Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796

Chapter 78 028 Sunny! Move that cannon one foot to the left!

The court in Vienna is now worried about one problem, that is, the Russian influence in Italy is increasing.

However, Franz II was worried about this problem, and he really forgot that once the Russians were no longer in their alliance, the strait was closed, and when the British had an advantage on the ocean, the Russian navy could only show their strength in the Baltic and Black Seas.

Although, there is always a saying in the Russian navy that Nelson copied the tactics that their Admiral Ushakov had used against the Turks.

So the Austrian emperor issued an order to the Austrian army to besiege the Mantua fortress, which gave the Russian army a rare rest time at this stage.

In the next period of time, in this hot summer, within half a month, the coalition forces successively captured the fortresses of Turin, Tortona and Alexandria. It was only a matter of time before Mantua was broken.

Suvorov's great victory in Italy also brought him unprecedented honor.

The French were also anxious now. The tragic defeat that the Austrians had suffered two years ago seemed to have appeared in front of them. It was even possible that if they continued to fight like this, the fat man who claimed to be Louis XVIII would come back.

In this case, I am afraid that many people in the Directory would go to the guillotine. At the same time, it must be considered that those who are willing to help Louis XVIII restore the throne will be rewarded accordingly.

For example, if you offer a good price to the bankers in Paris, they will soon change their masters. They have always done this for a long time.

In this way, after 1799, in 72 years, the French government has changed its political system many times.

At this time, problems will arise within the Directory. They need the sword of the Republic and a few innocent people to organize a new government, preferably in the form of a government.

Citizen Sieyès values ​​General Jubert, who is still very loyal to the Republic, and is relatively easy to control and obedient.

He was at the most proud time of his life. Last year, he married the daughter of the Montholon family. Now, in order to defend the Republic and establish new achievements, like General Bonaparte in the Italian campaign, it was more convincing.

But Sieyès may not pay much attention to the unpredictability of fate and the fact that General Joubert actually had a hidden relationship with General Bonaparte.

They were classmates in the military academy. After being awarded the rank of second lieutenant, they served in the same regiment. Later, they served under General Bonaparte in Italy. This relationship is not clear. Someone ran away from Port Jouan again. I am afraid that Joubert may also give up his position in the future.

After all, in the parliament, General Bonaparte's brother, Speaker Bonaparte, was there.

Now the French can breathe a sigh of relief, also because of the Austrians' magical operation.

Emperor Franz really began to worry about his influence in northern Italy. That is, when Suvorov came to Vienna, he brought Paul's edict, and the Russian army had to listen to the Vienna court in the general direction.

He was like this, and he could also micro-manage and mobilize the Austrian army.

The old marshal lost his temper at this time, but he had to obey the order of the Austrian emperor.

That is why he mentioned the great victory of Trebia and the Austrian emperor's transfer in his memorial to Petersburg on June 25, after the complete victory of the battle, and the adverse impact that the Austrian emperor's transfer would have on the entire war situation.

As for the problem of nearby communication, he wanted to write to Razumovsky, the Russian ambassador in Vienna: "His Majesty the Roman Empire hopes that if I have to participate in a battle tomorrow, I will go to Vienna first. The battlefield environment changes rapidly."

Obviously, the old marshal was not satisfied with the micro-management, but he could only discuss this issue in the letter to his ambassador.

The British had not started the action in June, but the British and Russian coalition forces planned to land in August to September. The British must not know that the "British almanac" said that September was in the Netherlands, and it seemed that it was not convenient to do things. It might be better to change it to June.

Every time the anti-French alliance was close to success, it always failed because of their inconsistent goals.

The Second Anti-French Alliance was the most obvious. For example, at this time, the performance of Franz II made people feel outrageous.

On the battle formation of the Mantua Fortress, Emperor Franz, his younger brother Archduke John, and a group of courtiers were all there.

Archduke Joseph, who had returned from a failed blind date, felt very funny when he saw this scene.

The job assigned to him was to prepare to return to Hungary, replenish troops and supplies to the front line, and begin to appease the emotions of the Hungarians.

Going to the rear to manage things was still what Archduke Joseph liked to do.

He also knew that his military ability was definitely not as good as his brother Archduke Karl, but it was still better than his brother and brother Archduke John.

"Your Majesty, I think we should besiege Mantua like this. It is always our Austrian artillery and engineers who can conquer this fortress."

The Russian army went to Alexandria to besiege the fortress there. In fact, the progress of Mantua was much slower.

"Why not put the artillery in front? Directly facing the gate?"

"Your Majesty, according to General Krai's report, this place will face artillery fire from the French. They may have hundreds of cannons in the fortress, so be careful. Just like in the past, when our Austrian army was trapped here, the French The human attack was also slow and delayed for a long time.”

"This won't work. I want General Krai to place the cannon here. We will face French artillery fire wherever we go. We move one foot to the left. This is an order. Remember this order and convey it to General Krai! "

"Your Majesty, who should be sent?"

Francis II appointed Archduke John's aide-de-camp to deliver the order, and brought a personal letter from the Austrian Emperor.

Another question is the letter from the Prince of Württemberg, the German strongman who is 211cm tall and weighs 200 kilograms. His son William has recently been misbehaving and is not suitable to serve in the Austrian army. He hopes to allow him to go to Russia. .

Franz thought about this and finally approved it.

In the Austrian court, issues of personal conduct were taken quite seriously.

After all, when the Queen was still here, because her husbands always cheated on her, ladies were specially organized to catch adulterers in Vienna, and they also had to maintain the chastity of ladies and ladies, at least before getting married.

