Chapter 327 Miscalculation

Chapter 328 Miscalculation

Blücher kicked over the Italian-style carved chair, grabbed the collar of the signal soldier, and asked sternly: "What is going on? How many French people are here?"

"About 10,000 or more..." the latter lowered his head and said tremblingly, "Their infantry line only launched one attack and broke through the Dutch battle line."

"Ten thousand people?" Blücher loosened his grip and let go of the communications soldier, but he still shook his head.

Even if the estimate of the size of the enemy army was wrong, the 5,000 Dutch troops, plus the cavalry and artillery sent by themselves, totaled nearly 7,000 people blocking the mountain pass.

With the defense line deployed in advance, it shouldn't be a problem to withstand 10,000 French troops for a whole day.

But right now, they only lasted about an hour!

Could it be that the Duke of Brunswick was wrong in his assessment of the fighting prowess of the Southern Netherlands? Those guys are actually just weak losers...

its not right! Blücher immediately shook his head again. Those same people, carrying the Austrian army that far outnumbered them, fought extremely tenaciously, even surpassing the Prussian infantry in terms of morale.

"General," the staff officer on the side saw him wandering around and reminded loudly, "How should we respond now?"

Blücher suddenly came to his senses. Yes, now is not the time to worry about the fighting power of the Southern Netherlands. Your own army has been cut off in the middle by the French. If it is not handled properly, it is likely to be annihilated.

He tried to calm himself down, walked quickly to the map, pondered for a while, pointed to a position marked The regiment left 1,000 men to keep an eye on Leo, and the other troops immediately withdrew."

"The Dietlinde Army must arrive here before two o'clock in the afternoon!" He clicked hard on the southeast direction on the map. After the French army broke through the defense line of the Southern Netherlands Army, it became the French army's back there.

Blücher took a deep breath at the end: "Maximi and his two regiments are delaying the French army here. The artillery and the rest of the infantry moved north to set up a defense line in the town of Wensele.

"We still have a strength advantage. As long as we fight steadily, we will definitely be able to repel the French on the frontal battlefield!"

After losing Witt's South Netherlands Army and part of the cavalry, Blücher still had 16,000 soldiers in his hands. If he joined the Prussian army stationed in the Wenssele area, his army would be close to 2 Thousands of people.

At this time, Blücher only needs to shrink the main force backward and the legions sent in the east and west directions to shrink inward, so as to form a pocket formation. Then, with the help of military superiority, the unfavorable situation was reversed in one fell swoop.

"Yes, General!" The herald turned around and walked out of the tent, quickly spreading his order to the entire army.

…

On a gentle slope a few kilometers away in the northeast, Leo looked at the gathering Prussian troops with a pale face, and said to Lefebvre in a trembling voice: "Major, there are about six or seven thousand enemies here, and they are also carrying cannon……

"His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's troops haven't arrived yet. Should we retreat to the north first?"

Although Lefebvre also had a serious look on his face - he only had 2,000 men in hand, Leo's Austrian army was almost useless, and it would definitely be extremely difficult to deal with the Prussian army of more than 6,000 with cannons.

But he shook his head firmly: "No, His Highness will definitely come to reinforce us before noon."

He immediately smiled again: "Even if His Highness hadn't come, I wouldn't have left here. Retreating is not an honor for soldiers."

Just when he was about to let the cavalry sneak attack the Prussians' cannon while they were organizing their formation, he suddenly saw a chaos in the enemy's position.

He hurriedly raised his telescope and looked, and saw more than a dozen Prussian heralds riding horses back and forth in the military formation, obviously announcing very important orders.

Not long after, a hussar came over with a whip and shouted to him: "Master, the rear column of the Prussian army is turning and seems to be retreating."

Lefebvre's eyes immediately lit up, he patted Leo's shoulder hard, and laughed: "Look, let me tell you, Your Highness is here to help us!"

Although the latter's military rank was three ranks higher than his, he smiled and nodded indifferently at this time: "Yes, you are right. We are finally safe, oh, thank God! Praise to the heroic Crown Prince!

"Now I have to go back to the tent and have a cup of coffee to calm my nerves."

"Wait!" Lefebvre held him back, and at the same time raised his telescope to observe again, "If the Prussians retreated because of His Highness's attack, we cannot let them do what they want."

Leo was stunned for a moment: "You, what do you want to do?"

Lefebvre smiled: "We take the initiative!"

"No, no! Are you kidding..."

Lefebvre proved that he was serious with practical actions. Only half an hour later, his regiment and the two accompanying cavalry companies dragged the Austrian army and began to launch a fierce attack on Prussia on the opposite side.

The reason why Lefebvre wanted to bring the Austrian army was because he knew that the Prussian's target was Leo, so as long as the Austrian army was around, the Prussian attack firepower would fall more on them.

Altmann, the Prussian commander responsible for chasing Leo, never expected that the Austrians, who were absolutely inferior in strength, would dare to take the initiative.

However, Margrave Blücher's order was for him to immediately return for reinforcements. At this time, except for the 1,000 people at the rear, the other soldiers had already entered a marching state.

He had no choice but to grit his teeth and urge the troops to evacuate faster, as the Marquis's deployment was the most important.

But before his main force had walked out a kilometer, there was a sound of horse hooves behind him - Lefebvre was sure to win even if he faced the same number of Prussian troops, not to mention that there were only 1,000 enemy troops.

He personally led the column to charge, and almost unimpededly defeated the trailing troops, and then followed Altmann closely.

Murat looked at the winding Prussian marching column in the distance, and his heart was excited and excited. Today, the Guards Corps has been on the defensive, and he has no chance to gain military merit. Now he finally has the opportunity to make up for his boast - against this kind of infantry without a formation, it is not impossible to kill ten of them.

With the order from the cavalry company commander, Murat began to trot, and then waved his saber to kill the Prussian cavalry who rushed to defend.

…

Blücher’s guards had just loaded his luxurious furniture onto the carriage and were about to urge their horses forward when they saw two hussars rushing past them like crazy and shouting at Blücher not far ahead: “General, there are a large number of French troops behind us!”