The emperor departed. When he closed the door, I recalled the battle of Bockham against the Duke of Villeroy, and began to sum up the characteristics of the French army: "During more than two years in Germany, I fought against the famous French generals such as the Duke of Luxembourg, the Duke of Vendôme, the Duke of Villeroy, the Duke of Marson, and the Prince of Grand Condé. For the army under these generals, the army of the Duke of Villeroy impressed me the most. The combat effectiveness of the elite troops is strong, and the combat effectiveness of the second-line troops is also good, whether it is melee or salvo, the elite degree of the French army is worthy of the first in Europa. In addition, I found that the French army had a very distinctive feature in combat, probably because His Royal Highness the Grand Prince's combat style was too influential on the French, and the French army generally liked to use cavalry to attack the enemy from the flank after sending infantry to stick to the enemy, and break the enemy in one fell swoop. ”

"Then we can't beat the French?" asked Cheap Daddy.

I was a little confused, it wasn't like a question he would ask: "It's true that the elite combat effectiveness of the French army is very high, and the cavalry units are even more brave, but to be honest, except for the cavalry troops, the morale of the rest of the soldiers is not very good, and the reason why the French army is extremely strong today is because the war has produced a large group of excellent officers in the French, and in the French army, it is those officers who maintain the morale of the army, and their generals who can fight well, and past victories often make these French troops look particularly tough." ”

"You would like to advise the Empire on the deployment of skirmishers, learn the tactics you used at the Battle of Cocknam, and shoot French officers from the flanks?"

I don't know how Daddy found out about this, but I have to change his mind now: "I'm not against forming a skirmisher. But I don't think it's necessary for us to kill them one by one. ”

"How can you deplete the morale of the French army without killing?"

"I think we can force the morale of the French army to be gradually depleted in the course of the siege by holding on to key positions. ”

"We don't fight on our own soil. ”

"It's the same with the French army. Moreover, the current French army is attacking Vienna, and the fortified city of Austria can hold out for half a year, to say the least. And we had a large army next to Austria, and if we were to flank the French, they would have to withdraw some of their forces to prevent our attack. The French had only so many troops that the intensity of the siege was likely to weaken. Even if they had enough troops to weaken their attack, the Austrians should have a morale boost when they saw us coming, which would make it more difficult for the French to storm the city. Even if the French had taken Vienna afterwards, it was likely that the French, who had been fighting a very tough battle since the autumn of the previous year, would be demoralized in the later stages of the siege in the face of a fortress built by us Romans. This gives us a chance to fight back. ”

Defending and counterattacking, this was the strategy I devised on the way back against the French for a year of hard fighting, even if they captured Vienna and the Austrian capital fell. But the physical and mental exhaustion of the French was not something that could be fully recovered by simply seizing the enemy's capital.

"You mean here. Prussia and Austria crossed the border to find a vantage point to build a fortress, occupy it, and then force the French to attack the fort to ensure their victory?" said Cheap Daddy, crossing the Prussian-Austrian border on the map.

"Yes, in Hesse!"

"Hesse?" Cheap Daddy glanced at the map in confusion, "this place?"

Well, although the Duchy of Hesse is small, I don't know if I can't find it all of a sudden.

I walked up and said, "West of Saxony, above Austria." This is it. The presence of our troops here threatens the territory previously controlled by the French army, and Prussia moves from the direction of Silesia. Although we are divided into two forces, if the French do not divide their forces in two and send men to control the cities they have occupied, we may cut off their lines of communication and supply from the rear and gradually regain Austrian territory on the front. However, I don't think the tide of the war will turn in this direction. ”

"What about the troops in mainland France? They won't come to the rescue of the French army in Germany? I listen to you, you want to disperse their forces through the spoils of war obtained by the French army in Austria and Bavaria, so that we can basically hold on to the French army in Germany, and then weaken the French army by holding on to it, and defeat the French army, but if the French army in mainland France appears in Germany, the situation will be reversed. ”

Daddy Cheap has a keen eye, but I'm not without a solution: "The French can do it, but if they do, so much the better." For after the German defensive strategy has been implemented, I propose here," I said, pointing to the Italian states on the Mediterranean coast, "to use our navy to transport our Imperial legions over, land them in the rear of the French League, and then surprise the enemy on their way back, thus breaking up the French Confederation forces throughout the Italian peninsula in a short and quick decisive battle." At that time, if the French go to Germany, we will land from Marseille by navy, avoid the French fortresses of Provence and the bastions of the French allies, and strike a blow from behind the fragile French army!"

This indirectly speaks of my strategy for the Empire, and I closed my mouth and quietly waited for the evaluation of the cheap daddy.

"Alexander, what do you think of this plan?"

"The French fleet has been mortally struck by the Dutch in the Netherlands, and the Mediterranean is essentially our Imperial fleet, and I do not think that we should give up the convenience of sea and place our precious troops in the battle between Austria and the French through the long eastern frontier of the Empire. Moreover, I feel that now is a good opportunity to pave the way for the future occupation of Rome, and the second group of soldiers recruited from mainland France will become the stepping stone for our Imperial Legion to become the elite! Alexander spoke his mind unhurriedly, and I was relieved until I understood that he also knew that now was not the opportunity to occupy the Holy See.

In this way, the army led by the Duke of Bringas of Germany will implement a defensive strategy and contain the French army with inferior forces. ”

Cheap Daddy's words made me swallow at once, there was no way, he had already seen through the request that I and Alexander had made to Maurice and his grandfather.

"Yes, Caesar, Duke Bringas agrees with such a battle plan. Alexander said very slyly, "I'm going to report the situation later." ”

"Very well, you all have your own ideas and are very assertive, but there is no mention of another benefit of the landing of our troops on the Italian peninsula. Daddy Cheap left the map and took out two reports from the many papers on his desk, "Our army has landed on the Italian peninsula, and the fleet has blocked Rome's routes to the rest of the country, as long as we promise the Catholics that we will not expand our power on the peninsula, and give them the land and gold they covet. If France wants to escalate the war to the level of a dispute between Catholic and Orthodox believers, the Holy See will be on our side and will be able to keep the French silent. See, the battle plan that I have developed based on the manuscripts left behind by General Sebaras has now been conveyed, so look at it. ”

I took the document from Alexander Daddy, and Alexander's copy was full of troop movements and generals, and as for the target of the attack, I saw the area mentioned in Greek on the last page, the Italian peninsula!

The old man and the old scumbag also thought of transporting the Imperial Legion from the sea to France through the mode of naval transportation?

I turned my head and glanced at the one in my hand, and after a few lines, I found that this document turned out to be the document of the old scumbag who applied for the rebuilding of the Imperial Navy thirty years ago, and the environment envisioned by the old scumbag at that time was that when the French crossed Germany to attack our empire on the mountainous frontier of the Eastern Front, or launched an attack on Austria, if the French army launched an army to march south of Naples, once the war reached a stalemate, we could transport the imperial legions through the navy to the back of the French army to wreak havoc, so as to disintegrate the French empire in one fell swoop(To be continued......)