Chapter 221 Defeat More with Less

Chapter 222: Defeat More with Less

The Albanian army commander Seimezi saw the French infantry line moving, and then looked at the still chaotic infantry group on his side, and his face turned pale.

What are the cavalry doing? ! He raised his telescope angrily and looked towards the north side of the battlefield, where he saw hundreds of Albanian cavalry charging towards the thin French infantry.

The French stood there like rocks and launched a volley. The twenty or thirty cavalrymen in the front row immediately rolled and fell to the ground, raising dust all over the sky.

Then, there was a faint sound of cannon. Seimetz couldn't find the cannon. He only saw something that looked like an arm with half a shoulder flying up into the air in a cloud of blood.

Since the Albanian cavalry did not form a formation at all, the attacking team was dragged forward and backward for more than 200 meters. The cavalry a little further away from the French army was obviously frightened by the sound of artillery and the screams of their own men, and they immediately turned their horses and fled to both sides. .

Seimetz saw some dead horses rushing into the French flank defense line under the action of inertia, causing a certain amount of chaos. Some cavalrymen who failed to control their horses also charged forward, but were immediately stabbed to death by French infantry with bayonets.

But there were no more cavalry to follow, and the French army's line quickly closed again.

Seimezi cursed in a low voice bitterly: "These cowardly Albanians! If they advance 50 steps forward, the main force of the French army will have no choice but to retreat to support the right wing!"

It's just that morale involves too many factors. Once it collapses, it's extremely difficult to recover unless you can withdraw from the battlefield for repairs.

Immediately afterwards, the French cavalry completed their formation and roared over from the gentle slope on the north side.

When the Albanian cavalry saw this, they immediately fled faster. The four-pounder gun was replaced with solid bullets, and it kept bombarding behind them, spraying out pieces of fishy and sweet blood mist.

On the front of the battlefield, the infantry line of the Guards Corps was still advancing steadily. The nearly kilometer long line almost maintained a straight line, exuding an unstoppable and intimidating pressure.

At this time, the Albanian left wing was hit by dozens of rounds of French artillery, leaving only pieces of flesh and blood on the ground, forming a huge gap.

A company of skirmishers from the Guards Corps walked out of the queue. After checking their weapons according to the drill, three drummers beat the drums and walked forward with their heads held high.

Hundreds of soldiers immediately followed in sparse formation.

Lefebvre on the right commanded his men to fire two rounds of volleys behind the enemy cavalry. He found that the enemy had run far away and he could not catch up. He turned around and saw that a general attack had been launched from the front.

He immediately ordered the formation of the team, and after asking his battalion commander for instructions, he led his skirmisher company into a frontal battle.

The soldiers on the Albanian side looked at the approaching French army in horror. They no longer cared about the entire team, and some began to shoot at the opposite side in panic.

However, with the accuracy of the flintlock gun, if you do not use intensive volleys, you can only rely on faith to hit the target.

The infantry line of the Guards Corps approached until they were 70 steps away from the enemy. They stopped at the officer's command and quickly organized the line.

Immediately, the company commanders of each company issued the command neatly: "Get ready!"

"aim!"

"shooting!"

The infantry line immediately erupted with neat fire, and nearly a thousand projectiles penetrated into the Albanian mercenary formation.

"Reload! The second row takes three steps forward!"

"Prepare!"

"aim……"

The long and narrow Guards Corps line was like a precision-operated machine. A row of soldiers stepped forward three steps, fired a volley, and then reloaded on the spot.

A row of soldiers behind him immediately stepped forward, fired another volley, and reloaded.

The soldiers behind came forward again...

In this way, under the pressure of intensive firepower, the infantry line quickly reached a place less than 50 steps away from the mercenaries.

The terrifying power of the cap gun was fully demonstrated - every time the infantry line fired a salvo, it could take away the heads of nearly a hundred mercenaries.

The huge casualties caused soldiers to flee in front of the Albanian army, and the unformed front line suddenly became more bumpy.

The most tenacious few centurions were still resisting in place, while most of the soldiers began to retreat under the pressure of bullets, and some others had already run to the rear and were fighting with the supervising team.

The entire formation has completely turned into a rag spread on the Atlas Mountains.

In the gap on the left wing of the Albanian army, a French skirmisher company spread out more than 40 meters wide, hunched over and slowly approached, stopping from time to time to fire cold shots.

