The Distant Bridge
Dąbrowski's men remained in Toulon for technical training, while Wybicki's men, after completing some theoretical studies and reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance training, left France for internships in Italy.
Napoleon had established a foothold in Italy and launched an offensive against Austria, Lombardy's territory in Italy. With the sharp Bonaparte Rifle and captured Italy cannons, Napoleon forced Marshal Beaulieu into a series of defeats. In negotiations with the Kingdom of Sardinia of Kingdom of Sardinia, Napoleon compelled them to open the Valenza crossing on the Po River. This condition was also revealed to the Austria by Kingdom of Sardinia —after all, Kingdom of Sardinia had completely lost confidence in its ability to reclaim its lost territory, relying solely on the "confidence of others." They had realized that unless the Austria won, Piedmont would be separated from them forever.
Upon receiving this news, Marshal Beaulieu dared not delay and quickly concentrated all available troops near the Valenza ford. In the previous small-scale battles, he had already realized the vast difference in strength between his army and Napoleon's. Therefore, the Po River became his only hope of stopping Napoleon.
Napoleon also led his army to the vicinity of the Valenza ford and constantly sent small detachments across the river to scout, making it appear as if he was preparing to force a crossing of the Po River from there. Small-scale skirmishes between the two sides almost never ceased.
These small-scale skirmishes further demoralized the Austria. Firstly, the disparity in weaponry was overwhelming; the France rifled muskets were fast and accurate, keeping the Austria pinned down. Secondly, after defeating Kingdom of Sardinia, Napoleon's cavalry's weakness was addressed. These France reconnaissance cavalrymen, equipped with revolvers, demoralized the Austria cavalry in these small engagements.
Moreover, since entering Italy, the morale of the army has greatly improved. This is not only because of the victory, but also because half of the soldiers' pay could now be paid in silver coins instead of Assignat. Considering that for years, the army's pay had been paid in Assignat, which had depreciated drastically due to inflation, the soldiers' Assignat had increased many times over if you only looked at the numbers. Now, suddenly half of the soldiers' pay was being paid in silver coins, it felt like the currency could suddenly be exchanged for silver dollars at a two-to-one ratio. With so much pay, the soldiers' morale naturally soared. Many soldiers couldn't help but write home, encouraging their brothers to come to Italy as Volunteer Army and fight for their country alongside the French Army. The contents of the letters varied, but one sentence was almost identical:
"The enemy here is stupid, and we have plenty of pay. Hurry up!"
Under such pressure, in order to hold the riverbank, Marshal Beaulieu had to move all the troops he could find to this location to use the terrain to hold off the France. On the other hand, he also kept sending envoys to Vienna to ask for help from home.
However, Napoleon had no intention of crossing the Po River at Valenza. After Marshal Beaulieu had transferred almost all of his other troops there, Napoleon led his army on an astonishing march of fifty miles to Piacenza downstream, where he crossed the Po River directly.
Such a large-scale movement as the France army's complete withdrawal could not be kept secret from the Austria, but Marshal Beaulieu was almost helpless because his troops simply could not keep up with the French Army's pace. They first tried to catch up with the France and block France at Piacenza, but after realizing that they simply could not keep up with the France, Marshal Beaulieu immediately made the decision to withdraw across the Adda River and use it to block the France.
The soldiers under his command strongly agreed with the marshal's decision. In the past few days, through a series of small-scale battles with the France, everyone realized one thing: the French Army cavalry and infantry were elite, and it was absolutely not advisable to engage in reckless battles in the open field.
Moreover, the Adda River is more favorable for defense than the Po River in terms of natural conditions, because the river has many rapids and dangerous shoals, and there are almost no crossings that are truly suitable for large armies. The only suitable crossing point for large groups of people is a bridge. As long as the army is withdrawn across the river and the bridge is blown up, although the retreat will result in the loss of a large area of land, at least they will temporarily retain most of Lombardy.
Napoleon, of course, knew the importance of the bridge, so as soon as he crossed the Po River, he immediately dispatched Davout with a troop of cavalry and infantry to seize it. Napoleon had originally expected Marshal Beaulieu to charge directly into battle; in his plan, the French Army would first defeat the Austrian army head-on, and then Davout, who had slipped through, would cut off their retreat, thus annihilating the Austrian army in one fell swoop. But he had not expected Marshal Beaulieu to retreat so decisively.
So when Davout led his cavalry and infantry to the vicinity of the bridge, they discovered that the Austria were already crossing it.
