I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 1231 Strategic Shift
Seeing that no one responded, the Marquis of Wellesley continued in a loud voice:
"The reason why Blücher's army entered Switzerland was to be able to break through the Mantua fortress as quickly as possible."

"However, now we are discussing how to wage war in Switzerland!"

"With the Gotthard Pass already under French control, even if we were to completely occupy Switzerland, it would have no effect on the overall war situation."

Austrian Chief of the General Staff Weröser and several other officers immediately nodded in agreement: "You're right. Right now, we should concentrate our forces and break through the Mantua fortress!"

"We cannot get bogged down in Switzerland!"

"Move Kosakov's army to Verona as well..."

Wellesley sighed: "No, the core reason we chose northern Italy as the main battlefield is that a legion will enter Lombardy and launch an attack on Mantua from the south."

"But this factor no longer exists."

He turned his head and glanced south: "We will be facing the Mingqiao River, and rows of bastions on both banks."

He raised the stack of battle reports again: "As you all know, the French are on a general mobilization, and they have even issued a decree on 'liberty and equality' for this purpose!"

Someone whispered, "It's the Declaration of the Rights of Man."

“That’s right, the Declaration of the Rights of Man.” Wellesley nodded. “If we continue to drag things out in Mantua, we will face more and more enemy forces.”

"Excuse my bluntness, but it's very likely that we'll never achieve a breakthrough here!"

The Duke of York coughed lightly and gestured to him with his eyes to watch his words.

After frowning and pondering for a moment, Archduke Karl nodded and said, "I must admit that we did fall into a strategic misconception before."

"General Wellesley, then tell me, how should we break the deadlock now?"

"It's simple: give up Switzerland and leave Mantua."

A murmur of discussion immediately broke out in the conference room.

Archduke Charles, however, looked at the Englishman and said, "Please continue."

"We must leverage the greatest advantage of the allied forces, which is their overwhelming numerical superiority over the enemy. Therefore, the decisive battle must be fought in a location that facilitates the deployment of large armies."

Wellesley pointed to the sand table again: "For example, the Württemberg area."

"We can deploy more than 40 troops here to launch attacks on the French forces in Baden from multiple directions. We can also launch attacks on the eastern Rhineland at any time."

"At the same time, the Duke of Brunswick will launch a diversionary attack on the lower Rhine."

"The French will have to juggle multiple fronts. In the process, they are bound to make mistakes."

"And that is our opportunity."

Archduke Karl and Prince Schwarzenberg exchanged glances, their eyes filled with approval.

Wellesley continued, "We can leave 6 to 7 troops in Mantua to continue the feint attack. The main army will maneuver along Austria and Saxony to achieve surprise."

"If the French forces in Mantua launch a counterattack, we will abandon Venice and retreat to the Klagenfurt fortress."

Just as Grand Duke Karl was about to nod and say something, the Prussian staff officer sitting in the corner stood up first and said, "We cannot stand idly by while General Blücher is doing nothing; the allied forces must unite!"

Since most of the Prussian army was far from northern Italy, his rank of major was the highest among the Prussian officers in the Allied command.

“We will never forget General Blücher’s outstanding contributions,” Wellesley said. “In fact, the Allied reinforcements to him in Württemberg were far more effective than sending troops directly to Switzerland. The French forces were limited, and with Baden under threat, they had no choice but to withdraw their Swiss troops to defend it.”

Archduke Karl seemed to feel embarrassed and coughed lightly, saying, "I will send an army of 20,000 men to the Basel direction to contain the French army and relieve the pressure on General Blücher."

Back then, he insisted on focusing the attack on northern Italy, which Blücher strongly opposed. Now, however, the latter is bearing the brunt of the losses, which is truly unreasonable.

Wellesley immediately objected: "Your Highness, we should not disperse any troops, not even 20,000..."

Grand Duke Karl said somewhat awkwardly in a low voice, "Losing an army of nearly 6 men will have a negative impact on the morale of the allied forces."

Wellesley exclaimed, "General Blücher annihilated more than 7 French troops in Switzerland, but was eventually surrounded by the French due to a sudden cold snap. Even so, he continued to put up a fierce resistance."

Grand Duke Karl's eyes widened, but he immediately understood.

No one except these high-ranking officials knew how many victories the Prussian army had achieved in Switzerland. Therefore, as long as the propaganda was handled properly, it wouldn't have much of an impact on morale.

Before the Prussian major could argue further, Wellesley said, "Even if Blücher's army is captured, they will all be able to return to Berlin with dignity as long as the Allied forces achieve final victory."

The subsequent operational meeting proceeded with detailed discussions based on the British advice, and continued until dusk...

a.

The main Austrian army began to quietly withdraw in batches from northern Italy, then bypassed Bohemia and headed south from Thuringia to Württemberg.

Meanwhile, a new round of conscription began in Austria.

……

1799 1 Month 11 Day.

Eastern suburbs of Paris.

Wearing a black tricorn hat and a brand-new white military uniform, Gilles Gaizka stood ramrod straight in the second row of the formation.

He has completed 70 days of intensive training and is now a soldier in the 23rd Infantry Division of the Sixth Army of France.

The chubby, brown-haired boy standing next to him was getting impatient, muttering, "It's so cold. Shouldn't we be heading straight to Switzerland or Mantua or something? What are we waiting here for?"

Recently, due to the extensive publicity surrounding the Swiss victory and the Mantua raid, he, a farmer who has rarely left his village, only knows these few foreign place names.

The honorary representative standing on the far left of the line turned his head to look at him and smiled, "Quiet, Nasserli. You won't regret waiting this half hour."

He had barely finished speaking when he heard the company commander's voice: "Everyone, march in step."

As the war drums sounded, Gaizka reflexively stepped to the beat and began to walk.

The ranks of these four or five hundred soldiers were still somewhat crooked, but they maintained a consistent pace and showed no signs of loosening even after marching nearly two kilometers.

Gaizka had excellent eyesight and spotted the white smoke from a great distance: "That's... a steam engine?"

His village has steam pumps, so he's very familiar with this scene.

"It's a train!" Nasser exclaimed excitedly. "I saw it in the newspaper. It can carry hundreds of people and it's incredibly fast!"

(End of this chapter)