18th century total war

Chapter 258 Paulieu's ambition
"Humph!

This Karl is quite brave, worthy of being the guy with the same name as Archduke Karl. "

In the general headquarters of the Austrian army in Turin, Marshal Pauliu threw the general newspaper on the table.

Carl led the main force of the first army with nearly 10 people towards Milan, so he couldn't hide from the Austrian scouts.

Even in many cases, the people of nearby Sardinia will notify the Turin area of ​​this information.

Although the Sardinians were discouraged by the French Defense Forces, the Sardinians were still very resistant to the French Defense Forces.

In the eyes of the Sardinians, the French Defense Forces are invaders and unjust!
On the contrary, under the background of the French Defense Forces, the Sardinians have a good impression of the Austrian army, even though the Austrian army caused a lot of harassment to the local Sardinian residents when they were stationed in the Kingdom of Sardinia...

For example, a beautiful Sardinian girl disappeared into the grass and was already a corpse when she was found. The cause of death was massive hemorrhage and shock...

A knowledgeable doctor can tell at a glance that this is not a crime that a few men can commit!

As for a certain Sardinian woman, when her husband joined the army and was captured by the French and has not yet returned, the sudden pregnancy is not news in the Kingdom of Sardinia at all.

As far as the Austrian army is concerned, as long as they don't kill anyone, the big shots above will turn a blind eye. Who calls this a time of war?

We have to rely on the Austrian boys to go to the battlefield and work hard!
Even the Sardinian royal family did not dare to dictate the military discipline of the Austrian army. The performance of the Sardinian army was so bad that the Sardinian royal family did not have much say.

The Sardinian royal family even went out of their way to bribe the senior officials of the Austrian army to let them open a channel and allow the Sardinian royal family to continue to transfer property to Sardinia.

Of course, many nobles in the Kingdom of Sardinia are doing the same, even though there are tens of thousands of Austrian regular troops and nearly [-] armed Sardinian militias in Turin.

The fighting power of the French Defense Forces was terrible, and the upper class of the Sardinian Kingdom had no sense of security at all, and the terrible rumor that Li Wei would be hypnotized even put an end to the Sardinian royal family and Sardinian nobles.

After all, as a superior, no one wants their thoughts to be enslaved by others.

Even if the 'other' here is a great power dictator.

Therefore, in the tightly guarded city of Turin, you can see everywhere the Sardinian dignitaries who are moving with the efforts of their servants.

As for ordinary Sardinian civilians, they naturally do not have the capital to move. Once ordinary people in this era leave their hometown, they will immediately become refugees!
Fortunately, the Sardinian royal family still has the most basic bottom line. The Sardinian king himself did not leave, he just asked his little relatives to leave Turin early.

There are two main directions for the nobles of the Kingdom of Sardinia to flee. The pro-Austrian nobles of Sardinia fled to Vienna, while the Sardinian royal family and their followers fled to Sardinia, where the British Royal Navy had asylum. The French who worried about the navy being blocked in the port by the Royal Navy.

The current Mediterranean Sea is dominated by the British Royal Navy. The Spanish Armada named after narcissism, and several small-scale encounters with the British Royal Navy ended in complete defeat.

Apart from causing negligible ship losses to the British Royal Navy, no strategic advantage was achieved. Since the British Royal Navy firmly controls the sea control of the Mediterranean, the London government has even begun to formulate a plan to capture the Fortress of Gibraltar!
Once the Fortress of Gibraltar is captured, the British Royal Navy will have unimpeded access between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean, and the Fortress of Gibraltar is close to the ocean. The British army only needs a small amount of ground forces to repel any Spanish attack under the protection of naval guns!

Even if you want to attack the Kingdom of Spain that betrayed the Anti-French Alliance in the future, the Gibraltar Fortress can also be used as a landing point.

Of course, the most important point is that the main army of the Kingdom of Spain is beating the Kingdom of Portugal. There are very few defenders in the Gibraltar Fortress, and the British are confident that they can occupy it with thousands of troops.

Marshal Pauliu naturally knew how little confidence the top leaders of the Kingdom of Sardinia had in this war, but he didn't care. Do the Austrians need to consider the opinions of the Italians?

