Chapter 471 The Bored Leopold II (please vote for me at the end of the month!)
The cold wind in early spring bends the grass outside Gulai Village, revealing the vast crowd below the slope.
The leading Austrian officer pointed to the French camp in the distance and shouted to boost morale: "Let the French know how powerful we are!"
The seven or eight hundred Austrian soldiers behind him immediately responded loudly: "Teach those bastards a lesson!"
"Make them pay!"
However, when they reached the top of the slope aggressively, they all stopped.
In the open space outside the French camp, there were Frenchmen twice as many as them, standing in a semi-arc shape, looking at them with a sneer.
"You..." the Austrian officer swallowed and pointed at the French battalion commander with whom he had a fight, "To have so many people come is simply despicable!"
The battalion commander took a few steps forward and said with a smile: "Go back if you're scared."
His words immediately caused laughter from the French soldiers.
The Austrian officer stood up and said: "Who is afraid of you? You have the ability to compete with the same number of people as us!"
"It's my ability to find so many people." The French battalion commander glanced behind him, "You can also go back and call for people, but I'm afraid that the timid Austrians won't dare to come at all."
"Humph, isn't there just a lot of people? There are so many brave warriors in Austria!"
The French battalion commander took out his pocket watch and opened the cover: "Okay, I will wait for you for two hours and see how many people you can find."
Several Austrian legions returned to their respective stations and described the arrogance of the French. The Austrian soldiers who were originally unwilling to fight because they were worried about being punished suddenly became angry and poured into the open space outside the French camp regardless.
Two hours later.
Nearly two thousand Austrian soldiers looked proudly at the French who were obviously getting nervous. At the officer's order, they rushed forward in a hurry.
Upon seeing this, the French battalion commander flashed a smile, turned around and shouted to the soldiers: "There are too many of them, retreat!"
The French immediately ran towards the camp in confusion, but many of them were overtaken by the Austrian soldiers and inevitably received a few blows.
The news of the victory in the fight quickly spread back to the Austrian military camp, and more soldiers were immediately inspired to come to watch the fun or participate in it.
Nearly an hour later, more than 3,000 Austrians crowded outside the French camp. They looked at their opponents who were huddled inside with bruises and swollen faces and dared not come out. They laughed wantonly and vented their previous grievances.
At this moment, there was the sound of intensive horse hooves in the distance. Before the Austrian soldiers could react, they saw Marshal Lacy coming with his own guards and a large number of cavalry roaring in.
Lacy received a "report" early in the morning that some soldiers wanted to retaliate against the French because they were punished for a previous fight.
He had just been reprimanded by Leopold II for this a few days ago, and immediately led his people back from the front line of Breslau. Then I saw the scene in front of me.
Soon, both parties involved in the fight were gathered together with their heads hanging down. Then, Berthier also arrived and quickly asked his men to count the number of wounded in the French army - a total of more than 420 people were injured.
Marshal Lacy looked at the fighting Frenchmen suspiciously, feeling that they seemed to be in no serious condition.
Berthier said with a sullen face: "The injured have been sent to the field hospital. Marshal, this time your people came to make trouble in our camp and injured so many people, you must punish them severely!"
Lacy's face also turned dark, he glared at the troublemaking soldiers, nodded and said, "Don't worry, I won't tolerate it!"
... Leopold II, who was busy with voting for the elector, frowned at the report about the fight between French and Austrian soldiers, and couldn't help feeling irritated.
The number of people involved on both sides actually reached tens of thousands - according to the French army's precedent last time, as long as someone in the company participated in the fight, all officers would be punished, so the number of people involved was extremely large.
The report stated that all the French soldiers who had been punished had been transferred back to the country for rectification. Including those who were transferred back due to fighting last time, the Kellerman Army remaining in Silesia has only half its strength.
He also recalled the report submitted by the finance minister a few days ago. The supply consumption of the French army in Silesia was almost twice that of the Austrian army of the same number.
The Hungarian troops who had just arrived in Lignitz were therefore restricted in their logistical supplies.
"These pampered French people are still so restless..."
Leopold II rubbed his forehead. Not long ago, he heard that French soldiers had to boil water before they could even drink it.
At this moment, his valet handed him the letter just sent from Paris.
Leopold II opened it and saw that it was sent by the French Dauphin. The main content was a strong protest against the beating of French soldiers by the Austrian army.
Yes, the incident took place in the French military camp, and the French soldiers were beaten unilaterally, so this is evidence that the Austrian soldiers came to cause trouble and beat people!
The artillery battalion commander who went to anger the Austrians was arranged by Berthier at the instruction of Joseph.
Before this group fight started, he had already warned the soldiers in advance to run away as soon as the fight started and not to fight back.
Just because they ran fast, less than 50 French soldiers were beaten, and all of them were slightly injured. However, it was Berthier's men who counted the number of injured, and the location was in the French camp. In such a chaotic situation, it was natural that the number he said was the number.
In the letter, the French Crown Prince expressed his dissatisfaction with the military discipline of the Austrian soldiers, and proposed that the French and Austrian armies should be temporarily separated to rectify military discipline separately.
In the afternoon, the anti-French ministers gathered by Walter also began to create public opinion. Of course, they were talking about the corruption of military discipline in the French army, which seriously affected the combat effectiveness of the coalition forces.
Finally, Leopold II, who was upset by a series of bad things, wrote back to Joseph and agreed to let the French army temporarily leave Silesia for reorganization.
This would also be enough to free up supplies for the newly transferred Hungarian Army.
On April 19, 1790, the last French army withdrew from Silesia and embarked on the road back home.
…
Paris.
In the carriage, Joseph looked at Berthier's itinerary for the French army's withdrawal from Silesia, and couldn't help but smile happily.
He originally thought that Leopold II would agree to "send the plague" after a few more troubles, but he did not expect to send the French army away so quickly.
Presumably, the Hungarian nobles provided a lot of support to the emperor because of the cancellation of the reforms, which emboldened him.
At present, Silesia has become a "private feud" between Prussia and Austria. France can easily take advantage of it and then sell supplies to both sides.
As long as this international situation can maintain for a few years, it is not a fantasy for France to catch up with Britain's national power.
Joseph thought of Perna's contribution in this incident again, and was wondering if he could give her a medal or something, but he didn't notice that Camelia, who was sitting opposite, was preparing something with her cheeks flushed.
(End of chapter)