Descending On France 1780
Chapter 172 - 165 Overly cautious Davout accidentally hits the mark

Chapter 172: 165 Overly cautious Davout accidentally hits the mark

Anning, along with Bertier and Lasalle, and a team of Cavalry, rushed to Diego overnight.

Speaking of the name Diego, it always reminds Anning of the famous star Diego Maradona, and the famous slogan Argentina put out when Maradona died: "Don’t cry for me, Argentina."

Then he remembered a video about the Falklands War made by Little John Khan, which started with Maradona’s "Hand of God" and ended with Maradona’s farewell words.

After this distraction, Anning finally remembered the historical process of the battle at Diego.

Because it happened long ago and the battle of Diego wasn’t a significant campaign—just Massena defeating an Austrian division.

More than the battle itself, what Anning remembered vividly was what happened after: after taking down Diego, Massena’s troops, being extremely hungry and having not been paid for a long time, were tacitly allowed to loot in Diego City.

He himself had also run to Diego City and wrestled with a beautiful girl.

As a result, Austrian veteran Vukcevic marched overnight and launched a surprise attack, catching Massena off guard, and Massena had to flee in his pajamas, barely escaping.

Because of this, Anning’s impression of Massena was that of a highly capable bandit.

When he saw Massena during the day today, he was surprised that his impression was completely wrong.

Now, a decisive battle in Diego is about to occur again, and Anning only remembered how Massena fled bare-bottomed, completely forgetting how he had initially captured Diego City.

What to do now?

Do I really have to rely on my experience from playing the Total War series?

Or should I just hand over command to Davout and watch the show?

But there’s a problem with handing it over to Davout.

Massena could command the battle of Diego because he was the vanguard army general of Napoleon’s Italian legion, thus capable of commanding two divisions.

Davout is currently just a division commander, on the same level as Laharpe, and probably can’t command Laharpe.

Letting Davout face the Austrian main force with just one division seems a bit forced.

As Anning pondered these issues, he trotted through the mountains since it’s dark and he didn’t dare to let the horse run too fast.

He himself wasn’t afraid to fall, but it would be a waste of time if the horse broke and needed to be replaced midway.

Thus the group hurried along the road in the night.

Most of the personnel responsible for logistics and transport were asleep, the sentries, recognizing it was Anning, subconsciously were about to shout "Long live the general!" but were stopped by Anning.

Around one or two o’clock in the middle of the night, Anning arrived at Montenotte.

On the slope in front of Montenotte City, Anning saw many bodies that hadn’t been tended to yet.

His horse even stepped on a wounded soldier, whose scream woke up the sleeping French Army soldiers in the nearby tents.

Soldiers rushed out of the tents yelling, "Who goes there?"

Anning: "It’s me, General Frost!"

The soldiers gathered around, bringing their torches close to Anning, possibly because they lacked vitamins and couldn’t see clearly at night, they brought their torches almost up to Anning’s face to confirm that it was indeed "the General."

"Sir!"

"Don’t shout ’Long live’!" Anning, drawing from experience, immediately said.

The soldiers shut their mouths.

Anning: "Go wake up Laharpe!"

Immediately, a sergeant ran off.

Shortly after, a bleary-eyed Laharpe, wearing his pajamas, ran over: "General, why have you come?"

"Don’t you know that Davout has encountered the Austrian main force?"

"I know, but he sent a message back saying not to worry, so I planned to rest a bit and then head to Diego tomorrow. I mean today at dawn, I’ll probably arrive in Diego by noon."

Anning: "Gather your troops now, no time for sleep, march to Diego immediately."

Laharpe: "The troops have marched a long distance today and are extremely exhausted..."

Anning interrupts Laharpe: "The military situation is urgent, can you afford to delay and miss the opportunity? Gather the troops!"

Laharpe: "Yes, I will gather the troops. But it will take some time to assemble and prepare the torches, about an hour before we can set off."

Anning considers for a moment, nods: "Okay, I will go to the front line first. You set off an hour later, march forcibly and catch up! Do you understand the importance of swift action!"

"Yes!"

Laharpe salutes and turns to run toward the tents, while ordering his subordinates: "Quick, gather all the troops! Sound the assembly call!"

Anning: "Let’s go, continue to Diego."

**

Anning arrives at Diego around three in the morning.

Anning is immediately led to the outside of Davout’s tent, and finds Davout, dressed in full uniform, deeply focused on studying a map at the table.

Anning: "You haven’t slept?"

Davout looks up, his head reflecting the firelight inside the tent.

Davout: "General! What brings you to the front line?"

Anning: "A battle is imminent, of course I need to come and see. Where is Napoleon?"

"He has been traveling with the cannons all day, I let him get some sleep."

Anning nods, then asks: "What are you studying?"

Davout: "I’m pondering why the enemy chose this location for the decisive battle? What significance does their main force have here?"

Anning: "Significance?"

Davout: "Yes, the terrain around here is mountainous, frankly not suitable for deploying large troops for battle, it’s already difficult with a force of ten thousand. What is Austria’s Marshal Boliue planning by stacking so many troops behind Diego?

"He should have spread the troops across several directions to look for opportunities to breakthrough."

Anning: "You mean he should divide his forces?"

"Yes, the surroundings of Diego are relatively open terrain, capable of accommodating tens of thousands of troops, but there aren’t many such open areas nearby. When I fought the Argento Division before, the terrain made it impossible to deploy troops and take advantage of our strength to annihilate them.

"So even though Boliue has a lot of troops here, they can only attack one group at a time during battle."

Anning strokes his chin, looking at the map: "That makes sense."

It feels just like the Mount and Blade series, where game mechanics limit the number of troops that can appear at once, only allowing waves of reinforcements after one wave dies.

It indeed seems impractical for Boliue to have so many troops in Diego.

Davout continues: "So I have a thought, could it be possible that the enemy’s main force isn’t here at all, but they just lit many campfires to make us think they are?"

Anning: "But you reported to me that their main force was here!"

"I initially thought so when I saw the campfires, but the more I think about it, the more it seems incorrect. However, my troops have also been fighting all day and are very tired, and without any cavalry—if we had cavalry, we could send them on horseback with torches to approach those campfires, if they are fake, the enemy likely won’t have enough forces to guard..."

Anning: "Then that’s easy, I’ve brought Lasalle and his cavalry, let him check it out!"

As he finishes speaking, Lasalle, who had been attending to the horses, swings open the tent flap and rushes in, shouting: "General! You must see this!"

Anning frowns: "What’s wrong?"

Asking, he strides out of the tent.

Outside the tent, Napoleon and Bertier, who were already up, stand by the bonfire, gazing into the distance.

Curiously, Anning looks in the same direction and sees a long line of torches formed on the mountain road to the east of Diego.

Anning pats Davout’s shoulder: "Now Boliue’s main force is here."