Stealing the Glory and Passing the Buck

Augereau, riding his horse, was the first to leap over the enemy's trenches and breastworks, casually slashing down a terrified rebel soldier. At this moment, more cavalry charged in, throwing the enemy into chaos as they scattered in all directions.

Augereau knew he had to act quickly and launch a continuous attack, giving the enemy no time to regroup. Napoleon's order to him was, "Observe the battlefield closely, and if you spot any enemy that might reorganize, attack them immediately and disperse them before they can!"

Augereau looked around from his horse and, through the smoke, saw a man in a general's uniform riding away in the distance. Augereau spurred his horse forward, shouting, "The one with the tasseled hat up ahead is Delatrie!"

Upon hearing this, the cavalrymen following behind him spurred their horses and chased after the man in the general's uniform, firing wildly with their lances regardless of the distance.

Delatrie heard shouts behind him, such as "The one with the tasseled hat is Delatrie, don't let him get away!" and "Dead or alive, we absolutely cannot let him escape!" He turned around and saw a troop of cavalry chasing after him.

Delatrie knew that the red tassels on his hat were too conspicuous in the crowd. So he spurred his horse to gallop, tearing off his hat as he did so and throwing it to the ground.

Augereau, chasing behind, saw it clearly. He initially wanted to shout, "The one without the hat is Delatrie!" But he immediately realized that many of the fleeing people had lost their hats, making such a shout indistinguishable. Fortunately, Delatrie was wearing a bright red cloak to maintain his composure, so Augereau continued, "The one in the red cloak is Delatrie!"

Upon hearing this, Delatrie quickly threw off his cloak... Over the next period of time, he gradually discarded his wig, his saber, and... his last remaining integrity, finally managing to shake off Augereau's pursuit. However, because Augereau was relentlessly pursuing him, he naturally had no opportunity to regroup his troops or rebuild his forces. As a result, the entire rebel army collapsed. Everyone, from General Delatrie down to the grooms, scattered and fled in disarray.

Many years later, those armies armed with ideals and beliefs possessed a remarkable characteristic: even when the ranks were completely scattered, each soldier knew their objective and could consciously and willingly continue fighting independently. If they were swept away by the enemy's overwhelming force on the front lines and fell behind, they automatically became guerrillas and continued fighting. But in this era, such armies did not exist. Most armies, once they lost their organizational structure, immediately lost any will to fight. At that point, even a child wearing the enemy's uniform, carrying a carrying pole, could capture several acres of enemy territory in one fell swoop (after the Crossing the Yangtze River Campaign, a young soldier from a children's corps in the Eastern Great Eater Nation achieved this record). The rebel army at this time fell into such a state.

For example, after Augereau lost to General Delatrie in a long-distance equestrian competition (General Delatrie, being of noble birth, had one of his greatest hobbies being horseback hunting and fox hunting; his horsemanship was better than most cavalrymen), on his way back to his unit alone (having left his comrades behind), he encountered at least two hundred fleeing soldiers. He then captured them all with just a riding whip (Augereau had discarded his weapons while chasing General Delatrie to lighten his load; of course, his target had already discarded these things long before).

Bringing these two hundred or so prisoners back didn't take Augereau much effort. Generally speaking, herding a group of people is much easier than herding a flock of sheep, let alone a herd of pigs. If it had been two hundred pigs instead of two hundred people, Augereau, even with three heads and six arms, would have had absolutely no chance of escorting them all back.

However, Augereau had gone too far in pursuit, and with so many prisoners on his way back, he was delayed for a while. So by the time he got back, it was already evening.

When Napoleon saw Augereau leading so many prisoners back by himself, he was so astonished that he almost hit his foot with his jaw. He immediately gave Augereau the nickname "Sheepdog".

After defeating the rebels, Napoleon ordered his troops to pursue them as far as possible. As a result, his own troops scattered, forcing Napoleon to wait on the battlefield for an entire day before regrouping them. While the returning troops didn't repeat the feat of Augereau, who brought back over two hundred prisoners, they still brought back a total of approximately three thousand prisoners. Napoleon believed that many more scattered and defeated soldiers were still nearby. However, he no longer had time for such a massive campaign of hunting down prisoners.

News of victory always travels fast, and it's likely that France troops in other nearby cities will soon be aware of it as well. If they were even slightly more astute, they would have deduced that the rebels remaining in Angers are now fleeing towards the Vendée. And if he were just a little shameless and quick, he might be able to "liberate Angers" before Napoleon. Therefore, Napoleon felt he couldn't waste any more time catching piglets.

So he left all three thousand prisoners to Fouché to deal with, and then led his army to rush towards Angers.

Halfway there, Napoleon encountered Davout he had previously sent out on a raiding mission. Davout was returning with captured warhorses and a large number of men, including Page, George, and Banner. Napoleon unhesitatingly handed over the main force to Davout, while he himself mounted his horse and led Davout's cavalry towards Angers.

Napoleon traveled day and night, nearly killing his warhorse, and finally arrived in Angers. By then, Angers was a completely deserted city—there were no enemy troops, no citizens, only ruins and unburied corpses.

The morning after Napoleon "liberated" Angers, another troop of the French Army cavalry appeared in Napoleon binoculars. Napoleon ordered the tricolor flag, which had been prepared beforehand, to be raised on the roof of the City Hall, and then, using a telescope mounted on the third-floor windowsill of the City Hall, he smugly admired the expressions of his comrades who had been a step behind.

"Commander, why are you twisting your neck like that to look?" asked Eto'o, the orderly.

"Ah, of course it's because this damned telescope is projecting an inverted image!" Napoleon replied, squinting one eye and twisting his neck.

