Descending On France 1780
Chapter 200 - 193 Target Rivoli

Chapter 200: 193 Target Rivoli

After seeing off the elderly Boliue, Napoleon turned to Anning and said, "Andy, if you’re that eager for the Marshal’s scepter, when we face Von Wumze, I’ll make sure the cannons are precisely aimed to take out Von Wumze, then you can search the battlefield and find the Marshal’s Staff."

Lasalle: "Come on, your cannon, at best covers a thousand meters, expecting you to push the cannon close enough to shoot at Von Wumze is less likely than relying on my cavalry. General, unexpected things often happen during a cavalry charge, I guarantee that when we capture Von Wumze on the battlefield, I’ll make sure he has an ’accident’, and then get you that Marshal’s Staff!"

Bertier: "General, please prevent your young officers from acting recklessly."

Anning rubbed his forehead.

He had the illusion that Napoleon and Lasalle were two mischievous kids, and Bertier was the long-suffering nanny who had no choice but to clean up after them all day.

And indeed, this feeling was... quite unique.

Anning: "Alright, I’m not that desperate for the Marshal’s Staff. You don’t have to meticulously plan to snatch it from the battlefield for me."

"Then let’s return to Paris, and have Mr. Robespierre push in the Parliament to restore the marshal’s title," Napoleon came up with a new idea. "That way, General, you’ll have your own marshal’s scepter, and we’ll address you as General the Marshal."

Lasalle: "I think, from now on, we could drop the military rank and just call you General. In my heart, there is only one General, just like there is only one sun in the sky!"

Hearing Lasalle’s words, Anning felt a chill, thankful that Beethoven wasn’t nearby. Otherwise, Beethoven, getting excited, might hum a tune of "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah," and Anning was afraid he might just die right there in the headquarters.

While Anning was feeling awkward, Napoleon applauded, "Right! That’s good, in the future our whole army will call you General without any military rank, which makes it seem more solemn—"

Napoleon hesitated halfway through speaking: "Calling you General is good, but what if circumstances change in the future?"

...What changes? Don’t mess around!

Napoleon continued: "You see, in the future, Andy might still become a member of the Royal Family."

Anning gasped in surprise, what the hell, that’s coming too quickly, isn’t it? Are we fast-forwarding to 1804? That’s twelve years ahead, a whole Ben Ming Nian!

But what Napoleon next said was: "You see, Andy might marry the Princess."

...Huh?

Ah, so that’s how he becomes a member of the Royal Family, you scared me to death.

Anning: "You know, I’m already annoyed by my maid nagging in my ear every day, I don’t want to come to the headquarters and be urged to marry as well."

Napoleon: "So what’s wrong with Ms. Christina?"

Just as Anning opened his mouth to respond, Lasalle interjected: "Of course, she’s too old, she’s much older than me! And she’s a military woman, military women are just like the nuns in a monastery!"

Christina, a noblewoman serving in the military typically signifies that her family couldn’t afford a dowry, so they send her to the army, another place for such noblewomen is the monastery, to become a nun.

Marrying a military noblewoman, in the people’s view of that era, was like marrying a nun, and there would be a lot of scandals about it.

By the way, noblewomen serving in the military is a unique thing in this timeline, in real history, unmarried noblewomen like Christina typically went to monasteries to become nuns.

In actual history, the only women serving in the army during wartime were tavern maids in the troops, this is a real existence, hence Hugo’s "Ninety-Three" starts with such a woman carrying a barrel of wine alongside the Grenadiers searching for rebels in the forest.

Anning doesn’t mind other people’s rumors, and he doesn’t think Christina is too old, he’s just simply too busy, with no time to deal with love, especially during the first few years of the Revolution, Anning’s focus was entirely on the political situation, absolutely no energy left for romance.

What’s love compared to the excitement of the Revolution?

Before Anning could respond, Napoleon and Lasalle began arguing, Lasalle, the playboy, firmly believes you shouldn’t take a woman over thirty, just like a Cavalry over thirty is a coward and a scoundrel.

And Napoleon... although in this timeline, Napoleon hadn’t hooked up with the widow at Malmaison Castle, it appears he hooked up with another much older lady in Milan.

This kind of thing, in those comics, there’s a term, called ** starting a big car.

So Napoleon is firmly explaining the beauty of mature women.

Bertier was frowning the entire time.

Anning’s expression was quite similar to his Chief of Staff.

Finally, Bertier glanced at Anning, and after getting the implied approval from the General, spoke up: "Gentlemen, we currently have a formidable enemy before us, now is not the time to argue about women."

Napoleon: "That’s simple! Marshal Von Wumze made a fatal mistake; he split his forces into two groups. We just need to concentrate our local advantage and strike at one of his lines."

After speaking, Napoleon drew a line north of Brescia: "Here let Lana lead five thousand men to hold off the enemy troops, then divide ten thousand men to besiege the Mantua Fortress, and finally gather twenty-five thousand men together with Italy’s ten thousand in the Adige River Valley to battle Von Wumze’s eastern army."

Bertier looked worried: "Can five thousand men hold them up?"

Napoleon: "They don’t need to hold them up. Actually, their main task is to delay the enemy, just wait for our battle to start on the eastern route, the western route can then collapse. Geographically, the enemy can’t possibly reach the eastern battlefield in one day. There’s a big lake in between!"

Anning stroked his chin, listening to Napoleon’s deployment.

He couldn’t find too many flaws.

But it’s not good not to pick some flaws at such times, so Anning spoke: "The Mantua Fortress doesn’t need ten thousand men to besiege it, five thousand is enough. The terrain of that fortress makes it difficult to break out from. Execute the rest as planned."

Bertier: "Alright, I’m going to write the orders now. So, where do we approximately expect to face the decisive battle?"

Anning pointed directly at the map on Rivoli: "Here! Rivoli Plateau. We plan to meet Von Wumze’s eastern army here."

Napoleon and Bertier leaned in to look at the map.

Bertier: "This terrain hasn’t been surveyed yet, is it really suitable?"

Rivoli Plateau on the eastern bank of the Mincio River, Anning had just crossed the river, of course, he hadn’t had time to survey the terrain.

But he didn’t need to because this was where Napoleon defeated the Austrian army and thoroughly ended their attempt to relieve the Mantua Fortress.

He was deeply familiar with the terrain of this place.