Fox of France

Since the French are so insincere in peace, the peace talks will naturally fall through. Of course, the British are not very sincere. As far as the continental balance policy that the UK has always adhered to, the UK will never tolerate the emergence of a hegemon on the European continent. Because it is impossible for Britain, which is isolated overseas, to compete with the whole of Europe, any country that integrates the whole of Europe will naturally marginalize the UK. Therefore, even if the British made peace with the French, this peace would be no more than an armistice at best.

Since there is no hope for peace, we can only find ways to expand the war. So the British found the Prussians again. This time the British paid a big price. The British promised the Prussians that as long as the Prussians agreed to join the new alliance against France, the British could provide them with a large amount of financial assistance; and the British would organize at least 80,000 people Army units used to fight alongside the Prussians.

The Prussians also do not want to see France too strong. In fact, there is no country in Europe that does not expect all countries except itself to be weak. In fact, the reason why Prussia loved peace before was not because it really had any love for peace, but because it was a little afraid of the French army. But now that the British have made such a large capital, they can't help but feel a little moved.

So the Prussians proposed, first, the money must be in place first. In other words, don't expect Prussia to do it before the money is in place. Second, people must also be in place first.

As soon as the British saw that there was a door, they immediately stepped up negotiations with the Prussians. Just when the negotiations between the two countries made significant progress, a new incident happened again - I don't know where the secret was leaked, it was neither sacred, nor Roman, nor the emperor of the empire. Knowing that the British gave the Prussians a lot of money, the emperor stopped doing it: "Everyone is working hard to fight the French. Why can he get the money and I can't? No, we are short of money too! We Shorter than the Prussians! I want a little money, too!"

So the British had to go to appease the emperor again, of course, and spent a little more money.

In this way, after spending a lot of money, a new alliance was finally established, and a new war followed.

In November 1797, Austria and Prussia jointly sent a note to France, requesting the withdrawal of French troops from Italy and Hanover within a time limit. This request was immediately rejected by France, and a new round of war broke out.

As soon as the war began, the Anti-French Coalition attacked France from two directions. In the north, the British and Prussians formed a coalition to attack the French-controlled Hanover and the Rhineland; while in the south, the Austrian army and the new Russian army also launched an attack on Italy.

The battle in the north started first, and this time the French army encountered a tough opponent. Both the British and Prussian armies updated their armaments. In the last war, the rifled guns that made them suffer a lot have become common equipment in these two armies. Especially the British army has almost completely eliminated the musket.

In contrast, the equipment of the French Army of the North was at a disadvantage. The military intervened for the first time in politics and demonstrated decisive force in the suppression of the royalist rebellion. This approach has brought about a consequence, that is, while those in the political circles are desperately trying to please the military generals, they are trying hard to divide them.

Therefore, they not only restored the military representative system in the factory, but even restored the older system-the general responsibility system for the purchase of military supplies. In other words, in France today, the Ministry of War can only determine some standards and specifications for weapons, and the specific purchase rights have passed the Ministry of War and are directly handed over to the commander of the legion.

The purpose of doing this is very obvious, that is to send money to the generals who directly lead the troops, to please them, and to win them over. As a result, in France, two major army chiefs gradually formed, that is, the Joubermorau gang in the north and the Napoleon gang in the south.

There are also different arms dealers behind the leaders of these two major armies. Needless to say, behind Napoleon is the "military-industrial complex", and other military-industrial enterprises that were not dragged into the "military-industrial complex" have switched to Joubert's side.

The French government's allocation to the two armies is actually not too much, but it is barely enough. It's just that when buying weapons, the situation of the Northern Army and the Italian Army is very different.

On the side of the Italian Legion, Joseph didn't need to give Napoleon a kickback, and he didn't have to worry about Napoleon giving the order to other arms dealers who gave kickbacks. Anyway, the "military-industrial complex" belongs to the Bonaparte family, and Napoleon also has a share. This purchase fee is actually handed over from the left hand to the right hand.

But the Army of the North was different. Those guys who bid at Joubert's place, if they want to win the bid, they will naturally give Joubert more kickbacks. If the kickbacks are too much, the cost will naturally rise. If the total amount has not increased, then the number of weapons and equipment will naturally decrease. So until now, in the Northern Legion, the Mini rifle is still only equipped with skirmishers, and the line infantry is still equipped with old-fashioned rifles.

