King's Landing in France

Chapter 189 The Snake of Changshan
While An Ning was confronting the Austrian army on the Mincio River, Massena was facing the front. General Corli, the coach of the Sardinian Kingdom, led the forward of the Sardinian Army to the Fortress of Cheva.

Massena had only the original Italian Legion, plus some supplementary troops, a total of 5000 people. Annin's order to him was to hold the transportation line from Nice to Savona.

Although the main supply of An Ning's army now relies on Milan City to provide, the military supplies produced by the factories in Milan City are not particularly sufficient. The only things that can guarantee open supply are food, grass and military uniforms that can be produced with the production capacity of daily necessities.

Therefore, An Ning's army still has to rely on part of the ammunition and gunpowder provided by France.

This line of communication is very important, and An Ning repeatedly told Massena to guard it.

Massena himself, as an Italian, once served as a sailor on a merchant ship in the Mediterranean Sea, and also traveled all over northern Italy as a merchant.

He was originally a warrant officer guide of the Italian Legion, and he was very familiar with the terrain along the seaside.

So Massena made a bold decision: "Before the main force of the Sardinian Kingdom comes up, start from Carcare and strike Millesimo!"

At this time, Millesimo's Sardinian army had 500 people, and Massena went up to 1 people at once, so the Sardinian kingdom gave up this key point to the French army with little resistance.

Immediately afterwards, Massena sent cavalry to reconnaissance in the direction of Cheva along the road, and then discovered something: the forwards of the Sardinian Kingdom in the Cheva Fortress were actually only 5000 people.

And Massena is very familiar with the terrain of Cheva Fortress. This fortress is a series of fortresses arranged on the ridge from north to south, and has a very strong resistance to attacks from the east.

But when attacking from the east, if a force is split to attack from the south, Cheva Fortress can be easily breached.

Therefore, Masséna made another decisive decision: to force a march to attack Cheva.

The [-] French troops galloped mightily along the mountain road to Cheva, and caught General Corley of the Kingdom of Sardinia who had just arrived here not long ago by surprise.

The French army under Masséna was basically watching the show in the battle before An Ning. This army saw other troops making military exploits and successes, and they couldn't hold back.

The army of the Kingdom of Sardinia that Massena faced was a traditional army of the Kingdom.

Yes, it is the kind of troops that will be defeated once the formation is broken up. The desire of each leader to participate in the battle is extremely low, and it is all driven by the officers served by the noble lord.

The combat effectiveness of this kind of army is about the same as that of the Indian army during the self-defense counterattack against India—even inferior to the Indian army. After all, the Indians at least hold the Lee Enfield rifle, which is much more advanced than the musket.

The defense of the fortress was quickly breached, and General Corley had to lead the remnants back to Mondowe.

With all his strength, Massena continued to march towards Mundo, and did not garrison along the Corsa Gallia River until he received the news that the main force of the Kingdom of Sardinia's army had arrived from Turin.

At this time, the Kosagalia River is in the dry season-the source of this river, like most rivers under the Alps, comes from the melting snow on the mountains.

It is now December, and the surface of the Kosagalia River has shrunk considerably.

Even so, it is better to have a river as a barrier than to directly defend a place without any barrier.

Massena knew that as long as he resisted until February next year, when the snow on the Alps began to melt in spring, the Corsa Gallia River would become wider and the water flow would become more rapid.

As long as you stick to it until then, your situation will be greatly improved.

So Masséna began to build fortifications along the river wantonly, posing a decisive battle with the enemy across the river.

**
Anning was overjoyed when news of Masséna reached Anning's headquarters in Brescia.

"Okay! Really good!" He shouted several times.

Sure enough, Massena was capable of fighting. This early attack to catch the enemy by surprise seemed like a fierce general.

Sure enough, the strong in history will also be strong here.

So An Ning wrote a commendation letter, and at the beginning of the letter, he shouted: "Long live the third division!"

The third division was that of Masséna.

After writing An Ning, I came to my senses. In the future, Masséna’s teacher will be called Long Live Teacher, right?
Regardless, it is a good thing that the morale of the troops is high and they can fight.

At this time, Berthier curiously took the letter from An Ning, and after reading it, he was very surprised: "What the hell, it's too risky to attack when the troops are inferior?"

An Ning: "Attacking while the enemy's strength is not in place, this is the correct decision! Berthier, you lack such courage, so you can only be a chief of staff!"

Berthier has no talent as a commander. He is the perfect chief of staff, and it would be worse to direct the battle by himself.

Berthier shrugged: "I have no comment on this. However, you will appreciate Masséna's actions because you are also an adventurous commander. If you show it to Davout, he probably will not agree. After all, this does not conform to military common sense."

Davout took a look at the letter and replied: "I will capture Mundo to stop the attack."

Berthier: "What? This..."

Napoleon laughed.

An Ning also joked: "It seems that our Davout thinks that as long as there are 5000 people, the Kingdom of Sardinia can be forced to submit."

Davout shook his head: "No way. If there are 5000 people, unless we defend the strongholds along the way without dividing troops, it will definitely not be enough.

"At least 3 people are needed."

An Ning raised his eyebrows. Before he could speak, La Salle said, "Did you realize that you are saying that you can defeat 3 people with 5 people, Brother Davout!"

Davout: "Is there any problem with this? Haven't we been fighting with this kind of force difference? Little joke."

After Davout finished speaking, all the officers except Berthier laughed.

An Ning: "Well, Massena played well, and we can't lose to him! The situation we are facing now, if Wurmze and Beaulieu join forces, the situation will become very bad.

"But our advantage is that they haven't joined forces yet. It's winter and there's a lot of snow in the Alps. Even if we go to the Adige Valley, Wumze's troops will have to walk for many days.

"Therefore, we have gained a precious time difference. Using this temporary strength advantage, we should quickly defeat Marshal Beaulieu's troops!"

An Ning pointed to the sand table in front of her and continued.

"Marshal Beaulieu was so dazed by our flank attack that he was particularly afraid that we would continue to flank him, so he evenly distributed the entire army on the Mincio River!

"Look at this formation, what do you think of?"

——Of course it is the snake of Changshan...

Napoleon: "Snake, the word long snake."

An Ning: "That's right! So we have to gather together and make a breakthrough from the center of Marshal Beaulieu! Although it is snowing heavily now that Lasalle's cavalry cannot rush up, we can still use infantry to cut off the enemy, and then send Divide and annihilate the enemy."

Napoleon: "What about the fortress? I went to see that fortress, and it was very difficult."

An Ning: "But you didn't realize that that fortress can trap tens of thousands of people inside with only 5000 people! Because the fortress is on a peninsula, the isthmus leading to the fortress can't deploy too many troops.

"We defeated Beaulieu, forced his remnants into the fortress, then trapped him with 5000 men, and turned against Wumze's 5 men!"

(End of this chapter)