Highland

Emerging from the Parliament building, Lucien immediately switched to "hairdryer mode," reciting every single word Napoleon had used to berate him years before, all to demonstrate the grandeur and beauty of the Napoleon language. This continued until Napoleon, enraged, declared, "Lucien, I've discovered that in this world, to solve problems, you still need force, don't you think? Like those buzzing flies, if you talk to them nicely, they'll just jump around recklessly; at that point, you should draw your sword, slash open their bellies, pull out their intestines, wrap it three times around their necks, and give them a sharp tug... and the world will be quiet immediately. Lucien, don't you think?"

So Lucien fell silent. Lucien knew that while Napoleon wouldn't draw his sword, throwing a punch would be perfectly logical.

"I am a civilized man, I must maintain my composure, I cannot fight with this barbarian, I cannot stoop to the level of a barbarian..." Lucien told himself this, and thus he was quite satisfied with his mental victory.

Seeing that Lucien had yielded, Napoleon entrusted the affairs of Paris to Lucien and then led his army toward Verdun.

While Paris was in chaos, the Anglo-Prussian Allied Forces resumed their probing offensive at Verdun. The results were interesting: initially, the France resisted fiercely, launching counterattacks immediately in an attempt to retake almost any position once lost. However, even when the French Army recaptured their positions, the Prussian and British Army found that the French Army France in those areas had not been effectively strengthened, but rather weakened to some extent, even though this area had become a focal point of repeated contention between the two sides.

"It really does seem like we've lost unified command. Hmm, General Joseph Bonaparte may truly be unable to continue commanding, so the officers defending each position are left to organize the defenses themselves. Consequently, the French Army has performed reasonably well in small-scale defensive operations, but in large-scale coordination and the use of reserves, they have become exceptionally sluggish due to the absence of a commander with overall command. Hmm, what do you all think?" the Duke of Brunswick asked the other generals.

Everyone readily agreed. But at this moment, liaison officer Major George Cavendish spoke up, "Your Excellency, I think we should be more cautious."

"Ah, Major, do you have any objections?" the Duke of Brunswick asked.

"An elder of mine, well, His Excellency the Duke of Norfolk, the Governor-General of Ireland, provided me with some information he knew about General Joseph Bonaparte."

"Continue," said the Duke of Brunswick. He now held the French Army commander, who had caused him so much trouble, in considerable awe, and was naturally very interested in any intelligence concerning him.

"His Excellency the Duke of Norfolk told me that he obtained some tactical manuals written by General Joseph Bonaparte from what he captured in Ireland, as well as from some Ireland who had surrendered to us. From these manuals, it's clear that General Joseph Bonaparte was a genius devil, cunning and treacherous, utterly devoid of honor. He didn't care what means he used to achieve his goals. Therefore, the Duke of Norfolk warned me to be extremely vigilant about everything concerning him. I think we can organize an attack, but we must leave sufficient reserves and prepare a retreat plan first."

"Of course. Hmm, Major, do you have that tactics manual here?" the Duke of Brunswick asked.

"Yes, such a good thing shouldn't be kept hidden away," Blücher and several other generals chimed in.

"No problem, I'll write to His Excellency the Duke of Norfolk later," George Cavendish readily agreed.

"Alright, let's first discuss the retreat route and cover in case of a failed attack tomorrow. Hmm, retreat and cover are the most important and technically demanding tasks. Who among you is willing to take on this crucial responsibility?"

So, except for Blücher, almost all the generals raised their hands.

This enthusiasm, however, did not please the Duke of Brunswick; in his view, it was a clear sign of cowardice. But he couldn't show such emotions at this moment. So he took a deep breath, smiled, and said, "Everyone is willing to take on such a heavy responsibility, that's good. However, this task only requires one person, hmm, I'll appoint one myself. General Blücher, this task is entrusted to you."

Everyone was a little disappointed by this arrangement, but no one objected. In their view, if they couldn't be given this task, then giving it to Blücher seemed like a second-best option.

Then they discussed in detail when to retreat, how to ensure an orderly retreat, and how to cover each other during the retreat. They continued until very late at night before the Duke of Brunswick said, "Ah, I didn't realize it was so late. Alright, lads, cheer up, let's discuss one last question: 'How to attack tomorrow?' Hmm, we need to hurry. After we finish discussing it, we can go back and make arrangements, and maybe we can even get some sleep."

