La Chanson de la Victoire (The Song of Victory): La Petite Arpenteuse (Non, SV, you are a General of France in the Napoleonic War!)
- Thread starter Plausbius
- Start date
- Mature Alt. History
The Decision in Italy
- Location
- Hawaii
The Decision in Italy
General de Brigade Denis Martin Severin was currently not at all happy. "Damned sawbones want me to stay off my feet for six months? I'll go mad before then! Don't they know there's a war on? We've been chasing the Austrians since Genoa, and their morale and organization must be hanging by a single thread."
The echoing boom of cannonfire in the distance perked Severin's ears up, the promise of battle drawing him from his sickbed. Gritting his teeth to work through the pain, the general dons his vest and coat before striding out of the medical tent. Commandeering the nearest horse, he mounts up and rides to meet his Imperial Guard. His left arm still in a sling, Severin guides the borrowed horse to where he can see the Guard's colors. Joining his colonels on a small rise, he looks over the battle in progress.
All of II Corps is laid out in a battle line stretching across the fields between the nearby village and a castle to the north, with Estienne's battery in the center hammering the Austrian center. Leclerc's cavalry is split, guarding the flanks, while Murat's cavalry mills about in reserve, though they seem to be drifting to the right. Looks like the prissy prancing pony ponce wants to get in on the action and rush the castle before the Austrians can seize it to anchor their wavering lines.
"Achille, Hector, is the Guard ready to move?"
"Severin! I thought you were out for the rest of the campaign with your wounds?"
"Hah! And miss what's looking to be the last battle of our campaign? Not on your life, Hector!"
"Severin, Davout is beginning his advance."
"Aye, looks like Joly and and Mathieu to punch through the center with Estienne's support, and Perrot on the left and Abel on the right. Looks like Horsey-boy wants to get stuck in; he's been drifting to the right for the last few minutes. Get our cavalry and chasseurs into that village behind the Austrians on the double. If we break them here, we can cut off their retreat, pin them up up against that river behind the village."
"According to the maps that village is named Marengo."
"Right, get those lads into Marengo. Tell them to hold it and deny the crossing to the Austrians. As for us, we're going to roll up their flank. And as much as I despise that dapper dandy, the man knows how to command cavalry. If he sees the chance, he'll do his part and roll up the Austrian left. Hector, take Garde du Nord and swing around that vineyard. Block their line of retreat and force them to run for Marengo. Attack if you think it practical. Achille, we're leading Garde du Sud through that vineyard. We're going to smash into their flank just as Perrot gets them tied down. I hope you all had your onions, because we're going to play that song at full blast to signal the attack."
"Aye, Severin. I'll see it done. Rider, take this dispatch to Ensign Capet!"
"All right, Severin. Just like Mayence, right?"
Dismounting from his borrowed horse, Severin joins Garde du Sud as they creep through the vineyard onto the Austrian right flank. The thunder of artillery in the distance a deep bass line to the rattle and crackle of musket volleys, accompanied by a chorus of shouts and screams of men from both sides. For a moment, Severin deeply misses de Lisle. The man could take the sounds of a battlefield and transform it into a beautiful orchestration. When the wars are over, he would leave the army and devote his life to music. Then, the moment passes.
Watching the pace of the battle for a few seconds longer, Severin waits for the Austrians to unleash their next volley.
"Now, signals, now!"
The previously silent vineyard bursts into a fanfare of bugles, shortly joined by drums and thousands of voices as the men of Garde du Sud picks up the Song of the Onion. At the signal, Gard du Nord advances at triple time in assault column from the cover of the vineyard to a position directly behind the Austrian right. Coming to a halt, they wheel right as if on parade, and unleash a volley directly into the rear of the Austrian line. As they begin to reload, Garde du Sud charges from the vineyard with lowered bayonets gleaming in the sun. Severin joins the charge, wielding a borrowed entrenching spade like a hand axe, having not had time to pick up his pistol and saber from the camp. In spite of his wounds, he is among the first to draw blood from the Austrians, with the words "No onions for those dogs!" on his lips.
Fixed from the front, fired upon from the rear, and receiving a bayonets charge in their exposed flank, the Austrian right folds like a wet newspaper. Murat, not to be left out of the actions, spurs his cavalry into a charge on the Austrian left. According to one of his lancers, he spoke: "That bastard Severin! He seeks to steal the glory that by God's rights belongs to me!" With both flanks breaking under overwhelming force, the Austrian center gives way under the unrelenting pressure of Mathieu and Joly's assaults.
