Celesta.

Bono de Coullen was bent on fighting Franz's main force in the ruins.

Franz, however, did not want to kill too many Frenchmen, because it seemed to him meaningless.

However, Franz's request made his staff staff uncomfortable, and at this time, the German coalition army was absolutely superior, and the inhabitants of Celesta were the internal response, and it was only a matter of time before the French army was annihilated.

The staff officers had countless ways to drive out the French, but it was difficult to get them back to France safely.

The strength of the French forces in the city of Celesta is unknown, and although a large number of reconnaissance balloons were dispatched, the number of enemy troops could not be confirmed due to the obscuration of the buildings.

As for the captured captives, their confessions are also different, and the information is not correct at all, so it is naturally impossible to judge the authenticity of the captives.

This was very frustrating for the Austrian reconnaissance troops, who had never encountered such a ghost situation before, and the information provided by each French prisoner was different.

The most important thing is that, judging by their experience, these French captives did not lie.

In the end, the intelligence of the coalition forces gave the figure that the number of French troops in the city of Celesta was between 40,000 and 80,000.

In fact, Bono de Coullen didn't know how many troops he had in his hands at this time, because the previous battle was defeated too quickly.

In addition, the fighting in the city has not stopped, and the French army in Celesta is extremely chaotic at this time, so those French prisoners are not clear.

Franz had always believed that professional matters should be entrusted to professional people, and before he came, he recruited ten men from each of the three major military academies of the Austrian Empire, and twenty senior staff officers from the army.

Coupled with the military talents of the vassal states within the German Confederation, Franz felt that these 100 elites would definitely be able to give him a satisfactory answer.

In fact, he was more concerned about whether Friedrich's navy could defeat the British's new Mediterranean fleet than on the European battlefield.

Although Franz almost did everything to win this naval battle, nearly ten years of preparation, coupled with a variety of new weapons and new tactics, bribed, bribed, and even turned against the British allies.

Everything was for this naval battle, but there was still no complete certainty.

There were too many variables in naval warfare, and if the British new Mediterranean Fleet could not be completely annihilated, then Austria would be in endless trouble, and the war might drag on for a year or two, and maybe even the Crimean War would be staged earlier.

When the news of the victory in the Mediterranean came, everyone in the German coalition looked incredulous, and then ecstasy.

"Victory!"

"Hooray!"

"We are invincible!"

Then there was the sound of "beep beep" champagne, fortunately this is the champagne production area, and fortunately the local celebrities have just sent a batch of champagne, otherwise it would not be enough for this group of guys to waste.

This time, even Franz raised his glass rarely, and when he saw the nominal supreme commander of the coalition army raise his glass, everyone immediately quieted down and waited for Franz's lecture.

However, Franz did not want to ruin everyone's good mood with a long speech, and his identity and position determined that he was not suitable to speak more on this occasion

"Gentlemen! To victory! ”

"To victory!"

Even if Franz didn't say anything, his identity and status alone were enough to detonate the atmosphere at this time. News quickly spread throughout the army, and the Austrian navy had been completely annihilated in the Mediterranean naval battle, which made the soldiers of the allied forces excited.

Needless to say, the Austrian soldiers, who at this time had a large number of nationalists in the armies of the German states, were naturally proud of what Austria had achieved.

After all, Austria was the leader of the German states at this time, and their sentiments quickly spread among the army.

The German coalition troops outside Celestad cheered, and the French troops inside the city looked confused, but fortunately this was not the first time, they only thought it was some special habit of the Germans.

It's just that some of the noble officers and soldiers who can understand German don't look very good, how is it possible that the Austrian Navy won the British Navy?

But if that's true, does it make sense for them to continue to be stationed in Celesta?

However, they did not have time to be frightened and confused, and the German offensive began.

The staff of the German coalition army finally came to only one conclusion about Franz's request.

The German coalition first used reconnaissance hot air balloons to find out the relatively weak points of the French defense, and then sent skirmishers to feint in other directions, and waited until the French forces were attracted by the stragglers, and then greeted them with heavy artillery and rockets, and then sent the main force to attack the weak points of the French defense.

Since they could not solve the Austrian reconnaissance hot air balloon, the French had to fight the enemy with the whole map in full force.

This made the French army in Celesta extremely embarrassed, on the one hand, they had to be careful of being called by the coalition stragglers, and on the other hand, they had to reduce their gathering to avoid being greeted by the coalition fire.

And no matter how desperately they shift, the battle is always very passive.

The coalition forces had an absolute advantage, so there was no hurry, the staff officers divided the positions of the French troops into hundreds of pieces, and they were ready to gnaw them down piece by piece.

As for Franz's order to reduce casualties, they chose to ignore it selectively, at most to symbolically ask whether to surrender before the final attack, and give the other side another ten seconds to think about it.

Many French soldiers were killed before they could figure out what the German coalition was saying.

There were many French-speaking people in the German Allied Army, but most of them were officers, and the most soldiers could only speak 20 words in their native dialect or on the battlefield.

So this style of play hardly takes prisoners, the tactics are very successful, the French have no means of countermeasures, at most a week or two, the French will surrender.

However, Franz still stopped this way of fighting, on the one hand, the loss of weapons and troops was too great, and on the other hand, if the French continued to fight like this, they would definitely be wiped out.

At this time, the Austrian front-line commanders were all confused, but since it was an order, they would immediately carry it out.

Colonel Heslett was the commander of the 46th Infantry Regiment in Graz, and his regiment was one of the first elite units to receive training in new weapons and street fighting simulations.

With the help of new weapons, new equipment, new tactics, and a full-map hot air balloon, Colonel Heslett did not feel how cruel the street fighting was, but felt that the French were a bunch of pigs who couldn't move or ran around.

"Go to the reserves!"

"Are you going to end the battle in one fell swoop before the official order arrives?"

The adjutant asked cautiously.

The so-called formal order was in fact one of the problems of the Austrian Imperial Army, which had an unwritten rule since the Middle Ages.

Officers at and above the regimental level have the right to challenge upwards and refuse to carry out the orders of their commanders, and they will only be executed if they are confirmed twice.

This was the so-called "official order", although this right was rarely emphasized after the military reforms of the Archduke Karl and a series of crushing defeats in the war against France.

Franz felt that the Austrian Empire's acquiescence to its existence was originally intended to win over the petty nobles and monks who had fallen with the wind, but over time it became a cancer that would be difficult to remove.

(End of chapter)