readx;? No sooner had Brion ascended to the throne as commander-in-chief of the Rhine Army than there was a very unfriendly agitation from the Austrian Empire. Pen Fun Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 Of course, although on the surface Austria and France are still in a state of armistice, but in other words, it is a military confrontation, but it is difficult for both sides to break this seemingly endless equilibrium.

It's just that in the face of the upcoming Austro-French War, Brion unexpectedly used a few months of free time to dedicate to consolidating troops and mobilizing manpower. Of course, Brion's transfer was not entirely legitimate, but the Directory was clearly not interested in it.

It is in response to the old saying that if you are tight in front, you will be tight in the rear. As long as Brion will not do anything out of the ordinary such as overthrowing the republic, the chairman of the government, Siaiers, as an ally, will naturally not go to Brion for trouble, and try to hide it for him.

In order to ensure the adequacy of the German battlefield, Briand, as commander of the corps, immediately ordered the transfer of 40,000 troops from the 80,000 fully armed elite troops of the Duchy of Baden, and two Baden divisions were reorganized into divisions to be attached to the offensive of the Rhine Corps. The candidates for the positions of division commanders, Brion uncharacteristically did not directly appoint from the officers who had followed him for a long time, but instead promoted Colonel Joebel and Lieutenant Colonel Nala, who had just been transferred to the Rhine Regiment.

Rubert, originally a lawyer, began to prepare to enter the army after the outbreak of the French Revolution, joined the National Guard in 1791, and in 1793 he was transferred to the Italian Legion to fight with General Scherrell, serving as a brigade commander for a long time, and was known for his cautious command in the army. He was one of the few famous French generals in history, and this time he was forcibly transferred to the Rhine Army by Brionto relations.

Nala volunteered to join the Revolutionary Army in 1792 and later fought mainly in Spain, where he was rewarded for his bravery and was one of the twenty-six marshals of the Napoleonic Empire. It's just that unlike Rubert, this time he heard that Brion succeeded him as commander-in-chief of the Rhine Legion, and he came to voluntarily transfer to the Rhine Legion.

For these two candidates, Brion is extremely satisfied. It stands to reason that such important positions in the army, according to Brion's custom, should be appointed directly to his subordinates, because the importance of these two elite troops is tantamount to turning the tide of the war. Of course, Brion must admit the fact that no one is available, although there are many brave and fearless soldiers among his subordinates, but this is only suitable for the position of regimental commander and below, or the life of the whole army is a joke.

In any case, Brion has always valued ability rather than seniority, and was promoted to major general only after Rubert and Nala showed absolute obedience to Brion.

As for the Iron Guards and Commando, which are equivalent to the nature of the Guards, Brion still retains the names of the two units internally, but all of them are incorporated into the reserve brigade of the Rhine Legion, which is an independent force and is directly subordinate to the Legion. Naturally, Desai took the post of brigade commander, and Ferguson served as the regiment's military adviser and deputy brigade commander.

The remaining 40,000 elite troops in the Duchy of Baden were organized into the Baden Legion, which was undoubtedly under the direct command of Briand, and the commander of the corps was Sirt, who had been in charge of the training and defense of the Duchy of Baden. It's just that the Baden Legion blocked the news as soon as it was formed, and it was stationed in the Duchy of Baden as a secret army. It's like an invisible dagger that Brion can plunge into the heart of his opponent during war.

As a result, Brion continued to expand his troops, and with it, a wave of promotions among the officers, and the morale of the army soared. And Brion also gathered seven capable generals under the command of Nara, Bernadotte, Desai, Davout, MacDonald, Rubert, and Sirte. It's just that among these Brion henchmen, only MacDonald was not given the management of the army.

Although MacDonald is not good at commanding operations on the battlefield, he is careful, rigorous, good at drawing and giving orders, and with the assistance of his Skynet spy organization, MacDonald is naturally the best candidate for the chief of staff of the Legion around Brion.

In addition to the rapid deployment of standing war materials, the 200 howitzer cannons of the Rhine Army have become the hottest trump card weapons within the Rhine Army.

"Some of the regimental cannons were retained, and the rest of the main firepower field guns were replaced with new howitzers," Brion said. The howitzer is a special offensive field artillery, and according to its performance, its power naturally cannot be combined with ordinary old artillery, and it is best to be densely configured and incorporated into troops above the brigade level. In this way, the lethality of field artillery can be maximized, so that the infantry can be supported by artillery fire when they carry out onslaught. ”

"Five artillery regiments were formed, each equipped with thirty howitzers, and the four divisions of Bernadotte, Davout, Rubel, and Nala were assigned respectively, and the reserve brigade of Desai was also equipped with exceptions. As for the remaining fifty cannons, they were organized into reserve artillery regiments, which were directly under the central command of the Rhine Corps in order to respond to unexpected situations on the battlefield. Sirte's Baden regiment could be equipped with forty howitzers that had been set aside before going to the arsenal. ”

In this way, Brion's regular army reached 100,000 for the first time, and it was already a mature and modern army in terms of being equipped with bicycles, Ferguson rifles, and howitzers, as well as the overall quality and training methods of the army. Briand also understood that no matter how advanced the weapons were, it was necessary to remain sober and militarily sober - a single France was far from being able to match the combined strength of the great powers of Europe.

