I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 815 A Surprise from the Crown Prince

Then, Bessières and Napoleon's guards joined the fight.

He also brought Napoleon's flag.

The soldiers could not find the commander-in-chief on the chaotic battlefield, but they saw the big flag fluttering in the wind at a glance.

Colonel Bonaparte is always by our side!

The same thought occurred to the recruits at the same time, and their morale suddenly became stronger. The bayonets they thrust out were more ferocious than before.

Screams rang out one after another. More Austrian soldiers, driven by great fear, dropped their weapons and fled in all directions.

Chervoni's defenses collapsed quickly like a sandbank before a flood.

When Jubert arrived to join the battle, he only saw the backs of the new recruits of the Wanger Regiment and thousands of Austrian soldiers kneeling on the ground to surrender.

Napoleon saw Joubert's flag from afar, and then glanced at the enemy troops who had already fled far away, and said to Lucien: "Let Major Joubert immediately launch an attack to the south of Marengo. Melas's command post should be there!"

"Yes, Commander!"

A few kilometers away in Castelcelliolo, Juno had been defeated by the Argentau Legion, which had an absolute advantage in manpower, and retreated to San Guiliano with only more than 300 soldiers left.

Sérurier was still trying to deal with the Colly Legion, but it was clear that his strength was at the end of its rope, and his soldiers began to flee.

At this moment, the Austrian commanders on both wings received the same order from Melas - to rush to the village of Marengo to reinforce immediately. Napoleon broke through their central army.

……

Capianca, 5 km south of Marengo.

Melas watched the last ray of sunlight disappear over the horizon and finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He had not expected that the French army could defeat Cervonni's troops so quickly with inferior forces, and he was almost captured by the French just now.

Fortunately, he was lucky. Augereau's army was exhausted and the pursuit was very slow.

Although the French recruits who rushed forward screaming were full of energy, they were already too excited after the previous fighting and had no formation at all. Napoleon could not stop them even when he shouted at them from behind.

As a result, Melas defeated them with only more than 300 guards.

After that, Melas hastily retreated to Capianca.

Then, Chervoni also retreated here and gradually gathered less than 4 defeated soldiers.

In the church of Capianca, Melas looked at the messenger from the Argentau Legion who had just arrived and asked, "Have you already joined up with the Colli Legion?"

"Yes, General."

"What about the damage?"

"There are almost no losses, General. The French are obviously stalling for time instead of engaging in direct combat."

There was some light in Melas' eyes again.

The combined forces of Argentau and Colli number more than 2 men. If they were connected to the troops confronting the French army to the north of San Guiliano, there would be more than 5 soldiers.

This was enough to launch a counterattack against the French.

Napoleon's troops must have been very tired after today's fierce battle, but Argentau and his men did not fight much and were able to fight in excellent condition.

With the advantage in military strength, there may be a chance to turn defeat into victory!
Melas thought of this and immediately wrote an order to the messenger, asking him to return to Argentau's army immediately. In the letter, he appointed Argentau to command all the Austrian troops north of Marengo and to attack Napoleon before 10 o'clock tomorrow morning.

At the same time, in the village of Marengo, Napoleon was lying on the map with a serious expression, laying out the battle plan with officers such as Jubert.

"We failed to capture Melas, which means there will be a new fierce battle soon."

"But our army is in urgent need of rest and recuperation."

In today's brutal battle, the French army suffered nearly 5 casualties, and many troops were even disbanded, making it difficult to continue fighting.

Napoleon seemed very calm:

"But we also gained a huge advantage, which is to cut off the connection between Melas and his army.

"So, I planned to launch a feint attack on Melas' headquarters to attract the Austrians' attention. This mission was to be completed by Captain Meunier and two thousand new soldiers.

“At the same time, our main force moved eastward to join Augereau’s Corps and rested in San Guiliano.

"Then, depending on the enemy's movements, we can choose to attack Marengo or..."

Just as Napoleon was holding a war meeting all night long, an inconspicuous carriage quietly stopped in the camp of the Sardinian Corps under Colli.

A man in black got out of the car and, accompanied by two Sardinian captains, walked straight to the area of ​​officers' tents.

Soon, more than a dozen senior Sardinian officers gathered in the tent where the man in black was, but no one reported the matter to General Collie.

The next morning, the first thing Coli did after getting up was to order the entire Sardinian Corps to assemble and prepare to attack the French.

However, the herald returned just ten minutes after leaving and said to him, "General, the legion has been assembled and seems to be heading towards the Bormida River."

"Bormida River? Damn, what are these guys doing?" Coli frowned, dropped the fried ham he had just taken two bites of, and rode towards the soldiers' camp.

Soon, he saw his troops moving westward in the distance.

With a dark face, he asked the herald to call the highest-ranking officers of the Sardinian Legion and shouted angrily: "Are you crazy? Who told you to mobilize the army without authorization?"

Lieutenant General François Taon, the most senior officer in the Sardinian army, bowed to him very politely and said, "General Colly, we have received an order from His Majesty the King that Turin is under serious threat from the French army. We must return to the capital to strengthen the defense there."

"Turin? God! We are about to launch a counterattack against the French army, you can't leave without permission." Colley said angrily, "I order you to return to the camp immediately!"

Several Sardinian officers looked at each other. Lieutenant General Taon took out a document from his pocket and held it in front of Colli: "I'm sorry, you are no longer the commander of the Sardinian Corps. This is a transfer order issued by the Minister of War. Now the Corps is under my command."

Only then did Coli realize that something was wrong and hurried to find Argentau.

The two men discussed for a long time and finally decided to send troops to intercept the Sardinian Legion, forcibly remove Taon and others from their military power, and then use Austrian officers to temporarily control the more than 1 soldiers.

However, Argentao's troops had previously been preparing to launch an attack in the direction of Marengo, but now they suddenly had to turn west, and the troop mobilization alone took nearly an hour.

By the time they reached the east bank of the Bormida River, the Sardinians had basically completed crossing the river and had set up cannons pointing at the bridgehead, ready to open fire if the Austrians dared to catch up.

Napoleon, with dark circles under his eyes, assembled his troops and prepared to abandon Marengo and move eastward according to the plan made yesterday.

However, just as the troops were about to set off, the cavalry responsible for guarding the front line came to report to him: "Commander, the enemy is heading west."

"Okay, I see..." Napoleon waved his hand, but suddenly froze, "What? You mean, westward?"

(End of this chapter)