The frenzied revolutionary sentiment of the French people, instigated by the Girondists and the king, broke out at the moment of the declaration of war, and according to the intention of the Girondists and the forces representing the liberal aristocracy and the big bourgeoisie, the war should have been resolved quickly. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Although the National Assembly cried out to export the revolution to all of Europe, to help the 'ideological enlighteners' exiled by the monarchs, and to establish a truly free and equal democratic state in their homeland, the Girondists, the big bourgeoisie, and the liberal aristocracy, who actually held most of the power of the National Assembly, had no intention of going all the way deep into Austria, they just wanted to defeat the tens of thousands of Austrian troops on the Belgian border, which were far less powerful than their own, and then occupy the Belgian regions in later generations.

With this victory and the annexation of Belgium in hand, the Girondists' political leader, Jacques-Pierre Brissot, was sure to re-establish power in France, strengthen the Girondists' dissipating influence among the people, and re-suppress the Jacobins and the Monthills that had split from the bourgeois political forces!

However, as soon as the war began, it slipped in an unpredictable direction for the Girondists, and Jacques-Pierre Brissot had no idea that King Louis XVI, who was openly supporting the war, had a relationship with his wife, Maria. Queen Antoinette kept sending private correspondence to the enemy, informing the Austrian army of the main forces of the National Guard and the plan of attack!

It can be said that at the very beginning of the war, the French army and the Austrian army were in a situation of complete asymmetry of information, and the National Guard did not know anything about the military subordinates of the Austrian army, but the enemy knew everything about the National Guard.

More than this, and even worse, King Louis XVI instigated the noble officers within the National Guard to resist the war in general.

After the start of the war, the elite of the National Guard, the new bourgeois officers and the old aristocratic officers who gathered together broke out into a fierce conflict, because the Girondists blindly suppressed the aristocratic officers and defended those newcomer bourgeois officers who did not have much experience in war, so that a large number of noble officers in the army fled privately, and even disbanded their own troops!

After the start of the war, the passive resistance and desertion of a large number of aristocratic officers made the elite soldiers of the National Guard have no fighting spirit and fight passively, and the non-combat attrition during the war is extremely serious.

Most of the veterans who had been trained by aristocratic officers left the ranks in anger because they were dissatisfied with the exclusion of the newly appointed bourgeois officers, and political and social conflicts spread to the army.

Among them, the Catholic soldiers were seduced by the rebel clergy and left the army without permission, and the military discipline of the front-line troops was gone......

The troops controlled by the aristocratic officers and the bourgeois patriots were pitted against each other on the surface, the senior commanders were mediocre and incompetent, neither side dared to offend, and they were powerless to change the predicament of military discipline......

It was the main force of the National Guard to this extent, but it was forced to attack by the strict orders of the French government, and the three armies of the National Guard assembled on the border launched a general offensive in the first war, and the Austrian army on the opposite side was only 35,000 men against it.

Originally, with such a huge disparity in strength, it only took a surprise attack by the National Guard to allow the French to occupy Belgium, but on April 29, as soon as the Austrian army appeared, Dillon and General Biron, who lacked confidence in their own troops, ordered to retreat.

The Austrians did nothing at all, and as soon as they advanced a little, they watched the National Guard of the three armies disappear like an avalanche......

The battle completely drained the already small morale of the National Guard, and France on the Belgian border lost all its defenses, and all the soldiers who retreated fled without a trace, except for a few men led by bourgeois patriots......

A dramatic rout caused most of the National Guard, which had an absolute advantage in strength, to collapse and lose its offensive capability, and caused another round of political turmoil in France.

The Austrian army, because of its small numbers and not received orders from the emperor, did not set foot in France itself, and the National Guard did not participate in this battle, and a force of the National Guard stationed in the Ardennes began to remember the exploits of General Lafayette in the case of such a rout, and at the instigation of some well-intentioned people!

Although the Marquis de Lafayette was defeated in that coup, he had accumulated a large presence in the French kingdom and had many followers of the French army in the American Revolution.

