Chapter 641 The Austrian Emperor is not the European Emperor
"Mr. Wang, do you think the French will really join the war this time?" Bismarck, who had a mustache, went to Frankfurt to visit Wang Tao because of the Austrian ultimatum.
Wang Tao is visiting the Principality of Hesse these days.
The Baath Army has always maintained good relations with these German states.
Wang Tao often visited here. He was very good friends with many monarchs of German states.
"Mr. Bismarck, this is a good thing for Prussia." Wang Tao said with a smile.
"Of course I know this is a good thing. But why would the French help the Italians?"
"Of course the Kingdom of Sardinia offered a price to impress Nathan. Don't you know that Emperor France? He is a greedy master."
"What do you think we in Prussia should do?" Bismarck tried to ask.
"Foreign Minister, now is a great time for Prussia to integrate the northern states. Let's start from the Holstein region," Wang Tao said.
Since the Prussian War, Prussia began to integrate the northern German states to form the so-called North German Union.
However, the formation of this alliance was blocked by Austria and Bavaria.
Bavaria's location is very important, just south of Prussia.
Moreover, Bavaria does not join the North German Union, and even Württemberg is hesitant to wait and see.
"Mr. Wang, it's obvious that your point of view is the same as mine. Austria will lose this battle?" Bismarck's expression gradually relaxed.
Maybe his plan was going a step further, so he seemed extremely excited.
"That's of course. Don't you know that I've been in Austria for many years? Their military construction is conservative and backward. You should know that they still use muzzleloaders to this day. What did Joseph I say about muzzleloaders?
A gun that a noble should use."
"When those Austrian nobles were joking, they always said that guns, like people, should be eaten with their mouths. Haha!" Wang Tao complained in front of Bismarck. For some reason, Bismarck felt very comfortable after hearing this.
One thing Wang Tao didn't know yet was that Prussia was not only preparing to take away Holstein, they were also preparing to send troops to Bavaria.
Bavaria's culture and beliefs are far away from Prussia, and even incompatible with the entire North Germany.
But Bavaria is very important to Prussia. It is the most important coal and iron ore producer in North Germany.
The steel used in almost every Krupp cannon has something to do with Bavaria.
Prussia has long had the idea of dragging Bavaria into the North German League through force.
But Bismarck knew that Austria would not just watch this happen.
Conquering Bavaria is not difficult, but after that it means going to war with Austria.
Although he knows that he will have to stop with Austria sooner or later, the future iron-blooded prime minister does not have enough confidence yet.
"Foreign Minister, I wonder if you have paid attention to the situation in Millikin." Wang Tao suddenly turned the topic to Millikin.
Bismarck's mind was spinning rapidly, hoping to find a connection between the two things.
"Mr. Wang, are you referring to the conflict between the north and the south of America? I know this. Prussia has exported many more weapons to America recently than before."
"Is this related to what's going on in Europe?"
"Of course, then, Mr. Foreign Secretary, a war will inevitably break out between the north and the south of the United States. Their current Republican candidate Lincoln is very likely to be elected president. Do you know what this means?"
"Lincoln's election will inevitably affect the current privileges of the southern slave states. By then, the north and the south will be divided, and a war will be inevitable." Bismarck analyzed.
"Yes, it's a big war. Now British and French textile factories basically use cotton from the southern states. Do you think they can avoid being involved in this war?"
This is naturally impossible. According to the custom of the Great Empire, even if it has nothing to do with him, he will get involved.
"Master Foreign Minister, if you calculate that the war with Italy will last until at least the end of this year. Next year, there will be another war with America. And I heard that the French are going to join the war in Mexico. Mexico has been in a lot of trouble recently.
Damn, they seem to be defaulting on their debt."
"What? The Mexican War?" Bismarck was shocked by the intelligence capabilities of the Baath Army.
"Foreign Minister, Napoleon III has secretly deployed in Mexico. Let me tell you this, the French will definitely send troops to Mexico. Even if there is no reason for the Mexicans to default on their debts, they will find other reasons."
"Then this means that France has no energy to interfere in Germany's internal affairs in the past two years!" Bismarck added.
"Yes, Mr. Foreign Minister, that's exactly what happened." Wang Tao's implication was that Prussia should do whatever it wants now.
After passing this village, there is no such shop.
…
Just after Wang Tao met with Bismarck, one of the largest wars in southern Europe in recent years finally began.
In the previous April, Austria issued an ultimatum requesting the Kingdom of Sardinia to disarm, but the Kingdom of Sardinia rejected it.