As for artillery, the Northern Army was originally the elite of the French army, and it was equipped with the largest number of artillery. But it has not been updated, and many cannons are not easy to use because of their old age.

So in the initial battle, the performance of the Northern Army was not very good. At the beginning, Joubert also hoped to rely on the advantage of skirmishers to overwhelm the opponent. But his skirmishers were challenged by his opponent's skirmishers, also armed with rifled guns, and a large number of light cavalry armed with revolvers.

Especially those light cavalry equipped with revolvers posed a huge threat to skirmishers. The skirmishers rely on their range advantage on the battlefield, and can shoot one or two bullets at the light cavalry before they rush up. But because of the fast speed of the cavalry, it is difficult for one or two bullets to hit the target effectively. And once those cavalry approached, the revolvers in their hands met the bayonets in the hands of the French, and the advantage was too obvious.

If Joubert also had enough light cavalry armed with revolvers in his hands, he could of course use revolvers against revolvers. However, the cost of a revolver is even higher than that of a rifled rifle. Therefore, many light cavalry under Joubert's command mainly rely on sabers to fight.

So as soon as the two sides fought, the French army was at a disadvantage and had to turn to defense, relying on fortifications to resist the attack of the British-Prussian coalition forces.

In the south, however, the situation is different. Because the Russian army was not moving fast enough, and the Austrians were determined not to take the initiative to attack as long as the Russians hadn't arrived, so it was still calm there for the time being, but the British sent envoys to remind them every day: "Agreed!" Why didn’t you move if you started together?”

The emperor said: "It was agreed that the Russians would also move, but they haven't arrived yet."

The Russian said: "Our army is already on the way, you wait, it will arrive soon!"

Indeed, according to the plan, the Russians should have arrived long ago, but the plan could not keep up with the changes. In Russia, His Majesty the Tsar himself made flowers.

It is said that Her Majesty the Empress has always looked down on the current Tsar Paul I, thinking that he is not a great talent at all, and even the Empress does not want to pass the throne to him at all, but wants to pass him and directly hand over the crown to his son, the Empress Grandson Alexander (later Alexander I, compared to Paul I who fell off the bed when he was a few months old and no one noticed, and had to sleep under the bed until dawn, Alexander was raised by the queen himself since he was a child).

It was only because the Queen had a sudden stroke and had not been able to wake up since then that Paul I was able to ascend to the throne according to the order. It is said that the first thing that His Majesty the Tsar did after he ascended the throne was to ask his mother if he had left a will, and if so, whether he could destroy it quickly.

Perhaps it is because he is not the successor that the ruling and opposition parties have always been optimistic about, so he always wants to come up with something to prove his ability. Like many tsars, he had studied abroad in Europe, during which time he was well received in Prussia (after all, Prussia would not exist without his insane father.), And like his old man, he loves and even adores everything about Prussia.

So as soon as he came to power, the tsar began to carry out Prussian-style major reforms to the army. Not only are the various military regulations and training methods imitated from Prussia, even the military uniforms have to be replaced with Prussian-style military uniforms.

This approach was widely resisted in the Russian army. After all, not every officer has a brain problem like their tsar, and they have experienced the glory of the queen's era, so it is even less likely to worship Prussia. For example, Field Marshal Suvorov publicly stated: "What's so great about Prussia? It wasn't for us, they would have been finished long ago. Even now, if we go to war, I can hang them up and fight, just like them? This is totally wrong!"

The rather glassy Emperor Paul I naturally regarded this as disrespect to himself, so he dismissed Suvorov without saying a word. But shortly after he was dismissed, he found that he seemed to have agreed to send troops to France, and because of the changes in the military command level brought about by the previous messy military reforms, many things were left unattended. As a result, the preparations for sending troops to France In fact, it didn't do a good job. Moreover, in his hands, except for Suvorov, there is really no candidate who can compete with the Austrians for the position of commander-in-chief.

So the Tsar restored Officer Suvorov to his post, and then asked him to lead the Russian Expeditionary Force to Italy.

Time passed in this back and forth.