I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 449 Winning is easy

Drissen, who was standing on a high ground, saw his infantry line suddenly collapse before it had any contact with the enemy, and he threw the telescope to the ground in anger.

"They are a disgrace to the Royal Guards!"

He remembered that his grenadiers were still holding on, and hurriedly said to the herald: "Order Boll and Carus's regiments to go up and reinforce the grenadiers!"

These two regiments were his reserve troops. In his opinion, the accident must have happened because of the improper command of the Fein Corps. As long as the situation could be stabilized with the Grenadiers as the core, it should be possible to delay it.

Soon, the Prussian reserve troops, which had just completed their formation, began to move forward. They were about 200 steps behind the first infantry line, and it only took them ten minutes to fill the gap.

Another function of their second line formation is to block soldiers who try to escape after a collapse in the front.

In the wars of this era, the lethality of weapons was actually very limited - a volley of tens of thousands of flintlock rifles could often only kill a hundred people - most of the time, the one whose morale collapsed first and whose soldiers fled the ranks would be defeated. So as long as the soldiers could continue to stand in their positions, there was still room for fighting.

However, this time the soldiers fleeing in front seemed extremely frightened. Facing the bayonets of the reserve troops, they still ran backwards regardless.

Many of them were still shouting something:
"They are simply unkillable..."

"Run! Those are demons!"

“Only God can kill them!”

This caused the reserve soldiers to begin to hesitate, and the situation was barely stabilized until the officers shot several deserters and personally came to the front of the team to lead the way.

But before the two regiments of Pohl and Carus could fill the gaps in the infantry line in front, the two grenadier regiments began to disintegrate.

There was really no other way, the fighting power of these police academy students of the Guards Corps was too strong. Whether it was the level of loading, shooting, formation, or morale, they completely suppressed them.

Especially this time with the protection of bulletproof inserts, the police cadets were extremely excited. They rushed to within 20 steps of the Prussians and completely defeated the enemy with a round of salvos.

In fact, at such a close distance, the bulletproof inserts could no longer provide effective protection, but the Prussians could no longer continue to fire volleys, and the damage caused by sporadic shooting was minimal.

Driesen took the staff officer's telescope and saw that his reserve troops had not even had any contact with the enemy before they fled along with the Grenadiers.

He glanced at his pocket watch with a grim face. It took the French less than half an hour to defeat his makeshift defense line.

He knew very well that his main force must still be in chaos. In this situation, if he fought against the well-organized French army, he would only be chased and beaten.

Driesen sighed helplessly. After the death of Frederick the Great, the training level of the Prussian army went from bad to worse. Unexpectedly, even the very elite Royal Guards became like this.

He heard the French gunfire getting closer, so he turned his horse and retreated, then turned to the messenger and said:
"Order the August Corps to return to Liegnitz immediately. The other corps should retreat northward in an orderly manner and defend in echelons."

The Auguste Corps was originally responsible for the rearguard action, and was now the farthest from the French army, so it should have a chance to escape. The other troops could only delay for a while, and if they were lucky, some of them might be able to escape.

Yes, Driesen had decided to give up resistance. He suddenly remembered that two months ago he had talked to Krokov about how Charles II was easily defeated by the French in Luxembourg, and they had both laughed at the Hanoverians as trash.

Now it seems that maybe it’s not that the Hanoverian army is too bad, but that the French are too strong...

After receiving the order to retreat in echelons, Colonel Duden immediately ordered the officers to abandon all the baggage and the soldiers to assemble and line up on the slope on the east side.

His troops were in the southernmost position and could not retreat. All he could do now was to buy time for other legions.

However, soon after he gave the order, he heard bursts of artillery fire coming from the east.

His heart suddenly tightened. Didn't General Driessen say that the main force of the French was in the southwest? What was going on with these cannons?
Duden's troops, who had not yet formed up, were bombarded by artillery fire and immediately fell into chaos. They began to flee towards the Prussian troops further north in an attempt to find cover.

The cavalry artillery of the Guards Corps did not expect that things would go so smoothly.

They had previously raided the Prussian vanguard just to hold back the enemy and make it easier for the infantry to attack the Prussian flank.

Unexpectedly, the Prussian Brecht Corps of nearly 4 people was defeated after being bombarded by several rounds of their 10 six-pounder cannons and harassed by the Hussars.

Originally, the commander of the cavalry artillery was planning to go back and join the main force of the Guards Corps, but the major named Napoleon suggested continuing to approach the middle section of the Prussian army and launch a surprise attack to support the decisive battle of the infantry.

Finally, Napoleon persuaded his superiors, and the cavalry artillery, under the cover of 400 hussars, used its mobility to bypass the fleeing Brecht Corps and reach the east of the main force of Driesen Corps first.

Then they discovered that the Prussians had actually begun to retreat.

Of course, the cavalry artillerymen did not show any mercy to the enemy and immediately launched a bombardment.

By the time the main infantry force of the Guards Corps wiped out the Fein Corps at the fastest speed and rushed to a few kilometers to the north, they did not encounter the main force of the Driesen Corps at all. In front of them were only some enemy corpses and Prussian soldiers who had not had time to escape.

Soon, several rangers who were left behind for liaison reported to Berthier that the cavalry artillery had defeated the Prussian defense line and was cooperating with the hussars to pursue the enemy northward.

Berthier's eyelids twitched. The cavalry artillery responsible for the harassment had less than 300 men in total, plus 10 six-pound cannons, and 400 hussars responsible for covering them. How could they chase the nearly 2 Prussian troops and flee in defeat? !

He hurriedly discussed with several staff officers and ordered the main infantry force to move northward as quickly as possible to provide support. At the same time, he sent a messenger officer to recall the cavalry artillery.

After all, the number of Prussian troops was too large. If they reacted and launched a counterattack, the cavalry artillery would probably suffer a devastating disaster.

An hour and a half later, Joseph also arrived at Driesen's previous command post. The battlefield situation was still rather chaotic, and Berthier was worried about accidents, so he and his staff strongly pleaded with him to stay in a relatively backward place until it was confirmed that the enemy had been eliminated, and then he was allowed to come here.

"Your Highness, our vanguard has already pursued to the area around the village of Jagelfo," Berthier reported to him, "and the enemy's Brecht Corps that fled to Breslau has also been caught up by the Ranger Battalion."

(End of this chapter)