readx;? In the temporary field headquarters of the Rhine Corps, Brion was in front of a map of the German region on the table with a large group of officers, while a communications soldier reported the latest battle situation. Pen Fun Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

Truth be told, Brion's attention wasn't at all on the inconsequential content that the communications soldier had reported. In recent days, although the Rhine Army and the Austrian army have exchanged fire slightly, most of them have been petty fights, and the two sides have not taken advantage of any advantage in the battle. Although on several occasions, Division Commander Nala personally led the army to sneak attack the Austrian positions, but it did not cause many casualties to the Austrian army, at least it could not change the current situation of confrontation.

At present, it seems that Brion and Archduke Charles are not in the mood for a decisive battle, for the reason that the strength of the enemy and the enemy is almost the same, and a rash decisive battle will inevitably cause heavy casualties. In either case, a battle is the best, but no matter which side loses, it cannot afford the price of this all-or-nothing decisive battle.

MacDonald held a pencil in his hand, pointed to the map, and said: "As of April 10, our army has stabilized its position in the Stuttgart area, and the Austrian army has been recuperating in Ulm on the one hand, and on the other hand, it has been brought together by more than 20,000 remnants of the previously defeated Austrian army Schwarzenberg, and its strength cannot be underestimated. In addition, we have received news that the commander of the Italian army, General Napoleon, has commanded 40,000 troops to defeat the Austrian army led by the famous Austrian Marshal Bolieuth at Montenort and has begun to enter the Italian region. ”

"It seems that my beloved brother is going to cause the Austrian Emperor quite a bit of trouble. Brion raised the corners of his mouth and shifted his gaze to the Italian battlefield on the map. The young commander thought that perhaps it was not necessary to wear out the strength of the elite forces of Archduke Charles in order to defeat him, but that Napoleon's outstanding performance in the Italian battlefield would be enough to break through the battle.

It's just that this is probably going to put some burden on Napoleon's Italian legions. Although it is not a glorious thing to fight in this way, and there are even some suspicions of injustice, Brion is not only a soldier who pays attention to honor, he is more concerned about protecting the lives of soldiers.

Briand nodded and ordered: "Order all the divisions under the command of the Rhine Corps, immediately stop the exchange of fire with the Austrian army, and retreat to the city of Stuttgart." Send an emissary to the Austrian headquarters at once, I need a ten-day truce. ”

The situation seemed to have been expected by Briand, and after the Rhine army had withdrawn from the Ulm area back to Stuttgart, the Supreme Commander of the Rhine Front, Archduke Charles, agreed to a ten-day truce in view of the need for the Austrian soldiers to recuperate. It's just that what Archduke Charles didn't expect was that these ten days would be enough for Napoleon's Italian army to show its skills, while the Rhine army was resting and facing the battle so as not to sit back and enjoy it.

It is clear that Napoleon's combat efficiency did not disappoint Briand. On the 12th, the Italian legion defeated the 20,000 Sardinian troops led by General Colli in the Battle of Mirezimo, and then after several successive victories, on the 18th, Mandovi completely defeated the Aussian-Sa coalition army, annihilated more than 10,000 enemies, captured nearly 15,000 enemy troops, and occupied the entire Piedmontese region.

With the continuous defeat of the Italian front, the Kingdom of Sardinia, which suffered huge losses, was also forced to withdraw from the anti-French alliance, signed an armistice with Napoleon on the 21st, and ceded the fortress of Alexandria, which was in the hands of the Sardinian army, to the Italian legions. However, the war was far from over, and Napoleon's goal naturally fell on Milan, the empty capital of Lombardy in northern Italy.

However, by this time, the Austrian Empire could no longer afford not to pay attention to the defeat on the Italian battlefield. Once Napoleon led the Italian legions to capture Milan, the next prey was bound to be the fortress of Mantua, an important Lombard city. For Austria, the gains and losses of the fortress of Mantua will have a direct bearing on the security of Austria itself and the interests of Italy.

Inside the headquarters of the Austrian army in Ulm.

Archduke Charles took his eyes back from the map, then turned to look at his subordinates and sighed helplessly: "The Italian battlefield has been defeated again and again, and it is expected that the Corsican dwarf will attack Milan in early May." Now His Majesty the Emperor instructed that the Italian legions could not be allowed to continue their march on Italy under any circumstances. ”

Prince Schwarzenberg said: "But now Marshal Bolieuth has lost all his elite and is no longer able to fight. Not to mention holding Milan, it is extremely difficult to hold even the fortress of Mantua, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack. Besides, His Majesty the Emperor has not yet chosen a candidate to rescue the Italian front, which is 。。。。。 ”

Archduke Charles nodded, then turned to General Balin Loch and said: "For the sake of the overall situation, now we can only send you to the Italian battlefield and send 40,000 soldiers from the Rhine battlefield to help Milan, and we must not let Napoleon take Milan!"

