King's Landing in France

Chapter 228 Napoleon in Sedan
While An Ning was busy expanding his army and fighting wits with the parliament, Napoleon finally saw the flag of the Prussian-Austrian Allied Forces in Sedan.

"I thought they were going to drown in the mud in the early spring of France." Napoleon muttered while watching the enemy change from marching column to horizontal formation with a telescope.

France's current infrastructure is very bad-well, it has not yet entered the industrial age, and of course the infrastructure cannot be compared with that after the industrial revolution.

After all, cement had not yet been invented at this time, and asphalt was also a rare paving material that could only be used in places where asphalt was produced.

The country roads in France are still specially leveled, but they can't hold up to the spring rain.

The mud caused the Prussian-Austrian coalition forces to advance slowly after crossing the border, and now they have only touched the front of the Sedan Fortress.

Napoleon even suspected that the Prussian-Austrian Allied Forces were not motivated to fight and were deliberately grinding foreign labor.

He put down the binoculars and said to the adjutant next to him: "Quickly, get everyone ready. Today the enemy should only attack tentatively to test the strength of our defense. We hurt them, and tomorrow they will attack more concern!"

As soon as the words fell, the guns of the Prussian-Austrian Allied Forces rang.

Napoleon hurriedly raised the binoculars: "Fire from such a distance?"

As soon as the words fell, there was the sound of shells piercing through the air, and then Duang hit the slope of the fortress wall with a bang.

The outer walls of the bastion are all sloped, which has a very high defense against shells.

The cannon of Urban might have blasted the walls of Constantinople, but not the walls of the bastion.

Napoleon looked in the direction of the rising smoke: "Well, it turned out to be a 24-pound cannon. No wonder they pushed it so slowly. It turned out to be pushing this thing forward."

24-pound heavy guns are generally installed on warships, and the bottom deck of a first-class battleship will be equipped with such heavy guns.

This thing is extremely troublesome to use on land, because it is too heavy.

I don't know if it was the Prussians or the Austrians, but they pushed this kind of heavy artillery to the front line and fired at the coloring fortress.

On the sea, this kind of heavy artillery may destroy the wooden deck of the battleship, but on land, facing the thick sloping outer wall, even such a cannon is not painful.

In this era, attacking the fortress is a pure meat-cracking battle, and the defenders can kill a large number of enemies with cleverly designed fortifications.

To conquer a strong fortified fortress like Sedan, the attacker had to carry out earthworks, which would be a long process anyway.

Napoleon is now full of confidence: "Hmph, there is no need for reinforcements at all. With the strength I have now, I can stop the Prussian-Austrian coalition forces until the counterattack begins in July!"

**
Grand Duke Karl was observing the fortress of Sedan with a telescope, admiring while observing: "The French military engineers have done a good job, and this fortress has been repaired very well. I am afraid that the siege will be extremely long. We can only hope that hunger and disease will make the French Give in."

Carl's chief of staff said worriedly: "The nobles who fled from Paris and led us said that the French army gathered in Paris, and the delay has been long. It is estimated that we will have to face a large number of French troops.

"Although most of them probably had little training, a musket was almost as deadly in the hands of a recruit as it was in the hands of a veteran."

The accuracy of the musket is poor, and there is not much difference between veterans and recruits.Although veterans theoretically reload smoother and faster, the inherently poor rate of fire of muskets makes this advantage less important.

Carl: "No, that's not what I'm most worried about. I'm most worried about the enemy generals!"

The chief of staff asked with some disdain: "The cobbler?"

"He may come from a humble background, but he must have outstanding military talent to defeat so many veterans! And he has always been very good at commanding this kind of motley army, and he has turned the motley army into an elite army!

"If we procrastinate too long in these fortresses, what we face in Paris is not a mob, but an elite trained by generals. We will be drowned by the vast number of French troops."

The chief of staff was a little disbelieving: "The news came yesterday that the entire western part of France has already rebelled. Both Marshal Alvinzi and the Duke of Brunswick believe that the French army we are facing is at most 200,000 people, which is evenly matched with ours. Everyone thinks this Probably overestimated the French!"

Karl didn't answer, just stared at the battlefield.

The Prussian-Austrian coalition forces that had just arrived launched a tentative attack on the fortress, and the battle infantry of the coalition forces was approaching the bastion of the fortress.

The troops at the front of the line had already entered the trench, and the French army on the fortress was constantly shooting, and the entire fortress was shrouded in smoke from the shooting.

Carl: "There will be no results, no, no. I am opposed to such a waste of troops. We should first surround the fortress, settle down, and then approach bit by bit through soil work."

Chief of Staff: "You just said that we have to act fast, otherwise we will be drowned by the French army..."

"Moving quickly is not the same as wasting troops like this!" Carl sighed.In this battle, he is not the supreme commander.

He could only watch as the coalition forces tried to attack the fortress according to the orders of the high command, because both Marshal Alvinzi and the Duke of Brunswick felt that the French might not be ready in a hurry.

How is this possible!

Archduke Karl cursed in his heart while watching the lives of the Austrians and Prussians being consumed in front of the strong fortress for no reason.

**
At night, Napoleon ordered to take out precious dried meat and wine to reward the soldiers who killed the enemy in large numbers today.

During the banquet, Napoleon personally came among the soldiers—he was learning from General Frost, whom he admired the most. The general liked to walk around his barracks in an approachable manner, and greeted the soldiers.

"Everyone!" Napoleon said as he stood on a carriage carrying baggage and stood on the barrels on the cart, "Today's coalition attack was easily resolved by us, and they left a large number of corpses under our city. Every day's attack will definitely suffer heavy setbacks like today! We will stay here and block them until the general's counterattack comes!"

Napoleon drank a big gulp of wine, then smashed the tin wine glass on the ground, and said loudly: "Your Excellency the General told me that there is a way to hold on firmly! After the victory in the war, he will personally welcome me!"
"Think about it, that's the French God of War, a Caesar-like figure, he personally greets us, it's exciting to think about it!

"Of course, His Excellency the General has never been stingy with material rewards. When he was in Italy, he promised the glory of conquest and the wealth of Italy like everyone else, and he did it!

"Comrades! To the general, to the Republic, to yourself! Cheers!"

Under the magic of wine, the soldiers shouted together: "For the general, for the Republic!"

At this moment, neither Napoleon nor Grand Duke Karl knew that this was just the beginning of their fateful confrontation.

(End of this chapter)