Chapter 147: , The liberation of Italy (2)

Speaking of it, the Kingdom of Sardinia is also a member of the Anti-French Alliance, but after the start of the war, they have not really fought the French army seriously. Basically, apart from their navy's involvement in the blockade of France behind the of the British and Spaniards, they are responsible for slaps and soy sauce. And their navy, after discovering the flying shears that could not deal with the French at all, also secretly joined the lucrative cause of smuggling supplies to France.
　　Because they have never really competed with the French on the battlefield, the army of the Kingdom of Sardinia has no idea how strong or weak it is. We cannot say that the Italians are ignorant of the way of fighting that has undergone tremendous changes today-they are also equipped with a new type of "cantaloupe" and know the "strike advantage" brought by the cantaloupe. Moreover, they have also verified the various benefits of skirmish tactics in their own military exercises. But these things have not been verified on the battlefield after all.
　　 The performance of the skirmishers in the Kingdom of Sardinia in the exercises was not satisfactory. Although procrastination and laziness appeared frequently in the exercises, overall the performance of the skirmishers was not worse than that of the private soldiers. Not even worse than the Austrian skirmishers.
　　 Generally speaking, Austrians always like to baselessly degrade the combat effectiveness of the Sardinian army out of jealousy. But they also said: "The Sardinian skirmishers look pretty good."
　　 The ears of the generals of the Kingdom of Sardinia automatically filter out the "looks" in it, so they are very satisfied with their mastery of the new tactics. So they made this judgment very modestly: "Our skirmishers may still be a little bit behind the French skirmishers recognized as the strongest, but they should be top-notch in Europe."
　　 The fifty thousand army of the Kingdom of Sardinia gradually gathered, and General Koli became the commander-in-chief of this army. Although General Kohli had always believed that the Austrians should wait until the Austrian allies were in place before launching a general offensive against the French, but the Austrians' movements were really slow. (Marshal Beaulieu believes that the entire Italian army is not elite enough-Austria's elite are in Belgium and Poland. As for the army of the Kingdom of Sardinia, Marshal Beaulieu thinks it is not as elite as Austria's non-elite-so it is best to take the defensive first and wait for reinforcement ) In addition, the pressure of the king and the nobles was too great, so General Korley decided to fight a little battle first, and then talk about it.
　　 So General Kolly dispatched a team of cavalry to attack a stronghold of the French army in the manor of the Marquis of Coney. Then the cavalry returned to the barracks safely and reported that they had regained their lost ground and killed five or six Frenchmen, as well as dozens of Italian scum who followed the Frenchmen. To prove that they did not lie, they brought them back. The heads of a few Italian scum.
　　 Although General Corley had some doubts about the result of this battle, at this time, he really needed victory to relieve his pressure. It's just that this victory was really too small to kill five or six Frenchmen, which is too small.
　　 So General Corley asked the captain of the cavalry to call in and asked him about the battle process. After some conversation, the whole battle situation became clearer:
　　 This cavalry team of less than a hundred men encountered the rebellion of more than 1,000 French troops and more than 2,000 shamelessly taking refuge in the French near Anton Manor belonging to the Marquis of Kone. The cavalry of the Kingdom of Sardinia immediately drew their sabers, shouting "For God and the King", and launched a brave and fearless charge against these invaders and scum.
　　 The French suddenly became a mess and fled in all directions, while the Cavalry of the Kingdom of Sardinia pursued their victory and killed countless invaders and traitors. Won a glorious victory comparable to the battle of Mongissa (the famous King Baldwin IV-Leprosy-in this battle, with hundreds of cavalry, defeated Saladin's 20,000 army), And successfully recovered the manor.
　　 General Koli reported the news to the king and informed the nobles who were forced to abandon their manor and fled to the city. So the whole city of Turin was full of joy.
　　 Almost at the same time, Napoleon also received such a report:
　　 Our army found a group of Sardinian cavalry with about a hundred men at the stronghold of An Dun Manor and shot them. After our army opened fire, the cavalry quickly retreated.
　　 A report like this caught Napoleon’s attention, because it was the first time they encountered a formed Sardinian cavalry.