As a result, Austria gathered 170,000 troops under the leadership of Marshal Gulay between Piacenza and Milan.
Split the Sardinian and French armies under Napoleon III into two parts.
Austria's reserves are still very sufficient, and they can bring out nearly 200,000 troops at once.
Part of the Sardinian and French coalition forces was the 56,000 Sardinian troops already assembled near Valencia.
The other part is the 116,000 French troops setting off from Turin and Genoa.
Originally, it was entirely possible for the Austrian army to defeat the two parts of the enemy army separately, but due to Gulay's indecision, the French army was able to converge in the areas of Alessandria and Casalemon Figurato in mid-May.
Until early June, apart from several small battles, the two sides had yet to engage in any major decisive battle.
On June 4, General MacMahon led the 49,500-strong French 2nd Corps and the main Austrian group of 53,000 people led by Coulai fought a battle at Magenta, and the Austrian army was defeated.
However, the French army did not pursue the victory, so after losing 6,000 men, the Austrian army retreated to the Minqiao River to fortify themselves.
Gulay was dismissed, and Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I took over as commander-in-chief of the Austrian army. The real drama was about to begin.
Nasan's ability to command battles among European monarchs is already considered to be at the bronze level.
I never expected that Joseph I was just a piece of scrap metal.
The Battle of Solferino was the last battle of the Austrian-Italian-French War.
Franz Joseph I, a man of chivalry and a dreamer of Napoleon's glory, shows us what can happen when a "born commander" takes command.
The Austrian army was initially supposed to occupy the position on the heights of Castiglione, but when everyone had every reason to expect a battle, they abandoned the position without fighting and retreated to the east bank of the Mincio River.
But Franz Joseph still felt that this was not enough to explain his weakness and illogical behavior.
As soon as the army reached the east bank of the Mincio River, our "young hero" changed his decision.
Because for the Habsburgs, it would be disrespectful to withdraw from the battlefield without resistance.
Joseph immediately ordered the army to turn back, cross to the west bank of the Minqiao River again, and attack the enemy!
After Franz Joseph greatly strengthened the army's trust in his most holy commander by such childish movements, sometimes backward and sometimes forward, he led the army to attack the enemy.
The maximum number of the Austrian army was 150,000, and even Nathan, who liked to tell the truth, did not say a larger number than this.
The Austrian army attacked on a front that was at least 12 miles wide. In this way, there were at most 12,500 people per mile of front. When the front was narrow, this density was certainly sufficient under certain conditions, but on such a wide front there was no doubt that
It's not enough.
It is even less suitable for offense, because under any circumstances this density cannot guarantee a strong enough assault at individual important locations.
The enemy undoubtedly had numerical superiority, and therefore the Austrian offensive was doomed to failure from the start.
A stronger enemy would almost certainly be able to break through such a weak formation of the attacking army anywhere.
On Thursday, June 23, the Austrians began their general offensive; they easily repulsed the enemy's vanguard, captured Pozzolengo, Volta and Guidizzolo, and in the evening advanced to Solferino and
Castelhoffledo.
The next morning, the Austrian army compressed the enemy's vanguard back some more, and the left wing almost reached the bank of the Kizer River. However, here they encountered the main force of the enemy's army, and the battle began in full swing.
Both wings of the Austrian army were victorious, especially the right wing, which dealt a severe blow to the Piedmontese army opposing them.
Here, the Austrian army obviously won. But in the center, the consequences of wrong deployment were shown.
Solferino, the key position in the center, finally fell into the hands of the French army after a tenacious battle. At the same time, the French army also had a huge numerical advantage over the Austrian left wing.
These two circumstances forced Franz Joseph to issue an order to retreat, and Franz Joseph probably threw all his troops into the battle down to the last man.
The Austrian army apparently retreated in an orderly manner without being pursued by any troops, and returned to the east bank of the Mincio River without hindrance.
On June 23, 1859, the strength of the Austrian army was no less than 9 corps. Among them, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 8th corps had all or partially participated in the battle, while the 9th, 10th, and 11th corps
They are still completely new troops and have never had any contact with the enemy.
The first six armies have a total of about 130,000 people, and the last three armies have 75,000 people. In this way, the Austrian army can use no less than 200,000 troops to deal with the enemy.
But what did Franz Joseph do? He sent the Tenth Army and the Eleventh Army from Mantua to Azola (on the banks of the Kizer River) in an attempt to attack the French army from the rear. In order to cover the army,
Once mobilized to avoid a possible attack by the French Fifth Army (commanded by Prince Napoleon), who was expected to be deployed nearby, he left the Second Army in Mantua.
