Chapter 745: Total War
Digomiere rose to attention, his face filled with surprise. "Yes, Your Royal Highness! But..." he began.
Joseph didn't give him a chance to decline. He turned to Berthier and said, "General Berthier, I am appointing you as the Operations Staff Officer for the Rhine Front."
"Yes, Your Royal Highness."
"Additionally, please have the General Staff issue orders for Lieutenant Colonel Victor de Moreau to serve as the Second Commander of the Rhine Front, and for Major André Masséna to serve as the Commander of the Rhine Front's Right Flank."
Berthier was quite surprised but still nodded. "Yes, Your Royal Highness. I will inform them immediately," he confirmed.
Joseph sighed inwardly. 'These brilliant commanders haven't experienced the officer exodus during the French Revolution, so their ranks are currently very low. Only an old officer like Digomiere can front the command for now.'
Moreau was currently the commander of the Tunisian Legion, while Masséna was merely the second regimental commander of the Army of the Alps.
But Joseph knew they all possessed the ability to command army-group-level battles.
Of course, they still needed battles to accumulate experience, especially Moreau. The Rhine front would be the main battlefield for France and the Anti-French Coalition, offering them the fastest growth.
And even if they made a blunder, Berthier, the seasoned Chief of the General Staff, would be there to cover them, ensuring everything would proceed flawlessly.
Joseph continued:
"The Rhine Front will comprise the Royal First, Second, and Third Infantry Divisions, the Royal Longsword Grenadier Regiment, the Royal First and Second Horse Artillery Battalions..."
He rattled off the designations of more than a dozen units, basically all of them legions directly under the General Staff Headquarters, meaning the New Army, supplemented by the Army of the Alps and the Champagne Legion, two older, higher-quality legions.
Their total strength reached 110,000 men!
Furthermore, it included 80% of the cavalry and all the horse artillery from the directly commanded legions, making it undoubtedly France's most elite force at present.
They would face nearly 200,000 main forces from Prussia, Austria, Hanover, and other nations.
But Joseph believed that whether in terms of soldier quality, weapon and equipment quality, or commander capability, the French Rhine Front would utterly crush its opponents.
Therefore, this would be his "straight, heavy punch" delivered directly at the Anti-French Coalition!
Joseph then quietly instructed Berthier, "Have Masséna oversee the overall deployment, and Moreau lead the main assault, breaking through any stalemates."
"Yes, Your Royal Highness, I will bear your instructions in mind."
In fact, Masséna was already 36 years old and had served for over 20 years, making him a relatively experienced officer.
Joseph knew this man was a master of command, second only to Emperor Napoleon in France. However, historically, he hadn't been able to fully utilize his command talents due to various reasons. Now, Joseph was giving him this grand stage to unleash his abilities.
Joseph waited for Berthier to finish recording the orders, then pointed to the Southern Netherlands on the map. "The Southern Netherlands Front, meanwhile, will be under my personal command."
This was the least surprising order for the officers present.
After all, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince had participated in numerous major battles, from Tunisia to the Southern Netherlands and then to Silesia.
Although they believed it was most fitting for His Royal Highness to oversee overall command from the General Staff Headquarters, personally leading from the front seemed to be his consistent style, so none of them commented further.
In reality, after all major strategic strongpoints in France were connected by the Chappe Telegraph, the exact location of the General Staff Headquarters no longer made much difference.
Transmitting military intelligence from the easternmost part of France to the westernmost part took less than 50 minutes.
The most time-consuming part was the weekly distribution of codebooks to all signal towers.
Joseph continued to lay out his pre-planned arrangements: "Colonel François Lefebvre and Lieutenant Colonel Jourdan will fight alongside me.
"The Southern Netherlands Front will include: the Royal Fourth Infantry Division, the Royal First, Second, and Third Skirmisher Regiments, the Royal First and Second Foot Artillery Battalions...
"as well as the Artois Legion, the Reims Legion, the Rethel Legion..."
After he finished speaking, Berthier mentally calculated that the entire Southern Netherlands Front comprised only a little over 20,000 men, and 40% of them were older-style troops.
He immediately suggested, "Your Royal Highness, although the Southern Netherlands is not the enemy's primary direction of attack, it is estimated that over 60,000 enemy troops will still be there.
"The forces you command seem somewhat insufficient..."
Joseph simply smiled faintly. "It's fine. I only need to delay the enemy for at most two months; you needn't worry.
"If the situation becomes urgent, I will deploy the Paris Legion, and even the Swiss Guard, northward."
The Paris Legion, the force guarding Paris, comprised over 5,000 soldiers. The Swiss Guard, responsible for the security of Versailles Palace, numbered nearly 2,000 men.
The Paris Police were Joseph's absolute loyalists; even if all of Paris's garrison troops were completely redeployed, as long as he gave an order to the police, order in Paris would not be an issue.
Having finished speaking, Joseph looked around at everyone and said, "Now, everyone, let's begin to formulate the specific deployment details."
Berthier frowned and quietly reminded, "Your Royal Highness, you seem to have forgotten that the Swiss front does not yet have a legion assigned."
Joseph nodded. "I haven't forgotten, Chief of the General Staff. Once Major Masséna deals with the enemy forces on the Rhine front, his legion will become the Swiss Front."
"But..."
"You needn't worry. Given Switzerland's terrain and its barrenness, by the time the fighting on the Rhine front concludes, the Austrian army may not necessarily be ready to enter Switzerland."
...
Napoleon walked out of the General Staff Headquarters in a daze, but a joyful light flickered in his eyes.
He had finally received the opportunity he had long dreamed of: as long as he could win a few victories in Italy, he would achieve rapid promotion and thus enter Parisian high society.
He took out his notebook, flipping through the officer assignments for the Italian Front. 'Major Claude Victor, Major Auguste de Marmont,' he muttered to himself. 'His Royal Highness seems to hold them in very high regard.'
'Hmm, La Harpe, Augereau, Sérurier, Ménil, Junot... they can all be transferred to Italy. With them, the war will be much easier.'
Most of these were his old subordinates. Joseph had allowed him to choose his own personnel, so these officers were able to join the Italian Front.
In reality, Victor and Marmont were also Emperor Napoleon's old partners historically, and their cooperation would certainly be seamless.
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