So everyone quickly completed the arrangements for tomorrow's attack, and then went back to arrange the retreat and attack. Then, because some officers were too responsible and gave too detailed instructions on the retreat, which took a lot of time, they no longer needed to think about sleeping.

The next day, the Anglo-Prussian Allied Forces launched another attack on the Verdun positions. Initially, the attack was conducted in the same manner as before, and the France response was similar to the previous two days: a resolute counterattack and slow maneuvering.

Taking advantage of the French Army's slow mobilization, the British and Prussian forces quickly amassed more troops in key areas and launched an attack using a simple and brutal method of continuous assaults. The attack was surprisingly effective. Although each trench breach resulted in heavy casualties, they managed to breach four trenches in one day, finally being stopped by the France at the fifth. Compared to previous campaigns, today's operation was a resounding success. This time, that distant high ground was truly within reach.

Encouraged by this victory, almost everyone believed that God was indeed on their side, and that the despicable, evil, and terrifying defensive warlord Joseph Bonaparte must have truly been killed by bullets. If it weren't for the fact that there was no moon for most of the night, the high-spirited British Army and Prussian officers (whose high morale was limited to themselves) would have even been eager to launch an attack that very night. Because, even if the France were slow to react, they would certainly have been able to bring in troops to reinforce the defenses of this high ground by that time.

At the meeting that evening, General Blücher proposed a suggestion regarding the attack. He believed that the French Army would concentrate its forces to strengthen the defenses of the high ground and focus all its attention on it. Therefore, it would be best not to attack the high ground directly from the front, but to outflank it from both sides.

"Tomorrow, we will focus our main attack on both sides of the high ground. We will launch a feint attack on the high ground first, drawing the France attention to the front. Then we will quickly shift our main attack to the flanks. We will attack from the flanks and cut off the target high ground from other French Army positions. Once we achieve this, the remaining isolated high ground will be easy to take."

This suggestion was agreed upon by most officers. However, their discussion was interrupted by a counterattack launched by the France overnight.

The France counterattack launched that night was impressive in scale, but poorly organized. In fact, a moonless night like this was not suitable for a large-scale military operation, so the France counterattack quickly failed. The Duke of Brunswick France on this half-hearted and disorganized night raid with the remark. "Our France friends are getting impatient."

Early the next morning, the Anglo-Prussian Allied Forces launched an attack on the hill according to General Blücher's plan. As General Blücher had predicted, the hill's defenses were very strong, and the initial feints were repelled by the well-positioned defensive forces. By 10:00 AM, the Anglo-Prussian Allied Forces observed that the French Army forces on the hill had been further reinforced. They believed the feints had been effective and began a large-scale attack on both flanks as planned.

In order to cut off the connection between the high ground and other positions before the France could react, the Anglo-Prussian Allied Forces adopted continuous wave attacks regardless of casualties. In order to encourage the soldiers to die bravely, the Anglo-Prussian Allied Forces sent out supervisory teams.

Encouraged by their supervising officers, the Anglo-Prussian Allied Forces finally met up from both flanks before sunset, successfully severing the hill's connection with other areas. Now, the only remaining task was to capture the hill. Once they took it and dragged the Britain cannons up there, most of the battlefield would be under Britain fire. The gates of Verdun would be open. Moreover, considering the blow to the French Army morale from the fall of such a crucial position, the subsequent battles would likely be much easier.

That evening, the Anglo-Prussian Allied Forces sent envoys to the French Army still holding the high ground, urging French Army to surrender. After all, even with their current overwhelming advantage, a direct confrontation would likely result in several thousand casualties before the high ground could be captured.

In the letter delivered by the military envoy, the Duke of Brunswick expressed his admiration for the French Army's valiant fighting. At the same time, he advised the France defenders that they had done everything they could and had done right by France. Therefore, surrendering was not a humiliating thing.

He also assured the France defenders on the hill that if they surrendered, he would guarantee their lives, property, and dignity would not be violated in any way. To ensure their dignity, he did not even intend to demand that the French Army surrender their weapons, flags, or swords. They only needed to relinquish their positions.

However, the commander stationed on the high ground—Captain Fermat— responded to the Duke of Brunswick's offer of surrender with a single word, "Bah!"