King's Landing in France

Chapter 260 Kleber Learns War in War
After repelling the enemy's attack, Kleber's troops were embracing and celebrating.

Like the soldiers, Kleber was busy celebrating the victory, because the only war he had participated in before was the blocking operation on the Marne River, and the battle examples he heard were basically those fought by Frost.

One characteristic of those battles was that they were basically finalized. Most of the battles ended quickly, and the rest were just small episodes and sporadic pursuit battles.

So at this time, although Kleber had heard from others that most of the time the battlefield would seesaw repeatedly, he didn't take it to heart.

He thought that if he defeated the enemy, he would win.

He was celebrating his victory when a fast horse came galloping, and the people on the horse shouted: "Quickly assemble the team, keep your positions, the second wave of the enemy is coming!"

Kleber didn't react immediately: "What second wave, we repelled the enemy's three waves of attack."

The messenger shook his head: "No, Your Excellency Dumas asked me to tell you that there was a wave just now. The second wave of enemies is gathering and will come up soon. If you don't believe me, watch!"

Kleber turned his head to look at the coalition army, and sure enough, he saw that the coalition army did not seem to be retreating, but was forming a formation.

Kleber was stunned: "Why didn't they retreat? No, we defeated the enemy just now!"

The orderly just shrugged his shoulders, not bothering to explain to an architect layman.

Kleber could only order those who were celebrating to return to their posts while wondering why.

Finally, when he saw the corpses thrown by the enemy in front of the formation, he realized.

Kleber clapped his hands vigorously: "Damn it, because as soon as we came into contact, the enemy collapsed before we had a hand-to-hand fight, so in fact, the enemy didn't kill a few people at all. Even the ones we brought down with our previous guns, there were only a few hundred people, Compared with the enemy's entire army, it is nothing to mention. So the enemy can quickly gather the defeated troops!"

The staff officer of the side brigade asked: "Then how can we prevent the enemy from gathering quickly?"

Kleber rolled his eyes: "How the hell do I know? Frost should know, because his campaigns rarely have such repetitions, at least they didn't mention it when those veterans bragged to us."

Kleber shook his head: "Okay, quickly restore the formation, and adjust the formation that was just dispersed due to the counter-charge!"

"I'm doing it!" A non-commissioned officer responded with a distressed face, "Damn it, I was just a chalk maker, and I was bewitched by my passion. I'm not good at doing this at all."

Kleber: "Come on, it's the first time for everyone."

Kléber put in a lot of effort to organize his troops, and the enemy's attack was also organized.

Seeing the enemy rushing forward stepping on the exact same piece of music as before, Kleber felt like going back in time.

If it wasn't for the corpse left by the enemy before the battle to remind him that the enemy had indeed attacked once, he might have thought that he was drunk and dreaming.

Compared with the first time just now, Kleber's words of encouragement were much discouraged: "In short, the enemy has come up again, just like defeating them just now, defeat them again!

"Well, I... finished talking, in short, defeat them, defeat them!"

**
The battle lasted until four o'clock in the afternoon, and Kleber finally realized that defending Babi Village was not as simple as he had imagined this morning.

Although the French army repelled the attacking enemy time and time again with high morale, the enemy will soon be able to regroup their troops to launch the next wave of attack.

Because of the low morale of the coalition forces, they retreated quickly every time, resulting in insufficient killing of the French army in hand-to-hand combat, and failed to hurt their bones. As a result, low morale became the advantage of the coalition forces.

Kleber couldn't even understand why they were able to attack so indifferently after being defeated again and again.

In contrast, the French army, driven entirely by patriotic enthusiasm, has worn down its vigor and morale in this kind of wheel battle, and is already a little tired.

After a whole day of fierce fighting, Kleber realized a key principle: the French army is suitable for offensive warfare, and high morale can allow the French army to quickly defeat the enemy.

In offensive warfare, after defeating the enemy, it can sweep the enemy's camp and supply lines, making it impossible for the enemy to organize the next wave of attack.

Thinking about it carefully, Kleber thought, except for the initial defensive battle, the rest of the battles won by Frost were all offensive battles.

It turned out that the national self-defense army after the revolution was the most suitable army for attacking - the name was obviously "self-defense army".

Kleber didn't realize that he came to this conclusion because he was limited to his own perspective, only seeing the morale and vigor of the French army being consumed by the enemy's wheel battle.

