I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 870: The Battle of Mantua: Encirclement and Attack
Wilmser suddenly felt a buzzing in his head.

He had clearly confirmed that there were no French troops near Mantua, so he dared to come to Limone to pursue Napoleon.

So where did the enemies surrounding Mantua come from? !

If Beaulieu was present at this moment, he would probably pat his shoulder with empathy and sigh: "You finally understand the nightmare I once had."

Wurmser's combat meeting began soon, but the content of the discussion had changed from "getting rid of Napoleon's entanglement" to "rescuing Mantua."

The next morning, after almost staying up all night, Wilmser left Ranieri with 6 men to cover the retreat, while he led the main force to hurriedly retreat to Mantua.

Napoleon learned the news that Desaix had surrounded Mantua earlier than Wurmser, and last night he ordered the Marmont Corps on the south side of the battlefield to withdraw from the battle and wait for the Austrian army directly northwest of Mantua.

He himself leisurely launched an attack on the 6 enemy troops that were left behind.

Just after noon, the superior French army completely defeated Ranieri's army, and then continued to pursue Wilmsoe.

At two o'clock in the afternoon of the next day, Wurmser's main force encountered Marmont's troops beside the Mincio River west of Mantua.

Wurmser, who was eager to return to Mantua to relieve the siege, had no intention of fighting. He sent part of his troops to push the thousands of French troops to the north, while other troops quickly crossed the river from the space they had gained.

Marmont did not try his best to stop them. Half an hour ago, a messenger came to inform him that Napoleon's main force had arrived 6 kilometers to the northwest.

Just as the Austrian army built a pontoon bridge and began to cross the river, they were suddenly bombarded from the flank and rear - Napoleon was coming.

Wilmser had no choice but to fight back hastily, and the banks of the Mincio River immediately fell into chaos.

Behind the French army, Grouchy watched through his telescope as enemy soldiers continued to cross the river, and anxiously said to Napoleon: "General, please allow me to lead the cavalry to intercept the enemy crossing the river. I am afraid that if we delay any longer, Wurmser will escape!"

Napoleon glanced at him and shook his head calmly: "No, the cavalry battalion should have no mission today. You can take a rest."

"But……"

Napoleon smiled and said, "If I wanted to capture Wurmser, I would have asked Marmont to outflank him from the south yesterday instead of letting him come here to intercept him."

Grouchy was stunned: "Why do you do this?"

Napoleon handed the telescope to the attendant, turned around and sat down on the chair, saying: "It is the order of His Royal Highness the Dauphin. We are not allowed to occupy the Mantua Fortress within six months."

Grouchy's eyes widened. He had only heard of orders to capture a fortress within a time limit, and this was the first time he had encountered such a thing.

Napoleon was in a good mood, and before he could ask, he explained: "Although I think a direct attack on Vienna is the best option, using Mantua to continuously consume Austria is also a good strategy.

“You see, this time we were able to wipe out 20,000 to 30,000 people from the Wilmser Legion without much effort.

“Although the Mantua Fortress itself is very strong, the surrounding Lombardy to Venice is crisscrossed with waterways, and there is no terrain conducive to concealment. It is easy for us to launch a surprise attack on the passing army.

"Just wait. We will have to annihilate many enemies in the next six months."

The reason why Joseph gave him such an order was because he knew very well how much blood the Battle of Mantua in history, as an "unhealable wound", had caused Austria to bleed.

Mantua is known as the "Key to Italy" and is the strongest pass on the way from Italy to Austria. If the French army breaks through here, the front will go straight to Vienna. This led to Austria trying its best to keep this fortress.

Napoleon was not able to take Mantua in one go, but he accidentally created a situation where he had to besiege the city and attack its reinforcements. Austria successively sent 12 troops to reinforce the city, but in the end, Napoleon took at least half of it, causing heavy losses.

Now that he let Napoleon deploy directly according to the goal of besieging the point and attacking the reinforcements, the effect would only be better.

When Austria was strong, it was a huge strategic advantage to have control over the Holy Roman Empire. But if Austria weakened to a certain extent, the large number of small states in the Holy Roman Empire would become a burden to it.

This is like a gangster boss, when he is strong and healthy, he wants to get involved in everything, no matter how big or small, and get some benefits. But when he is seriously ill, even if his subordinates beg him to help, he will only feel annoyed.

Eventually, the younger brother realizes that the boss cannot protect him, so he will naturally quit the gang cursing.

Joseph's medium-term goal was to dismantle the German region as much as possible, and consuming Austria was the most important step.

Grouchy was still a little confused and said, "Commander, but we can capture Wilmser first and then not attack the Mantua Fortress."

Napoleon smiled and said: “Having a great man like him in the fortress of Mantua will allow Vienna to send reinforcements more quickly.

"We will be able to capture this place sooner or later, and it won't be too late to capture him then."

Next to the Mincio River, the French cavalry artillery constantly maneuvered, looking for gaps on the battlefield and continuously bombarding the pontoon bridge on the river.

In fact, it is difficult for long-range artillery fire to hit the narrow pontoon bridge, but even if the shells fall fifty or sixty meters away, it can make the Austrian soldiers on the pontoon bridge tremble with fear.

Those who had not yet crossed the river were extremely nervous. They ignored the officers' attempts to stop them and tried desperately to squeeze onto the pontoon bridge.

Soon, the soldiers on the bridge were pushed down by their comrades behind them, and screams and the "splash" sounds of falling into the water were heard continuously.

For every soldier that reached the other side, three or four would fall into the river.

The French army just fired leisurely from the periphery, and most of the Austrian soldiers were drowned.

Looking at the chaos of the Austrian army, Wurmser realized that it was impossible to repel the French, so he stepped onto the pontoon bridge under the cover of the guards.

As dusk approached, the French army finally stopped its offensive.

The panicked Wurmser counted his troops on the south bank of the Mincio River and found that there were less than 3 of the 4 troops left.

He immediately thought of another terrible thing - with the few troops he had, he might not be able to break through the French encirclement outside Mantua and enter the fortress.

Fortunately, he was "lucky". The French army concentrated its main forces on the southeast side of the fortress early in the morning and attacked a lookout tower there, leaving a gap behind them.

Wilmser decisively led his troops to slip through the gap and successfully escaped back to the fortress.

However, the French reacted quickly, turning around and attacking immediately, capturing the rest of his troops.

(End of this chapter)