Descending On France 1780
Chapter 169 - 162 Montenotte Offensive

Chapter 169: 162 Montenotte Offensive

Napoleon led the cavalry guns up the mountain for half a day and finally caught sight of Nikino Mountain ahead, but he couldn’t hear any sounds of battle.

Napoleon observed the mountain peak with curious confusion through his telescope, only to discover that Davout was not there, merely some troops cleaning up the battlefield.

There was a medical tent on the hillside. Driven by curiosity, Napoleon ordered his troops to continue along the mountain road while he himself rode up the slope to the medical tent.

Wails filled the medical tent.

However, Napoleon quickly found that there were not many French Army wounded soldiers here, but Austrian soldiers in white uniforms instead.

Suddenly, intense Italian curses erupted from inside the medical tent: "What are you doing, you swine! Are you trying to torture me on purpose?"

Napoleon dismounted and walked over curiously, only to find an Austrian Lieutenant Colonel cursing and driving away the nurse who was cleaning his wound.

The nurse, not understanding Italian, looked very troubled.

Napoleon said, "He’s going to wash your wound with alcohol, our General believes that it’s beneficial for the wound."

The Austrian officer turned to look at Napoleon: "Corsican? Hmm? Have all Corsicans become French swine?"

Napoleon’s Italian had a thick Corsican accent, and the people of Northern Italy looked down upon Corsicans, just as they scorned the people from Southern Italy.

Northern Italy was wealthy, and they looked down on their poor brethren who spoke the same Italian language.

Napoleon: "Let him clean your wound..."

"I will not!" the Italian roared, "Don’t you understand my wound is festering? Festering means everything is getting better! Soon I’ll run a fever, and then I’ll recover!"

This was one of the many ignorant beliefs of the era. Because people didn’t know about the existence of microorganisms, they also didn’t understand the mechanism of wound infection.

They believed that the pus and swelling caused by an infected wound were evidence that the body was healing, and the same was true for the fevers caused by infections.

They would even apply burnt ash to the wound to promote infection and pus formation when the wound was too clean and not festering, which then could result in fevers.

Therefore, even though the lethality of bayonets and flintlocks was low in that era, minor wounds such as grazes from a bayonet could lead to "severe injuries" that could incapacitate a soldier for days with a high fever.

In such cases, if Anning could produce penicillin by hand, it would greatly increase the survival rate of the wounded. Unfortunately, Anning didn’t know how to do this, so he could only have Lazar Kano prepare a lot of high-proof alcohol, and forcefully ordered the army’s military doctors to use alcohol to clean wounds and keep them sanitary.

Because of this, many doctors had protested against him.

Obviously, this Austrian officer of Italian origin also thought washing wounds with alcohol was a form of torture and interrogation inflicted upon prisoners by the French Army.

Napoleon patiently persuaded him in Italian, but the other party not only disagreed, his voice got louder and louder.

Finally, Napoleon grew irritated and slapped the man’s face: "Damn right, it’s torture! Just take it!"

Although Napoleon wasn’t tall, he was a professional soldier with a well-trained body and strong arms. His slap directly made the officer’s head reel.

"Damn, even my father has never hit me!" the Italian shouted in anger.

Napoleon gave him another slap.

Finally, the Italian was silent.

Napoleon: "Clean his wound! Follow the General’s orders in everything!"

As the nurse complied, Napoleon looked around for the military doctor of the medical tent: "Where’s the military doctor? Where did the doctor go?"

The military doctor came out from the adjacent tent, his hands stained with fresh blood and holding a saw.

In this era, without ways to treat infection, they had at least recognized that the rot of a wound could be lethal, so they would often amputate the limb that was beginning to decay.

Yes, the most important "treatment" method in field medical tents of the era was amputation. The doctors might not understand how to heal someone, but they were certainly very skilled at sawing bones.

Doctor: "Who’s looking for me?"

"I am Napoleon Bonaparte, where has Davout gone?"

Doctor: "He’s chasing the enemy towards Montenotte. It seems that the order from General was to stick to the enemy, but by the time the order reached him, the enemy had already started to slip away, so Commander Davout led his troops to pursue."

Napoleon: "How many hours has he been gone?"

"Almost two hours."

Napoleon cursed, turned on his heel, exited the tent, mounted his horse, and urged his mount down the hillside.

His troops were still advancing along the mountain road, and Napoleon urged loudly: "Speed up! Davout has been gone for two hours! We must catch up to him before he reaches Montenotte!"

**

At this moment, Davout was feeling anxious because the enemy was retreating too quickly.

He had wanted to circle around and cut off the enemy from behind, but with so many mountains around, it was simply impossible.

As for a charge, Davout always felt that if his troops could just charge into close combat, they would quickly break the enemy.

After the enemy crumbled, there would be no way to completely encircle and destroy their formation.

At this time, Davout could already see Montenotte Town in the distance.

Davout cursed: "It seems the expectation to annihilate the enemy’s formation cannot be fulfilled. Drummer, beat the charge drum!"

Drummer: "Understood, charge drum!"

Following that, the urgent beat of the drum rose up.

The musicians of each camp, hearing the change in drum beat from the commander’s side, immediately altered their own drumming. With the sound of the drums, officers ordered in succession: "Everyone! Charge!"

Davout’s troops, with a surge of momentum, rushed towards the enemy like a tide of blue waves along the valley.

**

Austrian Major General Argento frowned: "Something’s not right; this man has been shooting at us all along, and now he suddenly charges, there must be some trickery."

He turned to glance at Montenotte right behind him and suddenly gasped in shock: "Good heavens! This is it! Their goal is to capture Montenotte and then envelop us in a pincer attack!"

"Briz!"

Soon a Lieutenant Colonel ran up to him: "General!"

"Lead the reserve regiment, counter-charge against the enemy to our front!"

"Understood, General!" Briz was about to turn around when Argento stopped him, "Take care, Lieutenant Colonel."

Briz instantly understood, nodded: "Thank you, General, for granting me this honor!"

Having said that, he drew his sword and strode off briskly.

Argento continued to issue orders: "Order the entire army, stop the alternating cover, the front line becomes the rear line, run forward! As fast as possible!"

Immediately the bugler blew the melody for changing the formation, and although the Austrian army was in disarray, they still skillfully completed the transformation of their ranks.

Right then, the sounds of battle cries came from behind the troops, the reserve was beginning to charge.

Argento: "Quick, retreat! Withdraw past Montenotte!"

At that moment, a bugle sounded from the western side of the battlefield.

The tricolor flag appeared on the western mountain road of Montenotte.