I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 845: Escape and Retreat

The Duke of Brunswick's face instantly turned paler than that of the interrogator.

He was stunned for two or three minutes before his brain finally accepted the fact. He looked at the staff officer beside him dejectedly: "Order the Dernberg Corps to intercept the enemy north of Wiltz, and the others to retreat north from Pruem back to Gelden."

Dernberg is the commander of the Bavarian army. He currently has more than 1 soldiers, which should be able to delay the French army for a while.

But the Duke of Brunswick had no idea that two days earlier, Massena had ordered Saint-Hilaire to lead 7 soldiers to the Our River to defend it in order to cut off the coalition forces' retreat.

[Note: The Our River, Sauer River, and Zell River are actually the upper, middle, and lower sections of a river, with three names. They are located in the Ardennes Plateau and on the northern and southern borders between Luxembourg and Trier.]

……

North-central Ardennes.

The Duke of York looked at the long and narrow French line of defense on the distant hillside and almost fell into impotent rage.

He had just received news of the attack on Trier and the defeat of the Duke of Brunswick, but he could do nothing.

His troops had been held up near the Burgplatz for a whole week.

The damn French took advantage of the high ground and never confronted him head-on, but just delayed time by continuously retreating their defense line.

And he couldn't afford to delay any longer.

Once the French have completely defeated the Duke of Brunswick, they will mobilize their main forces to deal with him.

The Duke of York summoned two Austrian generals, briefly explained the current situation, and then ordered with a gloomy face: "We can't continue to waste time here.

"Order the troops to march eastward immediately and meet the Duke of Brunswick in the area of ​​the Sauer River."

Count Klefat immediately said, "Your Highness, the most urgent task now is not to support the main force of the coalition forces, but to return to Cologne as soon as possible to prevent the French army in Trier from attacking there."

The Duke of York felt nervous when he heard this.

He was so focused on reinforcing the Duke of Brunswick that he forgot that he might also lose his own retreat!
Now that Koblenz and Mainz have been captured by the French army, the Cologne ferry in the north is their only way back to the east bank of the Rhine.

He took a deep breath, poked the grass hard with his cane, and gritted his teeth and said, "Let's retreat back to Cologne. The Duke of Brunswick will definitely be able to withdraw smoothly."

Major General Gaillard, commander of the Walloon Corps, noticed that the sound of the coalition artillery around him began to weaken. He was a little surprised and hurriedly ordered the cavalry to go forward for reconnaissance.

Half an hour later, the ranger returned and reported to him: "General, the enemy seems to be beginning to retreat."

Gayal breathed a sigh of relief, it seemed that his mission was successfully completed.

He turned to the herald officer beside him and said, "Let the soldiers rest where they are. We should be able to return to Namur soon."

Brigadier General Contan, the second commander of the Walloon Corps, pondered for a moment, then came over and said, "General, according to the battle report sent by the headquarters yesterday, our army has launched a full-scale counterattack against the enemy in the Ardennes Plateau.

"If I'm not mistaken, the British on the other side should be going to support their main force."

Gaillard nodded: "It's very likely, so what?"

"This is a good opportunity for us to gain merit, General." Kang Tan said, "We should launch a pursuit, or at least delay the British's return."

Gaillard hesitated a bit, after all, the Duke of York's army was more than 1 more than his own. Seeing his hesitation, Contan continued, "General, from Mechelen to here, we have been performing passive defense tasks, and we have not made much contribution.

"Our country is about to win a great victory. If we don't fight for it, we will have no chance in the future.

"We can leave some troops here at Burgplatz Peak. If the situation doesn't go well, we can just retreat back."

Gayal was moved by what he said.

If he could turn a defensive battle into a crushing one, then after the war, he would most likely be promoted to lieutenant general!

After discussing with Quentin for a while, he ordered the Alpine Corps to leave 4 men to hold the position, while he led the Walloon Corps and American volunteers to pursue the enemy.

Well, he knew that the Americans had little fighting power, but he was just prepared to leave them behind if the enemy suddenly turned around and attacked.

The rearguard troops left by the Duke of York consisted of only two thousand men, and were quickly broken through by Gaillard.

Then the Walloon Army followed closely behind the Anglo-Austrian coalition forces.

Gaillard soon discovered something was wrong. The British seemed to be retreating very quickly. He caught up with their baggage trains twice, but they would rather abandon their logistical supplies than turn around to fight.

This made him more determined to pursue.

But the British guy ran a little fast...

He suddenly remembered the trick that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince had used in Mechelen before, and immediately summoned the American volunteer officers and asked them to catch up with the British on horseback with light equipment. There was no need to fight, but just to keep insulting them.

Gaillard's method actually worked.

An officer commanding the British rear guard finally couldn't help it after hearing Americans mocking them for being "beaten to tears by American farmers in North America."

He himself participated in the American War of Independence. If the French army had not arrived, he would have crushed the untouchables of the North American colonies into the soil!
He immediately ordered the rear army to turn around and line up to teach those foul-mouthed scoundrels a lesson.

The Duke of York was calculating the journey on the map and it should take another two and a half days to reach Cologne.

Just then, he suddenly heard gunshots from the south.

Soon, the signal officer reported to him that Jones's corps in the rear suddenly stopped and was fighting with the enemy.

The Duke of York was immediately furious. He even gave up his baggage camp just to avoid being entangled by the enemy. But this idiot Jones actually took the initiative to ask for a fight!
He hesitated again and again, but finally couldn't bear to abandon the 7 soldiers in the rear team - there were only 1 British troops left with him, which was nearly half of the force.

But the Duke of York soon regretted his decision.

As before, the Walloons avoided a direct battle with him and instead kept moving to the flanks, apparently in an attempt to delay them.

After two days of fighting with the Walloon Army near Dylan, the Duke of York received another urgent military intelligence report.

The Duke of Brunswick was surrounded by the French army in the area of ​​Rodeshausen on the west bank of the Our River and was in imminent danger. At the same time, the French army in the Rhineland had occupied Mainz and was turning north.

The Duke of York was suddenly filled with despair and had to order the Austrian army to continue dealing with the Walloons - which might require leaving tens of thousands of men behind - while he himself rushed to Cologne for defense.

However, his herald returned soon and reported to him sweating profusely: "Your Highness, Count Clefat has led the Austrian Corps out of the battle, causing a huge gap on the left wing of our army."

(End of this chapter)