Chapter 297 General Wilmser’s bitter battle (please vote)

Chapter 298 General Wilmser’s bitter battle (please vote)

"Yes, he should be in the Hall of Mirrors now. It seems that you also like this talented musician very much."

Victor Luca paid the compliment, thinking that the French Crown Prince was somewhat resistant to the topic of "finding less mistresses", so he hurriedly made up for it: "Oh, by the way, His Majesty and I have already discussed it, and at least we will prepare for Clementine. A dowry of 1 million florins.

"She is our most cherished daughter and we hope she can live happily in Paris..."

1 florin is equivalent to approximately 2.5 livres, which is definitely a very generous dowry.

And when Joseph heard that she even talked about the dowry, his head was filled with black threads, and he sighed in his heart: I have a second aunt, Clementine is my cousin! Your maiden name is also Bourbon [Note 1], so you are a close relative. If I really marry your daughter, all my descendants will be born with dementia and deformities...

"Actually, I think Vienna is better than Paris. It's warm in winter and cool in summer, and full of artistic atmosphere." Joseph didn't know how to change the topic. He happened to catch a glimpse of a place where spring water gushes out of the window and exclaimed, "Oh , is that the clear spring that His Majesty Mathias likes?"

Matthias was a HRE emperor in the 17th century. When he saw the sweet spring, he liked it very much, so he built a hunting palace here, which was the predecessor of Schonbrunn Palace.

Victor Luca frowned secretly, sensing that the French Crown Prince seemed reluctant to talk about his marriage to Clementine.

"That's not the Fountain, my dear, it's in the Royal Gardens."

She took a deep breath and continued to smile: "We are the noblest and closest family. If you are dissatisfied with Clementine..."

"Cough cough cough -" Joseph said to himself that what I was dissatisfied with was that we were "a family"! Do you really have to finalize your marriage today?

He pretended to bend down and cough violently, and waved to Eman: "This is damn pneumonia, cough, please help me get some medicine."

The latter was startled. Hasn't His Highness not had an attack of pneumonia for a long time? But he reacted very quickly, stepped forward to support Joseph, and with the hint from the latter's eyes, he pushed aside the crowd and walked towards the lounge.

Vidoluka looked at Joseph's back with a look of confusion on his face.

In the next few days, except for discussing trade agreements with Leopold II and Austrian officials, Joseph used pneumonia as an excuse to cancel all banquets and entertainment, and did everything possible to avoid Clementi. Ni's mother Vidor Luca.

After the framework of the Franco-Austrian-German Trade Agreement was roughly agreed upon, he immediately bid farewell to Joseph II and returned to Paris as if he was fleeing.

Vidoluka accompanied Joseph to a few miles southwest of Vienna with the honor guard, but failed to chat with him for a few more words - the French crown prince seemed to have serious pneumonia, and he coughed violently whenever he spoke.

She couldn't help but frown as she recalled what people had inquired about about Joseph's relationship in the past few days. The French Crown Prince only has one female doctor who is more than three years older than him, comes from a humble background, and likes to wear men's clothes. Apart from that, there are almost no other women. Why did he avoid marrying Clementine?

You know, Leopold II is determined to be crowned Emperor of the Shinra, and his daughter's status is definitely worthy of him.

She turned to look at her husband and whispered: "My dear, has His Royal Highness the Crown Prince told you about the engagement?"

Leopold II recalled it, shook his head and said: "Trade agreements are very important. We usually discuss issues in this area. Occasionally we talk about hunting or shipbuilding, but we rarely talk about the love between children. ”

Vidoluka frowned again, suddenly pulled Leopold II, and said with a serious expression: "You must have a serious discussion with your sister about Clementine's marriage. It is best to have it in the form of a letter of credence. , set their wedding date."

…

May 2, 1789.

More than 17,000 Austrian soldiers and 3,000 Bavarian soldiers left Luxembourg, an enclave in western Austria, and marched along the border with France to Liege, a border city in the Southern Netherlands dozens of kilometers away.

In the carriage in front of the team, a general with gray hair on his temples but a calm and capable look in his eyes looked out the window and asked the officer beside the carriage casually: "Lieutenant Colonel Haydn, how far is it from Liege?"

The latter quickly took out the map to check, then turned around and said: "General, there are still less than 3 miles. If we march normally, we will arrive tomorrow afternoon."

