I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 360 Division, intersperse, and decisive battle!

Shouldn't the French be in the direction of Ghent? Why did they suddenly appear from the eastern suburbs of Brussels? Charles II was almost about to break his whip, but he had no choice but to send another regiment to support the ambushed troops and send a large number of hussars to conduct reconnaissance in case the main force was also ambushed.

After Masson raided the Dutch, he received an order from His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to return north to Antolf, so he circled along the west side of Waterloo and moved to the north of the Dutch.

Since Bronckhorst was already nervous after the previous attack, he ordered his troops to keep alert and move forward carefully after leaving the town. Masson had already made a big circle and began to send out cavalry to scout the position of the Dutch, who had only walked less than 8 kilometers.

Northwest of Brussels, near a small village more than 20 kilometers away from Antolf, the Guards Corps is resting.

They had been marching for two days straight, covering nearly 60 kilometers. According to Karl II's marching speed, it would take another day and a half to get here.

In fact, if Joseph really wanted to attack Antolf, given the city's defensive strength, it would most likely have been occupied by the French army before the Hanoverian army arrived.

But that would mean helping Austria quell the rebellion, which was definitely not the result he wanted.

In the officers' tent in the middle of the Guards camp, Berthier drew the last circle on the map, wrote a line of notes next to it, put away his pencil and let out a long sigh.

The intelligence reported by each hussar unit was finally summarized. Joseph, who was standing by, looked at the long snake formation of circles of varying sizes on the map and couldn't help but smile with satisfaction.

"We have at least three locations where we can infiltrate." He pointed to several points on the map, "But this will also disperse our forces."

With the communication means of the 18th century, the deployed legions could basically only let their commanders exercise freely, but given the depth of the current pool of senior officers in the Guards Corps, Joseph really couldn't feel at ease.

"Yes, Your Highness." Berthier nodded, and after a brief thought, he pointed to the southeast of Antolf, where the main force of Charles II was located. "The Hanoverian artillery and infantry are obviously out of touch, and about three regiments of troops are also dispersed in the northeast of Brussels.

“Perhaps we can cut in between their rear guard and this scattered legion, and at the same time send out a shock force to block their main force in the northwest.

"This way, the distance between our two interspersed legions won't be too far, which will be easier to command and allow them to support each other."

Joseph looked carefully at the enemy's position on the map and nodded in agreement.

Although he himself had advanced tactical ideas that were later adopted by later generations, when it came to specific combat deployments, officers like Berthier, who were professionally trained and had been immersed in the army for more than ten years, were more professional.

He immediately summoned all the staff members of the general staff and officers at the regimental level, and quickly developed a detailed battle plan based on Berthier's ideas.

The Guards, who had just rested for half a day, began to march again. But this was nothing to them. When they were in the police academy, they often trained for a week in a row. The final exercises at the end of each year would even last for more than half a month, and this kind of high-intensity march was almost the only thing during that time.

Speed ​​is the foundation of the roundabout tactics!
Therefore, even if there is another commander of an army on the European continent who has systematically learned the tactics of flanking and penetration, he will be frustrated to find that he is simply unable to implement it - his army, from assembly to reaction, from physical strength to morale, cannot support such high-intensity mobile operations.

If you are not as fast as the enemy in moving, it will be impossible to disrupt the enemy's deployment and find opportunities from it.

At noon the next day, the Guards Corps marched 30 kilometers and arrived southeast of Antolf.

At this time, Charles II was still on his way, preparing to enter Antolf to garrison and resist the French siege.

After resting for two hours, the Guards Corps launched a general attack on the scattered Hanoverian army. First, the main force of the army quickly cut in from the northwest, separating the corps that Charles II had sent to reinforce the Dutch from the main force of the Hanoverian army.

At this point, Charles II was shocked to realize that tens of thousands of French troops were less than 6 kilometers away from him.

The distance between the front and rear of his troops was more than 5 kilometers...

"Did these Frenchies grow out of the ground?!"

He wiped the sweat from his forehead with the lace on his sleeves, tried to calm himself down, pointed at a tall officer, and said loudly: "Lieutenant Colonel Schmidt, lead the dragoons to Ogchenner Village to set up a defense line immediately. Without my order, you are not allowed to retreat a single step!"

"Yes, Marshal!"

Lieutenant Colonel Schmidt turned around and immediately turned bitter. There were less than two regiments of dragoons, so how could they possibly be a match for the main force of the French army in such a hurry? This was obviously asking him to use the lives of his soldiers to delay the French army.

Immediately, Charles II ordered two infantry regiments to meet the baggage vehicles and artillery of the rear team, and the rest of the troops immediately moved closer to him.

At this time, he still had about 1 troops in his hands. As long as he could complete the battle formation, he could still fight against the French army.

The 6 Southern Netherlands troops from Brussels will arrive to reinforce tomorrow afternoon and can even launch a counterattack against the French army.

However, the development of the battlefield situation was completely different from what he had imagined.

It took the Guards Corps' cavalry artillery and the dragoon regiment responsible for covering them just over an hour to cut into the nearly two-kilometer gap between the Hanoverian army's main force and the rear artillery.

Later, at Napoleon's suggestion, the artillery battalion quickly set up its position on the hill to the north, while the dragoon regiment formed an infantry line next to the bushes below the hill.

At the same time, the main force of the Guards Corps launched a fierce attack on the three scattered Hanoverian regiments.

Taking advantage of their absolute superiority in force, the four infantry regiments attacked in column formation on the front, while the cavalry outflanked from both wings.

This Hanoverian army was still on the march an hour ago, and only knew that they were going to have a decisive battle with the French army after receiving a notification from a herald sent by Charles II.

The order given to them by Charles II was to try to get closer to the main force and not to worry about the Dutch anymore.

But before they could gather their formation, the French column appeared in their sight.

There was no suspense in the battle. The cavalry of the Guards Corps launched a feint attack to divert the enemy's attention, while the infantry in the front had already rushed to the Hanoverians' faces.

The column quickly deployed into a line formation, and before they could fire a volley, the Hanoverian army was so frightened by the terrifying momentum that they began to disperse.

(End of this chapter)