I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 804 Information Warfare in the 18th Century (Recommended, please help!)

"Occupied Leuven?" Davout was the first to react, and he was immediately surprised and said, "Great! Then Prussia and Austria will not be able to directly send troops to the Southern Netherlands."

Lefebvre immediately agreed: "They only have one way to get to Brussels, through 's-Hertogenbosch on the north side."

Davout thought about what the prince had just said, and added: "This also means that the Duke of York cannot retreat to Gelden from the east. He is almost alone!"

Well, yes, the Duke of York has the Netherlands behind him, but everyone automatically ignores it.

The Dutch could only provide supplies to the coalition forces, and their army was basically worthless - the most elite Dutch soldiers were in Davidovich's hands, and they were the worst in the previous battles. At this time, the more than 10,000 people were still hiding in Gant in the west, and had lost contact with the Duke of York.

Joseph nodded: "And we can get reinforcements from Wallonia and Flemish regions.

“Then we will push all the way north, to The Hague and even Amsterdam.

"At least, we have to conquer the northern territory of the Flemish Republic, so that Brussels can be stable in the future."

The officers were immediately excited. His Highness was actually planning to attack the Netherlands directly! This was a feat that would recreate the era of the Sun King!
But they were also a little nervous.

After all, their own troops were at a disadvantage, especially since there were too few French soldiers, so it would be very dangerous to launch an active attack.

Lefebvre was the most cautious and suggested, "Your Highness, perhaps we should wait until the new recruits in Paris have completed their basic training and send another 5 troops over. This would be safer."

Joseph shook his head calmly: “You have to believe in the power of the Flemish people.

"As long as we reach Antwerp, we will soon be able to obtain tens of thousands of Flemish soldiers.

"When they come to attack Holland they will be even more enthusiastic.

“We can equip them with the weapons of the Austrian army that we captured before, and the logistical supplies will also be mainly provided by them.

"As for the new recruits in Paris, send them all to Italy. The combat pressure there is still very high."

Given France's population base, it is relatively easy to recruit more than 2,000 new soldiers every month.

Coupled with the recent victories in the Southern Netherlands and Italy, people's enthusiasm for joining the army has been further increased.

However, Joseph did not want to send inadequately trained recruits to die on the battlefield. He was also worried that conscripting too many strong men to serve would affect domestic production, so he deliberately controlled the number of recruits.

After completing the land and tax reforms, even if France could not reach the speed of military expansion in history as the First French Empire, it at least had the ability to recruit seven or eight thousand new soldiers every month.

As soon as Joseph finished speaking, an officer quickly walked into the tent, handed a military report to Lefebvre, and whispered, "General, this was just sent from Freiburg."

The latter opened the military report, glanced at it, looked at Joseph and said, "Your Highness, Wurmser led 5 Austrian troops south five days ago. He should be reinforcing Mantua."

Thanks to the fact that France spent more than 4 million francs to build a dense network of Chap signal towers - some were built to the Alpine Pass in the south and to Namur in the central Southern Netherlands in the north - the Austrian army's mobilization information could be transmitted to Joseph with almost no delay.

Four of the five days were spent sneaking intelligence out of Freiburg, which took a long time. Freiburg is the westernmost territory of Austria. Although it is close to France, it is separated by the Black Forest Mountains. The intelligence agency was able to deliver the intelligence within four days, which was very efficient.

The officers in the tent all looked at Joseph. Murat looked surprised: "Your Highness, you are right. The Italian army is in urgent need of reinforcements." Lefebvre frowned and continued: "It seems that the Austrians are planning to retake Milan.

"Wilmser actually went to Italy in person. In this case, it would definitely not be enough to send only a few thousand new soldiers to Colonel Bonaparte."

Joseph narrowed his eyes and asked, "Who is currently commanding the Austrian army in Freiburg?"

Lefebvre glanced at the military newspaper: "It is Count Baye von Latour, your highness."

"It's him..." Joseph tapped the table with his fingers, thinking, "It seems that our battle plan needs to be adjusted."

Latour was considered the commander of the first echelon of Austria. Historically, he played a significant role in the Battle of the Rhine, but he was no match for Moreau.

Lefebvre asked, "What do you mean?"

Joseph looked at the last node of Austria on the Italian peninsula, the Mantua Fortress. His fingers that were tapping on the table suddenly stopped. He said decisively: "Transfer the Royal Third Infantry Division of the Moreau Corps to the Italian Front, and assign him three Royal Cavalry Artillery Companies. Oh, and those thousands of new recruits, all to Colonel Bonaparte."

Everyone was stunned.

Everyone is talking about reinforcing the Italian front, but aren't you reinforcing too much?
The Royal 3rd Infantry Division is the core force of the Moreau Corps. Now that it has been transferred away, how can we fight the battle in the Basel area?
Lefebvre said hurriedly: "Your Highness, isn't this too risky? What if Latour wants to force a crossing of the Rhine, Moreau's troops..."

Joseph nodded and said, “I understand your concerns.

"However, this time we must make full use of our information advantage to link the entire front."

Lefebvre and the others looked at each other in bewilderment. "Information advantage"? "Linkage"? They could understand the words, but when they were put together, they had no idea what they meant.

Joseph didn't find it strange when he saw the officers' expressions.

After all, there was no concept of information warfare in this era, so he patiently explained: "We have the Shap signal machine, and the news between different fronts can be transmitted to each other in three to five days at most. The enemy will take at least twice as long. This is the information advantage."

His statement was actually conservative. If the troops were in France, the communication between them would take at most half a day to be delivered - mainly due to the time it took to send cavalry from the front-line command post to the signal tower.

Joseph continued: "I judge that after the Italian front launches the attack, the Holy Roman Emperor will most likely continue to transfer troops from Freiburg to reinforce Mantua.

“In that case, the Moreau Corps will not have any pressure and can even launch some counterattacks.

“If Latour did not send troops to Italy, but continued to attack Basel, he could let Moreau abandon the Rhine defense line and retreat directly to Lorraine for defense.

“Under these circumstances, the Austrian army in Italy would certainly be defeated by Colonel Bonaparte.

“After that, he could choose to lay siege to Mantua, or bypass the fortress and head directly north to Venice.

“And our army has transferred some soldiers from the Massena Corps to defend Lorraine.

"The key point is that no matter how the enemy mobilizes its forces, our information will be transmitted faster than theirs, so we can react first and focus on attacking their weak points!"

(End of this chapter)