What he said was Ori, which is about 20 kilometers.

The old man in the carriage is General Wilmser, the commander-in-chief of the Austrian army. He nodded and asked again: "Is there any news from the Musil Legion?"

"Not yet, General. But according to the news they sent back yesterday, they should have entered Longn by now."

Ron is a city north of Liège, bordering Brabant to the west, and is the connecting point between the two rebellious cities. Musil led a lightly-armed corps with only a small amount of logistical supplies. According to General Wilmser's plan, they marched all the way around Liege and penetrated into this strategic location to block the front of the Brabant rebels. Come support Liege.

At the same time, this place can also serve as an early warning to the Prussian army - if the Prussian army wants to go south, Longen is the only way.

Everything went according to plan. Wilmser was about to close the curtains when he suddenly remembered something and ordered the officer: "Oh, by the way, send someone to contact the French and ask them to transport the baggage supplies in three days to the south of Liege. , we should have occupied it by then."

"Yes, General!"

Lieutenant Colonel Haydn raised his hat in salute, then turned his horse to convey the order to the messenger.

General Wilmser closed the curtains and smiled at General Ernst, the commander of the Bavarian Army sitting opposite: "The Margrave of Wallstatt's army was still in Cologne yesterday, and he must not have expected that we could arrive in Liege so quickly. "

The Margrave of Wallstadt was the Prussian general Blücher who led the army to intervene in the Dutch Patriot Party uprising. He is currently in the Duke of Brunswick's forward corps.

Ernst nodded in agreement: "Even if the Prussian army marches immediately, they will encounter Colonel Musil's obstruction in Long. We have at least a week to deal with the rebels in Liege."

Due to the logistical support from France - of course, France only claimed that this was ordinary food and iron trade - the Austrian army brought almost no logistical baggage, so it marched very fast, even faster than the Prussians who were closer. Arrive in Southern Netherlands early.

General Wilmser leaned back in his chair, looking quite relaxed: "You overestimate those rebels. According to the intelligence sent a few days ago, they have less than 4,000 people, and most of them have not fought. It shouldn't take that long to defeat the peasants who have fought.

"My plan is to surround Brabant before the Prussians arrive. If the Duke of Brunswick insists on intervening in this war, you will be responsible for the encirclement task. I will lead the main force to turn back and fight with the Prussians. People fight."

To put it bluntly, his combat deployment is very reasonable.

In order to reinforce the rebels in Brabant, the Prussians must have been in a hurry and neglected to take precautions. In the process, the Austrian army is likely to find an opportunity to ambush. Even if you are unlucky and fail to ambush successfully, you can at least choose a terrain that is favorable to you as the battlefield for the decisive battle.

General Wilmser then talked about the "gossip" he had heard: "Do you know anything about His Majesty Otedor's plan to exchange Lower Bavaria for the Southern Netherlands?"

General Ernst said: "It seems that the French participated in this matter as a notary to ensure that both parties would not breach the contract. Therefore, it is very likely that the territorial exchange will be completed this time."

"Then after the rebels surrender, you don't have to return to Munich." General Wilmser said with a smile, "His Majesty the King will be greeted directly in Brussels. After that, you can be promoted to at least two levels."

In their view, the rabble in the Southern Netherlands are just walking military exploits, and the fighting will be over by the end of the month at most.

While they were thinking about the future, the 5,000 soldiers of the Austrian Musil Army were in a dire situation in Lon.

A group of cavalry who went out for reconnaissance found someone making a spiked roadblock next to a village. They were about to step forward to question them when they saw a priest holding a pitchfork and leading dozens of farmers blocking the road.

The cavalry captain smiled contemptuously and ordered his men to line up and prepare to rush away these untouchables seeking death.

According to his experience, when the war horse is still more than ten meters away from those people, they will be frightened and hide everywhere.

The eleven cavalrymen lightly lifted their reins, urged their horses forward, and then drew their sabers at the same time.

Just as they were preparing to attack, there was a burst of gunfire from behind. A horse was hit in the thigh and fell to the ground with the cavalry.

The priest immediately roared and rushed forward with his eyes wide open. The farmers, each armed with sticks and farm tools, followed the Austrian cavalry.

The Austrians were immediately panicked. They did not expect that these untouchables would dare to launch an active attack.