As Austrian resistance collapses, and with nowhere to run, they have no recourse but to surrender or die. The destruction of the once-victorious Austrian Army of Italy is complete on the fields of a sleepy Italian village by the name of Marengo.
General de Brigade Denis Martin Severin was currently not at all happy. "Damned sawbones want me to stay off my feet for six months? I'll go mad before then! Don't they know there's a war on? We've been chasing the Austrians since Genoa, and their morale and organization must be hanging by a single thread."
The echoing boom of cannonfire in the distance perked Severin's ears up, the promise of battle drawing him from his sickbed. Gritting his teeth to work through the pain, the general dons his vest and coat before striding out of the medical tent. Commandeering the nearest horse, he mounts up and rides to meet his Imperial Guard. His left arm still in a sling, Severin guides the borrowed horse to where he can see the Guard's colors. Joining his colonels on a small rise, he looks over the battle in progress.
All of II Corps is laid out in a battle line stretching across the fields between the nearby village and a castle to the north, with Estienne's battery in the center hammering the Austrian center. Leclerc's cavalry is split, guarding the flanks, while Murat's cavalry mills about in reserve, though they seem to be drifting to the right. Looks like the prissy prancing pony ponce wants to get in on the action and rush the castle before the Austrians can seize it to anchor their wavering lines.
"Achille, Hector, is the Guard ready to move?"
"Severin! I thought you were out for the rest of the campaign with your wounds?"
"Hah! And miss what's looking to be the last battle of our campaign? Not on your life, Hector!"
"Severin, Davout is beginning his advance."
"Aye, looks like Joly and and Mathieu to punch through the center with Estienne's support, and Perrot on the left and Abel on the right. Looks like Horsey-boy wants to get stuck in; he's been drifting to the right for the last few minutes. Get our cavalry and chasseurs into that village behind the Austrians on the double. If we break them here, we can cut off their retreat, pin them up up against that river behind the village."
"According to the maps that village is named Marengo."
"Right, get those lads into Marengo. Tell them to hold it and deny the crossing to the Austrians. As for us, we're going to roll up their flank. And as much as I despise that dapper dandy, the man knows how to command cavalry. If he sees the chance, he'll do his part and roll up the Austrian left. Hector, take Garde du Nord and swing around that vineyard. Block their line of retreat and force them to run for Marengo. Attack if you think it practical. Achille, we're leading Garde du Sud through that vineyard. We're going to smash into their flank just as Perrot gets them tied down. I hope you all had your onions, because we're going to play that song at full blast to signal the attack."
"Aye, Severin. I'll see it done. Rider, take this dispatch to Ensign Capet!"
"All right, Severin. Just like Mayence, right?"
Dismounting from his borrowed horse, Severin joins Garde du Sud as they creep through the vineyard onto the Austrian right flank. The thunder of artillery in the distance a deep bass line to the rattle and crackle of musket volleys, accompanied by a chorus of shouts and screams of men from both sides. For a moment, Severin deeply misses de Lisle. The man could take the sounds of a battlefield and transform it into a beautiful orchestration. When the wars are over, he would leave the army and devote his life to music. Then, the moment passes.
Watching the pace of the battle for a few seconds longer, Severin waits for the Austrians to unleash their next volley.
"Now, signals, now!"
The previously silent vineyard bursts into a fanfare of bugles, shortly joined by drums and thousands of voices as the men of Garde du Sud picks up the Song of the Onion. At the signal, Gard du Nord advances at triple time in assault column from the cover of the vineyard to a position directly behind the Austrian right. Coming to a halt, they wheel right as if on parade, and unleash a volley directly into the rear of the Austrian line. As they begin to reload, Garde du Sud charges from the vineyard with lowered bayonets gleaming in the sun. Severin joins the charge, wielding a borrowed entrenching spade like a hand axe, having not had time to pick up his pistol and saber from the camp. In spite of his wounds, he is among the first to draw blood from the Austrians, with the words "No onions for those dogs!" on his lips.
Fixed from the front, fired upon from the rear, and receiving a bayonets charge in their exposed flank, the Austrian right folds like a wet newspaper. Murat, not to be left out of the actions, spurs his cavalry into a charge on the Austrian left. According to one of his lancers, he spoke: "That bastard Severin! He seeks to steal the glory that by God's rights belongs to me!" With both flanks breaking under overwhelming force, the Austrian center gives way under the unrelenting pressure of Mathieu and Joly's assaults.
As Austrian resistance collapses, and with nowhere to run, they have no recourse but to surrender or die. The destruction of the once-victorious Austrian Army of Italy is complete on the fields of a sleepy Italian village by the name of Marengo.
