Descending On France 1780
Chapter 194 - 187 Two veteran generals join forces to strike

Chapter 194: 187 Two veteran generals join forces to strike

War was imminent, and the streets of Milan were solemn and desolate.

Due to the policies implemented by Anning in Milan, which granted Italians considerable autonomy and promised that the French Army would withdraw from the entire Milan once the Italians had their own armed forces capable of defending their homeland,

most Italians truly regarded the French Army as liberators.

In fact, another historical figure, Napoleon, was initially considered a liberator by the Italian independence activists. However, the republics established by him were nothing but puppet states of France and were soon recognized as such by the Italians.

Therefore, the Italians had already raised a rebellion against Napoleon when he began his attack on Vienna.

But Anning had no intention of doing the same. He was ready to apply a more advanced form of imperialism: using economic power to grasp benefits.

For this, he valued control over monetary issuance. Other than that power, Italians could have any rights they desired.

As a result, within Milan City, Italians were eagerly enlisting in the military, preparing to stand alongside the French against the Austrian invaders.

It must be known that Italy at this era was not the weak nation later pushed back by Ethiopian forces.

This era’s Italy was quite capable in warfare.

Especially when the Italians wore the red military uniforms.

Lazar Cano also happened to be temporarily in Milan from Southern France, and Anning assigned him the task of organizing the army of the Milan Republic.

Cano did not decline; although he could only stay in Milan for up to a month before returning to handle affairs in Southern France, he still vehemently took on the task of reorganizing the Republic army.

Within a month, Lazar Cano managed to form an army of over ten thousand Italian Redshirts.

However, similar to Anning’s French Army, the Italians also faced a shortage of officers.

A majority of Italian nobles were in collusion with the Habsburg Holy Roman Empire.

After all, constrained by the times, the Holy Roman Empire could not establish a true reach to the grassroots governance structure, and it still relied on local aristocratic elites.

Then, these local aristocracy, after Anning’s occupation of Milan and the launch of the republican movement, were hanged as traitors on street lamps, and those not executed fled to Austria with their belongings.

In the armies of Europe of this era, officers were generally from the nobility, and Milan was no exception.

Therefore, the officer ratio in the Milan Republic army was even lower than that of the French Army.

The French Army was already in a dire state, with each officer managing one and a half to twice the number of troops as the Austrian Army, and the situation for the Milan Republic army was even worse.

The French Army fought so bravely and displayed such high qualities under such a low officer ratio purely due to the spirit instilled by the Great Revolution.

But whether Italians in Milan could exhibit the same performance, whether they could compensate for the dire lack of officers with high morale and combat desire, remained unclear.

As for the precision shooter companies Anning considered secret weapons, their training process was extremely smooth.

The new rear-loading rifled guns performed exceptionally, even achieving considerable accuracy at two hundred meters.

In terms of firing speed, the rear-loading feature allowed this weapon to even surpass flintlocks, with the firepower of a company comparable to that of a battalion.

And it wasn’t just an increase in the quantity of fire.

The frontal width of a battalion in line infantry was much greater than that of a company.

The fearsome concentrated firepower of this company could even have the potential to break apart the enemy directly in their path by sheer density of fire.

As for the advantage of rear-loading in shooting posture, this weapon was particularly suited for scattered soldier tactics.

Traditional flintlocks required the bullet to be rammed down with a ramrod during loading, meaning that the soldier using a flintlock had to stand straight—or at least squat.

It was impossible to load a flintlock while lying prone.

Therefore, wars of this era took the form of "lining up for execution by firing squad," where everyone would line up and shoot at each other.

Rear-loading guns, however, were different. This weapon could be fired and reloaded while lying on the ground.

Thus, this weapon was particularly suitable for scattered soldier units. Originally, scattered soldier tactics relied on loose formations to reduce casualties when exchanging fire with line infantry. If these scattered soldiers were all to lie on the ground acting as "Voldemorts," one can imagine how difficult they would be to hit.

In short, apart from low production and high cost, this improved rear-loading rifled gun basically had no drawbacks.

Having watched the drills of the elite marksmen platoon, Anning made up his mind to forcefully promote the widespread use of this type of weapon.

In another timeline of history, rear-loading rifles did not become mainstream until after the 1830s, by which time mankind had built a great number of railways, invented the telegraph, and industrial production had made significant progress.

The development of industry reduced the production costs and labor hours of rear-loading guns, ultimately leading to their widespread adoption.

Anning now intended to force the premature mass application of rear-loading guns, which could basically only be achieved by pouring in money.

Without spending money, one would have to manually develop the entire industrial chain.

Anning certainly could not accomplish such an incredible feat.

By comparison, using money was somewhat more feasible.

Anning planned to first form an elite marksman platoon and then distribute these marksmen among various brigades to be specifically responsible for eliminating enemy officers with precise and fierce firepower in front of their own line infantry.

The newly formed elite marksman platoon was a test of this concept; whether to continue the push depended on how effective this platoon would be in the upcoming wars.

Anning anticipated this greatly.

After all, this was the first piece of advanced technology that he, a transmigrator, had come up with.

If this device, once deployed in actual combat, could give the enemy a good thrashing, that would be extremely satisfying.

While Anning was busy inspecting the troops and actively preparing for war, Paul Barras had still not completely given up on persuading Anning to return to Paris.

However, Anning remained unyielding, shaking his head firmly no matter what Barras said, refusing to agree.

As time went on, the declarations of war from Austria and the Sardinian Kingdom finally arrived in Milan—though that’s not quite accurate, as declarations of war would naturally be sent to the capital of the enemy country.

But Anning even received the declaration of war several days earlier than Paris.

Along with the declaration of war came the latest intelligence from the spy department about the Austrian commanders.

Anning faced two parts of the Austrian forces: one part was the remnants of the original Austrian army deployed at Mantua Fortress and along the Mincio River.

After a period of replenishment, these remnants had regained a force of fifteen thousand, and together with the nine thousand garrison, they totaled twenty-four thousand men.

The commander of this force was still the over-seventy-year-old Marshal Boliue.

Another Austrian corps, transferred from the direction of Rhein, was assembled at Trent, an important transportation hub in the Alpine Mountains.

This force was led by Marshal Von Wumze.

He was also an elderly general in his seventies.

According to reconnaissance, Marshal Von Wumze’s army at Trent was ready to move south through the Adige River Valley at any moment.

Moreover, Marshal Von Wumze might also dispatch a force southward through the mountain roads on the west shore of Lake Garda in the Alpine region.

Because of terrain and transportation route limitations, Anning’s troops deployed north of Mantua Fortress on the west bank of the Mincio River relied on the supply line running closely along the Alpine Mountains through Brescia. Once the Austrian army moved south through the west shore of Lake Garda, they could directly cut off the retreat of Anning’s forces.

Therefore, Anning had to allocate a considerable force to defend the mountainous west shore of Lake Garda.

Despite this, Anning still had a significant advantage in troop strength on the Mincio River front.