Fortify the Walls and Clear the Fields

Napoleon's army did encounter some small Austrian outposts when crossing the Alps. However, overall, these outposts did not play a significant role.

Originally, given the rugged terrain, these strongholds could have held out for a while if they had truly intended to defend them to the death. Furthermore, Archduke Karl had gone to great lengths to transport some small artillery to these strongholds. However, "The city walls were not low, the moats were not shallow, the weapons were not weak, and the provisions were not scarce..."

Most of the outposts, upon discovering the French army, immediately remembered their most important duty—to deliver the message. To ensure the success rate of the message delivery and to prevent the messengers from being attacked en route by the Xiong Da and Xiong Er, who were secretly colluding with the French, and thus failing to deliver the most important information, everyone went together to carry out the most important task: to return and deliver the message.

Moreover, because they were in a hurry to get back and report, many of them didn't even have time to destroy the supplies. Of course, there was a reason for this: we weren't running away, we were going back to report, and after reporting, we would go back to fight, so how could we burn down the warehouses?

As a result, Napoleon unexpectedly received even more supplies.

Soon Napoleon led his army out of the Alps. Napoleon knew that the Austria must have received the news and were preparing for battle. Napoleon hoped to have a great decisive battle with the Austria and then crush the entire Austria one fell swoop.

So Napoleon quickly dispatched a group of scout cavalry to unfold the map and illuminate the area as soon as possible.

Several hours later, the scout cavalry gradually returned, and the information they received began to be continuously transformed into new icons on the map.

"Such a tactic is even possible?" Napoleon looked at the map, quite surprised.

Along the road leading to Vienna on the map, numerous bastions of varying sizes were discovered. Due to the presence of Austria cavalry, and the fact that Napoleon's reconnaissance cavalry were not in good condition at this time due to fatigue from crossing the mountains, they were unable to venture too far. As for the condition of the more distant areas, it is still unknown.

Before setting off, Napoleon inquired about the situation between Austria and Italy from merchants traveling between the two countries, but none of them mentioned that Austria had such a thing.

"How could they possibly complete such a massive project in such a short time?" Napoleon decided to personally lead a team to the site to see for himself.

So Napoleon personally led a troop of cavalry to the vicinity of the nearest bastion.

"Damn it! How could such a crudely made thing exist!" Napoleon cursed.

Indeed, the so-called bastions that Napoleon saw were crudely constructed. The outer layer of its walls was not made of solid, flat bricks and stones, but rather of wicker baskets filled with stones piled up directly. The interior of the walls was probably not made of sturdy rammed earth or anything like that; it was probably also made of soil in wicker baskets.

Such a thing could even skip the task of digging a foundation. Of course, it's faster that way, but the result would naturally be junk.

"Things like this only need a few rain showers, at most a year, or even just a few months, and they'll either collapse or sink, becoming completely useless."

After examining it closely with a telescope, Napoleon made this assessment of the "bastion." But even so, at least for now, the "bastion" can indeed be used as a bastion.

Just as Napoleon continued to observe through his binoculars, a troop of cavalry emerged from the bastion and circled within range of its cannons. However, they did not actually charge.

Napoleon's face darkened. "Let's go back," he said.

The Austria cavalry on the bastion watched Napoleon and his entourage depart, but dared not give chase.

On his way back, Napoleon had already figured out what the Austria were up to.

Clearly, these Austria had lost the confidence to wage a fair and square battle against themselves. They could only hide in these makeshift "bastions." Their goal was to force themselves to take down these bastions one by one.

If this were in Italy, Napoleon wouldn't care about such tactics at all. Leaving aside how many Italy cannons Napoleon captured in Italy —with so many Italy cannons, what was there to fear from bastions? Even disregarding the Italy cannons, Napoleon also had a large number of Italy peasants supporting the front lines in Italy.

By distributing land and sending Italy veterans who had made money to serve as village chiefs in newly "liberated" villages, and by paying wages on a daily basis, Napoleon could easily gather a large number of Italy in Italy. Then, it was just a matter of building walls, right? Napoleon could easily build an even longer wall to enclose the Austria bastions, and then lead his army, just like God Emperor, to ask the Austria emperor for money to build the wall.

