18th century total war

Chapter 279 The Disintegration of the Second Anti-French Alliance

After the fall of the Kingdom of Bavaria, the Holy Roman Empire was no longer a shocking issue. Along with the fall of the Kingdom of Bavaria, dozens of small states were occupied by the French Defense Forces.

The French Defense Forces that did all this only lost about [-] guard infantry and about [-] guard cavalry.

The troops of the Holy Roman Empire Allied Forces that were annihilated alone were ten times this number!

Of course, there are a lot of small state armies here, many of which are actually city guards, because those states only have one city...

At this point, there is no longer a big country in front of Vienna. If the French Defense Forces continue to attack, they will directly plunder Austria's local fiefs!

What annoyed Austria the most was that the Prussian army had been staying in North Germany and looked at it as if they planned to watch the French Wehrmacht invade Vienna, causing the French Empire and Austria to fight each other.

Because the Kingdom of Prussia knows very well that Austria will definitely put all its troops in Vienna to fight against the French Empire, and the French army has already occupied so many cities in the German region, each city must leave a small amount of troops to garrison, and then concentrate the main force to attack Vienna If not, there will not be many surplus troops at all.

Now even the French army occupying Amsterdam has begun to withdraw one after another, and has handed over the garrison rights to the army of the Kingdom of Belgium.

The Kingdom of Prussia planned to wait for the main force of the French Defense Forces to fight with the Austrians, starting from the northern lowland countries, entering the Netherlands, and attacking the mainland of France all the way.

At that time, the French army, whose main force is in Austria, will not be able to turn around to support in a short time, and may be able to win a brilliant victory.

This is the wishful thinking of the Kingdom of Prussia.

As for the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia is very happy, they are the German states that most hope that the Holy Roman Empire will be dissolved!

Because there is no Holy Roman Empire, Austria will not be able to stabilize Prussia politically.

As for Tsarist Russia, it does not intend to send the main force to participate in this European war. Unless Vienna is occupied by the French army and Austria falls, Tsarist Russia will consider shopping with the French Empire.

After all, the combat effectiveness displayed by the French Defense Forces is terrible.

Without the help of the Russian and Prussian troops, the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire finally lowered his noble head. The two sides signed an armistice agreement in Munich. This time, the Holy Roman Emperor paid more, not only the Holy Roman Empire was gone, but also Bavaria and surrounding areas A bunch of small states in China were also included in the Rhine Alliance newly formed by Emperor Li Wei of the French Empire.

The Holy Roman Empire was officially disbanded, and the Berlin government of the Kingdom of Prussia was very disappointed. In fact, they still expected Austria to attract the main force of the French army.

However, this result is also good for the Kingdom of Prussia.

After the Holy Roman Emperor signed the armistice agreement, he fell ill when he went back, and he went to see God not long after...

His successor Franz consolidated the territories he inherited into the Austrian Empire, which included later Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Transylvania in Romania, and Gali in Poland. West Asia and other regions.

There was originally northern Italy, but it has now been occupied by the French Foreign Legion.

After the establishment of the Austrian Empire, it was still a top European power that should not be underestimated, with a population of nearly 2000 million!

Most importantly, all the territories of the Austrian Empire were under the control of Franz. After the establishment of the Austrian Empire, Franz was called Emperor Franz I of the Austrian Empire.

The establishment of the Austrian Empire quickly stabilized the ruling foundation of the Habsburg dynasty, and did not let the Habsburg dynasty slump in a series of military defeats.

After Franz I established the Austrian Empire, he immediately mobilized troops from the east and south to show the French Empire his determination to stick to Vienna.

The establishment of the Austrian Empire and the end of the Holy Roman Empire led to the rapid disintegration of the Second Anti-French Coalition.

Not long after, European countries such as Tsarist Russia signed an armistice agreement with the French Empire. The Tsarist Russian Empire did not get any benefits in the second anti-French war. Why continue the war?

Fighting costs money!
Tsarist Russia was not afraid of death, but of spending money...

There are more than 1 million gray animals in Tsarist Russia. Since they are all serfs, it is more convenient to assemble and train. The only thing that is lacking is that there is not enough money to arm these more than 1 million gray animals...

