The men of Dombrowsky continued to stay in Toulon for technical training, while the men of Vibitsky left France and went to Italy for internship after completing some theoretical study and reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance training.

Napoleon had already gained his foothold in Italy and began to attack Lombardy, the territory of Austria in Italy. With the sharp Bonaparte rifles and captured Italian cannons, Napoleon beat Marshal Bolière to retreat step by step. In the negotiations with the Kingdom of Sardinia, Napoleon forced the Kingdom of Sardinia to open the Valenza ferry on the Po River. This condition was also revealed to the Austrians. After all, the Kingdom of Sardinia had no confidence in whether it could recover the lost land, and only "confidence". They had realized that unless the Austrians could win, Piedmont would be farewell to them forever.

After receiving this news, Marshal Boliu did not dare to neglect and quickly concentrated all the troops that could be concentrated near the Varenza Ferry. In the previous small-scale battle, he had already realized how big the gap between his army and Napoleon's army was. Therefore, Po River became his only hope to block Napoleon.

Napoleon also brought the army near the Valenza Ferry and sent small troops to cross the river to reconnaise. He seemed to be preparing to cross the Po River from here, and the small-scale conflict between the two sides had almost never stopped.

These small-scale conflicts made the morale of the Austrians plummet. First of all, the weapons gap between the two sides was too big. The rifled rifled guns in the hands of the French were fast and accurate, making the Austrians almost unable to raise their heads. After defeating the Kingdom of Sardinia, the shortcomings of the cavalry in Napoleon's hands were also filled. These French reconnaissance cavalry equipped with revolvers beat the Austrian cavalry into doubting their lives in a small-scale battle.

Moreover, since entering Italy, the morale of the army has also increased greatly. This is not only because of victory, but also because half of the military pay can be paid in silver coins instead of finger coupons. Considering that over the years, the military pay of the army has been paid in finger coupons, and finger coupons have fallen a lot due to inflation, but if you only look at the numbers, the military pay of the soldiers has increased many times in numbers. Now, half of the military pay is paid in silver coins, which feels like suddenly the French currency can be exchanged for Yuan Datou in a two-to-one ratio. The soldiers have received so much military pay, and their morale is naturally rising. Many soldiers can't help but write letters to go home, encouraging their brothers to come to Italy as volunteers to help the French army fight for the country. The contents of the letters are of course of various, but there is one sentence that is almost no difference, that is:

"The enemy here is very stupid and has a lot of military pay. Come quickly!"

Under such pressure, in order to defend the river bank, Marshal Bolière had to transfer all the troops he could find here so that he could use the terrain to withstand the French. On the other hand, he also sent envoys to Vienna to ask for help from the country.

However, Napoleon had no intention of raising the Po River at the ferry of Valenza. Just after Marshal Bolière transferred almost all other troops here, he led his army and marched fifty miles at an astonishing speed to reach the downstream Piacenza. He crossed the Po River directly there.

The French army's transfer of such a big move could not be hidden from the Austrians, but Marshal Bolière had almost no choice because his troops could not keep up with the French army's speed. They first tried to keep up with the French and blocked the French in Piacenza, but after finding that their own could not keep up with the French, Marshal Bolière immediately made the decision to retreat across the Ada River and use the Ada River to block the French.

The soldiers under his command agreed with the marshal's decision. Over the past few days, through a series of small-scale battles with the French, everyone realized one thing: the elite French cavalry and infantry forces, and the battles in the wild, must not be fought.

Moreover, the Ada River is more conducive to defense than the Po River in natural conditions, because there are many rapids and dangerous shoals, and there are almost no ferry that is truly suitable for large troops to use. The only bridge is most suitable for large groups of people to pass through. As long as the army is withdrawn and then blow up the bridge, although the retreat has lost a large area of ​​land, at least they have temporarily saved most of the Lombardy.

Napoleon naturally knew the importance of the bridge, so as soon as he crossed the Po River, he immediately sent Dawu to lead a team of horse-riding infantry to seize the bridge. Napoleon originally thought that Marshal Bolière would rush forward to fight him directly. In his plan, the French army first defeated the Austrian army head-on, and then Dawu interspersed over them blocked their retreat, so he could naturally wipe out the Austrian army in one fell swoop. But he did not expect Marshal Bolière to retreat so decisively.

So when Dawu led the horse-riding infantry to the vicinity of the bridge, he found that the Austrians were already crossing the bridge from afar.

