Chapter 94: False Reporting of Military Intelligence
Chapter 94 Lying about the military
The morning sun slowly drew back the curtain, blood stained the earth red, and the big red lanterns rising in the east, the air still emitted a strong smell of blood, which seemed to tell the tragic last night.
The war has come to an end, three or two Austrian soldiers are cleaning up the battlefield, and from time to time there is a group of prisoners being escorted through, proving who is the victor of the war.
Grigi ordered, “Dispose of the enemy’s bodies as quickly as possible, we don’t have so many priests in our army to give them a farewell!”
The summer of 1848 came extraordinarily early, it was still May and the temperature had risen to 32°C. In order to avoid a plague, it was only possible to burn all the corpses.
……
A roaring fire began to burn and a group of priests came out of the captives to take part in this farewell ceremony, and Grigi didn’t stop them.
The European continent faith is a topic that can not be bypassed, giving the dead the most basic respect, this is the basic moral decency that nobles should have.
Send off the enemy at the same time, the Austrian army also send off their comrades, watching a familiar lad buried in the soil, Grigi’s good mood sank.
A general’s battle went well last night, even so the Austrian army still paid a terrible price.
Nearly a regiment was lost, especially the more than eight hundred men who took part in the raiding party, less than half of them survived, including a hundred wounded.
The casualties were heavy and the results of the battle were staggering, killing more than three thousand enemy troops, capturing more than seven thousand, seizing a number of supplies, and winning the largest victory since the outbreak of the war.
With the victory of the Battle of Trento, the situation on the Venice battlefield also changed drastically, and the original face of the Sardinian army’s lack of combat power was uncovered.
The Austrian army in the confrontation was greatly encouraged, and many generals were sharpening their fists, ready to look for an opportunity to make a big fight.
Trento is an important part of the Venetian war, Marshal Badolio only deployed heavy troops, other places will not be so lucky, even if they have the advantage of troops, this advantage can not be several times.
The Battle of Trento became the turning point of this Austro-Saxon War, after which the tide of offense and defense was reversed, and the Austrian army set off a wave of counterattacks.
……
Sardinian army’s general headquarters, Major General Mantua reported, “Your Excellency Marshal, the current situation is very unfavorable for us, the Papal States’ army is in retreat, and has already disengaged from the battlefield, it seems that they are ready to withdraw from this war.
The Tuscans, after suffering a crushing defeat some days ago, have entered a state of humpbackedness, and are now stationed in Brescia, fifty kilometers away from the battlefield.
Even if we want to engage the enemy, we still have two days of traveling to do so, and now we’re on our own.”
Marshal Badorio frowned, a waterbearer was a waterbearer, his military literacy was simply not enough to command so many troops in battle.
Not only him, but the entire Sardinian Kingdom Army did not have any generals who could manage to fight with 200,000 troops.
There was no way, famous generals were fought out on the battlefield. The Sardinian Kingdom’s standing army was only 20,000 to 30,000, and the highest ranked first line officers were only at the division commander level.
Suddenly promoted above the group army commander, to command twenty times the original troops in battle, anyone would need a process of adaptation.
For the time being, Marshal Badorio was still in the process of adapting, ever since the Battle of Venice had been fought, there had been varying degrees of chaos in the Sardinian Kingdom’s army, exhausting him.
Rubbing his forehead, Marshal Badorio spoke, ”Forget about the Papal Kingdom’s army for now, now that the Papal Kingdom has had a change of heart, they are unable to care about this war.
The Tuscans are now down to one regiment, and are already a dispensable presence in this war.
If it wasn’t politically necessary, I wouldn’t mind telling them to get lost immediately, so as not to stay and waste food!”
Obviously, Marshal Badorio harbored a deep resentment towards these two allied troops that did not listen to command, and had now completely lost faith in them.
“Marshal, Marshal, something big is wrong!” The guard said excitedly
Badorio glared in the direction the voice had come from, and deep down, had already sentenced the panicked guard to death, and was already calculating whether it would be better to throw the uninformed bastard somewhere to eat dirt.
“Slow down, the sky hasn’t fallen yet!”
The guard tried his best to calm down and said, “Marshal, news has come from the front line, our troops besieging Trento were sneak attacked by the enemy last night, and now they have suffered heavy losses, and General Messer is retreating to Bergamo!”
As soon as the words fell, the baton in Marshal Badorio’s hand, was thrown out, hitting this unlucky guard right on the forehead.
Not waiting for the guard to react, Marshal Badorio had already rushed over, grabbed him by the collar, and asked in a murderous manner, “How is this possible, are you sure that you didn’t misrepresent the military situation?”
At this time, the guard was about to pee in fear, he finally realized why this good errand of reporting military intelligence to the marshal would fall on his head.
The guard said apprehensively, “Marshal, these are all battle reports from the front line, we have already sent people to verify them, they are absolutely accurate!”
Hearing this answer, Marshal Badorio became even more furious, pushing the guard to the ground with a slap, looking at him with a murderous gaze and saying fiercely, “Why didn’t you report this in advance?”
The guard lay dumbfounded on the ground not knowing what to do, report in advance? Uncertain about the truth and the size of the damage, what am I going to come here to report?
Could it be that the front line may have suffered a major defeat and the army may have suffered heavy losses? The exact number of casualties is between 0 and 30,000?
Looking at the murderous Marshal Badolio, the crowd tacitly chose to look on with cold eyes, even though they all wanted to figure out what had happened at the front line and why General Mercer had lost the battle.
After venting his anger, Marshal Badorio slowly slowed down, suppressed his emotions and continued, “Waste, still don’t dare to hurry up and get up for me!”
It was two quick-eyed young officers who hurriedly set the overwhelmed guard on his feet.
“Tell me, what exactly happened at the front line? Is it possible that that fool Messer, three divisions still can’t beat a single regiment of the enemy?” Badorio asked
The infantry division establishment in the Sardinian Kingdom’s army wasn’t big, it had increased after the expansion, and it was basically between 8,500 to 12,000 men.
No matter how small this establishment is, against an Austrian regiment of more than 2,000 men, it is an absolute advantage, and there is no possibility of overturning.
The guard said fearfully, “Marshal, we’ve been fooled, the enemy has more than one regiment at Trento. Preliminary judgment is that there are at least five infantry divisions, that’s why we failed!”
There was no doubt that this was lying about the military situation. To beat General Mercer to death, he wouldn’t dare to say that the enemy only had three regiments, that would mean a court martial.
(End of chapter)