Life of Being a Crown Prince in France-Chapter 961 - 869 Mantua Siege Battle: Encircle and Strike Reinforcements

Chapter 961: Chapter 869 Mantua Siege Battle: Encircle and Strike Reinforcements

Wilmze suddenly felt a "buzz" in his head.

He had clearly confirmed that there were no French Army near Mantua, which is why he dared to pursue Napoleon to Limoné.

So where did the enemies besieging Mantua suddenly appear from?!

If Bolieu were present at that moment, he would likely pat Wilmze’s shoulder sympathetically and sigh, "You’ve finally experienced my former nightmare."

Wilmze’s strategic meeting quickly commenced, but the discussion’s content had shifted from "breaking free from Napoleon’s entanglement" to "rescuing Mantua."

Early the next morning, with hardly any sleep, Wilmze left Ranieri with 6,000 troops to cover the retreat, while he hurriedly led the main forces back to Mantua.

Napoleon had learned the news of Desai’s encirclement of Mantua earlier than Wilmze and had already ordered Marmon’s Corps on the southern side of the battlefield to disengage from battle and wait for the Austrian Army northwest of Mantua.

Naturally, Napoleon leisurely launched an attack on the 6,000 enemy rear guards.

Just past noon, the superior French Army thoroughly defeated Ranieri’s Army and then chased after Wilmze tirelessly.

By 2 p.m. the next day, Wilmze’s main forces encountered Marmon’s troops beside the Ming River, west of Mantua.

Eager to return to Mantua and break the siege, Wilmze had no heart for battle, allocating some troops to press these few thousand French Army to the north while other forces rapidly crossed the river through the created space.

Marmon did not furiously obstruct since half an hour earlier, a messenger came over to inform him that Napoleon’s main forces had reached 6 kilometers northwest.

Just as the Austrian Army had completed setting up the pontoon and begun crossing the river, they were suddenly subjected to intense artillery fire from the rear—Napoleon had arrived.

Wilmze had no choice but to fight hurriedly; chaos broke out by the Ming River.

At the rear of the French Army, Grouchy looked through the telescope and saw enemy soldiers continuously crossing the river. Anxiously, he said to Napoleon, "General, please allow me to lead the cavalry to cut off the enemies crossing the river. I’m afraid if we delay, Wilmze will escape!"

Napoleon glanced at him and shook his head calmly, "No, the cavalry camp should have no tasks today. You may rest."

"But..."

Napoleon chuckled, "If I wanted to capture Wilmze, I would have had Marmon complete the encirclement from the south yesterday, rather than having him come here for interception."

Grouchy was taken aback: "Why would you do this?"

Napoleon handed the telescope to his attendant, turned, and sat on the chair, saying, "It is the Crown Prince’s order. We are not to occupy the Mantua Fortress within six months."

Grouchy’s eyes widened. He had only ever heard of orders to break a fortress within a deadline; such a situation was the first he had encountered.

Napoleon, in good spirits, explained before Grouchy could ask, "Although I believe directly attacking Vienna is the optimal choice, utilizing Mantua to continually drain Austria is also a fine strategy.

"Look, we hardly exerted any effort this time to annihilate two to three divisions of Wilmze’s Corps.

"Although the Mantua Fortress itself is extremely sturdy, the surrounding region from Lombardy to Venice is crisscrossed with waterways and lacks terrain conducive to concealment, making it easy for us to ambush traversing troops.

"Just wait and see; over the next six months, we will eradicate many more enemies."

The reason Joseph issued him such an order is that he clearly understands how much blood Austria shed in the historical Mantua campaign, known as the "uncealable wound."

Mantua, termed the "Key to Italy," is the most formidable gateway from Italy to Austria. If the French Army broke through here, the path would lead directly to Vienna.

This would push Austria to do everything in its power to preserve this fortress.

Back then, Napoleon didn’t have the capability to swallow Mantua whole, yet inadvertently brought about the encirclement and reinforcement scenario. Austria consecutively sent 120,000 troops for reinforcement here but had at least half eaten away by Napoleon, suffering significant losses.

Now, he directly has Napoleon deploy according to the goal of encirclement and reinforcement, and the effect will only be better.

When Austria’s national strength is at its peak, having dominance over the Holy Roman Empire is a substantial strategic advantage. But if Austria weakens to a certain degree, numerous small states in the Holy Roman Empire would become burdensome.

It’s akin to a gang leader whose robust physique makes him want to intervene in every matter for benefits, but when he falls ill, even when juniors plead for his intervention, he would only feel annoyed.

Eventually, upon realizing the leader can no longer provide protection, the juniors naturally withdraw from the gang with complaints.

Joseph’s mid-term goal is to dismantle the Germanic Region to the greatest extent, and depleting Austria is the most crucial step.

Still confused, Grouchy said, "Commander, but we could easily capture Wilmze first and then refrain from attacking the Mantua Fortress."

Napoleon smiled, "With a person of his stature inside the Mantua Fortress, Vienna will dispatch reinforcements faster.

"And here, sooner or later, we will break it, then capturing him won’t be too late."

Beside Ming River, the French mounted artillery incessantly maneuvered to find gaps on the battlefield, continually bombarding the pontoons on the river.

In actuality, long-range artillery would struggle to hit the narrow pontoons, but even if the shells landed fifty or sixty meters away, it could make the Austrian soldiers on the pontoon tremble with fear and their feet falter.

Those who haven’t crossed the river became exceedingly nervous, disregarding officer’s orders and desperately squeezed onto the pontoon.

Soon, the soldiers on the bridge were pushed off by their comrades from behind, screams and splashes echoed continuously.

For every nearly one soldier reaching the opposite bank, three to four would fall into the river.

The French Army merely fired leisurely from the outskirts while the Austrian Army drowned with impending death.

Wilmze, observing the chaos within the Austrian Army, realized defeating the French was impossible and promptly stepped onto the pontoon under the guard’s cover.

Approaching twilight, the French Army finally halted its assault.

Panicked, Wilmze tallied his troops on the southern bank of Ming River, realizing his 30,000-strong army at departure was now reduced to less than 4,000.

He immediately thought of another frightening matter—his current meager forces might not be able to break through the French Army’s encirclement around Mantua and enter the fortress.

Luck smiled upon him, fortunately, as the main forces of the French concentrated efforts on the southeast side of the fortress from early morning, targeting a lookout tower there, consequently leaving an open gap behind.

Wilmze decisively led his troops through the gap and successfully escaped back to the fortress.

Nevertheless, the French quickly reacted, turning around and launching an attack, capturing his latter half of the troops in entirety.