I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 907: The Battle of Trento

Alvin Qi couldn't help but feel a little scared.

Fortunately, his order had not been passed on, otherwise, when Kostanovich was about to launch an attack, he was suddenly attacked from behind, and that would have been the end of him.

But he quickly calmed himself down.

The reason why his army moved so slowly along the way was to keep the formation neat.

In other words, even if the right wing was attacked, other troops would be able to respond quickly and the situation would not get out of control.

Alvin Qi then looked at the map and asked the staff officer beside him:
"Which legion is closest to Kostanovich?"

The latter took out his notebook and flipped through it: "It is General Zweig's Galicia Corps, Marshal."

Alvin nodded and told the herald: "Zweig only has more than 7 people, which may not be enough. Let the Berrad Cavalry Battalion cooperate with him and go to the right wing to reinforce.

"Tell him not to rush into a decisive battle with the French army. We have the advantage in manpower, so we should try to use positional warfare to consume the enemy."

"Yes, Marshal!"

The herald turned and left, and Alvinzi's servant came up to him with a man in plain clothes.

The man dressed as a lumberjack saluted the commander-in-chief, took out a note from the slit of his collar, and handed it to the attendant:

“Marshal, General Bajahaza encountered the French this morning on the Avisio River.

"The enemy has more than 1 men. Currently, the general is relying on the terrain to hold them back. Please send reinforcements as soon as possible."

Alvin Qi frowned immediately.

The French unexpectedly launched a surprise attack on their left and right wings at the same time.

Fortunately, Bajahaza responded in time, giving himself room to deal with it calmly.

He immediately felt something was wrong.

How could the Bajahaza Corps encounter the enemy at the Avisio River? I had always required that the left wing should not be more than half a day's journey away from the central army, and the Avisio River was ten kilometers away.

He could not care about these things for the time being, and said to the messenger beside him: "Let the Bucher Corps rush to the left wing for reinforcement. Remember, you must fight a positional battle as much as possible."

Bajahaza's messenger remembered something and said hurriedly, "Marshal, Archduke Karl asked me to remind you that the Avisio River is not the main attack direction of the French. They should attack from other places. You need to expand your reconnaissance range..."

Alvinqi waved his hand impatiently. The young royal relative had only been on the battlefield a few times, but he already started to boss him around.

The French have already begun their attack on the right wing. Does he need to remind them?

……

East side of the town of Molveno.

Kostanovich has been in a tough fight.

He originally planned to stabilize the formation and slowly retreat to the nearby Paganella Mountain to hold his ground.

His army had 20,000 soldiers. If they relied on the mountain for defense, they would have no problem holding out for a day or two. By then, Marshal Alvinzi's reinforcements would have arrived and could join him in strangling the French.

However, the three regiments he left behind, with more than 4 people, only held out for less than half an hour before they were defeated by the infantry and artillery.

This forced him to abandon his plan and set up a defense line with his entire army. But the French artillery suddenly appeared on his flank and launched a fierce bombardment.

Kostanovich looked through the telescope at the soldiers who were crouching on the ground with their heads in their hands in fear of the shells, and veins on his forehead throbbed. God! Those cannons were two miles away more than ten minutes ago. Did they fly over here?
"Go see how long it will take for reinforcements to arrive!"

He turned around and yelled at his staff officer, and then he heard the artillery fire from the front line suddenly stop.

He hurriedly raised his telescope and saw teams of French charging columns piercing towards his own chaotic infantry lines like dense arrows.

Then, thousands of French troops deployed into a horizontal column in less than a minute, and flames began to flicker continuously on a battle line more than one kilometer long.

Almost instantly, the right side of the defense line that had been bombarded collapsed.

A large number of soldiers screamed and ran around. Panic spread quickly along with the French army's volleys. Soon even the lower-level Austrian officers joined the ranks of fleeing...

To be honest, there was no problem with Kostanovich's response after the surprise attack.

But all his legions lasted less than one-fifth of the time he had expected.

There was nothing that could be done about it. Previously, Beaulieu and Melas had almost wiped out the main forces of Austria. More than half of the soldiers sent to northern Italy this time were serfs who had just been conscripted under the mobilization order from Vienna.

These people had only received less than three months of training and could only barely use flintlock rifles. They were so scared that their legs went limp at the sound of cannons. How could they be capable of engaging the French legions head-on?
Soon, Kostanovich saw a group of French cavalry galloping towards him from afar. He hurriedly jumped on the saddle and retreated to the southeast surrounded by the guards.

Just like that, before noon, Napoleon suddenly found that there were no organized enemy troops in front of him.

He frowned as he looked at the Austrian M1722 flintlock rifles scattered all over the battlefield, then looked into the distance. For a moment, he wondered if this was a trap set by Alvinzi to lure the enemy deeper.

He turned to Lucien and said, "Let Lieutenant Colonel Grouchy personally lead the cavalry battalion to confirm the enemy's movements."

"Yes, General."

Half an hour later, Grouchy returned to report that he had encountered the Zweig Corps sent by Alvinzi to reinforce the right wing, which had about 1 people. Apart from that, no other Austrian ambushes were found.

Napoleon whipped his whip in annoyance. If he had not continued to pursue the defeated soldiers, it would have been very likely that Kostanovich's Corps would have escaped back to Alvinci in an organized manner.

He was about to arrange an attack on Zweig when a messenger from Desai came hurriedly and reported to him:
"General, at noon the day before yesterday, Wurmser led nearly 20,000 Austrian troops to break out of Mantua..."

Napoleon's face suddenly darkened: "What's going on? Why are you reporting now?"

The messenger lowered his head and said, "Wilmser broke out from the east, which is General Taon's defense zone. Lieutenant Colonel Desai only discovered something was wrong last night."

The area of ​​the Mantua Fortress was very large, and the southern side that Desaix was responsible for was 4 kilometers away from the defense zone of Taon. If the Sardinian Legion did not take the initiative to report, it would be difficult for Desaix to be informed of the situation there in the first place.

"Damn! These stupid Sardinians!"

Napoleon cursed angrily, and suddenly looked at the map at hand: "Wait, Augereau has not been able to come to encircle him, could it be that he encountered Wurmser?

"Damn it! Looks like we have to adjust our battle plan..."

However, this time he guessed wrong.

Augereau did not meet Wurmser - at the speed of the Austrian army, it would take two days to get here from Mantua.

At this time, his troops were engaged in a fierce battle with the Austrian army commanded by Archduke Charles on the banks of the Avisio River.

(End of this chapter)