Chapter 236 "The enemy is going to be in bad luck"
An Ning waited by the Marne River for more than a day, and the enemy arrived as promised.
Although the French army had desperately marched in order to reach the river as soon as possible, they had recovered to a good extent after a day of repairs.
In addition, the French army was on the defensive side in this battle. They only had to squat behind the built fortifications and fire their guns, so the physical consumption of the soldiers was not a big problem.
An Ning put down the telescope, picked up the champagne on the table, and took a sip.
In fact, he didn't want to be so grandiose, but for some reason, the whole army now thinks that General Frost should drink champagne and eat delicious steaks when the war starts, otherwise there is something wrong.
So even Berthier, who was always rigid, came to suggest that An Ning honestly set the table for wine and meat to prevent everyone from guessing.
So An Ning asked Fanny to set up a table on the high ground by the Marne River, with a parasol, red wine and steak.
He strongly suspected that he would have to dress like this in the future as a conductor.
As soon as the enemy appeared, the cannons immediately began to roar.
However, after only a few shots were fired, the enemy retreated out of range and began to camp on the other side of the Marne River.
Berthier commented: "He did not rush to cross the river, but instead set up camp first and waited for the troops to regain their strength. The enemy's actions were very consistent with military common sense. This Prince Schwarzenberg is at least a commander with common sense."
An Ning asked: "According to military common sense, when will the enemy attack us?"
Berthier: "Tomorrow. Generally speaking, before a formal battle occurs, the two armies will camp very close to each other. They can even see each other's camps. Yes, that's what it is now. Many battles under your command, General.
Not following this principle gives you many advantages.
"I think this is probably because our army has high morale and does not need time to reorganize after a long march. This is a significant feature that distinguishes our army from the army of the old kingdom."
An Ning: "It should be said that this is the characteristic of the citizen army and the characteristic of the nationalist army."
Berthier: "But this feature can't help us now. After all, we can't cross the river to attack the enemy now. We can only wait for the enemy to be ready before attacking."
Just as An Ning was about to respond, a messenger arrived.
"Report, General La Salle is crossing the upper reaches of the Marne River and should arrive tomorrow."
An Ning calmly corrected the messenger: "He is not a general yet."
"Feel sorry."
An Ning nodded and waved the messenger to leave.
Berthier asked: "Do you want La Salle to attack the enemy camp at night?"
An Ning: "We can't make it in time. It's probably late at night when the messenger arrived in Lazar. Now our army and the enemy's forces are evenly matched, so we can just fight in a regular manner."
Berthier: "I'm still worried. After all, our army is an untrained force. Many troops are not even proficient in loading."
An Ning: "But our morale is high."
In real history, when the French army first faced the interventionist forces, it was in a very poor state of training. Not only that, the French army in real history was still a mixture of the old army and the Self-Defense Forces, with a lot of internal contradictions.
heap.
The army in An Ning's hands at least does not have much remnant of the old army, and is a fully organized army.
Moreover, in real history, the French army was an interventionist force that was defeated in Valmy. It had basically no geographical advantage. It relied on its high morale and solid preset positions to immobilize the coalition forces.
The French army did not attack because Dumouriez, who was commanding the battle, knew that the French army, which was so poorly trained, would be finished if it left its position to engage in field battles, so it stayed on the position and fought with the interventionist forces.
Then the French army won.
An Ning is extremely familiar with history, so he is prepared to follow suit.
High morale means you can do whatever you want! He stood up from the table and said to Fanny: "We may not be able to fight today, please clean up. Is there a way to ensure that the steak will not spoil?"
Fanny: "Yes, just add more salt to marinate it. But are you sure you want to eat such a salty steak tomorrow? You should eat the steak today, and I will give you a new steak tomorrow."
An Ning raised her eyebrows and could only sit down again and start eating steak.
Fanny: "Let's drink some wine too. Aren't you tired of just eating steak?"
An Ning picked up the wine glass and took a sip of champagne.
Berthier: "I suggest that only half of the troops should be left on the position, and the other troops should withdraw to the camp to rest."
An Ning: "Okay, you can make arrangements."
Berthier nodded and left. After a while, the French troops on the position began to withdraw from the position and entered the camp behind the position.
