As soon as An Ning left the headquarters gate, he met Beethoven and David.
It's strange to say that the musician and the painter somehow became close friends and acted together all day long.
As soon as they saw An Ning, they greeted him and asked enthusiastically: "Is the front line tight? Are you going to the front line now? Please let us go together!"
An Ning: "No, I'm going to Varazze now. Massena, whom I asked them to find before, has been found."
Beethoven asked in confusion: "Why are you looking for this Massena? Does he have any outstanding deeds?"
An Ning grinned and showed a mysterious smile.
In fact, as early as a year ago, when An Ning issued the list to Lazar Cano, who was no longer on the front line, there were rumors that An Ning had received a revelation from God.
An Ning was originally worried about whether there would be any problems if he made this list. At that time, he had no choice. Finding out where those people were was as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack, so he made a list.
But now he discovered that there was no problem at all, and instead it increased his legendary attributes. Beethoven is the only one who has asked questions directly face to face like Beethoven.
Maybe Le Sheng is a bit special and is not affected by An Ning's miraculous rumors.
Anyway, things are like this, and An Ning is too lazy to explain in detail.
At first, he was worried that it would be terrible if these people were not as powerful as the legend said.
Then last year, during the battle against Lafayette, the performance of Davout and Rana dispelled his doubts. Davout, in particular, had solid military knowledge and was brave in combat. He was a fierce general just like the legends in history.
That is to say, Rana is really too young now and really doesn't understand military affairs. He still needs to learn, otherwise An Ning would have thrown him out to command a division.
As for Massena, Massena is only a warrant officer now, but after all he has served as a soldier for so many years, he should be of great use.
This morning's battle also proved this. Massena is indeed very fierce, as Lazarus witnessed with his own eyes.
So An Ning was determined to appoint Massena as the division commander.
An Ning said to Beethoven and David: "If you two are willing to follow, there is no problem. If you are willing to go to the battlefield, you can find Napoleon. His artillery team should be setting off for the frontal battlefield soon."
David: "We'd better follow you, it just so happens that we can meet Massena, whom you have always been thinking about."
La Salle stepped in and said: "Oh my God, you have to draw this Massena. I saw it with my own eyes. When the Austrians attacked at dawn, Massena personally held the flag and counterattacked, and pushed them back outside the town. .If it weren’t for him, I would have been captured! Then I found dozens of cavalry, rode out of the town, and charged at the Austrian’s back!”
Beethoven smiled and said: "Listen to what you said, is it your credit for winning in the end?"
"Of course... uh, no, uh, this, Massena and I are each half!"
An Ning had already mounted his horse. He was eating a hot dog and said, "You have to believe half of his words, especially when he smells of alcohol."
"You are right! When I was scouting the enemy's situation, you must not believe half of it. What I got at that time was 100% accurate!"
An Ning smiled, and then urged Beethoven and David: "If you two are willing to come, hurry up!"
"Right away, General!"
**
At this time, Davout was commanding the troops to fight against the Argento Division on the top of Mount Nikino.
He analyzed the terrain of the mountain and believed that General Frost's anti-slope tactics should not be copied, but instead formed on the top of the mountain.
As a result, the Austrian artillery was able to hit Davout's troops. However, last night Davout ordered the troops to repair some fortifications before spending the night, so the casualties caused by the artillery were not very large.
The four artillery pieces of Davout's troops relied on their condescending advantage to bombard the Austrians even more fiercely.
When the Austrian infantry came up, Davout's formation was effective. The enemy attacked from the rear, which consumed a lot of physical strength, and the momentum of the charge was also weakened, so they were repelled several times in a row.
Taking advantage of the opportunity for the enemy to go down and reorganize their attack, Davout ordered the troops waiting on the back slope to come up to replace the tired troops who had blocked several waves of charges.
The defense change was completed quickly.
The Austrians could only stare, because Davout was on the mountain. Even if the Austrians wanted to take advantage of the chaos of Davout's defense change to rush in, they would still need to spend time climbing the mountain.
When the Austrians charged for the fifth time, Davout received Frost's order: firmly nail the Argento division in front of him and suck it!
After seeing the order, Davout muttered: "It seems that the commander asked other troops to retreat, otherwise this order cannot be explained."
The adjutant next to him asked: "Shall we charge?"
Davout shook his head: "No, no! If we charge down and the enemy is defeated, we won't be able to complete the mission. Damn it, the order came too late. If it had come earlier, I wouldn't have changed our defense, making the enemy think we only have so many people!"
The messenger was about to return to the headquarters to report that the order had been conveyed in place. Hearing Davout's words, he turned around and said pitifully: "I have run with all my strength, but the mountain road is really difficult to walk. I dare not let go even while riding a horse.
Leg run.”
Davout: "I know, I'm not blaming you. Now I can only hope that the Austrians are determined enough to conquer this mountain. You go back and report!"
"Do you need me to bring a battle report?"
"Just tell the commander that everything is fine and I promise to complete the mission."
After Davout finished speaking, the orderly soldier saluted and ran away.
If he does not go back, the headquarters will see that he has been gone for too long, and will think that something unexpected happened while delivering the order, and will send another messenger and several armed cavalry escorts to deliver the order.
As soon as the front foot saw off the ordering soldiers, the rear foot lookout shouted: "Commander! Look!"
Davout immediately opened the telescope and observed the enemy's formation changes. He soon came to the conclusion: "Damn it, the enemy has discovered that we have a strong force and is trying to escape!"
In this era, after defeating the enemy, the enemy may go to the rear and regroup.
In this era, regardless of bayonets or muskets, the killing efficiency was actually not that high. Therefore, after defeating the enemy, as many as 70 to 80% of the enemy's troops could run back, and they could fight again after regrouping.
To completely disable the opponent's army, the opponent's organization must be completely eliminated, the army's flag, the army's roster, and the officer's roster must be taken away and burned.
In this way, even if the enemy finally runs back, it will take several months to reorganize.
In addition, there was another practice in this era, which was for captured officers to make an agreement that they would not fight "our army" again within a year.
Regardless of the fact that this agreement is not enforceable, people in Europe tend to abide by this agreement.
Later, when Napoleon arrived in Egypt, he did the same to the Ottoman army. As a result, he agreed and was let go. He then turned around and joined the Ottoman army to continue fighting the French army.
So Napoleon had no choice but to kill the surrendered Ottoman prisoners.
All in all, only by dismantling the enemy's structure on a large scale and capturing the enemy's troops can the enemy lose a large number of troops and be unable to replenish them in a short period of time.
Simply defeating is not enough.
When Davout saw signs that the enemy was beginning to retreat, he immediately lost his composure.
He thought for a while and then said: "Let's start pushing forward now!"
"Charge?"
"No!" Davout said loudly, "If you don't charge, just advance towards the enemy, then stop and shoot, maintain contact, and prevent the enemy from running away smoothly!"