However, this was Austria, and if Napoleon wanted to fight head-on, he couldn't bring many cannons because he had to cross the Alps. More importantly, the caliber of these cannons was too small. Even if the enemy was just some poorly made, substandard "bastions," the small cannons he brought, the largest of which was no more than 6 pounds, were really not very effective against those bastions.

While the Minié Rifle had an advantage in range, the enemy hid behind the breastworks of the bastions, only exposing their heads, or even just their heads, when firing. This rendered the Minié Rifle's range advantage completely useless. If the army were to rely on sheer bravery to take down these bastions one by one, the losses would likely be enormous. For Napoleon, even if he won, it would only be a Pyrrhic victory, entirely counterproductive.

However, if he ignored these bastions and marched directly on Vienna, the troops in those bastions, especially the Austria cavalry, could easily cut off his supply lines. This was something Napoleon could hardly afford.

However, Napoleon was not greatly affected; in fact, he even felt a little amused. Upon returning to his camp, he immediately summoned his generals to discuss the battle situation.

"Their strategy is actually quite brilliant, but it must be paired with a certain tactic." After explaining his assessment of the enemy's intentions, Napoleon said, "That tactic is a strict scorched-earth policy. The Austria probably don't know how we solved our logistical problems after crossing the Alps and entering Italy."

The officers all burst into laughter.

It's harvest season in Austria now, which makes it almost impossible for Austria to carry out a scorched-earth policy. If they abandon the wheat in the fields and all hide in the city, then everyone will have to prepare to eat dirt for the rest of the year.

Harvesting the wheat and transporting it into the city would not only take a lot of time, but also require a lot of storage space. Even worse, the wheat had to be dried before it could be stored; otherwise, it would either rot quickly or sprout. And there simply wasn't enough space in the city to dry so much wheat. Therefore, this season itself was the biggest weakness in the Austria's strategy.

Napoleon quickly and skillfully assigned tasks, and the next day, Napoleon personally led his army to the Austria fortresses once again.

This move by the France also alarmed Archduke Karl. Archduke Karl himself came to the front line, standing on his newly built, crudely constructed bastion, anxiously holding up his binoculars and watching the French Army gradually approaching from the opposite side.

Through his binoculars, he noticed that the French Army indeed carried few cannons; most were small three-pound cannons, and even six-pound cannons were few and far between, which relieved him. However, looking at the relaxed expressions on the faces of the French Army soldiers, Archduke Karl still felt immense pressure—the soldiers' ease in the face of war demonstrated their high morale. Based on such morale alone, this would not be an easy battle.

However, the French Army did not launch an attack immediately, but stopped in front of the fortresses. Then Archduke Karl saw that the France had actually built barracks not far from their fortresses.

"What are they trying to do?" Archduke Karl wondered.

Archduke Karl was quick-witted; he soon realized the France's possible intentions.

"They're probably trying to plunder the countryside and harvest our wheat! So while they're moving their troops here to keep an eye on us and make it difficult for us to move out, they're definitely sending out cavalry to raid."

Archduke Karl climbed to the top of the watchtower and paid special attention to the composition of the French Army, noting that the proportion of cavalry was relatively small.

"It seems they really did send the cavalry to plunder. But fortunately, I had already made some preparations," Archduke Karl thought.

By evening, Augereau returned dejectedly to the newly established French Army camp and reported to Napoleon, "General, these Austria are truly despicable! They actually..."

"What happened to them?" Napoleon asked.

"They set fire to farms for dozens of miles around!" Augereau replied.

"And further afield?" Napoleon asked.

"I don't know yet. But I don't think they would burn down every single farm in the country."

"Let's go somewhere far away tomorrow," Napoleon said.

The next day, Augereau led his cavalry division nearly forty kilometers north before finally spotting a normal-looking manor. The owners, of course, had long since fled, and before leaving, they had set fire to the granaries. However, large tracts of unharvested wheat fields remained.

Augereau stopped there, first gathering the peasants together and showing them the burned granaries, then addressing them. He told them that the nobles' lackeys had set fire to the granaries hoping he would rob them of their grain when he couldn't seize it. He then organized the peasants to harvest the crops, agreeing with them that the harvest would be split 30/70, with the French Army taking only 30%.

"We may not stay here for long," Augereau said. "After we leave, hide this grain well and tell them that the France have looted all the grain from the fields. That way you can have enough to eat this winter."