I Am the Crown Prince in France

Chapter 329: The young emperor trying his hand at fighting

Blücher immediately pulled the reins, turned his head with wide eyes and asked: "Are you sure that it is not the cavalry coming to harass us?"

"It is definitely not harassment, General."

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The two hussars looked at each other, "We saw cannons, and there are at least three or four regiments of troops."

Blücher felt a buzz in his head, did these French people have wings?

In order to speed up, he ordered the soldiers to throw down a lot of baggage, but just after the camp was moved, the French had already caught up!

Well, how could he know that the Guards Corps had almost no baggage except for shells and gunpowder. Even His Royal Highness the Crown Prince did not bring a bed, let alone other officers.

An hour ago, Joseph defeated the Dutch army, leaving only one regiment to clean up the battlefield and two battalions to take care of the wounded. The other soldiers did not even rest, and immediately rushed towards the Prussian main force.

Soon, other hussars came to report the approach of the French army. Blucher had no choice but to order the entire army to line up on the spot and prepare to meet the enemy.

The Prussian army, which had just entered the marching state, immediately stopped and began to form a team. The baggage vehicles hurriedly rushed to the rear team. For a time, nearly 10,000 troops were mixed together and in chaos.

Blucher had just arranged three infantry lines, and the French cavalry had already appeared less than 1 kilometer away, followed by infantry.

"Is the artillery position ready?" Blucher asked the staff officer next to him with a dark face.

The latter asked several messengers again, and then turned around and said: "General, the artillery is rushing to the high ground, and it should take half an hour to be in place."

"Let them hurry up!" Blücher didn't know why, this French army always made him feel uneasy, only the artillery could make him feel a little more at ease.

"Yes, General!"

After a series of reconnaissance and probing by both Prussia and France, the infantry line of the Guards Corps had approached 500 steps away from the Prussians.

And it was not until this time that Blücher finally got the detailed number of French troops - 11,000.

He frowned and silently thought in his heart that as long as the Altmann Corps and the Dietlind Corps could get back in time, they could still form a siege on the French!

…

"Try harder!" The commander of the artillery battalion of the Guards Corps pointed to the mound ahead and shouted to the soldiers who were helping the horses to pull the cannons, "The Prussians have dispersed their forces. As long as we start shooting, they will soon be defeated!"

Nearly a thousand artillerymen immediately shouted excitedly, "Defeat the Prussians!"

"The glory of victory belongs to us!"

"Let those bumpkins have a taste of power! Long live the artillery!"

They can be said to be proud of today's battle.

In previous wars, artillery was always the foil of infantry. Even military textbooks say: Even if artillery can achieve great results, it still depends on infantry to end the battle in the end.

And today's battle against the Southern Netherlands was almost the cavalry artillery using its elusive close-range bombardment to defeat the enemy's defense line.

The infantry just went up to clean up the mess.

If it weren't for the fact that there were too many cavalrymen on Blücher's side, and the horses of the Guards' cavalry artillery were too exhausted, they would really want to repeat that scene on Blücher.

Just as the cannon in the front was about to be dragged up the mound, a thin captain with a high nose bridge in the team was looking at the surrounding terrain, and from time to time he used a telescope to observe the deployment of the Prussian army.

Suddenly he put away the telescope, walked quickly to the battalion commander of the artillery battalion, raised his hat and saluted, saying: "Commander, I don't think the most suitable artillery position is this mound."

The battalion commander Lacoste frowned, remembering that the crown prince seemed to care about this young officer, so he patiently explained to him: "This is the deployment of the staff, Captain Buwanaba."

He pointed to the vaguely visible Prussian army formation on the west side: "Here we can directly bombard the enemy's infantry line, and there is no open space around that is conducive to the cavalry formation, it is an excellent shooting position. "

Napoleon pursed his lips, mustered up the courage to point to a gentle slope further west: "My lord, I think... that is the most ideal artillery position."

Major Lacoste was slightly startled, raised his telescope and looked at the place he said, but immediately smiled: "Captain, it is indeed closer to the enemy, and the oblique shooting angle is also good. But you probably didn't notice that there is a bush a little to the left between that position and the Prussian army.

"When the Prussian infantry is bombarded, as long as they move slightly to that side, we will lose their sight."

"Yes!" Napoleon nodded vigorously, "This is exactly the advantage of that place."

"Ah?" Lacoste blinked in surprise.

Napoleon took a breath and explained: "The more fierce our artillery fire, the more the enemy wants to get closer to the bush. But the enemy at a distance cannot get through. This is likely to tear their infantry lines apart. "

On a real battlefield, the two armies usually fight in a large area, and it is common for infantry lines to stretch for several kilometers.

So the soldiers in the line can't see where their teammates who are farther away are and what they are doing.

Including officers, if the communication is not smooth, they will lose the understanding of their own situation.

Lacoste looked at the artillery position suggested by Napoleon again, and suddenly felt that the situation he said was very likely to happen.

He thought for a moment, nodded, and told the signalman to report to the staff that he wanted to send some artillery to the new position, and then ordered Napoleon's artillery company to turn around.

More than ten minutes later, the roar of the artillery kicked off the prelude to the decisive battle - it was the artillery of the Guards Corps.

The shells of 15 six-pound cannons flew over the first infantry line of the Prussian Army with a heart-pounding whistle, plowing more than ten furrows in the green grass.

Blücher was shocked again, why the French came from afar, but they were the first to fire.

He frowned and ordered five cavalry squadrons and a battalion of skirmishers to attack the French artillery, and urged his artillery to fight back as soon as possible.

Napoleon commanded his company's five six-pound cannons, quietly hiding in a large patch of weeds, waiting for the opportunity.

As an experienced commander, Blücher was extremely cautious when fighting in large groups, and used his experience to resolve the Guards Corps' repeated pulling and harassment.

The frontal infantry lines of the Prussian and French armies inevitably approached each other. Amid the dense drumbeats and the officers' shouts, it seemed that both sides would rely on their training and morale to decide the winner.

At this moment, less than 400 steps away from the right wing of the Prussian army, a sudden burst of fire broke out, and 5 six-pound shells accurately penetrated into the Prussian army's line formation.

The Prussian infantrymen who were suddenly attacked wailed.

Napoleon saw the hits in the telescope and smiled - his ballistic calculations have always been the best in the military academy. At this distance, without calibration, it was not difficult for him to hit once.