Life of Being a Crown Prince in France

7 kilometers north of Trento.

Alvinczy stretched his head to look around, surrounded by the sounds of gunfire and cannonballs, and could faintly hear some shouts from the French soldiers.

This indicated that the enemy was already very close to him.

And here, this was his command post!

The aide beside him was still reading the summarized situation report: “3,000 French infantry were discovered on the west side, attacking the flank of General Weber’s corps.

“General Krudman was entangled by the enemy cavalry and temporarily unable to move closer to the command post.

“Colonel Hanger is attacking the enemy artillery but seems to be encountering resistance…”

Alvinczy irritably waved his hand to interrupt him:

“So, exactly how many enemy troops are around us?”

The aide hesitated slightly, “There should be 15,000, Marshal.”

“Damn it!” Alvinczy raised his hand and slapped the map, “Napoleon’s main forces are at Morvino; Bajahaza is blocking Ogero’s raid from the east, the French should already have no mobile forces left.”

Before he could finish speaking, a cavalry captain entered the tent, saluted him with his hat raised:

“Marshal, our men have seen the banner of Victor’s Corps to the southeast.”

“Victor?” Alvinczy was suddenly stunned, “Wasn’t he in Trento?”

He immediately reacted, “They actually abandoned Trento… God, these French are madmen!”

He was leading the army in attacking Trento, but unexpectedly, the French guarding the city took the initiative to attack him.

However, most of his forces were previously sent to besiege Napoleon, and at this moment, the central army had only more than 20,000 men, and at least half of them were deployed on the west side, to guard against Napoleon breaking through the defenses of Topagenera Mountain.

His command post was like an egg just peeled of its shell, placed in front of Victor.

Alvinczy gritted his teeth and pointed to the order officer:

“Order General Weber to stop reinforcing the right flank and immediately move south to attack Trento!”

The Weber Corps was only 9 kilometers away from Trento, they could arrive in half a day’s time. Since the French dared to leave Trento, it was just right to occupy it.

Trento was a very important strategic town, which could greatly affect the safety of Mantua Fortress.

Listening to the surrounding gunfire, Alvinczy began to arrange his retreat:

“Order Kediles Corps to hold off Victor’s troops. Krudman should quickly assist him.

“Davidoivich and I will move towards Topagenera Mountain.”

Kediles Corps was his central army force with more than 15,000 men. Together with Krudman’s 3,000 Croatian soldiers, they could hold off Victor for one or two days without issue.

And Davidoivich’s remnants had regrouped over the past two days to about six to seven thousand, enough to cover the retreat of his command post to the west.

As long as Victor fails to break his central army, while Weber Corps takes Trento, the French would immediately fall into a full-scale passive position.

…

East of Morvino.

Although the Austrian Zweig Corps and Strom Corps were delayed for a while due to the changes in the direction of the command post, they still launched an attack on Napoleon before 3 p.m.

33,000 Austrian soldiers surged like a flood towards the French line, encountering only scattered resistance, and successfully crushed the French.

Zweig rode through the recently occupied enemy positions, looking at the jubilant soldiers around him, he felt something was not right.

He turned to Strom and said:

“I thought Napoleon would bring us some trouble. I mean, he has fought excellent campaigns before in Sardinia and Lombardy.”

The latter disdainfully shook his whip:

“The French have launched too many meaningless attacks these past two days, exhausting the troops’ physical strength, so when facing our superior force in counterattack, it’s normal they appear unable to resist.”

Zweig nodded in approval:

“Now our right flank has stabilized again, what remains is to continue pursuing Napoleon’s forces.”

“Exactly.” Strom said, “He should have retreated to Morvino.

“There’s still time before twilight, I suggest we gather those soldiers with strength left and launch an attack there.”

“I completely agree with your idea.” Zweig waved to his side, “Order officer!”

Half an hour before twilight, 13,000 Austrian soldiers arrived at Morvino Town and launched a fierce offensive without hesitation.

Gunfire from the French counterattack sounded from the town, but the firepower was sporadic and lacked the overwhelming momentum of previous battles.

But this was not surprising, because there were fewer than 4,000 soldiers of the Lyon Corps in town, and most of them were either physically weak or injured.

This was the reason why Zweig and Strom could easily defeat the “Napoleon” previously.

The French in Morvino Town were lucky; the Austrians launched a not-so-fierce attack, and soon the sky darkened.

Meanwhile, Napoleon was leading 12,000 soldiers, bypassing the north side of Topagenera Mountain in the moonlight.

According to his plan, he would reach Alvinczy’s central army’s position by 10 a.m. the next day.

The span of Topagenera Mountain was only 5 kilometers, and although it could serve as a defensive position, bypassing the Austrian line was not far.

Actually, Napoleon’s cavalry and mounted artillery had already left earlier and reached 10 kilometers north of Trento by this time.

If Napoleon fails to lead the infantry there in time, they will independently launch an attack on Alvinczy.

Although significant casualties would certainly occur, Napoleon determined that by then Alvinczy wouldn’t have many troops around him, at least enough to keep him tightly hemmed in.

Then his infantry main forces would arrive to clean up the aftermath.

However, Napoleon visibly underestimated the hiking prowess of the third-term students from the Paris Police Academy.

Early the next morning, Napoleon heard the heavy and urgent breathing of his mount, then turned his head to see the soldiers of the Royal Infantry Division beside him, always maintaining a brisk pace, and couldn’t help but smile.

The same radiant smile he had when he previously won a war victory.

Soon, hussars came towards them, saluting with their hats:

“General, Alvinczy’s command post is 3 kilometers to the southwest.”

Napoleon nodded, turned his reins, faced the marching column, then stood up on the stirrups, and shouted loudly:

“Soldiers of France, after today’s battle is over, I will personally tell the Crown Prince about their heroic performance.

“But for now, everyone still has to persist for 3 more hours, and then we’ll rest at Alvinczy’s command post!

“Form up!

“Defeat the evil Austrians with me!”

The soldiers showed no signs of fatigue from marching continuously for over a dozen hours and immediately erupted in a tsunami-like shout:

“In the name of the Crown Prince!”

“Defeat the enemy!”