Descending On France 1780
Chapter 267 - 260 The early summer has arrived

Chapter 267: 260 The early summer has arrived

When the greenhorn generals of the French Army shared their post-battle insights, the Austrians were also analyzing the recent fight.

Brigadier Ferdinand: "Damn it, what the hell happened? Skirmishers should easily crumble under the advance of line infantry! That’s common sense! Damn it, why didn’t the enemy follow common sense?"

No one could answer the Brigadier, and the room full of Colonels and Lieutenants fell silent.

A rabble had held against the regular troops of the Holy Roman Empire, and no one would believe such a story if it were told.

At this moment, Colonel Bacon, the Chief of Staff, suddenly had an epiphany: "I’ve got it!"

Ferdinand looked at the Colonel in surprise: "Understood what?"

"This is not some rabble at all; these are Frost’s well-trained, high-spirited direct forces! They deliberately released false information about being a rabble to deceive us!"

Ferdinand was shocked, but this explanation was more palatable than being defeated by a rabble.

Like Columbus discovering the New Continent, the Colonel proclaimed: "It must be so! That leatherworker, Frost, using some evil method, has rapidly trained these men to match professional soldiers!"

An officer jumped up to point out the flaw: "Nonsense, how could regular soldiers all fight as skirmishers? It’s more likely that Frost recruited desperadoes, each a murderous devil!"

Inspired, the Colonel firmly incorporated this "suggestion" into his own thinking: "Exactly! Without a doubt, Frost must have hired desperadoes to pose as officers! Those ferociously battling officers must be utterly depraved!"

In reality, they were tinsmiths, tailors, printing workers, and painters.

But at that moment, no one present could point this out. The outdated nobles from the Holy Roman Empire were still using their obsolete notions to grope blindly, attempting to understand something new, a son of the new era.

Growing increasingly excited, the Colonel continued: "That’s right, that explains it. Their core soldiers are scoundrels, ruffians, and thugs from the city, led by bloodthirsty bandits. We have a thoroughly evil army here! Therefore, we were defeated by cunning and trickery, there’s no need to feel ashamed!"

Ferdinand seemed finally persuaded to accept this outcome.

Then he brought up another issue: "But, the orders we received were to seize Babi Village, cut off the enemy’s supply route, and create conditions for our main forces to annihilate them. After battling all day and sustaining so many casualties, we didn’t even reach the edge of the village."

The Colonel advised: "Simple, just report to the coalition’s headquarters that we faced opposition from 20,000 enemy troops and that with our current forces it’s impossible to break through. The headquarters will definitely send reinforcements!"

Ferdinand hesitated: "Twenty thousand? From the information received today, there were only three brigades in front of us, after all, there were only three brigade flags."

"The brigades of the French Army are larger than ours, Brigadier. Just say that a French brigade has ten thousand men, that we faced the fire of thirty thousand!"

Ferdinand: "Would anyone believe that?"

"Of course, they will. We have already received information through various channels, especially from those treacherous French nobles. They said that the French Army, due to the large number of enlistees but a lack of officers, has oversized units."

Ferdinand frowned again: "The same French nobles in exile told us that Frost’s troops were hurriedly gathered ragamuffins, an undisciplined mob, not to be feared. So should I report that we encountered a well-trained, ferocious force trained by Frost, or say it was a rabble?"

Colonel: "Simple, we faced a force that seemed like a rabble in sheer numbers, but was actually a well-trained, ferocious force. Look, we managed to... I mean, we actually withstood them for so long, what a tremendous accomplishment!"

Ferdinand raised his eyebrows; although the Colonel’s explanation was full of holes, it was still more acceptable than admitting he had been beaten by a rabble.

So the Brigadier nodded: "Alright, we’ll report that and request reinforcements. In the meantime, before the reinforcements arrive, should we stop our offensive and simply confront them?"

"Of course not!" The Colonel responded hurriedly.

Colonel: "What are you thinking? We can’t stop the offensive. Continuing to attack only costs the lives of fodder soldiers and some minor nobility. With our twenty thousand men, we can sustain such losses for another half a month.

"Keep attacking while continuously sending back the wounded. When the Duke and the Marshal see all the wounded, they will know we are fighting fiercely!

"Besides, what if we keep up the attack day after day, and the French Army’s tightly strung bow finally snaps?"

""

Ferdinand nodded repeatedly, "Good, that makes sense. Then we’ll continue the attack and request reinforcements. How many do you think the Marshal can send us?"

The Colonel replied, "At least twenty thousand! With the troops we already have, you’ll be a Brigadier General commanding forty thousand men, which is even larger than the biggest force ever commanded by your father!"

Brigadier General Ferdinand was very pleased, his chubby face unfolding into a smile.

"Forty thousand! Fantastic!"

**

Due to the delayed transmission of battlefield reports, Anning didn’t learn until a day and a half later that Bertier had been cut off from retreat.

Furthermore, Lasalle was honorably wounded in the battle while attempting to prevent the enemy from quickly getting into position.

Anning immediately wrote a letter furiously berating Bertier as an idiotic pig.

After sending off the letter, Anning’s rage abated slightly, then he realized that he also had some responsibility in this matter.

He knew well that Bertier was an incompetent, yet had still appointed him as acting Commander.

Actually, Anning hadn’t expected to be delayed in Paris this long; he had planned to return to attend a funeral and then head back to the headquarters within a few days.

Moreover, at the time, he truly did not have anyone else to take on the role of acting Commander, so he entrusted it to Bertier.

He left very detailed instructions, precisely because he feared Bertier would mess things up.

But no amount of preparation could withstand the sudden necessity of having to remain in Paris to protect important figures from the bloody reign of terror.

If nothing else, this incident would provide a reason to never let Bertier touch the command baton again - without this incident, no telling if Bertier might have had the ambition to command troops himself in the future.

In any case, what was done was done.

With matters in Paris almost settled, Anning carted off people in need of protection back to Marseilles.

He allowed Christina to be involved in all aspects of this operation so that when he went to the front lines, she would continue to protect these important figures.

It was time for Anning to return to the battlefield.

Thus, after finishing the scathing letter to Bertier, Anning hurried to the Ministry of War in Paris to inquire with Lazar Kano about how many troops had completed their reorganization.

He did not personally select troops at Versailles Palace because it was said that Versailles could no longer accommodate everyone, thus the newly reorganized troops were all stationed within Paris City.

Lazarcano had somehow obtained a bunch of large estates from the nobles, which were requisitioned as barracks for the National Guard.

Upon arriving at the Ministry of War, Lazar Kano was in conversation with the president of the Paris Commune—essentially, the mayor of Paris. Seeing Anning enter, Lazar Kano was somewhat surprised.

"General, what brings you here?"

"You’re not aware yet? Bertier screwed up, and I need to take command earlier to rescue the situation," Anning said, tossing the frontline dispatch onto Cano’s desk.

Cano unfolded the dispatch, glancing over it as he spoke, "I usually won’t look at today’s compiled dispatch until evening... Oh, dear, this is really bad. So, you’re heading out again?"

"Yes, I’m here to ask you how many troops you can give me?"

Lazar Kano, with his hands behind his back, said, "Counting those stationed in the surrounding cities, about seven hundred thousand, which should be enough to confront the two hundred thousand coalition forces."

Anning was stunned, "What? Seventy thousand? Not bad at all, very good."

"It’s seven hundred thousand, General," Lazar Xiao Kano He said, "I promised you that by summer the reorganization of the troops would be complete. Now, well, spring is at its tail end, barely early summer. So, your army is ready."