Dawu looked at the army around him. The number was only 500, but the Austrians there were at least 20,000 (including Italian mercenaries). Moreover, Marshal Boliu arranged a retreat very well. The rearguard troops were arranged very well and obviously it would not work to attack directly. Even the brave Dawu knew that rushing forward would not have any good results.

So Dawu asked the soldiers to get off the horse and hid behind a small woods. He himself took a telescope and climbed to a small hill next to him to look over.

The Austrians' retreat was organized quite well. The army crossed the bridge in an orderly manner, and the defenders began to retreat one after another. However, most of the last defenders were Italian mercenaries, and their retreat seemed a bit messy.

Dawu knew that this was the last chance. If these Italians crossed the bridge, the Austrians might blow up the bridge. At that time, if you think about crossing the river, there would be many more twists and turns. So he quietly came down from the hill, summoned the soldiers, and ordered them to immediately attack the enemy troops in a scattered formation.

The French army immediately launched an attack on the Italian mercenaries. When the gunshots sounded, something beyond Dawu's expectations happened: the Italians held on for a while at first, but suddenly, the Italians laid a row of guns, and then the Italian mercenaries were in chaos. They did not resist at all, but rushed to the bridge and rushed to cross the bridge quickly.

"This... these Italians are too cute, right?" Facing this scene, Dawu was almost stunned. He finally said this.

The Italians pushed and cursed each other on the bridge, and even shot into the sky for no reason. Dawu's men took advantage of the chaos and rushed to the bridge head almost without any obstacles.

The Italians guarding the bridge either escaped the bridge or surrendered. Dawu found a French-speaking Italian mercenary officer and asked, and then he realized that there was a reason for the Italians to do this.

"The Austrians installed explosives on the bridge. They told us to blow up the bridge immediately as soon as they crossed the bridge. The ignition was originally ours. But after the gunshots just now, a team of Austrian cavalry suddenly came towards the bridge. They were not here to help us guard the bridge. Those damn Judas, they were here to blow up the bridge. They wanted to blow up the bridge directly, regardless of whether we came or not... These damn Judas!"

The first team of Austrians who came to blow up the bridge were seen through by the Italians guarding the bridge and driven back. However, the Austrians were obviously unwilling to give up. They soon organized a team of cavalry to rush over to blow up the bridge, but the French army, who had reached the bridge head, immediately rushed them back with dense rifle bullets and small melons.

After receiving the report that the French army occupied the bridge, Marshal Boliu almost fainted. But he immediately reacted. He noticed that his artillery was just behind, so he ordered to push the artillery up immediately and use solid shells to fire violently on the bridge to cover other troops to blow up the bridge.

The accuracy of solid shells is of course very tragic, but there are many Austrian cannons. Marshal Bolière gathered more than fifty cannons at once and rushed to the bridge. The French army, who had just crossed the bridge, could not hold back, so they retreated back to the side of the bridge. However, the French rifled rifles were too sharp. The bridge bombing suicide squad sent by the Austrians rushed forward several times, but they did not rush up.

While commanding the soldiers to block the area around the bridge with rifle fire, Dawu also selected suicide squads from the team and went down to the underside of the bridge to remove explosives. The Austrians wanted to rush over to stop them, but were shot back by the volleyball.

Just as Marshal Bolière made up his mind to push forward despite the casualties and relying on the advantage of numbers, another team of French troops arrived.

As soon as Napoleon discovered that the Austrians had retreated, he immediately worried that there would be any danger in Dawu, so he asked Ogero to come with the newly formed cavalry division. Dawu, who received reinforcements from the new force, successfully consolidated his position on the west bank of the river, and the suicide squad he sent successfully demolished the explosives arranged by the Austrians under the bridge. However, due to the blockade of enemy cannons, it was very difficult to rush to the other end of the bridge.

In the evening, Napoleon's main force finally arrived at the bridge. It was almost dark, and the two armies confronted each other across the river.

That night, Napoleon summoned several of his officers together and assigned tomorrow's combat missions, preparing to break through the enemy's defense line in one fell swoop. After all, the bridge was basically controlled by the French army, and Napoleon was full of confidence in breaking through the defense line of only 20,000 Austrians on the opposite side. However, when the French army launched an attack on the Austrian positions as planned the next morning, Napoleon was surprised to find that Marshal Bolière moved in front of him again. In the middle of the night, he had someone nailed the fire gate of the cannon, then threw down the fifty cannons and retreated with his army.

:.:
Chapter completed!