Defense Invincible (2)

Early the next morning, the Russo-Austrian allied forces launched a probing attack on the French Army. The first step was, naturally, artillery bombardment, the purpose of which was generally to destroy various obstacles in front of the enemy positions and inflict some casualties on the enemy personnel.

The same applied to the artillery bombardment by the Russo-Austrian allied forces. The French Army positions contained numerous wooden chevaux-de-frise used to impede cavalry movement, making them easy targets for artillery fire. Additionally, the small earthen walls the French Army had erected in front of their trenches could also be bombarded, potentially inflicting some damage on the French Army.

Of course, this was just wishful thinking on the part of the Russo-Austrian allied forces. In reality, French Army soldiers hadn't even reached the front lines yet.

When the Russo-Austrian coalition began its artillery preparations, the first trench was actually empty. Infantry would not enter the trenches until the enemy launched their attack.

Peter Pyotr Ivanovich Bagration was watching the artillery barrage ahead when a strange phenomenon startled him—a huge gray sphere was rising on the French Army, with a basket-like object hanging below it.

"What's that? Alyosha, bring me the binoculars," Bagration shouted.

The adjutant, Alyosha, handed him the binoculars. Bagration stretched them out and peered into the gray sphere.

The large sphere appeared to be made of silk, with a basket hanging below it. Inside the basket, a machine was spewing flames upwards, and inside the basket were two people dressed in the French Army uniforms, one of whom was looking in this direction with binoculars.

"Isn't that a hot air balloon?" a voice came from beside Bagration.

Bagration lowered his binoculars, turned around, and said to Marshal Suvorov, who was walking up from behind, "Marshal, you've come too?"

"Hmm, Peter," the old marshal said, "Remember the idea I mentioned to you last time about using hot air balloons for battlefield surveillance? It seems the France have gotten ahead of us again."

The hot air balloon was first invented in 1783 by the Montgolfier Brothers of France. In November of that year, they also completed the world's first manned hot air balloon flight.

In fact, Napoleon's army was equipped with hot air balloons in the original history, but Napoleon did not like them very much at the time and later simply decommissioned them. The main reason for this was that the preparation for the takeoff of manned hot air balloons at that time was too complicated, the completion rate was very low, they were greatly restricted by the weather, and they were inconvenient to use, yet they occupied a large number of personnel.

This time, however, the hot air balloons used by the French Army were optimized through a "Military-Industrial Complex," equipped with specialized fuel-burning torches and made of silk coated with vulcanized rubber. They were relatively simple to maintain and use. Aside from the inability to move freely, other problems were largely resolved. Furthermore, Joseph slightly modified the flag signals originally intended for ships at sea and provided them to the balloonists, enabling the balloons to provide almost real-time information. Therefore, in this timeline, at least for now, Napoleon's opinion of these balloons was quite positive.

The France balloons surprised the Russo-Austrian allied forces, but that was about it. After all, this was Europe. Such things might be used to fool people in some places, but in Europe, they only made the Russo-Austrian allied forces exclaim, "France technology is truly the best in Europe."

Despite the gasps of alarm, the battle had to continue. After half a day of artillery preparation, the Russian army launched an attack on the French Army positions in loose skirmish formations.

"Louis, look how quickly the Russia learn! Look at their skirmish formations, they're quite impressive. Hmm, at least you can see the Russian morale is quite high, much higher than the Austria'." Watching the approaching Russian troops, Napoleon said to the officer beside him, "Defending against their attack shouldn't be a problem for you, but I want you to expose as few of our army's lesser-known tactics as possible, without causing unnecessary casualties. Any questions?"

The officer standing beside Napoleon is Louis Gabriel Suchet. Just like in the original history, Suchet knew Napoleon from a very early period; he fought under Napoleon in Toulon and later followed him to Italy. Unlike in the original history, Napoleon did not launch a campaign in Egypt, so the scenario of Suchet choosing the wrong side and subsequently being sidelined by Napoleon for a considerable period did not occur. In this timeline, Suchet remains one of Napoleon 'Napoleon close friends to this day.

