Life of Being a Crown Prince in France - Chapter 1360 - 1266: Legion of Merit

Chapter 1360: Chapter 1266: Legion of Merit

In the Alliance Command Center, all the officers couldn’t help but furrow their brows. How did another enemy army emerge?

Archduke Karl looked at Verossi: “Which is the closest unit? Dispatch them to Augsburg for reinforcement immediately!”

Before the latter could reply, Kutuzov stood up, walked to the map, frowned for a moment, then suddenly took up a pencil and drew an arrow on either side of the small flag representing the main French Army southwest of Nuremberg.

He then drew a downward arrow from the position of Surt’s Corps to the north, and continued to draw a line to the north of Augsburg in the south.

Finally, he connected all the arrows together.

When the other alliance generals looked at the map, their pupils constricted.

They saw a large “C”-shaped encirclement forming around Nuremberg.

“This is the true objective of the French,” the Russian Commander sighed, gesturing the distance with his hand, “If nothing goes wrong, we will face fierce attacks from three directions about a week from now.”

Archduke Karl, however, shook his head with a serious expression: “No, judging by the marching speed the French have shown before, it’s at most 5 days.”

Kutuzov stared at the position of Nuremberg: “This is not a good place for a decisive battle.”

Nuremberg was merely on the route of the Allied Forces attacking Baden. Although it was a prosperous area, it was located in the middle of a small basin, which was extremely disadvantageous for a large corps defense operation.

The Duke of York immediately spoke: “As I said, we should retreat to Saxon to set up defensive lines. There are only 30,000 French troops to the north, and they can be easily repelled.”

“Wait!” Archduke Karl suddenly walked quickly to the map and frowned at the French Army located in Augsburg. After a long while, he turned to Verossi and asked, “What if this enemy army doesn’t go north, but continues east?”

The latter was immediately stunned.

Going east along the Isar River from Augsburg would lead to Passau.

A few years ago, Moro led fewer than twenty thousand French soldiers from here into Austria, causing chaos. Presently, the French Army in Augsburg has more than 40,000 troops. If they aren’t stopped, even Vienna might not be secure.

“We… we have to set up defenses in Passau…”

The Bohemian Mountain Range and the Eastern Alps stood tall on Austria’s west side, and the only passage was through the Danube River. Passau was a crucial city guarding this mountain pass.

Archduke Karl’s expression was conflicted as he continued shaking his head. Not retreating would leave Austria exposed to a huge threat at any time, but retreating meant abandoning all the Germanic regions east of Austria, nullifying any gains made in this Anti-French Alliance war.

Kutuzov, seeing this, quietly reminded, “Marshal, once the Prussian Army joins the fray, we will be in even greater danger.”

Archduke Karl nodded with a grim expression. It was no longer a matter of considering achievements but how to structure defenses to ensure Austria’s safety.

He took a deep breath, recalling the positions of each corps of the Allied Forces.

The closest to the south of the battlefield were Kutuzov’s 30,000 Russian troops—they had just passed through Linz in western Austria and could reach Landsberg on the east side of Augsburg to set up defenses in at most 3 days.

He looked at the Russian Commander: “Please proceed to Landsberg to intercept the French Army…”

But Kutuzov shook his head without hesitation: “Marshal, you know my troops traveled thousands of miles to get here; they’re utterly exhausted and have no fighting strength.”

This old fox, upon hearing Kosakov Corps were obstructed from advancing in Baden, realized the alliance’s situation might not be favorable, thus he stalled with various excuses.

A journey that could have been completed in over 20 days was stretched to a month and a half by him, thereby perfectly avoiding the “Baden meat grinder.”

Now, the Austrians wanted him to intercept the French Army with inferior forces, clearly using him as cannon fodder—he wouldn’t foolishly charge forward.

Archduke Karl was somewhat exasperated.

Before, both Suvorov and Kosakov had nearly been wiped out due to his orders, so he couldn’t afford to forcibly order the Russians now.

He had no choice but to tell Verossi: “Have Mikhailovich’s Corps rush toward Landsberg in forced march; hold off the enemy for at least 5 days.”

He then looked at the Duke of York: “Please cooperate with Milius Corps to defend Erlangen.”

This was a town north of Nuremberg, right at the edge of the basin.

The British didn’t respond but didn’t refuse either.

Archduke Karl breathed a sigh of relief and continued to issue orders: “Instruct Prince Schwarzenberg to leave 40,000 men to cover the retreat, and have all other troops head to Passau at once. All corps must arrive within 5 days.”

“Yes, Marshal!”

…

Outside Nuremberg.

To the stirring sound of military music, Joseph pinned a Golden Irish Medal to Moro’s chest and said sincerely, “You and your corps have made outstanding contributions to the victory. Allow me to express my highest respect to you. Every French soldier will be proud of you!”

Moro stood at attention firmly and shouted, “Glory to France, and most to you, Your Highness.”

In this raid on Prussia, although Moro eliminated the fewest enemy troops, his contributions were the greatest.

He led 65,000 soldiers to hold off over 200,000 allied forces for almost a month and a half.

During this period, he had two excellent opportunities to penetrate the enemy lines.

But to keep Archduke Karl’s attention, he chose to continue operating near Bayreuth and eventually got surrounded at Amberg.

Note that during this time, he could only obtain a small amount of supplies from Bavarian towns, with nearly no ammunition replenishments.

Three days before the Allied forces retreated to Passau, he had already exhausted all his cannon shells and had to have his soldiers chisel rocks to use as cannonballs.

Out of the 40,000 soldiers steadfastly defending Passau, more than 5,000 were casualties. Yet they never allowed the enemy to breach the line, earning the French Army over a month’s precious time.

In this battle, over 400 members of Moro’s Corps were awarded the Irish Medal, including 22 Gold Irish Medals.

Moro was also promoted to the rank of General.

The awards ceremony concluded only in the afternoon. As Joseph, Moro, and other officers discussed their battle experiences in Bayreuth and headed toward the command post, Bertier ran over with a Sharp Signal Tower document: “Your Highness, yesterday afternoon General Massena was ambushed near Landsberg by the enemy. After adjusting his deployment, he defeated the ambushers by noon today.

“However, according to reports from his cavalry, a large number of allied forces have already been seen setting up defenses in Passau. He is now racing to get there.”

Joseph nodded: “Archduke Karl’s intuition was indeed sharp this time.”

Bertier frowned: “Your Highness, if the main forces of the allied army have returned to Passau, Massena’s Corps alone might find it very difficult to break through their defenses.”