readx;? The Battle of Augsburg can be called the heaviest defeat of the Austrian army since the beginning of the war, and the number of soldiers killed on the battlefield alone is as high as nearly 40,000, of course, this is only a crude estimate, and this figure does not include the capture of the French army, the rout, and the inability to find troops. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 infoIf you add in the number of soldiers lost by these unexpected circumstances, then this number is really quite spectacular.

The loss of more than half of the 110,000 army was not the worst, and the really bad thing was that even Marshal Alvinzi, the commander of the Central Army, was captured by the French. It has to be said that in the history of the Austrian army, there are many marshals or commanders who lost the battle and died in the country, and even Field Marshal Bolieu, who was captured on the Southern Front, was at least shot in the shoulder. However, a marshal like Alvinzi, who was directly captured by the French army in the process of escaping, could not really find a second one among the Austrian army.

At this time, the Austrian army was really embarrassed and really lost home. On the French side, the Rhine's defeat of Alvinzi was widely publicized by the major newspapers across the country, especially the French newspaper that Briand founded himself, which simply praised Briand as a figure like the god of war.

On the Austrian side, however, the situation was just the opposite, and where did the Austrian Government dare to reveal the war on the front? You must know that although the people's will is an ethereal thing, it is enough to bring down a corrupt government. If it is true that the whole Austrian people know about the defeat and retreat of the front, the loss of more than 100,000 soldiers, and the fact that the French have fought at their doorstep, then the Austrian government will not only fail to win this battle, but will inevitably lose the hearts of the people, and it will be difficult to protect even the Austrian capital.

Moreover, the Austrian Empire was a multi-ethnic state, with territory roughly consisting of present-day Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. The different nationalities of the country, the different languages, even the official language, and the oppression of different nationalities, led to a very serious national problem in the Austrian Empire. As for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which emerged later, it was only a measure to solve this national problem, which led to the division of Austria into a dual monarchy of Hungary and Austria. In fact, at this time, the Hungarians in the Austrian Empire were already extremely dissatisfied with the Imperial Government, and now the Government could barely deter it, and if the French army really entered Austria, Hungary and the Imperial provinces would really rebel. At that time, the civil strife in the empire and the invasion of the French army, the so-called Austrian Empire really collapsed completely.

However, the news of the blockade of the Austrian Empire's rights was still useless, and only a few days after the Battle of Augsburg, the common people in the Austrian Empire were fully aware of the collapse of the Austrian army. It turned out that Brion had ordered agents lurking in Austria to secretly print secret newspapers with the disastrous defeat of the Austrian army in large quantities early in the morning and distribute them on the streets. Soon, the news of the Augsburg fiasco caused a stir in Austria. Demonstrations in Hungary were more frequent and uncontrollable than before, the prestige of the empire was gradually declining, and the popular sentiment in other provinces was rapidly declining, and the Austrian Emperor Francis and the imperial cabinet were overwhelmed by the daily affairs of the government.

At this time, Brion dealt a double blow to the Austrian Empire, and the propaganda offensive dealt a much more painful blow to the internal affairs of the Austrian Empire than a military blow. By this time, the tens of millions of pounds that Britain had given Austria for the war had apparently become useless.

On 22 June, before Austria could recover from its previous defeat, there was another round of bad news on the German battlefield. Augsburg had been occupied by the French, officially announcing the end of the Battle of Augsburg, and the French army was the Sirte Corps, which had just arrived.

The door to Munich was opened, and the Austrian Empire was so shocked that even the King of Bavaria immediately packed up his belongings as soon as he heard the news of the fall of Augsburg, and fled with his family to the Austrian Empire to seek asylum.

In fact, the French army occupied Augsburg without a fierce exchange of fire, and Archduke Charles had already led 50,000 remnants of his army to withdraw from Augsburg and retreat in the direction of Munich. However, the Sirte legion, which had just arrived from the south, took advantage of it and entered Augsburg without a single soldier.

Perhaps at this time, the entire Austrian Empire was extremely surprised by Archduke Charles's decision, thinking that he was not crazy or deliberately turned against Austria, otherwise how could he give up holding on to Augsburg so easily.

In fact, judging from the current comparison of the strength of Austria and France, the French army is well-equipped and morale is booming, and even in terms of soldiers, it can be described as an absolute suppression of the Austrian army with twice the strength. It is obviously impossible for the Austrian army to try to reverse the tide of the battle from the field in Augsburg, and if Archduke Charles leads his troops to fight hard, then it can only show that Archduke Charles is really crazy. Therefore, at this time, Augsburg could only hold on to the strategic deployment of the Austrian side, as an obstacle to the continued eastward advance of the French army.

