King's Landing in France

Chapter 165 General Frost rushed to the front line overnight
After charging himself, Lahalpe finally led his troops into Montenotte.

The rest of the Austrian army was blocked in the valley southeast of Montenotte.

Lahalpe climbed up the bell tower of Montenotte's church - the bell tower is usually the highest point in the city in this era - and only then did he get a clear view of the valley on the other side.

He estimated that more than [-] Austrians were blocked in the valley, and the blue front of the Davout Army had advanced to a position less than [-] meters away from Montenotte.

In such a small open space, three thousand Austrians were crowded.

These 3000 people were attacked by the enemy, and soon surrendered.

Davout's bald head was seen in Lahalp's telescope, and now that the sun was setting, it was quite easy to spot that bald head.

Lahalp: "I'm going to congratulate Davout. This is a great victory. The number of prisoners is 3000! Including the killing and wounding, at least [-] Austrian troops have been handed over here! This is a great victory."

With that said, he turned and climbed down the bell tower.

Ten minutes later, he met Davout outside Montenotte.

Davout didn't know why he looked very unhappy.

As soon as he met Davout, he asked, "Why don't you just let your flanking skirmishers charge?"

Lahalp was shocked: "Scatterers charge? Are you crazy?"

The formation of skirmishers is too loose. According to general military common sense, skirmish formations attacking standard line infantry is courting death.

After all, there is a gap in the density of troops per unit area.

Therefore, in the military theory of this era, skirmishers are only suitable for harassment, and they are very vulnerable to cavalry charges or line infantry charges.

Davout: "There is still my army on the front! The enemy was in chaos at that time! Even if it is a scattered soldier, the enemy will be scattered when you charge down. In that case, you will not only catch these 3000 people!"

Davout looked back while talking. At this time, his troops were chasing scattered enemies all over the mountains and plains. Many Austrians were very tired after fighting for a day, so they simply chose to give up resistance.

Anyway, European armies in this era seldom slaughtered prisoners of war, and many times prisoners of war collected their weapons and then released them after a period of time.

Prisoners of war in this era are not as active as they were later, and they will escape from prison or something.

The Austrian army is still the royal army, basically without much national awareness, they are all here to help the nobles and princes fight.

Davout watched his troops catch the prisoners, and heaved a long sigh: "Blame me, I exposed my strength too early. I should only bring a brigade or so to guard the hill. I failed General Frost's expectations."

A warrant officer next to Davout said, "Commander, it's not your fault. It's the right thing for you to order a timely change of defense to prevent the troops from getting too tired..."

Davout: "Stop talking, order the troops and prepare torches. Today we will pursue the defeated enemies overnight."

"Yes!"

After the warrant officer left, Davout took out the banknote and quickly wrote a note: "Order! Give this to General Frost!"

**
At this time, the Austrian general Argento was on his way back to Diego with [-] remnants.

Because they slipped fast, now their army can no longer see the French army chasing troops - after all, the French army just defeated the thousands of people left by the Argento division, and it is not so fast to regroup and pursue .

But Argento always felt that it was not so easy for him to escape.

So he found his confidant, and put the reins of his beloved horse into his confidant's hand: "You, ride my horse, and rush to Diego immediately! Let the guards there immediately build campfires around the city! The more the better! Take out all the torches stored in the city, light them and place them on the ground around the city!"

The confidant immediately understood: "Are you trying to confuse the French army?"

"Yes, I heard that Frost will attack at night. If the enemy who catches up also attacks at night, we will be finished. Let him be afraid of our numbers and dare not act rashly!"

The confidant saluted, turned around and mounted his horse, took a torch and galloped along the road.

Argento shouted at his back: "Be careful when riding at night! Don't fall!"

"Don't worry!" The reply came from afar.

**
An Ning wasn't worried about Davout's progress at all. After all, he sent Davout and Napoleon, both fierce men. No matter how you think, the Austrian division commander named Argento can't beat these two together.

As a result, Dawu's letter came just after nightfall.

