Hotze knew he meant Switzerland's refusal to abandon its neutral stance and allow the Allied Forces passage.
Instead, he smiled. "You have completed your mission. Leave the rest to me."
A few hours later, 30,000 Prussian-Austrian Allied Forces launched an attack on Zurich.
Although Switzerland was famed for producing mercenaries, its own army numbered only two or three thousand men and was severely short of artillery.
The Swiss defenders held out for only a single morning before surrendering.
Then dense masses of Allied soldiers poured into the city.
One had to know that Zurich's entire population was only a little over twenty thousand at the moment.
Hotze and Blücher rested briefly in the city, then early the next morning set out in two separate directions according to the original plan.
Hotze's 20,000 Austrian Army troops headed for Lausanne, from where they would strike into the French heartland.
Meanwhile, Blücher's main force prepared to enter Northern Italy through St. Gotthard Pass.
There, he would receive Sardinian logistical supplies before joining Archduke Karl in a pincer attack on Mantua Fortress.
Even at this point, the French had yet to make any response to the Allied Forces' actions in Switzerland.
Saint Petersburg.
Winter Palace.
Alexander I leafed through the serf reform proposal drafted by Speransky, the Tsar's Chief Secretary, a satisfied smile lingering on his face throughout.
Soon, he reached the final page. Raising his head, he praised Speransky, "Only someone with learning as vast as yours, coupled with a liberal soul, could devise such a perfect proposal."
The latter hurriedly bowed. "It is nothing, Your Majesty.
"If you see no problems with it, perhaps we may set a date for its formal promulgation, so that Count Kochubey and I can plan the specific implementation..."
"Implementation?" The young Tsar handed the reform