This handwritten letter from Louis XVI not only showed his determination, but also expressed his hope for Napoleon.
After William arrived in the Netherlands, the originally somewhat volatile Dutch government also unified its thinking at this moment. After all, William personally led more than 90,000 troops to come. In addition to the British troops transported to the Netherlands some time ago, the total strength of the British and Puerto Allied Forces exceeded 100,000. This scale, coupled with the reputation of Prussia in previous wars, made the Netherlands optimistic about the market of the British and Puerto Allied Forces this time.
Therefore, after urgent consultation, the Dutch government decided to join the British-Public coalition forces, which led to the British-Publican coalition forces reaching a scale of 130,000.
After entering the Netherlands, the top leaders of the Three Kingdoms discussed the situation for the command of the coalition. In the end, although William was still young, as the country with the largest number of troops in this coalition, and William's status as the king of the Three Kingdoms made William the supreme commander of the Three Kingdoms coalition.
Ernst is second only to William among the Three Kingdoms coalition forces. Ernst's Hannover army and British army also have nearly 40,000 troops, while the Dutch army has the lowest status because it sends the least troops.
However, despite this, the hereditary ruler of the United Nations Federation of Netherlands, William V, was ranked alongside Ernst as the deputy commander of the coalition forces because of his status and the Netherlands was the largest rear of the coalition forces.
Unlike most other countries, although the Netherlands is a United Provincial Autonomous Republic, because of its great power in the Orange family, although there is no king in the Netherlands, it has creatively appeared as hereditary rule. Apart from its name, the right to hereditary rule is only a little smaller than that of the king.
William V and William were even relatives. Of course, most of the rulers of European countries are relatives nowadays. If you want to say, William and Louis XVI can still get along with relatives. After all, William's wife Anna is the niece of Louis XVI's queen.
March 26, 1793
The Three Kingdoms coalition formally swore an oath in Amsterdam. The 130,000 troops headed straight to Antwerp.
Sitting on the war horses and looking at the army that was beyond my reach, William felt a domineering aura in his heart. Under his command, there were not only the Prussian army, but also the army of Britain, the Netherlands and the Rhine states. If Napoleon could be defeated in this battle, William would undoubtedly become a new legend passed down on the European continent.
However, starting from entering the Austrian Netherlands, it was affected by the adverse weather, which to a certain extent affected the speed of the coalition forces' advance.
Although William's army had a great advantage, William had never underestimated Napoleon. In addition, although William had many troops this time, except for the Prussian army with more than 40,000 people, most of the rest were armies of various countries. The combat effectiveness of these armies was also a key concern to William.
There are a large number of uprisings on the left and right sides of the coalition forces to conduct reconnaissance, which is William's death order after sending troops. Each team of scout cavalry must report the location and situation within three hours. William hopes to use this method to isolate the possibility of Napoleon's raid.
As William thought, Napoleon originally planned to conduct a raid after the coalition left the Netherlands, because once the raid was successful, even if the coalition still had an advantage in military strength, the increased morale of the French army was enough to offset this advantage to some extent.
However, due to the strict defense of the coalition forces, Napoleon had to give up the idea of raiding.
But several Napoleons did not give up. The current situation was that the coalition forces were in the open. Napoleon was in the dark, so he could adjust his arrangements calmly.
Because Antwerp was directly threatened by British naval artillery, although the French conquered Antwerp, Napoleon did not expect to rely on Antwerp as the center to resist the coalition forces. In Napoleon's plan, his main battlefield with the coalition forces would be from Nicolas to Brussels. Before that, the French army also arranged numerous defense lines, but these defense lines were just to consume the coalition forces to the greatest extent.
Just when the scouts of both sides were incorrect and fought on the battlefield, Alexander, who was far away in Austria, also threw the nearly 100,000 troops withdrawn from Tuha from the front into the annihilation of Franz.
However, Tuha was not willing to be involved in this muddy water. In Tuha's view, this was an internal struggle between the direct descendants of the Habsburg family. As the duke of the kingdom, he had always been guarding the frontiers for the kingdom. He was really unwilling to fight with his compatriots, so Tuha quickly made a request to retire to Alexander.
However, Alexander could not agree to Tuha’s request for retirement. You must know that if Tuha was not available, then who could control the largest army in Austria for him?
Originally, according to Alexander's vision, with the 100,000 troops of Grand Duke Tuha, Franz's rebellion would definitely be quelled in a short time, but what Alexander did not expect was that although Tuha was the commander of the army, a considerable number of troops in this army supported Franz, especially after Franz showed his clan emblem ring.