In this high-level military meeting, there is not a single representative of the Kingdom of Sardinia!
However, Pauliu still doesn't know the situation in the Milan area.

Not to mention that the Italian Confederate Army is disintegrating on its own.

"Since Karl gave us such a good opportunity, if we don't grasp it, how can we be worthy of the country and His Majesty?"

Marshal Bao Liyou said with a smile.

There is only one division defending the rear, and the other division is mainly responsible for guarding the logistics team. They are all scattered and not to be feared.

The First Division of the First Army is only in the early 1s, and the Austrian army has more than 6 people. Will it still fail?
The morale of the Austrian army is not low!
After realizing that the generals under his command had no objections, Marshal Pauliu immediately began to mobilize the army.

More than 6 Austrian troops were divided into three groups, advancing and covering each other, until they approached Nizza's headquarters of the [-]st Division of the [-]st Army of the French Defense Forces in the Kingdom of Sardinia.

In the field tent where Nizza, the First Division of the First Army of the French National Defense Force, was located, he took the enemy intelligence that had just been sent by the scout cavalry in his hand, laughed three times, and issued a series of combat instructions.

Three days later, the two sides met on a plain in the Kingdom of Sardinia!
According to the information obtained by Nizza's Guards Cavalry scouts, they were facing an Austrian regiment of more than [-] men.

An Austrian regiment of more than [-] people on each of the left and right wings is outflanking in a wide range.

"Austrian Marshal Paulieu's ambition is not small, he actually wants to eat us in one go.

The first regiment is responsible for blocking the Austrian corps from our left wing, and the second regiment is responsible for blocking the Austrian corps from our right wing.

Don't send anyone to notify me before you are about to die! "

Napoleon and the other commander of the second regiment who were present took orders with serious expressions.

Now Napoleon, who has been enlightened by the administration, has already figured out how brave the soldiers and officers under his command are, so Napoleon used a regiment (about 2000 people) for himself to resist more than [-] Austrian soldiers for half a day. , no panic.

The resistance time for most of the day was naturally calculated by Napoleon himself. Field encounters in this era generally lasted for half a day to a day and ended.

Especially in this plain terrain, the end time will only be faster!

Not long after dispatching troops, Niza saw through the binoculars the Austrian army forming several battle lines and marching towards their own side.

The flag of the double-headed eagle with a black and yellow background is everywhere. Every Austrian company will have a flag, in addition to their own military flag.

Compared with the unified Austrian flag, the styles of military flags are much brighter. Some are military flags thought up by leading officers, while others are the flags of the families behind noble commanders.

When the army of this era goes to the battlefield, they will carry a national flag and a military flag with individual characteristics.

Only those mud legs without nobles in the United States will use only one flag from beginning to end...

The uniforms of the Austrian army are all white uniforms, and the uniforms of the upper and middle officers have different styles and colors, especially the hats they wear, one is more fancy than the other...

During this period, European countries' uniform requirements for military uniforms were only aimed at grassroots officers and ordinary soldiers, and did not impose much constraints on middle and high-level officers.

And the uniforms of middle and senior officers with more personal characteristics can also allow soldiers to quickly find the position of their own officers on the battlefield.

what?
You mean the sniper threat?

Sorry, even a sophisticated front-loading rifle can guarantee a hit rate of 200 meters, but which mid-level and senior officer has nothing to do to run within 200 meters of the front line?

Running to such a short distance, no snipers were needed to hunt and kill, and the artillery shells alone could easily kill the officer.

The closer you are, the more accurate the artillery fire will be!
tong tong~
When the Austrian privates deployed, Niza's headquarters with only three infantry regiments was bombarded by a large number of solid iron balls.

A front-row Guards infantryman who was standing in a tight battle line suddenly had his chest exploded, and a bloody irregular hole appeared in his chest. The Guards Infantryman next to him was suddenly sprayed with blood on his face and was hit. The guards infantry swayed and fell to the ground without saying a word!
But what was even more unlucky was that the guard infantry standing behind this guard infantry had disappeared from the neck up, and the surrounding guard infantry were covered in red and white residue...

