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Chapter 1214: Emmanuel IV's Choice

Victor did not hesitate to order his troops to cross the pre-established pontoon bridges and retreat toward Mantua.

...

On the other side, Lieutenant Colonel Masson led the Crown Prince's Guard Grenadier Battalion to a position eighteen kilometers southwest of Trento. His scouts soon reported that enemy forces had been spotted ahead.

Masson immediately ordered the construction of a massive temporary camp right where they stood, and from there, he began a tense standoff with the Austrians.

In truth, he had only 1,300 soldiers under his command—far from enough to actually mount an assault on Trento.

Joseph, of course, was not with the army. There was no reason for him to take such a pointless risk.

The two sides remained in a cautious stalemate for over ten days.

The noble scions of France were in high spirits, constantly clamoring to storm the city, but Masson held them back firmly.

Finally, three days later, the Austrians could no longer contain their impatience and launched a probing attack.

The Austrian army was left in the dust almost instantly. Every soldier in the Guard Grenadier Battalion was mounted on a prime steed; even the cheapest was worth two or three thousand francs, and some were even riding Arabian stallions that cost upwards of ten thousand francs.

The Austrian officers did not dare pursue them too far. The mountain roads west of Lake Garda were too narrow, making it far too easy to fall into an ambush.

...

General Moreau's situation was by far the most perilous.

On the upper reaches of the Brenta River, he nearly collided with twenty thousand Austrian troops commanded by Prince Schwarzenberg.

In his previous surprise attacks, Moreau had been bold enough to clash with thirty thousand Austrians, but now he had no choice but to evade.

Austrian Hussars were everywhere, and there were undoubtedly large bodies of enemy troops closing in to surround him. Once entangled, it would be nearly impossible to break free.

His supplies had dwindled to less than six days' worth. He had to return to Mantua as quickly as possible.

With calculated precision, Moreau lured the Schwarzenberg Corps to the northern bank of the Brenta River before crossing under the cover of night. His entire army mobilized at extreme speed, covering more than forty kilometers in a single day.

By the time Prince of Schwarzenberg realized the French army had vanished, it was already ten o'clock the next morning.

He hurriedly dispatched cavalry to the south and immediately notified Bellegarde and the Prince of Hechingen.

The three Austrian commanders once again fell into disagreement. Bellegarde believed the French were laying a trap and that their main force might still be heading north, suggesting they should first establish a defensive line along the Brenta River. The other two, however, were inclined to pursue immediately.

They wasted half a day in debate. The following day, Schwarzenberg's cavalry commander came fleeing back in a pathetic state—they had been ambushed by Moreau south of Malo, losing over two thousand soldiers.

Only then did Schwarzenberg and the others rush southward in a panic.

Moreau judged that the Austrian army would likely search in an east-west sweep, so he decided to take a risk and continue south, crossing the Adige River almost directly beside the eastern side of Verona.

He covered a journey of over ninety kilometers in just two and a half days, leaving the enemy far behind.

Then, he made a sharp turn to the east, passing through a gap less than fifteen kilometers from the main Austrian force attacking the Mincio River line at lightning speed. Finally, he found a weak point in the enemy's defenses at Castelmassa, about fifty kilometers east of Mantua.

Although the French soldiers were exhausted from the continuous forced marches, fortunately, their supply of canned food had not yet run out. This superior diet helped them maintain at least a baseline of physical strength.

When Moreau ordered the assault on Castelmassa, the French infantry dragged their weary bodies forward and charged the enemy's defensive positions.

The battle lasted only forty minutes before the thousand or so Austrian soldiers defending Castelmassa were routed.

Moreau immediately ordered the crossing.

It took his twenty-six thousand soldiers nearly an entire day to fully reach the southern bank of the Po River.

Two hours later, the cavalry from Bellegarde's corps, the closest unit to them, finally arrived in pursuit.

Thus, Moreau, leading over thirty thousand men of the French Fifth Army, had completed a grand circuit through Austrian-controlled Venice amidst eighteen thousand enemy troops. After eliminating more than twenty thousand hostiles, he safely returned to friendly lines.

...

Turin, the capital of Sardinia.

Emmanuel IV had dark circles under his eyes, and his bloodshot gaze was fixed blankly out the window.

Indeed, he had barely slept for two days since receiving the secret orders from Archduke Charles.

The current situation was entirely different from what he had originally anticipated.

He had expected to joyfully welcome tens of thousands of Prussian troops and then follow them, alongside Archduke Charles's army of one hundred and eighty thousand, to occupy Mantua.

Now, however, he had to first defeat more than ten thousand French troops stationed at the Gotthard Pass.

Visions of the French army sweeping across Northern Italy a few years ago surfaced uncontrollably in his mind. Back then, he was still the Crown Prince, living in constant terror, never knowing when the French might storm Turin.

Fortunately, his father had reached a compromise with the French.

He irritably grabbed a teacup, his eyes catching sight of the secret agreement he had signed with Britain and Austria, and his heart grew hot with ambition once more.

If they could drive the French out of Northern Italy, he could reclaim the Savoy region ceded to France in the Treaty of Turin. Furthermore, Austria would tacitly allow Sardinia to consolidate the Northern Italian territories south of Lombardy.

Establishing a powerful Italian empire had been the long-held dream of both him and his father.

This was likely his only chance.

He had repeatedly questioned the Army Marshal, Baron Staray, who confirmed that the French would most likely collapse immediately if subjected to a surprise attack.

Once General Blücher's army of sixty thousand charged through the Gotthard Pass, the outcome of the war would be decided.

Emmanuel IV retreated into his prayer room, emerging only after two full hours. By then, his gaze had turned firm.

"Bring Baron Staray to see me," he signaled to his attendant.

October 30, 1798.

Novara, a city in eastern Sardinia.

General Augusto Pilo looked at the sky and frowned, asking his staff officer, "Still no word?"

"No, General," the officer replied helplessly. "Perhaps General Adenauer was delayed by a heavy storm or something similar..."

The Adenauer Corps had left Ferrara a week ago to rendezvous with Pilo in Novara, but tomorrow was the scheduled date for the attack on the Gotthard Pass, and he had still not arrived.

How could Pilo know that as soon as Adenauer left Ferrara, he had been intercepted by over a thousand Modena soldiers?

Then, the General Staff Headquarters of the Mediterranean Security Organization had issued a transfer order, directing him to Mantua for reinforcements.

Ferrara was over two hundred and sixty kilometers from Novara, and Adenauer did not dare make any suspicious moves there.

And so, Pilo waited until four o'clock that afternoon before he was forced to lead his twelve thousand soldiers toward the Gotthard Pass alone.

What he failed to notice was that shortly after he left Turin, two thousand French troops and five thousand Parma troops had been shadowing him from a distance of about fifteen kilometers.

The next morning, Pilo finally saw the mountain pass in the distance, still covered with patches of white snow.