In just a moment's hesitation, the priest holding the pitchfork had already rushed seventy or eighty meters away from them.

The cavalry captain hurriedly waved his sword forward and shouted: "Forward! Jog!"

"Run!"

"Get ready for battle!"

The ten cavalrymen rushed towards the farmers in shabby clothes like arrogant beasts. They saw that the priest at the front was less than ten meters away. Just when they thought that the priest would avoid the horses, the latter raised his fork and pointed at them. They stabbed.

The cavalryman opposite the priest moved skillfully. He flicked the reins to the left and passed the side of the pitchfork. Then the saber lightly scratched the priest's chest. The blade came out and raised a large amount of blood.

The farmers behind did not flinch under the encouragement of the priest, and used crude weapons to greet the Austrian cavalry.

However, the gap between them and professional soldiers was too great. At the cost of seven or eight lives, it only slowed down the cavalry.

Without the leadership of the priest, the remaining farmers were finally demoralized by the blood and corpses. They began to drop their farm tools and fled towards the bushes on both sides, screaming.

The Austrian cavalry was about to breathe a sigh of relief when gunshots rang out from behind again, and this time the distance was much closer than last time.

The cavalry captain turned around and looked, his expression suddenly serious. There were sixteen or seventeen people holding flintlock rifles, forming a horizontal line, blocking their retreat.

He gritted his teeth and ordered his men to turn around, preparing to rush back to report the news to the large army. However, the farmers who had just escaped turned back, holding farm tools and staring at them eagerly...

Half an hour later, most of the Austrian cavalry were killed by flintlocks and clubs. Only one person escaped from the village with serious injuries.

At the same time, Musil's army had just selected a camp and was nailing tents. Suddenly, hundreds of South Netherlanders rushed out of the dry river not far away and fired a barrage of loot at the Austrians. He set a few fires randomly in the camp area, and then took advantage of the sky to get dark and got into the river.

By the time the Austrians caught up, the opponent had already used the familiar terrain to escape and disappeared.

Although this attack only killed a dozen Austrian soldiers, they had to be on high alert all night and could not get a good rest at all.

Similar situations occurred everywhere in Longn, and the Protestant priests took up the important task of organizing the people to attack the Austrian army. They only received two thousand flintlock muskets from the Netherlands half a month ago, but they dared to attack everywhere, which made the Austrians extremely annoyed.

In order to deal with these harassments that appeared at any time, the Musil Army's march became as slow as a snail. It was not until three days later that it finally arrived near the city of Long.

Except for one who lost his way, all the cavalry sent by Colonel Musil to deliver a message to General Wilmser were intercepted and killed by the rebels. Until Wilmser led the main force and exchanged fire with the Liege rebels, the situation of Long was still unclear.

In Liege, the situation of the Austrians was not as optimistic as expected.

On a high ground, General Wilmser saw in his telescope that the Southern Netherlands rebels were instantly defeated under the impact of his skirmishers, and he couldn't help but smile.

These rabble-rousers had no combat experience at all. They placed their line array on a sloping low hill, trying to defend from a high position.

However, the Austrian army launched a strong attack from the left side of the slope, that is, the side with higher horizontal terrain.

The Southern Netherlands, who were already at a disadvantage in terms of equipment and strength, were defeated without any surprise.

General Wilmser had just ordered the cavalry to pursue and defeat the enemy, but he saw the South Dutchmen roaring into the woods not far from the low mountain.

He suddenly frowned and felt as sick as a fly - a similar scene had occurred the day before yesterday. The rebels were obviously very familiar with the terrain. By the time his cavalry chased them, they had already scattered and fled, and in the end only captured Less than two hundred rebels arrived.

Although he won this battle, nearly a day had passed from deploying his troops, to testing the attack, to breaking through the enemy's position.

Let's take a rest after the battle. At least we can continue marching at noon tomorrow.

He had been delayed by these despicable South Dutchmen for three full days, and he was still nearly ten kilometers away from the town of Liège.

Yesterday, the French sent people to ask why no one accepted the supplies shipped to the south of Liege, and most of them were robbed by the rebels.

[Note 1] Maria Vidoruca is the daughter of Carlos III and the biological sister of the current Spanish King Carlos IV. The Spanish royal family and the French royal family are both members of the Bourbon family and are very closely related by blood.