He didn't realize that it was a terrible thing for a mob-like army to withstand so many waves of attacks from a regular army twice as many as himself in the formation of skirmishers.

Even for those regular troops who are well-trained and led by a large number of professional officers, it is difficult to do this.

The fact is that the French army after the Great Revolution was indeed the number one powerful army in Europe, and it is still in the form of cubs of this army. Its soldiers lack training, there are not enough experienced officers, and there are not many qualified generals.

In a few years, with the continuation of the Great Revolutionary War, this army will grow into the first class in Europe that can tear the encirclement net by hand.

At six o'clock in the afternoon Kléber finally heard the sound of the horn from the Austrians.

He vaguely realized that this was probably a sign of the Austrian army's withdrawal.

Kleber let out a long sigh of relief: "It's finally over."

He found a beech, sat down, leaned against the trunk and looked up at the sky.

Seeing him like this, the French soldiers who had been tense for a day all relaxed.

Many lay directly on the ground with their hands outstretched.

"ended."

"Who has water? I'm out of water!"

"Has any of you seen my friend? He's a painter. His name is Bouvet. Auguste Bouvet. Has anyone seen him?"

Amidst the noise, the messenger rushed over and ordered loudly: "Brigades, let the remaining troops replace the frontline troops to guard the frontline. They will be stationed in the position tonight! The brigade commander has arranged the sentry for tonight!"

Kleber: "This black devil really regards himself as the commander of this small army. We will call him His Excellency General Dumas soon!"

Even though he complained so much, Kleber actually didn't have any complaints about the black devil as the commander. After all, he only knew how to repair artillery fortifications, and he was not good at marching and fighting.

He arranged the defense change and the night sentry according to the order. At this time, Moreau rode over: "Hey, you have survived today's wheel battle!"

Kleber: "Don't mention it. In the morning, I thought the Austrian army was weak and deceitful. We will win today cleanly. In the end, they are like brown sugar!"

Moro: "That's why General Frost pursues to annihilate the enemy, otherwise the enemy will be endless like now. Every time we defeat them and kill hundreds of them, it won't be long before they charge up again."

Kleber: "If I say it, the captured soldiers should be sent to the corvee, and let them go to work to build fortresses, bridges and embankments for us!"

Moreau: "Let them dig the canal!"

"Good idea." Kleber gave a thumbs up, and as he joked with Moreau, his mood became happier.

Moro: "Thinking about it, we have defended today. These farmers, fruit sellers, and bakers blocked the well-trained Holy Roman Empire army! Shinra is also Rome, and we blocked a Roman legion rounding it up!"

Kleber: "Your rounding deviation is a bit big. Do all of you lawyers count like this?"

Moreau shrugged.

It can be seen that Morrow is in a very good mood.

Probably because of today's battle, he saw the superiority of the Republic.

At this time, Dumas caught up with the two on horseback: "You two, how do you feel?"

"It feels okay, but to be honest, we should change our thinking. The enemy attacks our defense and cannot bring enough damage to the enemy. Even if we use courage to repel the enemy, it is useless. I suggest that we take the initiative to attack tomorrow." Kleber So said.

Old Dumas: "Are you so crazy? No, no, we can't attack, at least not until this group of people can walk in line."

Kleber: "Why not? We will use the formation of skirmishers, rush forward loosely, and order them to shoot after getting close to the enemy, and then charge with bayonets, and the battle will be over."

Moreau: "The skirmisher formation can avoid the artillery, I think it will work. The enemy's artillery bombardment has not caused me much damage today. Even if the artillery shells roll past the formation, they only take away one or two unlucky people. Sometimes they roll It didn't even hurt when it passed.

"In contrast, the attacking Austrian army was beaten badly by the artillery."

In this era, there were no trigger fuzes and flowering ammunition, and the killing efficiency of solid shells dropped sharply when facing skirmish formations.

The black devil sighed, and threw out the last reason for not attacking: "How can skirmishers defend against cavalry? When the cavalry rushes over, this formation is the glory of movement. Can you transform the troops into a phalanx in time? "

The lawyer and the architect looked at each other.

Kleber: "You are right, Your Excellency the Black Devil."

Old Dumas: "I am not Your Excellency."

He sighed and changed his tone: "Forget it, let's have dinner, it's been a hard day today, it's time to reward the soldiers—and ourselves."

Kleber: "It just so happens that there is a military depot here. Your Excellency Berthier certainly doesn't mind if we share some supplies from the military depot."

(End of this chapter)