Historically, for units with extremely high morale, it was not uncommon for wounded men to go "reverse AWOL" and escape hospitals to rejoin their units. One famous unit with multiple such cases was the Japanese-American 100th/442nd RCT in Italy in WWII.
Anyway, back to the battle. @Magoose confirmed with me by PM that this was the equivalent of OTL 1800 Marengo, where Nappy B nearly lost, then came back to win it hours later, and where OTL, the Song of the Onion is alleged to originate. It was the next major battle after the Siege of Genoa (there was a smaller skirmish several days before where Lannes beat back an Austrian column). So, have some maps:
The first is a clean map without troop deployments. The second is from the OTL battle, but it has the location of the vineyards. OTL, the Austrians launched a surprise attack against Nappy B and forced him to fall back. In this timeline, Davout and his posse chased down and caught up to the Austrians, and they were arrayed from the south of Castel Ceriolo to the north of the western vineyard. The lineup and temperaments of II Corps officers is here, and Murat was placed in reserve towards the right in anticipation of slipping between Castel Ceriolo and the Austrian left (a vineyard is, shall we say, less than ideal ground for cavalry). Severin ran his cavalry and chasseurs to Marengo along the New Road by way of La Spinetta (top map, route labeled Austrian Retreat on bottom map).
Anyway, back to the battle. @Magoose confirmed with me by PM that this was the equivalent of OTL 1800 Marengo, where Nappy B nearly lost, then came back to win it hours later, and where OTL, the Song of the Onion is alleged to originate. It was the next major battle after the Siege of Genoa (there was a smaller skirmish several days before where Lannes beat back an Austrian column). So, have some maps:
- Location
- America
Can we import food from the USA? I mean, the Royal Navy is getting fucking hammered, and the Americans might be interested in some coin to build ships to capitalize on their successes.
And how much can we buy with our personal fortune? Like, if we spent our total net profits without dipping into our actual savings.
Also we need to demobilize a lot of our soldiers ASAP to bring the harvests in.
And how much can we buy with our personal fortune? Like, if we spent our total net profits without dipping into our actual savings.
Also we need to demobilize a lot of our soldiers ASAP to bring the harvests in.
Last edited:
Magoose
SV's Questing Fanatic
- Location
- California USA
- Pronouns
- He
Yes. But you do not have the authority to make such treaties, only Napoleon and Talleyrand do.
Once Nappy returns, you can influence such treaties.
And by god we have lots of influence ideas.
You could, if you wished, You can pay for a hot meal for every person in paris for one year, with the amount of money you make.
In fact, that's one of the actions you can take.
Last edited:
- Location
- America
Well importing food is definitely on the list of things we need to do. I want this addressed immediately.
Okay that's a lot.
What if we just limited it to soup kitchens serving the poor and disadvantaged?
Magoose
SV's Questing Fanatic
- Location
- California USA
- Pronouns
- He
Im sure he would to, but saving the Franc would also help in buying food.
You could.
With the food situation dire, I propose freezing the price to a reasonable level and giving the relevant businesses subsidies as long as the price freeze lasts
- Location
- America
Oh shit. We've got inflation too? This is worse than I feared!
Well I guess we're doing that then. If we're careful, we can probably spread such kitchens across all of France's major cities. It might boost our popularity.
I believe the British days are so numbered that they might disbanded all together
Magoose
SV's Questing Fanatic
- Location
- California USA
- Pronouns
- He
I mean France has had an inflation problem and debt problem since before the revolution.
its been stemmed by battle loot and reparations, and the political situation has kinda... forced you to not pay attention to it (We are not economists, so we leave it to Napoleon and crew)...
it would also make us seem like the opposite of Marie Antoinette.
Magoose
SV's Questing Fanatic
- Location
- California USA
- Pronouns
- He
That moment where you actually cut down about twenty options because you plan for fun things ahead with post-birth scenes.
Also, The fact I wrote twenty options just to cut them down proves I really love this quest and enjoy doing it.
Also, The fact I wrote twenty options just to cut them down proves I really love this quest and enjoy doing it.
- Location
- leiden (NL)
I believe Russia has a big surplus of wheat that it is looking to sell abroad (that is one of the levers that England used OTL to get them to side against Napoleon after Tilsit).
We could make the selling of it to us at a fixed price (using part of the reparations we're about to extract from Prussia and Austria) a part of the peace treaty. That one is a win for both parties.
We could make the selling of it to us at a fixed price (using part of the reparations we're about to extract from Prussia and Austria) a part of the peace treaty. That one is a win for both parties.
