Chapter 755 Attack! Attack!

Chapter 756 Attack! attack!

Outside the town of Mavernie, thousands of French soldiers formed several lines and stared at the town eagerly.

Seven or eight cannons have been pouring shells at the Austrian troops in the town since early morning.

Count Radeski was disturbed by the sound of the cannon, but he still checked the defense situation himself.

As the forward corps of the Prince of Coburg, he not only failed to capture Wavre, but was also wiped out by the sudden appearance of nearly half of his troops by the French army.

This town is the only place to stay on the north side of Wavre. If this place is lost again, the prince will most likely send him to a military court.

Fortunately, he still had nearly 6,000 soldiers in his hands, and after most of the day's reconnaissance, he had confirmed that the French army attacking him should only be more than 6,000 soldiers.

Although the performance of the French troops yesterday was extremely fierce, he believed that with all his efforts in defense, it should be enough to delay the arrival of the main force of the Prince of Coburg tomorrow.

After Count Radesky encouraged the soldiers, he returned to the headquarters out of breath and ordered the messenger:

"Send someone to report the situation here to His Highness the Prince."

Since yesterday afternoon, this is the third time he has sent people to ask for help from the Prince of Coburg.

South of Brussels.

Town of Uccle.

The main force of the Austrian South Netherlands Front led by the Prince of Coburg is slowly marching southward.

It is nearly 20 kilometers away from Wavre. If nothing else happens, they will arrive there at noon tomorrow.

The Prince of Coburg was riding on the horse, frowning and saying to Chief of Staff Carl von Lieberich:

"How could the French show up in Wavre so quickly? Did they fly here?"

Austria has ruled the Southern Netherlands for more than 80 years, and there are many Flemish people in Wallonia. It can be said that the eyes and ears are all over Wallonia.

So he was very sure that just 4 days ago, no French troops had entered the Wallonia area.

It took the French only three days to reach Wavre from the border of Lille.

That’s a journey of nearly 6 days under normal circumstances!

Lieberich said:

"Marshal, maybe that's just a French cavalry."

If it were pure cavalry without supplies, it would be understandable that they could achieve this marching speed.

The Prince of Coburg glanced at him: "General Radesky's report said that the French also brought artillery."

He waved his hand again: "In any case, his reconnaissance was not careful enough and he failed to detect the French army in advance. Otherwise, he would not have been beaten so badly."

The chief of staff nodded: "Yes, Marshal. General Radesky has the advantage in strength."

While the two were talking, an officer came towards them and handed an urgent report to the attendant of the Prince of Coburg:

"Marshal, this was just sent by Count Radeski."

Prince Coburg glanced at the report and handed it to Leberich:

"The French are actually continuing to attack the Radeski Corps."

The latter took the report and saw that it was basically Count Radesky's request for help. It was obvious that the French army had put great pressure on him.

He looked at the prince and said: "The French should want to capture the town of Mafunni to expand the defense range of Wavre.

"Do you think we should send a cavalry battalion to support?"

Prince Coburg thought for a moment, shook his head and said:

“Cavalry alone is not enough.

"The French are obviously dazzled by yesterday's successful raid, so now we have a good opportunity."

"You mean?"

“The French devoted their forces to the siege of Mavergne, so the defenses of Wavre must now be very empty.

"We need to try to eliminate them near the town of Mafuni, so that we can easily get Wavre."

Based on the intelligence he had previously obtained, he knew that there were more than 20,000 French troops entering the Walloon area.

Obviously, only their forward troops have arrived in Wavre.

If these men held on to Wavre until their main force arrived, the Austrian army would face a difficult siege.

Even if the Austrian army has an absolute strength advantage, it is very likely that it will be blocked north of Wavre.

But now the French have rashly left Wavre to attack the Radeski Army. He must seize this golden opportunity!

Prince Coburg immediately ordered:

"Let General Gruber lead the Pearson Army, the Grenadier Battalion, and all the cavalry to rush to the town of Maverne as quickly as possible. Then depending on the situation, surround the French army there, or directly capture Wavre."

The Pearson Corps was the only unit in his army brought from Austria, and the Grenadier Battalion was even more elite. These were soldiers who could march at high speeds.

As a prince of Thuringia, his ability to reach the position of marshal in the Austrian army shows that he does have certain abilities in military command.

At this time, he decisively pressed all the elite troops forward.

Soon, more than 6,000 Austrian infantry and 4,000 cavalry began to break away from the large army and rushed south at an extremely fast speed.

The Prince of Coburg watched the assault force disappear from his sight, and then ordered Leberich:

"Order the entire army to speed up the march. We must reach Wavre before dark. If General Gruber is delayed by the French, we can launch an attack on Wavre tomorrow morning."

He held an army of 40,000 men. At this time, his mind was full of thinking about how to capture Wavre as soon as possible and how to march to Namur next, but he did not think about it at all. His opponent had no intention of defending from the beginning.

At two o'clock in the afternoon, Gruber's raiding force had arrived 4 kilometers north of the town of Mavergne.

The main force of Prince Coburg had opened up a distance of nearly 7 kilometers from them.

Prince Coburg kept whipping the warhorse under his crotch with a whip, and the horse almost kept trotting. It can be predicted that after today's journey, it will take at least a week to rest before it can recover its strength.

At this moment, a melodious trumpet sounded suddenly from the west.

Prince Coburg frowned immediately, and before he could ask, a hussar galloped over and shouted at him nervously:

"French! A large number of French troops were found on the west side, at least more than 10,000 people!"

Prince Coburg was stunned.

Count Radetzky had 6,000 French troops, so where did these 10,000 people come from?

But he had no time to think about it, and hurriedly shouted to Leiberich:

"Quick! Order the whole army to gather and switch to a defensive formation!"

His order was quickly passed down, and the Austrian soldiers began to line up in a hurry, but for a while most officers had not figured out where the enemy would attack from.

The most fatal thing was that Prince Coburg had previously asked the whole army to rush to Wavre as quickly as possible, resulting in a huge gap between the well-trained corps and the under-trained corps.

At this time, the main force of the Austrian army looked like a thin line 5 kilometers long from the sky.

And a French army unit was stabbing straight at the waist of this thin line from 3 kilometers away.