You should know that most of the troops under the command of Grand Duke Tuha were from southern Austria and Slovenia. After all, Grand Duke Tuha had always led his troops to garrison in the southern Austria's border with the Ottomans before the war with Prussia. The policy of on-site recruitment made Grand Duke Tuha's army full of soldiers from these areas.
After Grand Duke Tuha arrived at the Bohemia front, the supplementary soldiers he received were also soldiers from southern Austria and Vienna.
Franz had an overwhelming advantage over Alexander among the southern nobles, and many of the officers in the Tuha army were from the southern nobles of the Empire. How could these officers lead the army to suppress Franz while their family supported Franz?
In addition, due to more than a year of war, the homesickness spread in the army under Tuha, and this homesickness was directly reflected in the fact that deserters appeared in the army every day.
Indeed, Tuha had an unparalleled reputation in this army, but the continuous defeats against Prussia had greatly weakened Tuha's reputation.
When Tuha's army arrived outside Graz, the army had a great change. More than 30,000 troops actually swore allegiance to Franz. The remaining soldiers in Tuha's army were also unwarranted to fight. In this case, Tuha had to stop the army in place and filed another application to Alexander for retirement.
When Alexander of Vienna received a report from Tuha, he suddenly felt like an angry lion. He did not expect that even Grand Duke Tuha's army would be affected so much. From this point, we can also see what kind of prestige Franz has in southern Austria. This prestige even made Alexander feel a little scared in his heart.
"Franz must be suppressed as soon as possible, otherwise the consequences will be unimaginable!"
After such a decision, Alexander decided to lead the army to Graz to wipe out Franz. Otherwise, the longer the time delayed, Franz would not have received more support. At that time, he would have overwhelmed Alexander in strength. Even if Alexander had the title of imperial regent and Austrian Grand Duke, it would be useless!
Alexander drew 20,000 Hungarian troops in Vienna and part of the support of the nobles he had subdued, Alexander drew an army of 25,000 and rushed to Graz.
In March 1793, when William was leading his army to the Netherlands, Alexander met with Tuha on the outskirts of Graz.
After the meeting, Alexander agreed to Tuha's application for retirement, and at the same time, Alexander appointed Carl as the commander of the Austrian army to reorganize the army.
With the efforts of Carl and Alexander, in just one week, the seventy thousand troops completed the task of reorganization. After the reorganization of the army, Carl personally led a 50,000 army to the city of Graz, while Alexander led the remaining 20,000 people to take charge not far behind Carl's army.
But just when Graz was facing threats, Franz led his army away. Graz directly led his army to face Carl's army head-on.
The reason why he took the initiative to lead his army to fight against Carl's troops was that under the strong publicity during this period, the people who defected to Franz far exceeded Alexander's so-called counter-rebels. In addition, most of the troops separated from Tuha joined Franz, which also gave Franz the confidence to fight against Carl.
On a plain more than ten miles north of Graz, Karl and Franz officially fought a battle. One side was Karl's army of 50,000, while the other side was Franz's army of nearly 80,000.
Although Franz's army had the advantage, because Franz's army was temporarily pieced together, and although more than 40,000 of them were regular troops separated from Tuha's command, most of the remaining troops were mobs.
After arranging the formation, Carl's army took the lead in attacking, and 20,000 infantry rushed towards Franz's army in an orderly manner. Franz ordered his 30,000 miscellaneous troops to charge towards the 20,000 people sent by Carl.
Unlike Carl, a considerable number of Franz's troops were unarmed, so Franz could only send these cannon fodder to a certain extent to consume the energy and ammunition of Carl's troops.
Although Carl's troops were prepared for a long time, the 30,000 miscellaneous brands still caused considerable trouble for Carl. These miscellaneous brands not only hindered the sight of Carl's army, but also caused a certain degree of turmoil in the formation of Carl's troops.
This turmoil quickly subsided, but just when 30,000 people were wiped out by Carl's troops, Franz personally commanded the remaining 50,000 troops to participate in the attack. Before, while Carl's troops were blocked, Franz's army had already formed a half-encircled attitude towards Carl.
When Franz invested the chest plaque cavalry he had spent a lot of money to build, Carl's situation became even more unfavorable. You should know that Carl's command had no mobile power except for the part of the Magyar cavalry assigned by Alexander. Most of the cavalry of the Austrian Bohemia Front were consumed in the war against the Prussians.
It was obviously impossible to count on these Magyar light cavalry to resist the charge of Franz's breastplate cavalry, so a gap was quickly opened in the center of Carl's troops.