A Dire Situation (4)

To bluff, General Delatrie claimed to have an army of up to 100,000 men. He hoped this number would intimidate his enemy, or at least demoralize them. However, Napoleon was not so easily frightened. On the contrary, upon hearing the number and seeing his subordinates' expressions of shock and fear, Napoleon laughed.

"Commander, what are you laughing at?" a slightly balding young officer asked.

This young officer was named Louis Nicolas Davout. He was a year younger than Napoleon, but thanks to his bravery in battle, he had already risen to the rank of battalion commander. He was also one of the "relatively strong" mid-level commanders that Joseph and Carnot had specifically assigned to Napoleon.

Napoleon laughed and replied, "Davout, the Vendée is one of the poorest places in all of France. How could it support an army of 100,000? If Delacroix really had 100,000 men, we wouldn't need to prepare for battle so nervously. Everyone could go back to sleep. Because before his army even reaches us, they'll starve to death."

While this answer didn't completely put the officers at ease, it did alleviate much of the tension.

"So, Commander, how many rebels do you think De Latri has under his command?" Davout asked again.

"Ah, that's a good question." Napoleon crossed his arms, head held high, and paced back and forth as he answered, "If I were Delacroix, I would bring a maximum of twenty thousand men—that's the limit the Vendée region can handle. Any more, perhaps for a short time, but their logistics would break down if it went any longer; and if it went any further, their logistics would be in trouble. But according to my intelligence, that fool brought forty thousand men."

"Forty thousand men? Commander, we only have five thousand. Besides, judging from previous battles, the rebels are quite capable." Another lieutenant named Charles Augereau spoke up.

"Augereau, you're right. At least in the Vendée, the rebels are quite capable. They're like our Volunteer Army here, incredibly brave when fighting in their own homeland. But if they leave their homeland, it's a different story. Moreover, they have some very obvious and difficult-to-overcome weaknesses."

At this point, Napoleon glanced at everyone and continued, "The rebels' training level is actually far inferior to ours, as can be seen from previous battles where they mostly resorted to ambushes and skirmishes. Furthermore, their equipment is very limited; they lack artillery, and even more so, qualified artillerymen. This means their ability to fortify positions is quite limited. Their logistical support is also inadequate. Therefore, as long as we hold the key points and continuously harass their supply lines, defeating the rebels is only a matter of time."

"What if the Britain support them?" Augereau asked again.

"The Britain will also have a hard time helping them, because although the Vendée is by the sea, it doesn't have a decent port. With only the small fishing harbors in the Vendée that can only accommodate small sampans, how much can the Britain bring ashore? Of course, the army can land, but the more troops they bring, the less supplies they will have. So, we can definitely hold them off here, in Angers."

This analysis greatly boosted the morale of the officers. Napoleon then made arrangements for defense matters and adjourned the meeting.

After the meeting, the officers went to their respective units to arrange preparations for the defensive battle, but Napoleon kept Davout and Augereau behind.

"Davout, Augereau, you two did a good job today," Napoleon said with a grin. Clearly, this conversation had been pre-arranged by the three of them.

"Commander, the people from the Friends of the Constitution Club say that Royalist Party elements in the city are very active. To fight against external enemies, we must ensure internal stability. Now that the enemy is approaching, should we first clean up the Royalist Party elements in the city?" Davout then brought up another matter.

"Let the city council handle this. We are a combat force; we shouldn't get involved in these matters," Napoleon said, shaking his head.

Davout frowned slightly. He thought, "If the Friends of the Constitution can control the city council and resolve this matter, why would they need to involve the army? I suspect there are quite a few people in Angers who secretly support the Royalist Party. However, given the division commander's intelligence, he shouldn't be unaware of this. What is his purpose in doing this?"

Davout was young after all, and as he thought this, his expression changed unconsciously.

Although young, Napoleon was shrewd. Seeing Davout's expression, he knew Davout was suspicious, so he smiled and said, "Davout, Augereau, come and look at the map."

Napoleon led the two men to the map, pointed to it, and asked them, "From a purely military perspective, where do you think defeating the enemy would be the most devastating blow?"

Davout and Augereau were stunned. What... what did this mean? Weren't they supposed to fight in Angers?

However, Davout quickly realized what was happening, and the thought that popped into his head was, "This shorty is really bold, and... he's dark, damn dark!"

Angers is too close to the Vendée. Even if the enemy is stopped here, if they are well-organized, they could easily retreat safely. If the enemy continues north and is intercepted and defeated in the Le Mans area, it will be almost impossible for them to retreat safely back to the Vendée. If things go wrong, it's hard to say whether any of the 40,000 troops will survive the pursuit.