However, if they held on to Augsburg, then the French army would inevitably rely on the superiority of troops to besiege the Austrian army. No matter how easy the Augsburg fortress was to defend and difficult to attack, if there were no reinforcements from the Austrian rear to relieve the siege, what was the use of the Austrian army even if it could hold out for a month or two? Moreover, the French army had no less experience in attacking fortified fortifications than in field battles, and the most typical example was the siege of Stuttgart in the Battle of Württemberg. Under the continuous bombardment of the French army and howitzers, all the strong fortifications of the Gundam could not stop the footsteps of the French army. At that time, Augsburg was broken by the French army, and the Austrian army could not rush out, and finally these tens of thousands of Austrian soldiers could only be annihilated.

Moreover, Augsburg's location is no better than that of the Mantua Fortress.

The fortress of Mantua is known as the key to northern Italy, not only because of its proud fortifications, but also because it is located at the confluence of the Po and Mincio rivers, which can be used by tens of thousands of people and has abundant war resources, and has been a battleground for soldiers since ancient times. The 100,000 Austrian troops on the Italian battlefield on the southern front, under the command of Wilmzer, did not take the initiative to attack the French Italian legions, and have been actively defending along the line of the Ming George River and the Po River. This made Napoleon, who was good at breaking the enemy in the field, not know how to make a move for a while, so that the French army has been stagnant under the city of Mantua. Although several rounds of attacks were launched, they were always forced to stop with heavy casualties.

To a certain extent, if there is no support from the Austrian army in the near future, whether the Austrian army defends Augsburg or not, it is of little value. Moreover, Munich, the capital of Bavaria, is the largest city in the southern part of Germany, and the area is surrounded by several military fortresses. Moreover, the combat readiness resources are extremely abundant, which can give the Austrian army the best supplies at this time.

It turned out that before the Battle of Augsburg, Prince Schwarzenberg strongly advocated the preservation of his strength and the suggestion to retreat to Munich.

However, at this time, in the Austrian court, in the face of the deteriorating German war situation, the Austrian Emperor Francis obviously could not sit still.

Throwing the new war report he had just received in his hand to the ground in indignation, the Austrian Emperor Francis II looked at the surrounding imperial officials with a black face and scolded: "What the hell is going on? The empire sent no less than 200,000 troops in the northern and southern battlefields, but it was defeated by the French army. I put up with this, and then sent two marshals, Alvinzi and Wilmze, to support, there are 130,000 troops!"

"But what was the result? The Italian battlefield did not improve, and the 100,000 troops of the empire were frightened by an Italian army of only a few tens of thousands of men and did not dare to attack in Mantua. And the German battlefield was defeated again, not only tens of thousands of soldiers were killed, the marshal was captured, and even Augsburg was lost. Emperor ** retreated from Württemberg to Ulm, and from Ulm to the Danube. Now it is said that Bavaria is difficult to hold! Has Archduke Charles won a battle since the war began?"

Foreign Minister Metternich, a close minister of the Austrian Emperor, slowly bent down and picked up the war report on the ground and said: "I think that even if His Majesty the Emperor doesn't say it, he should know very well in his heart that judging from the current situation of our army, this war will not only be unwinnable for our army, but even if it continues to endanger, it will endanger the foundation of the empire." That's why I, together with several cabinet ministers, suggested that an armistice and peace talks with France should be made immediately. If Your Majesty agrees, I will go to France next month in order to seek peace as soon as possible. ”

"Actually, I also know that this war should not have continued a long time ago, but 。。。。。 Emperor Francis shook his head and sighed helplessly: "It's just a pity that the empire is really difficult to ride a tiger now, and the French have all fought in front of the country, I am afraid that the peace talks will be very difficult, and it will inevitably be ceded and reparated at that time." If so, I'd rather carry the war through to the end. ”

"Your Majesty, are you really willing to let the French open the gates of your empire by force?" Metternich persuaded: "There is no point in continuing this war, it was originally an anti-French war to be borne by the whole of Europe, but now only Austria is left to support itself, and Britain only gives money and does not help." Don't you see? Austria was almost drained of its national strength for the sake of this doomed war. ”

Francis said: "Peace talks are impossible, as long as the empire still has an army I will drive the French out of Germany, and I will continue to send reinforcements to support Bavaria." As for my imperial brother, Archduke Charles, Supreme Commander of the German Front, I don't think I need him. I will immediately decree that he be removed from his post as commander-in-chief and that he should be returned to Vienna immediately. I believe that there are many excellent generals in the Empire, who will surely be able to defeat the French army in one fell swoop. ”

"Do you really want to remove Archduke Charles?" Metternich looked at the Emperor with some incredulity.