I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 779: March into Italy

The next afternoon.

Beaulieu was discussing with his staff how to most efficiently attack the port of Toulon after taking control of Vence, when an officer barged in without even knocking on the door.

The visitor ignored the Marshal's angry look and shouted in panic:
"Marshal, General Dannenfeld was attacked on his way to Vence, and almost all of his troops were wiped out. His whereabouts are unknown..."

Beaulieu stood up suddenly: "You, what did you say?"

The officer swallowed and continued:
"Also, General Provera was ambushed by the French during his retreat. The soldier who sent back the message said that he was going to retreat to Vence and asked for support."

To be honest, Napoleon did not really arrange troops to ambush Provera. After all, he did not know that the Austrian army had abandoned the town of Cagnes-sur-Seine.

This was all because Augereau was "too idle" and wanted to find something to do, but he unexpectedly encountered the Provera army.

But in Provera's opinion, the French had definitely been waiting for him here for a long time, so he collapsed at the first touch and turned around and ran away.

Beaulieu just felt a buzzing in his head.

The troops to reinforce Vence were gone, but Provera still ran towards Vence, so the outcome was already doomed.

The current situation is that the entire battle west of Nice has failed, and the Provera Corps and the Dannenfeld Corps have lost at least 1 people.

At the same time, the connection between him and Vence had been cut off by the French army.

In other words, the nearly 10,000 soldiers of the Sebottendorf Legion will most likely not be able to return...

He brought 3 Austrian and 2 Sardinian troops to France, more than half of whom had been lost.

It seemed that he still had 2 troops, but in fact, the previous losses were all the more powerful Austrian troops, and the remaining Sardinian Corps could not fight any decent battle at all.

He hesitated for only half a minute before shouting to the herald, "The entire army will immediately retreat to the Catibona Pass. Order Marshal Argenteuil to lead the 7th Royal Infantry Brigade to take over the defense near the pass. The Sardinian Camuripi Corps will be responsible for the defense of Nice."

"Yes, Marshal!"

It was two days after Napoleon completely surrounded the Sebottendorf Corps that he received the news that Beaulieu's main force had withdrawn from Nice, and he was immediately filled with regret.

According to his plan, he wanted to block Beaulieu in Nice, but he didn't expect the latter to run so decisively.

In fact, this could not be blamed on him. The main reason was that Collie had deployed a large number of defenses along the line from Nice to the Catibone Pass, making it difficult for the French cavalry to conduct close reconnaissance.

Looking back at the entire Battle of Toulon, this was the only highlight of Beaulieu's command.

Napoleon immediately left the Joubert Corps to continue to clean up the mess at Sebotndorf, and led the main force to the Catibona Pass to try to stop Beaulieu.

But at this time, most of the Austrian troops had retreated to the Italian Peninsula, and with Argento desperately defending, Napoleon ultimately failed to retain Beaulieu's main force.

After Argento also entered the Alps, the 1 Camulippi troops who remained in Nice immediately surrendered.

Two days later, Sebottendorf also gave up resistance and surrendered to the French army.

In the Monaco Castle, Napoleon happily wrote a report to His Royal Highness the Dauphin - the Battle of Toulon was a complete victory, with 8 Austrian soldiers killed or wounded and 1 captured. Three enemy generals, Dannenfeld, Sebottendorf, and Provera, were captured. Major Filippo del Carreto, Beaulieu's son-in-law, and Lieutenant Colonel Camulippi, commander of the Sardinian Varra Corps, were also captured.

Yes, Napoleon ultimately captured and killed only 2 enemy troops. Thousands of Austrian soldiers were rescued by British transport ships on the beaches southwest of Nice.

However, this was still a clean victory, at least France would no longer be threatened in the southeast. Of course, for Joseph, this was just the most basic requirement.

According to his "right swing" plan, Napoleon would cross the Alps and attack Sardinia, and then attack southwestern Austria from the Italian peninsula.

Without Joseph's urging, by the time his commendation order reached Toulon, Napoleon had already controlled the Catibone Pass and Augereau's vanguard troops began to pass through the pass.

1793 7 Month 29 Day.

Wearing a brand new colonel's collar insignia, Napoleon spurred his horse on with great enthusiasm and took the first step towards crossing the Alps.

Yes, he had been promoted to colonel after his victory at Toulon.

All officers who participated in this battle also received promotions to varying degrees.

And most importantly, after the easy victory in the battle near Nice, the Italian army no longer had any doubts about the command ability of Napoleon, the young officer.

Everyone was heading towards Italy with full confidence and high morale.

A few days later.

Napoleon tightened his collar, sniffed, kicked the mule under his crotch with his heel, looked at the quartermaster staff beside him, frowned and said:

"You mean the winter clothing for the Montpellier Corps has not yet arrived?"

"Yes, Commander." The latter also shrank his neck due to the cold. "The military police have arrested their three logistics procurement officers, but you know, it will take some time to recover the stolen money and re-order cotton clothes..."

Due to the abnormal climate in Europe in recent years, there is still snow on the top of the Alps even in August.

Although the snow accumulation was not large due to the warm Mediterranean breeze, it still caused some trouble.

Even Napoleon's horse was exhausted by the cold, so he had to ride a mule over the mountain.

Napoleon was obviously a little angry. The Montpellier Corps had more than 6 men, and if it could not pass through the Alps in time, it would seriously affect his military strength.

"How long will it take?" he asked his staff officer.

"Montpellier promised to resolve the issue within two weeks. But you know, we usually can't take their promises too seriously."

The Montpellier Corps still operated according to the old army model, with logistical supplies purchased privately by senior officers and then reimbursed to the Palace of Versailles.

The General Staff had previously suggested providing them with supplies, but the military nobles of Montpellier refused - what a joke! This was a lucrative job, and by forging bills, the reimbursement amount was more than double the actual expenditure, so of course it couldn't be handed over to the General Staff casually.

Thus, the current situation arose.

In fact, this kind of thing was common in the old army.

For example, the Prussian and Austrian armies had months of preparation time before the war, but were often delayed by similar trivial matters.

However, Prussia is already preparing to set up a general staff in order to eliminate this malpractice. Historically, it was Prussia that first created the general staff model, which then spread throughout Europe.

At present, European countries are learning the French model.

(End of this chapter)