I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 451: The Duke of Brunswick's Opportunity

Two days later.

The main battlefield in Silesia, the Liegnitz front.

Lieutenant Colonel Heine, commander of the Austrian infantry battalion, lay leisurely on a soft chair, accompanied by the roar of cannons one after another, and turned his head to see his hunting dog "Mast" gnawing at the roots of a tree nearby.

In the past few months, Prussia and Austria have been hiding behind their defense lines, firing at each other with their eyes closed. It has long been accustomed to the sound.

Suddenly, the northwest side became quiet, and then the artillery on Lieutenant Colonel Heine's side also stopped moving.

Heine immediately frowned and stood up, and the hunting dog beside him began to bark at the artillery position.

Before he could ask his attendant to inquire about the situation, a major officer hurried over, saluted him and said, "Commander, the gunpowder has not been delivered. Nearly half of our battalion's cannons are out of gunpowder."

Heine had not been taking care of the camp's affairs recently, because there was nothing to take care of. He fired on time every morning and finished work on time in the afternoon. He did not care what he could hit. He asked in confusion, "Shouldn't it have been shipped yesterday morning?"

"That's right, but the quartermaster said yesterday that we would definitely arrive today, but look at this..."

Heine quickly mounted his horse and rushed to the tent of Lieutenant Colonel Marcus, who was in charge of the logistics of his regiment.

When he arrived, the tent was already packed with people. Lieutenant Colonel Marcus explained to the officer who questioned him with sweat on his forehead: "The supplies shipped from Vienna were taken away by General Berthier, the Chief of the French General Staff, halfway last week. He said that a batch of ammunition from the French army would be delivered yesterday afternoon, and he was in a hurry to go to Latibor to reinforce General Leaud, so he wanted to exchange them with me.

"Who knew that there has been no movement from the French side until now..."

Of course, he would not say that he had accepted a benefit of 1 florins from Berthier at that time, otherwise who would be willing to go through so much trouble.

"But the shelling at the front is about to stop!" Heine shouted anxiously.

This kind of daily bombardment is indeed useless, but it is a symbol of the empire's brave fighting in Silesia, so it cannot be stopped casually.

"Everyone wait a little longer. I have sent people to the French camp to urge them." Lieutenant Colonel Marcus said with a bitter face, "Ammunition will definitely arrive tomorrow. You can borrow some from other camps first."

Austria had more than 200 cannons on the entire Liegnitz front, and only more than 8 cannons from 30 regiments were affected. Most of the surrounding cannons still had some reserves.

After sending away the officer who came to ask for ammunition, Marcus cursed with a dark face: "Damn French!" After thinking for a while, he picked up his cane and rushed to the French camp in person.

……

At the Prussian headquarters.

A staff officer stood up straight and reported to the Duke of Brunswick: "Marshal, it has been confirmed that more than 3 people including the Austrian Davydov Corps have left Liegnitz and are likely heading towards Ratibor."

The officer next to him immediately said: "In this way, we can safely withdraw troops to encircle and suppress Leo."

Duke Brunswick was about to nod, but suddenly thought of something and looked at another staff officer and asked, "Has the Drissen Corps been safely withdrawn?"

"Yes, Marshal. General August's troops have already entered the station this morning, and the others are no more than two days away from here."

The Duke of Brunswick narrowed his eyes when he heard this. For Leo's sake, the old man Lacy actually transferred so many troops to Latibor.

He quickly calculated in his mind. Leo's army had more than 1 soldiers, and later Wurmser brought more than 1 soldiers. The French army sent 4 soldiers twice, and this time Davydov took away another 5 soldiers...

There is also the Bavarian army. The Austrian coalition has already deployed nearly 10 troops in Ratibor. Austria has less than 15 troops in Silesia, plus the French and Bavarian armies, a total of less than 19 to 20. In other words, only half of the Austrian army is currently defending the Liegnitz Line.

On his side, the troops sent to Ratibor totaled only 2, including the Saxon troops who acted on their own. The 3 troops of Driesen had accidentally encountered the French army and had already turned back.

So at present, he has about 10 troops from his own country, 2 Hanoverian troops, and more than 7 Saxon troops, with a total strength of 2.

In other words, on the Liegnitz front, he had more than 50% of the Austrians' military strength in a short period of time!
"It seems that Lacy made a serious mistake." A smile appeared on the corner of the Duke of Brunswick's mouth, "He only cared about Ratibor and ignored that this is the main battlefield.

"Even if we fail in Latibor, at most we will just lose Leo."

He suddenly clasped his hands in front of his chest and thought to himself: This must be the Lord's arrangement. Although Driesen suffered a defeat, it actually strengthened Liegnitz's military strength.

Thinking of this, he immediately made a decision and asked his attendants to summon all senior officers to a meeting with him to discuss the combat deployment for launching a surprise attack on the front battlefield.

That afternoon, when the Duke of Brunswick proudly arranged the combat tasks of each legion, he suddenly noticed something strange around him.

He listened carefully, then looked at the staff officer beside him in confusion: "It seems that the enemy's artillery fire has become much quieter?"

Soon, an officer came to report that a long section of artillery on the western side of the Austrian defense line had stopped firing.

The Duke of Brunswick hurriedly looked at the map, and that seemed to be the area that Davydov's Corps was responsible for defending.

And his troops were transferred to Ratibor by Lasi a few days ago.

There must be problems in his defense zone because the commander left!

The Duke of Brunswick was overjoyed. He clasped his hands together, raised his head and said loudly: "Thank God for the gift! Now the damn Austrians will get out of Silesia!"

He turned around and looked at the officers, tapped Davydov’s defense zone with his cane, and said in a deep voice: “Everyone must complete combat preparations before tomorrow afternoon.

"We have to change our plan. We will launch the general attack from here!"

……

The next day.

Lieutenant Colonel Heine was playing with his pet dog and yawning leisurely, thinking that it was almost time for lunch.

The ammunition still hadn't arrived, so he borrowed a little ammunition from the nearby regiment yesterday, so that the cannon could barely last another day or two. At this time, although the sound of artillery fire on the battlefield was much less frequent than usual, he didn't care much.

After living this monotonous life for a long time, his vigilance and sense of responsibility have been worn down a lot.

Very suddenly, his hound stopped playing, stared blankly towards the north, then wrinkled its nose and began to show its teeth.

"Relax, old friend." Heine patted its head and looked in the direction of its sight. "Did you see a squirrel? Or a fox?"

But the next moment, he was also stunned, because he vaguely heard the sound of drums, very dense snare drums.

(End of this chapter)