The Pyrenees are the largest mountain range in southwestern Europe, with a border between France and Spain. It starts from the banks of the Atlantic Bay of Biscay in the west and ends at the Mediterranean coast in the east, and is about 435 kilometers long. It is generally 80 to 140 kilometers wide, the eastern end is only 10 kilometers wide, and the central area is the largest. It is mostly more than 2,000 meters above sea level.

According to its natural characteristics, mountains can be divided into three sections: the West Pyrenees Mountain, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Songport Pass, most of which are composed of limestone, with an average altitude of less than 1,800 meters, abundant precipitation, rivers erosion and cutting, forming a pass, becoming a passage between France and Spain; the Middle Pyrenees Mountain, from the Songport Pass to the east to the upper reaches of the Garon River, has peaks, with the highest mountainous height, with 5 peaks above 3,000 meters above sea level, mainly composed of crystalline rocks, the highest point of Anetho peak is 3,404 meters above sea level; the East Pyrenees Mountain, from the upper reaches of the Garon River to the Mediterranean Coast, also known as the Mediterranean Pyrenees Mountain, is a blocky mountainous land composed of crystalline rocks, with a higher mountain basin. About 48 kilometers from the Mediterranean Coast, there is a pass with an altitude of only 300 meters, which is an important north-south transportation route.

Considering the geographical characteristics of the difficult to cross the central Pyrenees and easy to attack, in order to defend against the attacks of the Spaniards and maritime enemies, the French Army arranged two legions at both ends of the Pyrenees, the East Pyrenees (Commander General Moncey, with Dax as the legion base camp) and the West Pyrenees (Commander General Dorp, with Myas as the legion base camp). After all, to defend such a vast area, the strength of a legion cannot be achieved. During this period, because the main defense area of ​​the West Pyrenees is located in the direction of the Bay of Biscay (because there are still rugged mountains of nearly 2,000 meters in the west, suitable for defense and not easy to attack), it is generally called the Biscay Legion; while the East Pyrenees Legion took on the main attack mission, it is usually called the Pyrenees Legion.

Note: Again, the facts described in this book do not match the historical records.

In late April 1794, General Andrew, who successfully completed the task of quelling the chaos, led more than 12,000 officers and soldiers of the Vandai Legion to the small town of Mias in southwestern France. This is the base camp of the Pyrenees Legion, less than 50 kilometers away from the rolling Pyrenees Mountains.

The inaugural commander of the Pyrenees Legion, General Dopp, hurriedly brought his guards back to Paris after the notice of transfer of the National Guild, and did not want to stay for a moment. That was because the coward did not dare to face Andrew, afraid that the upcoming devil would seek bad luck to him. In order to avoid the two of them meeting on the way, he even ordered the guards to detour through Bezier, Nime and other places, and went north to Paris in a worried manner.

On April 28, when Andrew arrived at the Pyrenees legion 10 miles outside the city of Mias, at the source of the Garonne River, the highest rank of the officers who greeted him was only a colonel. This was a 25-year-old young officer, of medium size and handsome appearance, especially his bright eyes revealed extraordinary courage and infinite loyalty.

"Report to General Andrew, the Pyrenees Army welcomes you!" The young colonel ran towards him, stood under General Andrew's horse and saluted, and introduced other colleagues to the new boss one by one. He seemed a little nervous but forgot to introduce himself.

"Thank you, Colonel!" Andrew lazily gestured on his forehead with a horse whip and counted as a gift, but in the colonel's opinion it was an extremely casual move.

Andrew jumped off the horse and twisted his neck and stretched his chest on the spot. When he looked up again, he was surprised to find that there was no general in the army that greeted him, not even a brigade general.

"Col. Where are my generals?" Andrew asked. In his information booklet, even if Doctor Dopp was not included, the former Pyrenees should retain at least five generals.

The young colonel was a little embarrassed, blushed, and stuttered for a long time before telling his new commander that when General Dopp left the barracks early, many senior officers of the former Pyrenees, led by the Dopp effect, fled to other places. The reason is very simple. The fact that Andrew shot more than 30 middle and senior officers, including Brigadier Vincen in the city of La Roche made them feel extremely scared. The senior officers with lingering fear that the demon general would also be unfavorable to them. After all, the crimes of those officers were no better than those Brigadier Vincen who were deserters.

