I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 1253 The Strongest Prussian Legion
The following morning, French artillery suddenly appeared on the southeastern side of the Prussian defenses in Weimar. The intense artillery fire quickly blasted a gap several tens of meters wide into the right flank of the Prussian army.

Immediately, Augereau personally commanded the skirmisher group to launch a fierce attack on the enemy from the front.

On the battlefield, which was more than three kilometers wide, more than 5 French soldiers advanced rapidly in a loose but very orderly formation.

Soon, when the Prussian infantry line was 90 paces apart, they fired their first volley. However, most of the bullets flew between the loosely positioned French soldiers, and most of those who were hit were spared injury because of bulletproof shrapnel.

The drums of the French skirmishers suddenly stopped, and the soldiers immediately sought cover behind bushes or rocks, then peeked out to aim and fire.

They didn't fire in volleys—that was a technique used by smoothbore muskets to increase the probability of a hit; rifled muskets were accurate enough to support precise shooting by individual soldiers. These French veterans, in particular, had experience firing thousands of rounds; their marksmanship was absolutely superb.

A cloud of blood instantly billowed up along the Prussian defenses. At least two hundred men were hit and fell to the ground.

The Prussian army also received bulletproof inserts from the British, and the elite troops of the Brandenburg Guards were all equipped with this kind of protective gear.

However, the Minié bullets fired by the French army had excellent airtightness due to the cavity expansion effect at the bottom, and the bullets rotated at high speed, so their penetration power was more than 30% higher than that of ordinary bullets.

In addition, Britain had not yet developed high-quality alloy steel and was unwilling to use silk as the interlayer of the inserts, resulting in their imitation bulletproof inserts being of much lower quality than the French ones.

This caused at least 70% of the bulletproof plates worn by the Prussians to be penetrated, and the soldiers' confidence gained from this advanced protective gear immediately vanished.

In reality, this is still at a relatively long distance—within 60 paces, a Minié bullet can essentially penetrate British-made bulletproof inserts completely.

The drums of the French skirmishers sounded again, and the soldiers rose and quickly loaded their ammunition—even faster than the Prussians opposite them—before advancing five paces in unison and disappearing again.

The Prussian soldiers on the defensive line felt extremely uncomfortable, as if they were standing there like idiots, letting the enemy shoot at them, but when they tried to fire, they found it difficult to even find a decent target.

Just as the French skirmishers closed in to within 50 paces of the enemy, signs of chaos began to appear in the Prussian positions.

Just as Augereau was about to order the long-prepared column behind him to launch an attack, he suddenly heard a booming sound coming from the high ground on the east side of Weimar.

In fact, Marshal Mehrendorf had noticed yesterday that this high ground was very suitable for setting up artillery, but it was already late at the time, and he felt that the French army could not possibly arrive so quickly, so he ordered the artillery to set up the gun positions the next day.

Unexpectedly, Augereau launched an attack early in the morning, and the Austrian artillerymen hurriedly dragged their cannons up to the high ground.

Five twelve-pound iron balls swept through the French skirmishers, and although they were very spread out, several were instantly shattered.

Augereau gritted his teeth and loudly ordered the skirmishers to press up further, then instructed Murat to lead the hussars to launch a surprise attack on the enemy's artillery positions—in this situation, a direct assault by column would likely result in heavy casualties due to artillery fire.

However, at that moment, the Prussian defenses, which had begun to falter, suddenly stabilized for some unknown reason. The soldiers who had been trembling and afraid to raise their heads, or even preparing to turn away, straightened up again and cheered.

When the French skirmishers charged to within 30 paces of the enemy, Augereau witnessed their volley kill at least 300 men, but the Prussian soldiers immediately shouted and returned fire.

The morale is incredibly high.

At such close range, the French soldiers' bulletproof shrapnel was also unable to withstand the bullets from the percussion caps, and dozens of soldiers immediately fell to the ground. The Prussian artillery on the eastern high ground continued to roar incessantly. Seeing that he could not break through the Prussian defenses and knew that his own casualties would only increase if he continued to stalemate, Augereau had no choice but to order the skirmishers to retreat.

He turned to look at the hussars who were assembling their ranks, silently vowing that Murat must break through the enemy's artillery positions.

Just then, a light blue hot air balloon slowly rose to his side and behind. Because the steam engine pump carried by the Augero Legion had malfunctioned due to the carriage overturning en route, it took the high-altitude reconnaissance battalion more than an hour to prepare for the launch.

Augereau was directing the rotation of the company that had suffered heavy losses earlier with the reserves when he soon spotted Murat's cavalry battalion circling eastward and disappearing behind a grove of trees.

On the other side, the hot air balloon gradually rose to an altitude of more than 600 meters. The officer in the basket seemed to have discovered something important and suddenly excitedly sent signals to the ground.

Before long, the staff officer rushed to Augero with the newly translated report, breathless, and said, "General, the high-altitude reconnaissance battalion has spotted the Black Eagle flag south of Weimar!"

Augereau grabbed the report in surprise and saw the words "Black Hawk Banner" and "Dark Blue Uniforms, Bearskin Hat Guards" on it. His heart pounded.

The black single-headed eagle, the so-called "Prussian Eagle," is the symbolic emblem of the royal family, while "Prussian blue" is the uniform of the royal guard. All of this suggests that William III is very likely in Weimar!

No wonder the Prussians here have such a high fighting spirit. Augereau immediately understood the unusual scene he had just witnessed.

He immediately frowned, realizing that breaking through the Weimar defenses in a short time would not be easy.

His gaze suddenly sharpened, and he turned to his staff officer, saying, "Tell Murat to leave the artillery positions alone for now and wait on the enemy's left flank."

"Order the 11th and 15th Regiments of the skirmishers to assemble on the east side and prepare for a column charge."

"Colonel Masson commanded other troops, including reserves, to launch an attack from the front."

"quick!"

The Prussian army only arrived in Weimar yesterday, and their defenses are not yet fully in place. He must seize this opportunity to resolve the battle here.

While William III could boost the morale of the Prussian army in Weimar, he was also their Achilles' heel!

Forty minutes later, the French army, which had barely rested, launched another fierce frontal attack under the pressure of Prussian artillery.

The Prussian army quickly replenished the ranks of those who had fallen on the defensive lines. The Brandenburg Guards were the core of Frederick the Great's most glorious era and maintained an exceptionally high level of morale.

An even more brutal battle than before erupted instantly.

Masson quickly sent the pre-arranged signal to Augero via the Sharp signal car. This indicated that he had successfully completed his diversionary mission.

Augereau immediately led two regiments of nearly 3 soldiers, arranged in dozens of columns, and charged toward the left flank of the Prussian army's defenses.

(End of this chapter)