Chapter 243 The glory of victory belongs to His Excellency the General
Beethoven's troops crossed the river relatively late.
He vaguely knew that the troops were singing as they crossed the pontoon bridge, but the singing seemed to come from a very far away place, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't hear it clearly.
For a moment, depression threatened to engulf him again.
But Frost's encouragement was like a guiding light, dispelling all the gloom.
Seizing the throat of fate, what inspiring words!
Beethoven silently strengthened his determination and played the drums harder.
Although he couldn't hear his own drums, he could guess the general melody from the soldiers' singing, and then adjust the drum beats to match the melody.
The long pontoon reached the end, and Beethoven stepped onto the land on the other side. Then he saw a group of people riding horses standing by the river from a distance.
Although Beethoven couldn't see clearly the face of the horseman because of the darkness, he guessed that it was probably General Frost.
His mood suddenly became high.
The general has won another victory! Sure enough, he is a symbol of victory and a contemporary Caesar! He will definitely bring changes to France, no, to the entire Europe!
In this high mood, a melody suddenly appeared in Beethoven's mind. This is a melody of praise, there is no doubt.
At this moment, Beethoven decided on the name of this new song that had not yet been born: Eroica Symphony!
This is a tribute to the heroes across Europe!
**
An Ning suddenly sneezed.
Berthier immediately became alert: "Your Excellency? Why don't you go back to your tent? It's not good to get cold..."
An Ning: "Nothing, I bet some Austrian is scolding me. Maybe it's Prince Schwarzenberg."
After saying that, he laughed.
When he smiled, all the staff, including Berthier, laughed.
Amid laughter, La Salle galloped over on horseback and saluted An Ning: "I asked my boys to add fuel to the fire to the Austrians. We set fire to all the coalition camps on the river bank. Now the enemy is scurrying around.
Woolen cloth!"
An Ning: "You did a good job! But it's too dark at night, and the cavalry is prone to attrition. It's better to wait until dawn before pursuing and annihilating the enemy."
The cavalry moves at night, and the horse is prone to tripping over things. Once it does, the horse may be disabled.
Now there is a shortage of horses in the whole of France, because in the past, most of the horse breeders were nobles. Now the nobles are being killed and run away. There are not many serious horse farms in France running normally.
Therefore, the cavalry units currently in the hands of the Republic are non-renewable consumables and are gone if they are lost.
This shortage of horses also occurred in history. It was precisely because of the lack of cavalry that the Republic Army had to use a large number of skirmishers to perform reconnaissance missions that should have been performed by cavalry.
Therefore, the French army's tradition of using skirmishers during the Revolution was also related to the lack of horses.
It turns out that historically, the shortage of horses did not improve until 1796.
As for the history here, I don't know when there will be enough horses for An Ning. In short, it is correct to use cavalry carefully.
Lazarus was a little dissatisfied with An Ning's order: "Sir, now is the time to capture prisoners and make achievements. Do you want my boys to let go of the achievements that are about to be obtained?"
An Ning: "Yes, that's what I mean. If you break a horse's leg in order to gain merit, then the gain outweighs the loss. Now we are very short of horses!"
La Salle sighed: "Okay, I'm going to give orders to my boys and give the credit to the infantry brothers."
After speaking, Lazarus turned his horse's head and rode away in a hurry.
Berthier: "Only you can order him to move."
An Ning: "When I'm not here, you should give orders to him. Your military rank is higher than his, and your position in the chain of command is higher than his. You can't change your order in the chain of command just because of your personal relationship with me."
"
Berthier: "Then I'm afraid you'll have to remind him."
An Ning: "I will remind him!"
**
By the time it was almost dawn, the chaos that lasted all night finally came to an end.
Berthier reported the results of last night's battle to An Ning: "Our army completely defeated the Austrian Fourth Army last night. The enemy's commander is Prince Schwarzenberg. No one knows the whereabouts of the prince at present.
"Our army captured a total of 17,000 Austrian troops, including about 800 officers..."
An Ning: "There are a few officers."
Berthier: "Most senior officers have horses, so they should have run away. We don't count non-commissioned officers and the like according to officers."
An Ning: "I understand, do you still plan to deal with these prisoners in the original way?"
Berthier frowned and looked at An Ning in confusion.
During this period, the enemy soldiers who were captured were usually released after turning around.
That's why it happened in history, where Napoleon fought consecutive battles and won so many battles, only to find the enemy growing out of the ground when he turned around.
Berthier: "What do you mean?"
An Ning: "We need a lot of labor to repair the fortress, and the sewers in Paris should also be repaired. Let these prisoners do corvee labor."
Berthier: "This... has never had such a precedent. I'm afraid it will give European countries an excuse..."
"Then let them capture them. Let them exaggerate that the Republic is an evil country and that I am a damn tyrant. In short, we cannot let these prisoners go back easily. We cannot let them turn around and continue to be our enemies."
An Ning paused and continued: "There are also captured officers, many of whom are nobles. Hand them over to the people's court established by the parliament to punish them!
"We must completely weaken the power of the Anti-French Alliance from the source!"
There is no such thing in this era. The alliance formed by Prussia, Austria, and the Kingdom of Sardinia is not called the Anti-French Alliance.
An Ning: "Yes, the Anti-French Alliance, Prussia, Austria, and the Kingdom of Sardinia formed a de facto alliance against us. I call them the Anti-French Alliance!
"Because of our progress and revolution, the reactionary forces throughout Europe have united. Don't have the slightest illusion about them!"
An Ning paused, and then said resolutely: "So, we want to weaken the enemy from the root, so all these prisoners are sent to Paris and let them dig the sewers of Paris under the supervision of bayonets!
"And for these captured officers, the most suitable place for them to go is the guillotine!"
**
One day in March 1793, the city of Paris was filled with joy.
Today, the people in the city poured out of their homes to watch the great gift General Frost presented to the whole city: a total of 17,000 Austrian prisoners!
The citizens of Paris happily watched the gift sent by His Excellency the General and praised the General's reputation.
If all the musicians and minstrels in the city had not joined the army and became military musicians, they would have made up some songs to praise the general.
It was from this day on that Parisians firmly believed that General Frost would completely eliminate the coalition forces invading France and bring the glory of victory to the Republic!