King's Landing in France

Chapter 203 Lana Earns His "Immortal" Title

While General Frost's main force failed to hit the main force of the Austrian army, the resistance of Lana's troops has entered the fourth day.

Early this morning, Lana was patrolling the defense line.

The entire battlefield was filled with an unpleasant stench of corpses, because too many people had died on the battlefield these days, and there was no time to clean the battlefield, so the corpses were all rotting and emitting a stench.

The French soldiers who were still guarding the position looked worse than corpses, dirty and smelly, with bloody faces, and looked like ghosts returning from hell.

As Lana walked, he joked with the soldiers: "Pim, how are you? I didn't see you last evening, so I thought you were honored."

"Hunter, you damned fellow, I'm dying, and you're not hurt at all!"

"Old John, poor old fellow, may he rest in peace in heaven."

Most of the time, the soldiers would reply wearily, and occasionally some who still had enough energy would ask Lana: "Boss, we have been blocking for three days, and today is the fourth day, how long do you want us to block, Your Excellency General. "

"Whether the general won the battle or not, why is there no news yet?"

"Will there be many rewards when we go back this time?"

Lana answered all these questions truthfully: "I don't know, but as long as we stand up, the general will definitely not treat us badly."

These days of fighting, Lana has always stood in the most intense place of the battle, at the forefront. The soldiers nicknamed him "Undead Man", because Lana was left alone in the entire position several times.

Secretly, the soldiers have long spread the word that Lana, like His Excellency the General, is a thorn in the side of Death.

In the past, the soldiers wondered how an apprentice from a dyeing workshop who joined the army not much earlier than everyone else could become the teacher of the big guy.

Now there is a new explanation for this matter: Your Excellency the General, as the enemy of Death, can naturally see who has the quality of immortality, so he reused Lana.

Led by such an immortal commander, this group of people was here in a daze, blocking the attack of tens of thousands of Austrians.

Of course, the rugged mountain roads and the castles left over from ancient times have played a considerable role.

This ancient fortress, with unexpectedly thick walls, was bombarded by the Austrians for several days and only partially collapsed.

The Austrian army tried to rush up the fortress from the collapsed part, but was forced back by the French army in hand-to-hand combat.

The Austrians had never seen such crazy hand-to-hand combat by the French army. Before that, they had almost no experience in hand-to-hand combat, and they were directly defeated by the French army.

And it crashed a dozen times.

Because every time the Austrians retreated, the officers who led the team swarmed back after a few died, so in fact not many people died, and they rushed up after changing officers.

The situation on the French side is much worse. After these days of wheel-to-wheel battles, the French army stationed here has lost 30.00%.

In this era, losing 30.00% of the troops that have not collapsed is already a proper elite.

If it weren't for the measure of washing wounds with alcohol imposed by General Frost, which greatly reduced the chance of troops being injured and attrition, the losses of the French army would have been even higher at this time.

But now, this loss may not be sustainable, because the French army has run out of wine.

Those who were injured yesterday did not have wine to wash their wounds, so the losses of the French army yesterday were higher than the sum of the previous few days.

In the medical clinic behind the French army, the doctors are now doing their own job with ease: sawing hands and feet.

In addition to the lack of wine, ammunition is almost out of supply.

When Lana ordered an ammunition count last night, he found that most of the army only had a few rounds of ammunition left, and the logistics team's baggage truck was already empty.

The ammunition brought by the transport team from Brescia this morning, after being divided equally among the whole army, each person can only issue two bullets.

Today the Austrian army continues to attack, and the French army may only be able to shoot for half an hour, and then they can only rely on bayonets to stop the Austrians.

When Lana was inspecting the position, someone asked worriedly: "Boss, what should we do after we finish shooting the bullets?"

Lana glanced at the interrogator, tightened the bandage on his head with his hands, and then replied in a firm tone: "Your Excellency the General gave us an order to stay here. Since the bullets are gone, we can only use this I am ordered to complete the general's order.

"Of course, I don't force you, you have done well enough, even if you escape now, you are worthy of the title of warrior. So after the bullets are finished later, you can escape!

