Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Chapter 333 Unfortunate Mark has his own fault
In Strasbourg, Napoleon's temporary headquarters, he was ready to set off.

Within a month, the army had moved from the Channel to the banks of the Rhine. Such a large-scale military mobilization had never been seen in Europe at that time.

Now, the French are also going to cross the Rhine and continue into the "territory" of the illegal organization.

"Your Majesty, the Bavarian army is currently in the Bayreuth area, and Bernadotte is passing through Ansbach."

"I think Marc will know, Berthier, issue the following orders."

As "Napoleon's wife", of course, a "wife" in the army, Berthier had a very important task, which was to keep up with the emperor's pace and turn his abstract handwritten or oral orders into orders with the cooperation of the emperor's private secretary.

The two men had been cooperating on this point since the beginning of the battle in 1796, and they understood each other's subtle movements.

"Bernadotte will go from Ansbach to Ingolstadt, Marmont will protect the right wing of the First Army, Davout will march from Mannheim to Augsburg, Soult and Ney to Günzburg, Lannes will go through Baden and Stuttgart, and Murat."

"Your Majesty, how will Murat act?"

Napoleon was somewhat troubled when he took off his iconic hat.

After all, this brother-in-law is different from his late brother-in-law Leclerc. Murat is world-class below the neck, but his brain is often offline; Leclerc has a good brain and is good at leading troops, but yellow fever can take him away, and now there is no need to consider the problem below the neck.

"We need Murat's cavalry on the main roads leading to Munich. Forget it, let Savary pass on this order directly."

Murat's brain was indeed not very useful. Even some generals of the cavalry army thought that although this commander was brave, he was not a normal commander.

For Napoleon, apart from his stepson Eugene, none of his relatives were capable of fighting. Louis was just an average person and had always been troubled by a strange disease. Fortunately, the disease was not passed on to Hortense, and he was able to give birth to an heir.

As for Jerome, this stupid younger brother caused him a lot of headaches. He found a wife in the United States and affected his marriage plans.

The remaining closer relatives, the cousins ​​from Corsica, are much more reliable than these royal members, but their abilities are also limited.

From this perspective, Napoleon's family would have to include the Leclerc family, as his deceased brother-in-law's brother and brother-in-law were still useful people.

However, Davout, who is now bald, is still believed to have risen to power through nepotism and the relationship with his deceased old friend, and has not shown much ability.

On the contrary, when in Egypt, there were several embarrassing battles against the Mamluks.

The order has been passed down, but Napoleon is still not confident about Murat. After all, the purpose of this mission of luring the enemy is to hope that the cavalry can attract the attention of the Austrian commander.

Although there was a problem, the heavy cavalry under Murat were somewhat unsuitable for operations in this area.

But Napoleon did send decoy troops in this direction, and Mark did notice the activities of the French army.

Then, Mark also set up his battle array in Ulm, his strategic center, to prepare to meet the enemy.

One was bold enough to strike a posture to lure the enemy, and the other really dared to take it.

As for the Guards, this unit has always been in the rear as a battlefield tour group and will not be deployed unless it is a critical moment.

So, this is also a kind of: the general reserve force does not move.

However, the French army found it difficult to complete the emperor's grand vision during the march. The marching routes of several armies were still parallel, and when in action, they looked like a fan.

Regardless of the actions of the French army, after Archduke Ferdinand and Mark arrived in Ulm, they soon learned the direction of Murat's actions.

This also allowed the Austrian army to form a line from Ulm to Ingolstadt.

But no matter how you look at this formation, it looks like they are ready to get beaten, and they can't even keep a way to retreat.

The French army also acted very quickly. In fact, the reason was very simple. Napoleon received intelligence that the scale of the Austrian army in Ingstadt seemed to be very large.

However, the intelligence was obviously exaggerated. Napoleon received the news while he was still on the road that Württemberg had finally accepted the alliance after the enemy was at the gates.

He then issued new orders, and three corps and part of the cavalry corps marched towards Ingolstadt.

However, the marching route of Davout's Third Army changed again. They wanted to cut off the connection between Mark and the Austrian army in Ingstadt. This would be a way to split the Austrians and defeat them one by one through the rapid maneuver of several armies.

As Napoleon advanced to the front line, he kept an eye on the movements of the various armies and was more confident than when he was in Italy.

He was riding proudly on his white horse on the way to the front line, now with his guards.

Sometimes, a few veterans would joke with him as he passed by, such as
"Dad, where's the bread?"

This is somewhat funny. After all, many of the veterans of the Guards have served for a long time, participated in many battles, and are even older than the emperor himself.

Even more people were still shouting: "Long live the emperor! Long live the emperor!"

This is a very old drama. When the old soldiers were complaining, they still called their emperor "Little Sergeant".

He wanted to respond to these soldiers, but at this time, he also received more important news.

"Your Majesty, report from the Fourth Army."

A chasseur came on horseback and handed the letter to Berthier.

After Napoleon opened the letter, he was obviously a little angry.

"This won't work. Our two armies are advancing in parallel, and the entire left wing can't keep up. The Austrians are going to escape!"

The order he gave to Soult's Fourth Army and some light cavalry in Murat's Cavalry Army was to encircle the Austrian corps in Ingstadt, but these divisions formed a parallel line during the march and engaged in a firefight with the Austrian guard troops when crossing the river from Donauwörth.

Then, the Austrian commander General von Kimmayer did not act according to Mark's orders. He set up a formation with light troops in the west and heavy troops in the east. After discovering that the number of French troops crossing the river far exceeded his own, he chose to run away.

"Your Majesty, what should we do next?"

"Don't worry about these Austrians who escaped. We must continue to move south and cut off the Austrian army's retreat."

