War

Since the France showed no sincerity in seeking peace, the peace talks naturally fell through. Of course, the Britain weren't necessarily much more sincere either. Given Britain's long-standing policy of maintaining a balance of power on the continent, Britain could not tolerate a dominant power on the Europe continent. Because Britain, isolated overseas, could never rival the whole of Europe; any nation that unified Europe would naturally marginalize Britain. Therefore, even if the Britain and France made peace, it would at best be nothing more than a ceasefire.

Since there was no hope for peace, the only option was to expand the war. So the Britain approached the Prussia again. This time, the Britain a large sum of money, promising the Prussia substantial financial aid if Prussia agreed to join a new alliance against France; moreover Britain organize Ministry of War of at least 80,000 men to fight alongside the Prussia.

The Prussia, too, were unwilling to see France become too powerful. In fact, no country in Europe didn't hope that all the other nations besides themselves were weak. Prussia's previous fondness for peace wasn't due to any genuine love of peace, but rather a certain fear of the French Army. However, seeing the Britain investing so heavily, they couldn't help but feel tempted.

So the Prussia proposed two conditions: first, the money must be in place. In other words, don't expect Prussia to take any action until the money is there. Second, the personnel must also be in place.

Seeing an opening, the Britain immediately intensified negotiations with the Prussia. Just as the negotiations were making significant progress, a new twist occurred—a leak somehow occurred, and His Majesty the Emperor, neither holy nor Rome nor an empire, somehow learned that the Britain had given the Prussia a large sum of money. The Emperor protested. "We all fought the France to the death, why should he get paid but I can't? No way! We're short of money too! We're even more short of money than the Prussia! I want some money too!"

So the Britain had to appease the emperor again, which, of course, cost them a little more money.

Thus, after spending a considerable amount of money, a new alliance was finally established, and a new war ensued.

In November 1797, Austria and Prussia jointly sent a note to France demanding that France troops withdraw from Italy and Hanover within a specified period. This demand was immediately rejected by France, and a new round of war broke out.

At the outset of the war, the Anti-French Alliance launched attacks on France from two directions. In the north, a joint Britain and Prussia army attacked the France -controlled Hanover and Rhine Region; while in the south, Austria troops and newly joined Russia troops also launched an offensive against Italy.

The fighting began first in the north, where the French Army encountered a formidable opponent. Both the British Army and Prussia armies had modernized their weaponry. The rifled muskets, which had cost them dearly in the previous war, were now common equipment in both armies. The British Army, in particular, had almost completely phased out their smoothbore muskets.

In contrast, the France Army of the North was at a disadvantage in terms of equipment. In the operation to suppress the Royalist Party rebellion, the military intervened in politics for the first time and demonstrated decisive power. This action had a consequence: politicians were both desperately trying to curry favor with the military generals and working to divide them.

Therefore, they not only restored the military representative system in factories, but also the even older system—the general's responsibility for purchasing military supplies. In other words, in France today, the Ministry of War can only determine some standard specifications for weapons, while the specific right to purchase them is bypassed by the Ministry of War and directly handed over to the corps commanders.

The purpose of this was very clear: to bribe and win over the generals who directly commanded troops. As a result, two major military factions gradually emerged in France: the Juubert-Morlot faction in the north and Napoleon's faction in the south.

Behind these two military leaders were their respective arms dealers. Napoleon's was, of course, the "military-industrial complex," while other military enterprises that were not dragged into the "military-industrial complex" turned to Joubert's side.

The France government's funding for both armies was not particularly generous, but it was barely enough. However, the situation was quite different for the Army of the North and the Italian Legion when it came to purchasing weapons.

On the Italian Legion, Joseph didn't need to give Napoleon kickbacks, nor did he need to worry that Napoleon would award the orders to other arms dealers who had given kickbacks. After all, the "Military-Industrial Consortium" belonged to the Bonaparte Family, Napoleon also had a share. The procurement costs were essentially just being transferred from one hand to the other.

