I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 361: Cavalry Artillery Shows Its Power Again

The Guards Corps maintained their formation, firing in three rapid rows while continuously advancing forward.

Under this powerful attack that was as efficient and precise as a machine, the Hanoverian army's barely managed infantry line was finally cut into three parts.

On the one-kilometer-wide battlefield, every few minutes a "group" of Hanoverian soldiers would ignore the officers' attempts to stop them, drop their weapons and run away.

Soon, even the officers began to flee.

The infantry line behind the Guards Corps had not yet pressed forward when they heard the change in the sound of the military drums and immediately changed their formation to outflank from both sides.

Murat heard from afar that the drumbeats from the enemy side became disordered and then intermittent, and he suddenly became excited - that meant that there was a problem with the enemy's defense line.

Sure enough, the battalion commander's order came - the cavalry battalion lined up and pursued the defeated enemy.

Murat squeezed his horse's belly hard, waved his hands excitedly and shouted, "Gentlemen, it's our turn!"

This is completely different from the scenes often seen in later TV dramas, where cavalrymen braved the enemy's fierce firepower and rushed into the enemy camp to kill everyone. In the long history of human warfare, the main tasks of cavalry were to harass, contain, cover and pursue. Using expensive cavalry to attack head-on was only necessary when the enemy was confirmed to be weak or the enemy was on the verge of collapse and had to fight desperately.

So Murat circled the Hanoverians several times without even drawing his saber.

Now we finally have the chance to win military merit!

In the last battle, he was promoted to sergeant because of his heroic breakthrough in the enemy's line. If he could kill a few more enemy soldiers this time, he would be a lieutenant when he returns!
Soon, the red uniforms of Hanoverian soldiers could be seen in the distance. Murat's Arabian warhorse carried him into the red crowd like a wild bull...

On the north side of the village of Ogchenner, a cavalryman was reporting to the commander of the cavalry artillery battalion, Lacoste: "Two regiments of Hanoverian infantry have arrived 2 kilometers to the northwest."

Lacoste looked at his staff officer and said with a smile, "If they don't come again, I'm going to take a nap first."

The staff officer also smiled: "We have been waiting for more than 40 minutes. The Hanoverians are really slow."

Lacoste looked into the distance and said, "Order everyone to adjust the artillery positions and strike the enemy head-on! As long as we block the enemy reinforcements for three hours, our cavalry will be able to destroy their artillery and baggage."

Yes, according to the deployment of the General Staff, at this time half of the main force of the Guards Corps cavalry was rushing towards the Hanoverian rear guard on the east side.

Soon, the cannons on the hill roared, and more than a dozen shells whizzed past the Hanoverian army. However, the distance was far, and only two hit the target.

Even so, the Hanoverians were still horrified. They quickly retreated several hundred meters, sent scouts to carefully confirm the position of the French artillery, and then hastily organized a skirmisher column to prepare to attack the artillery position.

However, they immediately encountered an infantry line of French dragoons at the bottom of the hill.

The skirmishers' steps were blocked by the infantry lines, and with shells constantly whizzing down overhead, the Hanoverians' first assault attempt immediately failed.

Lacoste held up a telescope and watched with satisfaction as the enemy troops retreated like the tide.

He has been holding on for more than an hour. At the current pace, if he just delays a little, three hours will be over.

At this moment, a signalman trotted up to him, raised his hat and saluted, saying, "Commander, Major Buwanaba has some tactical suggestions that he would like to report to you."

"Oh?" The artillery battalion commander knew that this young Corsican officer was very smart, so he nodded curiously, "Please tell me about it." Half an hour later, the Hanoverians reorganized their ranks. This time they honestly formed an infantry line, ready to fight the French army.

However, the Hanoverian Hussars in the distance suddenly issued a rapid warning.

Then the Hanoverian commander saw through the telescope that a group of French cavalry... no, they were dragging cannons, they should be cavalry artillery, they rushed straight to their left wing and began to unload the cannons.

"Are these French guys crazy?!"

The corner of his eye twitched, and he immediately ordered the skirmishers to destroy the cannons - he only brought two regiments of infantry to reinforce the rear, and did not have enough cavalry to deal with the cannons.

However, before the Hanoverian skirmishers were ready, the French artillery had already fired a dozen volleys, harnessed their horses and sped away.

The Hanoverian commander almost gnashed his teeth and roared to order the infantry line to launch a frontal attack. The hussars' warning whistles were heard again on the right wing...

Southwest of Ogchinna village.

Joseph looked through his telescope at the red soldiers on the roof of a farmhouse in the distance and couldn't help frowning.

The Hanoverians were very smart. They probably anticipated that they would not be able to fight the Guards head-on, so they only lined up two sparse infantry lines on both sides of the village and scattered nearly half of their soldiers in the village, trying to delay the French army with street fighting.

The Guards Corps had just annihilated three isolated Hanoverian regiments and was rushing towards the main force of Charles II without stopping. At this time, its physical strength was extremely depleted.

As the situation becomes more severe, if we forcefully attack this small village, we will probably suffer heavy casualties.

Berthier, who was standing by, had obviously noticed this problem as well, and came over to suggest, "Your Highness, perhaps we should go around the village from the west."

Joseph was in hesitation. He clearly remembered that there was a small river to the west of the village from what he had seen on the map.

So taking a detour not only means walking a few more kilometers, but also wastes a lot of time crossing the river.

In this way, Charles II is likely to gather his troops, turning the interspersed division battle into a head-on confrontation. Although a large part of the Hanoverian army had been eaten up at this time and the artillery was left behind, there were still tens of thousands of troops left.

As for going around the village from the east... the main force of Hanover is on the northwest side, which would add more than ten kilometers to the journey, so it would be better to cross the river.

Just as Joseph and Berthier were weighing the pros and cons, they suddenly heard faint artillery fire from the north of the village of Ogchener.

The two looked at each other, their faces full of confusion.

Although the main force of Hanover might have carried some artillery - at this time, the artillery of most European armies was still under the command of the infantry, so some light artillery followed the infantry instead of being in the unified transport rear team - but who were they firing at in the north? The Guards Corps could be on the southwest side of the village at this time.

"Your Highness, something is wrong." Berthier listened attentively to the cannon fire and said, "There are at least a dozen cannons here. The enemy shouldn't have so many cannons."

Twenty minutes later, several hussars came and answered his questions: "Report! The cavalry artillery battalion launched an attack on the enemy north of Ogchinna village!"

(End of this chapter)