Fox of France

When Napoleon's army crossed the Alps, it did encounter some small strongholds of the Austrian army. But in general, these small strongholds really didn't play much role.

Originally, relying on the steep terrain, if these strongholds really planned to defend to the death, they could really defend them for a while. Moreover, Archduke Karl spent a lot of effort to transport some small artillery to these strongholds. However, "The city is not too high, the pond is not too deep, the soldiers are not not strong, and the rice and millet are not too much..."

Most of the strongholds only remembered their most important duty-reporting after discovering the French army. In order to ensure the success rate of the message, to prevent the messenger from being careless on the way, because he was attacked by Xiong Daxiong Er, who secretly communicated with France, and failed to deliver the most important information back. So everyone went to perform the most important task together, and all the people went back to report the letter together.

And because they were in a hurry to report back, many guys didn't even have time to destroy the supplies. Of course, it makes sense to do so: we didn't run away, we went back to report the letter, and after the report was over, we still went back to resist, how could we burn the warehouse?

As a result, Napoleon unexpectedly got a little more supplies.

Soon Napoleon led his army out of the Alps. Napoleon knew that at this time, the Austrians must have gotten the news and were ready to fight him. Napoleon hoped with all his heart that he could have a vigorous decisive battle with those Austrians, and then one guy would destroy the whole of Austria.

So Napoleon quickly dispatched a group of scouting cavalry to unfold the map as soon as possible and light up the field of vision.

A few hours later, the scout cavalry gradually returned, and the information they received began to become new icons on the map.

"Is there still such an operation?" Napoleon looked at the map, a little surprised.

On both sides of the road leading to Vienna on the map, many large and small bastions were found. Because of the existence of the Austrian cavalry, and at this time, because of the fatigue caused by crossing the mountains, Napoleon's scouting cavalry was not in good condition, so his scouting cavalry did not go too far. As for the farther places What state it is, I don't know yet.

Before leaving, Napoleon also asked the businessmen traveling between Austria and Italy to inquire about the situation there, but no one mentioned that there was such a thing in Austria.

"How could they complete such a large project in such a short period of time?" Napoleon decided to take people to the site to see it himself.

So Napoleon personally took a team of cavalry and came to the nearest bastion to them.

"Damn! How can there be such a crude thing!" Napoleon cursed.

Indeed, the so-called bastion in front of Napoleon was a shoddy thing. The outer layer of its city wall is not tight and flat masonry, but is directly piled up with baskets of wicker baskets filled with stones. Most of the inside of the city wall will not be solid rammed earth or something. Such wicker baskets contain soil.

With such a thing, even digging the foundation can be saved. This is of course fast, but the things produced in this way are naturally tattered.

"For such a thing, it only needs a few rains, a year at most, or even a few months, before it collapses, sinks, and then becomes completely waste."

After taking a closer look with a telescope, Napoleon made such a judgment on this "bastion". But even so, at least for now, this "bastion" can really be used as a bastion.

Just as Napoleon continued to observe with the binoculars, a group of cavalry ran out of the bastion and circled within the range of the cannons of the bastion. But they didn't really rush up.

Napoleon lowered his face and said, "Go, let's go back."

The Austrian cavalry on the other side of the bastion watched Napoleon and his party go away, but did not dare to pursue them.

On the way back, Napoleon had already figured out what the Austrians were up to.

Obviously, these Austrians no longer have the confidence to fight an upright battle with themselves. Now they can only hide in these temporary "bastions". Their purpose is to force themselves to chew on these bastions one by one.

If this was in Italy, Napoleon would not have cared about such a trick. Not to mention how many Italian guns Napoleon seized in Italy—with so many Italian guns, what bastions are there to be afraid of? Even if you don't consider Italian cannons, Napoleon is in Italy, and there are still a lot of former Italian farmers.

Relying on the division of fields and land, as well as sending some veterans who have made money and can speak Italian to the newly "liberated" villages as village chiefs, and paying wages on a daily basis, Napoleon can easily gather a large number of soldiers in Italy. A pile of Italians, and then, isn't it just like repairing the fence? Napoleon could easily build a longer wall to enclose the Austrian bastion inside, and then take the army, just like the Emperor God, to ask the Emperor of Austria for money for the wall.