Just when they were thirty or forty steps forward, a rough laughter came from behind: "Anatole, you are too dogmatic. There are no enemies on the other side, we should rush in as quickly as possible!"

The captain named Anatole turned his head and saw Lefebvre's skirmisher company arranged in five columns, passing quickly past him and heading straight towards the Albanian position.

"You...we are skirmishers..."

Lefebvre said: "The only creed of skirmishers is flexibility. Goodbye!"

Anatole watched helplessly as Lefebvre's men arrived first and plunged into the gap in the enemy's line. He quickly stood up straight and shouted to his company: "Gather into a column! Attack quickly!"

Lefebvre's company was almost in the Albanian's face before ordering it to spread out. During this period, more than a dozen fierce mercenaries rushed over with spears. The second lieutenant in charge of the cover directed a brigade to shoot down several of them, and then separated them with bayonets.

Two minutes later, Lefebvre's company had formed an uneven line.

"aim!"

"shooting!"

Following Lefebvre's loud orders, more than 30 percussion cap guns fired a volley.

The seven or eight Albanian mercenaries who were closer suddenly seemed to have been hit by an invisible fist, and they fell back with a groan. Several other people turned around and fled in a hurry.

Lefebvre commanded his company to advance dozens of meters deeper into the enemy, and then ordered the line to turn to the south, which was the left edge of the Albanian position, and began to fire and compress inward.

At this time, Anatole's company also followed, forming a line behind him to join the battle.

The Albanian army, which was on the verge of collapse on the frontal battlefield, immediately worsened. The nearly 10,000 mercenaries were beaten by the 3,000 Guards Corps and were unable to fight back. They kept retreating to the southwest.

This is not only because the latter's tactics are used more rationally, but also because of the huge gap in the quality of soldiers and weapons and equipment.

The artillery of the Guards Corps also began to bombard the center of the Albanian position under Berthier's order. Nearly ten thousand people were spread out in the open wasteland, and there was almost no need to aim to ensure that the shells would hit.

Soon, Seimetz saw that his left wing collapsed completely, and the French army had formed a flanking attack, squeezing a large number of soldiers into the center of the battlefield. And that was where the French artillery bombarded them fiercely.

With a livid face, he said to the attendant: "Let Fats go up. Give the order for the whole army to retreat!"

Fats's unit is the general reserve of the Albanian army, with about 1,200 people. They had been staying at the rear of the main battlefield, but they had already completed their formation and now began to move forward in an orderly manner.

However, Berthier would not give them a chance to leave calmly.

He saw the enemy's chaotic state through the telescope and said to the herald: "Take back the cavalry and prepare to pursue and defeat the enemy.

"Let the infantry lines launch a bayonet charge."

"Yes, sir!"

Joseph saw the two companies cutting into the enemy's left wing through the telescope, and nodded approvingly: "Whose company is on the north side?"

Berthier said: "Your Highness, the smoke is too thick and we can't see the flag clearly."

Joseph observed the situation on the battlefield and put forward his own opinion: "The enemy seems to be retreating. Perhaps we can let the two companies go deep into the enemy's rear and cut off their retreat."

Berthier hesitated. After all, it was only two companies with only 200 people.

"Your Highness, if we go around the back, we are likely to run into the enemy's reserve team. Their number is too small."

Joseph nodded: "I'm just talking casually, don't let me interfere with your judgment."

On the frontal battlefield, the infantry line of the Guards Corps fired the last round of volley less than thirty steps away from the enemy, and then installed bayonets on the muzzles of their guns.

As the sound of the military drums became more rapid than ever, the officers on the frontline waved their swords and pointed at the enemy troops, shouting loudly: "Charge! For His Majesty the King!"

"For His Royal Highness the Crown Prince!"

"Come on!"

The white infantry lines immediately hit the Albanian mercenaries like surging waves. The latter had long been in chaos and did not have the courage to fight - even if they had the courage, their loose and bumpy formation could not do it.

The mercenaries at the front were instantly knocked down by bayonets, and wailing sounds came one after another. The people who had retreated before were so frightened that they turned from retreating in small steps to turning around and running wildly.

On Lefebvre's side, they were still firing and advancing in an orderly manner, but suddenly they found that the enemy had given up resistance and began to flee quickly to the west.

