Liberating Italy (2)

Speaking of which, the Kingdom of Sardinia was also a member of the Anti-French Alliance, but after the war began, they really didn't fight the France army seriously. Basically, apart from their navy joining the Britain and Spain in the blockade of France, their job was mostly just talking big and playing a minor role. And after realizing that they couldn't deal with the France clipper ships at all, their navy secretly joined the lucrative business of smuggling goods to France.

Because they had never truly fought the France on the battlefield, the Kingdom of Sardinia army had little idea of its own strength or weakness. We cannot say the Italy were completely unaware of the drastically changed warfare tactics of the time—they were equipped with the new "Little Melon" rifles and knew about their "Little Melon advantage." They had also verified the various benefits of skirmish tactics in their own military exercises. However, these advantages had never been tested on the battlefield.

The skirmishers of the Kingdom of Sardinia performed reasonably well in the exercise. Although sluggishness and laziness occurred frequently, overall, their performance was no worse than that of privates, and even no worse than that of the Austria skirmishers.

Generally speaking, Austria often liked to groundlessly belittle the fighting capabilities of the Kingdom of Sardinia army out of jealousy. But they also said, "The Sardinia skirmishers seem quite formidable."

The Kingdom of Sardinia generals, however, automatically filtered out the "seems" part, and were therefore quite satisfied with their mastery of the new tactics. They humbly concluded. "Our skirmishers, while perhaps slightly inferior to the renowned France skirmishers, should still be among the best in Europe."

The Kingdom of Sardinia of 50,000 gradually assembled, and General Colli became its commander-in-chief. Although General Colli had always believed that a general offensive against the French Army should only be launched after the arrival of the Austria allies, the Austria were simply too slow. (Marshal Beaulieu believed that the entire Italy army was not elite enough— Austria's elite forces were in Belgium and Poland, and as for the Kingdom of Sardinia army, Marshal Beaulieu believed it was even inferior to Austria's non-elite forces—so it was best to adopt a defensive posture for now and wait for reinforcements.) In addition, the pressure from the king and nobles was too great, so General Colli decided to fight a small battle first to appease them.

General Colli then dispatched a cavalry unit to attack a France outpost at the Marquis of Cuneo's estate. The cavalry returned safely to their camp and reported that they had recaptured the lost territory, killed five or six France, and dozens of Italy traitors who had followed the France. To prove they were not lying, they also brought back the heads of several of the Italy traitors.

Although General Colli had some doubts about the outcome, he did need a victory to relieve his pressure at this point. However, the victory was far too small; killing only five or six France seemed far too insignificant.

General Colli then summoned the cavalry captain and personally questioned him about the battle. After a conversation, the entire situation became clearer:

This cavalry force of less than a hundred men encountered approximately a thousand French Army and over two thousand traitors who had shamelessly sided with the France near the Andun Estate of the Marquis of Cuneo. The Kingdom of Sardinia cavalry immediately drew their sabers, shouting "For God and for the King!" and launched a valiant hand-to-hand charge against these invaders and scoundrels.

The France were thrown into chaos and scattered in all directions, while the Kingdom of Sardinia cavalry pursued them relentlessly, killing countless invaders and traitors. They achieved a brilliant victory comparable to the Battle of Montgisard (in which the famous King Baldwin IV —the Leper King—defeated Saladin's 20,000-strong army with only a few hundred cavalry), and successfully recaptured the manor.

General Colli reported the news to the king and informed the nobles who had been forced to abandon their estates and flee to the city. The whole of Turin erupted in jubilation.

Almost simultaneously, Napoleon also received a report that included the following:

Our troops discovered a group of about a hundred Sardinia cavalrymen at the stronghold of Andun Estate and opened fire on them. After our troops opened fire, the cavalrymen quickly retreated.

This report caught Napoleon's attention, as it was the first time they had encountered a well-organized Sardinia cavalry force.

"It seems the Sardinia are about to lose their temper," Napoleon thought, and decided to begin consolidating his forces in preparation for a possible major battle.