Napoleon didn't catch up with the battle, and led the artillery team on the way. Davout scared the enemy away as soon as he came up. Although he tried hard to stick to the enemy, he was finally retreated to Montenotte by the enemy.

Lahalpe was exhausted from running, and in the end only had time to block half of Argento's men.

After reading Dawu's letter, An Ning directly changed into the expression of the old man on the subway.

How could this happen? With a strong army and a brave general, the two things that can bring victory are added together, which should bring double victory...

Why is this happening?
But after reading the letter, Berthier seemed to think differently from An Ning. He said happily: "It is a great victory to boast that half of the enemy's troops have been wiped out. The enemy's Argento division has lost its combat effectiveness. Sent by Marshal Beaulieu to guard the rear."

Obviously Berthier is the general view of this era, and defeating half of a division is already a very huge victory.

But An Ning came from later generations. When he said "big victory" in his era, he would think of the siege of Kiev, and think of "No matter how you say the battle force is 80 vs. 60, I have the advantage"...

In An Ning's view, capturing three thousand alive is too childish.

An Ning took the letter from Berthier and read it carefully.

Davout wrote at the end of the letter, "I am going to chase the enemy all night and try to defeat the remaining enemies in Diego." So An Ning asked Berthier: "Is this all right? Wouldn't many people be left behind by marching at night?"

Berthier: "If you don't light a torch, that's true."

An Ning fell silent.

He suddenly realized that his previous understanding of the night march had gone wrong.

When An Ning read the history of the war before crossing, he preconceived that the French army marched all day and all night. It was the same as a certain army later, marching in the dark, so at that time he lamented that it was indeed an army that had experienced revolution. March at night.

Many of Napoleon's victories in Italy were actually won by forced marches and night marches.The Austrian army on the opposite side rarely marched at night.

When he fought Lafayette before, he organized a night attack with so much effort and so much loss. At that time, he explained to himself that after all, the law revolution had just begun, and the invincible citizen army had not yet been formed.

Now that Berthier said a word, An Ning discovered his blind spot: Night raids cannot be lit with torches, so it is a smear march and fight in the dark, but if you are just traveling at night, you can light torches!
This is not the night raid of the army of later generations at all!
Dry, misled by modern concepts!
An Ning: "Great, then I'll just wait for news from Davu."

So An Ning took a shower and was about to go to sleep, but not long after she lay down, someone shouted outside: "Report, an urgent message from Master Dawu!"

An Ning sat up and said, "Bring it in!"

After a while, a messenger limped in: "Your Excellency, General!"

An Ning hurried forward to support him: "What's wrong?"

"The horse slipped on the road and fell down. The horse fell to death, and I was also injured. If I hadn't met our army's logistics team, I might have been in trouble." The orderly smiled bitterly, and then handed a note to An Ning, " Your Excellency, the news is all right, all right!"

An Ning: "You have worked hard, go and rest. Let the doctor show you your legs..."

After speaking, An Ning suddenly hesitated. Doctors in this era are quack doctors. They might amputate the poor man's leg in the end.

So An Ning changed her mind: "You go to my groom, he will wash your wound with strong wine, believe me, it is more reliable than a doctor!"

The messenger smiled and said, "Why don't you give me some strong wine."

"You can drink too. Go on down."

After speaking, An Ning turned his attention to the note in his hand.

Davout wrote very briefly: "There are a large number of campfires near Diego. It is presumed that they are the main force of Beaulieu. I am sending the troops who have been fighting for a day to go to the camp to rest and prepare for tomorrow's decisive battle."

An Ning slapped her thigh vigorously: "Okay! I've found Beaulieu's main force position! Fanny!"

Fanny immediately opened the door and came in: "I am here."

"I want to change clothes, and wake up Berthier and the staff, we move to the front line overnight."

It's not that An Ning doesn't trust Davout's ability, but mainly because he wants to be present in this kind of battle.

After all, it was the main battle!How can it be done without watching!

(End of this chapter)