Impregnable Defense (1)

While news of defeats continued to arrive from the north, in the south, on the Italy front, Napoleon began to face challenges from the Austria and the Russia.

Unlike Napoleon's invasion of Italy and the subsequent invasion of Austria Italy, which both required crossing the Alps, the presence of the combined Britain and Austria Combined Fleet allowed the Austria and Russia forces to land directly in Italy by sea.

In March 1798, the Russo-Austrian allied forces landed in the Ravenna region. Upon receiving news of the landing, Napoleon ordered the abandonment of Ravenna, which was difficult to defend, and ordered his troops to withdraw northward. After completing their landing, the Russo-Austrian allied forces rested briefly in Ravenna before regrouping and marching north, their advance aimed directly at Modena.

In the original history, Suvorov utterly defeated almost all France generals in Italy except for Napoleon, and reclaimed all the territories Napoleon had acquired Italy. If it weren't for the Austria and Britain interfering, he might have even marched into France.

However, in this timeline, Napoleon did not go to Egypt to commit suicide, so Suvorov finally met Napoleon in Modena.

Suvorov did not launch an attack immediately. He had his troops set up camp and prepare for defense, and then personally led a cavalry unit to scout in front of the France positions.

Suvorov had never fought against the French Army after the revolution, but the old marshal was very interested in those previous battles. As early as the First Anti-French Alliance, while eliminating the Poland army, he kept a close eye on the war in France and learned about the performance of the French Army and other armies in the war.

Later, after Napoleon crossed the Alps and swept through Italy, he immediately sent people to Italy and Austria to learn in detail about the entire war from those who had participated in the battles. Regarding the France army, the old marshal said the following:

"There is one crucial characteristic of the France army that has gone largely unnoticed. What is it? It's not their high morale or advanced weaponry—those are things everyone else has noticed. The key is the remarkable variability of France tactics. Every so often, French Army methods of warfare change. General Napoleon Bonaparte, in particular, spearheaded tactical shifts almost every time. If our expectations of the French Army remain stuck in the impressions of the last war, and we believe that dealing with the same French Army as before is sufficient, then we will be in grave danger."

Even though the Britain and Prussia had achieved considerable victories against the French Army on the northern front over the past few months, and the French Army had not demonstrated any particularly new tactics in these battles, the old marshal did not change his opinion. He told others, "The Britain and Prussia are not facing Napoleon Bonaparte."

The old marshal came to a small hill not far from the French Army positions and looked out over the French Army defensive positions.

"Peter, take a look at the defenses on the other side. What are your thoughts?" The old marshal put down his binoculars and asked a young general who was also riding a horse beside him.

"Very peculiar," the young general thought for a moment and then added, "Very vicious."

"Tell me more about it?" the old marshal asked, his tone full of a test.

The young general clearly understood this as well, so he didn't answer immediately. Instead, he raised his binoculars, looked around, and then said:

"Marshal, as you can see, the enemy has dug trenches on the ground, and the excavated soil has been piled up in front of the trenches to form a breastwork. This is good cover when firing. Considering that the new rifles have a range of almost 500 yards when firing in volleys, infantrymen who want to charge forward will have to endure at least three to five volleys of fire in the process. Moreover, because the enemy is a small target, even if they get within 100 yards, they may not be able to accurately hit the target. So such a defense is indeed very troublesome."

In addition, we can hardly see the enemy's movements in the trenches, which also helps the enemy to mobilize forces and launch counterattacks.

Furthermore, being sheltered in such trenches significantly reduces the impact of our artillery fire. From an anti-artillery perspective, it's even better than a bastion. And for the France, constructing such a position is certainly much simpler than building a bastion—even one like Archduke Karl's. As for its effectiveness, I think it's no less effective than a bastion before the charge and bayonet fighting.

However, getting to bayonet range won't be easy. We know the France provided the Poland with something called landmines. I don't believe the France positions didn't have them. Moreover, the other day I heard the Britain mention that the France provided the Ireland with a type of landmine that fires grapeshot, supposedly even more insidious and vicious, with the effect of a single detonation being like heavy artillery firing grapeshot at close range. I'm sure their positions are certainly not lacking in such things. If our infantry or cavalry were to fall into a trap made of such things, the outcome would likely be very dire.