Quite a few troops passed by An Ning, and they all looked at An Ning eating steak there.
Someone with good intentions asked loudly: "Your Majesty General, the enemy did not attack today. Are you unhappy?"
An Ning smiled and responded: "Yes! These damn guys actually just made a tentative attack and then retreated. Their commander Schwarzenberg must be a piece of trash without balls!"
The soldiers burst out laughing, laughing at the trash across from them, and for a moment the air was filled with joy.
After all the troops had passed, Fanny whispered: "It turns out this steak is not to your taste."
"No, no, it's very tasty. I just responded to the occasion, just to meet the occasion!" An Ning said hurriedly.
Fanny tilted her head: "Oh, that's right, I thought you liked steak that was rarer or more cooked."
As she spoke, Fanny looked up at the tents gradually built by the coalition forces on the other side of the river, and asked, "Will the battle last for many days?"
"I'm afraid so. After all, we are not the attacker this time. We have to fight until the enemy completely loses his will to fight. It is unlikely that we will have the hearty annihilation battle like before, where the winner can be decided in one day."
"Well, I thought this time it would be a clean victory, but I was a little under-prepared. Please allow me to bring a carriage back to Paris to bring some necessary things."
An Ning was shocked: "What, you actually want to use a carriage to bring things from Paris? I thought you could take anything you need out from under your maid's skirt!"
After all, the perfect and chic maid's skirt is a four-dimensional treasure bag. Whether it is a massive flying knife or a Deshka heavy machine gun, it can be easily taken out.
Fanny looked at An Ning with an expression that looked like a fool: "How is that possible! I'm just better at planning and using transportation capacity. I always ask the baggage team to transport the general's personal supplies."
What the hell, these champagne and steaks have been made for a long time, they are all things that take up the resources of the transportation team.
An Ning made a face: "This is not good. You can't take up precious luggage just because of me..."
Fanny: "Really? Then I won't do it next time?"
An Ning couldn't help but hold his forehead. He remembered Berthier's words: "If you don't drink champagne and eat steak before the battle, your morale may be shaken."
An Ning: "No, please continue to prepare."
Fanny: "Oh. But I have to return to Paris in the afternoon and I won't be able to come back tomorrow. You can only move the small table out and pour the wine yourself."
**
The next day, early in the morning, the Austrians began artillery fire across the river.
So the horns of emergency muster sounded everywhere in the French army's camp.
An Ning opened the curtain of the tent, carried a table in his right hand, and a bottle of champagne in his left hand, and came out.
Berthier originally came out of his tent to report to An Ning, but when he saw An Ning's appearance, he hesitated.
An Ning: "Fanny has gone back to Paris, I have to move by myself."
Berthier opened his mouth wide, and it took him a long time to react: "Ah, oh, that's it. You can call a few messengers."
An Ning: "No need, this thing isn't heavy, just carry it yourself and you're done."
Then An Ning walked towards his command position.
The flag bearer carrying the general's flag arrived early, and when he saw An Ning coming up like this, he was stunned, as if he didn't know whether he should come up to help.
After all, no one has ever seen the commander-in-chief of an army look like him.
The infantry brigades arrayed on both sides of An Ning's command position all looked at An Ning in shock.
An Ning smiled awkwardly: "The maid has returned to the city. I have no choice but to do it myself."
Then An Ning set up the table under the gaze of everyone, then turned down the chairs on the table and set them up.
He sat on a chair and opened the champagne himself, then realized he didn't have a glass.
Also, with just two hands, there is really no space to carry a cup.
An Ning thought for a while, forget it, just blow on the bottle.
The soldiers who saw this scene looked at each other, and then An Ning heard someone say: "Did you see, the General is so drunk today, the enemy will be in bad luck!"
An Ning raised her eyebrows, what the hell, can I improve the morale of our army no matter what I do?
As he thought this, the French artillery also began to fight back against the coalition forces.
Then An Ning saw the coalition engineers in the distance pushing the pontoon into the water.
Good guy, after they set up camp yesterday, they were not idle at all. They were building a pontoon bridge!
There was a typhoon, so I rushed to buy some daily necessities. After all, the typhoon made landfall in the afternoon, who knows if something big will happen. The second update was added, and it was still the same time in the evening.