I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 681: Burning Eastern Europe VIII
Yani's ribs were broken and his thigh was stabbed. His whole body was limp like a ball of cotton.

He raised his head with all his strength and looked into the eyes of a Cossack cavalryman who was more than 20 steps away. The other party was obviously unable to move and just kept cursing in Russian.

Yannick spat at him, and suddenly noticed that an artilleryman who was half lying on a dead horse in front of him seemed to move.

He hurriedly shouted over there: "Sergeant, how are you?"

The artilleryman turned his head slowly, and after a while he spoke with difficulty: "For now, he shouldn't die."

Only then did Yannick see that half of his face was completely rotten, and a piece of flesh hanging from his nose swayed back and forth with his breathing.

"We... seem to have held on," he said.

The artilleryman said in a leaky voice: "Yes, the cannon is still there..."

Suddenly, his body trembled, and he raised his hand desperately to point down the slope, as if he saw the entrance to hell: "There! There!"

Yannick looked in the direction of his arm and was suddenly shocked to see that the two Russian cavalrymen who had fallen off their horses were still alive, and they were now climbing back onto their horses.

"Gun, gun!"

Yannick looked around in a panic and immediately saw a flintlock rifle thrown not far away.

He was about to crawl over to pick it up when he heard the artilleryman say, "It's useless. You can only kill one at most..."

Yannick was stunned. In his current state, it was more likely that he would miss any of them.

"What should I do? What should I do?"

His heart twitched again.

They fought desperately to kill all the Russian cavalry, and no one was left to fight, but they didn't expect to miss two enemies.

It only took one Russian soldier to nail the cannon's port shut.

"No, we can't do this, we can't!"

The artilleryman suddenly remembered something and gestured to the cannon behind Yannick:
“You see, the muzzle of the gun is facing them.

"I remember that it has been loaded with gunpowder. Put a grapeshot in it, and when those two bastards get close, fire. It is possible that they will be killed."

"Yes, cannons, shells..." Yannick looked down and immediately saw the shell box just five or six steps away.

He struggled to crawl over, opened it, and looked at the artillery: "Which one should I use?"

"Gray, wrapped in sackcloth."

"Okay." Yannick had already heard the sound of horse hooves, and hurriedly picked up the "burlap bag". With this effort, he immediately felt a piercing pain from the broken ribs.

His eyes widened, and despite the pain that made him unable to breathe, he struggled to hold the shell out. After taking a few deep breaths, he dragged the shell under the muzzle.

The sound of horse hooves was getting closer, probably because they were climbing the hill.

Yannick yelled, knelt there, and grabbed the shell. As he moved, it felt like a knife was inserted into his chest, stirring constantly.

"God, please give me strength!"

He used his neck to press against the base of his right arm, raising the shell above his head and getting closer and closer to the muzzle.

"Hurry!" the artilleryman shouted anxiously.

Yannick shouted again, supported himself with his left leg, and slowly stood up, with blood gushing out from the wound on his right leg.

The next moment, the shell finally slid into the muzzle.

He couldn't find the ramrod, so he prodded the shell downward with his arm.

The artilleryman looked at the Cossack cavalry, then looked at Yannik: "Insert the fuse! Just to the side of the muzzle!"

Yannick glanced at the gun port and replied: "The fuse is already inserted!" "Then ignite it!"

Yannick looked up and saw the ignition rod inserted behind the cannon. He staggered towards it, but suddenly his feet stumbled and he fell to the ground.

The world was spinning around him, and his last thought was, "I must not faint..."

"What are you doing?" The artilleryman's cheeks were bleeding because he had used too much force. "Ignite! Ignite quickly!"

However, the infantry next to the cannon did not react at all.

Two Cossack cavalrymen had climbed to the top of the breakthrough and saw the unattended cannon, as if they saw a helpless beauty lying in front of them.

The two men were about to dismount when suddenly, a small brown-haired head appeared on the other side of the slope.

A little boy climbed up with difficulty, but when he saw the bloody corpses on the ground, he was so scared that he stood there.

If Yannick hadn't fainted, he would have recognized him as Kachi, the younger brother of the girl who died from the Russian artillery shell that day.

The artilleryman reacted instantly and shouted to the boy, "Little guy, pick up the smoking stick and light the rope on the cannon! Quick!"

The boy was stunned for a moment, then saw Yannick lying next to the cannon. He finally plucked up the courage to walk to the fuse and pull it out.

The two Russian cavalrymen seemed to understand what he was going to do and hurriedly turned their horses' heads. However, horses are much slower than humans in turning around.

Under the guidance of the artillery, Kachi pressed the burning oilcloth against the fuse.

The sparks disappeared into the gun port with a whoosh, and then the cannon let out an earth-shaking roar.

"boom--"

Kachi was knocked to the ground by the huge recoil, and the two Cossack cavalrymen who were only twenty or thirty steps away from the cannon disappeared in an instant. Even the two horses had their upper bodies torn off by the shells, and the remaining parts flew down the slope.

"Hahaha……"

The artilleryman laughed twice and was about to praise the child, but he was suddenly choked on a mouthful of blood. He coughed violently a few times, then fell on the dead body of the warhorse with his head tilted.

More than ten minutes later.

The artillery in the village of Zagazk began to pour shells on the Russian line again.

The Russian army had just regained some momentum due to the cessation of shelling, but was immediately beaten back.

On the Polish defense line, the positions of Drasowicz, Yannik and others had long been replaced by other soldiers, but like them, they still faced the Russian bullets fearlessly and gave the most fierce counterattack.

Finally, the Russian infantry, unable to withstand the heavy casualties, began to retreat.

The attitude of the Poles on the other side who did not take death seriously at all left a huge shadow in the hearts of each of them.

Polish soldiers began to climb over the breastwork, shouting and chasing after them.

The Russian army suddenly began to flee at an accelerated speed like a stray dog.

Just as Drasowicz said, the Russian offensive momentum weakened greatly the next day, and the Polish recruits grew up almost overnight and gave them a head-on blow with amazing morale.

However, the veteran will never be able to see this scene.

Marina and Feodor who would never see him again.

Perhaps one day, his children will tell their children how their grandfather sacrificed his life to block the iron hooves of the Russian cavalry for them.

Two days later.

Janik retreated with his troops to the town of Marecce.

His regiment even held out for one day longer than originally planned. On the long Mozyr Line, battles like the one in Zagazyk Village were everywhere. The Russian-Polish Front, which originally planned to occupy Mozyr in five days, had just taken down the first line of defense here.

(End of this chapter)