Chapter 977 The Adventures of Aiménable Pellissier (Part 1)

Chapter 977 The Adventures of Emenabel Pellisier (Part 1)

Lieutenant General Emenabel Pellisier originally planned to enter Switzerland directly from the Roches Pass, but the Prussian barbarians were more difficult to communicate with than he had imagined. [ ]

Lieutenant General Emenabel Pellisier originally wanted to use his official power to show off and ask the Prussian guards at the Roches Pass to find someone qualified to negotiate with him.

As luck would have it, Prince William happened to be in the pass fortress, so Emenabel Pellisier had to stand and be scolded for a long time and then retreated back to France in embarrassment.

Even the "Iron Madman" did not dare to confront the famous shotgun prince.

Prince William was the later German Emperor William I, who was at the lowest point in his life at this time. Dissatisfied with William IV's weak attitude towards the revolutionaries, Prince William went to the Guards station to incite officers and soldiers to suppress the rebellion in Berlin.

Unlike the three days in history, this time, Prince William fought against the people of Berlin for a whole week.

Hundreds of people died in this series of conflicts, but the outcome remained unchanged.

King William IV of Prussia still chose to compromise and expelled his brother Prince William from Berlin as a punishment.

Although it was a punishment on the surface, it was actually a kind of protection for his brother by William IV. After all, there were too many radical nationalists in Berlin at that time, and maybe one day these people would do something when they got excited.

And his brother Prince William was not a good person. The more people wanted to assassinate him, the more he wanted to get together with the crowd.

So William IV sent his brother back to his fiefdom. Prince William did not like to stay in this small valley in Switzerland and do nothing all the time.

So he began to transform the entire fiefdom according to his own wishes, and the defense of the Roches Pass was the focus of his transformation.

The Roches Pass is an important channel for communication with France, but in the past, Nazjatar and the Swiss government obviously did not pay enough attention to it.

The so-called Roches Fortress was never rebuilt after being destroyed by Napoleon. There were only 38 soldiers in the entire fortress, most of whom were old, weak, sick and disabled.

After Prince William came to this Prussian enclave in Switzerland (the two states of Neuchâtel and Jura), he began to rectify the regional defense.

Roches Fortress was the first to bear the brunt. The ancient fortress was renovated, and even a cannon-proof slope was built in front of the fortress according to the latest military concepts.

The force was also increased from 38 people to a battalion, a total of 527 people.

When Prince William was inspecting his territory, he heard that a French officer was going to enter Neuchâtel with a troop and his attitude was very arrogant.

Prince William naturally vented all the resentment he had accumulated these days on Pelissier. In fact, Pelissier wanted to be tougher, but he saw that the other party's attitude was surprisingly tough.

The main problem is that he is not a fool. With such a dangerous position, such a fortress, and such a commander, although the opponent only has one battalion, if the opponent is determined to fight to the end, then his entire expeditionary force will suffer heavy losses.

As a result, the "iron madman" Pelissier could only return in a very embarrassed manner after being scolded by the Prince of Shotgun.

At the same time, the Austrian gunners ambushed in the mountains also breathed a sigh of relief, because once the Prussians let the French army enter Neuchâtel, then Austria would have to give them a reason to go to war.

After this setback, Pelissier learned his lesson and decided to invade Valais directly through Lake Geneva. Taking Valais would support Bellevue's invasion of the Kingdom of Sardinia from the flank.

Unfortunately, Valais has a fleet. Although the total tonnage is only more than 2,000 tons, it is not as heavy as a third-level battleship, but they are invincible in Lake Geneva.

The transport ships temporarily requisitioned by Pelissier's expeditionary force naturally cannot fight against warships, and the French army is even less likely to fight against professional navy on the water.

"Iron Madman" Pelissier returned home in defeat again. This time, he not only lost nearly a thousand soldiers, but also almost all of France's water forces on Lake Geneva.

Two consecutive defeats made Pelissier more and more irritable, and his adjutant Conte suggested.

"General, maybe we can attack Fribourg first."

"Fribourg? That's a military stronghold, and according to intelligence, there are at least 10,000 regular troops there."

Pelissier did not quite agree with his adjutant's suggestion, and Conte continued.

"It is said that the people there are very timid. They surrendered after only a few people died in the Swiss Civil War.

And more importantly, the locals have admired our great France for a long time, and even their daily language is French.

Our occupation of Fribourg not only occupied a well-connected military stronghold, but also obtained a logistics base that can replenish troops at any time. Even if the locals are timid, it should be no problem to temporarily requisition it as a transport team."

The location of Fribourg is indeed very important. After occupying it, we can attack Neuchâtel to the north and Bern to the east.

Moreover, the idea of ​​fighting to support the war was deeply rooted in the hearts of the French at that time, and almost all French generals would unconsciously set their sights on the enemy's supplies.

Before the war, Pélissier was very sure that if he fired a few shots, and if it didn't work, he could just shout a few more times, the defenders of Fribourg would definitely surrender.

However, the reality was that after suffering several months of inhuman torture during the Swiss Civil War, the soldiers and civilians of Fribourg hated surrender.

During the Swiss Civil War, Fribourg was the first orthodox Union state to surrender, so it was forced to bear the military expenses of the Free Alliance during the months of civil war.

Due to the prolonged war and the rampant corruption within the Free Alliance, Fribourg's taxes even reached 150 times the pre-war level in the late war.

What's more terrible is that this impact continued until after the war, and it was impossible for Fribourg people to pay the 150 times tax.

So Joseph Löwy, the then Prime Minister of the Free Alliance, loaned money to every resident of Fribourg, and they had to repay the money even after the war.

Not to mention that in the previous civil war, almost every family in Fribourg had starved to death.

At this time, they would not be willing to open the city and surrender even if they were beaten to death.

And the terrain of Switzerland is indeed suitable for defense, even if the French army is better equipped and the soldiers are of higher quality, they can't take advantage of it.

Two weeks passed in the blink of an eye, but they still couldn't move forward half a step.

Pélissier was so angry that he tore up his battle plan. According to his pre-war estimate, he should have reached Argau at least by now.

At this time, Major General Conte made a new suggestion.

"Your Excellency, we are here to promote French democracy and freedom, not to kill. So I think we should use more peaceful means to save the poor people from the hands of the tyrant."