I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 862: Capture of Cologne
"The enemy is retreating!"

"Charge, capture the fortress!"

"Follow me, there's a gap on the west side!"

The sound of rapid military drums rang out all around, and several teams of French infantry passed by Lieutenant Gerard and rushed towards the fortress in front of them.

The chasseur squad under his command had silenced the Austrian cannon in front of it, and the chasseurs were not involved in the mission of occupying the fortress, so they seemed to have nothing to do at this time.

When he was about to order a return to the camp, he suddenly saw several companies rushing northward at a speed of several dozen meters away. But the fortress was to their east.

Gerard had good eyesight - a basic requirement for a chasseur - and he saw the flags at the front of the column at a glance.

"The Ninth Infantry Battalion?"

He hurriedly ran towards the skirmishers and soon found a familiar face in the middle of the team. He waved and asked, "Felix, what mission are you guys going to carry out?"

The lieutenant first glanced at his company commander - he was an infantryman, but not as free as the chasseurs - then turned around and whispered: "Many Austrians are retreating from the north of the fortress, and we have been ordered to rush to stop them."

Jerra's eyes suddenly lit up, and he turned around and waved vigorously to the members of the hunting team who followed him: "Hey, we'll rest later, let's go over there and make some money first!"

The 14 soldiers immediately shouted and followed him north.

Since the beginning of the war, the Chasseur Battalion had not had much opportunity to display its power. Previously, the Massena Corps implemented a tactic of luring the enemy and did not dare to hit the enemy too hard, so the Chasseur Battalion was hidden. Later, when they counterattacked, they had not fired a few shots before the Duke of Brunswick surrendered under heavy siege.

It was not until the siege of Cologne Fortress that the Jaegers had a real fight to fight.

But after all, the time was too short, and Gerard's team did not earn enough merit. Now everyone was eager to fight and was very excited.

Since the chasseurs had no requirements for formations, they quickly surpassed the infantry battalion and arrived at the north side of the fortress first.

Then Gerard saw thousands of defeated soldiers rushing to the northwest like a tide. There was another fortress close to the Rhine River.

The sergeant of the Jaegers was a little hesitant and said to Gerard, "There are too many enemies. Let's wait until the infantry arrives before we take action."

There were only 15 of them, and the Austrian army only needed one infantry company to charge, and they would all be sacrificed.

Seeing that the enemy troops farthest away were about to run into the artillery coverage of the northwest fortress, Gerard smacked his lips and said decisively: "The Austrians are already in chaos and will not organize a counterattack. If you are a man, follow me."

He quickly ran to a grove of thick pine trees, estimated the distance, and raised his August 1790 chasseur rifle.

With a "bang", the Austrian lieutenant 130 steps away fell off his horse. The soldiers beside him immediately gathered together vigilantly, raising their guns and aiming around.

But soon there was another series of gunshots, and another seven people were shot dead instantly.

Just as Gerard had expected, they didn't even know where the enemy was, and they turned around and ran away shouting randomly.

The Austrian army column in front was immediately disrupted by them.

Officers came with whistles to restore order, but chaos grew as several soldiers were killed in a second round of shooting by the French chasseurs.

Gerard excitedly loaded the ammunition, and habitually reminded the soldiers: "Crack the bullets with the force of cracking a walnut, not too big or too small..."

As he spoke, he raised his gun and quickly selected an Austrian who looked like a non-commissioned officer. Just as he was about to pull the trigger, he suddenly noticed more than a dozen people on horseback coming towards him.

He narrowed his eyes. Judging from the leader's exquisite military uniform and the tricorn hat with a silver badge on his head, he could tell that he was a guy with a high military rank.

Even a lieutenant colonel.

Gerard signaled his soldiers: "Wait! Have you seen those people coming in the opposite direction on horseback at ten o'clock?" "A bit far away..."

"Come over there with me, and then aim at the leader. Go!"

After a moment, more than a dozen people crouched down and moved to 140 steps away from the officers. At Gerard's command, they raised their guns at the same time.

The Austrian officer was waving his whip and shouting at the soldiers, but suddenly he disappeared from his horse.

There was a burst of gunfire not far away.

In an instant, the Austrian army burst into shouts of terror. Hundreds of soldiers who rushed from the northwest fortress surrounded the officer who was shot, and some of them fired back aimlessly.

The entire retreating Austrian army column was suddenly jammed together, becoming several times more chaotic than before.

"We must have caught a big fish." Gerard grinned, but then he saw hundreds of enemy soldiers rushing towards him and waved his hands, "Get out of here, run!"

Ten minutes later, the French infantry battalion where Felix was located finally arrived and saw the Austrian army column in chaos.

The French battalion commander was overjoyed and immediately ordered his troops to form a line and prepare for an attack.

Gerard saw him head on and finally breathed a sigh of relief, panting, "Sir, sir, we just killed a senior officer who came out of the fortress on the northwest side."

Upon hearing this, the battalion commander raised his telescope and saw that people kept coming out of the fortress in front of him, and there was chaos near the south entrance.

He suddenly had an idea and said to the messenger, "Order everyone to form an assault column and attack the fortress directly!

"Send someone to contact Major Vasseur and request reinforcements."

On the northwest side of the Cologne fortress group, large groups of Austrian soldiers were coming in and out, and people kept shouting: "Lieutenant Colonel Strauss was shot!"

"Let the Grenadiers come out to support us!"

"No, retreat to the fortress as soon as possible and be careful of the French attack..."

"The commander is in critical condition. Doctor, hasn't the doctor arrived yet?"

At this moment, more than a dozen French columns suddenly appeared on the south side of the fortress and rushed towards the entrance at a very fast speed.

The Austrian defenders were immediately horrified. Some wanted to close the gate, while others tried to stop them because Lieutenant Colonel Strauss had not returned yet. Others shouted for them to organize a defense.

But everyone was crowded together like headless flies, and the scene became more and more chaotic.

Yes, Strauss, who was just killed by Gerard's team, was the commander of this fortress.

Among the Austrian troops that had just retreated here was his cousin, Major Mark Strauss.

He was worried that something might go wrong, so he led the team out to support them personally, but he happened to see the soldiers in chaos, so he stepped forward and stopped them without thinking.

As a result, it hit the muzzle of Gerard's gun.

The artillery on the fortress obviously did not react in time and it took a long time before they fired the first shot, while the French infantry had already rushed to less than two hundred steps away from the entrance of the fortress.

Gerard felt excited when he saw this, and he led his men to follow and began to suppress the artillery diagonally above.

(End of this chapter)