Chapter 149: The Expedition of Two Monarchs (Not)

Chapter 148 Napoleon in high spirits

Unlike Pitt's worries, Napoleon's life can be said to be quite comfortable.

When he took over as the governor of Lyon, he was already half away from Paris.

Paris is a forgetful city. Napoleon's disappearance will not make her miss it. She will always throw herself into the arms of the heroes of the time.

Robespierre and Roland are still arguing.

General Dumouriez's victory in the Austrian Netherlands made Roland lose face, but the Duke of Biron suffered a defeat in Italy.

Roland sent people to invite Napoleon to lead the army several times, but Napoleon found excuses to refuse.

This made Roland particularly angry, but he was unable to trouble Napoleon, and he couldn't trouble Napoleon at this time.

Robespierre put more and more pressure on him, and Napoleon's power was not small. He even had to beg him.

After all, Lyon might have been above Paris at this time, and the sans-culottes or the Paris citizens represented by this group of people were not easy to deal with.

They did not completely submit to the rule of any faction, but tried to express their own needs.

Under such circumstances, the order of the whole Paris was not easy to maintain, and small-scale attacks and riots occurred almost every day.

These things seriously damaged the self-sufficiency of Paris. At the same time, in the provinces, except for Lyon supervised by Napoleon and the hometowns of the revolutionary leaders themselves, the chaos brought by the revolution has not stopped.

Taking the army as an example, before the reorganization of the Republic, various armed forces of different systems can be seen in French society.

The various armed forces not only have superficial differences in organization, appeal, and uniforms, but also have inherent opposition conditions due to different composition and interests. Mutual annexation and fratricide between them are very common during the entire revolution.

Even the armed forces belonging to the new regime have various reasons for opposition.

The confrontation between the armed forces of different systems was only one of the manifestations of the internal division of the French armed forces at that time. It also manifested itself within the same system of troops.

After the outbreak of the revolutionary war, there was a confrontation between veterans and new recruits in the army sent to the front.

In the original time and space, it was almost until the spring of 1794 when large-scale mixed work was carried out that this matter could be basically resolved.

Before that, the veterans in the revolutionary army mostly referred to soldiers who had served in the army for a long time. Most of them had served in the army since the old times. They had low salaries and strict military discipline. Their consciousness and habits retained the elements before the revolution, and they wore white uniforms, the symbolic color of the Bourbon royal family, and were called "the messed up white army".

Most of the new recruits came from the revolutionary volunteer army and conscription system. They had a high sense of identity with the revolution and the republic. They had high salaries and were weakly bound by military discipline. They wore blue uniforms symbolizing the revolution. Because of their shallow qualifications and experience, they were called "the vulnerable blue army" by veterans.

The confrontation between the two often caused quarrels and fights between the two sides.

The opposition between veterans and new soldiers is only one kind of contradiction between soldiers. The differences in hometowns and social composition also add obstacles to the troops' inability to form a united combat effectiveness.

Military integration is therefore imperative, but strong resistance makes it impossible to carry out integration under normal circumstances. The Gironde government was a staunch war party before the outbreak of the war, but after the outbreak of the war, it was unable to promote the integration of military forces.

Therefore, the integration bill passed in February 1793 was not implemented until the spring of 1794 after the Jacobin government implemented extreme policies, and it received immediate results.

However, in this time and space, Roland's rapid seizure of power within the Girondists made him reveal a lot of flaws in front of Robespierre, and eventually let the dominance of French politics fall into the hands of the latter.

But even Robespierre only temporarily curbed the skyrocketing prices in Paris. The subsequent tasks still needed to complete the rebellion in various parts of France and repel foreign intervention forces.

This required Napoleon to take action. The British and Dutch intervention forces surrounded Dunkirk, an important port in northern France, from the north. The Prussian-Austrian coalition crossed the northeastern border of France, captured Mainz, forced the local Republican army to land, and then surrounded the Fortress of Valencia.

This route can still be left to General Dumouriez to solve. After all, his performance in northern France is still very good, and the siege of the Fortress of Valencia can still be solved.

But on the southern front, the army of the Kingdom of Sardinia crossed the Alps from the east and approached Grenoble, the capital of the Province of Isère, followed by the Austrian army.

The Duke of Biron joined the Girondists at the behest of the Duke of Condé-Bourbon, and was ordered to fight the Austrian and Sardinian armies. As a result, he was defeated in Italy.

Although his level was not so high, it was a pity that he deliberately put the Blue Army in front during the battle to create opportunities for the White Army.

The Blues were already inexperienced and were put in the front by their commander. In this situation, they felt like they were being used as cannon fodder, so they scattered as soon as the battle started, resulting in a great defeat.

If Napoleon had not commanded the army to support the Duke of Biron and forced the Austro-Saber coalition to retreat, it is estimated that these people would have started a massacre in France.

In southwestern France, the Spanish army crossed the Eastern Pyrenees from the southwest and approached Perpignan, the capital of the Roussillon region.

What was even more serious was that at the suggestion of the Duke of Condé-Bourbon, the royalists entrenched in Toulon directly let the wolf in.

In order to prevent the government army from occupying Toulon and in exchange for the protection of the British army, they directly handed over the Toulon Fortress and the French Mediterranean Fleet with more than 30 ships to the British and Spanish, so that the British and Spanish troops could easily occupy Toulon without firing a single shot.

And Toulon is the largest military port in France and one of the important ports in France, bearing the heavy responsibility of importing grain.

Not only that, Toulon is only 65 kilometers away from Marseille, and the British and Spanish armies may attack Marseille at any time.

After experiencing the incident of the Duke of Biron, Roland and Robespierre finally decided to send Napoleon to send troops.

Although Lyon, where Napoleon was, had already surpassed Paris at this time and was in danger of becoming bigger.

But they had no choice. The Duke of Biron performed too badly. It was not that there were no other armies, but they were worried. After all, neither the Girondists nor the Jacobins could afford the risk of losing Marseille.

As for Napoleon, with the support of the royalists, he led his army to quickly restore order in Lyon. Coupled with his governance and the advantages of Lyon's north-south connection, the city quickly regained its vitality.

At the same time, he also made efforts to recruit various scientists and engineers, and vigorously introduced advanced machines, which made Lyon's industry develop rapidly at this time.

But this is not enough. He needs political influence and needs to expand his territory. At this time, Marseille and Toulon have been delivered to his door. Why doesn't he want them?

The general patted the officer next to him who he took away from the Fifth Cavalry Regiment and said.

"Ney, are you ready?

We are going to defend France."

The officer looked at the general riding on a tall horse with envy and said.

"Yes, General."

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