I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 844 I can't stop at all

Surt felt that everything was as accurate as his pocket watch, except that the soldiers might be more tired - they were originally preparing to have dinner, but now they had to cross the river before they could rest.

The east bank of the Zell River was silent, with only a few lights flickering occasionally in the small villages in the distance. Soult seemed to have returned to the vicinity of the Rhine.

The next day, Soult and Oudinot's allied forces, totaling 1 people, began to march towards the city of Trier.

Until this point, the entire Archdiocese of Trier had not realized that France had launched a full-scale counterattack and that they were the first prey.

Soult shook the reins lightly and looked sideways at Oudinot, his eyes full of shock. "Are you saying that His Royal Highness the Dauphin rode his horse in front of the Prussian position and loudly ridiculed Ferdinand in order to lure the enemy deeper into the territory?"

"It is absolutely true. Colonel Massena's herald told me so himself." Oudinot waved his whip and spoke with spit flying. "Ferdinand was so angry that he ordered more than 3,000 Prussian hussars to charge at Your Highness, but Your Highness led the Royal Third Cavalry Battalion to counterattack on the spot and slaughtered those Prussians..."

He was on the west bank of the Saul River at the time and heard the news second-hand.

In the minds of the French soldiers, the Crown Prince was definitely doing more than simply luring the enemy deep into their territory, so they simply added some content that they thought was "reasonable".

Soult's face was full of admiration: "Your Highness the Dauphin's courage is truly admirable. Without a doubt, he is the soul of all French soldiers!"

"May God bless His Royal Highness the Crown Prince."

Oudinot crossed himself and quickly talked to Soult about the deployment of the attack on Trier: "Our first target is the Trier Fortress.

"I've been there several times. If the people of Trier are prepared for defense, we will have to pay a lot of casualties to conquer them."

Surte nodded: "There are still Roman walls left in the city. Just a few hundred soldiers stationed on them will cause us a lot of trouble..."

【Old city wall of Trier】

Just as the two men were discussing countermeasures with serious expressions, two rangers came towards them and shouted excitedly from a distance: "Captain, Trier has surrendered!"

Soult and Oudinot looked at each other in surprise, both with disbelief in their eyes.

"Are you sure they surrendered?"

A cavalry lieutenant gestured: "Our vanguard was still 5 kilometers away from Trier, and the Archbishop of Trier opened the city and surrendered.

"The remaining city defense troops saw our flag from afar and immediately opened the city gates."

Trier is an archdiocese, a small state ruled by the church, and its military strength was originally weak. Previously, at the request of Francis II, Trier's most combat-capable Bishop's Guard and Swiss Guard were sent to Luxembourg, leaving only more than 1 soldiers in the city.

And the French army arrived too suddenly.

Archbishop Clemens was enjoying breakfast when he heard the news that "tens of thousands of French troops were attacking". Without any thought of resistance at all, he ordered to give up resistance and surrender.

Neither Soult nor Oudinot had expected that it would be so smooth. Amid the cheers of the soldiers, the two had a brief discussion and reached a consensus - the entire army would continue to march northward and capture Koblenz before other German states could react!

Koblenz is the most important crossing on the northern section of the Rhine. Occupying it is like holding a sharp blade that can pierce the heart of Germany at any time. And from Koblenz, it only takes two days to reach Mainz, another major crossing on the Rhine.

After controlling these two ferry crossings, the main route from inland Germany to the Rhineland was cut off!

Two and a half days later, the French assault force ran 85 kilometers and arrived at the outskirts of Koblenz.

Up to this point, no German state had sent troops to reinforce Trier, and the garrison of Koblenz consisted of only more than 1 people.

We cannot blame neighboring countries such as Mainz and Nassau for not coming to help. It’s just that the French army acted too quickly.

Just like Nassau, they received a call for help yesterday morning and have just completed troop assembly. The earliest they can arrive in Koblenz is the day after tomorrow.

Soult first asked the herald to deliver Archbishop Clemens' letter of surrender to the defenders of Koblenz. After waiting for half a day, seeing no response, he ordered the artillery to begin attacking the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress. As the most important ferry crossing on the Rhine River, Koblenz had built a large group of fortresses over the centuries, and this was the most important one among them.

However, the lack of manpower to defend the fortress did not play a big role. After the French artillery fired just seven or eight rounds, the white flag was raised on the fortress.

Soult left Oudinot to garrison Koblenz, and he led his troops southward to Mainz at noon the next day.

They had already completed their scheduled combat missions, but the situation on the battlefield was too good - most of the troops of the German states were concentrated in Luxembourg, and the French army was like a no-man's land in the Rhineland, which made Soult unable to stop even if he wanted to.

A day later, Soult's Corps encountered a Mainz force north of Sankt Goar - probably rushing to reinforce Koblenz.

Soult defeated the Mainz army of less than 3 people without much effort, and then continued to move south, and occupied Mainz, which had almost no defensive forces, without bloodshed the next day.

By this point, eight days after Soult and Oudinot crossed the Zell, their armies had swept across nearly half of the Rhineland.

Moreover, due to the control of two important ferry crossings, both the Palatinate and Jülich had been cut off from the east bank of the Rhine and were almost like fish on the chopping board.

On the same day that Soult and Oudinot joined forces, Massena's main force launched a full-scale counterattack against the Allied forces.

7 of France's most elite soldiers from the direct corps attacked simultaneously from the east and south.

The coalition forces had been chasing the French crown prince frantically for several days, causing their formation to be in disarray. There were even many legions that the Duke of Brunswick did not even know where they were.

When the French army, which had been holding back for a long time, suddenly rushed in, the loosely-strength Allied forces were unable to resist and were driven to Wirtz in just one day.

The Duke of Brunswick had never expected a rout and hastily set up a defense line in Würtz, but he only held out for less than half a day before being breached by the French army again.

He was already at a loss at this point, so he had to leave Tao Enqian behind to cover the retreat and ordered the main force to withdraw to Trier immediately.

Less than ten minutes after he issued the order to retreat, a pale-faced messenger came to report to him: "Marshal, the French army has taken control of the entire Trier and is now marching towards Mainz."

(End of this chapter)