Descending On France 1780
Chapter 126 - 120 why are you not bald?

Chapter 126: 120 why are you not bald?

After a few days, Anning was at the training field converted from the garden behind the manor, when Lazar Kano suddenly arrived with someone in tow.

Anning, puzzled, glanced at the person Cano brought, and asked, "Who is this?"

Cano: "This is Lieutenant Louis Nicholas Davu from the 12th Cavalry Regiment."

Anning uttered an "Oh", and then carefully looked over the person Cano brought, asking with a puzzled tone, "Why are you not bald?"

In the majority of portraits, Davu’s most noticeable trait was his shiny bald head, resembling a Kappa from Japan.

This impression was too deep, so Anning blurted out subconsciously.

Davu was shocked: "What? General, how do you know I suffer from severe hair loss?"

Lazar Kano was also greatly surprised: "General, you even calculated his hair loss?"

Realizing that his response was over the top, Anning hurriedly covered up by saying, "The person who recommended you to me noticed your severe hair loss, so they informed me as well."

Davu: "May I ask who recommended me, a man burdened with crimes?"

Anning: "Burdened with crimes?"

Cano explained: "He was arrested by the local National Assembly because he led his division in mutiny to demand wages."

Davu indignantly corrected: "It wasn’t for wages, I led them in opposition to the old Kingdom’s officers, but ended up being arrested by the National Assembly, locked up till now!"

"I pulled many strings to get him out of the prison where his original troop was stationed," Cano said, "But it was well worth it. I’ve reviewed Lieutenant Davu’s resume—comes from a military family, proficient in horse riding, his swordsmanship and archery skills are extraordinarily sublime, and he has also studied at the Military Academy in Paris... that’s the university where you used to teach."

Anning pondered for a moment, feeling that revising his words to say that he had noticed Davu during his university years might seem incongruent, so he vaguely said, "I mainly taught mathematics back then."

During his time at the Military Academy, Anning didn’t focus much on identifying Marshals from the Napoleon Era, as he never really thought he would become a General himself.

Back then, he aspired to be a flexible fence-sitter; little did he think he would become the wall itself, taking charge of the armed forces, and beginning to unearth talents.

One can say, a person’s fate mainly follows the course of history.

Davu: "By the way, during my college days I knew a little Corsican, he seemed to hold you in high respect."

Anning raised an eyebrow, recalling that Davu wasn’t particularly impressed with Napoleon, so had he willingly become the pawn later on? Now it’s turned into "a little Corsican"?

Did I read the wrong version of Napoleon’s Life? Or did the author foolishly overpraise Napoleon?

Or perhaps, did I freaking alter history again?

As Anning thought about these things, he responded, "Oh, you’re talking about Napoleon Bonaparte, he is my friend, a truly incredible genius, but he should be back in Corsica visiting his family now."

Soon after the Storming of the Bastille, Napoleon wrote to Anning, effusively praising Anning’s actions at the Bastille, and declared his intent to emulate Anning in Corsica to embark on a grand venture.

Not long after that, Napoleon took leave to return to Corsica.

He’s probably experiencing setbacks in Corsica now—just like in real history.

Davout: "Is that so? That’s truly a pity; he was a very excellent Artillery Officer."

Anning: "So, Lieutenant Davout, are you aware that the Cavalry in my army are now all female?"

Davout: "I don’t think female soldiers can perform cavalry tasks. They might lose energy after chopping a few heads, and their ability to fight continuously is questionable.

"Cavalry is also a physically demanding job! They would do fine as infantry, especially as skirmishers. Skirmishers generally don’t engage in hand-to-hand combat with line infantry; they mainly harass by shooting, which consumes less stamina."

Anning raised her eyebrows, not bad for Davout, pinpointing the critical weakness of female soldiers right off the bat: women have a significant physical strength gap compared to men, but in roles like skirmishers that mainly involve shooting, the physical difference is minimized.

Anning: "Given the current situation, every faction is tightening their grip on the Cavalry, I can only resort to this method to additionally raise a Cavalry unit. No, that is not what I want to say; what I mean is, there is no Cavalry unit available for you to command at the moment, you might need to command infantry for a while."

Davout: "No problem. I am very familiar with infantry tactics, and I am skilled in leading charges."

Anning nodded, then told Cano: "Let Lieutenant Davout serve as the captain of the training team here, his abilities should be more than sufficient."

"No problem. What about that dyehouse apprentice Lana from a few days ago, should he be handed over to him for training?"

Anning thought for a moment, Davout training Lana seemed fine. As long as Lana could learn about military operations, it would be acceptable.

Anning: "Let’s proceed with that."

Cano saluted Anning: "Understood, I will arrange it immediately. Lieutenant Davout, please come with me."

Davout also saluted Anning, then the two men walked towards the manor building.

**

On the way to the manor building, Davout curiously asked: "What is a training team?"

"It is a demonstrative unit established by General to train key non-commissioned officers, your task is to train the drawn long-trousers fellows into qualified non-commissioned officers."

Davout: "General’s army really consists of these long-trousers fellows?"

"Yes, long-trousers fellas and peasants, you will understand once you see their training for yourself. He led such an undisciplined and poorly trained troop to defeat an enemy ten times their size." Cano glanced at Davout, pleased to see a look of admiration on his face.

Davout: "Really? That’s really impressive."

Cano: "But we can’t go on like this, so our task is to turn this motley crew of long-trousers and peasants into a regular army."

Davout: "Leave it to me, I will train these long-trousers hard. Though, when I just arrived, I thought I would join the Twilight Knights."

Cano: "News even reached a prison so far away from Paris?"

"The guard in our prison is a guy who follows current affairs, he would speak to us about these things every day. He said that the Twilight Knights are troops where everyone against the National Assembly gathered by General, strictly guarded."

Cano: "That’s about right. Basically, the Twilight Knights are old nobles who admire General’s military achievements. Because putting them in a troop full of long-trousers might lead to conflicts, they are specifically gathered separately. Do you understand?"

"I understand," Davout nodded thoughtfully, "Twilight Knights are essentially General’s private soldiers?"

"Pretty much, this group is mostly the targets of the revolution, the only reason they are here is their admiration for General. I’ve thought about it for a long time why such a unit needed to be formed." Cano paused, "The deployment of this unit is decided solely by General, it’s not our concern. We just need to focus on training those long-trousers."

Davout: "Understood! Fully understood!"