Besieging the City

The rebels moved rather slowly; more than two weeks after Napoleon arrived in Le Mans, General Delatrie's army finally reached the vicinity of Le Mans. This was not because General Delatrie intentionally delayed, but because he genuinely could not act quickly.

First, what held him back was the increasingly low morale of his troops. General Delatrie had initially offered seemingly high pay to persuade the farmers to leave their homes. However, this left Delatrie with little money to purchase supplies.

General Delatrie had hoped to capture some spoils after entering Angers. However, upon arriving in Angers, Delatrie found the situation was not as he had imagined. It wasn't that they hadn't captured anything in Angers; for example, they captured more than ten cannons. However, the things they needed most, such as food and gunpowder, were scarce.

The lack of military supplies naturally made it difficult to maintain military discipline. After entering Angers, the rebels were able to control their discipline for the first two days, but soon it began to spiral out of control. The streets were filled with rebels engaging in extortion, robbery, and other illegal activities. Some rebels even broke into the homes of prominent figures in Angers, including those who had played a significant role in the events of that night, and looted them extensively.

The rebels recruited by General Delatrie were quite different in composition from the rebels who defeated the government forces in the Vendée. The original rebels were mostly honest local farmers. But this new rebel force had far fewer farmers and far more vagrants.

This is normal, because most honest farmers have gone back to farming, and those willing to run away for the nobles' military pay are mostly not honest farmers. So it's even harder to get these people to follow the rules. These guys not only broke into people's homes to rob them, but they even groped the women in those homes, doing many things that cannot be described. It was almost like the Huns invading Rome.

Delatrie arrested some of the more outrageous individuals, especially those who robbed nobles and committed unspeakable crimes, and hanged them on the gallows in the square. This finally calmed things down. However, unexpectedly, the crackdown on military discipline brought about other problems.

The first problem was desertion. Some soldiers deserted because they missed their homes, while others deserted because they were restricted from looting at will. Moreover, once desertion occurred, it was often not just one person who ran away, but people from the same village or even the same region who ran away together. For this reason, General Delatrie had to take various harsh measures to crack down on desertion. Any soldier who attempted to desert and was caught would certainly be hung up.

These harsh measures brought about a new problem: the soldiers began to resist. In less than two days, three military judges were shot and killed. One of them was General Delatrie's nephew. General Delatrie knew that the pressure of the gallows had reached its limit; if they continued to hang people, who knew who would be hanging on the gallows in the end?

As a result, military discipline was completely neglected. At this point, the only thing General Delatrie could do was to restrain his soldiers from arbitrarily infringing upon the person and property of nobles and respectable people. Later, even that became impossible. All he could do was restrain his soldiers from infringing upon the person and property of nobles and from infringing upon the personal safety of respectable people. As for ordinary commoners, there was really nothing he could do.

Atrocities are sometimes like drinking; they can be addictive. Initially, the rebels' atrocities were merely to fill their stomachs, but now their atrocities have transcended such materialistic motives. They have reached a higher level, a pursuit of spiritual enjoyment—for pleasure.

The respectable people of Angers could no longer tolerate it. They sent representatives to General Delatrie and offered to donate some of their supplies to support the restoration cause and allow the "King and God's" army to continue its advance. To put it more bluntly, they were willing to spend money to avert disaster and send these plagues to some random place to wreak havoc on others.

If the rebels had received this generous gift a few days earlier, they would have happily headed to Le Mans. However, now they have evolved into an army with spiritual aspirations, and the soldiers are refusing to leave until they have completely ruined Angers.

"I was planning to visit the daughter of the small hotel owner today to try out some new moves, how can I just leave like this?"

"His younger brother is very handsome, and so is their mother. We were planning to have a party with their whole family, how can we leave now?"

Yes, yes!

So General Delatrie kept the gift package, but the "King and God's Army" did not leave immediately. Instead, they planned to stay in Angers for a few more days to "enjoy themselves with the people."

The people of Angers, having reached their limit of endurance, finally decided to rebel. One night, some citizens suddenly attacked the "army of the King and God." As a result, the city of Angers was burned to the ground that very night.

A nobleman who escaped the fire later recounted this experience in his memoirs.

"... Before they arrived, the Republic had already taken away my privileges, but I still had money, property, land, and my family... Now, I have nothing left..."

After a great fire, the "King and God's Army" could no longer celebrate with the people and had no choice but to continue their northward march. However, due to the disorder in the army, their march became slow and sluggish, so it was only at this point that they finally reached the vicinity of Le Mans.

At this point, faced with low morale, General Delatrie had no choice but to take a desperate gamble and announce a three-day leave after the city fell, in an attempt to boost morale.

Upon hearing this news, Napoleon nearly fainted from laughter. He summoned several of his regimental and battalion commanders and began to plan the battle.

Encouraged by the promise of a three-day holiday, the rebels did regain some morale and launched an attack on Le Mans. However, by this time, their story of "sharing the joy with the people" in Angers and their plan to give a three-day holiday had already become common knowledge throughout Le Mans, thanks to the efforts of Mayors Fouché and René.

Therefore, the people of Le Mans were exceptionally determined in defending the city, as no one wanted to share a holiday with those outside. As a result, the Le Mans National Guard fought with unparalleled bravery and resolve. In contrast, those on the other side, perhaps wanting to preserve their precious lives to enjoy their upcoming holiday, immediately retreated upon being counterattacked. As a result, the rebels made no progress throughout the day.

Napoleon entrusted almost all defensive tasks to Fouché's National Guard. This army was newly formed and its military quality was quite poor, but because they were genuinely defending their country, their morale was high. Several times when the enemy approached, they were able to charge with bayonets and easily drive back the rebels.

As for Napoleon's main forces, he placed Napoleon behind the National Guard, ready to be used to plug leaks or launch counterattacks at any time.

Meanwhile, Napoleon's cavalry, under Davout's command, continuously raided the rebels' supply lines from the rear. The rebels did have a numerical advantage, but this advantage was limited to their infantry. The rebels did not have many cavalry, which made it difficult for them to effectively restrict Davout's movements.

As a result, the rebels had no choice but to send out more troops, set up more outposts along the supply lines, and deploy more forces in these locations to ensure the security of the supply lines.

This naturally resulted in a significant reduction in the number of troops available for frontline combat. So, although General Delatrie once commanded over 40,000 men, after the battle of Angers and his subsequent escape, he was forced to divert a considerable number of troops to protect supply lines, rapidly reducing his frontline offensive forces to around 20,000. Napoleon, on the other hand, had over 5,000 men in his own division, plus over 5,000 from Fouché's National Guard. Now, the numerical disparity between the two sides on the battlefield was no longer so significant. Coupled with the added strength of fortifications, theoretically, the rebels could no longer capture Le Mans.

However, because Napoleon had kept his main force well hidden and hadn't deployed it on the battlefield, General Delatrie didn't know the exact size of the enemy forces. Based on previous intelligence and the situation in the past few days, Delatrie estimated the enemy to be at most six or seven thousand men. He felt he could still put up a fight. Considering the attacks over the past few days, he felt he had some understanding of the enemy's defenses and could launch a full-scale attack. Moreover, logistics were becoming increasingly difficult, and with little progress in recent days, his army's morale was starting to decline. If he didn't launch a general offensive soon, he feared he would never have the morale needed to launch one. Therefore, General Delatrie decided. "Tomorrow morning, give everyone a good meal, and then launch the general offensive!"