Current Strategic Overview of the French Empire
The following is an excerpt from the edited minutes of a meeting of Imperial French Commanders at Versailles, a northern suburb of Paris. Present were Empress Jeanne I, Marshal Forsberg, Marshal Villiers, General Lefebvre (representing Marshal Gaspard in Amiens), General Girard (representing Marshal Jourdain in Marseilles) and General Lapierre, Commander of the Paris Garrison. Marshal de Simon was not present and was unable to send a proxy, due to the isolation of his pocket in northwestern France.
Villiers: We have every reason to believe that this is the critical year of the war. Villeneuve is vanquished, half of his men have surrendered and the other half have control over a large, but strategically unimportant backwater region of Capetais, Charolais and Touraine. The Orléans Clique has collapsed, and in its division presents the final, great threat to Paris. Marshal Ignace has declared for the communard cause. Regardless of the sincerity of that action, his forces are fighting less than 20 kilometres from where we stand, and the Paris Garrison must contend with labour disruptions and communard militias operating behind our lines. Our forces appear to be superior to those fielded by Orléans, but with the critical difference that they can concentrate all of their forces on this assault, while we must keep the peace across the entirety of the restive Empire.
Jeanne: Our successful defense of Paris will serve as just a potent peacekeeper as a full division of fusiliers. The people will be disinclined to rise up against a victorious Empress.
Villiers: Your majesty’s commitment to the moral victory of our cause can hardly be understated, but for the moment we must discuss the practical matters of our troop disposition.
Jeanne: Of course.
Forsberg: With what forces that have been left to my disposal, I have kept General Dufresne’s rebellion contained to its initial gains in the Southern Massif, Berry and Auvergne. Regrettably Marshal Jourdain has not, as of yet, committed forces to pressuring Dufresne from the south.
Girard: Marshal Jourdain has followed the strategy as agreed upon at our previous conference, focusing on the elimination of Villeneuve as a threat, which has been achieved successfully in this past year’s campaign.
Forsberg: Respectfully, Jourdain has not gained meaningful ground in Provence since losing Marseilles to Villeneuve.
Girard: Respectfully, you have not mentioned the additional communard rebellions that appeared under your watch.
Jeanne: Marshal Forsberg, General Girard, I will not have either of you besmirching the other’s honour at this time. Marshal Jourdain was instrumental in achieving the surrender of the Marseilles garrison and the recovery of the city. Marshal Forsberg, your performance has been exemplary in limiting Dufresne’s gains as much as you have with the severely limited resources at your disposal.
Forsberg: I apologize, your grace.
Villiers: Marshal Forsberg will be able to receive reinforcements as we draw the bulk of our forces out of the Loire. With the capture of Villeneuve’s urban holdings and the destruction or capture of much of his heavy equipment, a much smaller force can deal with the remaining Alexandrine holdouts in Capetais. However, we must not underestimate these forces and treat it as a mere policing action.
Jeanne: Your lieutenants will have the forces required to pacify the holdouts or keep them contained, as they see fit. The longer this conflict draws on, the more their forces will flag, only victories might rebound their spirits. We will deny them those.
Lapierre: Shall we get to the matter of the City, your grace?
Jeanne: Empress Sophia of the Romans has announced that more reinforcements will be coming to Rheims. General Girard, are you able to bring forces from Maine to bear against the southern flank of the Orléanist offensive against Paris?
Girard: The bulk of our forces are still in Lower Provence, your grace, it will be several months before they are able to relocate to the new front. I agree that an offensive from Maine against the communard flank is of the highest priority. Dufresne’s communards in the Southern Massif, while closer to our current troop dispositions in Provence, are not in a strategically important position.
Forsberg: We are discussing Paris.
Jeanne: Gentlemen.
Lapierre: As Marshal Villiers stated, the situation in Paris is critical. In a conventional war I am comfortable holding the crossings of the Seine, but the actions of communard irregulars are a severe tax on my manpower, the greater part of the loyalist forces in the city are locked down in patrols. Several arrondissements have become all but inaccessible to my troops. I have opted to cordon them off, rather than committing the forces to completely crush them. With the numbers I have- we cannot point our rifles in two directions at once.
Villiers: Our forces are coming from the east.
Lapierre: We need a levée en masse.
Forsberg: In a time of internal revolution, against a domestic foe?
Villiers: The logistics of arming such a group aside. We are at our capacity, unless you’d have them fight with truncheons.
Lefebvre: Should I bring up the Orléanist loyalists in Champagne?
Jeanne: Soon, General Lefebvre. General Girard, the Maine offensive. The Romans will be able to make use of the intact port at Rheims. I pray that Marshal Jourdain moves with great alacrity to bring his forces west, but if he cannot then it will be Roman forces who lead the counteroffensive into Ignace’s flank. General Lapierre, the élite of the French Imperial Guards will ensure that the crossings of the Seine are held, or destroyed if they cannot be held. I will not lose this war because I was too sentimental to blow up a bridge. You are entrusted with the maintenance of peace on the arrondissements north of the Seine, and in the containment of the communard element within them. Marshal Forsberg, what can you tell me of this communard army in Nivernais?