The Austrian army was tight on the Italian battlefield, and after Archduke Charles reinforced Milan, the number of troops was actually less than 100,000, and for the first time it was inferior in the number of soldiers. However, in order to deter Brion's Rhine Army, the number of Austrian troops was kept strictly secret, and even deliberately released the news that 50,000 reinforcements were about to arrive. However, because of the role of the Skynet spy agency, Archduke Charlie's small actions were naturally watched by Brian.

At present, the strength of the Austrian army on the Rhine battlefield has been greatly weakened, how could Brion let go of such a good opportunity for a decisive battle? Brion is naturally eager to make a name for himself by winning more with less, but Brion still feels that only by relying on absolute superiority in troops can the Austrian army be completely defeated, and Sirte's Baden army can finally come in handy.

Brion immediately deployed: "Order the Davout, Bernadotte, Nala, and Rubel divisions to quickly move closer to the Ulm area. An order was immediately sent to Soult of the Duchy of Baden, and his Baden corps immediately marched south to Ravensburg to outflank the Ulm region. I will face off against the Austrians on the 26th, and the Baden Corps must complete the march by the 25th. ”

The French and Austrian armies were eager to fight, and a decisive battle was inevitable. And what Brion has to do is to use the huge secret army of the Baden Army to form an encirclement network of 140,000 Rhine troops and fight a battle of annihilation in Ulm.

But for Brion, the biggest hurdle was timing. The basis of the victory of the Rhine Army was to rely on the secret reserve army to win a surprise victory, and at this time, Soul, who was far away in the Duchy of Baden, had to march more than 250 kilometers in a short time if he wanted to lead an army of 40,000 to the battlefield in time. This was a severe challenge to the Baden army both in terms of physical strength and military quality.

Even the most elite troops of the European powers may not be able to hold on, even if they finish the long journey on time, such physical exertion is enough even if it is a simple encounter. However, even though MacDonald and many other officers questioned it, Brion was full of confidence in his Baden regiment.

On 24 April, four divisions of the Rhine Corps marched in a phalanx on Ulm, exchanging fire with several small Austrian units. However, the exchange of fire was sporadic and scattered, and the Austrian soldiers only fired a few symbolic shots before abandoning their previously prepared blocking positions and quickly dispersed. This convinced Briand even more that Archduke Charles had made up his mind that the battle of Ulm would take place.

However, Briand was pleased to see that the Sirte Legion, more than 100 kilometers away, had arrived at the fortress of Stockach in southern Germany, and that if it marched at full strength tomorrow it would reach Ravensburg, and it should not be a problem to catch up with the Battle of Ulm.

On 25 April, the Davout Division, which had always been the vanguard of the Rhine army, marched to the Erbach area, 20 kilometers from Ulm, and was immediately confronted by a large Austrian force. Soon, the two armies opened fire separately.

Originally, the exchange of fire with the Austrian army of a certain scale had long been expected by Davout, but with the increasing fire and artillery bombardment of the Austrian army, the casualties of the French soldiers continued to increase, and Davout, who should have cleared the obstacles, realized that this was probably the main Austrian force under the command of Archduke Charles.

Although the well-trained fire attack of the Austrian troops, coupled with the rounds of shelling, did not cause much damage to Davout's troops, the loss of even a company of elite soldiers would have made Davout very sad. Without the slightest hesitation, Davout immediately ordered the deployment of howitzers to return fire.

If there is any weapon with the most lethal power on the battlefield in this era, it must be artillery. It's just that although the field artillery of this era is powerful enough, as long as it hits, it will kill and wound a large number of people, but it has the Achilles heel of not being able to aim accurately. Therefore, the artillery bombardment launched by the Austrian army was at most a fire suppression, while the French army's new howitzer was the real mass destruction. Moreover, the Rhine Corps has always had sufficient ammunition reserves, and continuous bombardment has become the purpose of the Rhine Army's artillery, and Davout is definitely an unwavering believer.

The long-range mass destruction of howitzers, coupled with the continuous and heavy bombardment, instantly caused heavy casualties to the overwhelming Austrian army. The phalanx march was an extremely popular infantry formation of this era, and it was originally a powerful firepower network formed by the dense shooting of soldiers. However, it became the most fatal flaw in the face of the accurate and powerful howitzer, and hundreds of Austrian soldiers were killed and wounded by a single shell.

The Austrian army, which had originally wanted to rely on the superiority in numbers, suffered a devastating blow in an instant, and the attack broke down in an instant, and thousands of Austrian soldiers fled frantically after leaving behind thousands of corpses.

Davout strolled in front of the formation, looked at the chaos of the Austrian army in front of him, and said with a raised corner of his mouth: "Immediately mobilize the cavalry brigade to continue to pursue and destroy the enemy, and the infantry unit will continue to advance towards Ulm after resting." In addition, he sent someone to report to the commander that our division had exchanged fire with the enemy's main force and dealt a heavy blow, and was now pursuing and crushing the enemy's troops. ”