Chapter 975 Entering the City

"How dare you slander the great France?"

"You traitor!"

"Damn Orleans remnants!"

The staff officers of the headquarters immediately attacked Paul Dubois, and the man from Brittany was not to be outdone.

"Who is the traitor? You keep saying that overthrowing the monarchy is to achieve equality for all! But now where is the democracy you are talking about? Where is peace? Where is bread?

My soldiers can only fight the Germans, the mercenaries, and our citizens while eating biscuits older than they are!

From June 15th to now, we have suffered 20,000 casualties! 20,000 people! What did we get? Ashes all over the ground? A ruin that was not completely occupied?"

The staff officers and the other two generals in the French headquarters were speechless for a while, especially in the previous siege, where tens of thousands of regular troops could not do anything with a commercial city with only militia and mercenaries, which simply made the French army lose face.

"We still have more than 50,000 people, and it's not too late to retreat now. If we are annihilated here, then we will lose not only one battle, but the entire war.

First, the La Mosilier Corps in Lorraine will be attacked from all sides, and will soon end up like us.

With the demise of the entire Central Army, the gates of Paris will be open to the German coalition. Do you think the gentlemen in Paris will welcome the Germans like they did Napoleon?"

Thinking of the integrity of the group of gentlemen in Paris, everyone couldn't help but feel ashamed. Not to mention Austria, even if the Russians came, they would drink and chat with them.

"Paul! Enough!"

Bonno de Couron shouted loudly. Of course, he knew that what Paul Dubois said was true, but he would not allow anyone to shake his military morale.

"Someone take General Dubois back to Paris. He needs to rest."

Several sergeants came forward without saying anything and took Paul Dubois out, and then stuffed him into the carriage to Paris.

After Paul Dubois was taken away, a staff officer immediately stepped forward and said.

"General, we can't retreat! If we retreat, it will be all over!"

Another staff officer followed up.

"Yes! If we retreat, it will be equivalent to cutting off Marshal Lamosilier's retreat. The German coalition has mobilized all their main forces. As long as we can hold on for a few weeks, the other four routes will definitely defeat the Germans!"

Bono de Couron nodded and said loudly.

"The previous war report said that Marshal Lamosilier has recovered the entire territory of Lorraine and must be attacking Strasbourg at this time.

Maybe Marshal Lamosilier's troops have already gone around the enemy's rear."

"That's right! As long as Marshal Lamosilier launches an attack, everything will be fine!"

"Even if Marshal Lamosilier does not launch an attack, as long as he captures Strasbourg and then defends the Rhine to cut off the enemy's supply, it doesn't matter how many people the German coalition has!"

The staff quickly came out of the loss just now, and they have begun to plan how to pursue the German coalition.

"But where should we defend?"

There are no other dangerous positions near Celesta, so Celesta itself is so important.

"The country bumpkins in Alsace can defend the city, so why can't we?"

Bono de Coulon said confidently.

"We also defend Celesta?"

The staff around were a little confused, and Bono de Coulon continued.

"That's right! You have all seen the battles in the past few days. How many French warriors have been swallowed up by these seemingly useless ruins.

We can also use these ruins now, which is called 'fight fire with fire' (European proverb: fight fire with fire)."

"General Kulun! We believe that you can lead us to victory!"

"Haha, don't worry! The whole army enters Celesta! These ruins can not only provide us with concealment, but also block the Austrian artillery fire for us."

The French army took advantage of the cover of night to enter the ruins on the outskirts of Celesta.

When Franz and his generals heard the news, they were all confused. After all, Celesta was not conquered by the French. It was definitely not a wise move to rashly enter the non-occupied area.

Not to mention that there were still soldiers and civilians resisting in the city, even if the French army completely occupied Celesta at this time, they would not have any chance of winning against such a powerful force of the German coalition. Therefore, in Franz's view, retreating directly back to France was the most correct choice for the French army at this time.

However, it was indeed troublesome for Franz that the French hid in the Celesta district, because it was difficult to ensure victory in this battle while killing as few French troops as possible.

Yes, heavy artillery, rockets, and strong soldiers were all designed to make the French army retreat. Franz's primary target was never France, the evil neighbor.

But it was Britain, the troublemaker. Of course, lending a hand to the Germans in Alsace and the declining Orleans dynasty would greatly benefit Austria's reputation and international influence, and it would be a good move in line with Franz's future strategy.

It was impossible to promote nationalism in the multi-ethnic empire of Austria, but this did not mean that Franz had to stand on the opposite side of the nationalists.

If the Austrian Empire could become the spiritual sanctuary of the German nation, then Franz would be more than happy. Compared with the huge benefits, those possible harms were completely acceptable.

In addition, the Austrian Empire must take the initiative to stand up if it wants to continue to maintain its position and strong influence in the German Confederation.

The news that the battle was not over did not affect the good mood of the dignitaries in the coalition.

In fact, merchants and celebrities in the Celesta area sent a large amount of comfort supplies, fine wine, delicacies, and even cars of prostitutes and clowns.

However, Franz did not let these things flow into the Austrian military camp, and some of them were hard to refuse and paid the price.

Although it seems a bit unkind on the surface, this is also the best way to minimize the risk.

Even though a short-term armistice agreement has been reached with the French, Franz still sent a large number of scouts to prevent accidents, and the entire army also took turns to rest, and some people were always in a state of combat readiness.

As for fine wine and delicacies, Franz had already prepared them. After the war, Franz didn't mind the soldiers indulging themselves.

But it was not possible at this time. Once those so-called comforting celebrities had problems, such as being impersonated by the enemy spies, or some uncontrollable conflicts occurred between the comforting delegation and the Austrian soldiers, then Franz might as well choose to watch them die without helping from the beginning.

Moreover, Franz had a longer-term plan. For this, he needed to build a new era army and bid farewell to the old era army.