I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 452: Defeat is just a new beginning

Heine hurriedly took the telescope handed to him by the servant, and then saw a dense crowd of soldiers gathered in front of the Prussian defense line, and the line was so long that it was endless.

"Quick! Alert!" he shouted immediately, "The Prussians are about to attack!"

Fortunately, although the Liegnitz front has been calm, it is after all a state of war between two countries, so the soldiers still maintain a state of combat readiness on a daily basis.

Soon, sharp whistles and assembly drums were heard all around.

The Austrian soldiers complained as they lined up near the defense line, and then they heard intensive artillery fire coming from the opposite side.

Accompanied by the whistling of artillery shells, nearly 20 shells fell near the Austrian artillery positions, stirring up a lot of dust.

The Austrian artillery also hurriedly fought back, but after firing only a dozen shots, they were shocked to find that their ammunition was almost exhausted.

The Prussians began to take risks and push their cannons forward. After discovering that the opponent's counterattack was very weak, they suddenly became bolder. Several 24-pound fortress cannons were dragged to the front of the battle line by more than a dozen horses.

The Duke of Brunswick had originally mobilized all the cannons in the surrounding area, which was nearly twice as many as the cannons of the defenders in front of him. With sufficient ammunition, he soon bombarded the Austrian artillery and made them unable to raise their heads.

Marshal Lacy also received the news and rushed to Davydov's defense zone as quickly as possible. It was already 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

What he saw was that there were only four cannons left on his defense line, but their firing rate was so low that he wanted to curse.

The Prussian infantry on the opposite side had been fully deployed, just covering Davydov's entire defense zone. There were about 1 people in the first infantry line alone!
At the same time, a large number of scattered soldiers had taken advantage of the terrain to reach a place less than 400 steps away from their own defense line.

There was only a thin infantry line on his side, which looked to be no more than 1 people. There were quite a few troops on both sides who had just received the news, but they were in a state of rapid march and could not engage in battle for a while.

Marshal Lacy was sweating profusely. It was indeed risky for him to transfer the corps of Davydov and Conrad, but he did not expect that Ferdinand would launch a targeted attack so quickly. Ferdinand was the name of the Duke of Brunswick.

In fact, Lacy did try to replenish the defense here, but he only had less than 10 troops left, and the entire defense line had to be taken care of, so only more than 1 people were assigned to take charge of this section.

The roar of Prussian artillery gradually weakened, followed by bursts of melodious trumpet sounds.

Lacy looked through the telescope and saw that the Prussian skirmishers had begun to harass the line formation on his side. This meant that the enemy would soon launch a general attack and a large number of infantry would press forward.

"Damn it!" He cursed in a low voice, "If it weren't for that French guy, how could there be such a big hole in my defense!"

At this time, he had completely forgotten that he came to Silesia to defeat the Prussians and regain his homeland, not to build any defense line.

If Austria wanted to defend, it could retreat back to Bohemia and rely on the Sudeten Mountains for defense, which would be more effective.

But complaining was useless at this time. Marshal Lacy had to send messengers to urge the reinforcements to speed up. Then, despite his subordinates' obstruction, he went to the front line in person and ran back and forth to boost morale.

Not long after, a 12-pound shell passed by his side, creating a huge gap in the infantry line and almost rolling to the second row of lines before being blocked by a mound of earth.

The servants looked at the blood and flesh mixed with the soil on the ground and hurriedly carried the marshal to the rear.

Then, the Prussian army, with its four most elite grenadier regiments as the core, slowly pressed towards the Austrian positions with a long and narrow infantry line.

Marshal Lacy's encouragement played a certain role. With the cooperation of the skirmishers, the Austrian soldiers actually withstood the close volleys of the opposing grenadiers, and then, under the order of the officers, they returned fire with a volley at a distance of 40 steps.

In the days of infantry line battles, as long as the soldiers could stand, the battle would be fought. The two sides soon fell into a shooting situation - tens of thousands of soldiers lined up in tight formations on a battle line over 3 kilometers long, standing straight, mechanically loading and firing continuously.

Kill the enemy's soldiers or be knocked down by their bullets.

This is what people often call "shooting in line."

After the two sides fired at each other for seven or eight rounds, the Prussian army, which had the numerical advantage, could no longer hold on and some of their soldiers began to retreat timidly.

At this time, the Prussian army was no longer the fierce and powerful army under Frederick the Great. In terms of individual soldier quality, it was even inferior to the Austrian army.

The first wave of Prussian infantry retreated one after another, and there was an excited cheer from the Austrian position.

However, Marshal Lacy did not dare to let his soldiers pursue because he knew that the Prussians had a huge advantage in military strength.

Sure enough, the Duke of Brunswick quickly ordered the second infantry line to launch an attack, giving the Austrians no chance to breathe.

Marshal Lacy ordered several skirmisher battalions to harass the Prussian left wing at all costs, and with the help of the only three remaining cannons, he barely managed to maintain the defense line.

The two sides remained in a stalemate until dark, and then each retreated back to the camp.

However, after most of the day's fighting, Austria had suffered heavy casualties, especially the elite skirmishers, which had suffered extremely severe losses.

After inspecting the condition of the wounded, Lacy had already begun to arrange the establishment of a second line of defense in the west.

The next morning, the Duke of Brunswick launched a fierce attack without any hesitation.

Under the repeated attacks of more than 5 Prussian troops, the Austrian army held out until about two o'clock in the afternoon, when a group of Prussian hussars finally found a gap and cut into the left wing of their infantry line.

As the cavalry continued to harass the flanks, the Austrian defense line collapsed.

The Duke of Brunswick decisively ordered the cavalry to squeeze the Austrian corps from both sides, and at the same time sent a large number of infantry to set up defense lines on the north and south sides to block the Austrian reinforcements.

Marshal Lacy tried his best to command his soldiers to retreat, but was still blocked by Prussian cavalry in a depression 15 kilometers away from the front line a day later.

Fortunately, he escaped from the encirclement before the enemy closed in. But when he looked at the huge gap in his own defense line on the map, he was already half discouraged.

At the moment, the best situation is to delay the Prussians, wait for his troops to withdraw from Ratibor, and then try to stabilize the front line.

However, after this disastrous defeat, it became almost impossible to retake Silesia.

As for the more than 1 soldiers who were surrounded, he no longer had any hope.

However, when he was sitting on his horse and looking at the surrounded soldiers through a telescope, his eyes suddenly widened——

In the distance, a cavalry unit was rushing towards the Prussians' flank at a very fast speed, and those people seemed to be wearing white uniforms.

(End of this chapter)