I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 456: Eating Both Ends of the Sugarcane

As for the Duke of Brunswick, he was not afraid that the French would cheat him. They would pay the money and release the people, and it was a good faith transaction. The main thing was that he had no choice. If he rejected the French proposal, his more than 5 people would most likely not be able to be saved.

West of Liegnitz.

The town of Wolfenst has returned to Austrian control. At this time, outside the town, next to the Austrian camp, hundreds of honor guards stood neatly on both sides of the road, excitedly looking at the French officers passing by, especially the young man in the lead.

The large group of ordinary soldiers behind them shouted loudly regardless of the consequences: "Thank you, French brothers, may God bless you!"

"You showed up just in time. Long live France!"

"Thank you, Your Highness, you saved us all!"

How could they not be excited? At the moment when the Prussian army broke through the defense line, they all thought they were dead.

At the critical moment, the French Royal Guards suddenly appeared and cut off the Prussian army that had broken into the Austrian-controlled area.

At the same time, the French army also sent cavalry to cover their flanks and help them retreat safely.

Marshal Lacy then gathered the Austrian army and launched a counterattack against the Prussians. Now the whole situation was rapidly developing in their favor.

The military music around suddenly became passionate, and Marshal Lacy came out with dozens of officers.

When he saw the French Crown Prince, he immediately gestured to the back and saluted with the officers: "Thank you for your help, Your Highness. Austria will always remember your help!"

Joseph jumped off his horse, smiled and greeted everyone, and kept saying polite words. The atmosphere was quite harmonious.

Marshal Lacy personally led Joseph to the camp. After exchanging pleasantries, he suddenly remembered the doubts in his heart and asked hurriedly, "Your Highness, you said that we were surrounded by Driesen and asked me to send reinforcements, but how come you suddenly appeared at the Liegnitz front?"

Joseph had already thought of a good explanation. He made the sign of the cross on his chest and said devoutly, "To be honest, the situation was very dangerous and I almost died several times. However, with God's blessing, one of our shells ricocheted and hit a senior Prussian officer, and his troops immediately fell into chaos.

"I took the opportunity to escape the encirclement and fled all the way back to Liegnitz. As soon as I got here, I encountered the Prussians breaking through your defense line. My army happened to be on the enemy's flank, so I took advantage of the situation and launched an attack. Fortunately, I defeated them."

All the Austrian officers were stunned when they heard this. This is simply... even novels wouldn't dare to write this way, right?

Lacy was also stunned for a few seconds, and hurriedly made the sign of the cross on his chest: "Ah! God is blessing you, Your Highness, you are so lucky."

The group entered the camp, and there was still some time before lunch. As the battle was fierce, Marshal Lacy asked the French prince to rest first, as he had to hold a combat meeting.

Hearing this, Joseph looked at Berthier and others beside him and said, "We are facing a powerful enemy, so let's attend the meeting together."

Marshal Lacy did not say much, after all, the war situation was the most important thing, so he invited Joseph and others to go into a farmhouse. This was his temporary command post.

There were a large number of maps and combat documents in the living room of the farmhouse. It was obvious that Lacy and others had been holding a meeting here before.

At Lacy's signal, an officer briefly introduced the current Austrian deployment, and then said: "This is roughly the situation on the battlefield. The Marshal plans to strengthen the troops at the gap in the defense line after General Davydov and General Conrad's corps return, and then encircle the enemy troops on the west side of the defense line from three directions.

"At present, the enemy army is centered around the Andreas Corps, relying on the low hills north of the village of Balde for defense. If we want to defeat them, we must first attack the high ground on both sides..." Joseph looked at the energetic Marshal Lacy, patiently listened to the officer's explanation of the battle deployment, and then said with a serious expression: "Marshal, your deployment is foolproof. However, how long do you think it will take to completely annihilate these more than 5 Prussian troops?"

Lacy said without hesitation: "It will take about 5 to 7 days to mobilize the troops."

After all, there are a large number of troops in Latibor, and the time is very tight to withdraw and rest.

"If the battle goes well, we can defeat the Prussians in a week. Even if they resist, I am confident that we can end the battle within half a month."

Although the Prussian army was cut off on the west side of the Liegnitz Line, it was after all a large army of more than 5 people with a well-organized organization. If they really wanted to resist resolutely, it would take some effort to annihilate them.

Joseph nodded: "So, after annihilating this enemy army, what will you do next?"

Marshal Lacy said with a smile on his face: "Of course we will continue to attack eastwards, recapture Liegnitz in one fell swoop, and then march to Breslau."

"Do you think it will go so smoothly?"

"Hmm?" Marshal Lacy was a little confused, "What does your highness mean?"

He really didn't take this young man seriously before, but just the day before yesterday, the latter had saved his army from a desperate situation. How could he dare to underestimate the other party's opinion again?

"You just said that it would take half a month to a month to wipe out the enemy forces on the west side of the defense line." Joseph said, "This long time is enough for the Duke of Brunswick to re-strengthen the Liegnitz defense line.

"Even if we have an advantage in manpower, we will still face a difficult battle."

He paused and sighed, “Perhaps it will take half a year, or even longer, to break through that line of defense.

"And you also know that public opinion in Vienna believes that you have already recaptured Liegnitz. If you delay this long, you will probably face considerable pressure by then."

There were more than 200 cannons on the Prussian defense line. Even if the Austrian coalition had an advantage in manpower, it was not certain that they could capture the city quickly. Of course, Joseph's claim that it would take half a year was a bit exaggerated.

Marshal Lacy's face turned bitter when he heard this: "You are right, Your Highness. But this is the best tactic I can think of. If His Majesty the Emperor blames me for the poor performance, then I can only..."

Joseph shook his head and said, "Marshal, we actually have a great opportunity now. The Duke of Brunswick previously transferred a large number of troops, which caused chaos in the defense line. In addition, they just suffered a defeat, and the morale of the soldiers is low.

"If we mobilize all our forces and storm the southern defense line at this time, we will most likely achieve a breakthrough in one fell swoop."

Marshal Lacy also shook his head: "Your Highness, there are at least 9 defenders on the Prussian defense line. I'm afraid it won't be easy to break through quickly.

"Besides, we can't ignore the more than 5 enemy troops on the west side of the defense line. Otherwise, once we start attacking the defense line, they will immediately attack us from behind."

Joseph was waiting for him to say this, and a sly smile flashed in his eyes: "Marshal, what if I can transfer soldiers from the enemy's defense line and prevent those 5 Prussians from causing trouble?"

(End of this chapter)