I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 471 The Bored Leopold II (asking for monthly tickets at the end of the month!)

The cold wind of early spring bent the wild grass outside Julai Village, revealing the huge crowd at the bottom of the slope.

The leading Austrian officer pointed to the French camp in the distance and shouted to boost morale: "Let the French know how powerful we are!"

The seven or eight hundred Austrian soldiers behind him immediately responded loudly: "Teach those bastards a lesson!"

"Make them pay!"

However, when they reached the top of the slope with great momentum, they all stopped.

In the open space outside the French camp, there were Frenchmen twice as many as their number standing in a semi-arc, looking at them with a sneer.

"You..." The Austrian officer swallowed his saliva and pointed at the French battalion commander who had challenged him to a fight. "How dare you come with so many people? How despicable!"

The battalion commander stepped forward and said with a smile, "If you're scared, just go back."

His words immediately caused laughter from the French soldiers.

The Austrian officer said stubbornly: "Who is afraid of you? If you have the guts, use the same number of people as us to fight!"

"It's my skill that I was able to gather so many people." The French battalion commander looked behind him, "You can also go back and call for help, but I'm afraid the timid Austrians won't dare to come."

"Humph, isn't it just because there are more people? There are plenty of Austrian warriors!"

The French battalion commander took out his pocket watch and opened the cover: "Okay, I'll wait for you for two hours and see how many people you can find."

Several Austrian legions returned to their respective garrisons and described the French's arrogant behavior. The Austrian soldiers, who had originally been unwilling to fight for fear of being punished, suddenly became angry and rushed to the open space outside the French camp regardless of anything.

Two hours later.

Nearly two thousand Austrian soldiers looked proudly at the French who were obviously getting nervous, and at the command of the officer, they rushed forward in a large number.

The French battalion commander saw this and smiled. He turned around and shouted to the soldiers: "There are too many of them. Retreat!"

The French immediately ran towards the camp in a mess, but many of them were caught up by the Austrian soldiers and inevitably suffered a few blows.

The news of the victory in the fight soon spread back to the Austrian military camp, and immediately more soldiers were encouraged to come and watch the fun or join in.

Nearly an hour later, more than 3 Austrians blocked the outside of the French camp, looking at their opponents who were huddled inside with bruised faces and noses and dared not come out, laughing at them wantonly and venting their previous grievances.

At this moment, there was a dense sound of horse hooves in the distance. Before the Austrian soldiers could react, they saw Marshal Lacy coming with his guards and a large number of cavalry.

In the early morning, Lacy received a "report" that some soldiers wanted to retaliate against the French because they had been punished for a previous fight.

He had just been reprimanded by Leopold II for this a few days ago, and he immediately led his men back from the Breslau front. Then he saw the scene in front of him.

Soon, both sides of the fight were gathered together with their heads down. Then, Berthier also arrived and quickly asked his men to count the number of French soldiers injured - a total of more than 420 people were injured.

Marshal Lacy looked at the fighting Frenchmen suspiciously, and felt that they did not seem to be in any serious trouble.

Berthier said with a gloomy face: "The injured have been sent to the field hospital. Marshal, this time your people came to our camp to cause trouble and injured so many people. You must punish them severely!"

Laxi's face also turned black. He glared at the soldier who was causing trouble and nodded, saying, "Please rest assured, I will not tolerate it!"

...Leopold II, who was busy with the voting for the Elector, frowned as he read the report about the fight between French and Austrian soldiers, and couldn't help feeling annoyed.

The number of people involved on both sides actually reached over 10,000 people - according to the precedent of the French army last time, as long as someone in the company participated in the fight, all officers would be punished, so a huge number of people were involved.

The report said that all the punished French soldiers had been sent back to their country for reorganization. Including those who were sent back last time because of the fight, the Kellermann Corps in Silesia was only half of its strength.

He recalled the report submitted by the Minister of Finance a few days ago, which showed that the supply consumption of the French army in Silesia was almost twice that of the Austrian army of the same number.

The Hungarian troops that had just arrived at Liegnitz had their logistical supplies cut off as a result.

"These pampered French people are still so restless..."

Leopold II rubbed his forehead. He had heard not long ago that French soldiers had to boil water before drinking it.

At this moment, his attendant handed him a letter that had just been sent from Paris.

Leopold II opened the letter and found it was from the French Crown Prince. The main content was a strong protest against the Austrian army beating French soldiers.

Yes, the incident took place in the French military camp, and the French soldiers were beaten unilaterally, so this is evidence that the Austrian soldiers came to cause trouble and beat people!

The artillery battalion commander who went to anger the Austrians was arranged by Berthier at the instruction of Joseph.

Before the fight started, he had already instructed the soldiers to run away as soon as the fight started and not to fight back.

Because they ran fast, less than 50 French soldiers were hit, and most of them were slightly injured. However, it was Berthier's men who counted the number of injured, and the location was in the French camp. In such a chaotic situation, naturally, the number he said was the number.

In the letter, the French Crown Prince expressed his dissatisfaction with the military discipline of the Austrian soldiers and suggested that the French and Austrian armies should be temporarily separated so that their respective military disciplines could be rectified.

In the afternoon, the anti-French ministers gathered by Walter also began to create public opinion. Of course, what they said was that the French army’s discipline was poor, which seriously affected the combat effectiveness of the coalition forces.

In the end, Leopold II, who was upset by a series of troubles, wrote back to Joseph, agreeing to let the French army temporarily leave Silesia for reorganization.

This will also free up supplies for the newly transferred Hungarian Legion.

On April 1790, 4, the last French troops withdrew from Silesia and embarked on the journey home.

……

Paris.

In the carriage, Joseph couldn't help but smile with satisfaction as he looked at Berthier's itinerary for the French army to evacuate Silesia.

He originally thought that he would have to make more trouble before Leopold II would agree to "send away the plague god", but he didn't expect that he would send the French army away so quickly.

I think it was because the Hungarian nobles provided a lot of support to the emperor because of the cancellation of the reform, which gave him confidence.

At present, Silesia has become a "personal feud" between Prussia and Austria. France can easily take advantage of the situation and then sell supplies to both sides.

As long as this international situation can be maintained for a few years, it will not be a fantasy for France to catch up with Britain in national strength.

Joseph thought of Perna's contribution in this incident and was wondering whether he could give her a medal or something, but he didn't notice that Camelia, who was sitting opposite him, was preparing something with blushing cheeks.

(End of this chapter)