Davout glanced at his own troops, numbering no more than five hundred, while the Austria on the other side numbered at least twenty thousand (including Italy mercenaries). Moreover, Marshal Beaulieu's retreat arrangements were excellent, and the rearguard was well-positioned—clearly, a direct attack was not feasible. Even the brave Davout knew that charging straight in would not end well.
So Davout had his soldiers dismount and hide behind a grove of trees, while he himself took a telescope, climbed a nearby hill, and peered into the direction of the trees.
The Austria's retreat was fairly well organized; the army crossed the bridge in an orderly fashion, and the rearguard began to retreat across the bridge in stages. However, this last rearguard consisted mostly of Italy mercenaries, and their retreat was somewhat chaotic.
Davout knew this was his last chance. If he waited until all the Italy had crossed the bridge, the Austria might blow it up. Then, crossing the river would become much more difficult. So he quietly came down from the hill, gathered his soldiers, and ordered them to immediately launch an attack on the enemy on the other side in skirmish formation.
The French Army immediately launched an attack on the Italy mercenaries. As soon as the gunfire started, something Davout happened: the Italy held out for a short while, but suddenly, a volley of gunfire erupted from their side, and Italy mercenaries were thrown into chaos. They didn't put up any resistance at all, but instead rushed towards the bridgehead, eager to cross it as quickly as possible.
"These... these Italy are just too adorable!" Faced with this scene, Davout was almost dumbfounded, and it took him a lot of effort to utter this sentence.
The Italy were pushing and shoving each other on the bridge, cursing and even firing shots into the air for no apparent reason. Taking advantage of the chaos, Davout's men rushed forward and reached the bridgehead almost without any obstacles.
The Italy guarding the bridge either fled across or surrendered. Davout found an Italy mercenary officer who spoke French and learned that there was a reason for the Italy' actions.
"The Austria planted explosives on the bridge. They ordered us to blow it up as soon as we crossed. Lighting the fuse was our job. But after the gunfire, a squad of Austria cavalry suddenly headed towards the bridgehead—they weren't there to help us guard the bridge. Those damned Judas, they were there to blow it up! They wanted to destroy it completely, regardless of whether we were crossing... those damned Judas!"
The first Austria squad that attempted to blow up the bridge was spotted by the Italy guarding it and driven back. However, the Austria were clearly not giving up, and they quickly organized another cavalry squad to try and charge over to blow up the bridge, but the French Army who had already reached the bridgehead immediately drove them back with a barrage of rifle bullets and Little Melon.
Marshal Beaulieu nearly fainted upon receiving the report that the French Army had occupied the bridge. However, he quickly recovered and noticed that his artillery was lagging behind. He ordered the artillery to be pushed up immediately and bombard the bridge with solid shot to cover other troops going to blow it up.
The accuracy of solid shot was, of course, tragic, but the Austria had a lot of artillery. Marshal Beaulieu quickly concentrated more than fifty cannons and fired wildly at the bridge. The French Army who had just crossed the bridge couldn't hold out and retreated back to this side. But the France rifled guns were too sharp, and the Austria suicide squads sent to blow up the bridge failed to break through after several attempts.
While directing his soldiers to use rifle fire to seal off the area around the bridge, Davout also selected a suicide squad from his ranks to go down under the bridge and disarm the explosives. The Austria tried to rush over to stop them, but were driven back by volleys of gunfire.
Just as Marshal Beaulieu made up his mind to disregard casualties and rely on his numerical advantage to push forward, another French Army unit arrived.
Augereau had just arrived, brought his cavalry. Upon discovering the Austria' retreat, Napoleon immediately worried about Davout's safety and ordered Augereau to bring his newly formed cavalry division. With this reinforcement, Davout successfully consolidated his position on the west bank of the river, and his suicide squad successfully dismantled the Austria explosives planted under the bridge. However, due to the enemy's artillery blockade, reaching the other side of the bridge proved extremely difficult.
As evening approached, Napoleon's main force finally reached the bridge. By then it was almost dark, and the two armies faced each other across the river.
That evening, Napoleon summoned his officers to assign tasks for the next day's battle, preparing to break through the enemy's lines in one fell swoop. After all, the bridges were essentially under the French Army control, and Napoleon was confident of breaking through the defenses of the mere 20,000 Austrian troops. However, when the French Army launched their attack on the Austria positions the following morning as planned, Napoleon was surprised to find that Marshal Beaulieu had once again acted ahead of him—in the middle of the night, he had the cannon sluice gates nailed shut, then abandoned the fifty-odd cannons and withdrew with his troops.