I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 1143 Battle of the Pyramids

Yes, the French "high-altitude reconnaissance battalion" was constantly watching the battlefield from mid-air, and every move of the Mamluk army was clearly visible.

Massena asked the communications officer, "Has a signal been sent from the west bank?"

"Not yet, General."

Massena breathed a sigh of relief and instructed the messenger: "The entire army shall retreat 4 kilometers to the southwest."

"Hussars, take care to cover your flanks."

"Yes, General!"

Two hours later, when Ibrahim led his cavalry to the French camp, he found it deserted.

However, his cavalry quickly reconfirmed the French position. Cursing the cowardly French, he ordered his cavalry to assemble and pursue them southwest.

Meanwhile, on the east bank of the Nile, Mohammed Ali was loudly urging his Albanian troops: "We're only 7 miles from Cairo, quicken our pace!"

"Once we defeat the Mamluk rebels, everyone will receive 5 Sutani!"

Yes, he had basically not heard any orders from Commander-in-Chief Raif since he crossed the Suez Canal.

As the Raif Legion approached Cairo, he deliberately delayed, leaving his 8 soldiers far behind.

When Raif was attacked by the Mamluks and ordered to retreat, he did not retreat with them, but instead moved south to clear the way.

Then, he ordered a forced march toward Cairo.

Yes, he had already agreed on a battle plan with the French before he left Constantine.

The victory in the Egyptian campaign was destined for him from the very beginning!
After walking for several more hours, a cavalryman returned and reported that the Mamluk garrison had been spotted two miles away.

Muhammad Ali immediately signaled to the messenger: "Start sending the signal."

"Yes, my lord!"

Soon, dozens of Albanian soldiers piled up the prepared timber and oil into a large circle and then set it on fire.

There was no smoke; the hundred-meter-square fire circle burned quietly.

An officer, watching the soldiers continuously adding fuel, asked his commander with some doubt, "Sir, can the French really receive the signal?"

Mohammed Ali nodded: "Since they told us to do this, there shouldn't be any problems."

He then looked at the messenger and shouted, "Order the entire army to rest on the spot. We will launch an attack in three hours."

"Yes, my lord!"

More than ten kilometers away, near a French military camp, a hot air balloon was lazily floating in the sky.

The scouts in the hot air balloon basket stared wide-eyed at the opposite bank of the Nile. The terrain here was flat and there were very few tall trees, making it easy to see far into the distance from the air.

Suddenly, he noticed a light flickering on the riverbank in the distance.

He quickly took out his binoculars to confirm, and when a "faint" ring of fire appeared in the eyepiece, he immediately said to the sergeant beside him, "Matthew, signal appeared, report to the ground!"

As Matthew picked up two long wooden sticks and began rhythmically raising and lowering them, the reconnaissance battalion soldiers on the ground responded intermittently through the mobile Sharp signal tower—sending a "checksum," a simple encrypted calculation using Morse code, and informing the soldiers in the hot air balloon of the result. If the latter found that the checksum did not match their calculation, they knew the soldiers on the ground had misread it and would immediately retransmit the previous message. A few minutes later, the signalman responsible for recording sealed the received intelligence and handed it over to the communications officer.

Massena quickly learned that Mohammed Ali had arrived at the designated position and immediately ordered his messenger: "Begin the counterattack as planned."

He added with some concern:
"Tell the artillery to get as close as possible to the infantry lines. The enemy has a lot of cavalry, so be careful of surprise attacks."

"Hussars should focus on protecting their flanks and avoid direct confrontation with the enemy."

"The cuirassiers should not rush up to reinforce..."

Minutes later, his orders were relayed to all officers via mobile signal towers. Tens of thousands of French troops moved almost simultaneously.

Ibrahim was urging the cavalrymen beside him to keep up the speed when he suddenly heard the "whoosh" of cannonballs whistling through the air.

Then, the Mamluk cavalrymen in front of him were torn apart by an invisible force. Several straight lines of blood appeared in the cavalry ranks.

Ibrahim paused for a moment, cursing the French artillery for their perfect accuracy, and then raised his whip, loudly ordering his soldiers not to panic and to continue advancing.

The sound of cannons rang out again in the distance, and several lines of blood instantly sliced ​​through the ranks of the Mamluk cavalry. A warm, sticky thing was slapped onto Ibrahim's forehead.

He reached out and wiped away the clump of flesh, staring incredulously in the direction from which the cannon fire had come.

They couldn't even see the French cannons, meaning they were at least 1 kilometer away, yet they managed to hit them twice in a row!

Little did he know that the hot air balloons in mid-air were constantly reporting the exact location of the Mamluk cavalry to the artillery.

French artillerymen, on the other hand, could calculate the elevation angle, firing angle, and propellant charge of the cannon within a minute using complex functions—these artillerymen had all studied at military academies for many years and their mathematics had reached a university level.

Through such precise calculations, they can maintain an astonishing hit rate of over a quarter, even when the enemy is far out of sight.

In a way, the Mamluk cavalry were unlucky. The French "air-ground artillery combined tactics" were originally intended for the European powers, but they were the first to try it out.

When the French cannonballs once again accurately penetrated the ranks of the Mamluk cavalry, Ibrahim finally realized that something was wrong.

Fortunately, the French infantry's defensive line was now very close. He loudly ordered the cavalry to trot, secretly counting their steps.

The horses charged again after 25 more hoofbeats. Then, the French cannons had only one more chance to fire.

Then, it was his turn to take revenge with his saber!

The Mamluk cavalry displayed extreme ferocity. Even after four or five hundred men were killed by cannon fire, they maintained their formation. Upon hearing Bey's order to charge, they gripped their sabers tightly and roared, "Follow the Lord's guidance!"

However, what awaited them were four huge hollow square formations.

For soldiers of the French Legion, switching to this standard formation takes only a few minutes.

Each hollow square formation consists of 2 soldiers, arranged in three rows, with their bayonets pointing diagonally forward, resembling a giant square hedgehog.

Meanwhile, the cannons were protected in the middle of the square formation, comfortably unleashing grapeshot at the surging Mamluk cavalry.

When the cavalry charged fearlessly toward the square formation, they were forced to flank it by the dense bayonets.

However, all directions of these formations are exactly the same, and no matter how they try to maneuver, they cannot find a breakthrough.

(End of this chapter)