On October 15th, news finally came from the north that General Bouye had begun to march towards Paris.
An Ning was very happy to receive this news, thinking that Leopold II was going to declare war soon.
As a result, after waiting for several days, Leopold II did not move at all.
An Ning had already ordered his troops to prepare for Italy, and as soon as war was declared, he went to Italy to talk to Austrian Marshal Beaulieu.
As a result, Bouye has already reached Verdun, and the Shinra Emperor has not yet declared war. An Ning paces back and forth in front of the map every day, thinking to himself, what are you doing, Leopold II? Hurry up to the Shinra Tianzheng, how much can you carry with a bag of rice?
Floor!
There were several letters every day from Paris, urging An Ning to quickly go north to defend Paris.
An Ning was also in a dilemma. The Holy Roman Empire did not declare war, so going to Italy was an undeclared war, and the mission was unknown.
Go north. If war is declared halfway, it will be embarrassing. If you go north, you will have to face the two enemy armies of Bouye and Austria with 30,000 people.
The key point is that he has no money to go north and can't come back with a blood transfusion for Lazar Cano to recruit troops. He can only fight to the end with these 30,000 people.
While An Ning hesitated, several officers who came to An Ning brought back the latest news from Paris. Paris was already mobilizing. The revolutionary Paris people refused to return to Paris after the treasonous royal family and joined the army one after another.
Some bank owners also financed the National Assembly because they were worried about settling old accounts after the royal party's restoration, allowing the troops to receive relatively ample military pay.
The number of National Guardsmen in Paris has expanded to more than 80,000.
A few days after this news came, new news came. The French army led by Dumouriez defeated Bouye's royalist army at Verdun and killed a large number of enemies in the pursuit.
The letters asking for help from Paris suddenly stopped, and a few days later, new news came. Dumouriez received a commendation and was promoted to lieutenant general—an honorary title.
News came one after another, and the National Assembly in Paris started its propaganda machine, apparently trying to promote Dumouriez as the "French God of War" who was no less than An Ning.
General Bouye took the remaining troops and ran directly across the border, taking Louis XVI and the queen into exile in Austria.
Until this time, Leopold II had not declared war.
An Ning could only lie dormant in the south of France with a depressed look on his face.
In addition to reading various information every day, he also went to the engineers and scientists he recruited to watch the steam engines they were tinkering with.
At this time, after all, it was only half a century away from the completion of the first industrial revolution in 1840. Many technologies that were the cornerstone of the industrial revolution had actually appeared, and most of the process bottlenecks that restricted technological development had actually been overcome.
An Ning wants the kind of "qualified time traveler" who knows how to make cement and make soap, and now he can get out of his way.
Unfortunately he is not.
He could only watch the engineers he recruited working hard.
However, An Ning still had some gains in this regard. On December 4, 1791, a British infantry major who admired his achievements brought An Ning a Ferguson breech-loading rifle.
The major just heard that the general liked new weapons, so he brought them over as a greeting gift, without any further thought.
After all, the British army generally believed that such a difficult-to-produce rifle would hardly be of any great use.
But An Ning felt as if he had found a treasure as soon as he got the gun, and immediately handed it over to the craftsmen gathered in Kongta to imitate it.
The imitation work was quickly completed, but at this time, the craftsmen thought it was just the general's whim.
But soon, An Ning gave the craftsmen a new order: redesign the rifle, split it into a series of parts more suitable for production, and then start trying to use assembly line production.
Yes, An Ning doesn't know how to rub cement and soap with his hands, but he understands how the assembly line works.
The assembly line method can be used to reduce the man-hours and costs of producing Ferguson rifles.
Only then did the craftsmen and generals realize that An Ning really planned to equip the breech-loading gun.
Davout first objected on the grounds that the loading process of a breech-loading gun was completely different from that of a front-loading gun, which would invalidate the training of the troops and require retraining.
Berthier believed that breech-loading guns were flashy and had no use except making supply more difficult.
Napoleon accepted new things very enthusiastically. He specially ordered a breech-loading gun and played with it every day.
Then he made a request to the engineers, hoping for an artillery that could be loaded in the breech.
Napoleon still said plausibly: "Hey, just magnify the gun twenty times. What's so difficult about it? Work harder!"
Then the engineers really took out the breech-loading cannon. As a result, on the day of the test firing, the breech block lock was so bad that the air leaked seriously. The gunner who was testing the gun was burned. Napoleon himself also burned his arm.
All in all, in the last few months of 1791, An Ning had almost given up the idea of going to Italy and was ready to concentrate on promoting technological innovation in his hometown.
But at this time, the situation quietly changed.
The first change came from the Girondins.
After Dumouriez repelled the royalist army of General Bouye, the Girondins began to believe that France, after the Great Revolution, already had an invincible army, and that the French army composed of citizens was invincible.
They even began to publicize that Frost was able to defeat Lafayette's army, which was three times his own, because Lafayette's troops were not revolutionary enough.
All in all, Frost won not because of his superior military ability, but because the revolutionary French army was invincible.
Under this understanding, one of the leaders of the Girondins, Brissot, began to advocate war.
He shouted loudly in Parliament: "Who said that Leopold's throne cannot be overthrown? Who said that the bravery of the French army will have an end? Who can guarantee that the French will be bound by the borders?
“If the kings want to wage a war against the French people, then the French people will give them a war against the kings!
"Volcanoes about to erupt are everywhere and only need a spark to ignite! Worrying about the consequences is unpatriotic. War only poses a threat to the king!
"We are going to fight to Vienna and force him to hand over the traitor Louis XVI and his Austrian women! Capture them and face the people's judgment!
"Our answer is, war!"
All the Girondins in Paris fell into fanaticism, and only a few peaceful friends in Paris remained sane.
Robespierre was unequivocally opposed to the war, but now the entire Jacobin Club only has Marat and a few people in the parliament, and it is impossible to stop the spreading war fanaticism.
The second change was that not long after entering 1792, Leopold II, who had always maintained restraint, passed away.