I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 453 The oriole is behind
Marshal Lacy was a little confused. Didn't the French army go to Latibor to reinforce Leo? Their prince was still surrounded by the enemy in Oberon, so where did these people come from?

Even more confused than him were the Prussian cavalry who were in pursuit.

They were so busy chasing the Austrian fleeing soldiers that they did not conduct any reconnaissance of the vicinity at all - with an army of 1 soldiers routed and countless casualties, who could have imagined that the Austrian coalition would ambush troops behind their own rear?
Yes, Joseph ambushed the Guards Corps behind the Austrian defense line.

After defeating Driesen, he immediately led his troops back to the Austrian-controlled area of ​​Liegnitz. In order not to be discovered by Lacy, the troops stayed in the deserted mountains for several days. It was not until Lacy sent out the more than 3 people of Davydov that he quietly returned and waited less than 15 kilometers southwest of the Austrian defense line.

After the Prussians launched the general offensive today, the Guards Corps also started to move at the same time.

The main force was divided into two parts. One part quickly penetrated to the north side of the Prussian attack point and deployed a defensive formation based on the terrain. There were about 4 people.

The other part, a total of 1 soldiers, moved to the south of the Prussian attack point. When the Austrian defense line collapsed, they first waited for the Austrian soldiers to "lure" the Prussians into their own hinterland, and then suddenly cut off the Prussian army's retreat from the side.

This was equivalent to using the 1 Austrian troops on the defense line as bait. And this bait was definitely very realistic, because they were really defeated.

Of course, the basis for this tactic to be successful is that Joseph believed that the Guards Corps could cut off enemies that were several times larger than itself with 1 troops and hold out for at least three days.

The Prussian Hussars who were excitedly chasing after the Austrian fleeing soldiers suddenly found that their flank was attacked and immediately fell into chaos.

In movies and TV dramas, cavalry usually rush forward in large numbers and kill the enemy, but in reality, cavalry is a type of soldier that places more emphasis on formation than infantry.

When a large group of cavalrymen attacked, there were very strict requirements for the horizontal and vertical spacing between the horses. If they were too far apart, they could not form a combined force; if they were too close, they would interfere with each other, and even if one person fell, a large group would fall with him.

Therefore, it is very difficult to train qualified cavalry. Just the ability to control distance requires several years of riding on horseback. In battle, maintaining formation requires subconscious control, because the main focus must be on one's saber or lance.

This also resulted in the cavalry formation having to charge at the target at the beginning. If they wanted to change targets, they had to move to a distant place, regroup, and charge again. Otherwise, if they suddenly changed targets, the front-to-back spacing of the entire team and the length-to-width ratio of the formation would be problematic. Of course, some elite cavalry units with extremely high training levels could switch targets freely, but they were a minority after all.

At this moment, the Prussian Hussars' goal was to intercept and kill the Austrian fleeing soldiers, so they had no ability to fight back against the sudden attack from the flank.

Their commander reacted quickly and immediately ordered his troops to disengage from the pursuit of the Austrians and move away in order to regroup and launch a counterattack.

However, the French cavalry simply ignored the Austrian soldiers - the entire battle line was very long, and this was only a section of it. There were still a large number of Austrian troops being chased by enemy cavalry in the east and west directions - they just kept their eyes on the Prussian cavalry, chased them up and killed them all, and then rushed to the next target.

Marshal Lacy saw a gap in the Prussian cavalry's blockade and hurriedly ordered the officers beside him to go and gather the deserters.

At around 3 p.m., thousands of Austrian soldiers had gathered around Marshal Lacy again, and a team of brave French cavalry happened to pass by nearby. Led by a slightly fat, curly-haired cavalry company commander, they raised their swords to greet them.

After a while, Lacy's attendant had a brief exchange with the cavalry and returned to report to him: "Marshal, they said they were from the Second Company of the Third Hussar Battalion, the First Regiment of the French Royal Guard, and they came here specifically to cover our retreat."

"The Royal Guards?" Lacy asked in surprise. "The troops following the French Dauphin? Aren't they surrounded in Oberon?"

"The captain said he didn't know about the siege. They fought a battle with the Drison Legion and then came here." Lacy: "???"

……

On the western side of the Austrian line, that is, the side controlled by Austria, a large number of Prussian soldiers were pouring in like a tide from the gap in the line of defense, while two troops were attacking in the north and south directions to expand the gap.

Not far from the Austrian defense line, the Rangers of the Guards Corps came running and shouted to the officers in the command post:

"Report, the Prussian infantry has arrived at the town of Wolfenst, with a vanguard of about 1 men. The number of the enemy's main force is still being counted, but it should be more than 1."

Berthier nodded upon hearing this and said to the staff officer beside him:

"The enemy has penetrated deep enough. Order the attack to proceed as planned."

The town of Wolfenst is located in the heart of the Austrian-controlled area, more than 6 kilometers away from the defense line between Prussia and Austria.

"Yes, General!"

Because this battle was a fight between a small force and a large one, the risk was very high, so the officers of the General Staff unanimously requested His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to stay away from the battlefield, so this battle was commanded by Berthier. However, Joseph had already made detailed arrangements with the staff, and basically it didn't matter who was in charge.

Soon, the melodious trumpet sounded, representing the legion's attack. Berthier looked at his assistant next to him and asked, "Where is General Kellerman?"

"Last night's news, we have passed the lower Bull River."

According to Joseph's plan, Kellermann's 3 French troops were not going to reinforce Leo from the beginning. When they arrived at Ratibor, they just fired a few shots symbolically, and when they received the order from the crown prince, they immediately rushed back to the Liegnitz front. However, at the marching speed of this old-fashioned army, it might take another three days to arrive.

Berthier then ordered: "Go and contact Marshal Lacy and ask him to cooperate with us as much as possible to launch a counterattack against the enemy forces that have entered the western side of the defense line."

"Yes, General!"

At the gap in the Austrian defense line, General Maurice, commander of the Saxon Army, was holding a telescope with a depressed look on his face.

The Prussians were chasing after the Austrian fleeing troops to gain military merit, while they were trying to undermine the Austrian defenses here.

Although the Austrian army's morale was low, there were still many heavy artillery pieces on the defense line, which was definitely not an easy task.

When he saw his own skirmisher battalion rushing up to a high ground and capturing the Austrian artillery position there, before he had time to rejoice, he saw a neat line of infantry suddenly appear behind the low hill.

(End of this chapter)