He was stunned for a moment, then turned to the company commander not far away and said: "Anatole, it seems the enemy is going to run away!"

"Then let's catch up!"

Lefebvre looked to the west, shook his head and said: "We are the deepest into the enemy's hinterland. We should try to cut off their retreat at this time."

"ah?"

"Would you like to come with me?"

"what are you up to?"

Lefebvre smiled, turned to the herald and said: "Order the whole company to gather into columns immediately and not to get entangled with the enemy. Let's go west as fast as possible!"

On the Albanian Army's side, the General Reserves led by Fats formed a neat line and gave way to a few "Okes", that is, the soldiers of the regiment. Then they saw the Guards Corps in white uniforms charging with bayonets. Come up.

"Aim! Shoot!"

Fats didn't care that there were many of his own men in front of him and hurriedly ordered to open fire.

There was a burst of explosions, thick smoke rose into the air, and dozens of Albanian mercenaries and Guardsmen fell to the ground.

The attack momentum of the Guards Corps suddenly slowed down.

The battalion commanders on the front line frowned slightly when they saw that the Albanians had organized organized resistance.

Just as he was preparing to gather his troops and shoot at the opposite side, he heard someone from the south shouting: "Don't be afraid! They can only fire two shots at most! In the name of the Crown Prince, follow me!"

The battalion commander stood up with his stirrups on. Through the bursts of smoke, he saw a company rushing towards the Albanian defense line like a bison without slowing down.

"Davout?" When he saw the company's flag, he immediately tightened his grip on his riding whip, "This reckless guy! If the enemy..."

As his thoughts flashed through his mind, he heard echoing shouts from the right wing: "Let them see how powerful the police academy students are! All charge at me!"

The battalion commander turned around and saw that there were four or five companies following Davout, running towards the enemy's position in hand-to-hand combat.

He waved vigorously to the messenger: "Command, shoot and cover them!"

The Albanian mercenaries were worthy of being one of the most combat-effective legions of the Ottoman Empire. Although they were shocked by the monstrous momentum of the Guards Corps, they still gritted their teeth and completed the reloading and raised their guns again.

Fats shouted anxiously: "Shoot! Shoot quickly!"

A dense burst of fire flashed instantly.

While running, Davout heard something "chirping" past his ears. When he subconsciously turned his head, he saw that half of his sergeant's face was missing. His body spun around in a circle under the impact of the bullets and fell into a pile of weeds.

Mercenary shooting caused more than thirty casualties. This is nothing to the thousands of Guardsmen, but the psychological impact on the soldiers is very great.

Davout stared with blood-red eyes, his foot speed did not slow down at all, and he shouted with all his strength: "They don't have time to reload, everyone, come on! Revenge for the brothers!"

In fact, they were still more than fifty steps away from the enemy, and they might be able to shoot from the opposite side. But he knew that if he retreated at this time, he would suffer greater losses.

All we can do is give it a try!

The timid soldiers heard Davout's words and immediately followed his footsteps. But when the police academy students not far away saw their fallen comrades, they rushed harder than before.

The Albanian reserves hurriedly began to reload, but when those white military uniforms appeared twenty steps away from them, they could no longer remain calm.

Some people stood up and prepared to resist with their bayonets, while others turned around to greet the spearmen - yes, this close-combat unit was still retained in the Ottoman army. And more people retreated tremblingly.

Fates personally killed two deserters, but was completely unable to curb the momentum of the retreat.

Before Davout's bayonet touched an enemy, the Albanian troops in the rear dropped their weapons and fled backwards crazily.

"Don't let them escape!" The young Davout waved vigorously behind him, while he stared at Fats on the horse, drew his pistol and shot him.

After the cavalry of the Guards Corps dispersed the Albanian cavalry, they made some repairs - mainly because the horses needed to regain their strength - and then pursued the enemy's broken troops as a whole.

In pursuit battles, cavalry is always the main force.

After these hundreds of cavalry joined, the Albanian mercenaries were immediately overtaken in large numbers, and they all knelt down and surrendered.

The largest group of mercenaries who fled had a strength of three Oaks. After retreating for nearly a mile, the shouts of the pursuers could no longer be heard clearly.

They were about to breathe a sigh of relief when they suddenly saw a white "thin line" on the hill in front of them.

There were the two companies of Lefebvre and Anatole, spread out in line formation.