After the disintegration of the second anti-French alliance, Emperor Franz I, who regarded the disintegration of the Holy Roman Empire as a great shame, began to have frequent contacts with the Tsarist government, and the two sides quickly signed a trade treaty for arms exchange for agricultural products.

The Austrian Empire supplied Tsarist Russia with basic weapons such as muskets and ammunition, and Tsarist Russia exchanged them with a large amount of agricultural products.

It can be said that both sides get what they need.

Except for the big cities, the vast territory of Tsarist Russia still remained in primitive agricultural production, coupled with the low consumption of food by serfs, so Tsarist Russia has always been the main exporter of agricultural products in Europe.

On the contrary, the Austrian Empire is a conservative monarchy country that attaches great importance to industrial reform. The country is densely populated, and industrial products are the main profit point of the Austrian Empire's foreign trade.

After the establishment of the Rhine League, the ruling classes of many surrendered states and cities were not purged and replaced by the French army. Instead, they were asked to enter Paris to meet the great French Emperor.

This condition is understandable from a legal point of view, after all, the suzerain of the Rhine Alliance is the French Empire!
However, the rulers of many states did not return to the Rhineland League, but hid in major cities in Central Europe such as Vienna or Berlin, waiting for opportunities.

This includes Pope Pius VII.

After the signing of the Armistice Treaty, the Piedmont region of the Kingdom of Sardinia was ceded to the French Empire, and the French Empire established a new region in the Piedmont region.

The Italian Peninsula was merged by the French Empire into a unified Kingdom of Italy. Except for the Kingdom of Sicily on the island of Sicily, which was not occupied by the French army, other regions were included in the territory of the Kingdom of Italy.

In the hands of Li Wei, Italy realized the real unity for the first time!

The king of the Kingdom of Italy was a Tuscan nobleman who defected to the French Empire.

Under the offensive of the French Defense Forces, the top aristocratic groups in the Italian region unsurprisingly produced traitors, and such noble traitors were treated as typical by the Livi government, and the newly established Kingdom of Italy arranged for these role models. of.

Of course, before they took office, they had to go to Paris to meet Li Wei.

Livi did not ask the army of the Kingdom of Italy to help him fight, and Livi did not dare to let his army become an ally of the Italian army!
Li Wei only needs to ensure that the army of the Kingdom of Italy can maintain the stability of Italy.

During this period, the Italian Legion stationed in Italy suffered terribly from the guerrillas.

The most abominable thing is that these guerrillas are not composed of the majority of people at the bottom, and the French army can't let go of their hands and feet to implement the "three light policy", otherwise the guerrillas will only fight more and more.

This is the main factor that contributed to Li Wei not directly annexing the Italian region, but establishing the Kingdom of Italy.

It is impossible for Li Wei to station a large number of troops in Italy for a long time. The 3 Italian legions scattered to the Italian peninsula cannot form a field combat group at all. Once the war with the Austrian Empire starts again, they will only be wiped out one by one.

Therefore, it is better to establish a kingdom of Italy in the nature of a vassal state to help manage the Italians, and the Italian Legion only needs to be deployed along the northern border of the Kingdom of Italy to watch the troops of the Austrian Empire.

As for the Sardinian Legion, since the Piedmont region was directly annexed by the French Empire, the Sardinian Legion could only stay in the Piedmont region and slowly wipe out the small number of guerrillas. It is estimated that it will not be able to use it within a few years. the...

The issue of guerrillas and public security warfare is the biggest obstacle restricting Levi's expansion. It is not that the French Defense Forces cannot defeat the guerrillas, but that the guerrillas never fight face-to-face with the French Defense Forces. The two sides are not so much fighting as they are playing hide and seek.

This is why the French Wehrmacht suffered negligible losses when fighting partisans, while local wealth steadily declined.

What those guerrillas are best at is to attack weak points, and then plunder and destroy!

Unless the French Defense Forces are only stationed in cities and transportation points, there is simply no way to prevent this situation.

But that would leave vast rural areas in a state of anarchy, at best outsourced and let the locals manage the locals...

