Chapter 457: The music teacher's dedication

Chapter 458 The Devotion of the Music Teacher

The battle of Silesia, in which both sides fought with a large army of 100,000 people, had made Joseph realize the urgency of expanding the size of the Guards.

After all, no matter how strong your combat power is, it is difficult to win against an enemy four or five times your size.

Therefore, he just took advantage of this windfall to attract a wave of troops, and at the same time boosted the morale of the Guards.

Joseph looked at the remaining three carriages, pondered for a moment, and ordered:

"The rest will be deposited in the French Reserve Bank first. I will use it to purchase military schools after I return."

This is what he wanted to do a long time ago.

At present, there are a total of 12 top military schools in France. However, except for the Paris Military Academy, none of them are large in scale.

For example, the Brienne Military Academy, the alma mater of Emperor Napoleon, has only more than a hundred students in the school. The other military academies are basically the same.

However, these military academies were used to train aristocratic officers before, and the source of students was limited, so this scale is completely sufficient.

Small scale is a good thing for Joseph, and the acquisition price will not be too expensive.

In addition, most military academies belong to a local corps and are usually located on the military parade ground, so there is no situation where the school is unwilling to be acquired - the military parade ground is managed by the General Staff.

Joseph wants to use 2 million francs to "buy out" at least 10 top military academies, and then carry out a thorough reform.

At the very least, civilians must be able to enter the military academy.

Of course, some privileges may have to be reserved for the nobles in the early stage, such as exemption from examinations, after all, they have paid a large amount of tuition.

Civilian students with excellent grades or extraordinary talents can enjoy free tuition.

After that, the scale of military academies will be expanded and merged, so another sum of money will have to be invested.

However, when these military academies are reformed according to the Paris Police Academy model, Joseph will be able to obtain a large number of high-quality soldiers continuously, and it will also be able to fundamentally solve the problem of nobles controlling the army.

The sound of artillery in the distance gradually became sparse, and Joseph knew that this should be the main corps of both sides starting a decisive battle. He looked at the gold coins again, signaled Ksode to bring his horse, and then went straight to Marshal Lacy's field command post.

On the high ground east of the village of Balde, Marshal Lacy came up with a smile, saluted Joseph with his hat, and then handed him a telescope, pointing to the battle line below and said:

"As you expected, the Prussian defense is very weak. Our heavy artillery blasted the enemy's first infantry line, and now the boys are attacking the second line."

He took a cup of coffee from the attendant and handed it to Joseph:

"Your Highness, drink a little to warm up. If everything goes well, we can take the fork in the road in front of the woods today."

Joseph saw in the telescope that a large number of Austrian soldiers were surrounding the Prussian army from three directions-there was no suspense in the battle.

And the fork in the road that Lacy mentioned was the last place suitable for the corps to deploy. After taking over there, the elite Austrian skirmishers will be able to quickly wipe out the small group of defenders.

Marshal Lacy continued in a high voice: "Your Highness, we will go straight to the city of Liegnitz. We can hold a celebration banquet there at the end of the month."

Joseph thought: "Marshal, I suggest not to worry about the city of Liegnitz for now."

"Oh? What do you mean?"

"We are in the south of Liegnitz, and the city is on the north side." Joseph said, "Instead of a long-distance raid, it is better to attack Breslau directly."

Breslau is the capital of Silesia, located east of Liegnitz. Starting from Fordham, the distance to the city of Liegnitz and Breslau is basically close.

Marshal Lacy immediately laughed and shook his head:

"Your Highness, this is too risky. Breslau has a strong fortress. If we can't break through there in a short time, Ferdinand will probably build a strong defense line near the city of Liegnitz. By then, we may end up in a situation that neither Liegnitz nor Breslau can get."

Joseph looked at him and said:

"If you were the Duke of Brunswick, would you dare to bet that the Breslau fortress would not be quickly broken by 60,000 or 70,000 enemy troops?"

Marshal Lacy fell into deep thought. The garrison of Breslau should not exceed 4,000. Even if Ferdinand urgently reinforced the troops, it would be at most 10,000.

The battlefield changes rapidly. Facing the attack of the Austrian coalition forces that are more than 6 times larger, no one dares to guarantee that there will be no accidents in the fortress.

Once Breslau is lost, it means that more than 80% of Silesia has been lost-it is easy to capture the two provinces of Oberon and Ratibor by going down the Oder River from Breslau.

Ferdinand definitely doesn't dare to bet!

...

Vienna.

A salon was being held in a luxurious villa southwest of Vienna.

Baron Walter was obviously in a good mood and had drunk a lot of wine. He looked a little dizzy at this time.

"Ha, what you said is just government propaganda." He said carelessly to several young nobles beside him, "I know the inside story. Yes, the inside story, let me tell you, the situation in Silesia is not as good as the newspapers say."

"Uh--" He burped, "Don't tell anyone, in fact, the coalition forces have been in a stalemate with the Prussians in Liegnitz."

The young nobles looked at each other and asked in surprise:

"Are you telling the truth?"

"Of course, I heard it from the Minister of War." Walter suddenly laughed, "Do you know that even the French crown prince was surrounded by the Prussians in the Oberon area? Haha."

He took another sip of wine and continued:

"That idiot only brought more than 10,000 people. He left the camp without permission and was surrounded by 30,000 Prussian troops. Marshal Lacy wrote a letter to His Majesty the Emperor for help. In my opinion, the French guy should have been captured or even dead by now. Haha, it's really gratifying!"

He seemed a little drunk. He grabbed a young nobleman who usually ate, drank, and gambled with him, and said proudly:

"Frank, the bitch's backer is finally gone, haha! When she returns to Vienna with the army, I wonder how she can escape from my palm... Uh-, her little face, tut, tut, I have never forgotten it..."

Just as he laughed wantonly, the musician sitting in the corner playing the piano turned pale, his hands trembled slightly, and he played several wrong notes in a row.

The musician was Bazel. And he knew very well that the "bitch" Walter was talking about was Camelia, whom he had been dreaming about.

He gritted his teeth, thinking that his student had finally found her life's destination and would become an upper-class noble in Paris from then on, but he didn't expect that God seemed to be jealous of her and let the French crown prince die tragically on the battlefield... or be taken to Potsdam, it was the same.

In short, she lost her protection.

Bazel glanced at Baron Walter with cold eyes, and that bastard would not let her go.

He curled up in the chair in pain, feeling that his heart was about to break.

Suddenly, Walter's wild laughter gave him a start.

He sat up straight, his hands trembled even more, but his heart became surprisingly firm: No, the flowers of Vienna must not fall into the hands of the devil! Without the French crown prince, let me solve all the dangers for her!