Napoleon in 1812 - Chapter 143

23. In the siege surrounding the Giant – 7

“Your Majesty, may I ask you a presumptuous question?”

“Well, let’s hear it.”

“If Russia had accepted your offer and handed over Joseph Fouche to the Empire… Did you really intend to stop the war there?”

As if there was nothing difficult about Baron Fain’s question, the Emperor smiled and answered immediately.

“I was sure that Russia would not hand over Fouche. That was how it was designed from the beginning.”

The Emperor was convinced that Russia would not accept the deal. In the end, it once again instilled in Europe the perception that the pride Coalition members were solely responsible for this war.

As Europeans suffered from the continuation of the war, toward whom would their resentment be directed? France showing its willingness to end the war? Or Russia that created the cause of the war and then turned a blind eye to it? The answer was fixed. Baron Fain could not help but tremble at that deep, dark heart.

‘Perhaps… perhaps the greatest blessing of our country is to embrace His Majesty?’

The Emperor entered the central hall of the Berlin Palace where a military meeting would take place. Following him, Baron Fain thought so, while muttering that the compliment was not exaggerated in the slightest.

The existence of the Emperor was an indispensable condition for France’s millennium hegemony.

IVe don’t need a king anymore!

Go away Prussian army! The citizens will establish their own government!

Outside the Berlin Palace, anti-government and anti-monarchy protests were still ongoing, Napoleon left them alone on purpose. There was no reason to suppress the protesters unless they stormed into the government buildings or military facilities occupied by the Union.

Rather, he met their leaders at night and proceeded with secret deals. While supporting the protesters and embracing their leaders, he added a bit of pro-French feelings.

Napoleon likened the process to sprinkling seasoning while cooking to bring back the flavor of the meat. The Prussian people would eventually hate their own king and government more than France.

“I greet Your Majesty the great Emperor, the sun of the French Empire!”

“May the glory never cease in the way of the Empire! May you have a peaceful morning, Your Majesty!”

Upon his arrival at the main hall, generals, foreign ministers, and ambassadors of the Union stood up. They all welcomed Napoleon with respect and awe while applauding or saluting.

All of this was because the war was coming out properly. Their expressions were very bright, and their attitude toward Napoleon was more polite. After a brief greeting, the military affairs meeting of the Union began.

“They are the bastard sons of the disgusting islanders, after all! The Americans have declared war on the whole Union. Let’s show them what we got!”

“Hahaha! The British broke those weaklings on their own land! Do they even have regular troops to send across the ocean?”

“How well would men who sailed 6,000 kilometers fight? If they sneak around Europe fea rlessly, they will be crushed in an instant,”

Union’s generals were laughing in unison. Well, Napoleon agreed on that point. Napoleon was wary of the United States because of their potential, not their current national power.

The declaration of war of the United States, delivered by its ambassador, presented evidence of links revealed between the French and Barbary pirates.

In 1801, the United States engaged in a war to overthrow the Barbary pirates, who robbed their merchant ships and sailors and interfered with commercial activities,

In this war, the United States won a great victory and caused fatal damage to the Barbary pirates, but the pirates continued their activities like cockroaches.

The United States, which had been so beaten by the Barbary pirates, declared them enemies and defined them as targets for extermination.

‘France has joined hands with our enemies to acquiesce in their piracy and to cause irreparable damage and hurt to good American citizens. Without a reasonable compensation and apology for this, the friendship between the two countries will not be guaranteed.’

Napoleon did not even snort at the stupid request of the American ambassador. Both countries confirmed their intentions toward each other. It was a catastrophe. Thus the United States and France ended their 40-year friendship and pointed guns at each other.

‘The New World needs to be solved by the New World. We have invested a lot for this.’

Just as crossing from the New World to Europe was a great hardship, crossing from Europe to the New World and fighting a conquest war was also hard work.

What could the French do when they were busy fighting in Europe? Napoleon had thought about it and had prepared things for the United States, He thought that he did not need to worry about this anymore, and moved on to the next agenda.

“What is the progress and performance of the manoeuvre and formation training?”

“The morale of the soldiers is very high and the discipline is well established. The commanders who were in charge of them are expecting a positive effect soon.”

“The military system that Your Majesty created is very intuitive and efficient, Thanks to it, the Union forces are able to move as one body on the field without confusion.”

Currently, large-scale maneuvers and exercises by the Union forces were in full swing on the Terhausen Plain, south of the Berlin Palace.

As it was a multinational force, a new organization and command system were needed to control them efficiently, and Napoleon personally took care of it. In order for it to work well in practice, there was nothing better than training, especially maneuver training and large-scale training.

“The sweat that soldiers are shedding now will reduce the blood that they will shed on the battlefield. There will be no offensive against the Union for the time being, so please focus on training.”

“There won’t be such a thing, Your Majesty!”

“I will obey your orders!”