But the Army of the North was different. Those who bid for the contracts with Joubert naturally had to give Joubert kickbacks to win. More kickbacks meant higher costs, which in turn increased the price of weapons. Since the total funding didn't increase, the quantity of weapons and equipment decreased. So even now, in the Army of the North, the Minié Rifle is still only issued to skirmishers, while line infantry are still equipped with the old-fashioned rifles.

As for artillery, the Army of the North, as the elite of the French Army, was equipped with the largest number of cannons. However, they were never updated, and many cannons became unusable due to their age.

Therefore, the Army of the North did not perform very well in the initial battle. At first, Joubert hoped to overwhelm the opponent by relying on the advantage of skirmishers. However, his skirmishers encountered the challenge of the opponent's skirmishers, who were also equipped with rifled guns, as well as a large number of light cavalry equipped with revolvers.

The light cavalry, especially those equipped with revolvers, posed a significant threat to the skirmishers. The skirmishers, relying on their range advantage, could fire one or two bullets before the light cavalry charged. However, due to the cavalry's speed, these one or two bullets were unlikely to hit their targets effectively. Once the cavalry closed in, the advantage of their revolvers against the bayonets of the France was simply too obvious.

If Joubert had enough light cavalry equipped with revolvers, he could certainly use revolver cavalry to fight against other revolver cavalry. However, revolvers were even more expensive than rifled rifles, so many of Joubert's light cavalrymen still had to rely on sabers in combat.

Therefore, as soon as the two sides clashed, the French Army was at a disadvantage and had to switch to defense, relying on fortifications to resist the attack of the Anglo-Prussian Allied Forces.

In the south, however, the situation was somewhat different. Because the Russia army was not moving quickly enough, and the Austria were determined not to attack until the Russia arrived, things were relatively calm there for the time being. The Britain, however, were anxiously sending messengers daily to urge them, "You agreed to act together, why aren't you moving?"

The Emperor stated, "It was agreed that the Russia would also make a move, but they haven't arrived yet."

The Russia replied, "Our army is already on its way. Just wait, we'll be there soon!"

Indeed, the Russia should have arrived long ago according to the plan, but plans can't keep up with changes, and within Russia, His Majesty the Tsar himself has created some trouble.

It is said that Her Majesty the Empress has always looked down on the current Paul I, feeling that he was incapable of great things. In fact, the Empress did not want to pass the throne to him at all, but wanted to bypass him and pass the crown directly to his son, the Empress's grandson Alexander (who later became Alexander I). Compared to Paul I, who fell off the bed when he was a few months old and no one found him, so he had to sleep under the bed Paul, Alexander was raised by the Empress herself from a young age.

It was only because the Empress suffered a sudden stroke and remained unconscious afterward that Paul was able to ascend the throne according to the order of succession. And it is said that the first thing this Tsar did after ascending the throne was to ask his mother if she had left a will, and if so, whether it could be destroyed quickly.

Perhaps because he wasn't the heir favored by the court and the public, he always wanted to do something to prove his abilities. Like many tsars, he had studied in Europe, where he was well received in Prussia (after all, without his mentally challenged father, Prussia would not exist). And like his father, he was filled with love and even admiration for everything about Prussia.

So, upon taking the throne, the Tsar began a major Prussia- style reform of the army. Not only were various military regulations and training methods modeled after Prussia, but even the uniforms were to be changed to Prussia style.

This approach was met with widespread resistance within the Russian army. After all, not every officer was as mentally unstable as their Tsar, and having experienced the glory of the Empress's era, they were even less likely to idolize Prussia. For example, Field Marshal Suvorov publicly stated. "What's so great about Prussia? If it weren't for us, they would have been finished long ago. Even now, if we went to war, I could easily defeat them. To emulate them? That's completely absurd!"

Emperor Paul, naturally took this as disrespect and dismissed Suvorov without hesitation. However, shortly after, he realized that while he had seemingly agreed to send troops to France, the chaotic military reforms and subsequent personnel changes in the command structure had left many matters unattended, resulting in inadequate preparations for the France. Furthermore, besides Suvorov, he had no one else capable of challenging the Austria for the position of Commander-in-Chief.

The Tsar then reinstated Suvorov to his original post and appointed him to lead the Russia expeditionary force to Italy.

Time passed in this cycle of repetition.