- Location
- America
So the Russian army goes on vacation in Europe and brings back both a peace deal and a trade deal? Helluva souvenir I guess.
- Location
- alphen aan den rijn
hope our very high intellect can help us find a way to help the farmers longer term and get the economy working longer term
Okay, after a night of sleep, some more thoughts on the upcoming Peace Deals and the Nations of the Coalition.
Austria will get fucked. They deliberately broke the Terms of the Treaty we had with them after at first abiding by them for a while. They will get screwed HARD.
Prussia may actually get off a bit easier. As far as I remember, they broke no Treaty we had with them by declaring War again so soon. They'll still get hurt, but I doubt it will be as badly as Austria.
Britain will probably stay at War with us as long as they can, despite their recent Losses. With control over Northern Spain and large swathes of India, they have the resources to continue their relentless campaign to grind France to dust under their boots.
And Russia... Can we just talk about how Alexander I. made out like a goddamn Bandit in this whole Affair?
He took heaps of British Money, sent juuuust enough Soldiers to commit SOMETHING to the Coalition in return, didn't lose any men as far as I know in this whole thing and now goes back home with a White Peace. He has kept himself diplomatic Avenues to all of Europe open, since by technically abiding to the Agreement with the Coalition he still has some ties to Britain, Prussia and Austria, while at the same time having actually done pretty much nothing against us, which leaves him the possibility of buddying it up with France too in the Future if it serves his Interests.
In short, he got a ton of Money to rebuild his Nation from the recent Civil War while losing NOTHING in return, not even diplomatic Relations.
What a Madlad.
Austria will get fucked. They deliberately broke the Terms of the Treaty we had with them after at first abiding by them for a while. They will get screwed HARD.
Prussia may actually get off a bit easier. As far as I remember, they broke no Treaty we had with them by declaring War again so soon. They'll still get hurt, but I doubt it will be as badly as Austria.
Britain will probably stay at War with us as long as they can, despite their recent Losses. With control over Northern Spain and large swathes of India, they have the resources to continue their relentless campaign to grind France to dust under their boots.
And Russia... Can we just talk about how Alexander I. made out like a goddamn Bandit in this whole Affair?
He took heaps of British Money, sent juuuust enough Soldiers to commit SOMETHING to the Coalition in return, didn't lose any men as far as I know in this whole thing and now goes back home with a White Peace. He has kept himself diplomatic Avenues to all of Europe open, since by technically abiding to the Agreement with the Coalition he still has some ties to Britain, Prussia and Austria, while at the same time having actually done pretty much nothing against us, which leaves him the possibility of buddying it up with France too in the Future if it serves his Interests.
In short, he got a ton of Money to rebuild his Nation from the recent Civil War while losing NOTHING in return, not even diplomatic Relations.
What a Madlad.
Last edited:
- Location
- ?????????
Russia was one of the real winners of this war. There is no doubt about it. Those troops just had a tour of Europe, courtesy of Great Britain. They are going to be talking about this in their villages and bars for years.
God, the Memes this will Spawn during the Age of the Internet in this Timeline...
- Location
- ?????????
Party it up cause holy hell that worked...somehow. And use the money and fast-track Russian Industrialization.
Magoose
SV's Questing Fanatic
- Location
- California USA
- Pronouns
- He
I mean right now we can basically say we're the HRE now and he is in no position to negotiate against us.
Prussia only had to pay us a million in silver and they did that…
plus, the last war they were just humiliated.
Britian is… in an interesting position of "we realize that there is now a balance of power and we are just one piece of it."
of course they want to be the one controlling such balance.
The man is a diplomatic guru… even OTL he was a damn fine statesmen,.. if a bit of an autocrat.
He is a mad lad…
kinda like Brian and Therese in a way. Only he has Russia instead of good rolls.
A true Quest protagonist if there ever was one.
And our mysterious Russian alt history hero has… not gained prominence yet and is only a high ranking staff officers.
Britian: Take this money and fight our enemies.
Russia: take your money and take our time… sweet.
Britian: Wait no!
I don't know, Poland is in need of… not being lost and those polish basterds are amazing.
No… too much hatred.Would this be an option for dealing with Britain? Or do they hate us way too much?
Last edited:
Magoose
SV's Questing Fanatic
- Location
- California USA
- Pronouns
- He
Yeah they are going to be so f'ed if they do not get out of Spain.
Who's in command of the Brits in Spain, by the way? Tarleton? As far as I know, he was EAGER to be in command there in OTL.