Just when the situation was extremely unfavorable for Karl, Alexander led the army to appear on Karl's flank, and then Franz, who had exhausted his means, was naturally unable to resist the flanking attack of Alexander and Karl.
The battle of Graz ended in the defeat of Franz, who himself was captured by Alexander, and after escorting Franz back to Vienna, southern Austria, which had lost its backbone, was captured by Alexander. ……………………… On April 1, 1793, the main force of the Allied advance resisted the outskirts of Antwerp, and at this moment the French army built a large number of fortifications on the outskirts of Antwerp, and from the outskirts of Antwerp, the French army implemented a scorched earth policy in this area, all the inhabitants were moved westward, at the same time all trees and houses were burned, and all rivers and water sources were polluted by the French army.
In order to maintain the needs of the 130,000-strong army, a large number of convoys were organized in the Netherlands, but for the large coalition forces, these convoys were really limited in their help, and in this case, Wilhelm had to divide his troops, and 20,000 British troops and the Prussian 7th Division were interspersed with the south under the leadership of Ernst.
Looking at the complicated fortifications in the distance, William said to William V beside him: "Your Highness, I have decided to storm these fortifications, and for the sake of our common interests, I think that every member of the coalition forces should make certain sacrifices!"
"Your Majesty, you are the supreme commander of the coalition forces, and I support any means you use in the war!"
With the support of William V, William nodded, and then ordered to the large and small officers around him: "The 1st Division of the Holy Roman Empire, the 4th Prussian Division, 10,000 Dutch troops, and 10,000 British ** troops were immediately ready.
The 1st Imperial Division and the 4th Prussian Division were the first to launch fortifications against the enemy's lines, and in case of failure, 10,000 Dutch troops would launch a second round of attacks with 10,000 British ** teams!
” On the orders of William.
Soon the troops who were named came out one after another.
After the army was assembled, William nodded to the herald beside him, and then a loud horn sounded on the battlefield, and the troops of the two divisions rushed directly to the French defensive line.
Napoleon was in the city of Antwerp at this moment, and when he learned of the arrangements of the coalition forces outside the city, Napoleon immediately ordered: "Be sure to give me the first round of enemy onslaught, and then before the second round of enemy onslaught.
The tribes outside the city abandoned the fortifications and retreated to the city!
” The battlefield resounded with the sound of rumbling artillery, and the number of artillery pieces gathered on the battlefield this time can be said to be unique in the history of Europe, and the entire coalition army carried a total of more than 800 artillery pieces.
The artillery was enough to bombard all the land outside Antwerp.
Under the attack of the Allied artillery, the French fortifications were greatly damaged, and the French army naturally suffered a large number of casualties.
This scene caught Napoleon, who was always on the battlefield, a little off guard, even though he knew that the coalition forces carried a large number of artillery.
But he didn't expect William to make such a fuss.
You must know that the amount of ammunition fired by more than 800 artillery pieces in one round is quite terrifying, and it is not an empty phrase that when a cannon goes off, ten thousand taels of gold is not an empty word.
But if Napoleon had known that most of these artillery pieces and shells had been aided by the British, I wonder what he would have in mind.
William negotiated with the British when he led his army, and William hoped that the British would provide 300 guns and more than 20,000 shells, for which the British also measured the caliber of the Prussian artillery in order to make shells.
Originally, the British would not have agreed to William's request so easily, after all, the cost of these cannons and shells was really expensive, but the British longing for revenge overcame this difficulty.
Because of the total annihilation of the expeditionary force, the British were holding their breath and longing to get justice from the French.
The British Empire was rich.
After so many years of being a maritime hegemon, Britain has accumulated enough wealth to stagger everyone.
Of course, this is actually in line with the British definition of war, that is, to take their own money to let others die.
In less than two months, the supplies were prepared and shipped to the Netherlands by the British, which made William secretly wary of the British while praising the efficiency of the British.
Originally, according to Napoleon's idea, the fortifications outside the city would have to withstand several rounds of attacks by the coalition army, but under such a powerful artillery attack, the coalition forces after that only launched a round of attacks took most of the fortifications outside the city, and they did not suffer much casualties.
Seeing that nothing could be done, Napoleon immediately left Antwerp with the main army in the city.
After recovering Antwerp, William immediately ordered the army to inspect the city of Antwerp, in William's opinion, Napoleon must be quite vigilant when evacuating Antwerp so decisively, otherwise if something happens, it will not ruin his reputation.
