After the dinner, there was a salon that was only open to members of the An Ning faction.
Lasalle glanced at everyone in the hall and suddenly said: "I was wondering why something was missing. After thinking about it, I finally found out that it was Davout's bald head! We were gathering, and it felt like nothing without Davout's bald head.
Something’s wrong!”
As a new member of this group, Bernadotte was very dissatisfied with Davout's military exploits. He curled his lips: "Davout was in Italy and besieged a Mantua fortress for almost a year. Isn't he?
Not good at attacking cities."
An Ning: "He has defeated Austria's several attempts to relieve the siege of Mantua, and he has done a very good job. At most, the troops sent by Austria to relieve the siege were twice his strength.
"The Mantua Fortress has not been captured yet. Maybe Davout wants to surround the fortress and starve the people inside while waiting to see if the Austrians will come to relieve the siege again."
Napoleon thought for a while and nodded: "This is indeed a possibility. In addition, Davout, despite the high casualty rate in the battles he fought under Andy, he personally does not like such a big sacrifice.
.”
An Ning: "I know, but when he needs to go up, he won't refuse. So every time I put him in the most dangerous position, the casualties will be high."
"Yes," Napoleon nodded, "but if Davout is left to direct it, he will probably prefer a low-casualty strategy. From what I've seen, the Mantua Fortress is really difficult to attack."
Bernadotte was a little embarrassed by everyone's joint rebuttal: "This..."
An Ning stood up, came to him and patted Bernadotte on the shoulder: "Davout is the person I can trust to take charge of an entire front. I have given the whole of Italy to him. What are you doing?
When I can safely hand over a whole front to you, it will not be too late to comment on Davout."
Bernadotte nodded like a chicken pecking at rice: "Okay, okay, I will."
An Ning patted Bernadotte's shoulder heavily before returning to his position.
Cristina whispered: "You, don't do this, you look like you scared Bernadotte."
An Ning was a little surprised: "Are you scared?"
"Look at his face! You probably don't know how scary your expression was just now, right?"
Napoleon: "I have to say, I was scared too. I have to strive to become a general that Andy, you, will protect so hard."
An Ning smiled: "You will become it."
You are Napoleon, you will definitely be responsible for one aspect in the future.
An Ning suddenly thought with bad intentions, if not for this world line, he would send Napoleon to Spain and let him be in charge of Spanish affairs.
Just at this time, a small band in the venue was playing, and the violinist in the band played a melodious melody, which was very suitable for the occasion.
However, the current French Republic has not yet gone to war with Spain, and the bad things in Spain have not yet been related to France.
An Ning scanned the whole room, thinking that if anyone in this room made her unhappy, she would send him to Spain to let him experience how bad things were in Spain.
At this time, Napoleon started talking about another topic: "By the way, which country are we going to attack first?"
"The Parliament wants us to attack the Low Countries first to obtain financial resources. But to be honest, the Low Countries are a republic like us. I think a direct attack is not appropriate. We should first win on the Rhineland Front, and then use a diplomatic offensive to persuade the Netherlands to stand.
Let’s come this way.”
As soon as An Ning spoke, the hall fell silent, and everyone looked at him, waiting for him to continue.
An Ning: "War is not the only means to achieve the goal, it should be a multi-pronged approach."
"But who can convince the Republic of the Netherlands to turn to our side?" Berthier asked, "France had a huge influence on the Netherlands in the past, but these influences mainly came from the great nobles who were overthrown by us."
An Ning touched her chin: "I do have a candidate, but he is not in this room right now."
Everyone looked at each other. At this time, everyone defaulted to talking about matters within the faction, and "not in this room" meant that they were not from Andy's faction.
An Ning spoke: "I think Mr. Talleyrand should be able to shoulder this responsibility. He has completed his diplomatic mission in the UK quite well."
In the original history, Talleyrand was the Foreign Minister and Chief of Staff of the First French Empire established by Napoleon, and his ability should be beyond doubt.
An Ning himself does not have much ability to recognize people, and can only rely on the historical evaluation of later generations to judge a person's talent.
So when it came to diplomacy, all he could think of was Talleyrand.
As soon as An Ning said this, Lazarus laughed: "Talleyrand, he is a good man. He gave me a good wine from the cellar! He is obviously a priest and should not have anything to do with wine."
An Ning raised his eyebrows and thought, Talleyrand, you have already begun to corrupt the people around me?
A man like Talleyrand might not do anything if left outside, so he might as well put it to use.
After all, this person's talent is a real talent and should not be used in vain.
Moreover, such calculating speculators are actually quite easy to control.
After An Ning made up his mind, he said: "I am very satisfied with Mr. Talleyrand's results in London, so I am going to recommend him to be responsible for the mediation of the Republic of the Netherlands. And our offensive on the Rhine front will give Talleyrand
Long’s diplomatic mediation and strong support.”
Bernadotte asked again: "How many troops can we send to fight in the direction of Ireland? The Shinra and Prussians estimate that they have a combined strength of three to five million. Although they have to guard against the Russians, they cannot use all of them.
We are facing the front, but if the number of troops we dispatch is less than 200,000, then the entire operation will probably be very difficult."
Napoleon was unhappy: "What are you talking about? Andy alone can stand up to 100,000 troops. How many times has he not defeated twice as many enemies?"
An Ning raised a hand to stop Napoleon from continuing: "Well, it's not like I just use less to fight more because I like it.
"There is a classical book on the art of war in the East that says this: Therefore, the method of using military force is to surround it by ten, attack it by five, divide it by dividing it. If the enemy is small, it can be fought, if it is small, it can be escaped, and if it is weak, it can be avoided.
Of.
"This is ancient wisdom from the East. Napoleon, remember, the more troops, the better. If you can fight with more, fight with less. Don't talk about chivalry.
"If there is no overall numerical advantage, we must form a local strength advantage and turn it into a partial attack with more troops against fewer troops. Do you understand?"
Napoleon curled his lips: "Okay, I just want to emphasize that you are not afraid of the disadvantage of military strength."
An Ning smiled: "Napoleon, my brother, don't worry about the inferiority of troops. We have Lazarcano, and we will not be short of troops."
Lazar Cano smiled and said: "You trust me so much, but it puts me under a lot of pressure. However, I can guarantee that with the harvest of food in the autumn, we will probably be able to send troops to attack the Lain front next year.
400,000 troops for two to three months of fighting."
Lazar Cano's words made all the generals in the room exclaim.
Then I don’t know who took the lead in applauding.
After the applause fell, An Ning stood up and raised his glass: "Let us pay tribute to the organizer of victory, Lazar Cano!"