Although more than 10,000 Austrian troops escaped, most of the troops led by Archduke Ferdinand and Mark were still around Ulm, with a total strength of more than 50,000.

This army is only a quarter of the French army, but it is still a large group. After all, it is also the majority of the current Austrian Danube Corps. What needs to be done now is to advance quickly, surround and destroy the enemy.

Just don't let the Austrian army escape like they did when crossing the river at Donauwörth. Napoleon's goal is to eliminate all the scattered enemies before the Allied forces gather.

Just like in Italy, the Austrians clearly never learned their lesson, and this formation was clearly worse.

In the past, it was the grandfather who saved the Calabash Brothers, and several old men led their armies to deliver their lives separately, and they marched separately, making it easy for them to be defeated one by one.

And what is Mark doing now?
On the one hand, he divided his troops and sent General von Kimmaier to lead a small force in the Ingolstadt area, while at the same time he gathered the main force around Ulm.

I don't know whether this is a pig's tactic or a long snake formation.

Even after Napoleon saw it, he still didn't understand what Mark was doing.

As for Mark himself, after he fell off his horse during the march and injured himself, he delegated part of the command to Schwarzenberg.

It was not until this time that Archduke Ferdinand discovered that his quartermaster general was actually in control of the army. It was just that a commander, a quartermaster general, and Schwarzenberg were all issuing orders. The entire messenger system of the Austrian army had been disrupted, and the Austrian troops in Ulm were now squatting in the same place.

In addition, the Austrian army advancing towards Wertingen near Ulm also encountered the French.

Mark was in Ulm, and he was also paying attention to the battle situation in all directions. He had nothing to say about von Kimmel's behavior as a long-distance runner, after all, he didn't go far, and he could even send a military envoy to give orders to the general.

But it’s hard to say how effective it is.

On the other hand, it was a complete failure in Wertingen.

Murat's heavy cavalry did play a role and attracted the attention of the Austrian army, but this was also the result of Napoleon sending people to supervise the execution and Lannes' Fifth Army also participating.

After all, Lannes brought a brain with him. After Murat was connected to his brain waves, as long as he listened to Marshal Lannes' advice, Murat seemed to be very smart and his IQ took the upper hand again.

But he couldn't understand why the Austrians did this.

"What the hell, Lana, look at these Austrians, what are they doing here with these thousands of people?"

"Perhaps you attracted them. After all, when these Austrians saw your heavy cavalry, they thought that the main force of our army had arrived here."

"This Mark doesn't look very smart. We can just rush over and kill them directly."

Lana curled his lips. Looking at Murat like this, he thought his brain was hopeless and he could only rush forward.

Although Rana himself was a very brave general, he always used his brain to do things and paid close attention to observing the changes on both sides on the battlefield, relying on these to make correct judgments.

"Yes, we should rush up and kill them."

But the commanders of the heavy cavalry also thought so. Lasalle, who commanded the hussars, did not express his opinion and just stood aside.

Rana saw this situation and had no good solution.

You have to know that among these generals of some importance present, there is still one left, Oudinot, who is always hit but always comes back alive and kicking. That unlucky general is not a good brain either.

Lannes knew what Lasalle was thinking, but since Murat and his gang all advocated launching an attack, he had no choice but to change his deployment.

This guy is the emperor's brother-in-law, and Napoleon's brothers-in-law, except Leclerc, are not very reliable.

Oudinot's grenadiers were still lagging behind, and now if they wanted to launch an attack, they had to rely on Murat's cavalry.

The heavy cavalry of Klein and de Beaumont, and the hussars of Lasalle, whose formations were also further forward, also took the lead in launching the attack.

The Austrian army's formation was extremely loose during the march, which resulted in General Offenberg nominally having 26 battalions, but actually only 8 battalions and a few cavalry squadrons could be put into battle. There were not even any cannons here, and his 24 cannons were all dragged behind the marching column.

then
Half of the 5500 Austrian troops were quickly divided and surrounded by the French cavalry's surprise attack.

The battle was not even intense enough. When Oudinot's grenadiers arrived on the battlefield, they only helped Lasalle's cavalry force the remaining Austrian grenadiers to surrender.

Lana also had to watch the smug Murat posing in his gorgeous and stupid clothes and even whistling.

"Dear Lannes, look at these Austrians. They surrendered in just one morning."

"These enemies really don't behave very well. They are no different from the Austrians in the past."

Lannes was referring to the Austrian Army during the battle in Italy, but the Austrian Army was somewhat more resilient when the old men were commanding the battle.

Now these Austrian troops are being divided up like pigs.

"That's true. I still need to win a big battle and go back to let Carolina know that this is not an honor."

When Lana looked at this guy, he knew that if he marched with him, he would have to use his brain to avoid falling into a trap.

"Okay, but we still have to fulfill His Majesty's orders and continue to move forward to surround Ulm."

On the other side, Mark can only say that his performance was that he wanted to take advantage of the terrain here, but let the French get behind them.

This guy looks no different from Ma Su.

It was General von Kimmel who did Wang Ping's work. While organizing the troops to retreat, he had already sent messengers to the Inn River to wait for the subsequent arrival of the Russian army and to tell Kutuzov what was happening at the front.

In fact, this is currently the more reliable action of the Austrian army.

At the same time, General von Kleinau also received news that his friendly forces had been defeated. He was well prepared and had begun building positions to at least avoid being defeated by a few charges from the French cavalry.

Of course, the most troublesome thing was that after two small-scale battles with the Austrian army, the French army was cut off from Vienna, and most of the Danube Corps was surrounded.

Look at the size of the Austrian army, there are at least 50,000 of them.

Maybe they won't be caught by the French in three days.

(End of this chapter)