The next day, Napoleon received another report from the same outpost, along with several Italy.

It turned out that after the Marquis of Cuneo learned that his estate had been recaptured, he was eager to know the extent of his losses, so he sent his nephew with a group of servants back overnight to check. As a result, everyone, including his nephew Viscount Toldo, became prisoners of the France.

Napoleon then handed the viscount over to the "Revolutionary Tribunal," but released his entourage.

General Colli had to defend himself, claiming that his cavalry had indeed won and recaptured the manor, but the France had returned by the time his cavalry returned. Therefore, he was not to blame; it was simply that the Marquis had been too hasty.

Although General Colli could offer such a strong defense, the matter had rendered him unable to delay any longer.

At the same time, General Colli felt that his side should still be able to put up a fight. The enemy had at most 30,000 to 40,000 men, while his side had a full 50,000; moreover, because of the Alps, the France on the other side didn't have any decent cannons, while his side had hundreds of cannons; the enemy also lacked cavalry, while his side had several times more cavalry. Looking at it this way, his side had a great advantage and was fully capable of fighting.

On January 14, 1796, the main force of the Kingdom of Sardinia and Napoleon's Fifth Legion lined up at Cuneo, preparing for a decisive battle.

General Colli knew that his greatest advantage was his artillery, and he decided to make full use of it. Therefore, the Sardinia army lined up over a hundred cannons in front of their positions. Then General Colli sent out his skirmishers.

This tactic was one that General Colli had practiced many times in exercises, and he felt that his army was already quite proficient in using this tactic. First, use artillery shrapnel to strike the enemy skirmishers to support the advance of your own skirmishers, and then rely on the skirmishers' "Little Melon" and the artillery's solid shells to create a gap in the enemy's formation, and then send in cavalry to finish the battle.

This approach proved quite effective in the exercises, earning General Colli considerable praise. General Colli hoped that this carefully researched tactic would also bring him even greater honors on the real battlefield.

The skirmishers of the Kingdom of Sardinia army began to advance, and General Colli saw through his binoculars that the skirmishers of the French Army opposite them were also beginning to advance.

"Artillery, prepare! Suppress enemy skirmishers with grapeshot." Colli Colley issued this order methodically.

However, the cannons had not yet fired, because the enemy was still far beyond their range.

The Sardinia skirmishers advanced a short distance before stopping. They couldn't advance too quickly, lest they enter the enemy skirmishers' firing range before the enemy skirmishers were within range of the artillery behind them. One of their main roles was to keep the enemy's prized skirmishers at a distance from threatening their own lines, giving the artillery a chance to eliminate them.

Unexpectedly, the France skirmishers opposite them stopped at a distance of nearly 300 yards.

"The France can see our formation," General Colli explained to the Marquis Cuneo, who was watching from the sidelines. "They know that if they continue forward, they will be attacked by our artillery. Of course, if they could continue to approach, I believe the brave France troops could withstand the bombardment. However, our skirmishers have blocked their way, and they would be needlessly wiped out by our cannons, so they are now hesitant."

The Marquis of Cuneo had come here to urge General Colli's troops to rescue his nephew—his brother's only legitimate heir. He frowned, glanced at the halted France skirmishers, and said, "What will we do if they just stop here and don't move forward?"

"Simple, if the mountain won't come to us, we'll go to the mountain; if we go to the mountain, we'll go to the mountain. We can move some of the artillery forward, and then..."

As General Colli was saying this, he saw plumes of blue smoke rising from the France skirmishers.

"Fire from this distance? What can they possibly hit?" General Colli was taken aback.

However, something even more surprising happened: as the France skirmishers fired, many of the Sardinia skirmishers fell down.

"General, what is this?" Marquis Cuneo asked in astonishment. He knew that such a hit rate was impossible at such a distance.

"Perhaps...perhaps they were using rifled shotguns!" General Colli said.

