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August 1, 1796 was a special and dazzling day for the small town of southern Germany. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 InfoBecause today's Gaoting City is going to welcome extremely distinguished guests. Undoubtedly, it was the Archduke Charles and the Duke of Baden, the supreme commander of the Austrian and French armies, and the city of Gotting, which became the site of the highest-level negotiations between the Austrian and French armies since the beginning of the war.

Originally, according to the agreement between the two sides, the Gaoting area was the place for this armistice negotiation, which naturally had to be considered for the safety of the supreme commanders of the two armies, and in addition, neither the Austrian army nor the French army was defeated, so naturally there was no distinction between host and guest. The French army should have withdrawn to a distance of five gongs from the Gauting area, and the Austrian army naturally would not send troops to the Gauting.

Of course, such a demand for "righteous words" was not put forward by the French army, but on the contrary, it was put forward by the Austrian command, which is now besieged in Munich and cannot hold even the most basic defense.

I am afraid that anyone understands that the Austrian army, in making such a request for negotiations under the present circumstances, has not taken any security issues into account at all, but is playing a scoundrel with the Rhine Corps in a different way. Well, it was obviously chased and beaten by the French army all the way, and the city was lost. So far, they have been besieged in the Munich area, and they have almost no power to fight back against the French army, so they simply wait pitifully for reinforcements to be sent from the rear. What is even more tragic is that the Austrian government desperately took out the remaining 50,000 people, but did not even arrive in the Munich area, and was completely annihilated in Rosenheim. Today's Austrian army, except for the southern front, which can resist stubbornly for a period of time, is basically equivalent to defeat. And after the French army gave enough face to the Austrian side, the Austrian command actually had to demand that the French army withdraw from the city of Gotting. If this had been Napoleon, I am afraid that he would have been angry a long time ago.

But Brion is not Napoleon after all, except for a kind of iron-bloodedness, decisiveness, and sometimes a hint of cold-bloodedness that is unique to soldiers on the battlefield, he is relatively gentle towards others, especially his subordinates, in private. As long as his subordinates don't make that kind of serious mistake, Brion will never make a mistake.

The same is true for opponents who meet on the battlefield, although Brion has a little disdain in his heart, but he still respects the enemy's defeated generals. Otherwise, how could Marshal Alvinzi, who had been completely annihilated in the Battle of Augsburg, be able to stay in his luxurious villa in Ginzburg and enjoy his happiness? On Napoleon's side, I am afraid that at most he would have followed his troops to nibble on bread.

Although Brion looked at the Austrian army's request for such a shameless negotiation, although he couldn't laugh or cry, he still agreed to the Austrian army's request with an attitude of equal dialogue. At the same time, it was stipulated that the commanders of the two armies could bring their subordinates and a small part of the guards to negotiate with the high court.

As a prominent status of a prince, Brion did not wear a bright purple robe, but only changed into a relatively new and more formal lieutenant general's uniform, but pinned the golden medal on his chest that Brion had been reluctant to wear, symbolizing the supreme commander of the Rhine Legion.

The agreed time for the negotiations was to begin at ten o'clock in the morning, and Brion brought an infantry battalion and a cavalry battalion of about 600 soldiers from the reserve brigade of Desai as guards, and they had already set off at about eight o'clock, arrived early at about nine o'clock, and took over the local garrison.

The French sphere of influence was of course closest to the court, but no one noticed that Brion was rightfully seated in the master's seat, while Archduke Charles was treated as a guest at first, unaware of it, and did not enter the city until about nine forty o'clock.

There is no doubt that the successive arrivals of Brion and Archduke Charles have caused quite a stir in the city of Goting, which is normal, after all, where in this obscure small city has there been such a meeting between the supreme commanders of the two armies, and there are hundreds of elite troops as accompanying guards, and the march in the streets is like a grand military parade. Where have the people in Gaoting City seen such a big scene, and for a time there were thousands of onlookers on both sides of the street, and many people came from nearby towns to watch after receiving the news.

When the Austrian and French personnel arrived at the Senate in Gotting, the crowd of people in the streets also gathered around the Senate with the guards and waited for the outcome of the negotiations.

Surrounded by some henchmen and generals around him, Archduke Charles tidied up his white uniform, and walked up the steps in front of the Senate of the Gootin District Step by Step, and finally saw Brion, the commander of the Rhine Legion, who had been fighting on the battlefield and was greeting him with the attitude of a master and a victor.

"Dear His Royal Highness Archduke Charles, thank you for coming here with the broadest heart. The blood of the most valiant soldiers of Austria and France has been shed too much, and today all the German people will remember your words and deeds, because you brought great peace to the German region, to Austria and France, the two great European powers. Brion smiled harmlessly and extended his hand to Archduke Charles.