But this is Austria. If Napoleon wanted to fight hard, he didn't bring many cannons because he had crossed the Alps. More importantly, the caliber of these cannons is still too small, even if the opposite side is just some crude parallel import "bastions", but the small cannons he brought over, which are no more than 6 pounds, really can't do much with those bastions.

Although the Mini rifle has an advantage in range, the enemy hides behind the parapet of the bastion, only showing his head, and even only showing his head when shooting. The advantage of the Mini rifle in range is completely useless. If we had to rely on bravery to gnaw down these bastions one by one, I am afraid that the loss of the army would be very large. For Napoleon, even if he won, it was just a Pyrrhus-style victory, and the gain outweighed the loss.

But if you ignore these bastions and march directly into Vienna, the troops in these bastions, especially the Austrian cavalry, can easily cut off his supply lines. This was also unbearable for Napoleon.

But Napoleon's heart didn't fluctuate too much, and he even wanted to laugh a little. Back in the barracks, he immediately called the generals together and began to study the battle situation.

"Their strategy is actually quite powerful, but it must be matched with a method." After explaining his judgment on the enemy's intentions, Napoleon said, "This method is to strictly fortify the wall and clear the country. The Austrians probably don't know How did we deal with the logistics after we crossed the Alps into Italy."

The officers all laughed.

It is now the autumn harvest season in Austria, which makes it almost impossible for the Austrians to clear the fields. If we abandon the wheat in the field and hide in the city, then everyone will be ready to eat soil in the second half of the year.

But after collecting the wheat and transporting them into the city, not only would it take a lot of time, but it would also require a lot of storage space. What's more terrible is that the wheat must be dried before it can be stored, otherwise, it will either rot or germinate quickly. And there is absolutely not enough space in the city to dry so much wheat. Therefore, this season itself is the biggest loophole in the Austrian strategy.

Napoleon assigned the task quickly and skillfully. On the second day, Napoleon personally led the army and came to the front of the Austrian bastion group again.

This move of the French also alarmed Grand Duke Karl. Grand Duke Karl also came to the front line in person, standing on his newly built, crudely built bastion, holding up his binoculars nervously and looking at the approaching French army on the opposite side.

From the binoculars, he noticed that the French army did not carry many cannons, most of them were small three-pound guns, and not many six-pound guns, so he breathed a sigh of relief. But looking at the relaxed expressions on the faces of the French soldiers, Archduke Karl still felt a lot of pressure-the ease of those soldiers facing the war just explained their high morale. With that kind of morale alone, it won't be an easy fight.

But the French army did not launch an attack immediately, but stopped before the bastion group. Then Archduke Karl saw that the French actually built barracks not far from their bastion.

"What are they doing?" thought Archduke Karl.

Grand Duke Karl's mind turned quickly, and he quickly thought of the possible intentions of the French.

"They are probably trying to plunder the countryside and cut our wheat! So while they moved the army here, staring at us, making it difficult for us to dispatch, they must have sent cavalry to plunder."

Archduke Karl boarded the high watchtower again, paid special attention to the composition of the French army, and found that the proportion of cavalry in the French army was relatively small.

"It seems that the cavalry is really going to plunder. But fortunately, I have already made some preparations." Archduke Karl thought.

In the evening, Augereau returned to the newly built camp of the French army dejectedly, and reported to Napoleon: "General, these Austrians are really nothing! They actually..."

"What's the matter with them?" asked Napoleon.

"They set fire to all the farms for dozens of miles around here!" Augereau replied.

"And further afield?" asked Napoleon.

"I don't know yet. But I don't think they'll be able to burn all the farms in the country."

"Go away tomorrow," said Napoleon.

The next day, Augereau led the cavalry division to the north for nearly forty kilometers before seeing a normal manor. The owners of the manor naturally fled long ago, and before leaving, they set fire to the granary. However, large areas of unharvested wheat fields are still there.

Augereau stopped here, first gathered the farmers, took them to see the burned granary, and then addressed them. He told the peasants that the lackeys of the nobles set fire to the granary, hoping that he would rob them of their grain if he could not seize the grain of these nobles. Then he began to organize the farmers to harvest the crops in the field, and agreed with the farmers that the harvested grain would be divided into 30-70%, and the French army would only take 30%.

"We may not stay here for long," Augereau said. "After we leave, you hide the grain and tell them that the French have taken all the grain in the field. Then you can Let’s have a good winter.”