I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 1226 No, you cannot surrender yet.
The weather soon dealt Blücher a heavy blow.

The south side of Mount Roschtok is covered with ice, and the nearly vertical ice surface, tens of meters high, is impossible to climb.

Inside Blücher's tent, the officers all hung their heads in dejection.

After a long pause, Hoze spoke up: "How about... we return to the Schwyz direction and have a showdown with the French..."

All the officers raised their heads, their eyes filled with opposition.

Given the current state of the Prussian army, let alone fighting, the French only need to delay for more than ten days for their soldiers to be too hungry to even pick up their guns.

Blücher stared intently at the map, then shook his head: "No, we're not going to Schwyz..."

Just as the officers were about to breathe a sigh of relief, the commander continued, "We'll head east, pass through the Pannic Pass, and return to Venice from Cour."

The men in the tent were all pale-faced, and they began to consider whether they should still fight the French. At least they could surrender if they fought the French, but the Panniks Pass was known as "the most dangerous pass in the Alps".

This godforsaken place is 2438 meters above sea level and is covered in snow all year round. There are often dangerous paths along the way that are only half a meter wide, and one wrong step could send you tumbling down a cliff.

Especially now that it's winter, it's freezing cold there.

"General, this is too dangerous..."

An officer had barely uttered half a sentence when Blücher interrupted him: "We must get out of here alive!"

He knew very well that if he lost his 56,000 soldiers, Prussia's military strength would fall to the bottom of the European powers. Even if he won the war, he would be unable to compete with Austria for German supremacy in the future.

That afternoon, the Prussian army looted grain in Glarus and headed towards the most dangerous mountain pass early the next morning.

The following day, the Prussian army arrived in a large force on the banks of the Elm River, discarding all heavy weapons and vehicles, and began to enter the snow-covered Alps.

Just then, the sound of artillery fire came from the hillside ahead. Several shells landed on the frozen ground and bounced 200 meters away, killing dozens of Prussian soldiers along the way and leaving glaring bloodstains in the pure white snow.

Blücher was shocked and quickly looked up at the mountain through his binoculars, where he saw the French flags fluttering in the cold wind.

Little did he know that Dawu had arrived here a month earlier and set up two breastworks and a strong artillery position on the hillside.

Joseph clearly remembered that during the Battle of Zurich, the Russian army had escaped through the Panniks Pass. Although thousands of Russians froze to death or fell to their deaths en route, they still managed to bring their main force back to Austria.

So he instructed Massena early on to send troops to block the mountain pass.

Davu had only 3800 soldiers, but because he had occupied the high ground in advance and the mountain roads were narrow, the Prussian army, no matter how many troops it had, could not break through the defense line in a short time.

Massena's army is following behind the Prussian army and will arrive in two days at most.

The most critical issue is that, having already crossed the Gotthard Pass twice before, and now preparing to challenge the most treacherous pass, the Prussian army has abandoned all its artillery, making even a direct assault impossible.

Blücher raged and cursed for more than ten minutes, but in the end he had no choice but to order his army to retreat to Glarus and begin building a temporary defensive line there.

……

A few days ago.

On the north shore of Lake Lucerne, Suvorov, who had been struggling to hold out all day under the fierce attack of the French army, had lost his voice from shouting.

The Prussians should have arrived by noon yesterday, but it was already 2 p.m., and the opposite shore of the lake was still quiet.

His guards were trying to get him onto a raft on the lake to escape to the other side—a raft made of every tree they could find nearby, barely big enough to carry three or four people.

"No one is going to make me abandon my soldiers!" Suvorov roared in a hoarse voice. "Let me go, that's an order!"

He shook off the guard's hand, leaped onto his horse, and returned to the front command post. The left flank had been breached, and the main defensive line was also retreating steadily under the incredibly accurate French artillery fire.

Suvorov beckoned to the officer beside him: "Order all the reserve cavalry to bypass the gap on the left and try to..."

A soft "snap" interrupted the rest of his sentence.

It must have been a 12-pound cannonball that lightly grazed his left shoulder, sending more than a quarter of his body flying into the air.

The body was thrown several meters away by the impact before crashing heavily into the soil.

……

Paris.

The second floor of the Palace of Versailles.

Minister of War, Duke Broy, is personally reading the battle report to the Crown Prince:

"...Following the great victory at Lake Lucerne, General Massena has led his troops to besiege Glarus. In addition, the Udino Legion has also surrounded nearly 10,000 Russian troops in Aarau."

General Massena believed that the Prussian army would soon surrender due to lack of food, so he did not launch a strong attack...

“到目前为止，我军在瑞士战场共击毙普奥军7300人，俄军1万6千人。俘虏俄军2万4千人，汉诺威军3千人。击溃俄军1万1千人……”

Joseph nodded repeatedly with a relaxed smile.

Massena's victory was practically flawless. Keep in mind that in an era of limited communication, completely annihilating an army attempting to flee was virtually impossible.

Of the 60,000 Russian troops in this battle, only 11,000 fled, which is almost negligible.

Moreover, these people are all in Switzerland, and given Switzerland's mountainous terrain, it will be difficult for them to escape, and they will most likely be caught later.

Duke Broy continued, "In ten days at most, Blücher's army will surrender. At that time, General Massena's record in Switzerland will reach more than 13 enemy soldiers captured or killed."

Joseph suddenly thought of something and raised his hand, saying, "Wait, perhaps we should keep Blücher's 7 men."

"In reality, they number at most 66,000, Your Highness," Duke Broy corrected with a smile.

"You just said that the Prussian army is running out of food?"

"Yes, Your Highness, that's what General Massena's report says."

Joseph thought to himself, "Then let's try to send him some."

"Huh? Are you serious?"

“Yes, I’m not kidding,” Joseph said. “Then they spread the word that the ‘Prussian Legion’ was surrounded but still fought hard and caused great trouble for the French army, but they were ruthlessly abandoned by the Allied forces.”

"Please contact General Massena immediately and have him do this..."

After the General Staff officer finished taking notes, Joseph continued, "As for the 27,000 prisoners, send them all to Nancy to work on the railway. That will save us a lot of money."

“Count Emmanuel, please let Monsieur Tresage come to see me.”

[Because there will be a double monthly pass event at the end of this month, please hold off on voting for now and save your votes for the double event at the end of the month. The author would be extremely grateful!]

(End of this chapter)