Chapter 330: Successive breakthroughs on the front battlefield

Chapter 331 Successive breakthroughs on the front battlefield

𝟼𝟿sʜᴜx.ɴᴇᴛ】

The Prussian cavalry also saw the French artillery trying to resist from a distance, all of them showed a sneer, and began to slowly accelerate from 70 to 80 steps away.

"Calm down! Don't shoot..."

Before Napoleon finished speaking, a soldier nervously pulled the trigger - they were all artillerymen, and although they were skilled in artillery firing, they had no experience in fighting the enemy within 200 steps.

Others were affected and fired precious bullets. The scattered shooting, coupled with the long distance, did not cause any harm to the Prussians at all.

Napoleon felt bitter, but he still encouraged his men loudly:

"Don't be afraid, hold your guns tightly, and point your bayonets at people, not horses!"

The Prussian cavalry rushed to about forty steps away, and when they saw the bright bayonet array, they immediately skillfully circled to the sides and rushed past the artillery defense line.

They didn't need to fight these "infantrymen" desperately, as long as they relied on speed to pull back and forth a few times, the French formation would be messed up, and then they could chase and kill them at will like chasing rabbits.

Napoleon frowned and ordered a turn, but at this time there were cavalry on both sides, and no matter how he turned, he couldn't defend them all.

His mind was blank immediately. As an artillery officer, he was really not good at this.

"Free to fight!" He waved his sword, ready to find a Prussian cavalryman for hand-to-hand combat, but suddenly remembered that as a Corsican, there was no need for him to fight for the battle between France and Prussia!

He could surrender!

Just as he was struggling in his heart, the Prussian cavalry had already lined up and rushed over.

Napoleon raised his sword reflexively to cut the cavalryman in front, but heard a burst of gunfire from the rear of the Prussian cavalry, followed by the sound of dense horse hooves.

The Prussians were obviously also startled, and hurriedly abandoned the artillerymen who were not threatening, circled to the left, and assembled in an open field.

Then, not far away, more than a hundred cavalrymen dressed in gorgeous clothes and riding tall horses threw away their short-barreled guns and drew their sabers to attack them.

"It's reinforcements!" The gunners of the Guards Corps shouted excitedly:

"We are saved!"

"Haha, we don't have to die this time! Go ahead and teach those Prussian bastards a lesson!"

"Thank God, you really heard my prayer!"

Napoleon looked at the cavalry team and was a little surprised. He had heard the battalion commander mention that the cavalrymen of the Guards Corps were on the east side to guard against the Prussian cavalry. How could they come to rescue so quickly?

The unprepared Prussian cavalry were not ready yet, and were dispersed by the cavalry team that suddenly appeared, and had to flee in embarrassment.

Napoleon's soldiers became even more excited, and they all loudly urged their cavalry to catch up and expand the victory.

However, the cavalry team quickly turned back. When Napoleon saw the appearance of the leading officer, he was shocked - it was the captain of the personal guard of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, whom he had met at the last audience.

Why would he come to save him?

Quesode reined in his horse not far from the artillery captain, turned over and got off the saddle, waved and said:

"Fortunately, I caught up, are you okay?"

Napoleon was startled, and then he realized that the other party was asking him, and hurriedly raised his hat and saluted:

"Ah, I'm fine! Thank you so much, by the way, shouldn't you be guarding His Royal Highness the Crown Prince?"

Quesode said unhappily:

"It's because of your artillery company. His Royal Highness was worried that you would be in danger if you were so few and far away from the main force, so he asked me to come to reinforce."

In fact, he was reluctant to come to save Napoleon before, after all, his duty was to protect the Crown Prince. However, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince said that if he didn't go, he would ride to rescue Captain Buvanaba himself.

He had no choice but to lead the guard to reinforce this small team of artillery.

Listening to the gunners around him shouting "Long live His Royal Highness the Crown Prince", Napoleon saluted again seriously:

"Thank you, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, he saved our lives."

"You tell him yourself." Quesoud gestured to the rear of the French army, "Now I have to send you back first."

...

When Blücher noticed the eye-catching gap in his infantry line, he immediately broke out in a cold sweat. The main forces of the two armies were already close at hand. If the French attacked there at this time, it would mean that his right wing would be gone.

He hurriedly transferred 4 squadrons of dragoons to block the gap-although the name of the dragoons was cool, they were actually a group of infantry, infantry on horseback. They could use war horses to quickly reach their destination, and then dismount to form a formation. When in a hurry, they can also be used to repair gaps in the line formation.

However, just as they arrived near their own infantry line, the thing that Blücher was most worried about happened.

The French attack column rushed to the face of the line array, and the target was obviously the gap!

The formation of the infantry line is a very tedious thing. Although even children can stand in line, to stand in a straight horizontal line several kilometers long, it requires a large number of officers to coordinate continuously, and it takes a lot of time to complete.

And the training level of the Prussian infantry is obviously not enough to quickly repair the gap in the line array.

The five companies of the Guards Corps were almost not attacked - the Prussian soldiers who should have been in front of them leaned towards the bushes on the edge of the battlefield and had no time to return.

So the five columns did not change their formation and inserted into the Prussian infantry line.

The latter immediately fell into chaos.

Most of the soldiers continued to move forward according to the previous decisive battle pace, while those near the gap hurriedly raised their guns to shoot at the French army on their side, and the entire line formation gradually turned into a diagonal line.

A few minutes later, the drumbeats of the Guards Corps appeared 50 steps away from them.

As thousands of percussion guns burst out a volley, seventy or eighty people in the Prussian infantry line immediately fell. When the chaotic Prussians began to fight back, less than one-third of the soldiers participated in the volley - the others were either fighting with the French army or too far away and had not yet entered the effective range.

The infantry of the Guards Corps quickly reloaded, and after advancing another 10 steps, they fired the second round of volleys.

Berthier saw from a distance that the enemy's right wing had collapsed, and the protruding left wing was constantly shrinking back under the pressure of the Guards Corps, and he immediately and decisively ordered the entire army to charge in hand-to-hand combat.

After the short trumpet sounded three times, the drummer immediately changed the drumbeat and began to beat the military drum with the fastest beat.

Under the command of the officers, the soldiers of the Guards Corps pulled their guns to waist height and pointed their bayonets forward.

A few minutes later, the narrow infantry line shouted and rushed towards the Prussians, who had been in chaos after the previous volleys. At this time, they had no intention of engaging in battle. The officers took the lead and ran to the rear.

The Guards Corps crossed the Prussian infantry line with a soaring momentum, leaving only corpses and trembling surrendered soldiers kneeling on the ground.

Before Blücher's order for the second infantry line to prepare for the enemy was issued, the first French column that broke into the gap rushed to the second Prussian defense line without stopping, and deployed in a horizontal column at a very fast speed.

Then, they launched a round of volleys at the Prussian soldiers who were still confused.

Although they were only 500 people, the Prussian soldiers heard the shouting in front of them, and vaguely heard the officers say that the line formation in front of them had been broken through. At this time, they only thought that the main force of the French army had rushed in front of them.

The fear magnified the casualties infinitely. When 500 soldiers of the Guards Corps launched the second round of volleys, the right wing of the Prussian infantry line, which did not suffer too many casualties, collapsed.