The battle plan for the attack on Toulon had already been largely decided. At that time, the meeting held that in view www.biquge.info of the difficult terrain of the Farlang Mountains east of Toulon, the strong artillery fortifications, the easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the heavy defense, it was not appropriate to concentrate the main forces on the eastern front, but to choose the main direction of attack on the western front, where the enemy's defense was weak, that is, to attack from the direction of Orioule, and to seize Toulon from the west. The new battle plan issued by Paris provided for the concentration of an army of 60,000 men, regardless of the enemy's frontal firepower, and to attack simultaneously from both east and west. First, capture the Farlang Mountains, the Franc Battery, the Rouge Battery, the Brandin Battery, and the Saint-Catrin Battery, and crush the enemy's outer defenses; After that, they went out to the vicinity of the fortress of Toulon, dug trenches, built fortifications, and waited for an opportunity to capture Toulon when the conditions were ripe.

Napoleon disagreed with this and proposed a completely opposite plan of warfare. In his opinion, the above plan is hardly feasible in practice. This is because: firstly, the enemy's defense line on the periphery of Toulon has both strong fortifications, good terrain, and ground fire and naval artillery fire to support, which can be said to be a strong artillery and sufficient force, and it is by no means easy to break through from the front; Second, if a frontal assault is not overcome for a long time and a confrontation is formed, it will inevitably delay the time and allow the enemy to gain time to mobilize reinforcements and consolidate the defense. Thirdly, a frontal attack, even if successful, could easily force the enemy to burn down the warehouses, blow up the docks, destroy the armory, take all the French warships with them, and even sack the whole city of Toulon.

That being the case, then. What is the best way to take Toulon? Napoleon proposed. The main forces should be concentrated first. Capture Margrave's Stronghold (known to the British as Little Gibraltar) on the west coast of the harbor, capture Cape Kerr, and then, concentrate a large number of artillery and bombard the British fleet anchored in the large and small moorings, cut off the British fleet from the enemy defending Toulon, and force the British ships to withdraw from the port. If this can be done, then the Toulon defenders will have no way to retreat, no reinforcements, and no fire support. It is bound to be self-defeating. At this time, the French army, even with a small number of troops, could quickly capture Toulon. Napoleon further proposed that in order to effectively blockade the large and small moorings and make it impossible for the British fleet to gain a foothold, the French army should immediately set up a large fortress at Cape Aegilette and Cape Baragoyes after the capture of Little Gibraltar and Cape Kerr, and should be equipped with more than 10 Tang-made 130-mm howitzers, 36-pounder and 24-pounder guns and more than 30 relatively heavy smoothbore guns, 4 guns firing 16-pounder red heat shells, and 10 Gomer-type mortars. in order to constitute a sufficient density of fire.

In the formulation of the battle plan, the difference between a military genius and a military mediocre plan has been fully demonstrated. Napoleon's creative thinking and to the point were astonishing. The commissioners of the National Convention, Salicidi and Jasbarin, unanimously supported Napoleon's idea. The plan was drawn up and immediately sent to Paris, where it was quickly approved. Napoleon was thus appointed deputy commander of the siege artillery.

In fact, as early as 1 month ago, Napoleon saw the value of Little Gibraltar and considered it the key to open Toulon. On several occasions, he suggested to General Carto that he should send sufficient forces to capture and hold the heights of Little Gibraltar and Cape Kerr in order to set up his own fortifications on the edge of the two capes of Aegilyette and Baradaiyeh. The arrogant and ignorant General Carto did not understand the importance of this. He used the lack of troops as an excuse to send only 400 men. As a result, the opportunity was given to the enemy instead. A few days later, 4,000 Allied troops landed on Cape Kerr, drove out the French, and captured Cape Kerr and Fort Little Gibraltar.

Historical examples have shown that geographical locations on the battlefield that are of great tactical importance have no preference for both sides of the war. Whoever recognizes its value first, who takes decisive action first to seize it, serves whom it serves and becomes a formidable obstacle to the other side. What was ignored by General Carto, the coalition forces gave it due attention. It took them a whole month to turn Fort Mulgrave into a veritable "Little Gibraltar". A month later, when the generals of the besieging forces turned their attention to Cape Kerr again, the situation was completely different. Thanks to General Carto's mistake, the Coalition forces gained enough time to strengthen their positions, while the French missed a rare and golden opportunity.

It was also because of General Carto's misjudgment of the situation that the National Convention lost confidence in him. In early January, General Dopp took over from Carto as commander of the Toulon siege force, and Carto was transferred to the Alpine Corps.