"But my choice is to stay here, pick up the bayonet, and charge the Austrians! The Austrians have bullets, and after killing them with bayonets, grab the bullets and use them!"

Some of the soldiers shouted: "They don't need that many bullets anyway! These bastards can't even shoot a few shots before retreating!"

The soldiers burst out laughing.

Lana also had a smile on his face: "That's right, that's what happened. In these days of fighting, I discovered that the Austrians are actually cowards. As long as they kill a few officers, they will flee!"

The soldiers immediately echoed Lana's words with "yeah" and "that's right," sounding like heckling.

Rana continued: "Because I served as the captain of the teaching team before, I had many opportunities to meet the general. Your Excellency the General said that our troops that have undergone the Great Revolution are different from the armies of other monarchies in Europe."

A soldier interrupted: "Of course it's different. We fought for three days under the leadership of an apprentice from a dyeing workshop!"

The soldiers all laughed.

Now the apprentice of the dyeing workshop is no longer a scornful name among the soldiers. Lana used his bravery and combat skills to turn this into a pet name among the soldiers.

Soldiers instinctively felt affection for this nickname, because they were carpenters, painters, masons and other craftsmen before joining the army.

The composition of the revolutionary French army was the urban civilian class. They had a natural and class-like intimacy with the commanders who were apprentices in dyeing workshops.

Of course, Lana didn't understand this, but he didn't hate the nickname.

He continued to say to the soldiers: "That's right, the general looked down on our enemies very much, saying that they were just a group of cattle driven by the noble lord, and as long as the noble lord was driven away, he would collapse.

"Now I know that the general is right. The enemy is nothing to be afraid of. Even if we finish shooting bullets today, we can still hold this fort with bayonets!"

The soldiers applauded, and then someone shouted: "Long live France!"

Then everyone shouted together: "Long live France!"

All the faces are filled with pride, which is a real, heartfelt pride in their homeland and nation.

This was something new in kingdom-ridden Europe, something that the kingdoms, whether they be enlightened or conservative, had never had.

A new thing called nationalism.

In the next few decades, the emerging nation-state France will carry out dimension reduction strikes against the obsolete armies of European monarchies.

**
The cheers of the French army floated along the wind to the Austrian barracks down the mountain.

The commander of the Austrians, Sir Ferdinand frowned: "Listen!"

The Jazz's chief of staff asked suspiciously: "What?"

"Listen to their cries!" Ferdinand said. "We have stormed for three days, and our own morale is almost exhausted. I walked around the barracks and saw only sad faces. But they still have such high spirits." Morale!"

The chief of staff looked at the fort on the top of the mountain: "Yeah, it's hard to understand."

Ferdinand: "I feel that the French army we are facing is a brand-new thing that cannot be measured by our previous experience. I have participated in many wars. The enemy army I encountered before, whether it is Prussia Neither humans nor the King's army exhibited such qualities!"

Chief of Staff: "Is it because they are commanded by a dye workshop apprentice, and the immediate commander is a cobbler?"

"God knows." Ferdinand shook his head. "In short, they are different from our army. I have a hunch that together with their cobbler commander, they will make the whole of Europe tremble."

Chief of Staff: "Then... shall we report this to Marshal Wumze?"

"No! How can you report this!" Ferdinand said angrily, "You can't report like this. Let's say that the French army in front of our alliance has 5000 people, just like before. The French army resisted us three times by virtue of fortifications." Heaven's attack, that's all!"

Chief of Staff: "That's the same as yesterday."

In fact, this is not a rare thing, it is much better than reporting that you are blocked by five thousand French troops.

At this moment, someone shouted: "The herald from Trent!"

"Here," said Ferdinand.

So the messenger stepped forward and delivered the letter to the general.

"Let me see... retreat?"

The chief of staff immediately stepped forward: "What, are we going to retreat?"

"Yes, it seems that the Marshal is confronted by a stronger French army... Damn it, the French are concentrating their main force on the Marshal's side. Let alone report that we are blocked by only 5000 men. Retreat, Chief of Staff. "

(End of this chapter)