I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 811: The Hardest Battle of the Italian Front

However, when Bernard's two infantry regiments deployed in a horizontal column in front of the Austrian army, they were immediately hit by extremely fierce fire from the opposite side.

Although Argento's troops were in disarray due to carelessness, they still numbered more than 1 men.

It is more than five times the size of the French army, and they are on the defending side, so they have the opportunity to adjust their formation.

Major Bernard bravely went to the front of the battle line, raised his sword high, and shouted to encourage his soldiers.

His two infantry regiments also used several rounds of volleys to drive the enemy in front back, but because their numbers were too small, the Austrian infantry lines quickly formed a semi-encirclement of them from both sides.

The French soldiers began to come under fire from the side, with a firepower density several times greater than theirs.

In just ten minutes, Bernard's troops suffered more than a thousand casualties.

The French army's initial momentum quickly collapsed, replaced by fear brought about by the large number of dead comrades.

With Bernard shot in the left arm, the French troops in the front began to collapse.

Augereau was very fond of attacking, so he only kept a reserve force of less than 300 people, and had no ability to provide support.

Driven by tens of thousands of Austrian troops, Augereau retreated from the village of Marengo in a panic.

At the same time, the Bonnet skirmishers, who were carrying out a surprise attack on the right wing, also encountered the Argentau Corps head-on.

The French skirmisher battalion of less than 1 people had only a brief contact with the Austrian army of more than 7 people, and then immediately chose to retreat.

Augereau led his fleeing soldiers to two kilometers east of the village, where they met the Marmont Corps that came to reinforce them, and only then was he able to barely stabilize the situation.

But there was no way to retreat - the Austrian army was almost immediately following.

Marmont hastily organized a defense line relying on a forest in the south. Fortunately, the Austrian artillery had not arrived yet, so he managed to repel the first attack from Argento with difficulty.

Beside the bush, Marmont, who was covered in the smell of gunpowder, frowned at Augereau and said, "Are you saying that we are facing Melas's main army?"

The latter nodded awkwardly: "It should be like this, the enemy has at least 3 people."

Marmont's face suddenly turned pale.

His and Augereau's troops combined had less than 6 soldiers, and they had no ability to engage the enemy head-on.

He asked again: "Have you reported this to Colonel Bonaparte?"

"Yes, I sent cavalry to contact him at about 10 o'clock."

Marmont looked behind him and said, "The main force will not arrive until tomorrow afternoon at the earliest. We will retreat to San Guiliano first and try to hold out there until tomorrow."

Augereau gradually recovered from his panic, and shook his head, thinking: "It seems that Melas is preparing to go to Parma and then attack Lodi.

"If we only defend San Guiliano, they can bypass us and continue eastward from Castel Cegliolo on the north side."

Marmont asked anxiously: "What should we do then?"

Augereau gritted his teeth and said, "Set up a defense line from San Guiliano to Castelcelliolo. Delay Melas for a day!"

Castelcegliolo is 5 km northwest of San Guiliano.

With the 6 troops in their hands, it would be extremely difficult to hold such a wide line of defense.

Marmont glanced at him and sighed, "You are always so crazy... But it seems that this is the only choice we have right now."

After learning that the Argenteuil Corps had quickly defeated the French army and began to pursue eastward, Melas fell into deep doubt. It was really because Napoleon had beaten the Austrian army too badly before.

The French army was elusive. Whenever the Austrians felt they had won, a French army would rush out from the most uncomfortable place and tear them apart.

So Argento won too easily, which made Melas feel that this was another trap set by the French.

He hurriedly sent someone to order the Argento Legion not to advance rashly, and only continued to advance steadily towards the town of San Guiliano after the main force had gathered.

This gave Augereau and his team a rare chance to catch their breath.

At 3 pm, the Austrian army launched a fierce attack on San Guiliano.

Augereau was much more obedient than he had been in the morning. He set up three lines of defense and put up layers of resistance.

Marmont's artillery company also used a high ground to desperately pour artillery shells on the Austrian army.

However, the gap in troop strength between the two sides was too great, and the Austrians knew very well that they had to reach Lodi as soon as possible, otherwise they might be entangled by the main force of the French army at any time, so they also launched an attack with all their might.

In less than three hours, Augereau's first two lines of defense collapsed, and the vanguard skirmishers of Argento could already see the French artillery positions.

Fortunately, it was a cloudy day, and night fell a little earlier than usual. Just when the French army was about to give up, it was completely dark.

Melas had no choice but to withdraw his troops and wait for daybreak.

Augereau worked all night to repair the defense line and stayed up almost all night.

The next morning, the Austrian army could not wait to launch another attack.

After yesterday's fierce battle, the morale of the French army was very low. After only resisting for less than an hour, they began to show signs of defeat.

On a hill to the north of San Giuliano Village, Augereau looked at the ever-shrinking defense line on the front line and sighed heavily: "It's all my fault for launching an attack rashly yesterday and wasting too much manpower..."

He patted Marmont on the back and said with red eyes: "Auguste, you lead the soldiers to retreat to Pavia, I will cover your retreat."

Marmont was about to say something when he heard some strange sounds from the Austrian army's gunfire in the north. He frowned and asked, "What's going on over there?"

Soon, a ranger came galloping over, pointing to the northwest and shouting to them: "Captain, cavalry! Our cavalry battalion is here to reinforce us!"

Augereau's heart suddenly beat wildly. He raised his telescope and looked over there. Sure enough, he found that there was chaos on the left wing of the Austrian army.

He made a quick decision and said to Marmont: "We should abandon the village of San Giuliano, concentrate our forces, and cooperate with the cavalry to attack the enemy's left wing!"

On the south side of Castelcelliolo, Major Grouchy led the charge into the Austrian infantry - after the capture of Milan, he had been promoted to major and served as the battalion commander of the Montpellier Hussar Battalion.

He met the cavalry sent by Augereau to report to Napoleon yesterday afternoon, and after learning that the Melas Corps was maneuvering eastward, he immediately rushed to reinforce.

His cavalry battalion, together with part of the Moulin cavalry, totaled more than 1 people. They marched without stopping and finally arrived before Augereau's side collapsed.

The Austrians were suddenly attacked by a large group of cavalry and were immediately panicked. The shadow left by Napoleon once again came to their minds.

Many Austrian soldiers began to shout: "We have been ambushed by the French again!"

"Be careful, there are French ambushes nearby!"

Grouchy had attended military school in Strasbourg, which was close to Baden, so he knew some German.

When he heard the Austrian army's shouts, he suddenly had an idea and began to shout in German: "General Bonaparte's 5 ambushed troops have surrounded you!"

(End of this chapter)