Chapter 150 The Dark Emperor

Looking down at the earth from the sky, we can see that Toulon is surrounded by mountains on three sides and the sea on one side. There are British warships in the port and the coalition forces are stationed on the surrounding hills. The terrain is easy to defend and difficult to attack.

The most critical thing is that the French army is seriously underprepared.

So when Napoleon arrived at the Toulon front, he soon found that the situation here was really incompetent.

The artillery here is useless. There are not enough artillery or ammunition. There are only a few broken field guns and mortars.

The soldiers do not have the most basic military literacy. They can neither use artillery nor repair it.

What is even more unbelievable is that their superior General Carto also lacks artillery knowledge. Carto doesn't even know the range of those few cannons.

This gave Napoleon a headache. It was a fantasy for the Paris government to rely on these things to recapture Toulon.

Let alone the pre-war preparations, the troops of Lapopo and Carto only add up to tens of thousands of people.

Although the coalition army only had 20,000 people and the composition was complex, it was still strong because it was led by the British.

However, the French army was not good in quality. There were experienced veterans, but not many, and officers were lacking, which led to a much weaker combat capability than the other side.

Napoleon knew that if it wasn't so, Robespierre and Roland would not agree to let him suppress the rebellion.

These two people might not have thought of weakening his strength with the coalition army.

However, Napoleon didn't care. He was determined to win the Provence region.

It was too difficult to support the army in Lyon alone, and in order to do a good job of face-saving, Napoleon had to pay money to Paris, which made his financial data even worse.

So, taking over the Provence region was also to ease financial pressure.

Thanks to the chaos of the French Revolution, the management of many French military factories was quite chaotic at this time, and Napoleon would naturally not miss such a feast.

He sent people to Grenoble and other places to collect a large number of useful military equipment and production equipment, and expanded the military equipment factory in Lyon.

For this expedition, Napoleon brought a lot of artillery from Lyon. After all, not everyone had been in the Raphael Artillery Regiment of Gariboel. Napoleon did not dare to count on these two people from Paris, and Carto's actual situation made him glad that he was well prepared.

In addition, Napoleon also requisitioned horses from Nice to Valence and Montpellier and many boats on the Rhone River, and organized the production of wicker baskets in Marseille to solve the problems of artillery mobility and fortification construction.

After the pre-war preparations, it was time to discuss the combat plan.

Facts have proved that human beings are always cheap, such as General Lapopo.

General Lapopo from the Paris government, based on the idea that you can't control me at all if you are not next to me, he took out his extremely explosive plan.

"Concentrate an army with sufficient troops, and launch an attack from both flanks of Toulon Port, from the east and west, regardless of the enemy's frontal firepower. First, occupy the surrounding defense lines of the anti-French coalition forces, and occupy the Faron Mountains, Faron, Rouge and other artillery positions; then dig trenches and build fortifications near the Toulon Fortress, and wait for an opportunity to capture Toulon."

Anyone with a little bit of intelligence knows that this stupid plan of "no matter how powerful the enemy is, we must charge" will not succeed, but General Lapopo is so determined.

Napoleon opposed this plan. In his view, the purpose of the battle was not to capture Toulon by force. As long as the British fleet in the port could be forced to leave the port, the connection between the British army and the army on the shore could be cut off, and the coalition forces on the shore would lose their firepower support, Toulon Port could be captured sooner or later.

To realize this plan, it was only necessary to send a sufficient army to bypass the west side of Toulon, capture Fort Malgrave (the Little Gibraltar Heights on the south side of the Toulon Harbor anchorage), build artillery positions here, bombard British warships in the anchorage, cut off the connection between the British fleet and the enemy in Toulon, and force the British ships to withdraw from the port.

Because Napoleon had more people, and was next to General Carteaux, and was the commander-in-chief appointed by Paris, General Carteaux, although he supported General Lapopo's plan very much in his heart, still showed in his mouth and face that he would follow orders in all actions.

As for General Lapopo, he didn't intend to pay attention to Napoleon at all. A 21-year-old guy who was still a lieutenant a few years ago, if he hadn't flattered Roland by capturing Louis XVI, how could he have the qualifications to issue orders here.

As for his so-called record in the Ottoman Empire, General Lapopo snorted every time he heard it.

"The Ottoman Empire is indeed not that great, but what are the Russians?

As for the combat power of the Russian army, Lapubo has never taken it seriously, what a savage."

Lapubo couldn't understand when leading the Ottoman Empire to defeat the Russians could be considered a military achievement. This time, Lapubo would teach this young general a lesson and let him understand what it means to have experienced many battles.

As for what Napoleon was thinking.

There was a reason why he didn't go to Lapubo's side but went to Carto's side.

First, Carto had more troops under his command, and these troops would be his after reorganization.

Second, he didn't plan to win in one battle. He had a plan and a plan.

But what is this? This is the optimal solution in terms of strategy, not the optimal solution in terms of politics and strategy.

He didn't bother to care about what Lapubo thought, so he didn't care about him after persuading him.

If we don't let this guy lose the first game, how can we highlight the strength of the coalition?

If we don't highlight the strength of the coalition, how can we let the masters of Paris know the hardship of his generals suppressing the rebellion?

If we don't let the masters of Paris know the hardship of his generals suppressing the rebellion, how can we get more funds from this group of people?

Moreover, if we want to completely recover Carto and his troops, we must convince the other party.

So, Napoleon finally decided to let General Lapopo perform passionately, so that the show would be effective.

By the way, once Lapopo was defeated, the French army would have a vacuum zone east of Toulon.

This is the best time to lure the Ausa coalition east of the Alps.

What is a coalition in Toulon? He wants to clean up this bunch of scum along with the Ausa coalition.

The future Provence is his private land, which cannot be lost.

Therefore, it is necessary to take advantage of this opportunity to destroy the northern Italian region at the same time, and rob it by the way, but the intensity must be controlled, just as the Sultan said - sustainable exhaustion of fish.

Napoleon spread out the map and waited for the victory report from the coalition forces.