General Dopp was more of a politician than a military man. His arrival did not improve the command. On 11 January, the entire Breuer division was embroiled in the battle as the French troops in Gibraltar were so angry that they launched an attack on the coalition positions. In order to grasp the situation, Napoleon was provisionally authorized to command the battle. He immediately went to the front line, judged the situation, took advantage of the situation, and personally led his soldiers to break through the coalition positions, and in a short time controlled almost the entire Cape Kerr, approaching Little Gibraltar from behind. However, at this critical moment when victory was in sight, General Dopp, who was far away from the battlefield, suddenly ordered the French army to stop the attack because one of his lieutenants was shot and died. As a result, the coalition forces took the opportunity to counterattack, and once saw that the victory of the hand was cut off in vain. Enraged by this stupid decision, the young Napoleon rushed to General Dopp, pointed at his nose and cursed in the vulgar language of an ordinary soldier.

In the aftermath of this incident, a strong discontent grew among the soldiers, who appealed to the commissioner from Paris, asking for the removal of the incompetent commander. And Salisti, the commissioner from Paris, was a fellow countryman of Napoleon, and Napoleon performed well in this battle, almost achieving a brilliant victory, and was more inclined to Napoleon, so in a letter to Paris, he also expressed his dissatisfaction with Dopp and praised Napoleon's bravery.

Due to the strong demand of the officers and soldiers at the front, General Dopp was finally transferred to the Pyrenean regiment. General Dugome, who was deeply loved by the soldiers, accepted the post of commander of the siege force. Interestingly, Dopp later recalled Napoleon and wrote with appreciation: "I found that he always stuck to his post, and even when he needed to rest, he slept on the ground wrapped in a big hat." He never left the artillery group. Of course, this does not rule out the sycophants of Napoleon after he became emperor.

General Dugome is a 40-year veteran. Before the revolution began, he was a wealthy pioneer in Martinique. At the outbreak of the Revolution, as a patriot, he took part in the battle to defend the city of Saint-Pierre against the British. Later, when Piedmont invaded Provence, he served as a brigade commander in the Italian Legion. General Dugome is tenacious, courageous, upright and has the right military vision. He loved his soldiers and won their support and affection. At the same time, Dugome had a great appreciation for Napoleon.

In late January, just as preparations for the French offensive were ready, an unexpected event occurred. It turned out that not so long ago, Napoleon led his soldiers to secretly construct an artillery position to the north of the small mooring. In order to surprise and attack unprepared, to strike a sudden and violent blow to the enemy, Napoleon led his soldiers to skillfully camouflage the position with olive branches. Due to its clever camouflage, this position, which was right under the nose of the enemy, was never discovered by the enemy. During the inspection, some people were hot-headed and even ordered the local soldiers to open fire without authorization. They did not know that the result of this would be to completely expose the artillery positions, let alone that they would cause a catastrophe as a result.

At dawn the next day, General O'Hara, commander-in-chief of the Toulon coalition forces, had already taken countermeasures. He led 7,000 men to the northwest, crossing the Leras River near the fortress of Saint-Antoine, then captured the fort and dismantled all the artillery. This action of the enemy disrupted the planned offensive deployment of the French army and posed a great threat to the French army on the Western Front. In this battle, Napoleon behaved very calmly. On the one hand, he calmly commanded the artillery, covering the orderly retreat of the troops, preventing the enemy from advancing in the direction of Oriul; On the one hand, it actively pinned down the enemy and covered General Dugome's detour to the enemy's flank; In addition, he personally led a unit along a hidden passage and inserted it into the middle of the enemy's battle formation, causing great confusion to the enemy army. Almost God favored the young artillery officer, and during the melee, Napoleon accidentally captured the commander of the coalition forces, General O'Hara.

At this time, the main forces of the French army, led by General Dugome, detoured to the enemy's right flank and directly threatened the enemy's retreat. Fearing annihilation, the coalition forces retreated and fled back to the fortress of Toulon. The French seized this favorable opportunity, took advantage of the victory to pursue, and took advantage of the situation to recover all their positions.

The strength of the coalition forces in this battle also caused the morale of the coalition forces to plummet. The French showed good strategy in the battle, which the Coalition found very difficult. The British constantly urged the Austrians to send troops to help them defend Toulon, and were even willing to carry Austrian soldiers on their own warships. However, due to the presence of Germany, the Austrians were hesitant to send troops. The German Southern Front had been active in Bavaria in recent days, and the Austrians had to further postpone their already far-flung military operations. And the 5,000 reinforcements promised by Crown Prince Franz seemed so out of reach at this time.

According to the calculations of the British, the coalition forces needed at least tens of thousands of troops to hold the fortress of Toulon for a long time. However, this is impossible for the coalition forces anyway. For this reason, the commanders of the coalition forces themselves have lost their expectations for this battle, and their morale has further declined uncontrollably.

(To be continued.) )