In that era, only rifled shotguns could fire at such a distance. However, loading a rifled shotgun was extremely difficult; it would take at least four or five minutes to complete a reload. If the France army's skirmishers all used this weapon, it would mean that they would be unable to fire for a considerable period of time. As long as the Sardinia skirmishers pressed forward quickly, they could fire at very close range and achieve a better exchange ratio.

General Colli, realizing this, immediately ordered his skirmishers to attack. But just as he gave the order to his messenger, who hadn't even had time to mount his horse, the France opened fire again. And another wave of Sardinia skirmishers fell.

"This... how is this possible?" General Colli was first stunned, then burst into uncontrollable rage. Clearly, a rifled musket couldn't fire so rapidly; it had to be a smoothbore musket. And a smoothbore musket couldn't achieve such accuracy at such a distance, yet so many of his skirmishers had fallen. There could only be one explanation: those damned cowards were avoiding battle; they were feigning death!

The subsequent third volley of fire from the French Army skirmishers further confirmed this deduction. After this volley, more than half of the Sardinia skirmishers fell—even a volley fired from thirty yards wouldn't have had such an effect! General Colli even witnessed one French Army fellow standing around looking around, and only after everyone else had fallen for several seconds did he suddenly seem to wake up, dramatically throwing his rifle aside, clutching his chest with both hands, slowly squatting down, and then lying down on the ground.

"Damn it! These damned bastards! After this battle, I'll hang them on the gallows to dry!" General Colli was beyond furious at these guys who couldn't even fake being dead properly. He deeply felt the darkness and desolation of this world.

What followed was not just infuriating, but also heartbreaking. Before the France could continue firing, more skirmishers fell one after another. In the blink of an eye, more than a thousand skirmishers, carefully trained by the Kingdom of Sardinia, had vanished from the battlefield.

This change astonished General Colli, but brought a smile to Napoleon. Napoleon knew, of course, that his skirmishers had indeed hit the Sardinia skirmishers on the other side; however, Napoleon was equally certain that his skirmishers could not possibly have killed so many Sardinia skirmishers. Thus, he quickly reached the same conclusion as Colli Colly: those shameless fellows were feigning death to escape the battlefield.

However, this wasn't the first time Napoleon had witnessed such a situation. Back when he was in Belgium, under Dumouriez, he had personally seen the Austria's clumsy imitation of the France skirmish tactics. The Austria also sent out large numbers of skirmishers, who mysteriously disappeared from the battlefield almost without firing a single shot. In comparison, these Italy, at least, only started using this tactic after taking three volleys of bullets, which was quite brave of them.

Now that the enemy's skirmishers had been routed, the France skirmishers naturally began to advance rapidly.

"Don't be afraid, this is just a minor technical setback, don't be afraid," General Colli encouraged himself. "At least we still have superior artillery. If they dare to advance again, we'll bombard them with our cannons!"

The France skirmishers advanced rapidly to within about three hundred yards of the Sardinia artillery; a few dozen more steps and they would be within firing range. But then they stopped and raised their rifles...

"This... this is impossible! How can there be weapons with such a long range and such a fast rate of fire!" General Paoli was completely stunned. Now that the distance was closer, he could clearly see the blood flowing from the bodies of the soldiers who had fallen beside the cannons—this was no illusion; the enemy could indeed fire with such precision and speed from such a distance.

The gunners who were lucky enough to survive the first volley of fire from the France skirmishers lost the courage to continue holding their posts under the hail of bullets. They abandoned their cannons and ran away, or simply lay down and pretended to be dead.

"Cavalry! Cavalry, charge forward and drive the enemy's stragglers back!" General Colli shouted.

The Sardinia army had more cavalry, and the Austria, when sharing their experiences fighting the France, specifically pointed out that a large number of light cavalry was the key to defeating the France skirmishers. (Light cavalry was relatively cheap and faster—after all, no armor could stop rifle bullets—and they were relatively more likely to die.)

And so the Sardinia's last hope came into play.