Soldiers would spit out curses at the Emperor who made them do hard training even during the war.

However, if they could save their lives on the battlefield, it was acceptable to take such swear words a hundred times.

The less casualties, the better, for a perfect victory of the Union. In addition, it was killing two birds with one stone as it could intimidate the Coalition members with armed demonstrations through training.

“The following is an overview of the military operations against the Coalition forces crouching in East Prussia, Our staff is considering the construction of supply bases as a draft of the operation,”

The Union forces had succeeded in recapturing Saxony and occupying almost all of Prussia after the Battle of Leipzig. They wanted to go east and sweep East Prussia, but the conditions were not good.

The biggest obstacle was supply. The section from West Prussia to Silesia was covered with rugged mountains, slopes, and wetlands. It was a very unsuitable supply route to support an army of more than 200,000, approaching 300,000.

In addition, snow and rain were alternately falling here after October, and this would make the area difficult to drain due to wetlands and the mountains completely muddy.

Could the carts and carriages pulled by horses pass through there and deliver smoothly supply to the great army? It would be impossible even if Cardinal Richelieu came back to life. Supply bases could alleviate that difficulty.

“Before crossing the rugged terrain of West Prussia and Silesia, we need to have sufficient supplies of munitions, food, drinking water and hay for the horses. The process of securing a safe supply route and setting up supply bases in between should precede the expedition, just like how the French prepared the expedition to Russia in 1812.”

During the expedition to Russia, supply bases from Dresden to Danzig and Warsaw were installed to minimize leakage of supply depending on the terrain and distance.

Even with such thorough preparation, some of the troops that followed had suffered from a shortage of supplies. That showed how difficult it was to supply large armies.

“In order to conquer the main cities of Russia and Sweden, it is essential to build intermediate supply bases. The war has entered a lull, so we should find suitable areas right now.”

Napoleon, who was not in a hurry, decided to take it step by step, The problem was getting supplies…

“Since the battle ended earlier than expected, there are still plenty of gunpowder and ammunition left in our country that have not been sent yet. We will quickly bring them and put them in the supply bases.”

“Ahem! So instead of supplies, we will provide horses and donkeys to support the supply route. We’re going to need the means to move a lot of wagons and carts in order to run the supply bases smoothly.”

“Berlin and our kingdom are quite close, so it’s easy to transport food and drinking water, We will be in charge of this…”

Diplomatic ambassadors and aristocratic generals representing their country’s situation voluntarily stepped up to support the operation of the Union, even though no one had asked them to do so. The attitude was contrary to the previous one they had, which had been slow until France urged them.

In addition, small and medium-sized principalities and free cities of the Confederation of the Rhine, which had difficulties providing state-level support, decided to pay for the Union operation instead of bringing supplies. Austria, too, decided to support with money.

Why were they so active? That was because they were seeing the possibility of a victory of the Union in the Great War.

With successive victories, the atmosphere inside the military was very good and the spirits of the soldiers were rising. They actually succeeded in occupying the capital of Prussia, which was one of the members of the Coalition.

‘If they thin k that they are going to win, they will raise the stakes.’

Napoleon knew the fastest and most effective way to run a multinational army. They just had to keep winning so that they did not lose momentum. It may not be simple to do for others, but it was for Napoleon.

The atmosphere in the main hall stayed friendly the whole time. And at the center, Napoleon smiled as content as a lion who finished hunting and felt full.

Now the last thing left to do was to set up a real strategy to run the Great War immediately afterwards, and to find how to bring that huge empire of Russia to its knees.

The generals and diplomatic ambassadors, who had been confidently engaged so far, all closed their mouths like mutes at this moment, They did not know how to do it either.

‘Russia, the vast and desolate empire of the Slavs.’

Napoleon had thought about it long ago, even before he stepped into this world. If the day came for France to compete with that Eastern empire (although it was best not to fight it), and if such a fight could not be avoided, how should he bring the Russians to their knees?

When Napoleon woke up in this world during Nabot’s expedition to Russia, he had been very frightened at first. Swinging a large army into the wilderness was the most ignorant and stupid strategy against Russia.

He was sure of it. If Napoleon had not crossed into this world, the Great Army would have been engulfed in devastation and would have melted away without a trace, and Nabot’s empire would have shattered.

Even if the Russians lost a battle, they could burn their own land and hide in barren fields. No army could withstand guerrilla and non-regular warfare accompanied by their devastating operations.

This was why Alexander I was forced to do so despite the unfavorable war situation and European public opinion strongly criticizing Russia,

In the end, Russia was a country capable of fighting a war that could not be won, but could not be lost. Bringing such a country to its knees, of course, was impossible with a regular strategy.

After a long period of contemplation, Napoleon was able to come up with ‘one strategy’. A strategy that had been honed and polished while imagining the day when France would have to fight against Russia.

“Would you like to hear my thoughts on this?”

It was a strategy refined in a way that people of this time could never imagine.