To tell the truth, Brion and Archduke Charles had a holiday a few years ago, and the feud was not small. First of all, Brion executed the old Count of Baden, the uncle of Archduke Charles, by false accusations in the past Count of Mark, and then used the power of France to merge the Count of Barden with the help of France, so that Louis XVI was forced to make him the Duke of Baden. This is the origin of the current title of Briand, the first Duke of Baden.

Later, Austria launched the Baden War in order to regain the Baden region, and Brion defeated the combined Austrian-Saxon forces with a small number of troops and broke through the capital of the Kingdom of Saxony, but Archduke Charles's younger brother, Archduke John, was captured by Briand and died in the French military camp.

So for a long time, Archduke Charles was angry about killing his brother, and he hated Brion to the core. And Brion, although he did not have much hatred for Archduke Charles, did not have a good impression of him, including the praise of Archduke Charles, and did not say a word of sincerity, but just read it according to the gorgeous manuscript prepared yesterday.

However, as a soldier, Brion was not accustomed to these elegant words, and it is no exaggeration to say that he was sick to the point of vomiting. But Brion seems to be a natural actor, and all the subordinates or soldiers who know Brion are dazzled, as if Brion, who was a little rude and direct before, has become a gentleman with a good manner.

Speaking of Archduke Charles, as soon as he saw Brion's whole face, he turned iron-blue, and he couldn't wait to immediately pull out his gun and beat this shameless scoundrel into a hornet's nest. However, Archduke Charles's city was well-known among the Austrian army, and this young commander always understood the essence of the small and the chaotic plot, otherwise the Archduke Charles would not have become the supreme commander of the Austrian army in the German battlefield at the age of twenty-five. Although he secretly cursed Brion in his heart, he was still smiling on the surface.

"The prestige of the Duke of Baden has spread throughout Europe and has been admired for a long time. I still remember that we met once a few years ago, when you were still a regimental commander of the 1st Division, but I didn't expect that now you are the commander-in-chief of the famous Rhine Army. Archduke Charles said very politely, but deliberately accentuated the words "years ago".

Brion was not a fool, and of course he understood what Archduke Charles meant, and he didn't respond too much. After a series of false public relations sessions, the two sides entered the hall of the local senate and began the armistice negotiations on the Munich issue.

There is no dispute as to the principle of the cessation of military operations between Austria and France on the German battlefield. Brion no longer wanted to waste time on the German battlefield, and Archduke Charles knew better that if the Austrian army continued to resist, it would be self-defeating, so he strongly favored the armistice. In fact, the armistice has become a fact, and what the two sides really want to talk about is the most tangled terms of the armistice.

Brion got straight to the point as soon as he came up, and did not hesitate to lay out the conditions of the French army: "If the Austrian army in the German theater wants to get peace, then it is necessary to accept our proposal." First, the unconditional withdrawal of all Austrian soldiers in Germany from Bavaria and the surrender of Munich to our troops were the most basic conditions for this meeting. Second, the Austrian troops must lay down their weapons, including artillery, guns, and ammunition, and hand over all to our troops before leaving. ”

"It was necessary for Archduke Charles, commander of the 3rd Austrian Army, to hand over the Bavarian flag to the French commander-in-chief in front of Munich in public. Fourth......... ”

"That's enough!" Before Brion could finish the fourth condition, Archduke Charles interrupted Brion in a furious manner.

If you want to talk about the first condition, the Austrian army is currently militarily inferior, and the 50,000 Austrian troops are still surrounded in Munich and cannot move. Although Archduke Charles was extremely reluctant, he had to accept that it was better to lose Munich and even the whole of Bavaria than to destroy the whole army.

But it is clear that the second condition was extremely excessive in the eyes of Archduke Charles, and although the defeat of the Austrians was in fact a foregone conclusion, it was still nominally undefeated. Often, only one defeated army will be disarmed by the victors, so it is unreasonable to confiscate all the weapons and equipment of the Austrian army of 50,000 soldiers at this time. You must know that the current atmosphere of the Austrian army is already sluggish, and if the weapons and ammunition are collected, it will really be a rabble. Such an ending is no different from the annihilation of the whole army.

Because of this Austro-French war, Austria's domestic war reserves have been basically exhausted. Especially in the German battlefield, the Austrian troops not only lost more than 100,000 troops, but also countless guns and ammunition, and thousands of new field artillery pieces of the Austrian army. With the disarming of these 50,000 soldiers, and the Reich's desire to rebuild the army, it would be impossible to fill such a huge hole in the near future with the current productivity of Austria's munitions factories. Future peace talks will inevitably suffer.