Sure enough, during the subsequent inspection, the Allied forces found a large amount of fire oil and gunpowder in the city of Antwerp, which were supposed to come in handy when the Allied troops entered the city of Antwerp, but because of Napoleon's eagerness to retreat and the speed of the Allied army, the French army did not have time to ignite these things.
Napoleon's retreat directly to Nicholas, on the various defensive lines east of Nicholas, all the French troops withdrew, in Napoleon's view, the coalition army has such a large scale of artillery, and then disperse the army to guard the various lines of defense is really a waste, it is better to concentrate all the troops on the Nicolas and Brussels lines, so that with the strongest fortifications built and elite troops, there is no hope of resisting.
After the first round victory, William did not get carried away, knowing that against an opponent of Napoleon's calibre, getting carried away would only make his death worse.
After conquering Antwerp, there was also a good news that the coalition army couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, the water source in Antwerp City had not had time to be polluted because of the eagerness of the French army's retreat, which meant that the water source in Antwerp City could be used, and to a certain extent, this greatly reduced the pressure on the coalition army.
According to intelligence agencies, Napoleon deployed 30,000 troops in Nicholas, 20,000 in Brussels, and 20,000 mobile troops in the area between the two points.
And while William was studying the map, a bad news reached William, 30,000 French reinforcements had arrived in Brussels, and 30,000 Spanish troops were on their way.
The arrival of the 30,000 Spanish troops meant that the total strength of the French army would reach 110,000, which was only 20,000 fewer than the Allied army.
Don't think that the advantage of 20,000 people seems to be too big, don't forget that the French army is in a gesture, and the current French army can be called a local battle.
"Where has little Ferdinand arrived?"
William asked, looking at Horn beside him.
After Wilhelm led his army back to Brandenburg, Bouel applied to Wilhelm to return to his hometown, and considering that Bouel was already an old man in his sixties after all, and that Buel's ear was seriously injured in the Battle of Bratner, which caused his hearing to be greatly affected later, Wilhelm accepted Bouel's request.
Of course, in recognition of Bouel's contribution to the Hohenzollern family over the years and his diligence in his loyalty to the royal family, before Bouel's retirement, William specially promoted Boure to the rank of knight, and now Bouel is no longer an earl but a marquis, and his marquis can be hereditary.
In addition to the title, William also rewarded Buel with a large estate and 10,000 gold coins.
Before Buel left, he officially elected Hound as his heir, and out of respect for Bouel and Hound's performance over the years can be called excellent, so William agreed to Buel's request, and Hound became the new head of the royal family and commander of the royal guard.
And Horn's first task after taking office was to lead the royal guard to follow William to participate in the attack on the French, of course, in addition to these superficial titles, Buel also handed over the royal intelligence agency to Horn, officially completing the mission of the royal family.
"Your Majesty, three divisions led by Ferdinand Jr. have arrived in the Hanover area, and are arriving day and night on your orders!"
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Hearing Hornder's answer, William nodded, then stood up and took two steps and said: "Horn, where did Hans get the news of the swallows?"
"Your Majesty, according to the news from the Marquis of Hans, during this period of time, because Napoleon has been busy deploying operations against the coalition forces, the swallow has not been able to get close to Napoleon at all, and the French army's surveillance of the swallow has been further strengthened during this time."
Hearing this, William's brow furrowed "The kingdom has spent so much money, is it raising a bunch of waste!"
Hearing William's curse, Horn quickly lowered his head.
The swallow did succeed in lurking Napoleon's side before, but at that time, everyone in Prussia thought that Napoleon and Louis XVI were about to break up, so the swallow's task was to lurk, after all, the existence of a Napoleon who broke with Louis XVI was very beneficial to the future of Prussia.
But who would have thought that Napoleon would really go out to fight under the orders of Louis XVI, and also annihilated the British Expeditionary Force, which directly made Prussia feel threatened, so William immediately ordered the intelligence agencies to immediately find a way to assassinate Napoleon.
Who would have thought that as soon as the opportunity passed, it would be gone, and now the Prussian shadows would not be able to get close to Napoleon at all, so how could there be any assassination.
But it's useless to be angry, sometimes a conspiracy can really play an unexpected role, but many times, victory or defeat is still decided by a battlefield duel.
So after calming down, William began to think about the current war against the French army again.