God knows if the locals will collude with the guerrillas?
Therefore, the law and order method of regular troops stationed in cities and traffic points can only be used for a while but cannot be used for a long time, otherwise it will only encourage the arrogance of the guerrillas.

If you want to completely suppress the guerrillas, you can only send the regular army out to play hide-and-seek games with the guerrillas in various ways, slowly catch or chase and intercept them, and drive the guerrillas into the deep mountains and old forests. After being trapped for a period of time, they will starve to death sooner or later .

When the little devils in Li Wei's previous life invaded the three northeastern provinces, they used this method to wipe out the guerrillas in the three northeastern provinces little by little.

During the period of the little devils' occupation, the security situation in the three northeastern provinces was the best compared to other occupied areas. It was only because of the long occupation time that all powerful local guerrillas were wiped out.

There are no shortcuts to guerrillas and public security warfare. Even in the 21st century, the U.S. military, whose weapons and equipment have reached the crushing level, will not withdraw in the end because of a loss of money against a group of Afghan guerrillas who are still at the level of AK assault rifles and rocket launchers. up?

Fortunately, Li Wei's army did not attack the vast number of low-level civilians in the Piedmont region and Italy. The scale of the guerrillas has always been small, and the difficulty of exterminating them is relatively much less.

After the victory of the second anti-French war, the mainland of the French Empire annexed the Piedmont region, and the vassal states added the Rhine League, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the Kingdom of Italy.

The eastern part of the French Empire has been surrounded by a bunch of vassal states.

However, after signing the armistice treaty, the first order Karl received was not to be transferred to the Iliban Peninsula to rescue the Catalans who were about to be exterminated, but to besiege the Kingdom of Switzerland!

It’s true that Li Wei did not agree to the armistice treaty of the Kingdom of Switzerland. Li Wei’s request to the Kingdom of Switzerland was that the Kingdom of Switzerland would become a vassal state of the French Empire, and the King of Switzerland had to go to Paris to meet Li Wei in person!

Look at the loyal appearance of the rulers of the vassal states after seeing Levi. The gossip that Levi will hypnotize has been confirmed in the upper class in Europe. The King of Switzerland naturally understands what will happen to him if he goes to Paris!
It doesn't matter whether the Kingdom of Switzerland will become a vassal state. Anyway, Switzerland has always been a small country, and it is not unacceptable to become a vassal state of a big country.

But the King of Switzerland does not want to be the slave of others' thoughts!

The King of Italy and the King of the Netherlands had no choice. If the members of the Rhine League's national parliaments did not go to Paris to see Livy, they would not be qualified to occupy that position!

This is why everyone is willing to go to Paris to meet Levi.

If you can become a master, being enslaved by an emperor is not unacceptable.

In the 21st century, if time can be exchanged for money, some civilian families are willing to exchange it. After all, when they come to work, aren't they just exchanging time for money?
And there is also the painful process of toil, humiliation, flattery and betrayal of dignity!
In contrast, exchanging time for money directly, without having to go through the hard work of going to work, everyone naturally knows how to choose.

There are many people who exchange their life time for money, let alone exchange spiritual slavery for power?

Don't talk about freedom, if freedom can really make people pay their lives, there will be no violent machine like the state, and society will not divide people into different classes...

Compared with money and power, freedom is something that humans need less.

How many people work desperately to make money and sell their free time?
How many people use their free time after get off work to build their own interpersonal network, just to make themselves further?
Compared with money and power, freedom is really cheap...

Because of this, many people still rush to see Li Wei knowing that they are likely to be controlled by hypnosis when they go to Paris to see Li Wei.

After all, Li Wei's hypnosis is not a direct change of mind. The hypnotized person is almost the same as before except for his loyalty to Li Wei.

However, as the supreme Swiss king, he is unwilling to dedicate his loyalty unreservedly.

The King of Switzerland knew that once he went to Paris, he might not only be enslaved by Li Wei, but his whole family would be reduced to Li Wei's slaves little by little, just like the current Italian royal family. Paris 'travel'.

Thus, the French Empire launched a full-scale attack on the Kingdom of Switzerland!
(End of this chapter)