Commander Andrew, who heard this, was happy in his heart and praised the greatness of Satan. As early as when he was the deputy minister of the Free Army in Paris, Andrew had carefully reviewed the past war history of the Pyrenees. He was surprised to find that since 1791, when the Revolutionary France declared war on the Kingdom of Spain, the Pyrenees had almost been in a passive defense. He only once captured a pass about 48 kilometers from the Mediterranean coast and an altitude of only 300 meters, but he had only broken into a position less than 80 miles in Spain. After plundering the city of Figueras, which occupied the other side, he took the initiative to retreat on the pretext that the supply was severely insufficient.

Fortunately, the Spanish were also fools. Their commanders no longer had the enterprising spirit of the Age of Discovery. They stayed quietly on the hillside and watched the French robbery, and then slowly touched them and recovered their "lost land". They had never had the idea of ​​pursuing teams not doing the French army. However, amid the protests of the residents on the border and under the pressure of the Madrid cabinet, the Spanish might have "bravely" rushed down the Pyrenees once and twice, harassing the French a few times without any pain and itch, and then ran back to the mountain. Andrew heard that the commanders of both sides actually resold all kinds of scarce materials to each other, but everyone did it very secretly and had few flaws left to outsiders.

In this way, the armies of hostile countries on both sides of the Pyrenees remained peaceful during the three years of declaring war, with only a small-scale plundering war until Andrew was appointed as the new commander of the Pyrenees Legion.

On the day when Andrew was still in the city of La Roche, he studied with Dawu and others on the day he wanted to replace the incompetent division commanders and brigade commanders and replace them with his confidants. However, considering the unity of the legion, he needed to find a very convincing reason or excuse, but now everything is spared, and the senior officers' voluntarily resigned has saved General Shanyue a lot of time.

Just as Andrew was happy alone, the Milière Commissioner who had listened to the colonel's report came and said, "Commander-in-Chief, the Republic does not allow officers to leave the team privately, as this will shake the morale of the army."

"Yeah, it's not bad. My special commissioner, leaving the team privately is a defection!" Andrew finished his inner activities and replied with a serious look on his face, then called the military judge, Colonel Xia De.

"Col. Now, in the name of Deputy Minister of the Army and Commander of the Pyrenees, I order you to lead your military police to immediately pursue all defected officers, and then arrest them and directly escort them to the Revolutionary Court for trial. If you encounter resistance, kill them without any worries! In addition, I will distribute my orders to all garrisons throughout France and ask them to assist in the implementation."

"As for orders, general!" Colonel Xiade turned over his horse and found a major from the former Pyrenees legion as a guide, leading a team of military police to handle General Andrew's mission.

Looking at the departure of the judge of the army, Andrew nodded with satisfaction, turned around and patted the young colonel on the shoulder, but scared the latter. It was obvious that the colonel was surprised by General Andrew's ruthlessness and coldness. No wonder those senior generals with ulterior motives wanted to escape, but they made a bigger statement when they ran away.

Andrew, who just finished playing the role of butcher, did not want everyone to think of himself as a devil. He left his serious face and replaced it with a bunch of smiles. However, Andrew's performance was not successful, but to others, it became more and more terrifying, like the expression of the demon of hell.

"And now, my colonel, you forgot to tell the commander your name and position!" Andrew asked with a smile, but stopped the colonel's salute again.

"Please forgive my unreasonableness, General Andrew! My name is Rana, the former staff officer of the Pyrenees." Although he no longer saluted, the colonel replied respectfully.

As soon as Rana heard this name, an extremely glorious figure flashed in Andrew's mind.

The colonel born in Gaskeny was a brave, fearless and tenacious officer, and the most outstanding commander of the marching cover in Europe at that time. In field battles, few people could compete with him. He was also the first marshal under Napoleon I to die on the battlefield. Napoleon I once commented: "When I discovered Rana, he was still a brave warrior; when I lost him, he was an irreplaceable general."

...

"Haha, I made another profit, I found a good baby."

Thinking of Andrew, the smile on his face became even brighter, and his words seemed extremely gentle, as if he treated Little Red Riding Hood with ulterior motives.

"Haha, my dear Colonel Rana, have you had lunch? Oh, it's 6 o'clock now. Well, how about let's go to the barracks together for dinner?"

Before he could finish his words, Andrew grabbed the arm of the flattered Colonel Rana, and the two walked into the base camp of the Pyrenees. On their backs, Mirière, Davu, Neck, Lisdori, Saint Martin and others shook their heads in their hearts and sighed, "Another innocent officer is about to walk onto General Andrew's pirate ship."