After the French Revolution, these returnee followers of the French army naturally changed from the French army loyal to the crown to the National Guard, these people were taken care of when the Marquis de Lafayette was in power, and after he was forced into exile, they were repeatedly excluded, because of this, in this war were placed in the position of auxiliary defense that could not make a contribution, the Girondist government did not think that the attack launched by so many main forces of the National Guard would fail, and as a result, these supporters of the Marquis de Lafayette who did not go to the battlefield were able to preserve their strength!

After the Marquis de Lafayette went into exile in the United States, his political activities in France did not stop, and his contacts in the Kingdom of France were quite extensive, especially these former followers, who were the objects of the Marquis Lafayette's initiative to woo.

Originally, during the unity of the Kingdom of France, the Marquis de Lafayette naturally had no chance, but after the defeat in the first battle, the supporters of the Marquis de Lafayette, the National Guard stationed in the Ardennes, suddenly found that the largest regular army around them was left......

The reason why the National Guard stationed in the Ardennes really shouted for the return of the Marquis de Lafayette was that this defeat put the main generals of the National Guard gathered on the border completely against the Girondist government.

The generals, in order to absolve the blame for the defeat, blamed the defeat on the indiscipline of the troops and the French government, which tolerated it.

The collective confrontation of the generals has almost deprived the Girondist government of its control over the elite National Guard, which is the essence of the Kingdom of France.

In May 1792, the generals gathered in Valenciennes, in defiance of the orders of the French government, declared that an attack was impossible, and advised the French government to make peace with Austria immediately!

The high commanders at the front collectively disobeyed the orders of the central government of France and demanded peace from the French government, which in any country is infamous for treason.

Unfortunately, the Gironde government was no longer in a position to punish these disobedient frontline generals, because the greater political crisis had befallen the Girondists with this defeat.

First of all, the mountain faction, which had been in step with the Girondists on the question of war, immediately reversed the blame for all the defeat on the Girondists, and at the same time, Robespierre, who had been preventing the war until now, and whose prestige had increased with the defeat of the French army, openly pointed out the danger facing the Kingdom of France before the Parliament: "I have no trust in the generals, except for a few honorable ones, I think that almost all of them have a feeling of regret for the old order and the favor of the royal family, and I appeal to the people, Only the people can make the French nation rise again! ”

The collective revolt of the front-line generals against the French government was closely related to Robespierre's sharp denunciation of them, and Robespierre did not slander these generals, because they were indeed secretly in alliance with King Louis XVI.

This kind of thing, Lin Haoda naturally likes to see, if the generals don't break with the French government, how can his layout be realized?

However, to the surprise of Lin Haoda and others, in this political crisis, the Marquis de Lafayette returned to France!

He almost heroically took over the National Guard stationed in the Ardennes, and the French soldiers who had followed the Marquis de Lafayette on the North American continent and defeated the British greeted their 'heroes' with muskets aloft.

The strange thing is that the high-profile return of the already infamous Marquis Lafayette, in addition to being condemned by a wide range of democrats, whether it is the Girondist government, the old power aristocratic class or even the generals at the front, all have a tacit support for the return of the Marquis Lafayette!

There was no direct contradiction between the Girondists and the Marquis de Lafayette, because it was the Triumvirate politics that overthrew the Marquis Lafayette, and the Girondists stepped on the 'political corpse' of the Big Three who stepped down, and the two sides naturally had no reason to oppose each other.

The most important thing is that after the return of the Marquis de Lafayette, he completely moved closer to the Lamet faction, which represented the big bourgeoisie and the liberal aristocracy, although the political power of the Lamet faction in the French government was not strong, but their members controlled more than ninety percent of the colonial interests and commercial activities of the Kingdom of France, and controlled a large number of colonial plantations and slaves.

The proposal for equal rights for people of color in the National Assembly of the Kingdom of France was vetoed by the Lamettes, who did not participate in the French political conference, but as long as they threatened their fundamental interests in the colonies, the Lamet factions always had a way to bring the French government to its knees.

After all, the profits and taxes of the Kingdom of France's foreign trade account for the majority of the fiscal revenue, and these Lamet factions are the real tyrants who support the Kingdom of France, once the overseas trade is cut off, the already poor economy of the Kingdom of France will definitely be completely destroyed!