Forsberg: Less an army than a rabble, your grace. If I am given the forces needed, I will keep them away from the city and the rail and crush them outright.
Jeanne: Marshal Villiers, are you in accord that this force should be a priority?
Villiers: I am, your majesty. A link-up with Ignace’s army, an assault on our rear, the seizing of an upstream Seine crossing or sabotage to the rails are all unacceptable risks.
Jeanne: And that, even at the risk of taking the pressure off of Dufresne’s irregulars?
Villiers: Yes, your majesty. Although if that is your concern, perhaps Marshal Jourdain ought to be instructed to direct his Provençal troops against Dufresne rather than the long march west.
Girard: The turncoat Dufresne is of lesser importance than his early rebellion and central geographic position implies. Fort Blanc will be a fiercely difficult fortress to reclaim, but conversely he has few resources with which he can cause us meaningful harm. A small screening force ought to keep him locked down in the mountains and backwoods, Marshal Jourdain can dispatch a small portion of his forces to perform this task from the south if Marshal Forsberg can leave a small force to do the same from the north.
Forsberg: My already-limited forces are squeezed tighter still.
Jeanne: France has asked much of your men, Marshal Forsberg. I pray you determine in the field whether you can address both of these crises. If you cannot do both, reassert control over Nivernais. Marshal Jourdain will maintain your pin on General Dufresne’s rebels. Marshal Villiers?
Villiers: I believe that is appropriate. General Girard, instructions will be relayed to Marshal Jourdain to divert a small screening force against the Fort Blanc communards. He may act alone for a time, but when my reinforcements arrive from the Loire then Forsberg will once more press in from the north.
Jeanne: It is decided. General Lefebvre, your report on the disposition of the forces of the former Orléans Clique.
Lefebvre: The salient west of the Somme holds still, under the command of Marshal Gaspard, from that point we can launch an offensive through Troyes to Orléans as soon as the eastern reinforcements arrive. After Ignace’s misplaced ‘come-to-god’ moment, monarchist cadres escaped his purges of anti-communards and gathered in Troyes before establishing a new command in Châlons. They control most of Champagne and western Lorraine, as well as between a third and a half of the soldiers, although since then Ignace has recruited god knows how many longshoremen, factory workers and street children to reinforce his ‘popular’ army. They Champagne loyalists are cut off from the west Somme but with the arrival of reinforcements we can bridge the gap and begin to tighten the noose on Orléans.
Jeanne: In summary?
Lefebvre: Apologies your majesty. Communards remain control of Artois and her oilfields, Orléans and her port, northern Picardie, Lorraine and Franche-Comté. There is an uprising in the western Alps which appears disconnected. Troop numbers on both sides of the line are very low, but we can bring in reinforcements to turn the tide.
Jeanne: General Lefebvre, you’ve spoken much of what will happen when the reinforcements reach Amiens, but it will not matter if we do not first secure Paris.
Lefebvre: Forgive me your majesty, I did not mean to suggest that Amiens would receive all of the reinforcements. I merely wish to impress that the Orléanist front is extremely weak in the northwest, matched only by our limited force application in the region. A small weight would tip that balance.
Jeanne: Understood. Marshal Villiers, a recapitulation of our circumstances and outlook?
Villiers: A drawdown of forces in the east, leaving enough to maintain order in the cities and counter Alexandrine irregulars in the country. Jourdain leaves directs a small force to the Southern Massif and marches the bulk of his forces to Maine, joined by Roman expeditionary forces to relieve the advance on Paris. Reinforcements from the east reach Forsberg, who can put down or contain the rebellions he has most expertly kept separated this past year, Gaspard, who can link with Champagne and advance on Orléans, and most importantly, to Paris where the Empress, General Lapierre and myself will hold the line.
Jeanne: Paris must not fall. While it may be seen as wise to retreat my command to a safer position, knowing that we control the greater part of the country, growing every day- to fear to stand in Paris is to lose Paris, and to lose Paris is to lose France herself. Do not mistake the jester Ignace as a weakling, for he holds a dagger pressed flush against our beating heart. As I have done before, I shall be seen in Paris, command my Imperial Guards in Paris, and by God I will celebrate victory in Paris.
All: Hear hear!
Villiers: With the Orléanist advance on Paris checked, what remains is the matter of holding out for the Roman reinforcements. Ignace will retreat to the west when flanked, or be cut off and his army destroyed. From there, we tighten the noose on Orléans, establish a blockade, and push in from all sides, while again maintaining a strong police presence in our major cities to tamp down any further uprisings. Our central position provides half the salvation of France, for with our rails linking each major city we can act swiftly and responsively, while our far-flung enemies can only blunder in ill coordination with one another. Our Empress, thrice struck by violence, thrice saved by providence, provides the other half. Through her, we shall see victory!
All: Honour a la Victoire!