This is of course just another one. While General Andrew gave it to his boss, Minister Carno, 200 artillery, he also wrote a letter asking the minister to transfer the division commander of the Italian Legion, 36-year-old Major General Massena to serve as his subordinate. At this time, Massena had just led a brigade to surround the flanks of the Austrian-Sardinian coalition position at the Tenda Pass at an altitude of 6,200 feet, cut off the enemy's retreat, and enabled the Italian Legion to win the April offensive.

But as a descendant of Italy, Massena, his hard work failed to get any reward from his boss, General Serre, the commander of the legion, and even said a word of praise. After receiving the order from Paris, Massena said goodbye to his division without hesitation and took his adjutant to take office. General Serre was also happy, after all, there was a drunkard in the legion who was indecent, sloppy, greedy for money and women, and was extremely dissatisfied with the group.

Five days later, the day after Massena arrived at the Pyrenees Legion, at the subsequent military meeting, Andrew announced to the officers a plan to reorganize the legion that he had drafted in Vandai as early as possible:

1. The Vandai Legion and the Pyrenees Legion were completely merged, and a new Pyrenees Legion was formed in accordance with the requirements of the National Guild. The current force was 41,000, and another 10,000 soldiers were needed. The total number of troops in the army must not be less than 50,000. The recruitment and training of new recruits was supervised by Colonel Shush, and the full time was within 40 days;

2. The new Pyrenees legion is divided into two infantry divisions, one cavalry brigade, one direct mixed brigade (used for the security of the guard commander and his direct command), one military artillery column, one special forces brigade, one engineer battalion (including engineers and boat bridge soldiers), and there are also legion-level logistics support and medical departments.

3. Each infantry division has a membership of about 16,000 people. The combat division commander is commanded by generals and has independent staff and command system. Brigadier General Dawu and Major General Massena, who has just arrived, serve as division commanders. The division is under three infantry brigades, one directly under the artillery unit, with 12 to 18 12-pound cannons; engineers and boat bridge corps, and also its own logistics and medical departments. Andrew specifically requires each division to have considerable independent combat capabilities. According to the commander's overall strategic deployment, the division commander freely decides on offense and defense.

Each brigade is organized between 4,500 and 7,000 people. The brigade has three infantry regiments. The brigade artillery detachment usually has 8 8-pound guns and 4 6-inch howitzers. The brigade department also has its own staff team, and Andrew appointed Colonel Neck, Colonel Lanar and others to serve as brigade commander.

Each regiment has three battalions, each with a maximum of 1,200 people, as well as a regiment military band (drums), medical teams, and transportation teams (responsible for transporting packages and ammunition). Each regiment has its own artillery squad, including 5 6-pound cannons and 2 howitzers.

The battalion is the most basic tactical unit, commanded by a major (or captain). It has nine companies under its jurisdiction, including a vanguard company (usually deployed in front of the entire battalion as a vanguard, with a few horses used for reconnaissance) and a rifle company (acting as a sniper).

3. The cavalry brigade abandoned all cavalry and unified it into a single light cavalry. Colonel Mura served as the commander of the cavalry brigade. There were 6,000 cavalry, with at least 6,000 war horses, and at the same time had its own cavalry brigade artillery unit, with 8 artillery pieces of 6 pounds of howitzers. The cavalry brigade had three regiments under it, and they were divided into 9 cavalry companies, with companies as the most basic tactical unit of the cavalry unit.

4. A direct mixed brigade consists of an infantry regiment (3800 people), a cavalry regiment (2600 people), a military police regiment (battalion-level organization, 800 people), and an artillery detachment (500 people), with nearly 8,000 people. The mixed brigade is directly commanded by General Andrew, and the actual commander is played by Colonel Xiade.

5. The commander of the military artillery column was Lieutenant Colonel Li Shidori. The entire artillery column has more than 120 large-caliber artillery (including Cannon runners, howitzers and mortars). In addition to more than a thousand gunners, there is also an infantry regiment responsible for security missions, as well as a large number of transport tools (including mules and horses that pull cannons).

6. A special forces brigade was formed by Colonel Xiushi, who was responsible for the training of recruits. Because its organization was personally explained by the commander, it will not be announced yet.

7. Other aspects of the Legion. While in charge of the armory, Director Lavashi also handled various affairs of the engineering battalion; logistics and supplies such as related supplies were managed by Sandro; the field hospital was led by Renek as the head of the battlefield. (Originally, Andrew wanted to establish a direct department similar to the current Joint Staff Headquarters, but because there was no suitable person to be elected as the Chief of General Staff, he had to lead the team of Adjutant St. Martin, first convened a group of experienced lieutenants, and formed a staff team to form a staff team to study the combat plan. The final strategic deployment was still decided by senior officers of the Legion.)