As a result, Franz Joseph was left with only 6 corps, or 24 brigades, and he attempted to use these forces to launch an attack on the French-Piedmont coalition front.
However, the army moved so slowly that the attack on June 24 did not begin until 9 am.
Of course, anxiety arose among the French, and instead of the Austrians launching their planned attack at 9 o'clock, they themselves were attacked at 5 o'clock.
In order to deal with the 21 Austrian brigades (a total of about 136,000 people), the coalition forces successively invested no less than 33 brigades (9 brigades of the Piedmont Army, 45,000 people, and 24 brigades of the French Army, 150,000 people).
In other words, the coalition forces used to deal with them were no less than 190,000 troops; in addition, the coalition forces also had 1 brigade of the Guards of the Piedmont Army and 2 brigades of the French Bourbaki Division as reserves.
In this way, the strength of the coalition forces on the battlefield was no less than 210,000. With such superior strength, victory was guaranteed. However, General Benedek led the Austrian Eighth Army to successfully repel all the troops.
Monte's army attacked and won a complete victory on the right flank.
Although his own army only had four brigades, he may have been reinforced by one brigade, the fifth brigade, from the garrison of Pescara.
The central position occupied by 12 weak brigades of the Austrian army was attacked by 14 powerful brigades of the French army. As a result, the Austrian army was repulsed. The 8 brigades on the left wing were also assigned by the French army after a long battle.
The superior force of 10 brigades with large amounts of cavalry and artillery was repulsed.
On the left wing and in the central position, the Austrian army should have concentrated a large number of artillery, but Franz Joseph preferred to let the 13 companies (104 artillery pieces) of the reserve artillery stay in Vallejo without firing a single shot!
It can be seen that the reason why the French artillery has the advantage in firepower is very simple. This is not at all because of the advantage of rifled artillery, but because of the incompetence and hopeless confusion of the Austrian Emperor. He did not use his reserves at all in the battle.
artillery.
But where were the Tenth and Eleventh Corps? While the battle was going on between Lake Garda and Guidizzolo, they were wandering the plains quite far to the south.
It is said that the Eleventh Army saw some enemy troops from a distance, but the Tenth Army did not even encounter such a situation. When victory or defeat was a foregone conclusion, the two armies not only did not have time to fire a shot,
And it's still far away.
Therefore, Francois Sertan Canrobert's army, which was originally prepared to prevent the Austrian army's roundabout movement (the French army had already known about this Austrian army's move), was able to use all its forces until the last division (
Louis Jules Trochu) were used to deal with the main force of the Austrian army, thus winning the battle on the left wing of the Austrian army.
At this time, the Second Army occupied the Mantua position, preparing to resist the imaginary attack of Prince Prompong. On that day, Prince Prompong was with his entire army in Palma, which was eight days away from the battlefield.
There's a big feast!
Here before us is the most striking example of what happens when command is in the hands of Germany's "natural commander." Two corps (50,000 men) are moving away without any purpose.
Wandering around the battlefield, another corps (20,000 men) held the line at Mantua against an imaginary enemy, while 104 pieces of artillery were aimlessly organized in Vallejo's baggage train.
In other words, a full third of the troops and all reserves and artillery were deliberately moved away from the battlefield so that the remaining two-thirds of the troops would be crushed by the enemy's superior force for no reason - this kind of complete and utter
Only the great Joseph I could do such stupid things!
The Austrian army fought so bravely that the Allied forces, whose strength was one and a half times theirs, were able to dislodge the Austrian troops occupying three positions from two positions only after the greatest efforts, and these superior forces of the Allied forces could not even
Disrupt the Austrian ranks or attempt to pursue them.
If Franz Joseph's unused 70,000 men and 104 artillery pieces were deployed as a reserve between Volta and Pozzolengo, what would be the outcome of the battle?
The French army will undoubtedly be defeated, and the battle line will be pushed forward from the Mincio and Gizer rivers to the Ticino River.
The Austrian army was defeated not by the coalition forces, but by the stupidity and arrogance of their own emperor.
This campaign made Austria's defeat a foregone conclusion. However, Napoleon III, frightened by Italy's national liberation movement and afraid of Prussian intervention, suddenly suspended military operations and signed the Villafranc Armistice Agreement with Austria alone on July 11.
According to the agreement, Austria gave up Lombardy and transferred it to the Kingdom of Sardinia from France. France obtained Savoy and Nice, which were originally part of the Kingdom of Sardinia. In this war, due to Napoleon III's self-interested policy, the original war determination could not be fully realized.
, although Austria was weakened, it still occupied part of Venice's territory.