Chapter 748 Unexpected

Chapter 749 Unexpected

Lille, northwest France.

Outside the headquarters of the French Southern Netherlands Front.

Joseph picked up an Auguste 1790 chasseur rifle, aimed at a small wooden barrel more than a hundred steps away, and then held his breath and pulled the trigger.

With a loud "bang", the rotating bullet flew straight to the target.

The next moment, wood chips flew everywhere, and a palm-sized bullet hole appeared in the middle of the barrel.

Joseph looked at the barrel in the distance with satisfaction, raised his musket, took the gunpowder bag from Emman, poured it into the muzzle, then stuffed the lead bullet into it and knocked it hard with a cleaning rod.

The loading process was very easy. To outsiders, he was definitely holding a smoothbore rifle.

However, the Auguste 1790 is a genuine rifled rifle.

Not only does it have a terrifying range, but it is also extremely accurate.

According to Berthier, the elite veterans of the chasseur battalion can hit a human-sized target at 200 steps away.

Generally speaking, this distance is reserved for artillery. Whether an ordinary flintlock can hit a target 70 steps away depends entirely on faith.

Although all countries now have chasseurs equipped with rifled muskets, the time spent on loading is more than half that of the Auguste 1790, which adopts the "Touwennan model".

Therefore, most chasseurs are only organized at the company level - mainly looking for opportunities to snipe officers on the battlefield. With their shooting speed, too many numbers will affect their combat effectiveness.

However, the French chasseurs are organized at the battalion level, and as the production capacity of the arsenal continues to increase, the chasseur regiment will soon be expanded.

Because the Auguste 1790 has a very high firing rate, the chasseurs can be used to shoot ordinary soldiers of the enemy army, and the more the better.

If one day all French infantry are equipped with this kind of gun, they can almost defeat the enemy's infantry line at a distance of more than a hundred steps!

Just as Joseph was putting the cap on the back of his musket and preparing to shoot again, an officer came up quickly, raised his hat and saluted him, saying: "Your Highness, yesterday morning, riots broke out in Wavre and other places at the same time, and the scale was very large."

Since there was no Chap signal machine in the Southern Netherlands, it took more than a day for the news from Wavre to reach the French border, but it only took a few minutes to reach Lille.

Joseph took the report and glanced at it, nodding: "It is basically consistent with the analysis of the Intelligence Bureau."

He looked at the visitor again: "What about the movement of the Walloon Chamber of Commerce?"

"Your Highness, President Chevenneman has persuaded the Walloon Regional Committee to transfer the main force of the police to the south of Brussels five days ago according to our suggestion. The logistics supplies are stored in Tubize and will not be affected by the riots."

"Chevenneman did a good job." Joseph turned and signaled to the herald, "Let General Lefebvre set off.

"Oh, Count Ségur can also go to Württemberg."

"Yes, Your Highness! "

Lefebvre led the Royal 1st Infantry Division and two skirmishers in Artois.

This is also the reason why the French army only had 12,000 people on the border of the Southern Netherlands according to the intelligence obtained by Prince Coburg.

However, Lefebvre's troops have made sufficient preparations and will use wooden tracks to transport all the soldiers' belongings. Soldiers can not only march empty-handed, but also take turns to ride in carriages, so it only takes one day to get from the rear of Artois to Lille.

As for what Prince Coburg said, "It takes a week for the French army to reach Brussels", that is simply not true.

At the marching speed of the corps directly under the General Staff, 100 kilometers can be completed in just 3 days!

And Count Ségur, assistant to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, will conduct intensive diplomacy in the southern German states. activities, denouncing Austria for violating the agreement and brazenly sending troops to invade the Walloon demilitarized zone.

In history, the lesson of Emperor Napoleon not paying attention to diplomatic details and relying on violence and recklessness, Joseph will definitely avoid it.

Many times, standing on the moral high ground seems useless, but it is often silent, and when it works, it can even change the situation in the whole of Europe.

…

North of Wavre.

In a dry river valley, hundreds of tents suddenly appeared at some point.

Although there are no flags around the tents, there are always three or four hundred people carrying flintlocks patrolling nearby.

Next to a tent, Bourget took off his hat, looked at the bright sun in the sky, and sighed to the round-faced young man leaning on the hay on his left: "It seems that I can't go back this week. God, it's my turn to go to Paris for training in 5 days, why do I have to conduct "field training" at this time?! "

For Walloon police like them, going to Paris for training every year is a dream come true. Although the training is hard, the bustling streets, fashionable beauties, and exquisite commodities in Paris make them linger. What's more, there are additional training allowances.

The round-faced young man came over and said, "Hey! Don't think about 'vacation'. I heard Superintendent Debre say this morning that Langdon was also occupied by rioters."

Burge frowned: "Are these damn Flemish people crazy? Do they really think Walloon belongs to them?"

A middle-aged policeman who was sharpening his bayonet not far away said, "Obviously someone is organizing them. I came from Namur, and there are also people making trouble there, but it's not as serious as in the north."

Burge said anxiously: "Then why don't we go to quell the riot? I believe that as long as the superintendent gives an order, we can solve those guys in just one day!"

The middle-aged man looked at the desolate river valley around him and shook his head, saying, "Who knows? I heard that even the police stations in Mons and Langley have been emptied..."

The correct version is being read! The first novel is released.

He was right. At this time, most of the police in Wallonia were concentrated here, with more than 4,000 people. Only a small number of police officers remained in the territory to deal with the rioters.

The round-faced policeman looked around and then lowered his voice and said, "Do you think that the senior management of the police department is colluding with the Flemish people?"

"What are you talking about?" Bourget shouted.

"Then why is there 'field training' at this time, and double salary? Don't you think it's weird?"

Bourget and others were a little unsure after he said that.

At this moment, the call for assembly suddenly sounded in the camp.

The drummer immediately got out of the tent and began to beat the drum around his team's area to summon police officers.

Thanks to the training they had been doing over the past few days, the police officers reacted very quickly. In less than 20 minutes, a queue of more than a thousand meters long had formed in the open space in front of the valley.

The public security prosecutor of the police station where Bourget worked came to the front of the team and said seriously: "Check the ammunition carefully. We are not training today, but we are going to conduct actual combat!"

Bourget was overjoyed: "Sir, are we going to deal with those rioters?"

"No, we are going to deal with the Austrians."

...

Count Radetzky rode on his horse and slowly moved forward with the endless marching column.

He turned his head and asked the staff officer beside him: "How far is it from Wavre?"

"A little more than a mile, General."

One mile is about 7 kilometers.

In other words, this Austrian army had already entered the Wallonia region and walked a long way.