Although the cavalry commander was indeed surprised and disappointed upon seeing the tricolor flag, he still went to the City Hall and politely congratulated Napoleon on his remarkable victory.

The day after the officer left, Davout arrived in Angers with his main force. Accompanying him was Joseph Fouché, a special envoy from Paris.

"Commissioner Fouché, I didn't expect you to arrive so quickly." Napoleon looked at Fouché, thinking, "He got here so fast, and he's already dealt with all those prisoners? Did he execute them all?"

Fouché seemed to have read Napoleon's mind, and replied with a smile, "I imagine there must be a lot of things to deal with in the newly recaptured cities, so I quickly dealt with those matters and came over."

Napoleon did not ask Fouché how he had handled the matter so quickly. That was within Fouché's authority and not his concern.

"I sent all the peasants from those rebels to the mines, making them atone for their crimes through labor. As for the nobles, these traitors naturally didn't deserve to live in the world. So after being tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal, they were all sent to the guillotine." Fouché still explained further. (Although the Revolutionary Tribunal was called a tribunal, its procedures were much simpler than ordinary courts. It could operate without defense lawyers, could not allow the defendant to speak, and could conduct group trials. Therefore, it was particularly efficient at issuing death sentences in batches. It was no slower than Lincoln's later courts sentencing Native Americans to death.)

"They deserved it," Napoleon said. After seeing the ruins of Angers, Napoleon felt that these men had not been wronged at all in having their heads chopped off. "But how do you so quickly determine whether a person is a peasant or a nobleman?"

"That's easy, just look at their hands," Fouché replied.

Farmers who frequently engage in heavy physical labor have calluses on their hands. But Napoleon still asked, "What if he were a merchant or some other respectable member of the Third Estate?"

"Then he is Third Estate traitor, and it would be fitting to kill him as a nobleman," Fouché replied.

"How many nobles were among the prisoners?"

"After you left, we captured over five thousand more prisoners. Adding to those we captured earlier, we found over a hundred nobles among them—those guys all had horses, so they ran even faster. Oh, by the way, Commander Bonaparte, did you know? There was a big fish that almost slipped through your fingers."

"Who?"

"The rebel leader, Delatrie," Fouché replied. "He was captured by Davout. However, he was wearing a soldier's uniform he'd taken from a corpse, and he'd lost his horse—it had died on the road while he was running away. So Davout treated him like any other soldier. But he couldn't escape my eyes."

At this point, Fouché seemed a little smug.

"So what about that rebel leader? Did he also go to the guillotine?"

"Not yet. He knows quite a lot, so we sent him to Paris. But he's definitely going to the guillotine. Commander Bonaparte, what's your next step?"

"The first priority is to allow the troops to rest and recuperate for a while. After all, the battle has taken its toll," Napoleon replied. "As for what happens next, that depends on the needs of the Republic."

By this time, news of the victory had reached Paris. Upon seeing the report at the Ministry of War, Joseph immediately went to see Carnot, intending to temporarily recall Napoleon to prevent him from getting bogged down in the Vendée quagmire. Joseph knew very well that although Napoleon had just achieved a great victory, slaughtering the nobles involved in the Vendée rebellion, this was merely a tactical victory. The fundamental contradictions in the Vendée region had not been resolved, nor had the people who caused them been dealt with.

So if Napoleon were to march on Vendée, he could probably capture those towns very easily by now. However, he would then likely, if not certain, become embroiled in endless counterinsurgency warfare. Counterinsurgency warfare has always been the most difficult type of conflict. If he were to fall into such a predicament, Napoleon's newly gained reputation would be ruined. That would be a terrible thing. Therefore, Joseph is now planning to help Napoleon withdraw as soon as possible and transfer Napoleon away from the Vendée.

So where would be the best place to transfer? In Joseph's opinion, Italy would be the first choice. Although his history knowledge in his previous life wasn't great, Joseph still knew that Napoleon started his career in Italy (because he had seen the painting titled "Napoleon Crossing the Alps"). Besides, as someone who frequented online forums, Joseph also knew that in later generations, Italy were known by two nicknames (pasta and Italy). He also knew that in a certain war in his later life, unlike prisoners of war from other countries, Italy prisoners of war were counted in acres, not in units.

So you see, on the main battlefield, the opponent is still Italy—is there anything more ideal than this?

Secondly, returning to the north to confront Austria and Prussia is also a good option. They are naturally stronger than Italy, but Joseph has personally witnessed their fighting capabilities, which are basically "just so-so." Fighting them is at least better than waging a counterinsurgency war.

With that in mind, Joseph knocked on Carnot's office door.

"Come in," came Carnot's voice from inside. Joseph went in and saw that Carnot had put on his general's uniform again—because of Napoleon's victory, Carnot's rank had been restored.

"General, congratulations," Joseph said. "Your uniform looks much better, General."

"Hahahaha..." Carnot laughed, "Joseph, if you were willing to lead troops into battle, you could wear a general's uniform too. Hmm, speaking of which, Napoleon should soon be promoted to brigadier general because of his merits this time. Next time you see him, you'll need to salute him first, hahahaha..."

"It's nothing," Joseph said nonchalantly. "So what if he's a brigadier general? I'm still a full member of the French Academy of Sciences."

"Ah, that is indeed an enviable honor," Carnot said. "Until now, I am only a prospective academician... However, in this respect, you are certainly better than all of us. Ah, Joseph, what brings you to me?"

"Lazar, I think we should perhaps move Napoleon to a place where he is needed more," Joseph replied.

Today and tomorrow will be single updates, each chapter around 4000 words. Double updates will resume on Monday.