They don't like the drama of the Russian court, but they still respect Tsar Paul and his wife. After all, the Tsar and his wife gave birth to ten children, and they have never heard of anything similar to the great Russian nobles. Same scandal.

Of course, Petit Cake was also the princess of their Austrian court, and was frequently targeted in Paris and Versailles.

In fact, William, the heir of the Prince of Württemberg, was very familiar with Archduke Joseph, and expressed great sympathy for Archduke Joseph's failure in the blind date with his eldest cousin.

"My cousin Alexandra is a great beauty. She also writes poetry very well. She has even translated poetry collections and knows a lot. It's a pity that Your Highness couldn't make a spark with her."

"But for such a beautiful princess, it may be a blessing for her that she did not come to my court and become my favorite wife. William, you know, my former royal sister-in-law, you My little aunt was very affectionate with the emperor. She was pregnant when he was critically ill, but it was a pity that she was not blessed. The emperor's illness recovered, but she and my niece were both. Gone."

"Why do you have such a bad premonition?"

"It's not a premonition, but our palace is not as it seems. When my grandmother was here, perhaps for girls, Schönbrunn Palace was a place that could bring them happiness and joy, but now What? Brother Huang is a good person, but he does a lot Everything is not appropriate. If he changes the deployment randomly like this, he will probably suffer a loss. I don't know much about military affairs, and I don't think I can win a great victory like Italy, but forget it in the future and won't talk about that. You are going to Petersburg, I have a guess."

"Your Highness, what did you guess?"

"This letter is in the name of your Queen Aunt. I think it is about Alexandra. You are her cousin. If you really want to have this blessing, you must cherish it. It can’t be like what’s said in the outside world.”

Archduke Joseph is still aware of the "scandal" of the Prince of Württemberg. In all the German courts, there are some people like this. The son has a bad relationship with his father, but he is still the first heir, and then he makes various mistakes. A rebellious act.

His grandmother's cousin who liked to seize other people's territory had done this before.

He himself was a gentle nobleman. The previous emperor Leopold II liked him very much when he was there.

However, this was of no use. The random attributes of the Austrian court were too outrageous, giving Karl, the son adopted to Leopold's sister, and Joseph better abilities. However, the other sons were all rare idiots.

Joseph and William left Vienna together. They were going to Budapest together, and from there William crossed the Carpathian Mountains to Russia and went to Petersburg.

William didn't expect this. He didn't care about the reminder that Joseph gave him, but if it really happened, he would still listen to Joseph's advice. No matter which aunt he was with, he had to be an honest man and put away some bad habits. Change it.

However, he also felt that it was a pity for Joseph, but he was very lucky. This kind of person could always display his talents. At least in Budapest, he could unite the Hungarians and make them loyal subjects of the Habsburg dynasty, and in this way A friend who is noble, modest and prudent should also have a good girl to marry him.

As for his cousin, it was really not suitable for him to come to Vienna. After all, what he saw around Archduke Joseph and Archduke John was what the drama was like in the court of Vienna.

This situation that there were more jesters than in Petersburg was indeed very worrying. At least he heard that the favored ministers of his tsar uncle in Petersburg still had to work hard to please their emperor.

And those here are all pursuing their own interests. As long as their Caesar is happy, even if the interests of the palace are damaged, it seems to have nothing to do with them.

In the monarch's court, such people are always indispensable.

The siege of the Mantua Fortress was not smooth. General Cray's artillery changed its deployment, but several of them were destroyed by the French before the truce. The position of the artillery changed by the emperor himself was a live target for the French soldiers.

For this reason, he had to give up the close-range position in front of the gate and put the 12-pound guns and siege guns that could fire larger shells in the back, where the French could not easily reach.

Because of these quibbling battles, the Mantua Fortress finally went through a siege, and the French "gloriously surrendered" with their military flags, instead of the complete victory that Cray wanted.

In the eyes of this veteran, such a victory was not as good as the battle in Verona, which finally defeated the French.

In that battle, the military flag was captured anyway.

The Russian army that besieged the Alexandria Fortress went relatively smoothly. General Gardin, who was guarding the fortress, laid down his weapons and burst into tears.

Many Russian soldiers also felt embarrassed, as they had surrendered under "fairly honorable" conditions.

When Soloviev saw it, he felt that this scene did not look like Italy in 1799, but Paris in 1940.

Now the French homeland is only threatened, and the nearest Allied soldiers are still near Turin, but the mountainous area there is not suitable for operations.

Apparently, the French are not so strong in this era.

After capturing the fortress, the Russian army began to commend the officers who had made meritorious contributions before.

Soloviev thought he would receive a Russian medal, but he did not expect that after Prince Bagration was awarded the medal, it would be his turn.

"For outstanding performance in the battles of Bergamo, Basignano, Marengo and Trebbia, the Order of St. John of Jerusalem is awarded to Captain Mikhail Soloviev, the acting commander of the Combined Grenadiers Battalion."

Or his rank was too low, so he captured a French commander-in-chief and saved Grand Duke Constantine, but in the end he only got a Knight's Medal of the Order of the Knights of Malta.

However, this honor was issued in a commendation order before the Battle of Trebbia, and it was among the batch of Knight's Medals signed by the Tsar himself.

In the era of Tsar Paul, the significance of this medal even exceeded the Order of St. Andrew the Apostle. If you can get that medal, people with insufficient status can also be automatically promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General.

However, this backdoor left by Peter the Great was not officially fulfilled until the demise of the Russian Empire.

The Knight's Medal set up by Paul has another meaning, representing the highest honor and the spirit of the Knights during the reign of Tsar Paul.

And I have to say that compared with Russia's fancy medals, the medal of the Order of Malta is still very beautiful.