Fortunately, the solid iron bullet had already flew obliquely away from the company's phalanx, and did not continue to cause any damage.

At this moment, the exciting war drums suddenly sounded.

Facing the Austrian Corps, which had an absolute superiority in military strength, Niza naturally would not keep a reserve team, and pressed all the troops of the three regiments in his hand. Amid the beating of war drums, he quickly deployed battle lines and lined up guns while advancing. Array.

The troops of the three regiments gradually formed four horizontal lines as the distance between them and the enemy became closer.

At the same time, the field artillery under Niza also began to fire, and the artillerymen carrying the mortars followed the guard infantry in front dozens of meters behind.

Beside Niza was a regiment of cavalry guards that Karl had left for him.

This was Karl's force designed to allow Niza to expand his results after his victory.

Yes, before the battle, Karl was certain that Niza would win, the only difference was the amount of losses.

In the field, Karl firmly believed that the French Wehrmacht could fight an enemy ten times its size.

This kind of self-confidence may be a bit blind, at least the countries of the Anti-French Alliance will never agree.

But it also proves what a proud army the French Wehrmacht is.

In the interactive firing of solid iron bullets, advancing line infantry were constantly killed.

The guard infantry is actually the line infantry, but it is just the best of them.

In the rear, Marshal Paulieu held a binoculars in his hand and stood on a small high ground on a tall warhorse, looking at the thin battle line of the French army and the artillery positions protected by only [-] cavalry behind the battle line. He mentally estimated the distance between the two sides' battle lines.

After the first shot of the Austrian regiment was fired, Marshal Pauliu immediately ordered to the cavalry general behind him: "You take all your cavalry and destroy the French artillery positions for me!"

"Yes, Marshal!"

After a burst of bugles, the Austrian cavalry, 1000 more than a guard cavalry regiment, rushed out from behind the Austrian regiment.

Cavalry is an expensive arm in any country. Even in the Austrian army, the cavalry is much smaller than the infantry.

Not to mention that Bao Liyu also divided his troops into three groups, trying to completely eat up the troops of Niza, who had few troops on the opposite side.

bang bang bang...

After the Austrian privates on the opposite side fired the first shot, the guard infantry who had approached within [-] meters, the first row half-kneeled on the ground, the second row stood, and suddenly pulled the trigger to fire a salvo.

Then the first row stood up and loaded ammunition with the second row of Guards infantry. At the same time, the third row and the fourth row of Guards infantry walked out of the gap between them. When the fourth row of Guards infantry left the first row, When the guard infantry was about five or six steps away, they also half-kneeled in the front row and stood in the back row, firing another round of volleys!
This two-column salvo tactic is currently the most popular line tactic in Europe, and it is also the most commonly used in European countries.

The Austrian army on the opposite side also used this tactic, but it was a pity that after only two rounds of volleys, the queue in the front row began to become irregular, leaving a large number of corpses on the ground, and many Austrian privates who were loading ammunition were also shot by stray bullets hit!
Faced with the confusion caused by this salvo, the Austrian officer had to give an order to stop the advance at a distance of about fifty steps, and wanted to readjust the rhythm of the salvo.

Then this extravagant thought was interrupted by a volley of infantrymen from the opposite side...

This Austrian regiment has never encountered such a calm force. Although the French army on the opposite side had slightly fewer casualties than them, in this short 1-minute exchange of fire, thousands of French infantrymen have fallen down!

That’s one-sixth of the opponent’s loss!

And as the distance gets closer, this loss is expanding rapidly!
It's just that the guard infantry didn't care, they were still firing while advancing!
This made the Austrian Corps no longer able to shoot a uniform salvo, and could only fight with free fire, but this still could not stop the advance of the Guards infantry!

In a short distance of a hundred meters, on the long battle line, the Guards infantry fell about 2000 people, while the Austrian regiment opposite fell more than 3000 people!

Compared to the Austrian regiment's baton-style approach in which one company retreated and another company stepped up, the Guards infantry continued to advance steadily with huge casualties until they were within twenty steps.

"Throw a grenade!"

Amidst the sudden change of the rhythm of the military drums, grenades with burning smoke fell into the dense crowd of Austrian regiments' battle lines!
(End of this chapter)