However, to lure the rebels north to Le Mans, it would be necessary to abandon Angers, the capital of the Loire department. This was politically unacceptable. Davout immediately understood why Napoleon had allowed the Royalist Party in Angers to act with impunity.

"Commander, do you want to abandon Angers?" Davout asked, having made up his mind.

Napoleon didn't answer, but continued, "Our army is still in the city; the Royalist Party wouldn't dare to rebel easily. We'll rely on the city's defenses for a while, until we've depleted its supplies. Then we'll hand over the city's defenses to the National Guard, move outside the city, and make it appear as if we're preparing for a counterattack. At that point, who knows what might happen..."

Then our army turned towards Le Mans. The enemy would not get much supply in the city either, but they would get some cannons. These cannons would give them the illusion that 'we also have the ability to fortify cities,' and simply taking Angers would not be enough to shake up the whole situation; they would inevitably continue to move north.

Then we can take them all down here, and then chase them all the way back so that none of them can escape!

"Commander, will the higher-ups approve this battle plan?" Augereau asked, his eyes wide.

"This plan was personally approved by General Carnot, but it needs to be kept strictly confidential. Besides, there are so many Royalist Party Angers Angers. Wouldn't it be better to let them jump out on their own first? There are also so many guys in Angers who are full of illusions about the Royalist Party. Just think, what will those Royalist Party rebels with strained logistics do once they enter the city? Let them receive a Royalist Party education and experience the care from the Bourbon family. Wouldn't that be better? So General Carnot is very supportive of this plan." Napoleon uttered a string of lies with his eyes wide open.

If Carnot had known about Napoleon's move, he probably would have rushed over that very night to have his fists used to reason with Napoleon. Even Joseph himself was unaware of Napoleon's intentions; otherwise, he would have exclaimed, "You're no longer a staff officer, yet you're more Showa-era than I was when I was!"

However, both Davout and Augereau were only mid- to low-ranking officers, unaware that Napoleon was forging an imperial edict. Instead, they sensed Paris's unwavering determination to completely quell the Vendée rebellion from this arrangement. At the same time, a strange sense of satisfaction and happiness, a feeling of "I feel relieved to see my superiors being such scoundrels," suddenly filled their hearts.

A few days later, General Delatrie's army approached Angers, and the battle broke out. In the skirmishes outside the city, Delatrie's rebels repeatedly repelled Napoleon's defenses, pushing the front line step by step to the outskirts of Angers.

Although the rebels suffered significantly greater losses in the battles outside the city, General Delatrie learned from intelligence provided by the Royalist Party within the city that the government forces numbered only a little over five thousand, and that the city's supplies were limited and could not last long. Therefore, despite suffering some minor setbacks in the battles outside the city, General Delatrie was not too concerned.

However, the subsequent siege proved quite troublesome for General Delatrie. Part of the garrison was stationed inside the city, while another part was encamped on a small hill outside. Both strongholds were fortified and could support each other. Because of the presence of these troops outside the city, he couldn't completely besiege Angers, meaning that even if his attack succeeded, the enemy would likely escape easily. And considering the marching capabilities of his troops, if the enemy fled lightly equipped, he would most likely be unable to catch them.

"These traitors are truly cowardly. They haven't even fought much yet, and they've already prepared their escape route so well!" General Delatrie couldn't help but say. However, he also understood that when the enemy outnumbered them by several times, anyone would keep a close watch on their retreat.

The second headache was that his army's ability to conduct siege warfare was extremely poor. He didn't have many artillery pieces, and his soldiers lacked training in siege warfare (in fact, they not only lacked siege warfare training, but they had almost no decent training). Meanwhile, the defending Blue Army (the Republic had standardized its military uniforms to blue) fired their artillery like they had no shortage of gunpowder. So, although the enemy's artillery fire was quite inaccurate, his army had suffered considerable losses in the past few days of attacks, but progress had been very limited.

Fortunately, the Royalist Party in the city were able to send out some crucial intelligence, allowing General Delatrie to learn that the situation on the Republic's side was also quite bad, and supplies were becoming increasingly scarce.

"If they keep fighting like this for a few more days, their gunpowder will run out. Heh, an untrained army often fires indiscriminately. Heh, maybe while I'm complaining about how poorly trained our soldiers are, their kid division commander is also complaining about how low the training level of his soldiers is?"

Strangely enough, General Delatrie developed a sense of sympathy for Napoleon.