Archduke Karl's Decision

After forcing the Brunswick army to surrender, Napoleon led his army to his next target: the Austria army now stationed in Longwy, led by Archduke Karl.

Throughout this war, Austria's primary objective was always Italy. Therefore, Austria's main forces were committed to the Italy theater. Even after the Russo-Prussian Allied Forces suffered setbacks in Italy, and the Russia betrayed the alliance and withdrew from the war, the Austria continued to focus their main forces on Italy. Especially after learning that Napoleon's main Italian Legion had returned to France and marched north to fight the British, the Austria immediately devoted most of their energy to Italy.

Although the Russia had left, most of the France had also left, leaving only some Italy auxiliary troops, which should be easy to deal with, right? Although the Austria hadn't gained much advantage in their previous battles against the armies of the Northern Italian Republic, the Austria believed that was because those Italy were actually France in disguise.

The subsequent performance of the Italy army further convinced the Austria that they had indeed encountered France dressed in Italy clothing.

Because France had devoted almost all of its military production capacity to supporting the northern front. On the Italy front, the Northern Italy army was almost entirely reliant on its reserves. Unfortunately, Joseph's style of warfare, while excellent in many ways, consumed too much material. It is said that later, when Napoleon was idly commenting on military strategists throughout history, someone asked him how he would evaluate his brother Joseph. Napoleon replied, "Joseph doesn't know how to fight; he only knows how to spend money!"

So the Italy initially won several impressive battles, but then, as their supplies dwindled, their fighting capacity began to decline sharply. They quickly fell to a level comparable to the Austria Italy, and gradually found themselves at a disadvantage against the well-supplied Austria.

Seeing hope of retaking Northern Italy, the Austria naturally increased their investment there. Therefore, His Majesty the Emperor withheld Archduke Karl's letters requesting additional supplies, instead sending the weapons and personnel to Northern Italy. If it weren't for the fact that changing commanders mid-battle would be an insult to Archduke John, His Majesty the Emperor would have almost intercepted Archduke Karl as well and diverted him to Italy.

As a result, Archduke Karl's army was not elite to begin with, and lacked supplies, so its combat effectiveness was naturally poor. Archduke Karl himself was aware of the army's situation, so in previous battles, he avoided going to places where he had to fight to the death, and instead led his army to follow the Britain and Prussia to seize some territory and gain some advantages.

When the Anglo-Prussian Allied Forces were stalled at Verdun, they requested Archduke Karl's Archduke Karl. However, Archduke Karl sensed something ominous in Marshal Brunswick's letter and made a series of excuses to delay. Only after Napoleon had already sent a letter urging Brunswick to surrender did Archduke Karl arrive in Longwy.

Although Archduke Karl's main force moved slowly, his scout cavalry went far out, and he even sent men specifically to keep an eye on the Verdun area. So, not long after Napoleon annihilated the main force of the Anglo-Prussian Allied Forces at Verdun, Archduke Karl learned of this news.

Archduke Karl now understands that after Marshal Brunswick's allied forces were defeated, his army would certainly become a thorn in Napoleon's side. Because if his army is not eliminated, whether Napoleon plans to go to Hanover or Austria next, his army will be in a position to threaten his flank.

Archduke Karl now faced a choice: to retreat immediately, withdrawing from Longwy and all the way to Kaiserslautern, thus clearing the way for Napoleon to Hanover and Berlin, achieving a "death of the wandering friars but not of the parish priests" scenario; or to retreat to Luxembourg, using its easily defensible terrain to delay Luxembourg Napoleon buy time for the Allied powers to react, or at least for peace negotiations.

"After the Battle of Verdun, the France have won the war. The only remaining question is how this war will end. If the France successfully capture Hanover or even defeat Prussia, Austria will be in real danger. At that point, even if we negotiate with the France, we won't get any good terms. Therefore, even if we do negotiate, we must be the first country to reach a peace agreement with the France. To achieve this, we need a deal that will force the France to quickly reach a peace agreement with us," Archduke Karl said to General Nosticz. "To obtain such terms, I intend to retreat to Luxembourg immediately. What are your opinions on this?"

