Descending On France 1780
Chapter 166 - 159 Valaz Blitzkrieg

Chapter 166: 159 Valaz Blitzkrieg

The next morning, ten kilometers away from Savona in Valaz, this seaside town was still asleep.

The day before, Lasalle’s cavalry had charged in and bound all the noble officers in town, locking them in the cellar of the town’s main grain merchant.

The command of the entire unit had fallen into the hands of a few surviving commoner sergeants.

Among these sergeants, one was of Italian descent, and he spoke fluent Italian. He was now greeting fishermen who were preparing to go out to sea early in the morning.

Having been a waiter on merchant ships and occasionally moonlighting as a sailor, he was quite familiar with life on the Mediterranean and could find common ground with the fishermen.

"So," after chatting for a while, a fisherman suddenly asked, "I heard you became the leader of this regiment here yesterday?"

The thirty-four-year-old sergeant nodded, "Yes, I don’t know why, but yesterday that guy with a smoking pipe came over, said the nobles are all traitors and couldn’t be trusted, so he bound them all and locked them in the cellar.

"Then that smoking pipe guy started shouting everywhere: ’Who is Andre Massena from Nice!’ I said ’If you mean born in Nice, that’s me.’

"Guess what happened next, the smoking pipe guy seemed to confirm something and asked me: ’You are Italian, right?’

"I responded to him in Italian, and just like that, I became the commander. Just a day before, I was still a sergeant guide!"

The fisherman laughed, then put down the fishing line he was organizing, leaned in mysteriously, and said to Massena, "That new commander, he’s got quite the reputation! His legend has been around for over a year! They say he has a roster given by God, list of all the talented generals of this era!"

Massena: "Is that so?"

"Yes! The newspapers from Nice are all saying so! It was because he followed that list and chose a few capable people unconventionally, that he was able to defeat Lafayette more than a year ago!"

Massena raised his eyebrows, about to ask for more details, when suddenly loud shouts erupted in the distance.

Massena was alarmed, shouting to the fishermen, "Head out to sea! Stay away from the shore!" Then he turned and sprinted toward the headquarters.

At that moment, the sound of gunfire erupted, crackling from the northwest of the town.

Listening to the sounds, Massena felt that the enemy must be coming down the mountain path that led to San Martino, so while running, he shouted loudly: "The enemy is coming down from San Martino’s side! Everyone head northwest! Stab anyone in white!"

The soldiers, who were initially dashing out of their accommodations in panic, immediately turned and ran toward the northwest upon hearing this.

Massena grabbed the collar of a sergeant, shouting at him: "Run along the street and keep shouting ’Head northwest, stab anyone in white’!"

The sergeant nodded, turned, and began running along the street, shouting as he ran.

At that moment, Massena saw Lasalle, who stayed in Valaz last night, struggling to pull up his pants as he ran out of a building.

Massena: "Captain! Gather your cavalry! The main road of the town is in a straight line, perfect for a cavalry charge, it’s up to you if the enemy comes up the main road!"

Lasalle: "Got it! Leave it to me!"

While speaking, he fumbled around his body: "Where did my pipe go?"

Massena, not caring about his pipe, continued running toward the headquarters. Upon reaching the headquarters, he saw a bunch of idle soldiers gathered at the door.

Massena suddenly rushed to a flag-bearer who had not yet woken up, grabbed the flag, jumped onto a flowerbed, and began shouting at the top of his lungs: "Soldiers! Follow me! Follow the flag! For the kingdom... Screw it! Damn the King, follow me in the charge!"

Initially, Massena had been about to shout ’for the King’ out of habit, since the Kingdom had lasted for hundreds of years and customs die hard.

Then, he realized it was inappropriate as the noble officers had just been arrested for colluding with the King, shouting ’for the King’ clearly wasn’t right.

But since Massena didn’t know what France was all about now, what to shout for battle, he could only angrily opt for a vague "follow me in the charge".

At this moment, the soldiers were in a haze, and just then someone taking the lead directly changed the whole direction.

So, the soldiers roared and followed the flag that Massena held, charging toward the northwest of the town.

They met the incoming Austrian forces head-on.

The blue uniforms that had been blocking the Austrians had almost retreated, many people had turned and ran, but when they saw a large group suddenly rushing from behind with Massena’s flag, they immediately regained their courage.

**

During the fierce battle in Massena, Lasalle finally found his pipe from his mistress’s embrace and then mounted his horse with a few dozen cavalry to leave the city.

These were all the cavalry he could gather at the moment.

Yesterday, he had brought several hundred cavalry from the town, but they had all disappeared in the chaos.

Lasalle led the cavalry to a small highland, then looked down at the town with his hand shading his eyes.

"Damn it, he still wants me to charge from the town avenue, doesn’t he know anything about cavalry!" Lasalle cursed, "At times like this, you should flank the enemy and kick their asses! Bugler!"

"Report, no bugler!" cried a knight loudly.

Lasalle: "Damn it! Never mind, just follow me, whistle like Alexander’s cavalry, understand?"

As Lasalle spoke, he whipped his steed into a springing start, then he managed to control the terrified horse, cutting diagonally down the slope towards the white Austrian army.

The cavalry were all brave and ferocious folks, seeing their leader charging ahead, they immediately followed, fearing they’d miss out on the battle.

Lasalle drew his horse sword, issuing his version of "Alexander’s whistle": "ALIAAAAAA!"

Just these few dozen cavalrymen, charging with the commanding presence of a conqueror!

The enemy, exhausted from the overnight march, suddenly faced a rear assault, and immediately fell into disarray.

If Anning were present, he would describe the scene as: white-out, the enemy was overwhelmed!

**

Vukcevic observed his two battalions charging down through his binoculars—due to the terrain, he could not deploy too many troops all at once.

The rest of his division was lined up on the hillside.

"Alright, blow the signal, let those two battalions retreat. The raid has failed; now it’s time for a fair fight," Vukcevic clicked his tongue.

He knew his troops, having marched overnight for a surprise attack, had not brought cannons; once the enemy reorganized their outer positions and arranged their cannons for bombardment, it’d be time for him to retreat.

Without cannons, fighting against those with cannons, any fool would know who would win.

It wasn’t that Vukcevic didn’t want to bring cannons; at night and on mountain roads, the Austrian artillery was still the heavy infantry guns, lacking the mobile and agile cavalry guns like those of France.

Getting the cannons to keep up with the quickly advancing Austrian troops was simply impossible.

This was also another major reason why Marshal Boliue hesitated to launch the raid.

You just can’t take cannons with you on a quick raid!

Vukcevic: "Wait for the two beaten battalions to regroup, then begin successive covering, orderly retreat."

**

After three hours of bloody battle, the enemy forces around Lavaux finally withdrew.

Standing on newly reclaimed artillery positions outside the city, Massena observed the tail end of the Austrian army.

At that moment, Lasalle rode up, excitedly saying to Massena, "Today was thrilling! I killed at least forty, forty! My sword is even blunted! Look! This isn’t because my sword-cutting technique is poor, with my skill, normally even after cutting down ten people, the blade would still look new!"

Massena seriously said: "The enemy retreated very orderly, do you understand? A retreat can really show a leader’s ability! Vukcevic, is a strong commander!"

Lasalle laughed: "I get you, you still want to fight him again, right?"

"What?" Massena looked puzzled at Lasalle.

"Look at you, your fist is trembling, that’s excitement, understand, excitement!" Lasalle laughed and patted Massena’s shoulder, "You’re also born for war! Now I see why the boss chose you!"

**

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