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Chapter 198: Napoleon's Foraging Officers
🕑 Added 2025-01-21 22:43:32 +0000 UTCChapter 198: Napoleon's Foraging Officers
In fact, André had severely underestimated the boldness of these young cadets. Among the 30 large wagons brought by the 1,200+ police academy cadets, 22 were dedicated to the artillery, including hauling cannons and transporting ammunition. As for their provisions, they had cut back on almost everything!
Each soldier's backpack contained 11 pounds of hard bread, 3.5 pounds of dried meat, 4 pounds of oats for the horses, and two bags of wine. That was all the supplies they carried.
Meanwhile, the Moulins Corps didn't complete their preparations for the march until nearly noon. The army finally started moving slowly. This was after André, having heard his brother's "intelligence" the previous day, ordered his officers to leave behind heavy baggage like wardrobes and dining tables.
Actually, for an old-style army, their speed was already quite fast. But everything is relative. At this point, the police cadets had already covered nearly 10 kilometers.
At 6 PM, the Moulins troops began to set up camp and prepare dinner. An hour later, the cadets stopped by a stream 16 kilometers away. After setting up a perimeter, they lit campfires and heated up their carried rations.
At 8:15 PM, the cadets gathered around the campfires, spread their blankets on the grass, and fell asleep under the starlit sky.
At dawn the next day, they ate a quick breakfast and immediately resumed their march. Meanwhile, the Moulins troops were still hurriedly packing up tents and loading wagons, with some officers grumbling about their poor sleep due to the lack of mattresses.
André could no longer see the cadets ahead, but from the tracks on the ground, it was clear they had long passed through.
Around 3 PM, two scouts with dark circles under their eyes returned to the Moulins Corps—André was too curious about how the cadets managed their provisions, so he sent men to track them overnight.
"So they carried over 15 pounds of food each?" André asked the scouts, surprised. "With weapons, ammunition, and bedding, isn't that nearly 35 pounds of weight?"
"Yes, sir, it seems so."
"They're like machines…" André muttered in disbelief. How could they march so fast while carrying so much?
He quickly realized another issue. "Wait, even if the soldiers carried dry rations, what about their horses?"
Typically, people think of army provisions as mainly food for the soldiers. In reality, a large part of logistics is feeding the horses.
Warhorses expend a great deal of energy during campaigns, and they can't be fed like farm horses, which graze for hours. Grass has low nutritional value, and it would take horses several hours of continuous grazing to be full, time an army can't afford.
Moreover, it's difficult to ensure that grass is available along the march. Therefore, armies rely heavily on hay and oats transported by logistics units. This consumes much more than the soldiers' rations.
While soldiers can carry enough food to last several days, it's impossible for horses to carry hundreds of pounds of fodder.
The two scouts exchanged glances and replied, "Sir, they brought some concentrated feed, but mostly they fed the horses from nearby farms."
"They even got half their firewood from the locals. Oh, and they replenished some of their wine as well."
André's eyes widened, and he exclaimed, "That's cheating!"
He immediately summoned a messenger, instructing him to catch up with the cadets and lodge a strong protest on his behalf.
A day later, the messenger returned, bringing back one of the police academy instructors.
The instructor politely explained to André, "Respected Colonel, we followed standard requisition procedures. It's not cheating."
André almost laughed out of frustration. "You call taking supplies from local farms 'standard requisition procedures'?"
"No, sir, I think you misunderstand," the instructor replied quickly. "Our foraging officers paid for everything, often at slightly above market prices."
What he didn't mention was that if there hadn't been a grain shortage, the regulations would have allowed soldiers to requisition food from locals.
André waved dismissively. "That's still cheating! In a real war, would your troops not carry supply wagons and rely entirely on buying food from farmers?"
The instructor nodded seriously. "Yes, that's exactly what we would do. Sometimes we also hunt game to supplement our food."
"That's ridiculous! How can such a supply strategy be reliable? What if there are no farmers nearby?"
"The situation you describe is unlikely. Across all of Europe, where would you not find villages capable of supplying an army? Besides, the soldiers also carry emergency rations."
André was momentarily stunned. Right, even in poorer regions like Switzerland or southern Hungary, it wasn't difficult to find villages that could support an army of several thousand. This way, they could ditch the heavy and vulnerable supply wagons, making the army more agile and swift. No wonder the police cadets could mobilize and march so quickly!
This was actually a logistics strategy that Joseph had borrowed from Napoleon: the "foraging" supply system.
Napoleon's success across Europe was partly due to this unique logistics strategy.
It's well known that in warfare, especially in conflicts between major powers, logistics is one of the most critical factors determining victory. Some even say that war is all about logistics.
Napoleon innovatively discarded the large supply trains favored by European noble armies, banning officers from carrying heavy luxury items[Note 1], and even doing away with tents, which were cumbersome and time-consuming to set up. The army relied on local villages for food and drink, and if the weather was too harsh for camping, soldiers could use local homes.
The army paid the villagers for the supplies, often costing less than long-distance transportation, while the farmers received more compensation.
Of course, while this system sounds simple, implementing it required a well-organized and scientific approach.
For example, foraging officers needed considerable expertise, knowing where to find supplies and how to negotiate with farmers.
They needed to send advance parties to notify villages along the route to prepare supplies, which required accurate calculations of consumption rates.
There also had to be a system for quickly distributing the collected supplies to the units, and a plan for reallocating food to ensure that the villages wouldn't go hungry.
Joseph had only learned the general principles from documentaries in his previous life; the specifics of the supply regulations still needed to be refined by the officers through practice.
However, this logistics strategy had its limitations. For instance, Napoleon's reliance on foraging backfired disastrously in the barren and hostile terrain of Russia[Note 2]. But as someone with hindsight, Joseph planned to avoid such pitfalls.