　　 "It seems that the Sardinians can't help it anymore, right?" Napoleon thought about this, and decided to start shrinking his forces to prepare for the coming war.
　　 The next day, Napoleon received a report from this stronghold, and several Italians were sent along with the report.
It turned out that after knowing that his manor had been recovered, the Marquis was eager to understand how much he had suffered, so he asked his nephew to rush back overnight with a team of servants to have a look. Then, including his Everyone, including his nephew Viscount Toldo, became a captive of the French.
　　 Napoleon handed the viscount to the "revolutionary court", but released the entourages he had brought back.
　　 General Colly had to come out to defend himself. He claimed that his cavalry had indeed won and regained the manor, but when his cavalry came back, the French returned. Therefore, he cannot be blamed for this matter, but the Marquis-sama is too impatient.
　　Although General Corley could do such a forceful defense of himself, this matter also made him unable to continue to delay.
　　 At the same time, General Corley also felt that he should still be able to fight a dozen. There are only 30,000 or forty thousand people on the opposite side, and there are a full 50,000 people on my side; and because of the obstacles of the Alps, the French on the opposite side don’t have any decent cannons. On my side, there are hundreds of cannons. There is no cavalry on the opposite side. , And there are many times more cavalry on your side than them. Look at it this way, I still have a great advantage here, and I can fight a battle.
　　 On January 14, 1796, the main forces of the Kingdom of Sardinia and Napoleon’s Fifth Army opened their positions in Cuneo, preparing for a decisive battle.
　　 General Koli knew that his biggest advantage was artillery, and he decided to make full use of this advantage. Therefore, the Sardinian army lined up more than a hundred cannons in front of the position. Then General Corley sent his own skirmishers.
　　 This set of tactics is a routine that General Corley has practiced many times in the exercise. He feels that his army has been able to use this tactic quite skillfully. First use artillery shotguns to hit the opponent's skirmishers, support your own skirmishers to advance, and then rely on the skirmishers' "little melons" and artillery's solid shells to open the gap in the opponent's formation, and then throw in the cavalry to solve the battle.
　　During the exercise, this set was quite useful and won a lot of praise for General Kohli. General Kohli hoped that this set of tactics he carefully studied would also win him higher honors on the real battlefield.
　　 The skirmishers of the Sardinian Kingdom began to move forward. General Koli saw through his binoculars that the French skirmishers on the opposite side also began to move forward.
　　 "The artillery is ready! Use shotguns to suppress the enemy skirmishers." General Corley gave this order step by step.
　　 But the cannon hasn't fired yet, because the enemy is still far out of range at this time.
　　 The Sardinian skirmisher continued to advance for a short while before stopping. They cannot advance too fast, lest the enemy skirmishers have not entered the shotgun range of the artillery behind them when they enter the enemy's skirmish range. One of their functions is to keep the enemy's proud skirmishers from the distance that threatens them and give the artillery a chance to destroy them.
　　 I didn't expect the French skirmishers on the opposite side to stop at a distance of more than three hundred yards.
"The French can see our arrangement." General Kolly explained to the Marquis of Hungry Cony who was watching the battle. "They knew that they would be attacked by our artillery if they continued to approach. If so, I believe that the brave French army can withstand the shelling. But our skirmishers stopped them so that they would be wiped out by our artillery in vain, so they hesitate now."
　　 The reason why the Marquis of Kone came here was to urge General Korley’s troops to rescue his nephew, who was his brother’s only legal heir. He frowned and looked at the French skirmishers who had stopped, and then said: "If they just stop like this and don't move forward, what shall we do?"
　　 "It's easy. If the mountain doesn't come, just buy and buy, and then go to the mountain. We can move part of the artillery forward, so..."
　　 General Colly was saying this, but saw a puff of blue smoke rising from the French skirmishers.
　　 "Shoot at such a distance? What can they get?" General Kohli was taken aback.
　　 However, something even more surprising happened. With the shooting of the French skirmishers, the Sardinian skirmishers fell a lot.
　　 "General, what is this?" the Marquis of Kony asked in astonishment. He also knows that at such a long distance, it is impossible to have such a hit rate.
