Napoleon, taking over the command of the artillery of Aalto's troops, immediately went to the front, but the situation disappointed him. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

A sergeant accompanied the new artillery commander to inspect the French artillery, and Napoleon first came to the warehouse, where he wanted to check the artillerymen's homes. However, when the warehouse was opened, Napoleon saw the artillery inside and was himself a little stunned.

"This is all our artillery?" Napoleon asked, pointing to the poorly lit inside the warehouse.

The sergeant replied: "Yes, major, all our artillery is here." ”

Napoleon walked up to a 12-pounder smoothbore gun with a plaque clearly inscribed with the year: 1763.

The young and handsome artillery major said loudly: "A 12-pounder smoothbore gun, or is it a product of thirty years ago, you call this a cannon?" ”

The sergeant helplessly spread his hands, pointed to the cannon inside, and said, "Actually, this one is good for us. ”

The more Napoleon went inside, the cooler his heart became, and his artillery unit consisted of only a dozen guns, and most of them were relatively old field guns and mortars. Only one sergeant did not take care of it very carefully, and it was not maintained, and the condition was very poor.

Not only was the number of cannons small, but Napoleon later found that these guns were seriously short of ammunition. Ironically, the caliber of some ammunition does not match the caliber of artillery, and the management of the entire military materiel is very chaotic.

Immediately afterwards, Napoleon inspected his soldiers.

The soldiers lined up to receive the new commander's review, and Napoleon nodded to a younger-looking fellow and asked, "Soldiers." How old are you? ”

"Seventeen years old. Sir! The answer was loud. But the freckles on his face made people feel very unconfident.

Napoleon himself was not very old, graduating from the military academy in his teens, and he excelled in talent. But he doesn't believe that everyone is a genius like himself. He asked the young soldier with great authority, "How long have you been an artilleryman?" ”

"Fifteen days, sir."

Napoleon was a little messy and asked, "Then do you know how to fire a cannon and understand the artillery firing table?" ”

The soldier replied a little nervously, "I watched my seniors shoot last week, and I don't know what the thing you talked about later......"

Napoleon grimaced and then asked aloud: "How many of you are like him?" Not much artillery training. I don't know how to fire artillery, how to lay out positions. ”

Then almost two-thirds of the hands were raised.

Everyone's faces were gloomy, and they also felt that the future was uncertain, and morale seemed to have dropped to the lowest point at this time.

But Napoleon looked at everyone, and his expression did not seem to change much, he waved everyone to put down their raised hands, and then showed a handsome smile, and he said: "Very well, this is an advantage for us." Because most of you have not been polluted, you are still a blank slate. So from now on. I will personally teach you the best artillery techniques, and you will become the best French artillerymen. I don't have to worry about you dwelling on the bad and wrong training of the past. From the beginning of your studies, you have learned the right way to win. And in the war that follows, you will use your artillery fire to destroy our enemies, to retake Toulon for our country, and then to regain all the land that has been lost! ”

His words were purely groundless to cheer up the soldiers, but they had a very good effect. Napoleon was a natural leader, with a handsome appearance, excellent oratorical skills, and he understood the hearts of the people, led his soldiers with his own actions, and was full of charisma.

Napoleon began to do a great deal of work on the situation facing his troops.

The first major thing is to collect all the artillery that can be collected, and artillery without artillery is a joke.

He said to his sergeant: "Over the years, we have imported no less than 500 excellent artillery pieces of various types from Datang, although I don't know why my troops are like this, but in other places, we will definitely be able to find the best Tang-made artillery." There are arsenals in Lyon and Grenoble, and even the latest Tang-made 130-mm howitzers, and at least very good mortars, and in order to win the war, to make our troops full of combat effectiveness, it is necessary to use such artillery, and not these old things that we have in our hands now. ”

No one was going to hold Napoleon back in the priority of the Battle of Toulon, and the men he sent out to pull the artillery were almost always successful in collecting artillery. Soon after, Napoleon's army had 84 artillery pieces, of which he made up an artillery battalion of 16 130-mm Tang-made howitzers, as well as 22 Tang-made 70-mm field guns and 81-mm mortars, and the remaining few were French-made rifled guns in recent years, although they were not as powerful as the Tang artillery, but they were also useful. The rest are all older smoothbore field guns and mortars.

Napoleon was convinced that a weapon could be useful even if it was outdated, so he meticulously arranged for his soldiers to use these old guns.

Napoleon also set up an ordnance factory in Oriul to repair and maintain artillery, and fortunately, he also found an engineer from the Tang Dynasty. This engineer was originally in France to assist the French military factory to master the transfer of military technology, Napoleon personally wrote to him, and pulled out his good relationship with the Tang diplomat, hoping that the Tang engineer could come to Orioule to help him preside over the artillery and ordnance factory. Naturally, Napoleon, who was in the spotlight of the Tang Dynasty, would inevitably get support from the Tang Dynasty, and this engineer came to Orioule with a team and did a lot of work for Napoleon at random, especially he improved the performance of some of the artillery, so that the strength of Napoleon's troops jumped again.

In order to solve the problem of artillery maneuvering and fortifications, Napoleon requisitioned horses from Nice to Valence and Montpellier, and arranged for the production of tens of thousands of wicker baskets in Marseille for the construction of artillery fortifications. He also specially intercepted a part of the high-quality military shovels produced by Datang, and requisitioned a batch of cement and other building materials.

Napoleon was not only a brilliant organizer, but also a down-to-earth doer. He often went deep into the Shilun front line and rolled with the soldiers. Napoleon ate and lived with the soldiers, personally demonstrated to the soldiers during training, was very patient, and constantly encouraged his soldiers. More importantly, he, who had been influenced by the officers of the Tang Army, was also inspiring his soldiers with patriotic enthusiasm. Almost in a short time, the troops led by Napoleon took on a completely new look.

(To be continued.) )