparte." ”

If you say that you are not capable of discovering your own shortcomings, it is just that Napoleon can shrewdly see any shortcomings in the army, but still has no doubts about his victory, this mental state is too magical.

It also made him miss the opportunity for real victory.

Because just after he promised the Battle of Lützen, Austria came to the door in the hope of an alliance.

Not only Napoleon's unwavering belief in his victory, but also the whole of Europe was superstitious about Napoleon's force, otherwise why Napoleon let that group of recruits charge into battle was because the young soldiers firmly believed in their victory, so their morale was high and they moved forward bravely.

The Austrians also felt that Napoleon would still win, so they put their bets on Napoleon, but they needed to be rewarded.

The Emperor of Austria told Napoleon that Austria was willing to ally with France if he revoked the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, renounced the territories annexed to France in 1811, and returned to Austria Illyria and most of the border with Italy.

Napoleon sternly rejected these conditions, saying: "I don't want your armed mediation, you want to fish in troubled waters." It is impossible to get new provinces by sprinkling rose water. Your first step is to ask me for Illyria, then to the province of Venice, then to Milan, then to Tuscany, which will finally make me fight against you. It's best to start now. yes, if you want to get land from me, then you must shed your blood. ”

Napoleon's arrogance not only kept Austria out as a possible ally, but also pushed them over the side of the anti-French coalition.