　　 "Maybe...maybe they used a rifled shotgun!" said General Coley.
　　In this era, only rifled shotguns can shoot at such a long distance. However, it is very difficult to load a rifled shotgun. It takes only four or five minutes to complete a reload. If the French army’s skirmishers all use this weapon, it means that they will no longer be able to shoot for a long time. As long as the Sardinian skirmishers press up quickly, they can fire at them at very close range and get a better exchange ratio.
　　 General Koli thought of this, and immediately ordered the skirmishers to attack. But just as he gave the order to the messenger, the messenger didn't even have time to get on the horse, and the Frenchman on the opposite shot another round of shooting. Then the Sardinian skirmishers fell again.
　　 "This... how is this possible?" General Corley was startled at first, then became uncontrollable with anger. Obviously, it is impossible for a rifled gun to shoot so quickly. It must be a musket that can shoot like this. But it is impossible for the musket to get such a hit rate at such a long distance, and now his skirmishers have fallen so much. There can be only one explanation for all this, and that is-those cowards are evading the battle, they are pretending to be dead!
Then the third round of the French skirmishers confirmed this inference. After the French army's firing round, the Sardinian skirmishers fell more than half-it was a volley fired from a distance of thirty yards. There will be no such effect! And General Coley even saw it with his own eyes. There was a guy who stood and looked around. After everyone fell for several seconds, he suddenly seemed to wake up and threw the gun in his hand exaggeratedly. , Covered his chest with both hands, squatted down slowly, and then lay on the ground.
"Damn! These guys! After this battle, I must hang them on the gallows to air-dry!" Facing these guys who didn't even pretend to be like death, General Coley was out of anger. , He deeply felt the darkness and sadness of this world.
　　The next thing is really not only anger, but also sadness. Before the French continued shooting, more skirmishers fell one after another. In the blink of an eye, more than 1,000 skirmishers carefully trained by the Kingdom of Sardinia suddenly disappeared from the battlefield.
　　 This change shocked General Corley, but made Napoleon smile. Napoleon naturally knew that his skirmishers did hit the opposite Sardinian skirmishers; however, Napoleon was also certain that his skirmishers would never have killed so many Sardinian skirmishers. So he quickly came to the same conclusion as the opposite General Coley: those shameless guys were pretending to be dead and fleeing the battlefield.
　　 However, this is not the first time Napoleon has seen this situation. When he was still on the Belgian side, and when he was still following Di Mourier, he had seen the Austrian parody of the French skirmish tactics. The Austrians also dispatched a large number of skirmishers, but the skirmishers disappeared from the battlefield for no reason. Speaking of it, these Italians only started to play like this after three rounds of gunfire. They are already very brave.
　　 Now that the enemy's skirmishers have been defeated~EbookFREE.me~The French skirmishers naturally began to move forward quickly.
"Don't be afraid, this is just a small technical setback, don't be afraid." General Corley encouraged himself in his heart, "At least, we still have superior artillery. If they dare to step forward, we will kill them with cannons. !"
　　 The French skirmishers swiftly advanced to a distance of only about three hundred yards from the Sardinian artillery. They walked a few dozen steps further and they could enter the range of the artillery. But at this time, they stopped and raised their guns...
"This... how is this possible! How can there be weapons with such a long range and such a fast shooting speed!" General Poly was completely stunned. Now that the distance is closer, he can clearly see those falling beside the cannon. The blood flowing out of the soldiers' bodies is not fake. The enemy can indeed shoot with such precision and speed at such a long distance.
　　 The gunners who were lucky enough to not be killed in the first round of the French skirmishers did not have the courage to continue holding their posts under the rain of bullets. They threw down the cannon and ran away, or simply found a place to lie down and play dead.
　　 "Cavalry! The cavalry rushed forward and beat the enemy's skirmishers back!" General Colley shouted.
　　 The Sardinian army has more cavalry, and when the Austrians introduced their experience in fighting with the French army, they also pointed out that a large number of light cavalry is the way to restrain the French's skirmishers. (Hussars are relatively cheap and run faster-no armor can stop rifle bullets anyway-they can also be relatively deadly)
　　 So the last straw of the Sardinians came out.