"Furthermore, Your Excellency Marshal, have you noticed those rope nets in front of the French Army positions? As obstacles, they might be easy to destroy, but in any case, they can slightly delay our troops, which will give them more opportunities to fire. Also, where are their cannons? I haven't seen any. But they couldn't possibly be without cannons. I've heard you mention that General Napoleon was initially known for his skill in using artillery."

"Peter, it's very good that you've observed so much; I'm at a loss for words to add," Marshal Suvorov chuckled. "So, Peter, what attack plans do you have?"

"Not for now," the young general replied. "I think it would be best if we could force the French Army to leave their heavily fortified positions and fight us in the open. Otherwise, a direct attack on such positions is really nerve-wracking. If we could do what the Britain did at Most, threatening the French Army from the rear and forcing them to retreat to avoid being surrounded, and then crushing them in the pursuit, that would be ideal."

Suvorov smiled and was about to speak when he suddenly heard his bodyguard captain Semyon, say, "Marshal, the France cavalry are coming." Suvorov looked in that direction and saw a group of France cavalry approaching.

"They don't welcome us, so let's leave. Let's not keep making them dislike us here," Suvorov said with a laugh, turning his horse around and descending the small hill.

Back at the camp, Suvorov first instructed his staff to compile the information they had gathered, and then summoned all the generals of the Russo-Austrian coalition for a meeting.

Russia and Austria had some disagreements over who should be the commander-in-chief of the allied forces. The Russia naturally hoped that Marshal Suvorov would be the commander-in-chief, while the Austria naturally hoped that Archduke Karl would be the commander-in-chief.

The final outcome of the dispute was that Suvorov would serve as commander of the Russo-Austrian allied forces, and Archduke John of Austria, Archduke Karl's brother, would be the deputy commander. As for Archduke Karl, widely considered Austria's strongest commander, His Majesty the Archduke Karl felt there was an opportunity to seize the northern territories, so he ordered him to lead a large army towards the Rhine Region Rhine see if they could reclaim it. As for Italy, Russia and Italy didn't share a border, and given Russia's naval power, even if it conquered Italy, it wouldn't be able to hold onto it; ultimately, Italy would still belong to Austria.

Archduke John was highly respected and popular among people of all classes in Austria, but when it came to military prowess, he was far inferior to his Karl. In addition, the number of troops he brought was less than that of the Russian army, so as the deputy commander, he had almost no say in front of Marshal Suvorov.

Once everyone was in position, Suvorov had his staff unfold the sketches of the French Army defensive positions that had just been drawn up.

"Gentlemen, this is a sketch we've just drawn based on the information we've gathered. The actual situation may differ from the sketch. I think everyone understands that. Now, let's discuss how to..."

During the discussion, the generals offered many different suggestions. Some thought they could feign a move to bypass the French Army defenses and head straight for Milan, luring the French Army away from their defensive positions, and then defeat French Army in open battle.

However, this suggestion immediately drew rebuttal—if the French Army simply doesn't come out, would you really dare to march on Milan? If you can't take Milan quickly, the French Army might turn around and cut off the Allied forces' supply lines. What would the Allied forces do then?

"Regarding the supply issue, I think we could use the port of Genoa, right?" a Russian officer suddenly asked.

"Genoa is a neutral country. Our ships can indeed enter Genoa, but Genoa's ports are not ours, and the supply capacity it can provide us is actually quite limited," Archduke John said. "We can't just militarily occupy a neutral country, can we?"

So the plan was scrapped. Of course, the main reason was not that "it is not possible to directly militarily occupy a neutral country," but that Genoa's military strength was actually quite good, and it could not be taken over in a short time.

Since bypassing it is not feasible, we have no choice but to try attacking it.

So everyone gathered around the map and carefully studied where the defenses might be weak. After some research, the final conclusion was: without actually fighting it, you really can't see much from a map that was drawn in such a short time.

So the old marshal personally made the decision: make preparations today, and launch a probing attack tomorrow.