After reluctantly sending off the police academy instructor, André gathered his officers to discuss whether they should adopt a similar foraging-based logistics system for their army.
This was one of Joseph's goals for having the Moulins Corps participate in the exercise with the cadets. As a military force he trusted, Joseph wanted André to learn some of the advanced strategies from the cadets to enhance the army's combat effectiveness.
Five days after leaving the town of Toucy, the police cadets successfully reached Paris, seizing the predetermined high ground for the exercise. They then conducted a thorough survey of the surrounding terrain.
André's troops, however, took another four days to reach the site, arriving exhausted, only to find the "enemy" had fortified their positions.
Nevertheless, as a seasoned veteran, André remained calm despite the unfavorable situation. He gathered his officers to discuss tactics and plan their assault.
At dawn the next day, the Moulins Corps assembled in front of the cadets' positions, forming a three-layered infantry line.
From a distance, Berthier lowered his telescope, sighing regretfully to Dubois beside him. "The cadets missed the best opportunity to attack."
Dubois nodded. "Indeed. Yesterday afternoon, the Moulins troops had just finished a forced march and were at their most exhausted. If the cadets had launched an assault then, they could have won in one blow."
Berthier remarked, "They were reluctant to give up their advantageous terrain. These young men are full of energy, but they still lack real combat experience."
Soon, André ordered his infantry to launch a frontal assault. At the same time, three of his six-pounder cannons positioned on a slightly elevated hill on the west side roared to life, providing cover for the infantry's advance.
But the cadets were well-prepared, and their artillery immediately returned fire. With their higher ground and an eight-pounder cannon, their range was longer, quickly suppressing the opposing artillery.
As the distance between the infantry lines narrowed to 100 paces, the cadets fired their first volley—they had the high ground, and their percussion cap rifles had a longer range, so they had the advantage.
Both sides used wooden bullets that would shatter upon impact, causing no real harm, but the deafening blasts and thick smoke made the soldiers' adrenaline surge as if they were in actual combat.
The Moulins Corps advanced a bit further before returning fire. The gunfire became even more intense, with soldiers being declared "dead" and leaving the battlefield.
To André's surprise, the young cadets were just as proficient in shooting as his seasoned soldiers. With their faster-loading percussion cap rifles, the cadets maintained a rate of fire two beats quicker than his men.
As the Moulins Corps suffered increasing casualties, the frontline officers finally gave the order to retreat.
The cadets' position immediately raised a blue flag with the Prince's emblem. Then, the drummers and standard-bearers took three steps forward, and the rapid beat of attack drums echoed across the field.
The cadet infantry advanced.
The retreating Moulins troops fell back even faster. Before long, their second line of infantry was exposed to the advancing enemy.
The cadets quickly adjusted their formation—the first line shifted to columns, while the second line took over the frontal shooting.
As the cadet infantry columns charged within twenty paces of the Moulins troops, the latter could no longer hold their ground and began to retreat in disorder.
The cadets' drummers quickened the pace, and the second line of infantry, with bayonets fixed, charged at the fleeing enemy.
The final line of the Moulins infantry had already begun retreating down to the flat ground at the base of the hill. In just over ten minutes, seven companies of cadets had closed in on them.
Oddly enough, the Moulins troops showed no signs of panic. Instead, their officers calmly guided the fleeing soldiers to the flanks, while the final infantry line unleashed a ferocious volley.
At the same time, three cannons appeared on the Moulins Corps' flank and began bombarding the approaching cadets.
It was clear that these cannons had only pretended to be suppressed earlier and had quietly repositioned.
André smiled and signaled to the messenger.
A few minutes later, a squadron of Moulins cavalry emerged from behind a hill on the eastern side of the battlefield, charging directly at the cadets' overextended infantry line from the rear.
Meanwhile, the first two infantry lines, which had feigned retreat, quickly regrouped and flanked the cadets from both sides.
The cadet instructors now realized they had fallen into a trap. Seeing that a large number of their infantry were about to be surrounded, they quickly deployed all their reserves and cavalry to engage in close combat and rescue their troops.
Once a melee broke out, it would be difficult for the exercise judges to accurately assess the casualties.
In the end, Berthier, concerned about the risk of injury in close combat, called off the battle half an hour later.
By then, the Moulins Corps had "lost" over 200 men. Although the cadets had fallen into a trap, their advantage during the earlier firefight, combined with their bravery in close combat, resulted in slightly fewer "casualties."
After a day of rest, Berthier's troops also joined the exercise. The three-sided war games were in full swing and would continue until the end of the month.
…
In the office of the Bureau of Industrial Planning, Joseph read the report on the war games submitted by Berthier and others, smiling as he nodded. "The cadets have solid military skills, but they still need more real combat experience."
He then turned to Frient and said, "For those cadets who performed exceptionally well in the exercise, let them graduate early and join Berthier's corps as junior officers."
"Yes, Your Highness. Colonel Berthier and I also believe that some of them are on par with noble officers."
As they were discussing this, Aymon knocked and entered, bowing to Joseph. "Your Highness, we just received word from Marseille. The King of Spain has sent you three ships of grain, which docked at the port ten days ago."
Note 1: In reality, Napoleon's officers' personal belongings remained a nightmare for the logistics units, and they were never completely banned. Even Napoleon himself would bring a bathtub to the battlefield. However, compared to other old-style armies, Napoleon's officers were considered quite restrained.
Note 2: Napoleon anticipated the logistical challenges in Russia and prepared much more supply than usual. However, he still partially relied on foraging, but the supplies collected in Russia were severely limited, worsening the French army's situation.
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