Descending On France 1780
Chapter 168 - 161 Advance of Davout

Chapter 168: 161 Advance of Davout

Anning had just stepped out of the headquarters’ front door when he ran into Beethoven and David face-to-face.

It was strange, this musician and painter somehow became best friends, and were always seen together.

Upon seeing Anning, they greeted him and enthusiastically asked, "Is the frontline under pressure? Are you headed there right now? Let us join you!"

Anning: "No, I’m off to see Valaz; the Massena I asked them to find has been located."

Beethoven, puzzled, asked: "Why were you looking for this Massena? Does he have any distinguished accomplishments?"

Anning cracked a mysterious smile.

Actually, ever since a year ago when Anning provided that list to Lazar Kano, who’s not at the frontline at the moment, there had been rumors that Anning had received a revelation from God.

Anning himself had been concerned whether creating this list would cause any problems. At that time, he had no other choice as inquiring about the whereabouts of those people was as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack, which is why he resorted to making a list.

But now he found that there were no problems at all; instead, it added to his legendary status. Beethoven was the only one who directly asked him such questions to his face so far.

Perhaps, the grand composer was a bit special, not affected by those exaggerated rumors about Anning.

Anning didn’t feel like explaining in detail anymore anyway.

At the beginning, he worried about what would happen if these people were not as exceptional as the legends suggested, which would be terrible.

However, after last year’s battle against Lafayette, the performances of Davout and Lana dispelled his doubts. Especially Davout, solid in military knowledge, brave in combat, he was a fierce general just as the historic tales described.

It was only that Lana was really too young and truly inexperienced in military matters; otherwise, Anning would have already sent him out to command a division.

As for Massena, he was only a Sergeant now but at least he had been a soldier for many years and should be very useful.

This morning’s battle also proved this point; Massena was indeed fierce, witnessed by Lasalle himself.

So, Anning firmly decided to appoint Massena as a divisional commander.

Anning told Beethoven and David: "You’re welcome to come along if you wish. If you want to go to the battlefield, you can find Napoleon; his artillery should be departing for the main battlefield soon."

David: "We would rather follow you, to meet this Massena you’ve been thinking so highly of."

Lasalle butted in saying, "My goodness, you must paint this Massena. I saw with my own eyes: when the Austrians attacked at dawn, Massena personally held the flag and countercharged, successfully pushing them out of the town. If not for him, I would have been captured! Then, I gathered a few dozen cavalry, mounted up, and charged at the backs of retreating Austrians from outside the town!"

Beethoven joked, "From what you’re saying, is the victory all thanks to you at the end?"

"That’s right... Er, no, I mean, it’s half and half between me and Massena!"

By this time, Anning was already mounted on his horse, munching on a hotdog as he said, "Half-believe what he says, especially when he smells of liquor."

"You say that! But when I’m scouting for enemy intelligence, don’t you dare half-believe me, as I’ll be getting absolutely accurate intelligence then!"

Anning laughed and then urged Beethoven and David, "If you two are willing to come, then hurry up!"

"Right away, General!"

**

At this time, Davout was on top of Nikino Mountain, directing his troops in combat against the Argento Division.

He analyzed the mountainous terrain, thinking it inadvisable to adopt General Frost’s oblique order tactic, preferring instead to form up on the mountain top.

Consequently, the Austrian artillery could reach Davout’s troops. However, the night before, Davout had ordered his men to hastily reinforce some fortifications, so the artillery caused only minimal casualties.

Davout’s artillery, taking advantage of their high ground, bombarded the Austrians even more fiercely.

When the Austrian infantry came up, Davout’s formation began to take effect. The enemy was attacking uphill, which was extremely exhausting and their momentum was also weakened, resulting in them being repelled several times in succession.

Seizing the opportunity while the enemy was regrouping for another attack, Davout ordered the troops waiting on the reverse slope to come up and replace the exhausted forces that had already withstood several charges.

The changing of the guard was completed quickly.

The Austrians could only watch helplessly, as Davout was on the mountain and even if the Austrians wanted to take advantage of the chaos during the change of guards to charge fiercely, it would take time to climb the mountain.

During the Austrians’ fifth charge, Davout received an order from Frost: Firmly nail down the Argento Division in front of him, hold them!

Upon seeing the order, Davout muttered, "It seems the Commander is having other forces encircle them from behind. Otherwise, this order makes no sense."

His aide-de-camp asked, "Are we charging?"

Davout shook his head: "No no! If we charge and the enemy scatters, then we won’t be able to complete the mission. Damn, the order came too late. If it had come earlier, I wouldn’t have changed the guard and let the enemy think we only have so few men!"

As the messenger soldier was about to return to headquarters to report that the orders had been successfully delivered, he turned back around upon hearing Davout’s words and plaintively said, "I already did my utmost to run, but the mountain paths are tough. Even on horseback, I didn’t dare to run full speed."

Davout: "I know, I’m not blaming you. Now we can only hope that the Austrians are determined enough to take this mountain. Go back and report!"

"Do you need me to take back a battle report?"

"Just tell the Commander that everything is going well, I guarantee the task will be completed."

After Davout finished speaking, the messenger soldier saluted and ran off.

If he didn’t return, headquarters, seeing that he had been gone for too long, would assume an accident had occurred during the dispatch and would send another messenger soldier and several armed cavalry as escorts.

No sooner had Davout dispatched the messenger soldier than a lookout shouted: "Division Commander! Take a look!"

Davout immediately pulled out his binoculars to observe the enemy’s formation changes, and he quickly concluded: "Dammit, the enemy has discovered our strong forces; they’re planning to slip away!"

In this era, after defeating the enemy, they could possibly regroup and reorganize in the rear.

In this era, whether bayonets or flintlocks, the killing efficiency was not so high, so after defeating the enemy, as much as seventy to eighty percent of the troops could retreat and after regrouping, be ready to fight again.

To thoroughly incapacitate the enemy’s force, one must completely eliminate the opposite side’s structure, seize their military flag, rosters, officer lists, and take everything away, burn it all.

This way, even if the enemy’s men eventually returned, it would take several months to reorganize completely.

Additionally, in this era, there was another practice: captured officers had to make a pledge not to engage in combat against "our army" for a year.

Despite the lack of binding power of this pledge, the Europeans often honored it.

Later, Napoleon went to Egypt and did the same to the Osman forces. They readily agreed and were released, only to immediately rejoin the Osman army and continue fighting the French Army.

Therefore, Napoleon had no choice but to execute the surrendering Osman prisoners of war.

In summary, only by massively disrupting the enemy’s structure and capturing enemy troops can the enemy suffer heavy losses and be unable to replenish their forces in a short period.

Merely defeating them was not enough.

Faced with signs of the enemy’s retreat, Davout immediately became unnerved.

After a moment of thought, he gave the command: "We start advancing now!"

"Are we charging?"

"No!" Davout loudly said, "No charge, just advance towards the enemy, then stop and fire, maintain contact, don’t let the enemy escape smoothly!"