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Chapter 908: Melee and Blind Spots

In Augereau's camp, a staff officer handed him the casualty report. "Colonel, we had 287 killed in action today, 330 missing, 202 severely wounded, and 493 lightly wounded..."

Losing over a thousand men out of twenty thousand made this the most agonizing day for the French army since entering Northern Italy.

Inside the Austrian officers' tent, Bajzáth handed Alvinczy's orders to Archduke Charles.

The Archduke scanned the last few lines and shook his head helplessly. Due to the desperate situation at Molveno, Alvinczy had reduced the reinforcements allotted to them to a mere two thousand men.

However, by the following morning, both sides received good news of their own.

On the French lines, five 6-pounder cannons and one 12-pounder cannon suddenly appeared.

Marmont and his men had spent the night felling trees and lashing them into massive rafts to quietly ferry the artillery across the river. Although three cannons had been lost to the depths during the crossing, they finally had heavy fire support at their disposal.

Meanwhile, Bajzáth stood before a messenger sent by Wurmser.

"So, General Wurmser will arrive here by noon tomorrow?" Bajzáth looked at the officer with excitement. "With a total of sixteen thousand soldiers?"

Wurmser had actually led nineteen thousand men out of the fortress, but several hundred had been killed during the breakout, and many more had deserted along the way.

"Oh, praise General Wurmser!" Bajzáth pointed his cane toward the riverbank. "The French are finished now!"

The messenger hesitated before adding, "Marshal, there is one small issue you must resolve. We are being followed by over ten thousand Sardinian troops."

Indeed, after Wurmser's breakout, Thaon feared French retribution. He had been tailing the Austrian army ever since, putting on a show of "trying his best to rectify the mistake."

Archduke Charles thought for a moment before addressing Bajzáth. "Marshal, the Sardinian army isn't particularly strong. We can send two or three regiments to pin them down.

"We will concentrate our superior forces here to crush Augereau as quickly as possible. After that, we can choose whether to rush to Trento to reinforce Marshal Alvinczy or finish off the Sardinians first."

Between Bajzáth's corps and Wurmser's troops, they had thirty-six thousand men. Even if they detached three or four thousand, the remaining force would still possess an overwhelming numerical advantage over the French by the river.

Bajzáth nodded repeatedly and scribbled a letter for the messenger. "Tell General Wurmser that as soon as he arrives tomorrow, we will launch a general offensive against the French."

...

Napoleon stared intently at the map, his right hand rhythmically tapping his hip.

His hemorrhoids were flaring up again, causing a piercing, throbbing pain.

But the two red lines on the map were far more troublesome than his physical discomfort.

They represented Alvinczy's Zweig and Buch corps, totaling nearly twenty thousand men. They had already established a defensive line along the southern slopes of Paganella Mountain.

Napoleon was absolutely confident he could break that line, but Alvinczy still had nearly thirty thousand more troops under his command. He couldn't be sure if those units would suddenly appear on his flank or rear.

'I need someone to pin down the enemy from the east...'

He rapped his knuckles against the table, sinking into deep thought.

It was unlikely Augereau's corps could arrive anytime soon, and the Austrians would certainly try to ambush or outflank him.

So, how could he avoid a head-on collision with a numerically superior enemy?

The candle flame flickered, casting the shadow of a nearby quill onto the map.

As the shadow wavered, it covered Trento before moving away again.

Napoleon reached out to grab the pen in irritation, but his heart suddenly skipped a beat.

Wait, he seemed to have overlooked something...

Why had Alvinczy's corps appeared here in the first place?

He had come to attack Trento.

But now, the Austrian commander had focused all his attention on Napoleon's raiding force.

This meant Alvinczy would definitely not divert troops to attack Trento at this moment.

Therefore, the fifteen thousand men under Victor's command stationed at Trento had effectively become a mobile reserve!

Furthermore, Victor was only six or seven kilometers away from Alvinczy's main force.

A smile finally broke across Napoleon's face. He turned to Lucien and barked, "Summon the officers! We're holding a war council!"

"Yes, General!"

At nine o'clock the next morning.

The artillery of Napoleon's corps began a thunderous bombardment of the Austrian Zweig corps.

Half an hour later, thousands of French infantrymen, screened by swarms of skirmishers, launched a fierce assault on Zweig's defensive line.

However, the attack was quickly repelled by the dense formations Zweig had prepared.

The French were clearly not giving up. They organized two more attacks before noon, even committing their cavalry in the latter, but they only managed to break through the first Austrian line.

Two more, even more formidable defensive lines lay behind it.

After receiving battlefield reports from his cavalry scouts, Alvinczy turned to his staff officer with a relaxed expression.

"The French have fallen into a war of attrition against our positions. They're finished."

He gestured with his cane toward the map. "Where is Strom now?"

The staff officer checked the logs. "Five kilometers from the French, Marshal."

"Excellent," Alvinczy nodded. "Have them launch an attack alongside Colonel Buch.

"The central army will continue moving west.

"The battle for Molveno won't end today.

"We just need to arrive there by tomorrow afternoon."

The tight formations he had insisted upon were now proving vital.

After Quosdanovich had been routed, the reinforcements Alvinczy sent had reached the southeast of Molveno in just half a day and quickly fortified their positions.

Meanwhile, the bulk of his central army was arriving on the battlefield bit by bit throughout the day.

Napoleon would soon discover to his horror that he was facing more and more enemies until he was completely surrounded.

Alvinczy had even prepared for the possibility of Napoleon's retreat, sending a force of three thousand men to the west in advance to intercept him.

At the same time, his cavalry was massed and ready to pursue at a moment's notice.

After half a day of relentless assault, the French seemed to have exhausted their strength. Their offensive was visibly weakening.

At half-past two in the afternoon, Strom's corps of over ten thousand men suddenly appeared on Napoleon's right flank. They deployed into a long infantry line, which, combined with the Austrian forces at Topaganella Mountain, formed a semi-encirclement around Napoleon.

Inside the headquarters near Topaganella Mountain.

Zweig nodded to the messenger. "Tell Colonel Strom he may begin the attack at any time."

Just then, he thought he heard the distant boom of cannons coming from behind him. He frowned and looked at his staff officer. "What's going on?"

The officer listened intently, his expression turning nervous.

"General, that sounds like it's coming from the direction of Marshal Alvinczy's headquarters..."