I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 913: Triumphant Return from Northern Italy

Augereau and Marmont looked at each other, both with solemn expressions on their faces.

Even if Bajahaza was really defeated yesterday, the 1 Austrian troops in the north alone were enough to attract their attention.

After several days of fierce fighting, the Augereau Legion now has only about 1 soldiers able to fight.

If the enemy forces in the west and south turn around and counterattack, the French army will face a devastating disaster.

Augereau hesitated for a moment, and finally said to the herald: "Order the troops pursuing the enemy to withdraw immediately.

"The Corsican Regiment went to the village of Saint-Leon to build a defense line..."

Of course, Karl Ludwig did not have 1 soldiers.

His Moravian Legion had less than 7 men in total, but he spread his soldiers over an area as wide as two kilometers.

Alvinzi's main force was in the southwest, so the French cavalry had not paid much attention to the north. During their hasty reconnaissance, they could only count the number of enemies based on the width of their formation.

In the temporary headquarters of the Moravian Corps, Karl Ludwig looked a little more relaxed as he listened to the cavalry officer's report on the movements of the French army.

His plan worked, and Augereau began to shrink his defense.

However, I can only fool people here for two days at most, after which the French cavalry will definitely find out.

Before that, Bajahaza and Wilmser's troops must meet up with Marshal Alvinzi's reinforcements, so that they can rest and launch a counterattack against Augereau to stabilize the situation on the left wing.

Karl Ludwig looked at the map again, and he had to be on guard against the French risking a surprise attack.

Thinking of this, he turned to the messenger beside him and said, "Send the engineering battalion to the Visio River to build a pontoon bridge. We may cross the river at any time."

"Yes, General!"

As soon as the herald left, Karl Ludwig suddenly heard a loud noise from the soldiers outside the tent.

He frowned and signaled to the attendant: "Mark, go and see what happened."

The latter responded, but before he turned around, several officers rushed in in a panic and pushed a messenger to the front.

The messenger bowed to Archduke Karl and said with great difficulty: "Your Highness, Marshal Alvin was captured by Napoleon the afternoon before yesterday..."

Archduke Karl's pupils suddenly shrank.

No wonder the messenger he sent to request reinforcements had no response. It seemed that the man might have fallen into the hands of the French.

Things took a turn for the worst.

He thought quickly in his mind that the current situation in northern Italy was definitely irreversible, so all he could do was to save Bajahaza and Wilmser's armies as much as possible.

That’s more than 2 soldiers, and probably the empire’s last remaining force.

At the moment, he still has a little advantage, that is, the Augereau Legion is blocked by Bajahaza's defeated soldiers, and it is likely that they have not received any news from the direction of Trento.

He placed his right hand on his sword and said solemnly to the officers in front of him:
"We are still here in the Empire, and the war is far from over. Now, return to your soldiers immediately."

All the officers were startled and stood at attention: "Yes, General!"

After the officers dispersed, Karl Ludwig immediately looked at the staff officer beside him and said, "Let all soldiers assemble and maneuver to the east.

“Send someone to contact General Bajahaza and General Wilmser and tell them that the Augereau Corps will make way for them tomorrow and they must rush to Bolzano as quickly as possible.

"This is their only chance!"

Bolzano is a transportation hub in the north of Trento, from where you can continue northward into Meilan, Austria, and then return to Vienna along the north side of the Alps. Now, Karl Ludwig wants to make a final effort while Augereau's concerns about being "ambushed" have not disappeared.

At two o'clock that afternoon, Augereau suddenly received a report from the cavalry that an enemy force had suddenly appeared on their east side.

Augereau was a little dizzy at this time, and he found traces of Austrian troops in all directions around him.

While he was still discussing with Marmont how to respond, the Austrians in the east suddenly launched a fierce attack on them.

After making sure that there were no enemy troops in other directions, Augereau decided to concentrate his forces to fight a decisive battle with the enemy in the east.

As always, Augereau went to the front line and fought with the soldiers in the hail of bullets.

Soon, the Austrian army that took the initiative to attack was repelled.

Augereau immediately led his troops in pursuit, and when they were near the Visio River, the two sides fought again, and the Austrian army was defeated again.

At this time, the sky began to darken, and Augereau had forced the enemy to the river bank, just as if he and the Austrian army had exchanged positions a few days ago.

He ordered a defense line to be built on the spot, preparing to completely annihilate the Austrian army tomorrow.

At the same time, when Bajahaza received the news of Alvinzi's defeat and didn't know what to do, Archduke Karl's messenger arrived.

An hour later, the remnants of the Bajahaza Legion began to turn around and gallop towards Bolzano.

Wilms also gathered a large number of soldiers and began to flee northward.

These two troops were very "lucky" not to encounter a large number of French troops and arrived in the south of Ora before dark the next day, still half a day's journey from Bolzano.

On the other side, Augereau began to attack the enemy in the east.

But he was shocked to find that there were less than 1 soldiers on the Austrian position, where there were to soldiers yesterday.

Yes, last night Karl Ludwig had led the main force of the army to retreat to the east bank of the Vecchio River across the pontoon bridge that had been built in advance.

He led the Augereau Corps nearly ten kilometers to the east, allowing his two "pig teammates" to escape to the north through this narrow gap.

By the time Victor's Corps, sent by Napoleon to reinforce the Vecchio River area, arrived, Bajahaza and Wurmser's troops had just left for less than a day.

Karl Ludwig then headed east, trudging through the swamps of Venice until he finally reached the Austrian fortress of Klagenfurt.

At this point, of the 8 troops who had followed Alvinzi to northern Italy, 5 of them returned to Austria under his "rescue".

In addition, nearly 9 Austrian troops in Molvino in the west eventually escaped to Venice.

Trento.

French camp.

Napoleon praised Augereau and Marmont who had just returned with their troops. After all, they had stubbornly managed to stabilize the situation in the east despite the sudden attack of the Austrian army.

After the two men left, Napoleon looked at Lucien and said, "Okay, now please gather all the officers. We need to discuss the capture of the Mantua Fortress."

Just then, Desai suddenly knocked on the door with several officers.

As soon as Napoleon saw him, he smiled and said, "Your presence here means that Mantua should..."

"Yes, General," Desai smiled even more broadly, "Beaulieu surrendered this morning."

(End of this chapter)