M. Barras, after a day's rest, came again to plead for peace and return to Paris.
An Ning did not refuse, and directly told him the military situation of Austria and the Kingdom of Sardinia that he had detected face to face, and then asked: "Tell me, who can command the Italian Army in my place?"
Barras was silent.
In my impression, Barras's military ability was actually pretty good. After all, he was the one who put down the rebellion in Nice and other places, established the Maritime Province, and later discovered Napoleon's achievements.
But it is basically impossible for Barras to suddenly become a person who can take on the Kingdom of Sardinia and the HRE in Italy.
Sure enough, Barras hesitated for a long time and couldn't come up with a reason.
Suddenly he had an idea and asked: "Is it possible that General Frost has a way to deal with an enemy twice as many as himself?"
An Ning glanced at his subordinates, and then Napoleon reminded him kindly: "It's just to defeat the enemy three times our own. We tried it in Konta and won a complete victory. Then we also chopped off the heads of the surrendered enemy generals."
head."
Barras: "This..."
An Ning: "Although there are many enemies, they are divided into two battlefields. Our army also occupies several obstacles in the mountains. The Massena Division guarding these obstacles has 10,000 people, which should be able to hinder the army of the Kingdom of Sardinia for a long time.
During this period we must defeat the Austrian army on the front and force them to retreat to their strongholds in the Alps."
Davout added: "It mainly refers to Trent, which is one of the most important strongholds of HRE in the southern foothills of the Alps."
"As long as we force the enemy to retreat towards Trent," An Ning said again, "we only need to leave a small number of people to surround the Mantua Fortress, and then we can march westward to attack the Kingdom of Sardinia. Our army can start from Valenza
Forced to cross the Po River, and then outflank the Sardinian army that attacked Massena in the coastal hills."
Paul Barras asked doubtfully: "How many troops do you want to use to surround Mantua? If the troops are small, will they be rushed out? I suggest that before the enemy has time to coordinate their actions, immediately retreat to France, and then organize defense in Nice.
"Anyway, the French territories in Italy outside of Nice are basically the territories of the former Merchant Republic, and they are almost the same as those picked up for free.
"If you just want to defend Nice, your army will definitely be fully capable, and you don't need to have top-notch command skills. You can take the opportunity to go to Paris!"
An Ning: "Having given up such a large territory, what qualifications do I have to go back and serve as the garrison commander of Paris?"
Barras: "Whoever controls the newspaper can confuse right and wrong. We just need to exaggerate it and throw the responsibility to the Austrians!"
"Won't the royal party's newspapers propagandize?" An Ning asked rhetorically.
Barras: "Of course they will publicize it, but our Jacobin newspapers are more popular among the people. This is a game of who has the loudest voice."
An Ning: "Yes, you may really be able to fool the people, but what about the facts? What about the large amount of land that fell for no reason?"
The most important thing is, what should I do with the Milan blood-sucking plan that I finally started? I just took a small sip and it didn’t feel good at all.
Barras: "Those things don't matter,
Paris needs you!"
An Ning: "You'd better give up. I will never give up on my soldiers."
Barras curled his lips: "We are not asking you to give up your soldiers. In fact, we still need you to lead the army to defend Paris..."
An Ning: "Mr. Barras, you must have never eaten Milan's chicory cream risotto. It is really delicious. I will ask the most famous chef in Milan to prepare it for you immediately."
Barras shook his head: "No, I don't like cream..."
"No, no, although this dish is called cream risotto, it actually does not use cream. It uses Gorgonzola cheese and oil to achieve a creamy texture. In addition to the creamy texture, Gorgonzola also The unique aroma of cheese…”
Barras continued to shake his head: "No, no, I'm actually not too interested in food. I can just drink some bouillabaisse or some Provence stew..."
An Ning: "This is Italy! If you want to eat French food when you arrive in Italy, the Italians will hate you to death!"
Barras: "Italian food is nothing big, just some variations of onions sautéed in olive oil! Let's talk about Paris!"
Without waiting for An Ning to respond, La Salle said first: "Hey, if you think about it carefully, it seems that Italian dishes really all use olive oil to cook the onions at the beginning!"
Napoleon said categorically: "This is prejudice!"
An Ning couldn't help but remind Napoleon: "You are a Corsican, not an Italian. Corsica belongs to France. You don't need to be so excited about the dignity of Italian food."
Napoleon: "Okay, it's my fault, but Italian food is really delicious, the kind of delicious food that can make life suddenly brighter!"
The Frenchman Napoleon continued to reluctantly maintain the dignity of Italian cuisine.
Barras: "Any of these are great! You can even bring a few Italian chefs to Paris. Then you can have a feast for guests, and then I will taste the creamy risotto you have always recommended!"
An Ning: "Mr. Barras, I think I have made it very clear that I will not leave my soldiers at this time."
Barras gritted his teeth and used his trump card: "Now that you return to Paris, you will definitely become the most influential person in Paris! By then, the entire French army will be at your disposal!"
An Ning: "It sounds a bit attractive, but I am very satisfied with the number of troops under my command now, and the officers under my command are probably barely enough to command so many people."
Barras: "When the time comes, you will lead the entire France to win victory again and again, just like Alexander (or transliterated as Inskandar), the conquering king in history!"
An Ning: "I don't need to go to Paris, I will continue to win and conquer."
Anyway, An Ning has already made up his mind. In Paris, which is so complicated and full of undercurrents, whoever wants to go can go there, but I stay far away anyway.
Faced with the peace of being without oil or salt, Barras let out a long sigh.
He took a step back and said, "Then, I hope to mobilize an army of about 100,000 people from the southern region to the capital."
An Ning glanced at Lazar Cano, who shook his head silently.
So An Ning categorically rejected this demand: "No, our army has no plans to go to Paris at the moment. Of course, in the future, if the situation in Paris is really dangerous, our army will go to Paris.
"But this time will be decided by ourselves."
Barras: "Okay! Okay! I will truthfully report your attitude to your friends in Paris!"
An Ning laughed directly. His friends in Paris were all good buddies who had the same goals. Even if they heard Barras' report, they probably wouldn't say anything.
An Ning: "Go ahead and say hello to Maximilian (referring to Robespierre) for me, and tell him to wait for me to fly to the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna and give him some souvenirs."