"It should be fine," Suchet replied simply. "Apart from the net in front, I won't expose anything else here."

"Alright, then I'll leave this area to you. I'll go check over there again." After saying that, Napoleon took a few men and left the defensive section under Suchet's command, heading towards Murat's troops.

In the pre-arranged plan, if the Russian army became disorganized during their retreat after Suchet thwarted their attack, Murat's cavalry could seize the opportunity to launch a counterattack.

Napoleon wasn't worried at all about whether Suchet could hold off the enemy's attack, nor was he concerned about Murat's performance after launching his assault. However, Napoleon lacked confidence in Murat's ability to correctly judge whether and when to launch an attack. Therefore, Napoleon felt it best to go and check on Napoleon Murat.

Shortly after Napoleon left his position at Suchet, Russia skirmishers came within range of France rifles. French Army soldiers, in turn, entered the trenches and began firing at the approaching Russian troops.

At first, not many Ivans fell to the ground after being shot, because at that distance, even the Minié Rifle wasn't very accurate. But as they got closer to the French Army trenches, the French Army fire became more accurate, and more and more Ivans fell.

But Ivan's men pressed on resolutely. Such casualties were not enough to make this victorious army retreat. Then, they walked into the French Army minefield.

The French Army's landmines have also seen new technological advancements, which Napoleon scorned as "full of the stench of Harpagon" (the protagonist of Moliere's comedy "The Miser," whose name is synonymous with miser in France), because Joseph's improvement was primarily aimed at saving money.

To save on materials, the new landmines were made much smaller. Joseph even tried to use glazed terracotta instead of cast iron. However, after experiments proved that the cost savings were not enough to cover losses during transport, he gave up on that idea. Nevertheless, Joseph reduced the amount of cast iron used to one-third of the original amount.

Not only has the use of cast iron decreased, but the amount of explosives used has also been greatly reduced. With the improvement of explosives production technology, the fluctuation of explosive power has become smaller and smaller. Nowadays, each landmine often contains only a few grams of explosives.

Joseph's explanation was. "Based on the data we obtained in Ireland and Poland, the average chance of a landmine, even one with a large explosive charge, taking down several enemy soldiers is negligible. Therefore, except for certain special purposes, making landmines too powerful is a pure waste."

Then Napoleon naturally retorted that his landmines were so weak they wouldn't even kill a single person. Harpagon replied, "Why kill them? Wouldn't it be enough to just blow off a leg? Wounded soldiers like that can't fight anymore anyway. But their injuries aren't necessarily fatal, and the enemy can't just give them a quick death. They have to be cared for, and they have to be kept in check to avoid demoralizing the other soldiers. Hmm, Napoleon, you said last time that soldiers aren't actually afraid of seeing their comrades' corpses; often, it even fuels their fighting spirit for revenge. But it's best not to let soldiers see wounded soldiers unless absolutely necessary; that's a bigger blow to morale than seeing a corpse."

Of course, it's not impossible to force the enemy to give them a quick death, but you surely know the consequences of doing so.

"What if the enemy retreats and these wounded soldiers fall into our hands?"

"Fool! We can be magnanimous and return the prisoners to them. Do you think they would refuse?"

So Napoleon was persuaded, but privately he told his generals, "Don't call this thing 'Bonaparte Potato,' call it 'Harpagon Potato.' Yes, it's full of the stench of Harpagon."

While the "stench of Harpagon" was indeed unpleasant, it significantly reduced the cost of landmines, almost halving it. If we consider the reduced weight and volume, leading to lower transportation costs, the savings are even greater. This translates to a substantial increase in the number and density of landmines on the battlefield.

So the Ivans quickly stepped on a landmine. With an explosion almost as loud as a gunshot, one of the Ivans fell to the ground, clutching his bloodied leg and howling in pain. The low-powered landmine had just blown off his foot.

Then another Ivan fell amidst the explosion, followed by more Ivans falling to the French Army fire or landmine explosions, and more cries of agony rang out.

The cries of their comrades were the best weapon against morale, and the Russian troops began to move somewhat slowly. But they continued to advance, and then something that looked like a rope net appeared in front of them.