7. In terms of weapons and equipment. The standard equipment of ordinary infantry is still slightly modified on the basis of the 1777 Type "90" large-caliber smoothbore rifle (44 inches long, 0.69 inches in diameter. The total gun is 59.5 inches long), and is equipped with standard bayonets of 15 to 18 inches of triangle iron. The rifle company is a rifled bayonet slightly longer than 2 to 3 inches. Each infantry carries 50 rounds of ammunition; in terms of cavalry, because all of them are transformed into light cavalry, their basic equipment is equipped with two short guns and a saber (about 1 long).

The two-sided blade of the meter was removed, and the heavy and useless thick breastplate and the offensive cavalry flintlock rifle were eliminated. The artillery was planned to be divided into field artillery and siege cannons. The siege cannons are mainly super-large caliber mortars and large artillery of 16 to 24 pounds, which belong to the direct artillery column of the legion. The division level issued various small-caliber field cannons and below (also divided into cannons and howitzers). On the projectiles of the shells, three types of solid bullets, flowering bullets (grenades) and grape bullets are mainly provided.

8. In military uniforms, both artillery, cavalry and artillery abandoned the dazzling multi-color uniforms that were previously dazzling, and all were replaced with single green or yellowish colors. The previously beautiful blue military uniforms were changed to etiquette clothes. (Andrew also wanted all soldiers to have a helmet, but considering that the few existing copper and iron needed to cast a large number of artillery artillery, he had to give up.)

...

According to the commander's requirements, the basic characteristics of future legion attacks will be artillery destruction, cavalry raids and infantry occupation joint combat methods. A simple explanation is that when encountering a battle between the two armies, the first thing to do is to use the large number of artillery inside the legion and extremely powerful artillery power to destroy the enemy's defensive positions or offensives as much as possible, torture both psychologically and physically and strike the enemy to panic; then, while protecting the flanks of the infantry artillery and guarding against the enemy's cavalry to attack, the cavalry should take advantage of the chaotic formation of the opponent to carry out fierce assaults, continue on both wings, effectively strike the enemy and let them collapse the critical point; and the infantry's task is to obtain the fruit of victory, strangle all enemies that continue to resist, and occupy the position to seize the military flag.

...

"All commanders at all levels of the Legion must complete the organization of their subordinates within 7 days..."

The above-mentioned organization of the Legion is actually an optimized version of Andrew's imitation of the Napoleon Legion and Army Reform. When St. Martin's Adjutant read the long reorganization plan on behalf of Commander Andrew, the entire military conference room was in a state of noisy. At first, the officers were happy for their promotion, so they cheered, but later they were confused by the commander's various arrangements and had many things they didn't understand. The main focus was on:

First, the personnel are assigned to the subordinates. Commanders at all levels require the veterans to lead less or are unwilling to lead new soldiers;

Second, the current number of artillery is only less than 100, and it is impossible to guarantee the use of more than 360 cannons of various caliber in the entire legion;

Third, the number of horses is seriously insufficient, and even 6,000 cavalry cannot be equipped, so let alone pulling artillery;

Fourth, in terms of the reform of military uniforms, the officers are unwilling to give up their beautiful blue uniforms and wear ugly green or yellow combat suits.

Fifth, Colonel Xiushi, his rifle regiment was broken up and placed in other troops, and he was brought up to train new recruits and some other special forces brigade and complained.

Regarding the previous question, General Andrew directly asked the future recruits to be evenly distributed to each division (brigade), but he retained them as experienced elite soldiers in the direct mixed brigade; in the two questions in the middle, Andrew asked the officers to find trouble for Director Lavashy and the old housekeeper Sandro; in the restructuring of military uniforms, Andrew still refused to give in. The commander, who was very impatient by the beauty-loving Colonel Mura and others, finally got angry. He slapped the table and shouted loudly, "Which bastard is that bastard?"

If you don't change your clothes, just change your position!" After a burst of anger, he calmed down the situation; in order to appease Colonel Xiushe, Andrew only emphasized indifferently that the upcoming brigade of the army will be the most elite troops within the army, and the special forces are elite troops with high intensity and special training, and are good at fighting under unconventional conditions and extremely difficult environments. They perform the most dangerous and difficult tasks required by the commander, and the lowest level of combatants is also the treatment of non-commissioned officers, etc.
Chapter completed!