King's Landing in France

Chapter 43 Christmas in 1780

Briena's life continued without incident.

An Ning always felt that the curriculum of the military academy was a bit too slow, and their group of non-commissioned officers had only been practicing the formation of infantry horizontal formations for almost three months.

When the first snow fell in Brienne in 1780, the teachers of the military academy began to teach the officers and students how to change formations and how to form anti-cavalry phalanxes.

When teaching the phalanx on the first day, in order to increase the sense of realism of the cadets, the school specially brought people from the school's cavalry department over to give them a taste of what it feels like when an infantry is facing a cavalry charge.

This is the first time An Ning sees Christina during school work.

She was wearing a shiny breastplate, and her long, wavy hair was tied into a ponytail, protruding from the special slot in the helmet, dancing with the wind.

She tucked her spear under her arm and galloped against the wind, reminiscent of the "Maid of Orleans" hundreds of years ago.

Behind Christina are seven or eight girls, including the big-breasted girl An Ning once stepped on her feet.

Facing this group of cavalry, some of the cadets began to whistle.

The instructor of the school yelled angrily: "Don't whistle! Maintain your formation! Experience the horror of facing such an overwhelming impact on the battlefield!"

"Instructor! You want to scare us, so you shouldn't let the girls charge!" one of the cadets said loudly, "Now we just want to open our arms to them and let them charge into our arms!"

The noble children burst into laughter immediately.

An Ning heard Napoleon beside him muttering: "I don't know this bunch of trash, even if a lady is riding a horse, they can hit someone seriously?"

An Ning echoed, "That's right, and before hitting it, you have to be pierced by a spear to your heart's content."

While talking, the girls began to circle the phalanx formed by the cadets, and the instructor began to explain: "Even the most well-trained military horses will be afraid when facing a neat forest with spears, so after forming a phalanx Effective against cavalry.

"It must be remembered that the kneeling soldiers in the first row should prop their guns on the ground, so as to resist the huge momentum of the cavalry rushing up.

"The soldiers in the inner circle are responsible for firing at the cavalry. Although the cavalry is difficult to hit while galloping, correspondingly, the side cross-sectional area of ​​the cavalry is much larger than that of the front. As long as you keep shooting, you can always get some results.

"Long-term wars have proved that even heavy cavalry like cuirassiers can't take the phalanx very well."

At this time, a nobleman asked loudly: "Teacher, you said that the line array is very vulnerable to the cavalry charge, so why not use the phalanx as the main combat formation?"

The instructor frowned and looked at the questioner: "Good question, you idiot, can anyone tell this idiot why?"

At this time Napoleon raised his hand: "Me!"

"Napoleon!" The instructor frowned slightly, but still called out Napoleon's name.He deliberately imitated the pronunciation of Italian, apparently mocking Napoleon's origin.

Yes, the instructors of this school are all nobles in the old Paris, and they look down on Napoleon from Corsica.

Napoleon didn't care about the instructor's pronunciation at all, and answered the question directly: "The frontal firepower of the phalanx is far weaker than that of the normal line array. For the same battalion, the frontal firepower of the same battalion is weakened to a quarter when it is arranged in a phalanx. It is impossible to beat the formation. Another battalion in line."

Instructor: "Very good! You are right about a little bit! Unfortunately, you are only right about a little bit! Have you come to tell Napoleon what he missed?"

No one raised their hands.

Apparently the nobles didn't know the answer at all.

An Ning patted Napoleon on the shoulder, then raised her hand: "I'll do it."

The instructor snorted: "Hmph, come on, son of the cobbler!"

An Ning: "It's artillery. I have experienced the baptism of artillery on the battlefield, and I have seen how that thing kills people. The shells will roll on the ground. After the shells roll over in a line array, they will knock down two rows of six people at most.

"But the shells rolled over the phalanx, and there were definitely more than six casualties."

Instructor: "Very good, you are right. As expected of someone who has been on the battlefield, he actually knows that shells will roll to the ground. That's what happened. The phalanx is very vulnerable to shells, so it is generally used on the battlefield The cavalry forced the enemy to line up in square formation, and then bombarded with artillery!