The war came faster than Briand had imagined, and in mid-February 1796, the Austrian Empire formed an alliance with the Kingdom of Sardinia, intensified its military deployment, and declared war on France again after a period of armistice. The Ossa coalition ended its state of recuperation and sharpened its knives and marched to the Rhine front and the Italian front in the south.

With hundreds of thousands of Austrian soldiers sent to the front, the smell of gunpowder intensified. The importance of this battle was not only the contest between France and Austria, which had been old rivals since the Bourbons, but also the head-on confrontation between the emerging capitalist countries and the European monarchies, which had a direct bearing on the fate of the European continent in the future.

On the Austrian side, at the urging of the Austrian Minister of War, Archduke Charles, the Austrian Emperor Francis II inspected the Austrian troops at the Palace of Vienamysson, and justly declared to Europe: "France must pay the price for the death of King Louis XVI and Her Royal Highness Princess Marie." The French Revolution cost us, the innocent people of Europe, blood. Today, we want to give them the punishment they deserve! Long live the Holy Roman Empire!"

In fact, such an affirmation is mainly a superficial position, but at the same time it inspires the anger of the Imperial soldiers, reminding them of who they are fighting for. They don't know what so-called capitalism, justice and equality are, and all these soldiers yearn for is the glory of war and the blood spilled on the battlefield.

However, on the French side, the Central Ministry of Defense made it clear that the problem of armed intervention by foreign forces was completely resolved in order to defeat the Austrian forces abroad. The French forces on the Rhine front were ready to cross the Rhine at any time to fight the Austrian forces in Germany, and the ultimate goal of the expedition was the Austrian capital, Vienna.

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At the garrison of the Rhine Legion, a young man on a white war horse, followed by several cavalry guards, stopped in front of the tent of the commander-in-chief of the Rhine Legion. He skilfully turned over and dismounted, patted the dust on his gray coat, and walked into the tent.

"Brion, no, I should call the Captain of the Rhine Legion, right? The young man unhurriedly took off his gray coat and hung it on a hanger beside him, and looked at Brion who was working.

Brion put down the pen he had just been working hard to write, and carefully studied the person in front of him. He is not tall, his skin is dark, but his eyes are as sharp as an eagle spreading its wings in the air, and as brave and resolute as a lion. In terms of the temperament of a soldier, he is even better than Briand. And fastening the young man's chest was the badge of the commander-in-chief of the Italian Legion.

"Napoleon Bonaparte!" said Brion stood up in surprise, the man in front of him was both an idol of his previous life and a friend and brother he had known since he was still at the Royal Military Academy.

However, after Napoleon fell and was arrested and imprisoned after the fall of the Jacobins, Brion was afraid that Napoleon would come out to stir up the situation, so he used his connections to keep Napoleon in prison for more than a year. As for Napoleon's release from prison on bail by Baras, Brion also acquiesced and did not come out to stop it. It seems that the trajectory of history has not changed because of Brion's existence.

"Brion, it's been almost a decade since we last met. Napoleon smiled, sat down in a chair without a hint of restraint, and lit a cigar.

Brion nodded, and said with a somewhat reluctant smile: "Indeed, I didn't expect you to become the commander of the Italian Legion now." ”

In fact, Paris Skynet had already reported the news of the replacement of the Italian commander to Briand, and it turned out that Barras had submitted a proposal to the House of Five Hundred to promote Napoleon and the new tactics advocated by Napoleon, on the grounds that General Scherrell had made a mistake in the battle in Italy. That is, taking advantage of the small number of enemy troops and the prosperity of the city on the Italian side, they made a detour directly from Italy and indirectly attacked Vienna, and at the same time plundered a large number of war resources.

Sières, who was far away in Paris, only felt that such a plan was extremely profitable, and that the Italian legions were not as good as the serious shortcomings, and at most they were a miscellaneous army, so they agreed to Barras's proposal to promote Napoleon to the rank of lieutenant general and take over the Italian legions.

Briand is now worried that in the future, the Italian legion will become an elite French army under Napoleon, and Napoleon's power will grow in Italy to the point where even the Directory cannot control it. There is no room for two tigers, and at a certain time, Brion and Napoleon will inevitably compete in a duel, and the king will be defeated, and so on.

Brion didn't want to think about his future plans anymore, although he and Napoleon had disagreed before, but now the two shook hands and smiled at each other. Brion really enjoyed the moment, but if he really wanted to fight Napoleon for supremacy, he would not show mercy.