King's Landing in France

Chapter 188 Two Veterans Join Forces to Attack
Because of the imminent war, the streets of Milan were filled with chills.

Because the policy implemented by An Ning in Milan gave the Italians a lot of autonomy, and also promised the Italians that after they have their own armed forces and can defend their own land, the French army will withdraw from the entire territory of Milan.

So most Italians really regard the French army as liberators.

In fact, Napoleon in another history was also regarded as a liberator by Italian independents at the beginning, but the republics established by Napoleon were actually French puppet states, which were quickly seen through by the Italians.

So the Italians set off a counter-flag as early as Napoleon attacked Vienna.

But An Ning didn't intend to do this at all. He was going to use an advanced form of imperialism: using economic power to grab benefits.

For this reason, what he values ​​​​is the right to issue coins, and other powers other than the right to issue coins, the Italians will give them what they want.

Because of this, in the city of Milan, the Italians are actively joining the army, preparing to fight the invaders with the French against the Austrians.

You know, Italy in this era is not the weak chicken that was pushed back by the Ethiopian black uncle later.

Italy in this era is quite capable of playing.

Especially when the Italians are wearing red military uniforms.

It happened that Lazar Cano also temporarily came to Milan from the south of France, and An Ning entrusted Lazar Cano with the task of organizing the Milan Republic Army.

Kano did not refuse. Although he only stayed in Milan for a month at most, and then returned to the south of France to take charge of the rear work, he still had the duty to take over the task of reorganizing the Republic Army.

It took Lazar Cano a month to form tens of thousands of Italian Sequoias.

However, similar to the main problem facing the French army under An Ning, the Italians also lack officers.

Most of the Italian nobles are in collusion with the Habsburg Shinra.

After all, Shinra is limited by the times, and there is no way to establish a ruling structure that truly touches the grassroots. It still has to rely on the local wealthy elites.

Then these local wealthy families were treated as traitors and hanged street lamps in the republicanization movement that started after An Ning occupied Milan. Those who did not hang up also packed up and ran to Austria.

In the European army of this era, the officers are generally nobles, and Milan is no exception.

Therefore, the Republic Army formed by Milan has a lower proportion of officers than the French Army.

The French army is already very bad. Each officer has to manage [-] to twice as many subordinates as the Austrian army. The situation of the Milan Republic Army is even worse.

The reason why the French army was able to fight so bravely and show such high quality with such a low proportion of officers was purely because of the spirit given by the Great Revolution.

But it is not clear whether the Italians in Milan can have the same performance, whether they can force their high morale and desire to fight to offset the shortage of officers.

As for the precision shooter company that An Ning used as a secret weapon, the training process went very smoothly.

The newer breech-loading rifles performed exceptionally well, even at a distance of 200 meters with a decent hit rate.

In terms of rate of fire, the breech loading makes this weapon even faster than those muskets, and the firepower projected by a company of troops is like a regiment.

The point is that this is not simply an increase in projection.

The frontal width of a regiment of line infantry is much greater than that of a company.

This company has such a terrifying firepower that it is even hoped that the enemy who is attacking in front of it will be disintegrated by the density of firepower alone.

As for the advantages of breech loading in shooting posture, this weapon is especially suitable for skirmish tactics.

Traditional muskets, because there must be an action of compacting the bullets with a cleaning rod when loading, you must stand upright when using a musket - at least you have to squat.

There is no way to load a musket in a prone position.

So the war in this era is in the form of "queuing and shooting", where everyone stands in line and shoots each other.

Not so with the breech-loading gun, a weapon that can fire and reload while lying on its stomach.

So this weapon is especially suitable for scattered skirmishers. Originally, skirmishers rely on loose formations to reduce casualties when shooting against line infantry. If these skirmishers lie on the ground and do "Voldemort", then Just think about how hard it is to get hit.

In short, this improved breech-loading rifle has basically no shortcomings except low output and high cost.

After watching the drill of the special shooter company, An Ning made up his mind to forcibly promote the popularization of this weapon.

In the history of another time and space, the rear-loading rifle gradually became mainstream after the 1830s. At this time, humans have built a large number of railways, invented the telegraph, and made great progress in industrial production.

The development of industry has made the production cost and man-hours of breech-loading guns lower and lower, and finally made this weapon popular on a large scale.

Now that An Ning wants to forcibly advance the large-scale application of breech-loading guns, basically he can only rely on money.

If you want not to waste money, you can only rub the entire industrial chain with your hands.

An Ning couldn't do such a heaven-defying thing.

In contrast, the feasibility of using money is even higher.

An Ning plans to first form an elite marksman company, and then distribute these marksman companies to various brigades, who are specially responsible for killing the enemy's officers with precise and fierce firepower in front of their own line of infantry.

The newly formed elite shooter company is the verification of this idea. Whether it will continue to be implemented depends on how effective this company can be in the next war.

An Ning is looking forward to this very much.

After all, this is the advanced technology that I, a traverser, have fiddled with for the first time.

It would be great if this thing could make the enemy drink a pot after it was put into actual combat.

While An Ning was busy inspecting the troops and actively preparing for the war, Paul Barras still did not completely give up persuading An Ning to return to Paris.

But An Ning refused to enter, no matter what Balas said, he shook his head firmly and refused to agree.

As time went by, the announcements of the declaration of war from Austria and the Kingdom of Sardinia were finally sent to Milan-this is not accurate, and the announcement of the declaration of war should naturally be sent to the capital of the enemy country.

But Anning received the declaration of war several days earlier than Paris.

Everything was sent along with the announcement of the declaration of war, as well as the latest news from the Austrian commander obtained by the spies of the spy department.

The Austrian army that An Ning had to face was divided into two parts, one part was the remnants of the original Austrian army deployed on the fortress of Mantua and along the Mincio River.

After these remnants have been replenished during this period, the strength of these troops has returned to 5000. In addition to the 4000 defenders in the fortress, the overall number is [-].

The commander of this unit is still Marshal Beaulieu, a veteran in his 70s.

The Austrian army mobilized from the Rhine gathered at Trent, an important transportation hub in the Alps.

This force was led by Marshal Wumze.

This is also a veteran in his 70s.

According to reconnaissance, Marshal Wurmze's army in Trent was preparing to pass through the Adige valley at any time.

Moreover, Marshal Wumze may send out a force to go south from the road on the west bank of Lake Garda, an alpine lake in the Alps.

Due to the constraints of terrain and traffic routes, Anning is now deploying troops on the west bank of the Mincio River north of Mantua Fortress. The supply route must pass through Brescia, which is close to the Alps. Once the Austrian army goes south through the west bank of Lake Garda, they can Directly cut off the retreat of the security forces.

Therefore, An Ning had to divide into considerable troops to defend the mountains on the west bank of Lake Garda.

Nevertheless, Anning's forces on the Mincio River front still had a significant advantage.

(End of this chapter)