"You guys, reflect on it, you don't understand things that even a commoner and a Corsican understand!"

An Ning heard Napoleon muttering in a low voice: "An idiot is an idiot, it has nothing to do with his birth."

"That's right." An Ning patted Napoleon's shoulder again.

In the next month, the main content of the queue training in the morning changed from a line formation to a square formation.

The instructors just mechanically asked the cadets to practice this, repeating it over and over again.

In this way, the time came to Christmas in 1780.

This morning, An Ning ran to find Napoleon and took him to spend Christmas with him.

An Ning has already figured it out. Napoleon, a Corsican, must be lonely spending Christmas alone. This kind of time is a good opportunity to increase his favorability!

According to the prompt of the system, Napoleon's favor towards him is trust now, and he is going to continue to work hard to see what the next level of trust is.

When An Ning arrived at the place where Napoleon lived, he saw him sweeping the snow at the door.

"Napoleon! Why are you sweeping snow?" An Ning stepped forward and asked doubtfully, "It's your landlord..."

"I took the initiative to clear the snow myself, because I found that when I did this kind of non-thinking work, it helped me to think."

An Ning: "Let me help you. After cleaning, let's go to Christina's manor for Christmas."

Napoleon: "Are you sure that lady would welcome me, a country bumpkin from Corsica?"

"She already welcomes me, the son of a cobbler, and she probably won't care about one more Corsican bumpkin." An Ning teased.

Napoleon: "That's different. You are his savior. Maybe she still likes you secretly. I'm just an outsider."

An Ning saw that Napoleon might not come together if things went on like this, so she changed the topic: "What were you thinking about when you were just sweeping the snow?"

"Ah? I was thinking, since skirmishers are more dominant in shooting against line infantry, why not use skirmishers as the basic form of infantry combat?"

An Ning shook her head: "You probably saw that in school, the students organized skirmish formations in an orderly manner, so they were misled.

"However, that's not the case. Everyone in the school is a non-commissioned officer, and most of them are nobles. Therefore, order and morale can be maintained when everyone forms a scattered formation.

"In actual combat, the line infantry has to be surrounded by non-commissioned officers to maintain their morale. Once the formation is disbanded and becomes a skirmisher, they will directly retreat.

"The conscripted line infantry does not have the high fighting desire and initiative of the non-commissioned officers.

"The skirmishers of various countries are either mercenaries who fight for money, and they can be exchanged for money when they gain military exploits, or they are criminals or robbers. These people like to kill and rob.

"In order to maintain the morale and desire to fight of these people, countries will also assign female alcoholics to the skirmishers, with strong alcohol and dangling breasts, to stimulate the fighting desire of the skirmishers."

Napoleon was shocked: "The bartender?"

"Yes, they are responsible for providing spirits and sex to the skirmishers." An Ning said, as if he had actually seen it.

In fact, he has never seen it on the front line, but he has read Hugo's "[-] Years". The opening chapter of this masterpiece describes a group of stragglers of the Republic and the female bartender assigned to them to give the entire army They went to the front line together and found a rebel female family member with a child.

Napoleon shook his head: "Crazy, I thought that women mainly went to the battlefield in the form of Miss Christina and the others."

An Ning: "There are still many things you don't know, so come with me, and I will teach you one by one."

Napoleon curled his lips: "Okay, but I still don't want to go to Miss Christina's estate, she must not welcome me."

An Ning: "How can you be sure, maybe one of Christina's noble lady friends has already taken a fancy to you?"

Napoleon shook his head: "Even if some lady takes a fancy to me, I won't be happy. I have decided to dedicate my life to the liberation of Corsica."

—Don't talk too much, Napoleon, you won't talk like that when you meet that Josephine Beauharnay.

An Ning: "Come together, treat it as your only friend."

He calmly put himself in the position of "only friend".

Napoleon sighed: "Okay. Let's go to taste the craftsmanship of Miss Christina's chef in Paris."

(End of this chapter)