Luxembourg occupies a strategic location on the main route from France to the Germany states. Its complex terrain, making it easy to defend and difficult to attack, has made it a hotly contested area throughout history. Within its relatively small territory, numerous fortresses were built at different times, earning it the nicknames "Land of a Thousand Fortresses" and "Gibraltar of the North."

Previously, France had once controlled this region, but due to a series of defeats by the Army of the North, the Luxembourg region was abandoned by the French Army. The British and Prussian armies were also temporarily unable to attend to it, and as a result, this valuable territory temporarily fell into the hands of the Austria were leading a raiding expedition.

Occupying Luxembourg and forcing the France to offer more favorable terms in exchange for Austria's withdrawal from the war is actually why Archduke Karl, after sensing an ominous sign in the letter from Marshal Brunswick, led the main force of his army to the vicinity of Viron.

Archduke Karl had just deployed his army in Luxembourg when General Blücher arrived with several hundred cavalry. From General Blücher, Archduke Karl learned more about what had happened at Verdun. He kept General Blücher for several more days to learn more about the French Army's new defensive techniques.

However, Blücher could not stay there for long. He left several of his subordinate officers with Archduke Karl and then hurriedly departed.

Three days after Blücher left, French Army cavalry began to appear near Luxembourg, and by that afternoon, the vanguard of the French Army, led by Davout, arrived in Luxembourg.

By this time, Napoleon's army had reached 120,000 men. This included over 60,000 elite Italian Legion, over 40,000 French Army soldiers who had been battle-tested at Verdun, and over 10,000 German mercenaries whom the Britain had not yet had a chance to utilize. They had all surrendered with the Germany forces. Napoleon, considering the shortage of manpower in many areas, especially the lack of people familiar with the terrain and customs of the Germany regions, asked their leader Balboa, if he would be willing to accept his services as payment for their freedom.

Balboa keenly sensed that this would be his chance to climb the social ladder and gain entry into true high society, so he immediately agreed. Thus, these mercenaries, who had almost been used only once, turned around and became Napoleon's subordinates.

Of course, Napoleon didn't think these mercenaries would be of much use on the battlefield. He didn't see himself having the same need for a disposable army as the Britain. These mercenaries were basically scattered and used for things like leading the way. Incidentally, they were also used to indoctrinate the French Army with some revolutionary ideas.

"If we want to truly gain a foothold in the Germany region, we must carry out the land revolution policies we implemented in Italy." This was one of Joseph's rambling instructions when Napoleon left Verdun. Napoleon felt that these German-speaking mercenaries would be quite useful at that time.

Napoleon originally thought that Archduke Karl would clear the main road and retreat towards Kaiserslautern. If that were the case, Napoleon only planned to leave a detachment in Luxembourg, while the main force of his army would head towards Prussia. He would take advantage of Prussia's recent defeat and its inability to recover to crush Prussia in one fell swoop.

Who knew that Archduke Karl would be so stubborn, insisting on leading his army to block Luxembourg and causing him trouble.

Napoleon was confident of defeating Archduke Karl. His army was larger, better equipped, more morale-boosted, and better trained. Archduke Karl had only about 60,000 men, mostly new recruits, with few cavalry. Their equipment was also relatively outdated—at least half of their rifles were old-fashioned smoothbore muskets. In addition, they lacked artillery.

Given this balance of power, Napoleon felt that even if Archduke Karl occupied the strategically important Luxembourg, he could still defeat him head-on.

However, Luxembourg was strategically located, easy to defend and difficult to attack. Even Napoleon had to admit that it would take considerable time to take Luxembourg from Archduke Karl. Moreover, Napoleon was now facing logistical problems.

This problem is mainly due to Joseph's cowardice! On the battlefield of Verdun, Joseph unnecessarily wasted too much weaponry and ammunition, leaving Napoleon with various shortages of ammunition. And siege warfare is an especially ammunition-intensive form of combat. Napoleon's ammunition was sufficient for field battles, but it was probably insufficient for Julien sieges.

Of course, within France, arms factories are also operating overtime, producing more weapons and ammunition. However, even in France, weapon production is clearly lagging behind the demands of the war. By the time these supplies are produced and shipped over, Prussia will likely have already mobilized hundreds of thousands of troops.

Just as Napoleon was worrying about this, someone came to tell him that the Austria had sent an envoy.