Chapter 450 The Duke of Brunswick's Opportunity

Chapter 451 The Duke of Brunswick's Opportunity

Two days later.

The main battlefield in Silesia, the Liegnitz front.

Lieutenant Colonel Heine, the commander of the Austrian infantry battalion, was lying leisurely on a soft chair, accompanied by the roar of cannons one after another, and looked sideways at his hound "Mast" biting the roots of a tree.

In the past few months, the Prussian and Austrian sides have been shrinking behind the defense line, closing their eyes and firing at the opposite side. It has long been accustomed to the sound.

Suddenly, the northwest side became quiet, and then Lieutenant Colonel Heine's cannons stopped moving.

Heine frowned and stood up, and the hound next to him was busy barking at the artillery position.

Before he could ask his attendant to inquire about the situation, a major officer hurried over and saluted him, saying, "Commander, the gunpowder has not been delivered. Nearly half of our battalion's cannons are out of gunpowder."

Heine has not been in charge of the battalion's affairs recently, because there is nothing to take care of. He fires on time every morning and finishes work on time in the afternoon. He doesn't care what he can hit. He asked in confusion, "Shouldn't it be delivered yesterday morning?"

"It should be, but the baggage officer said yesterday that it will definitely arrive today, but look at this..."

Heine hurriedly mounted his horse and rushed to the tent of Lieutenant Colonel Marcus, who was in charge of the logistics of his regiment.

When he arrived, the tent was already crowded with people. Lieutenant Colonel Marcus explained to the officer who questioned him with sweat on his forehead: "The materials shipped from Vienna were taken away by General Berthier, the French Chief of Staff, halfway last week. He said that a batch of ammunition from the French army would arrive yesterday afternoon, and he was in a hurry to go to Latibor to reinforce General Leo and wanted to exchange with me.

"Who knew that the French side has not made any movement until now..."

Of course, he would not say that he received 10,000 florins from Berthier at that time, otherwise who would be willing to go through so much trouble.

"But the artillery bombardment on the front line will stop!" Heine shouted anxiously.

This kind of daily bombardment is indeed useless, but it is a symbol of the empire's brave fighting in Silesia, so it cannot be stopped casually.

"Everyone wait a little longer. I have sent people to the French camp to urge them." Lieutenant Colonel Marcus said with a bitter face, "Tomorrow, the ammunition will definitely arrive tomorrow. You can borrow some from other camps first. "

Austria has more than 200 cannons on the entire Liegnitz front, and only more than 30 cannons of 8 regiments were affected. Most of the surrounding cannons still have some reserves.

After sending away the officers who came to ask for ammunition, Marcus cursed with a dark face: "Damn French!" After thinking about it, he picked up his cane and rushed to the French camp in person.

...

In the Prussian headquarters.

A staff officer stood straight and reported to the Duke of Brunswick: "Marshal, it has been confirmed that more than 30,000 people including the Austrian Davydov Corps have left Liegnitz, and they are likely to go to the direction of Ratibor."

The officer next to him immediately said: "In this case, we can safely withdraw troops to encircle Leo. "

The Duke of Brunswick was about to nod, but suddenly thought of something, looked at another staff officer and said: "Has the Driesen Corps been safely withdrawn?"

"Yes, Marshal. General August's troops have already entered the garrison this morning, and the others are no more than two days away from here. "

Hearing this, the Duke of Brunswick narrowed his eyes. For Leo's sake, the old man Lacy actually did not hesitate to withdraw so many troops to Ratibor.

He quickly calculated in his mind. Leo's army has more than 10,000 people, and Wurmser brought more than 10,000 people later. The French army sent 45,000 people twice, and this time Davydov took away another 30,000...

There is also the Bavarian army. The Austrian coalition has already invested nearly 100,000 troops in Ratibor. Austria has less than 150,000 troops in the Silesia direction, plus the French and Bavarian armies, a total of 190,000 to less than 200,000.

That is That is to say, at present, only half of the Austrian army is defending the Liegnitz line.

On my side, the troops sent to Ratibor totaled only 20,000 people, including the Saxon army that acted without authorization. The 30,000 people of Driesen had returned because they accidentally encountered the French army.

So at present, I have only about 100,000 troops of my own country, 27,000 Hanoverian troops, and more than 20,000 Saxon troops, with a total strength of 150,000.

In other words, on the Liegnitz front, I have more than 50% of the Austrians in a short period of time!

"It seems that Lacy made a serious mistake." A smile appeared on the corner of the Duke of Brunswick's mouth, "He only cared about Ratibor and ignored that this was the main battlefield.

"Even if we fail in Ratibor, at most we will just lose Leo."

He suddenly clasped his hands in front of his chest, thinking to himself: This must be the Lord's arrangement. Although Driesen suffered a defeat, he strengthened the troops in Liegnitz.

When he thought of this, he immediately made a decision and asked his attendants to call all senior officers to a meeting to discuss the deployment of the surprise attack on the front battlefield.

That afternoon, when the Duke of Brunswick was proudly arranging the combat tasks of each corps, he suddenly found something strange around him.

He listened carefully and looked at the staff officer beside him in confusion: "It seems that the enemy's artillery fire has become much smaller?"

Soon, an officer came to report that a long section of artillery stopped firing on the west side of the Austrian defense line.

The Duke of Brunswick hurriedly looked at the map, which seemed to be the area that the Davydov Corps was responsible for defending.

And his troops were transferred to Ratibor by Lacy a few days ago.

There must be problems with his defense zone because of the commander's departure!

The Duke of Brunswick was overjoyed, clasped his hands again, looked up and said loudly: "Thank God for the gift! Now the damn Austrians will get out of Silesia!"

He turned around and looked at the officers, knocked on Davydov's defense zone with his cane, and said in a deep voice: "Before tomorrow afternoon, everyone must complete combat preparations.

"We have to change our plan, and we will launch a general offensive from here! "

…

The next day.

Lieutenant Colonel Heine was playing with his dog and yawning leisurely, thinking that it was almost time for lunch.

The ammunition still hadn't arrived. He borrowed a little ammunition from the nearby regiment yesterday, so that the cannon could barely last for another day or two. At this time, although the sound of artillery on the battlefield was much sparser than usual, he didn't care much.

This monotonous life lasted for a long time, which made his vigilance and sense of responsibility worn down a lot.

Very abruptly, his hound stopped playing, stared blankly to the north, and then wrinkled his nose and began to show his teeth.

"Relax, old friend." Heine patted its head and looked in the direction of its sight, "Did you see a squirrel? Or a fox?"

But the next moment, he was also stunned, because he vaguely heard the sound of drums, very dense military drums.