I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 863 Entering the Strategic Counterattack Phase (Additional chapter for Black Hand Chieftain Xianyu Wei)

The cannon closest to the south entrance of the fortress suddenly stopped firing.

The French infantry that rushed up were encouraged and quickly deployed into skirmish formations - the infantry directly under the corps had undergone a lot of skirmish combat training.

As the French fired the first volley, the enemy troops near the entrance of the fortress retreated to the east.

Then they turned their firepower to the fortress gate to prevent the Austrian troops inside from coming out to reinforce.

But soon, the cannons and flintlocks on the fortress began to fire wildly at this side, and immediately more than a dozen French soldiers were covered in blood and fell to the ground and died.

The French battalion commander loudly encouraged the soldiers: "Hold on, Major Wasser's reinforcements will arrive soon, and this will be our breakthrough point to the fortress!"

Gerard led his team to a heavy artillery position at an angle, and began firing before entering the blind spot of the cannon.

In less than 20 minutes, the two French infantry battalions had suffered more than 260 casualties, but they still stubbornly stayed at the entrance on the south side of the fortress, preventing the Austrian defense line here from closing.

Just then, the sound of horse hooves was heard in the distance.

Gerard turned his head and saw the flag of the Royal Dragoon Battalion waving in the sun, and behind it seemed to be the cavalry artillery unit.

The dragoons dismounted in front of the fortress, quickly organized their formation, and then launched a fierce attack on the fortress.

At the same time, the cavalry artillery also set up cannons and concentrated their bombardment on the enemy forces at the gap.

More than 800 dragoons occupied the outer embankment on the south side of the fortress, which was the outermost city wall, with almost no hindrance.

The defenders in the fortress were stunned by the sudden attack, and due to the loss of unified command, the reserve troops in the fortress barracks never came out to reinforce.

When Major Wasser's infantry regiment arrived, the battle situation was irreversible, and a large number of Austrian soldiers began to abandon the fortress and flee...

At three o'clock in the afternoon, Soult was inspecting the fortress he had just captured when he heard thunderous cheers all around him, "Look, the Austrians are retreating!"

"Haha, Cologne is ours!"

"Victory to France!"

"Long live France! Long live the King!"

Soult hurried to a tower of the fortress. Without a telescope, he could see a large number of Austrian soldiers leaving the last fortress in the east like ants and moving towards the pontoon bridge on the river in the distance.

He just smiled calmly: "Count Clefat is a wise commander."

After Prussia withdrew from the war, Cologne was doomed to not receive much reinforcement. You know, the Italian fortress of Mantua was also surrounded by Napoleon, and it was closer to Vienna, so Austria would definitely place its main forces there.

This last fortress would soon be cut off from outside supplies if it lost the support of other fortresses - the width of the river that a single fortress could cover was limited, and the French could block the supply ships from docking through reasonable artillery positions.

So Cologne could no longer hold out.

Before dusk, the remaining two thousand Austrian soldiers surrendered under the attack of Davout's Corps.

Klefat on the other side ordered the pontoon bridge to be burned.

Three days later.

Soult was just looking through the list of spoils that had just been delivered when he saw a messenger officer walking quickly towards him, raising his hat and saluting, saying, "Lieutenant Colonel, General Berthier wants you to go to the combat conference room immediately."

"Okay, I'll be there soon."

More than 20 minutes later, Soult arrived at the temporary command post of the front on the east side of Cologne Cathedral.

The conference room was already full of people, and almost all officers above the rank of major were present. Berthier motioned for him to take a seat, and after confirming that everyone was present, he said loudly: "His Majesty the King has sent a commendation order to encourage our recent victory!"

Everyone stood up immediately and saluted in the direction of Paris, "May God bless our king."

Berthier then took a letter of appointment from the copper tray held by the attendant next to him and said loudly: "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince personally signed and promoted Colonel Massena to the rank of brigadier general..."

Amid the congratulations of everyone, the routine awarding ceremony was quickly completed.

Berthier then picked up the second letter of appointment: "His Royal Highness the Dauphin personally signed and promoted Lieutenant Colonel Saint-Hilaire to the rank of Colonel..."

Another awarding ceremony.

Berthier continued.

"…promoted Lieutenant Colonel Jules to the rank of Colonel…

"…promoted Major Soult to the rank of Colonel…

"…promote Major Davout to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel…"

It took Berthier more than four hours to read out the thick stack of promotion orders. Almost all the officers who participated in the battle from the Southern Netherlands to the Rhine were promoted to varying degrees.

In faraway Italy, a large number of officers including Napoleon were also promoted in rank.

It can be said that after this war, the grand occasion of France gathering many generals, which had only appeared in the Napoleonic era, had begun to emerge.

Berthier asked his attendants to remove the celebratory wine in the conference room, raised his hand to signal the jubilant officers to be quiet, and then said loudly:
“Now let’s get down to business.

"The General Staff decided to merge the Southern Netherlands Front and the Rhine Front into the Northern Front.

"The entire army rested in Cologne for half a month.

"In mid-November, General Masséna led the 11st and 3nd Royal Infantry Divisions, three Royal Cavalry Battalions, and the st and nd Royal Horse Artillery Battalions to Alsace.

"We will join Moreau's army there, cross the Rhine from Basel, and march to Freiburg..."

The army handed over to Massena had only more than 3 people, and Joseph did not expect this army to achieve much success.

But after Massena crossed the Rhine at Basel on the southern part of the river, he only needed to capture Freiburg to directly threaten Bavaria.

There was basically no defense west of Bavaria, and nearly one-third of Bavaria's army was lost in the Battle of Luxembourg.

Massena's 30,000 troops would make Bavaria feel uneasy.

At the same time, Massena could obtain nearby supplies from Baden - Baden was now a member of the Mediterranean Security Organization, and providing logistical supplies to the French army was part of its job - and could fight in Bavaria for a long time.

As a result, Archduke Theodor of Bavaria had no choice but to ask Austria for help.

This is tantamount to putting Austria on the fire.

If Austria did not agree to send reinforcements, Bavaria would have no choice but to negotiate peace with France, and the anti-French alliance would lose an important German state. At the same time, Austria's prestige as the "leader" of the Holy Roman Empire would also suffer a heavy blow.

If Austria agrees to send reinforcements, then troops can only be transferred from Italy.

Napoleon is now making great progress in Mantua. If Wurmser's troops are further reduced, the fortress of Mantua will probably collapse.

(End of this chapter)