I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 1256 The Last Prussian Army

In the Duke of Brunswick's mind, the French army should be on their way to attack Anhalt, but now they have suddenly appeared here.

It must be that Soult left behind troops to delay his advance. He immediately made this judgment and instructed the officer beside him, "General Born, you must immediately lead your hussars to provide support..."

Before he could finish speaking, a messenger rode up at full speed and shouted from a distance, "Marshal, more than 20,000 French troops are approaching our army from Witzenhausen!"

Witzenhausen is 4 kilometers west of the Prussian army, which means he is now facing enemies on both sides.

Suddenly, the Duke of Brunswick was overwhelmed by the memory of his capture in Luxembourg a few years earlier.

He shook his head vigorously to dispel these troubling thoughts and said to the messenger, "Tell General Reichten to do everything possible to hold off the enemy!"

Rehiten was his former army commander.

Then, the Duke of Brunswick looked at Born: "The Hussars don't need to go to reinforce. We will fight the French here!"

Before the Prussian army had fully regrouped from its march, Soult had already led the main force of the Second Army to their left flank.

First, the cavalry artillery made a rapid advance and unleashed a barrage of shells on the Prussian army with 12 six-pound cannons.

Then, a skirmish group of tens of thousands of French soldiers quickly approached and engaged in a firefight with the infantry line hastily deployed by the Duke of Brunswick.

The Duke of Brunswick had heard that the French were using a new formation on the northern Italian front, but he always thought it was just an advantage that the French had in terms of shooting skills—how could skirmishers' firing density compare to that of infantry lines?

He always believed that as long as the density of the infantry lines was maximized, the firepower would be sufficient to defeat any skirmishers.

However, the current battle situation completely shattered his confidence.

The volley fire from the four rows of Prussian infantry appeared fierce, but the French soldiers opposite them, apart from reloading, would hide among the dry grass, causing most of their bullets to fly into the air.

However, the sporadic and scattered fire from the French army caused a large number of effective casualties.

The firefight lasted less than 15 minutes before the Duke of Brunswick had to send in his reserves to make up for the heavy casualties on the infantry line.

Just then, another messenger rushed over and handed him a coded letter, saying urgently, "Marshal, General Reihiteng requests that you send reinforcements as soon as possible. He is about to collapse!"

Although the Brunswick Legion outnumbered Soult by more than 14,000 men, it was suddenly ambushed and its fighting strength was far inferior to that of the French army. As a result, it was beaten helplessly from both directions.

Duke Brunswick's face was ashen. After hesitating for a few seconds, he said to the messenger, "Order the Hussars to launch a surprise attack on the enemy's flank."

"The Bozewirna Legion will hold off the enemy, while the rest will retreat to Eisenhena."

With the enemy infantry formation intact, a hasty cavalry attack would be extremely disadvantageous, but the Duke of Brunswick couldn't afford to worry about that now; he had to find a way to draw the attention of the main French force. Only then would he have a chance to retreat to Eisenhenna and hold his ground.

A dozen minutes later, Born led nearly 4 hussars from the woods on the south side and charged toward the right flank of the French army.

Meanwhile, the main Prussian forces began a rapid retreat.

In front of the French temporary command post, Soult quickly received a report from the hot air balloons about the discovery of a large number of enemy cavalry. His hot air balloons were in good working order, so they quickly rose into the air after the battle began.

Grouchy, who was standing nearby, immediately said to Soult, "General, I'll go and stop them."

The latter stopped him, saying, "Just leave it to the infantry."

He brought only 2500 cavalrymen, and fighting against a superior enemy force would inevitably result in heavy casualties.

Grouchy quickly reminded him, "But that will affect the frontal attack." "It's alright," Soult smiled, "General Lefebvre should be arriving soon."

The Chap signal vehicle behind the French skirmish group quickly relayed the orders to each company. The four regiments on the right flank soon transformed into two hollow squares.

Born first took several rounds of artillery fire from a distance, and then he saw the despairing square formation ahead.

He gritted his teeth, drew his saber, and shouted, "Launch a frontal assault!"

As it turned out, the Prussian hussars were not much stronger than the Mamluk cavalry.

They paced back and forth around the hollow square formation, looking for an opportunity, but were unable to break through.

Meanwhile, the cannons and rifles in the phalanx were constantly taking away the lives of the Prussian cavalry.

In just over 20 minutes, the Prussian hussars had suffered one-third casualties. The remaining soldiers, no matter how much Born scolded them, remained standing in place, unwilling to go and die.

Grouchy then led his cuirassiers and charged forward.

However, thanks to the brief time that Born had bought, the Duke of Brunswick had the opportunity to withdraw his main forces from the battlefield.

Unbeknownst to him, the Lefebvre Legion and thousands of former Walloon police were waiting for him several kilometers away.

……

Baden.

The eastern side of the French Karlsruhe defensive line.

Previdish looked back at the dolphin and iris flag not far away, his heart pounding with excitement.

He knew that at that moment, His Highness the Crown Prince was watching him from under that banner.

Since the victory at Schnat, the new recruits of the Sixth and Seventh Armies have become fascinated with bayonet charges.

Despite His Highness the Crown Prince's repeated strict orders prohibiting hand-to-hand combat unless ordered by a brigade commander, he still could not completely stop them from doing so.

Recently, the new recruits' bayonet charges have indeed repeatedly and swiftly repelled enemy attacks, but they have also inflicted very serious casualties on themselves.

This led to a shortage of troops at the Baden Line after the Allied forces transferred a large number of troops from Freiburg.

At noon today, Graham's Legion launched a fierce attack on the eastern side of the defensive line, resulting in a gap over a hundred meters wide. General Berthier was unable to immediately mobilize enough soldiers to close the gap.

Therefore, His Highness the Crown Prince ordered his personal guards, the grenadiers, to be deployed to the battlefield.

Several kilometers away in the French military command post, Grand Duke Karl Frederick of Baden gripped the windowsill tightly, gazing into the distance.

Although he couldn't see anything from there, his tense expression made him look as if he were personally witnessing a battlefield battle.

Just an hour ago, the French Crown Prince led his guards to the front lines. This indicates that the situation has become extremely serious.

For a moment, Karl Friedrich even wondered if it was a mistake to bet everything on France.

But then he remembered the miracles created by that chosen one of God's children, and his eyes immediately hardened.

(End of this chapter)