Chapter 978 The Adventures of Aiménable Pellissier (Part 2)
Chapter 978 The Adventures of Emenabel Pelissier (Part 2)
After hearing this, Pelissier's frown immediately relaxed. After all, this method sounds very feasible. France was once the beacon of democracy in Europe.
And doing so is completely in line with the propaganda of the Second French Republic. I believe that the gentlemen in Paris will not say much.
Major General Conte, who walked into Fribourg with a swagger, thought that his long speech would make the Fribourg defenders immediately open the city and surrender.
As a result, the facts were completely opposite to what he thought. Although Count Chambord was not a great ruler, his strong moral cleanliness made his actual performance much better than those governors of Fribourg who only knew how to enrich themselves and abuse their power for personal gain.
Count Chambord was not without ability. He was very talented in architecture and urban design.
In addition, the strength of the orthodox faction in France was not weak. Therefore, when they heard that Count Chambord became the Duke of Fribourg, many loyal ministers of the orthodox faction and the minority who were frustrated in France chose to come to Fribourg.
In their eyes, Major General Conte's remarks were simply treasonous, but these French nobles were restrained and only uttered a few vulgar words at most.
As a supporter of the Second French Republic, Major General Conte could not be ignored, so the two sides kept exchanging verbal attacks.
Originally, the matter should have ended with Major General Conte being driven out of the fortress, but the Swiss mountain people didn't care about that. They directly nailed Major General Conte, who was about to return to the main camp as a hero, to the cross like a beast.
Such violations of the conventional rules of war usually inspire the morale of one's own side, but at this time, Pelissier's expeditionary force had lost its sharpness, and the soldiers were completely indifferent to the tragic death of this commander.
Pelissier couldn't help but get more angry when he saw such soldiers, but he also knew that Fribourg could not continue to fight. If he continued to fight, he would get nothing except increasing casualties.
On the Italian battlefield, Bellevue conquered the Kingdom of Sardinia in just seven days, which was something that all parties had never expected before the war.
At first, everyone thought that Bellevue's army was a joke. Even if there were many people, they would be useless in the long mountain road.
The Kingdom of Sardinia had an army of 100,000. If only one tenth of them were put into the valley fortress, even if Napoleon was reborn, there would be no way to stop them.
Unless they learned from Hannibal to cross the Alps, but that was almost impossible. Even if they had the courage to cross, they would not have enough time.
So how did Bellevue conquer the Kingdom of Sardinia?
In fact, the French army did not experience any decent battle when entering the Kingdom of Sardinia. Although Carlo Alberto escaped by jumping back and forth through the traditional art of the Italians.
He offended more than Austria and the Papal States. In fact, Carlo Alberto also offended all the nationalists and radical republicans in the country.
In addition, the inability to pay war reparations caused a large number of prisoners of war to be stranded abroad, and the extortion at home, he also offended all the people in the country.
So when Bellevue led the army of the Second Republic to the Sardinian border, the defenders chose to surrender the fortress without a second thought.
You know, France was the beacon of democracy in Europe at that time, and the Second French Republic was the ideal country in the minds of European democrats and the bourgeoisie at that time.
The Sardinian army that surrendered the fortress joined Bellevue's expeditionary force in a blink of an eye. After all, their goal was not just to gain freedom for themselves, but to liberate all oppressed Italians.
With these guides, Bellevue took Turin without bloodshed, and even Carlo Alberto's palace guards rebelled.
They wanted to capture Carlo Alberto and present him to General Bellevue as a thank you for liberating the Kingdom of Sardinia.
Fortunately, there are still three pounds of nails in a rotten ship. Carlo Alberto fled to Milan under the desperate protection of his loyal guards.
Milan, Northern Italy War Zone.
Marshal Radetzky listened to Carlo Alberto's hysterical chattering calmly. Next to the old marshal stood a lovely girl, his great-granddaughter Celia.
The girl sighed at the same time as Carlo Alberto, the panicked followers and her grandfather.
It's not that they have no patience, nor do they disrespect the king, but his words are completely off the point.
The 82-year-old Marshal Radetzky didn't want to continue wasting his precious life, so he wanted to send Carlo Alberto and others to the temporarily vacated manor to rest.
"Marshal Radetzky! The French have already arrived! It's not safe here! They have 300,000 people! No! It's 400,000! It's 500,000!
Milan will definitely not be able to defend! Let's go to Venice quickly! No! Let's go to Vienna! We will be safe if we escape to Vienna!"
Carlo Alberto yelled hysterically, and the followers beside him also said.
"Your Majesty is the king, the 'brother' of the Austrian emperor! We need a safer place to live."
(In theory, all members of the European royal family are related by blood, and kings should be called brothers.)
The new mayor of Milan, Archduke Leon, looked at his old superior, Marshal Radetzky, who nodded.
Although Archduke Leon was not an excellent soldier, it was not realistic to exclude him from the core circle with his qualifications and family influence.
Under Franz's secret operation, the second-in-command of the Northern Italian War Zone became the mayor of Milan.
"Your Majesty, please come this way."
The Grand Duke of Leon politely asked Carlo Alberto and his party to leave the room, leaving only the two of them to explain what happened in the Kingdom of Sardinia.
However, what they said was not very nutritious. They only knew that the French were very powerful, they were marching very fast, and their troops were very large, but they didn't know the details once they got there.
In fact, Austria also has an intelligence network in the Kingdom of Sardinia, but the French army occupied the Kingdom of Sardinia too fast this time, so the intelligence sent back was also very confusing.
But one thing is certain that the French army has at least 300,000 troops, which is fully double the previous estimate of 150,000.
Soon Marshal Radetzki invited the two Carlo Alberto's entourages out, and then a middle-aged man came in from the outside.
Celia, who was accompanying Marshal Radetzki, tilted her head and looked at the uncle in front of her. This was the most valued subordinate of her grandfather.
"Looks a little shy."
Celia commented, and Marshal Radetzky patted his great-granddaughter on the head lovingly.
"Little ghost and elf, let's go out and play. Grandpa Zu wants to talk about business."
After hearing this, the girl jumped away and made a face when she passed Colonel Benedek.
The girl gently closed the door, and finally only Benedek and Radetzky were left in the room.
"Colonel Benedek, you should be aware of the situation now. If you were me at this time, how would you like to deal with it?"
As Marshal Radetzki's most favored junior, Benedek was also the commander-in-chief of the Austrian Northern Army in the historical Austro-Prussian War, so he naturally had his own unique insights.
Even Radetzky nodded as he elaborated on his strategy, but at the end he let out a long sigh.